                                            DECE&ER   15, 1963  7  GRAND  FLAPIDS, MICHIGAN                              NUWSER     6

                                                                         must- help to -bring the Kingdom of (God to its completion.
                                                                         All. through the ages, all things work together to bring
                                                                         the, children in the bosom  of. the Father. All things are
                                                                         united- in that one purpose.
               LET'  U S   GO  T O   BETHLEHEM                   ,`;,       `But Caesar Augustus, seated on the mighty throne of
           And there w.ent out adecree  from Caesar Azcg~;lcstus         the Roman empire, did not in the least suspect that he was
         that all the rxorld should be taxed.                            bringing the Christ-Child' to the place where He must be
           And Joseph also went up . . . unto the city if David; born-according to the Scriptures.  .'
         which is called  Bethlehem . . . to be taxed .with Mary-~
         his espoused wife &zing great with child.                          And; therefore, the Roman mandate, in some way or
                                                                         other, .came  in the fulness of time to Bethlehem, and the
           . . . but He that came down. from heaven.                     people told one another in the streets of that famous
           For unto you is born this day &the &y ,Of David               village: Did you hear the news? There went out a decree
         a,  Saviour   whi& is Christ the Lord.                          of-the  `Bm$&%!~ We  must- be taxed..
           And Lo, the Angel of the Lord came  open them                                                    .       `
                                                                                                                    -
         . . . and suddenly there was with the Angel a .muL                pb yes, in. spite of himself, not even knowing, perhaps,
         titude of the'heavenly host.                                    that there was such a place on the earth which ,was named
           The shepherds sa2d one to another, Let us now go              Bethlehem: the mighty Caesar comes to Bethlehem!
         even unto Bethlehem.                                               The focal point in the Universe of God!
           Now when Jesus was `born in Bethlehem of Judaea
         . . . behold, there came wise  ,men from the east  to-                                       a  #  0  n
         Jerusalem, sayin,,
                            0 -Where is He that is born King of
         the Jews?                                                          And this decree of Augustus (or shall we rather say:
           And they (scribes) said unto him  .(  Herod  ), In            of God?) came in due time .also  to.`I\Tazareth, to the house
         Bethlehem . . .                                                 of a young carpenter, named Joseph. I think that we may
           And lo, ttle star . . . . stood over  .where the young        safely assume that. both Joseph and Mary, his espoused
         child was.                                                      wife, were of the best of God's people. Of Joseph we read
           Then Herod  . . . . . sent forth` and slew all the-chili~     that he was a- just man (Matt. 2), and of Mary that she
         dren that were in Bethlehem.                                    W&S-  a  ~pro@hetess.   -
                                     Matt. 2; Luke 2; John 3~13:            Mary,   -the  .woman  chosen by God from all eternity  to,
    In the fulness of time, when- Jesus Christ our Saviour               be the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ! Well may the
was born,. Bethlehem  was the focal point of the Universe.               angel call her, Thou that art highly favored!
All things wend their way to the City of David.                             And the favor of the Triune God was shown unto her
    First, there  .is that decree of Caesar Augustus!  Yes;. when she was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost, when the
I havelplaced  an exclamation point behind that sentence,                power of the Most High operated upon and within her so
and well I might. Wonder what the poor man -is thinking                  that she conceived a son, the Son of Man! Great and high
about all through the aces of his hellish suffering. It was              was the favor of the Lord toward Mary!
even through his imperial decree that Joseph and Mary-                      But the child must be born in Bethlehem. For so the
and the child to be born took their journey  to. David's                 Holy Ghost had spoken by the mouth of the prophet, And
city.                                                                    here the time was drawing near that she would be deliv-
    An exclamation point, for it shows us that the ~worid                ered of the Man Child!?


I22                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

       But never fear! God will take care of His own business!         The Christ name tells us that He will do all the work
There are the messengers which also came to Nazareth,               that is necessary before the Face of God in order to liberate
and in due time Joseph and Mary hasten to Bethlehem,                us from the shackles of sin and of guilt and of death, so
even though it must have been a wearisome journey for               that He may usher us into the presence of a loving Father
the mother of our Lord.                                             Who gave us this Saviour. As Saviour He would go to the
       All things move with Divine, heavenly precision, the         cross and suffer and suffer eternally. Oh, I cannot fathom
precision of perfection. Bethlehem is also highly favored;          that cross! As Lord He will own me and work for me and
It is the focal point of the Universe of God.                       reform me so that I will serve Him forever. What won-
                                                                    drous Gospel we have to preach on Christmas day!
                                                                       And He is born this day in Bethlehem! It is preached
       And then there is that wonderful text in John 3: " . , .i first by the shepherds in Bethlehem, and it has gone forth
but He that came down from heaven!"                                 to all the earth. And again and again we have remembered
                                                                    this Gospel, also its historical veracity: this day, in the city
       It is difficult and dangerous to write on that text. That    of David! All according to the Divine plan.
is, if you are going to explain things. Strict, Reformed
theologians do not like the song which is sung so often in ,           And unto you! The Gospel is particular!
the Netherlands: "Daar ruischt langs de wolken een lief-               Christ the Lord is born for and unto His people only.
lijken Naam!" They do not like it, because of an expression         The Angel of the Lord told Mary even before she con-
which we find there which runs somewhat like this: He               ceived Him: . . . for He shall save His people  from their
(Jesus), who left heaven in order to save us! And these             sins. The Gospel is for the elect only.
theologians say that Jesus did not leave  heaven, for He is            But the Gospel also did come to Bethlehem, there to
the Omnipresent God! And I agree that they have an ar-              be preached  %rst. For Bethlehem is the focal point of
gument there. God is everywhere, and when God the Son               the Universe. Really everything seems to have its represent-
came to Bethlehem, He remained in heaven and in Naza--              ative there.
reth.
       Let me emphasize it then: Jesus Christ, the Lord, the           Let us all go to Bethlehem!
Son of God and the Son of Man, came down from heaven                                         0  ix  0  *
into our misery, the misery of damnation, in order to do               And now' we see the heavenly host come to the city
His enormous part in the scheme of God's salvation:
CL                                                                  of David. No, they do not go to the city proper. They
      . . . but He that came down from Heaven!"                     go to the outskirts. of it, toward `a field where shepherds
       And so the God of our salvation conforms .to His own         watch their flocks by night.
counsel, namely, the decree to make Bethlehem the focal
point in the Universe in the fulness of time. The God                  They were elect people; there is no doubt about that..
                                                                    We have already intimated as `much when we meditated
of our salvation came to the city of David in order to be           on the Gospel: unto you is born . . .
born there for us! Hallelujah!                                         But you will also note the same thing in their con-
                             0  0  B  0                             duct. Who kn o w  s ?       They may have spoken in that
       And there is the Gospel which was preached unto the          night of all nights, in that place of all places, about the
church in that glorious night when Jesus was born. A                hope of Israel, and the terrible darkness which enshrouded
little later we will write a few thoughts of the Gospel             the elect people of their day. They say that the darkness
heralds, but now I would see that Gospel by itself. The             is deepest just before dawn. Perhaps they spoke of the
Gospel came to Bethlehem! Listen: <`For unto you is born            darkness in Israel, and the hope, of Israel for the Light that
this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the         was promised.
Lord!"                                                                At any rate, when Triune God made up His counsel
       A Saviour is born!                                           from all eternity, He said: And `unto whom will We show
                                                                    this wonderful Gospel  first of all? Then the same God
       The impossible has become possible!..                        answered: Unto a company of simple souls, some shepherds
       We should all go to hell for ever and ever, and there        that will watch their flocks that night.
in hell we should weep and gnash our teeth! We should.                 The special Angel of the Lord is commissioned when the
be forsaken of the Fountain of happiness and blessedness" time was ripe: he received exact instructions. And there
for ever and ever! Because we have sinned, and are guilty           he went, down, down, down, toward the focal spot on the
before the Face of a just and glorious God!                         globe which is called earth. Of course! To Bethlehem.
       And now, listen: A Saviour is born!                          These angels had been very desirous to look into the de-
       And what a Saviour!                                          tails of the salvation of God. And now the fulfillment was


                                                     T H E   STANDARO
                                                                               - -- -   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                          123

  come. You can safely assume that this mighty Angel of
  the Lord rejoiced in the glory of his commission.                                                       THE.   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
     He alights in the midst of the cowering shepherds:                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during Jicne, July and Augu.st
                                                                                           Published by the  REFORMED  From  PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
  Fear not, for behold, I bring you glad tidings . . .                                                                Editor~REv. HEFCMAN HOEKSEMA
     I have wondered so often how the sound of an angel's                            Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                     Rev.  H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,
  voice might be. It must be most wondrous in sound. It must                         Mich.  Contributions will be limited to 300 words and must be
  be a melody in prose. And then what melody. Its source is                                                                 neatly written or typewritten.
  heavenly perfection. But we better do not wonder too                               All church news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
                                                                                                           1123 Cooper, S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
  much. We better wait until we are there. And then our                                Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included
song will be even sweeter than the voice of angels.                                  must be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below:
                                                                                       Ah matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
     And when the Gospel is preached, there appeared the                                               Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
  heavenly host. And they sang a song which has been                                                                             Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
                                                                                            RENIWAL: Unless a deiinite  request for discontinuance is
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  but it is not true that the angels sang: goodwill toward                                     Second Claw postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
  men. It is this: toward men of goodwill! The Gospel con-
  tent is this: Christ's birth is peace on earth unto the men of
  God's goodpleasure!
     But the angel world also came to this one point of the                                                                              C O N T E N T S
  earth which has all the emphasis in that day, that great                      MEDLTATION-
  day of the Lord.                                                                           Let Us Go to Bethlehem . . . . . . .._._.._....._...........................  .._.____  121
                                                                                                        Rev. G. Vos
     The angels came to speak and to sing in Bethlehem!
                                                                                E D I T O R & -
                             c     c      0     0                                            Editorial Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._................................................ . . . . . . . . . . . 124
                                                                                                        Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
     And the shepherds also go to Bethlehem. The angel                                       Single or Double Track Theology .  :........._..._....__..............  124
  of the Lord has told them about the sign of the Lord:                                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
  the Babe wrapped in swaddlingclothes and lying in the                         OURDOCTRINE-
  manger! A sermon which tells us from age to age that for                                   The Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
  our sakes He became poor so that He might make us rich                                                Rev. H. Hoeksema
  forever and ever!                                                             A 'CLOUD OF WITNESSES-
     And they also said one to another: Let us now go even                                   The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon . . . . . . . ..___....__..............  136
                                                                                                        Rev. B. Woudenberg
  unto Bethlehem! And they did.
     And they saw the sign and understood it, for they re-                      FROM  HOLY  WRIT-
  turned, preaching, singing and praising God for that He                                    Exposition of II Peter 3 . . . . . .._................................................ 132
                                                                                                         Rev. G. Lubbers
  had visited Israel in her darkness.
     Bethlehem, the center of the earth and of the Universe                     IN H1s  FEAR -
                                                                                             The Fear of Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _ . . . . . . . . ..____....__... I __..____..  134
  of God. In thee are happening the most important things                                                Rev. J. A. Heys
  of all time.                                                                  CONTENDING FOR THE FNTH  -
     In that focal point of the Universe all the rays of the                                 The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._._........................  136
  virtues of God find a common center, and that pinpoint                                                 Rev. H.  Veldman
  on the map and in the diizying depths of space, is resplen-                   THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS -
  dent of beauty, the beauty of holiness in the womb of God's                                The Belgic Confession . . . . . .._..___............................  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
  morning.                                                            G.V.                              Rev. H.  C. Hoeksema

                                                                                l%IE CHURCH AT WORSHIP-
                                                                                             The Idea of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             140
                                                                                                        Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg
                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     The Ladies' Society of the South Holland Protestant Reformed               ALL  Anom,   us  -
  Church expresses its sincere sympathy to Rev. and Mrs. J. A. Heys                          The FCC and Radio Broadcasting . . . . . . . . . .._______.................. _... 142
  in the dead of the mother of Rev.  Heys,                                                   The ~vsi~H;tslk~d  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..__..  .__.........._..__....  ,143,
                                                                                                            e.. .
                       MRS. JOHN  HEYS,   SR.
     "`Blessed are de dead which die in the Lord." Rev.  14:13.                 N E W S F R O M OUR CHIJKHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._..............._..................  144
                                         Mr. Bert Wories, Vice President                                `Mr. J. M. Faber
                                         Mrs. Richard Poortinga,  Secretary     -     -


124                                          T H E   - S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                       -- .
                                                                      Scriptura  tota (the whole Scripture, H.H. ) as well as on
             E D I T O R I A L S                                      the principle of Scripfiura  s&z (Scripture only, H.H.) it up-
                                                                      held the glory of the Reformed faith and incidentally the
                                                                      glory of the Christian Reformed Church."
                         Editorial Note                                   So, the glory of the Christian ReformedChurch is: 1) the
       We draw the reader's attention to the insert in the last       doctrine that God is gracious in the preaching of the gospel
issue of our Standard Bearer giving you the opportunity to            to all that hear it. And 2) That the natural man can do good.
get gift subscriptions for Christmas gifts. For most of our               Some glory!
readers it is probably not too late yet to take advantage of
this opportunity if you send in your subscriptions promptly.              This last point we are still discussing in connection with
I am sure our capable business manager will take care of              the article of Kuiper.
such subscriptions promptly. And by this means you both                   Let us, first of all, remind ourselves of the Second Point
solve your own "shopping problem," and you further the                of Kalamazoo 1924.
cause of our Standard Bearer.                                             It reads as follows:
       And, of course, even if you have no "shopping problem"             "`Relative to the second point, which is concerned with
for Christmas gifts, the idea of a gift subscription to our           the restraint of sin in the life of the individual man and in
magazine is a good one, both for the friend who receives it           the  comrmmity,  the synod declares that there is such a
and for our paper.                                                    restraint of sin according to Scripture and the Confession.
                                                          H.C.H.      This is evident from the citations of Scripture and from the
                                                                      Netherland Confession, Art. 13 and 36, which teach that
                                                                      God, by the general operations of His Spirit, without renew-
            Single Or Double Track Theology                           ing the heart of man, restrains the unimpeded breaking out
       It is high time that we return to our discussion of the        of sin, by which human life in society remains possible;
article written by Prof. R. B. Kuiper under the caption "Is           while it is also evident from the quotations from Reformed
the Glory Departing," written in Torch and Trumpet May-               writers of the most flourishing period of Reformed theology,
June, 1963.                                                           that from ancient times our Reformed fathers were of the
       In our last article on this subject we were discussing the     same opinion."
question whether the natural man, the sinner, can do good,                Now, it is not our purpose to offer a complete discussion
especially in the light of the text in Luke 6:33, which was           and criticism of the "Three Points" in general or of the
quoted by Kuiper.                                                     "Second Point" in particular. For this I may refer the in-
       On this we have a few more comments.                           terested reader to my book on The Protestant Reformed
                                                                      Chu.rches  In America.
       Kuiper himself refers in this connection to the still noto-
rious "Three Points" of the Synod of the Christian Reformed               Seeing, however, that Kuiper accuses me of distorting
Church of 1924.                                                       Scripture by human logic and that he claims that he and
                                                                      the Christian Reformed Church want the whole of Scripture
       Writes he:                                                     and Scripture only and that the Synod of Kalamazoo 1924 in
       "Evidently the 1924 Synod of the Christian Reformed            this respect came through "with flying colors," we will brief-
Church, foregathered at Kalamazoo, so judged. Under the               ly examine the quotations from Scripture which the afore-
able leadership of such theologians as Professor Louis Berk-          said Synod adduces to prove this Second Point.
hof and Dr. Clarence Bouma it weighed the theology of                     First of all, however, we must briefly explain what the
these brethren in the balances of Scripture and found it              Second Point teaches.
wanting. Over against the denials noted above Synod af-
firmed the so-called Three Points of Common Grace. To be                  I call attention to the following:
sure, it did not claim to have said the last word on that                 1. It does not teach:                 -  .-.  -
subject. Nor is the formulation of the Three Points beyond                a. That God holds in His power all the wicked and un-
criticism. In To Be Or not To Be Reform&; published by                godly and controls their deeds by His providence. We all
Zondervan in 1959, I suggested some possible improve-                 believe that.
ments. Others have done likewise. But exceedingly signif-
icant is the fact that Synod upheld the doctrine of common            1 b.. God also restrains the ungodly and wicked mediately
grace without detracting in the least from the historic Re-           as, for instance, by occasions and circumstances, by their
formed doctrine of special or saving grace. In a word, the:           place and position, by ,their own fears and ambitions, by the
Synod of Kalamazoo, like the famous Synod of Dart, came               p o w e r   o f   thestate,  ,etc.  W e   a l l   b e l i e v e   t h a t , '
through with flying colors. By insisting on the principle of              2. .,Butit.  does teach:         :  1  i
                                                                               . . .


                                           T H E   S T A N - D A R D   BEAR.ER                                                 I25

   a. That there is an inward restraint upon the mind and           to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their
will of the natural man whereby some good is preserved so           ungodlydeeds-which they have ungodly committed, and all
that he is not so depraved as he would otherwise be.                their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken
   b. That this restraining operation is the work of the            against him.,,
Holy Spirit upon the heart and mind of the natural man.                How, then, did God strive with men in the prediluvian
   c. ,That this restraining operation of the Holy Spirit is        world? The answer is: through His Word as it was spoken
not regenerating.                                                   by Enoch. To be sure, also through His Spirit, but not in
                                                                    order to restrain sin, but to make the Word spoken by
   d. That this restraining operation of the Holy Spirit is         Enoch powerful and to harden their hearts.
such that sin is checked in such a way that a remnant of his
original righteousness is constantly preserved.                        I feel rather sure that Prof. emeritus Kuiper will agree
                                                                    that this is the true interpretation of the text. If he has any
   e. That this remnant pf original righteousness of the            .other explanation, I wish he would let me know. Even Prof.
natural man includes such important elements as receptivity         Be&of, who taught me exegesis in Calvin Seminary, would,
for moral persuasion, receptivity for the truth, good motives,      I am sure, if he were still in the flesh, agree with me about
good inclinations and desires, etc.                                 this interpretation of Gen. 6:3.
   All this the Christian Reformed Church holds to be the              Five other texts the Synod of Kalamazoo, 1924, quoted
truth. All this Prof. Kuiper, too, believes. All this we reject,    to prove that God restrains sin. They are: Ps.  81:11, 12;
not by human logic, but on the basis of the Word of God, of         Acts  742; Rom.  1:24; Rom.  1:26; Rom.  1:28.
the whole Word, of God, and also on the basis of our Re-
formed Confessions.                                                    It is very evident that these passages prove the very
                                                                    opposite from what Synod intends to prove: they all say that
   And now we will turn to the Scriptural proof which               God gave the ungodly over to their lusts, desire and wicked-
Synod 1924 adduces to substantiate the second point.                ness. It is clear, however, that Synod, instead of properly
   The first text quoted is Gen. 6:3. There we read: "And           exegeting these passages, applied human reason and thus
the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man."         came to the conclusion that they prove that God restrains
   According to the Synod of Kalamazoo, and according to            sin, by the Holy Spirit, in the hearts and minds of the
Kuiper, although they do not offer any exegesis, this text          wicked, the natural man. I could put it in the form of a syl-
means that God so restrains sin in the heart and mind of the        logism as follows:
natural man that he is improved and is capable of perform-             1. God gave the ungodly or naturalman  over unto un-
ing much good.                                                      righteousness.
   But this is an impossible interpretation for the following          2. This means that God ceased from restraining them
reasons:                                                            any longer.
   1. Because, in that case, God and His Holy Spirit would             3. It follows that, before God gave them over, He
then have suffered defeat: for God attempted to restrain sin        restrained, by the power of the Spirit, sin in the hearts and
in the heart and mind of the ungodly, but in spite of this,         minds of the natural man.
wickedness developed very fast.                                        But let us, for a moment, see whether this is the true
   2. In spite of the restraint of sin by the Holy Spirit, the      interpretation of the texts qu0td.
wickedness of the prediluvian world had so far developed               I will not attempt to explain all the passages quoted, but
that they, in about sixteen hundred years, had become ripe          will limit myself to the passage from Romans  1:18-23.
for judgment.                                                       ,. * The text reads as follows:
   3. The context militates against this interpretation. In            `<For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
vs. 5 we read: `And God saw that the wickedness of man              all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the
was great in the earth and that every imagination of the            truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.,, How could        of God is manifest in them; for God bath shewed it unto
this be, if the Holy Spirit worked in the hearts and minds          them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of
of the natural man continually?                                     the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things
   What, then, is the meaning of the text? What is the sense        that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so
of the word "strive"? Did God strive by an inward operation         that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew
of the Holy Spirit to check the power of sin in the heart and       God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful,
mind of the ungodly? Let Scripture speak. In Jude 14, 15            but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish
we read: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, proph-             heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
esied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten            became fools. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible
thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all,. and         God into an image made-like unto corruptible man, and to

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

birds, and to fourfooted beasts, and creeping things."
       We have to take some of the others with the above             11 0  Ll R D 0  C T R I  N E  11
quoted passage, because they speak of the Lord's giving the
ungodly over to their own lusts.                                             THEDOCTRINEOFTHECHURCH
       Thus in vs. 24: God gave them over unto uncleanness; in
vs. 26: God gave them up unto vile affections; in vs. 28: God                                    (%XAFTER  VI
gave them up unto a reprobate mind.                                          THE PREACHING OF THE WORD AS A
       I briefly make the following remarks:                                            MEANS OF GRACE
       1. The people to whom the apostle refers in these                                         (Continued)
verses, even all natural men, knew God from the revelation
in creation, yet they did not want Him: they glorified him              All emphasize that regeneration is entirely a work of
not as God.                                                          God through the Holy Spirit. It is always powerful and
                                                                     efficacious, It is wholly effected without the will of man.
       2. For this reason, not any form of common grace, but         And therefore they all must admit that logically regenera-
the wrath of God was revealed from heaven, and that, too,            tion is a work of the Holy Spirit that precedes all other work
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.                  of grace - the opening of the eyes to see, of the ears to hear,
       3. It is evident from  the. immediately preceding that        and the implanting of the seed of the new life in de heart
this wrath of God was revealed from the beginning of the             of the elect. Whether, therefore, we maintain that regenera-
world, as long as there were ungodly men who always hold             tion takes place through the preaching of the gospel or not,
the truth in unrighteousness. There never was a time when,           it is certain that all Reformed theologians, unless they want
by the grace of the Holy Spirit, sin was restrained.                 to swing over to the Arminian  camp, must admit that in a
       4. How was the wrath of God revealed from heaven?             certain sense regeneration is always immediate. It is the
Does God ever restrain sin? Not at all. The very contrary is         very first work of God in the heart of the elect. Logically,
true, according to the above quoted verses: in His wrath He          it always precedes every other work of grace in the heart
always punishes sin by plunging the sinner into deeper cor-          of the sinner.
ruption. He gave them up to uncleanness, vs. 24; He gave                This is also evident from the.descriptiop  of the work of
them over unto vile affections, vs. 26; and to a reprobate           regeneration by the Holy Spirit as we have it in the Canons,
mind, vs. 28.                                                        III and IV, 11: "But when God accomplishes his good pleas-
                                                                     ure in the elect, or works in them the true conversion, he
       5. Hence, according to these verses,  there.never  was an     not only causes the gospel to be externally preached to
operation of the Holy Spirit whereby God restrains sin in            them, and powerfully illuminates their minds by his Holy
the heart of the ungodly.                                      !<    Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern the.
       I could write much more about this, but let this be suf-      things of the Spirit of God; but by the efficacy of the same
ficient.                                                             regenerating Spirit, pervades the inmost recesses of the
       How the Synod of I924 and that, too, under the leader-        man; he opens the closed, and softens the hardened heart,
ship of such men as Berkhof, could ever commit the-foolish-          and circumcises that which was uncircumcised, infuses new
ness to so distort the above-mentioned section of the epistle        qualities into the will, which though heretofore dead, he
to the Romans as to make them teach the very opposite of             quickens; from being evil, disobedient, and refractory, he
                                                                7
what they, do teach, is a mystery to me.                             renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and
                                                                     strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the
       I cannot believe that Prof. Kuiper, who admits that he        fruits of good actions."
believes in the Three Points, subscribes to this corruption.          `~ Also in Article 12 we may read the same thing: "And this
                                                           H.H.      is the regeneration so highly celebrated in Scripture, and
                                                                     denominated a new creation: a resurrection from the dead,
                                                                     a making alive, which God works in us'without our aid. But
            With thankful heart I offer now                          this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching
               My gift, and call upon God's Name,                    of the gospel, by moral suasion, or such a mode of opera-
            Before His saints I pay my vow                           tion, that after God has performed his part, it still remains
               And there my gratitude proclaim.                      in the power -of man to be regenerated or not, to be con-
                                                                     verted, or to continue unconverted; but it is evidently a
            Within His house, the house of prayer,                   supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time
               I dedicate myself to God;                             most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not
            Let all His saints His grace declare                     inferior in efficacy to creation, or the resurrection from the
               And join to sound his praise abroad.                  dead, as the Scripture inspired by the author of this work


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              127

declares, so that all in whose heart God works in this mar-       to be inclined to the view that somehow the work of regen-
vellous manner, are certainly, infallibly, and effectually re-    eration is always connected with the calling of the gospel.
generated, and do actually believe. -Whereupon the will           However, regeneration as such is always immediate, also
thus renewed, is not only actuated and influenced by God;         according to him. Writes he (I translate): "`Although joined
but in consequence of this influence, becomes itself active.      with the external call through the gospel, this grace (of
Wherefore also, man is himself rightly said to believe and        reegneration) is nevertheless not shut up in the word of the
repent, by virtue of that grace received."                        gospel, but it penetrates into the heart of man, touches, so
   Regeneration, therefore, in the Canons is certainly de-        to speak, man in his most secret being immediately, and
scribed in the strongest terms. It is called a new creation,      renews him without his knowledge and without his will in
and is compared to the resurrection from the dead. The            principle according to the image of God. It is absolutely
Canons do not speak of mediate regeneration, although, of         independent of any consent of the mind or of any act of
course, when once the work of regeneration is accomplished        the free will of man. Nothing intervenes between this opera-
in the heart of the sinner, it does not exclude, but requires,    tion of grace and man as he is regenerated: no word, no
the use of means. This is plain from Article 17 of the same       sacrament, no church, no priest, no act of the intellect or of
chapter of the Canons: "As the almighty operation of God,         the will. The Holy Spirit works in the heart of the elect the
whereby he prolongs and supports our natural life, does not       grace of regeneration (of faith, of conversion, or however
exclude, but requires the use of means, by which God of his       one may call this first moment) directly and immediately,
iniinite mercy and goodness  bath  chosen to exert his in-        irresistibly.,'
fluence, so also the beforementioned supernatural operation           In the same work Dr. Bavinck writes: "That is the judg-
of God, by which we are regenerated, in no wise excludes,         ment which the Synod of Dordt placed over against the
or subverts the use of .the gospel, which the most wise God       sentiment of the Remonstrants. A Ijrevenient,  moral, per-
has ordained to be the seed of-regeneration, and food of the      suasive grace is altogether insufficient to bring man to faith
soul. Wherefore, as the apostles, and teachers who suc-           and conversion. To the power which is exercised by the
ceeded them, piously instructed the people concerning this        Word must be added another, internal, hidden work of
grace of God, to his glory, and the abasement of all pride;       the Holy Spirit by which is granted, in the first place, the
and in the meantime, however, neglected not to keep them          power of faith and of conversion, and which, in the second
by the. sacred precepts of the gospel in the exercise of the      place, translates with infallible certainty that power into the
Word, sacraments and discipline; so even to this day, be it       act of faith and conversion."
far from either instructors or instructed to presume to tempt        Dr. Bavinck concludes as follows: "There may be a dif-
God in the church by separating what he of his good pleas-        ferenee of opinion about the question whether this opera-
ure  bath  most intimately joined together. For grace is con-     tion of the Spirit can be called immediate without misuni
ferred by means of admonitions; and the more readily we           derstanding. But about the matter itself all  difference  is
perform our duty, the more eminent usually is this blessing       excluded. It touches the heart of Reformed theology, the
of God working in us, and the more directly is his work ad-       very marrow of Holy Scripture in respect to the doctrine
vanced; to whom alone all the glory both of means, and of         of the application of salvation."
their saving fruit and efficacy is forever due. Amen."               We may say, therefore, that it is indeed very important
   We understand, of course, that this article cannot mean        in Reformed theology that whether the term  immedizzte
that regeneration in the narrowest sense of the word is           is used, or not, the idea itself is strictly maintained by Re-
effected by the preaching of the gospel, or by admonitions        formed theologians. Regeneration is an efficacious work of
based upon the gospel. This is plain from the article itself      God alone, wrought in principle even without our knowl-
and also from the articles which we quoted before. In the         edge.
preceding articles regeneration itself is called a new crea-         Moreover, this is certainly also the teaching of Holy
tion, and is compared with the resurrection from the dead.        Writ.
Now, surely, creation, as well as the resurrection from the          In John 3:3-8 we read: "Jesus answered and said unto
dead, is effected immediately by the power of God, and            him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
without any human means. It is God alone that calls the           again, he cannot see the kingdom of (God.  Nicodemus said
things that are not as if they were, and that-raises the dead.    unto him, How cana man be born when he is old? can he
Romans 4:17. But even as the sustenance of our natural life       enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
requires means, so also the new life, which is immediately        Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
created in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, requires the means      man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
of the preaching of the gospel `as the seed of regeneration,      into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is
in order to cause it to flourish into a conscious faith in        flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. MarveI
Christ, to sustain and to strengthen and to nourish it.           not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind
   The Dutch-theologian, Dr. Bavinck, wrote a book on the         bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
subject, Calling and Regeneration. In that work he seems          but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth:


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so is every one that is born of the Spirit." We must note          that regeneration in its deepest sense.is immediate, that it is
here that in the original a word for "regeneration" is used        not wrought through the preaching of the gospel.
that means not only `born again," but also `born from                 Another passage we may consider is John  524, 25:
above." Thus it is in verse 3 and in verse 7. We may say           "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word,
indeed that there is a three-fold difference between our first     and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and
birth and our second birth. The first birth is in corruption,      shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death
in unholiness and unrighteousness; the second birth is in          into life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming,
holiness and in righteousness. In the first birth we are mortal    and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
in our entire nature, body and soul; in our second birth we        of God: and they that. hear shall live." Notice especially the
become immortal, and receive eternal life in principle. And,       clause,  "bath  everlasting life." This implies that he that
thirdly, through our first birth we become earthly, and bear       heareth and believeth  bath eternal life. That is, he already
the image of the earthy; through our second birth, however:        has eternal life before he bears and believes. That eternal
we become heavenly, so that we seek the things that are            life, of course,. is the life of regeneration. And therefore,
above. Now that this wonderful second birth, which is in           regeneration in the narrowest sense of the word precedes
holiness and immortality, and which is heavenly, is not            the hearing of the Word of Christ. The hearing to which
wrought through the preaching of the gospel, but is im-            the Lord refers is, of course, the hearing of the gospel. This
mediate, the text plainly indicates. Notice that the Lord          is also evident from the last part of verse 24, namely: `but
says to Nicodemus not only that man without regeneration           is passed from death unto life." Also this clause undoubtedly
cannot enter into the kingdom of God, but that he cannot           expresses that the passing from death into life has been
even see it. This implies, without a doubt, that the grace         finished before one heard the preaching of the gospel. And
of regeneration is absolutely first, must have the precedence      this is quite in harmony with the text in John 3:3, where it
over any other work of grace wrought by the Holy Spirit in         is said that one cannot see the kingdom of God except he
the heart of man. Without it man has no contact whatsoever         be born again. Just as there the seeing of the kingdom of
with spiritual things. He stands over against them. He can-        God presupposes regeneration, so here the hearing of the
not see the kingdom of God. Note, too, that in answer to           Word of the gospel presupposes rebirth. I%I verse 25, how-
the question of Nicodemus, "How can a man be born when             ever, the reference is evidently not to the preaching of the
he is old?". Jesus answers: a man must be born of water and        gospel, but to the efficacious Word of the Son of God Him-
of the Spirit. The expression "born of water" can only refer       self. The work of the Holy Spirit in the heart is, of course,
to the water of baptism. For the baptism of John must have         never separated from the efficacious Word of the Son of
been well-known to Nicodemus. To be born of water, there-          God. While the seed of regeneration is implanted into the
fore, refers to the forgiveness of sins and to justification. A    heart of the sinner, it is by the efficacious Word of the Son
man must be objectively justified before God before he even        of God that the eyes are opened to see the things of the
has a right to regeneration. And to be born of the Spirit          kingdom of God and that the ears are opened to hear the
refers to the new birth itself, without which a man cannot         Word of God, so that the heart is quickened to become
even see the kingdom of God. But what must be noted here           receptive for the things of the kingdom of heaven. Hence,
is especially that this work of regeneration, .wrought  -in the    in verse 25 regeneration is presented as a resurrection from
heart of man, is not effected by the gospel. The gospel is         the dead through the mighty, efficacious voice of the Son of
not even mentioned. A man that is reborn is not born               God. &That the question here is not of the final resurrection
through the gospel, but simply of the Holy Spirit. This is;        is evident from the clause "and now is." The reference,
moreover, evident also from verse 6. Also in this verse, by        therefore, is to the spiritual resurrection, or to the work of
the way, the preaching of the gospel as the means through          regeneration. And that regeneration is effected by the voice
which this wonderful rebirth is effected is entirely left  out     of the Son of God. In themselves they are dead, as is
of consideration. And finally, this is also evident from verse     evident from verse 25: "The hour is coming, and now is,
8, where the Lord compares the one that is born of the             when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God." By
Spirit with the wind, which bloweth where it listeth, but of       that voice of the Son of God, therefore, regeneration is
which one cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth.        effected, and that too, immediately, first of all. It may be
The second birth, or the birth from above, is mysterious in        true that especially in the adults the work of regeneration
origin. One who is conscious of the operation of the Spirit        as a whole is effected by the implanting of the new prin-
                                                                   ciple, by the quickening of that new principle by the voice
and the workings of the new birth in his heart begins to see       of the Son of God, and finally, by the preaching of the gos-
indeed the kingdom of God, begins to hear without a doubt          pel. Nevertheless, the hearing of the voice of the Son of
the preaching of the gospel, begins to seek the things that        God is something that logically precedes the hearing of the
are a,bove. But why he is thus spiritually afEected,he  cannot     gospel.
understand or explain, It is simply the mystery of being              ,This is also expressed in I Peter 1:23-25.  This passage
born of the Spirit. Certainly, it is plain from this passage       has frequently been quoted in favor of mediate regenera-


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               129

     ti,on. This interpretation is based on the fact that the apostle    And this resurr&ztion  from the dead is certainly a marvel-
     in verse 23 refers to the Word of God through which we              lous work of God, which is effected without the means of
     are reborn; and in verse 25, that Word of God, according            the preaching of the gospel.
     to them, refers to the Word of God, which by the gospel is              The parable of the sower also is often used to prove that
     preached unto them. From this they argue that it is plain           regeneration is mediate. Those that interpret this parable
     that regeneration is wrought only through the means of the          for this purpose claim that the seed that is sown is the Word
     preaching of the gospel. However, such an interpretation of         preached. aThus the Lord Himself interprets this parable.
     the text fails to distinguish properly and sharply between          He tells us in Luke 8: `:The seed is the word of God." And
     the different concepts of the text. Especially important are        thus it is argued that the Word as preached is the seed of
     the two prepositions in verse 23: "`Being born again, not of        regeneration. But in order to understand the real purpose
     corruptible seed," that is, ozrt of corruptible seed, and by        of the parable, we must certainly carefully distinguish. If
'    the Word of God. The elect are born again out of incor-             by regeneration is meant the first development of the new
     ruptible seed; and at the same time, they are regenerated,          life into conscious activity, we have no objection to explain
     or born again, by the Word of God. The seed of which the            that this is meant by the seed of the Word of God. But that
     apostle speaks in this text is evidently the principle of regen-    this is not the whole of regeneration is plainly taught by the
     eration that is wrought immediately in the heart of the elect       parable of the sower itself, as well as in many other pas-
     by  tile Holy Spirit. It is wrought in our  -hearts not only        sages of Scripture. For the seed of the Word of God falls
     without our will or effort, but even without our conscious-         at least on three different kinds of spiritual soil without
     ness. In that seed, as a principle of the new birth, or the         bringing forth proper fruit. First of all, there is the seed
     new life, the whole of the new life, -even unto glorification,      that is fallen by the wayside. Secondly, there is the soil that
     is, of course, implied. Just as the acorn is the principle of       is represented by rocky ground. And finally, there is the
     the oak, so that nothing is added to the acorn in order to          soil that is represented by the ground that is full of thorns
     develop the oak, so also the seed of regeneration implies           and thistles. Only those that are represented by the good
     all that ever develops into the new man in Christ. But the          ground `are they which in an honest and good heart, having
     development of the new birth out of .&at incorruptible seed         heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with pa-
     takes place by, or through, the living and abiding Word of          tience." It ought to be very clear that the soil in nature is
     God. Now this Word is certainly not the same as the Scrip-          not prepared by the seed,  abut rather for the seed. The
     tures, or even as the preaching of the gospel. It is the ever-      preparation of the soil is entirely independent of the action
     living and ever-abiding Word of God. In itself, the Scrip-          of the sowing. But this is no less true in the spiritual sense
     tures, or even the preaching of the gospel, cannot be said          of the word. The heart is not prepared by the gospel, but
     to be either living or ever-abiding. This, therefore, can be        for the gospel, and independently of its preaching, that is,
     said only of the causal, the creative Word of God that is           by the direct and immediate work of the Holy Spirit, con-
     wrought efficaciously in the heart of the elect. By that            nected with the living and abiding. and efficacious, power-
     powerful, efficacious Word of God the heart is opened, as           ful Word of God. And thus conceived, it ought to be very
     in the case of Lydia, to hear the Word of tn.&h. This im-           plain that also the parable of the sower teaches not a medi-
     planting of the seed of regeneration, as well as the influence      ate, but an immediate, regeneration - taking regeneration,
     of this powerful and living and abiding Word of God, are            now, in the narrower sense of the word. The preparation
     both in themselves immediate, and therefore can be applied          of the heart in the work of regeneration precedes the
     to the smallest infant, as well as to the adult. Then, finally,     preaching of the gospel, as the seed that must fall into good
     in verse 25 the apostle writes that this living and  ever-          ground in order to bear fruit.
     enduring Word of God is also preached: "But the Word of                We must remember that when we distinguish regenera-
     the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the ,word  which by         tion as a seed and its development, as regeneration in the
     the gospel is preached unto you." Through that preaching            narrower and wider sense of the word, or as the generation
     of the Word of the gospel men are externally called and             and birth of the new life, we use rather a logical than a
     brought to consciousness through the power of the same              temporal distinction. Some maintain that the seed of regen-
     living and abiding Word of God.                                     eration implanted in the heart of man may lie dormant for
        We may also refer to the text in Ephesians 514, where            many years before it develops into conscious and active life.
     we read: "Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest,            They claim that it is possible for a man tc live in sin and
     and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give-thee light." iniquity; `that althoug!,  all his life he has been Tinder  the
     Here, too, the reference is undoubtedly not to the preaching        influence cl the gospel, he does not have  agy living part
     of the gospel as such, but to the same powerful, ever-living,       with it, and is not able to see the things of the kingdom of
     and efficacious Word of God through Christ, whereby men             God, and that he continues in this state for forty, fif$, 01.
     are q-uickened  and given ears to hear and eyes to see the          sixty years. while all this time he has the seed oZ regenera-
     things of the kingdom of God. And here, too, the work of            tion in his heart.
     regeneration is presented as a resurrection from the dead.                                                                   H.H.


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                                                                            one hundred each. Then he gave to each his weapons. A
                                                                            stranger array of weapons could hardly be imagined. It was
                                                                            almost ridiculous. Had they been any but these three
                                                                            hundred God-fearing men, they might well have refused to
          The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon                               go to battle with weapons like these. To each was given a
                                                                            trumpet, a torch, and an empty pitcher. ,Then he gave to
           So Gideon, qd the hundred men that. were with
         h&m, came unto the outside of the camp in the begin-               them their instructions, "Look on me, and do likewise: and,
         ning of the middle watch; and they had but  neloly                 behold, when I come to the outside of the camp, it shall be
         set the watch: a.nd they blew the trumpets, and brake              that, as I do, so shall ye do. When I blow with a trumpet,
         the pitchers that were in their hands.                             I and all that are with me, then blow ye the trumpets also
           And the three companies blew the trumpets, and                   on every side of all the camp, and say, The sword of the
         brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their- eft               LORD, and of Gideon." Thereupon the three groups set
         hands, and the tnlqmpets  2n their right hands to blow             out, each in its own direction, to compass the camp of the
         withal: and they cried,  T?ze sword of the LORD,
         and of G?deon.                                                     Midianites.
           And they stood every man in his pluce  round about                  All was still and dark in the valley of Jezreel. Across the
         the  ca,mp:  a.nd  alE the host ran, and cried, and  fled.         floor of the valley was sprawled the great host of Midian,
                                                   Judges 7: 19-21          silent in sleep. The only orres who stirred in the camp were
                                                                            the watchmen keeping their watch. Their fires, spaced at
        Quietly and confidently Gideon made his way through                 intervals, marked the outline of the camp. There was no
 the darkness out of the camp of Midian.  The dream he had                  dozing on watch that night. They remembered the fore-
 heard related was as a voice from heaven, There was no                     boding dream that had been told them, and its fear would
- doubt in his mind but that God had sent that dream so that                not go away. They longed for the dawn, but the night had
 it might be heard by him. It was a prophecy of what was                    only just passed its midpoint. Troubled, they looked to the
 soon to happen. The fear which this mere dream had struck                  hills for some clue; but the hills gave them no answer. Ac-
 into the hearts of those hardened warriors was but a fore-                 tually the men of Gideon were there arranging themselves
 taste of what the impending attack would do to the whole                   along the crest of hills surrounding the valley; but they
 of the multitude of Midian.  Eager with anticipation, Gideon               moved silently, and their torches, covered with the empty
 made his way back to the waiting three hundred.                            pitchers, only smoldered for lack of oxygen and gave no
        Meanwhile, in the camp of Midian,  it was not unlikely              light. The watchmen of Midian could only guess if anything
 that the two men that Gideon had overheard were prepar-                    was going on in those hills, and what it might be. But they
 ing themselves to take up the middle watch of the night.                   were on edge and ready to jump at a moment's notice to
 The time was approaching, and for them there was little use                spread alarm through the camp.
 in trying to catch a little more sleep. Buckling' on their                    Then it happened. First the sound of a single trumpet,
 swords, they stepped out into the darkened night to try to                 clear and shrill, cutting through the stillness of the valley
 regain their composure before the duties of the watch be-                  from one end to the other with a call to battle. And then
 came theirs to keep. Slowly they went about seeking out                    from every side there came the blast of many trumpets, as
 the other watchmen of the night, trying to find someone to                 though the heavens themselves were giving answer. Jump-
 reassure them. In muted whispers they related to each one                  ing to their feet, the watchmen of  Midian  stood in stunned
 they met the dream and what they felt it meant. In the light               silence searching the hills for a sign of what was upon them.
 of day they might all have laughed it off as a fantastic thing,            And then came the second sound, the sound of hundreds of
 but now in the darkness of the-night it appeared all too real.             earthen pitchers being dashed to pieces on the rocks; but
 By the time the middle watch had taken its posts, everyone                 to those in the valley below it must have sounded as though
 was on edge. Their fires seemed to give little warmth that                 the very hills themselves were being rent asunder by the
 night; the flames only seemed to raise up before their eyes                onrush of a mighty army. Mow they saw; for suddenly the
 phantoms of lurking figures on every side. As never before                 crest of ,lrills glowed with the bursting flames of innumer-
 the hearts of Midian's  brave watchmen were gripped by the                 able fires, as though the heavens had suddenly kindled
 cold chill of fear. God was preparing them for what was.                   them. They glowed with a frightening light. And after it
 soon to happen.                                                      `:    all came that shout, "The sword of the LORD and of
        As Gideon moved silently through the night; his heart               Gideon." How often had they not laughed to scorn the
 was lifted in a chorus of silent worship to his God. Arriving              name of the God of Israel, and now that name was descend-
 at the place where his men were waiting, his face still shone              ing upon them in judgment. And a judgment it was, like
 with the radiance of this new confidence, and it echoed in                 that which shall come at the world's end. In that day the
 his voice as he spoke. "`Arise," he shouted eagerly, "for the.             trumpet will be that of Gabriel, the light will be that of
 LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.`:                   the Son returning in all of His glory; and it will be the earth
        Quickly Gideon divided his men into three groups. of                that will be dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel; but the


                                          T H E   STAN.DARD   B E A R E R                                                       131
                                                             .'
Midianites knew all of the fright of those who call to the         of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes
hills to cover them. For a moment the watchmen stood               of  Midian,  Oreb and Zeeb: and what was I able to do in
paralyzed in the grip of fear; and when at last they pulled        comparison of you?" With this the anger of Ephraim was
themselves together sufficiently to turn to the camp to sound      abated.
the alarm, they found the aisles between the tents already                   More serious, however, was that which met him after he
teeming with people. Their fellows, of course, had heard           had crossed over the Jordan. By this time he and his three
the sound and were turned out to see what it was that had          hundred men had gone close to twenty-four hours without
made it. But in the darkness and the resultant confusion,          sleep or food, and they were faint. Thus when they came to
all they could think was that the warriors of Gideon had           the city of Succoth, they stopped expecting to find willing
sprung from the earth to devour them. Drawing their
                   .-                                              assistance in their need. Gideon went himself to the elders
swords, they began to fight for their lives. Soon the sound        of the city and said, "Give, I pray you, loaves of bread unto
of real battle filled the valley throughout; and when any          the people that follow me; for they be faint, and I am pur-
paused to look up, there were still those burning lights           suing after Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian."
glaring down from the hills about them. All through the                      It was to Gideon's utter astonishment that he was met
night there went up the anguished cries of fighting as the         not with sympathy but with bitterness. Acidly they retorted,
host of the Midianites melted away. At last with the first         "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in thine hand,
rays of dawn they turned and ran and fled.                         that we should give bread unto thine army?" Outwardly
   ,Through the night Gideon's three hundred remained un-          they appeared to be questioning the ability of Gideon to
touched upon the mountains and had only to listen to learn         complete his victory; but it was apparent that underneath
what effect their strange attack had had. But meanwhile            these men preferred to live godlessly under the oppression
they knew that with the coming of morning they would               of Midian  than under a righteous judge like Gideon. They
have to act. Now the time had come to gather all Israel to         were not  -going to help Gideon toward victory.
the spoil., Swift runners were sent by Gideon to the closest                 To this Gideon retorted, "Therefore when the LORD
tribes, Naphtali,  Asher, and Manasseh. He summoned the            hath delivered Zebah and ZalmuMa  into mine hand, then
people to come and pursue and destroy the fleeing enemy.           I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and
Especially to Ephraim he sent to come and take the fords           with briers."
of Jordan to keep the Midianites from passing over them.                     Next Gideon stopped at the city of Penuel with the
To these men of Ephraim fell the first great trophy of battle;     same purpose. But here his reception was the same, for this
Oreb and Zeeb, two of the princes of Midian,  were taken by        city was even more sinful than Succoth. In the city was a
them and slain.                                                    tower of which they were very proud and which may well
   Now began what would prove to be for Gideon the most            have been used for idolatrous purposes. Thus Gideon left
difficult part of this whole campaign. God had destroyed           them also with a warning, "When I come again in peace, I
for him the power of the whole host of Midian,  but still to       will break down this tower."
be dealt with was the sinfulness of Israel.                                  Of all of the thousands of  Midian,  about 15,000 had
   It began with the men of Ephraim. Standing as they did          escaped with Zebah and Zahnunna the kings. They had
at the crucial fords of Jordan, they soon saw how great was        crossed the Jordan and had come to a mountain stronghold
the victory which had been brought about by Gideon and             where they thought themselves safe. But God was with
his three hundred. Immediately they were moved to envy.            Gideon, so that he came upon them even here, destroyed
Thinking back, they concluded that they had never even             the host, and captured the kings.
been adequately called to take part in the project. Thus                     With the two kings as evidence, Gideon returned to Suc-
when Gideon himself with his band of three hundred men             Coth  and Penuel. Taking the elders of Succoth, he said to
came to the fords of Jordan to pass over, they were met not        them, "Behold Zebah and Zalmunna  ,with whom ye did up-
with a feeling of gratitude to God for what had happened,          braid me, saying, Are the hands of Zebah and Zahnunna
but with a spirit of rancor and bitterness. Angrily the men        now in thine hand, that we should give bread unto the men
of Ephraim chided him saying, "Why hast thou served us             that are weary?" With this he had them beaten with the
thus, that thou calledst us not, when thou wentest to fight        thorns and briers "of the wilderness. But with the men of
with the Midianites?"                                              Penuel he was even more severe. Returning to their city, he
   Gideon was astonished. To him there was no more glory           broke down their tower as he had said; but he also slew the
in one part of this victory than another. To serve God in          elders because of the extent to which they had led the
any capacity was a privilege, and one part was as great as         people into sin.
the other. In very fact Ephraim had played a very con-              - Henceforth this would be Gideon's most important work,
siderable part. Of this he reminded them. "What have I             to judge and lead the people in righteousness before God.
done now in comparison of you?" he asked. "Is not the
gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage          i  .E:                                                      B.W.
                                                                   :  II

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

                                                                 Millennial view is nothing less than an idle dream, as was
       FROM  H0L.i WRIT                                          so strikingly evident in the world-shaking event of the
                                                                 assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy. Natural
                                                                 man can, at best, but have some understanding of external-
                  Exposition of II Peter 3                       ly orderly deportment, but, even so, keeps down the truth
                                             -_                  in unrighteousness, even in things natural and civil, by
                              i.                                 which he becomes inexcusable before God.. Canons of  Dor-
   We look for new heavens and a new earth where right-          drecht, III, IV, 5; Rom.  1:18-22.
eousness shall dwell. And these new heavens and that new            This, Kingdom is quite other! It is the Kingdom which
earth shall really be new; the former things shall be re-        is of the Son of Man as he appears in Daniel 7, approach-
membered no  .more. We shall not return to the former            ing to the Ancient of Days, to receive the Kingdom in the
paradise in which Adam lived; but we shall bear the image. way of His suffering and -death and resurrection; and it is
of the last Adam, the Lord from heaven!                          given. to the Saints, and to them alone! In this Kingdom
   There is one outstanding characteristic of that eternal       righteousness dwells.                                    n
state, which is, at once, comforting and also assuring,- that       This righteousness is basically the righteousness which
it shall never pass away, as did the bliss in the first para-    was manifested without law; it is not a righteousness
dise, where man fell. It is stated by Peter in verse  13b,       brought about by the endeavors of mere man to keep the
which reads as follows:  ~`?n which  dwell&h  righteousness." law, but it is brought about by God Himself in the setting
   We are, no doubt, correct to say that the negatively          forth of His Christ, His Only-Begotten Son, a propitiation
outstanding characteristic of the new heavens and earth          for our sins! It is the righteousness which Christ came to
shall be that all the works of the Devil shall be there no       fulfill on the Cross of Calvary. And it was completely ful-
longer. There the father of the lie, the Liar from the begin-    filled in Christ who became to us from God wisdom, right-
ning, the murderer of man, can not come. Nor will his            eousness, sanctification and complete redemption. This is
demons be able to be present in that new Jerusalem, the          the righteousness which is ours, as heirs of the promise, by
city of peace. And, finally, the evil man, who loved the         faith. Of this we read in Scripture, "And Abraham believed
lie and hated the truth, and who mocked with. the fond. God and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Gen.
hope of the righteous, shall there no longer be able to tor-     15:6;  Rom.  4:3. It is the righteousness which is ours so
ment them with his. evil reproaches. Only they who re-           completely by faith, that God deals with us as if we our-
ceive a new name, the name of God, upon their foreheads,         selves had fully satisfied for our sins, yea,`as if we had never
and have the name of the citv of God, shall be there. That       sinned, since we receive and embrace it with a believing
shall be our eternal resting place1                              heart!
   However, Peter points to the positive element of that
new heaven and new earth. He singles out the "righteous-            Furthermore, this righteousness is also such that it is
ness" that shall dwell there.. How could it be different!        ours, so that we fulfill the commandments of God by faith
Shall not the King of righteousness there reveal His throne      that worketh by love. The Covenant of God is such that
established in righteousness forever? Is He not the King         He writes His law in our.minds and in our hearts. Heb. S:
after the order of Melchizedec, that is, King of righteous-      8-12; 10:16. Does not Jesus call the church the light of the
ness? And then shall the King live and reign forever in          world, the salt of the earth? And does He not instruct His
righteousness.                                           -2      disciples and tell them not to think that he has come to des-
   What is this righteousness?.                                  troy the law and the prophets but to fulfill it, so that
   Contrary to all the vain hopes of proud man, it shall         heaven and earth will pass away rather than the least jot
not, be a righteousness and a kingdom which is brought           or tittle of the law should not be fulfilled in the hearts of
about in any sense by the endeavors of sinful and fallen         His saints? Matt.  5:1420. Heaven will certainly be the
man; it. will not be the realization of the dream of Post-       place where the law of God will be perfectly kept. Here
Millennialism. This is the view and error which holds that       shall be a righteousness which is diametrically opposed to
somehow on this earth the kingdoms of -this world will beat      all the legalism%  of the Pharisees and essentially different
their swords into plow-shares; the world will live in uni-       from the moralism of the pagan world, both ancient and
versal peace; man will -no -longer hear of wars and rumors       modern!
of wars. And when all armaments for war have ceased and             In every'heart shall this righteousness be exhibited in
all nations shall be one, then shall the Kingdom of Christ       the Kingdom of glory! That will be the perfection of the
be realized here upon earth. Tis is, of course, contrary to      saint,s, so that we shall be without spot or wrinkle; there we
the plain teaching of Christ in such passages as Matt. 24:       shall indeed be spotless and blameless.
4-8. We should give heed to Christ's warning, "Beware              Such is the prospect which is ours; the .lines have fallen
that no one deceive you." Matt.  24:4.  Certainly the  Post-     tito' us, in`pleasant places; a goodly heritage is ours!


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B-EARER                                                  133
                                                                           .'
    Peter says significantly that righteousness shall "dwell' Here is the patience of the saints!
there. This means that it shall have the new heavens and              At this point Peter refers to the writing ,of the apostle
new earth as its permanent abode. Such is the meaning              Paul, whom he calls  `Lotcr beloved brother Paup?
of the term employed in the Greek and translated "dwell."           It should not escape our notice what a fondness and
Because righteousness shall be the gift of God which is            love is here expresed. All the vying for being the greatest
ours in the last Adam, we cannot lose it. There we shall           is gone. Had Peter and the .apostles  quarrelled at the table
have the gift of grace, the truly non posse-peccare. It re-        of the Lord about this point, here Peter exhibits that he has
minds me of the hope of a dying sister, who had attained           learned to show all "diligence" to add to faith virtue, and to
the age of 105 years. She said, "And the wonderful pros-           virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to
pect is that there I shall sin no more!"                           temperance brotherly kindness and love to all. How the
   Let then the mockers mock; ours is a hope which will            aged apostle himself has grown in the grace and knowl-
not put us to shame because His  love is shed abroad in            edge of Jesus Christ. How grace has sanctified, mellowed
our hearts. Rom. 5:5. If we have been saved through His            and prepared him soon to be with his Lord, where it will
death, we shall mxrch more be saved through  ,His life!            be "good to be," and where he will not ask to build three
   Had Peter shown a strong motive for our. walking in             tents for Jesus, Moses;  and Elijah respectively. Luke 9:33;
godliness in verse 11 from the fact that all things will be        I I   P e t e r   1:16.
destroyed, here he elicits a strong motive for .a walk of             Peter says that Paul too wrote. Peter wrote according
godliness from the positive hope and expectation of the            to the wisdom which the Lord gave him. And so did Paul.
new heavens and earth where  righteousne&  shall  awe@!            And Paul too wrote of the doctrine of the last things. He
Writes he in verse 14, "WTterefore,  beloued,  seeing th&t ye      too spoke of the longsuffering of God and de perfection
look for suck things, be diEgent  that ye may be found of          of the saints in glory. In these writings of Paul were some
him  in peace, without spot and  blumeless." Such is the           things `8ard to be understood." However, these things are
godliness and holiness which is  @ting for those who set           understood by the proper spiritual enlightenment, and the
their affection upon the things above,  becaus?  their life        earnest attempt of the godly to understand. It seems that
is  hid  .with Christ in  God. Presently it  shall   b& openly     the  %ard to understand" elements in Paul's writings were
manifested in that day of His  Parousia. The "beloved" of          th& stumbling-block for those  who had difficulty under-
the Lord are they whom Gqd so loved that He gave His Son           standing any Scripture at all. They were those who twisted
for them, and prepared for them righ$eousness.  Being such,        the meaning of all Scriptnre  to their own destruction. They
partakers of the life of God and created  acter His image in       were, no doubt, such who made the doctrine of grace a
Christ, they must shew this in their, entire life, living ac-      reason and` occasion for the flesh, who did not make their
cording to all of God's commandments in hope! They must            calling and election sure, but who walked in rash presump-
"be diligent." If is really the key-note of this entire letter.    tion, or in idle and wanton trifling with the grace of elec-
See II  Peter  1:5 and 10. This diligence  must not be con-        tion. Peter here speaks of th& antinomians who are called
fused with mere outward industriousness; rather must we            "wicked,"' because they simply set aside the ordinances of
think here of the moving force of the love of God in our           God.
hearts that reveals itself in a holy clinging to God's com-           The br&ren must not be carried away together with
mandments.                                                         this .flood of unrighteousness. They must not be "carried
   Such tire spotless and blameless. They keep their gar-          awfiy from their own steadfastness." Verse 17. They must
ments pure and, therefore, are'not blamed for faults. Such         stand in the living hope and account the longsuffering of
are truly pil&i&  and strangers, pressing the foijii-steps  of     the Lord to be salvation, and not a time of remaining in
Abraham, seeking the city which hath foundatiods, `whose           sin that grace may abound. God forbid!
Architect and Builder is God. They know that God is not             On the contrary, they must "grow in the grace and
ashamed to be called their God, for He bath  prepared for          knowledge of Jesus Christ." Verse 18. Only by growing in
them a city. And the purpose is: to be "found in peace." knowledge of the will of God will they be able to grow in
Here we hear the words  of Christ echoed, as recorded in           grace: the grace of sanctification, of reaching out in living
Matt.  34:46: "Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when         hope!' Not by `tiistitig the meaning of Scripture will they
He  cometh shall  find so doing." Hence, this is a  warnin.g       groti in grace; but by adding to faith knowledge, and to
unto watchfulness, which reckons with the certain return           knowledge virtue.1 Such will indeed be an ever deeper and
of the Lord, but does' not know the exact hour or day of           more accurate knowledge and spiritual understanding bf
that return!                                                       Christ, in the power of His death and resurrection, and the
   Such watchfulness  "accozcnts  the  longsuffering   of  dte     poker  which will be manifested to our salvation in the day
Lord to be  `snluation." It is the proper evaluation of the        of His Coming!
seeming tarrying of the Lord. I`t is' the. time in which, by          To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen.
grace, we work  oui our salvation with fear and trembling!                                                                  G.L.


134                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARE.R

                                                                     war. And yet, by nature, in the heart we deny Him; we
              I N   I-HS  F E A R                                    behave as though He does not exist. The heart is the
                                                                     spiritual center of man's being, out of which are all the
                                                                     issues of life. That heart sends the spiritual impulses to
                        The Fear of Sin                              mind and will, to hand and foot, mouth and lips. And the
                                                                     power that keeps that heart beating is the lie that Jehovah is
       Others will write about it. In this issue of the Stundarcl    not God and that it pays to sin against Him!- Hatred of God
Beurer there will, no doubt, be columns written about it.            is pumped by that heart through our spiritual arteries into
We are citizens of this nation, even though the new man              every fibre of our being and is behind every act we per-
has his citizenship in heaven, according to Philippians 3:20.        form, whether it be inward or outward, of body or soul.
That, by the way, is the proper translation.                            Because of this we oppose God and sin against Him. He
       But what happened November 22 in Dallas, *Texas hap-          stands in our way. His law is an obnoxious thing which we
pened in our country and to our nation. We lost a President          must ignore for joy and peace and life. We are outlaws and
through an assassin's bullet. Agree with his religion or not,        find joy only by living outside of His law. We are rebels,
subscribe to his political policies or not, he was our pres-         revolutionists, insurrectionists and antagonists. We showed
ident and the president of our children. And the Word of             that when He came in our flesh. We got rid of Him and
God came to us in respect to him, "Let every soul be subject         nailed Him to the cross. If God is like that, we do not want
unto higher powers. For.there is no power but of God: the            Him! We prefer Barabbas! It had to come to this! When we
powers that be are ordained of God . . . Render therefore to         embraced the lie of Satan and began to compete with God
all .their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to           for His place, we started.out  on the road that could only end
whom custom; fear to whom fear;. honour to whom honour."             in killing Him when, because He came in our flesh, we had
Romans 13:l and 7.                                                   opportunity to do so. The enmity  against God that is Satan's
       But to avoid all duplication, we will write on a very         became ours. We must get rid of Him, so we philosophize,
specific aspect of this cold blooded murder. Standing in His         if we are to have life and joy. We must disobey and decide
fear we will look with the eye of faith and turn to the Word         for ourselves what is good and what is evil.
of God for an explanation of what has taken place. And we               And exactly because He is God and maintains Himself as
will pray for grace to continue the rest of our pilgrimage in        God, Jehovah will oppose that sinner with all His infinite
His fear. Then we will not fear what man can do unto us.             being. He may give that man rain and sunshine, life and
We will walk triumphantly in the coni?dence  that all things         health, talent and gifts, but His curse is upon that man even
work together for our good, because we are the called ac-            in all these things. The psalmist declares that God is angry
cording to God's sovereign purpose of election and by His            with the wicked every day. Psalm  7:ll. And again the
grace love Him.                                                      psalmist says that God "shall laugh; the Lord shall have
       Let us consider, first of all, then, that sin is rebellion    them in derision." Psalm 2:4. Because He has in His eternal
against the living God. All sin, each and every sin, whether         counsel decreed certain works which they must perform for
of omission or commission, whether of thought, word or               the preparation of the Day of Christ, through the develop-
deed, is rebellion against God. It is going our own sweet            ment of sin and the production of the man of sin, He will
way, an act of opposing Him in His righteous and holy way.           give them good gifts. But never is it in His favour to them
Sin is never an act of His fear. Sin means that we do not            or in any mercy that He has towards them. He cannot and
stand in awe of Him as the God that He is. And sin likewise          will not .deny Himself, not even for one moment. Not for
is an act in which we dare to defy the living God. In sin            one moment will He say, by word or deed, that the man
we are bold and haughty, proud and conceited. And in sin             who opposes Him is not the object of His unchangeable and
we are moved by and controlled by the lie.                           in&rite wrath. When man opposes God, God will not for
       And what is the lie? `Ye shall not surely die . . . ye        one moment cease to oppose that man. He will not give
shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." The he is that             way or stand still. He walks straight forward to the glory
it pays to sin; that we can get away with sin; that it is to         of His name; and the man who comes up against Him will
our advantage to sin. The lie is that Jehovah is not God and         feel the full fur;y.of that infinite wrath. A man who runs
need not be served. Under that lie we are born. It has               down the train track toward the oncoming, speeding freight
dominion over us from our first breath of life. By nature we         train will suffer less than the man who runs up against the
all are the fools who say that there is no God. And take             living God! And man does that  evey time that he sins.
note that the psalmist says that the fool says this in his heart.    Man is continually opposing God, rebeIling  against Him and
We may speak of God with our lips. We may give lip                   His law.
service to Him and speak frequently of Him or even to Him.              We make a mistake, however, if we take the position
When .we get into trouble, we will cry to Him. There are             that all the punishment that God will inflict upon man
no atheists in the foxholes, we were told in that last world         comes in the life hereafter. There it surely reaches its ever-


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            135

lasting climax. The fire is not quenched and the worm dieth       race. He set the whole human race on the course which can
not. There with body and soul in the full capacity that the       ultimately only end in the man of sin, the antichrist, with
wicked can experience, after receiving spiritual bodies           devilishness the like of which we have not yet seen. We
through a resurrection unto damnation, they shall know the        have not yet reached the end of the development of sin.
full sting of opposing the infinite and holy God. But there       And let us not be so foolish as to deny that there is such
is an earthly side to that punishment, which, though it does      a development. When was there ever a time such as the
not strike each ungodly alike and to .the same degree, is         day wherein we live? Never was there the juvenile delin-
nevertheless very really there.                                   quency, and parental delinquency as well, as today. Never
    Let us listen to James. Or rather let us listen to God        was there such lack of respect for authorities, so much
Himself as He spoke through James. "From whence come              brutality and deceit. We have gotten ourselves a very
wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even           sorry world. We have thrown away the fear of the Lord,
of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have         and gotten for ourselves fear of man. We are in an arma-
not: ye kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight      ment race. We have stockpiled weapons of such devastating
and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not." James 4:1, 2.      power that man lives in constant fear of wiping himself off
And the psalmist as quoted by Paul declares, There is none        the face of this earth. And we use these weapons as threats
righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth,         to others and so create more fear. Tension is everywhere.
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out       The cold war threatens any moment to become a hot war.
of the way, they are together become unprofitable: there is       We all wondered whether the enemy would not take ad-
none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open        vantage of our sudden confusion; and we took precautions
sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the          to be alert for any sign of attack. Even now we wonder
poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of        what Russia and Red China are going to use to attack us
cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood;       and our new president. Peace on earth? Nothing is further
Destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of          from the truth. We only rush from one crisis to the next!
peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before            But there is a way out: The Prince of Peace Who has
their eyes." Romans 3:10-l& What is all this? Why is all          been ignored and cast out. In His fear we see Him as the
this brutality, war and  .fighting, cruelty and evil in the       only solution, because He has removed our guilt and be-
world? Why does man live in fear of man? Why is a pres-           cause He sets up presently a new kingdom wherein all the
ident of the United States of America murdered, and his           subjects have the love of God in their hearts. The lust that
murderer in turn murdered? Why is the question raised, "Is        causes war is rooted out of their hearts. The evil doers who
it safe for us and our children to walk the streets?" Is there    fill our flesh with fear are in the lake of fire from which
any hope of justice any more in this land of `liberty and         they cannot escape. Fear the Lord, put your trust in Him.
justice for all"?                                                 Nothing that happens in the future will fill you with fear
   The answer is plain and undeniable: God punishes sin           of men. Have the fear of the Lord, receive Him as Lord,
with sin. All the fear and terror, all the murder and vi-         and let Him rule His creation. He will bring peace by
olence, theft and deceit, revolution and war are the ways in      destroying the evil doers; And by making us saints, we will
which God punishes sin with sin! Adam and Eve felt that           live in blessed peace with Him.
very keenly. Their firstborn killed their second-born son.                                                             J.A.H.
How quickly they learned what the wages of sin are! How
soon they saw what fruit that one sin of theirs can and does
bear. And from that time on it has not been any different-                   Come, hear, all ye that fear the Lord,
essentially,- but only in degree. Today the world has more
murder and cruelty ;and man fears more what man shall do                     While I with grateful heart record
to man. We repeat the words of the psalmist, "There is no                      What God has done for me;
fear of God before their eyes." Because there are such in the                I cried to Him in deep distress,
world, we will never have peace. The world will never be                     And now His wondrous grace I bless,
freed from fear. Terror will lurk not only inthe dark places;                  For IIe has set me free.
but in the bright sunlight and before the eyes of thousands
upon thousands murder is committed on the streets of Dal-
las! And before the eyes of millions on TV the murderer's                    The Lord, Who turns away the plea
brutal slaying is witnessed! In the open! In broad daylight                  Of those who love iniquity,
those who have not the fear of God in them bring terror and                    Has answered my request;
fear to men.                                                                 He has not turned `away my prayer,
   Let us face it: this we deserve and this we have brought                  His grace and love He makes me share;
upon ourselves. Adam introduced all this to the human                          His Name be ever blest.

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

                                                                    from Hodge's Systematic Theology, Vol. III,  670-672,  in
11 Contending For The Faith                                   II which that author comments upon this conception of
                                                                    Lutheran&m,  in re the omnipresence of Christ's body and
                                                                    soul. Having quoted him, we will attempt an analysis of
            The  Church and the Sacraments                          what he writes and make further comments upon this con-
                                                                    ception of Lutheranism.
            THE TIME OF THE  REFORMATIGN                               `A thing is present where it is perceived- and where it
 VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORD'S SUPPER)                            acts. The nature of that presence varies with the nature of
                                                                    the object of which it is affirmed. A body is present where
                   THE LUTHERAN VIEW                                it is perceived by the senses or acts upon them. The soul is
                                                                    present where it perceives and acts. It is somewhere, and
       We were discussing in our preceding article the negative*    not everywhere. God is present everywhere, as He fills im-
statement of the Formula of Concord, the Lutheran Comes-.           mensity. There is no portion of space from which He is
sion of Faith, setting forth the Lutheran conception of the.        absent as to His essence, knowledge, or power. Luther and
sacrament of the Lord's Supper. aThe severity of the lan-           Lutherans speak of three modes of Christ's presence: First,
guage of this confession must, of course, be understood in          that in which He was present when here on earth,  space-
the light of the time when it was composed. Take, for               filling and by space circumscribed; Second, that which is
example, this: "Over and above these, we leave to the just          in space, but does not fill any portion of it, and is not cir-
judgment of God ,all curious and blasphemous questions              cumscribed by it. In this state Christ's body rose from the
imbued with virulent poison of mockeries,. such as can not          grave .and passed through  closed doors. This kind of pres-
be set forth without grave offenses to seemliness and piety,        ence belongs to angels. -Third, the divine and celestial mode
and other pratings, wherein the Sacramentarians speak of            of presence, according to which Christ, in virtue of the
the. supernatural and heavenly mystery of this sacrament            union of the two natures in his person, is present in his
grossly, carnally, Capernaitically, and in utterly abominable       humanity, in his soul `and body, wherever God is present.
fashion, blasphemously, and to the most grievous offense            It is specially .in the second and third modes (the definitive
of the Church." The reader will notice that the Lutherans           and the repletive) that Luther asserted the presence of
here speak of the Calvinists and Zwinglians as `sacramentar-        Christ's power in the eucharist,  although he asserted that
ians." It was the difference in re the conception  of. the          the first was possible.- As de Lutherans affirm the presence
Lord's Supper which led to the breach between Luther and            of the substance of Christ's natural body and blood in the
the other reformers, to the separate Lutheran Church. But,          Lord's Supper, of that body which was born of the Virgin
let us continue with our discussion of the negative state-.         and suffered on the cross; and as that body was and is mate-
ment of this Formula of Concord.                                    rial, it would seem -to follow that the presence affirmed is
       VI, VII, VIII. "That Christ's body is so confined in         local. It is a presence in a definite place. .The Reformed,
heaven that it can in no mode whatever be likewise at one           therefore, always understood the Lutherans to assert the
and the same time in many places, or in all the places where        local presence of the body of Christ in the Lord's Supper.
the Lord's Supper is celebrated- . . . That Christ could            UThe  Lutherans, however, deny that they teach any such
neither promise nor impart the substantial presence of his          presence. This after all may be a-dispute about words. The
body and blood, inasmuch as the essential property of the           parties may take the word `local" in different senses. The
human nature itself which he had assumed could by no                Lutherans say that the body and blood of Christ are with,
means bear or admit of this . . . That God, even with all           in, and under the bread and wine. They are held in the
his omnipotence ( a thing fearful to say and fearful to hear),      hand and taken into the mouth. This is all the Reformed
can not effect that the body of Christ should be substantially      mean when they speak of a local presence; a presence in a
present at one and the same time in more places than one." definite portion of space. Magnetism is locally present m
       In these statements the Lutherans set forth what is un;      the magnet; electricity in the Leyden jar. The soul is locally
doubtedly one of the chief grounds for their conception of          present in the body. The man is locally present in mind and
the Lord's Supper. I say: one of the chief grounds. We are          body where he perceives and acts, and where he is perceived
aware of the fact that Luther also insisted on a literal in-        and acted upon: Lutherans appear to take the word local in
terpretation of Matt. 26~26, insisting that any other exegesis      a sense in which it characterizes the presence of a body
of the passage was impossible. But the Lutherans also ap-           which is present exclusively, i.e., both in the sense of ex-
peal to the omnipresence of our Lord Jesus Christ and to            cluding all other bodies from the same portion of space,
the omnipotence of God. And they say that it is a fearful           being bounded by it, and of being nowhere else. The Re-
thing to say and also a fearful thing to hear that God, even        formed say that it is contrary to the nature of such a body
with all His omnipotence, cannot effect that the body of            as that which belongs to man, that it should be in many
Christ should be substantially present at one and the same          places at the same time, much less that it should fill all
time in more places than one. At this time we wish to quote         space. The idea that the flesh and blood of Christ are omni-


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               137

present, seems to involve a contradiction. It is in vain to          dictions are not the objects of power, yet they do not hesi-
appeal to the omnipotence of God. Contradictions are not             tate to maintain contradictions in the Word of God. The
the objects of power. It is no more a limitation of the power        Reformed say that it is contrary to the nature of a body that
of God to say that He cannot do the impossible, that He              belongs to a man that it should be in many places at the
cannot make right wrong, or the finite infinite, than it is a        same time, much less that it .should fill all space. The idea
limitation of His wisdom that He cannot teach the untrue             that the flesh and blood of Christ are omnipresent seems to
or the unwise. All such assumptions destroy the idea of God involve a contradiction, a contradiction which the Lutherans
as a rational Being. If the body and blood of Christ be              apparently teach, and they appeal, in support of their view,
everywhere present, then they are received in every or-              to the omnipotence of God. And it is in this connection that
dinary meal as well as in the Lord's Supper. The answer              Hodge makes his remark that contradictions are not the
which Lutherans give to this objection, namely, that it is           objects of power. In other words, one cannot simply appeal
one thing for the body of Christ to be omnipresent, and              to  th.e omnipotence of God in support of things that are
another for it to be accessible, or everywhere given, is un-         contradictory. And yet, and this also includes .Hodge, the
satisfactory; because the virtue resides in the body and             attempt is made to maintain contradictions in the Word of
blood, and if they are everywhere present and received they          God. God, then, wills to save all men, and He does not will
are everywhere operative, at least to believers. If this omni-       to save all men. The Lord has elected and reprobated from
presence of the body of Christ was actual only after His             before the foundation of the world, and He also sincerely
ascension, then, as Muller argues, the Apostles must, at.the         and well-meaningly offers His salvation to all, implying that
institution of the Lord's Supper, have partaken of his body          He wills to save those whom He does not will to save, that
and blood in a manner peculiar to that one occasion, and             `He loves those whom He eternally does not love, etc. The
Christ, so far as other Christians are concerned, only fore-         Lord has His gospel preached to men in order that all who
told that his body would be ubiquitous and therefore pres-           come within the range of that gospel may be saved, and at
ent in the eucharist.  Luther, therefore, says, `If Christ at the    the same time His gospel is a savor of death unto death, SO
Last Supper had not uttered the words this is M~J body, yet          that, hardening the reprobates under the preaching of the
the words, Christ sits at.the right hand of God, prove that          gospel, the Lord makes it impossible for those to "accept" the
his body and blood may be in the Lord's Supper as well as            offered salvation whom He would save through this preach-
everywhere else.' As Christ in His human nature and there-           ing of the gospel. He wants to save them, and at the same
fore in His human body sits at the right hand of God; and            time He makes it impossible for them to be saved. And
as the right hand of God is everywhere, His body must be             when confronted by the charge that such presentations of
everywhere, and therefore in the bread as used in the sacra-         the `truth" involve us in hopeless contradictions, they will
ment.  -The current representations, however, of the Luther-         answer that they may appear as contradictions to us, but
an theologians on this point are, that the presence of the           this is only due to our defective minds.' That black is white
body of Christ in the Lord's Supper is peculiar, something           and white black is not because this is really so, but only
which occurs there and nowhere else. This presence is due,           because it appears that way to us. But, mind you, however,
not to the words of consecration as uttered by the minister,         as it appears to us, white is really black and black is really
but to the almighty power which attended the original ut-            white. To this we unhesitatingly reply that if the Scriptures
terance of the words, `This is My body,' and continues to            may teach things radically different from what they appear
operate whenever and wherever this sacrament is admin-               to teach us, then it will be impossible for us to know what
istered.                                                             the Scriptures really mean and teach. How can we know
   "This presence of the body and blood of Christ in, with;          whether the Word of God really teaches us the troth,
and under the bread and wine has been generally expressed            whether anything as it appears to us is also really as such
by non-Lutherans by the word consubstantiation, as dis-              the truth? The Bible speaks of the birth of our Lord Jesus
tinguished from the  Romish  doctrine of transubstantiation.         Christ in Bethlehem, as lying in a manger, as suffering and
The propriety of this word to express the doctrine of Luther         dying upon the cross of Calvary, of the grave of our Lord
is admitted by Phillippi, if it be understood to mean, what          being empty after His resurrection from the dead. Are these
in fact is meant by it when used by the Reformed, the real           things really true, or do they simply appear that way to us?
coexistence of  .the two substances, the -earthly and the            Then we cannot believe anything we read in the Word of
heavenly. But Lutherans generally object to the word be-             God.
cause it is often used to express the idea of the mixing two                                                                  H.P.
substances so as to form a third; or the local inclusion of
the one substance by the other," end of quote from Hodge.
   My first remark in connection with this quotation from                          On Thy. strength alone relying,
Hodge concerns his words, and we again quote: "It is in                              Why am I cast off by Thee,
vain to appeal to the omnipotence of God. Contradictions                           In my helpless sorrow sighing,
are not the objects of power." However, although contra-                             While the foe oppresses me?

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

                                                                     specious. However, our treatment of Article XII would
          The Voice of Our Fathers                                   suffer if we .took the time for such a study under this rubric.
                                                                     Nevertheless, I would like to see this theory and its argu-
                                                                     mentation carefully and thoroughly examined sometime in
                                                                     our Stnndard Bearer. I merely purpose to point out a few
                  The Belgic Confession                              factors which are of importance with respect to all these
                                                                     theories which deny a literal, historical creation in six suc-
                         h%TICLE   XII                               cessive, ordinary days.
                                                                        In the first place, all of these theories agree in getting
                          (continued)                                rid of a literal creation-week. Let us make no mistake about
                                                                     this. The period-hypothesis does this. <The inter-period-hypo-
Deviating Views (continued)                                    v_    thesis does this. The restitution theory does this. Aalders
       Before commenting on the various views referred to in         does this, when he claims that these days "need not have
the last issue, we want to quote further from the little book        lasted longer than our days, they may have been much
by Dr. N. H. Ridderbos, Is There a Conflict Between Gene-            shorter; they  muy by our chronometric standards have
s&  1  and  NuturuZ   Science? Immediately following his             lasted only a few seconds." The mythological theory does
description, on page 45, of the `framework-hypothesis," he           this, surely. And Dr. Ridderbos- does the same thing with
writes as follows:                                                   his framework-hypothesis. True, he writes: "he distributes
       "`And now I come to my conclusion. From the above it          it over six days, to which he adds a seventh day as the day
follows in my opinion that the framework-hypothesis offers           of rest." And when we read such language, it sounds as
an acceptable exegesis of Genesis 1. One can surely raise            though the "days" of Genesis 1 are preserved. But we must
objections to it (see particularly pp. 40-42),  but'already at       remember that these are no days `at all. They are a literary
the point where we are faced by arguments of a purely                framework. In other words, they are a mere figment of the
exegetical nature this position is stronger, in my opinion,          imagination. What is written in Genesis 1 did not take place
than'any other. (For objections to other views see pp. 53-55.        in six days, followed by the sabbath of the seventh day. This
In the nature of the case, I refer only to those views which         is merely a manner of speaking. It is a medium that is ar-
fully recognize the authority of Genesis 1. He who stops             tificially imposed on the work of creation in order to present
short of this full recognition need not a pr;io?$  concern him-      the work of creation -as complete and orderly.  It is `a story
self with the results of natural science in his exegesis of          of creation." It is not the purpose of Genesis 1 "to present
Gen. 1.)                                                             an exact report of what happened at creation." All of this
       "To this must `be added that on any other view apart          simply means that there were not really any creation days.
from what was said on pp. 42-44 -there arise grave dif-              And this theory, of course, is another means of conceding to
ficulties with respect to natural science. As was said on pp.        natural science, so-called, that the world may be millions
18-21: it is true that natural science may not at any point          upon millions of years old.
decree how Scripture should be interpreted. Still, we may               In the second place, the question arises, with respect to
not in our exegesis ignore the results of natural science. -The      all these theories: why? What is the reason for rejecting the
fact that there arise objections of a scientific nature to every     literal interpretation of Genesis l? My answer is, negatively,
more literal conception may and should occasion the ques-            that the reason is not an exegetical one, first of all. I want
tion, Is it perhaps possible to offer some other acceptable          to emphasize this especially because Dr. Ridderbos claims
exegesis? (See pp. 68-71.)                                     I-    that "already at the point where we are faced by arguments
       "Perhaps some readers will suspect that the results of        of a purely exegetical nature this position is stronger, in my
natural science have contributed more to the attractiveness          opinion, than any other." He is speaking, you understand,
of the framework-hypothesis than is expressed in the' pre-           of the framework-hypothesis. In regard to this, I would
ceding. However this be -who knows his own heart? - it               remark:
is a fact that the framework-hypothesis or related concep-               1) That the distinction between "more literal" and "less
tions date back to a period when the results of  &ma1                literal" conceptions is not valid. Your conception of Genesis
science by no means exerted influence in that direction (cf.         1 is either literal; or it is not literal. The days, for example,
pp.  9-12)."                                                         were either literal days, or they simply were not days. The
  It is not my intention to treat each one of these different        `literary" days of the framework-hypothesis are not days.
views separately and to offer detailed arguments against             They are not even figures of speech. They are a device that
them. This would indeed be profitable. And especially this           does away with the time element of Genesis 1 altogether.
"framework-hypothesis," which is becoming more popular                  2) That the arguments of a "purely exegetical nature"
than the `period hypothesis," could be the object of an in-          against the literal interpretation are old arguments that
teresting and profitable study. For I believe the arguments          have been raised many times:- One of them is the fact that
advanced by Dr. Ridderbos to be quite demonstrably                   Genesis 1 presents the creation of light on the first day,


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                          139

 while the sun, moon, and stars were not created until the           tures themselves make it.plain beyond a shadow of a doubt
fourth day, for example. However, as far as pzrre exegesis           that our interpretation must not be literal.  This also holds
 is concerned, this is not a problem, first of all. It is a          true of all that is mentioned concerning the chronology of
rationalistic argument, after all. The exegesis of the ac-           Scripture, concerning which much argument is raised. Cer-
count of the six days of creation does not require an an-            tainly, there are genealogies in Scripture which are not
 swer to this problem necessarily, if only one is willing to         chronologically successive and consecutive. But when a
 accept, without reservation, the account of Scripture. Sec-         genealogy is not at the same time a chronology (from father
 ondly, the framework-hypothesis does not answer this prob-          to son), the Scriptures either in the  same passage or by
lem in any better fashion than the literal interpretation            comparison with other passages make this clear. The Holy
 does. Rather, it destroys the problem by discarding com-            Spirit does not deceive God's people in Scripture. He does
pletely the idea that light was created before the creation         not write one thing, and ask them to believe another. And
of the heavenly luminaries. And unless the  framework-              this is probably the most fundamental issue here. The
hypothesis does this, it does not succeed in answering this         whole notion of any non-literal interpretation of Genesis 1
problem at all.                                                     is simply preposterous when you take the Scriptures them-
                                                                    selves in hand and read them. There is not even a hint that
    Positively speaking, I would point out the fact that an         we must attempt any non-literal interpretation. And when
unprepossessed approach to the account of Genesis 1 binds           such is the case, then sound, unbiased exegesis requires that
one to the literal interpretation. In other words, the real         we abide by the literal interpretation, which is then, in fact,
reason (not the secondary one) is that all `these different         the only interpretation. We must not engage in  `i&g-
theories constitute an attempt to get away from what Dr.
Ridderbos calls "grave difficulties  with respect to natural        kunde," in pouring ,into the Scriptures a foreign content.
                                                                    We must rather engage in exegesis, that is, in leading out
science." The fact that some of these conceptions date back         of the Scriptures the truth of God's revelation that is in-
to a period when the results of natural science by no means         herent in them and conveyed by them.
exerted influence in that direction is of no weight at all here.
*This merely means that there were rationalistic considera-                 Finally, I want to point out that the position of natural
tions brought to bear against Scripture before there was a          science, especially with its theories as to the age of the
forrnal discipline known as `hatural science." The simple           world and the age of man, rests, after all, on very shaky
fact is that this whole' argument of "grave difficulties" vi-       grounds.
olates a fundamental requisite of the science of exegesis,                  In this connection, I would me&on, in the first place,
namely, that the exegete must be unprepossessed, except for         that so-called natural science will not accept tha wonder.
the one, fundamental prepossession, that he is prepared to          Of course, the wonder itself cannot be the object of scien
bow unconditionally before the authority of Scripture. Dr.          iii% investigation. Nor can it be scientifically explained.
Ridderbos states the truth when he writes that  `hatural            And the position of natural science (I use the term in the
science may not at any point decree how Scripture should            ordinary sense, now) is that it will not accept that which it
be interpreted." He immediately contradicts this when he            cannot explain. This is true, first of all, with a view to the
writes: "The fact that there arise objections of a scientific       act of creation itself. A creation ex nihib in the very nature
nature to every more literal conception may and should oc-          of the case is not and cannot be the object of scientific in-
casion the question, Is it perhaps possible to offer some           vestigation. It is too high for us. We cannot understand
other acceptable exegesis?" The position of the sound exe-          it. It can only be accepted by faith. And indeed, de
gete should be precisely the opposite, namely: when our             wonder is faith's most beloved child!
established and Scripturally orientated exegesis of Genesis 1               But we will have more on this next time, D.V.
brings us into difficulties with natural science, we should          2.'                                                             H,C.H.
ask the question, Is it perhaps possible that our natural
science has led us to some wrong conclusions, some un-
justified hypotheses?
   Moreover, as far as exegesis is concerned - pure exegesis
- there is not in Genesis 1 the hint of a suggestion that the                             RESOLUTION  OF  SYMPATFiY
sacred writer has .any of these theories, such as the frame-                The  Consistory of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa,
work-hypothesis, the period theory, -the restitution theory;        hereby expresses its sincere sympathy with Elder Peter Hoekstra, in
and others, in mind. Certainly, one would expect that if the        thz death of his half sister,
purpose of the sacred writer - and above all, of the Holy                                     MRS. A. PLANTINGA
Spirit - were to present creation in a mere, unliteral, liter-       . May our God abundantly comfort the bereaved by His Word
ary framework, there would be evidence of this and reason           and Spirit and powerfully strengthen him in the hope of the saints.
for it in the Scriptures themselves. In every other case
when Scripture is not to                                                                                        Rev. J. Kortering;  President
                            be interpreted literally, the Scrip-                                                Bert Van  Maanen,  Secretary

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

                                                                          Worship is a fruit of grace. It presupposes regeneration
                                                                       in Christ Jesus and since this is the unconditional and sov-
                                                                       ereign -work of the God of all grace, two things logically
    "0 Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psalm 96:9a        follow.
                                                                          First, worship is the work of God in us ,and through us.
                                                                       Oh, it is true that we participate in it and enjoy its blessings;
                      The Idea of Worship                              but also this is the fruit of grace. We are not coerced to
                                                                       serve God; and neither do we worship in a vain attempt to
         Worship is the highest of all the functions of man. There     appease a little of the  wrath  of God, and so through the
is nothing physical or mundane in it, although it can and              religious channel of life's experiences seek to bring a little
frequently is performed through the use of many physical               sweetness- into our sphere of morbid misery. Rather, God
media derived from the present world, Worship in its es:               makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. We are saved by
sential character is a thoroughly spiritual function of the            His grace. We are His workmanship, created unto good
entire nature of man in which he transcends the temporal               works which He has ordained for us to walk in them. Out
and earthly and is consciously overwhelmed by the eternal              of this alone the reality of true worship comes forth. We
realities of God. The creature who has been created in the             receive the mind of Christ. He makes us partakers of His
very image and likeness of God Himself is brought into                 own nature (II Peter 1:3). His life springs forth from the
experiential fellowship with the Creator for the duration of           renewed heart, and the expressions and activities of that
worship. He walks with God and talks with God; and this                heart constitute the worship of God. God is a Spirit, and
intercommunion of the Infinite with the finite, the Maker              they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in
with the made; the Exalted One with the lowly, the Wise                truth. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin!
with the simple, constitutes worship. Seemingly `there is `an             Secondly, then it is a virtual truism that worship is and
awesome paradox in -the dwelling of Him Who alone has                  only can be the experience of the children of God. Yet, a
immortality with the mortal dust called man. If then we                truism this is that may be emphasized in an age in which
fail to comprehend the mystery of the intercommunion of                the stress is placed upon the lie of the alleged universal
life within the Divine Being itself, it is not particularly            Fatherhood of God and universal brotherhood of man.
strange that we are unable fully to grasp and to express the           Those alone whom God has predestinated unto the adop-
idea of that clearly revealed and subjectively experienced             tion of children are worshippers of Him. To them He has
reality of God sharing His own life with us . . . with man!            given His Spirit; and if any man have not the Spirit of
         In this light it must be pointed out at least that worship    Christ, he is none of His; and they that are in the flesh can-
is not an experience of man in general. Man, who was made              not please God (Rom. 8). And all this is not by man or
to serve and glorify God in perpetual worship, fell away               the will of man, but is realized according to the good pleas-
from God through disobedience; and he now walks in the                 ure of God's will, which He purposed in Christ Jesus before
sphere of darkness wherein with his whole nature he serves             the foundation of the world. #This people have I formed for
the lusts of his flesh, the lusts of his eyes, and the pride of        myself; they shall show forth my praise (Is. 43:21).
his life. He is a stranger to the life of God. His communion              In characterizing this worship of God by His people,
is with the prince of darkness, the father of lies, who se-            who in the midst of this world of sin have been chosen unto
duces him and with all subtlety captivates him within                  eternal life, separated, called, and made to participate in
death's horrible portals. With such a creature God does not            this loftiness, we must make an important distinction. We
meet, cannot meet. He, the High and Lofty One, Who in-                 emphasize that it is only a distinction, and not a separation.
habits all eternity, is too pure of eyes to behold sin. He, the        And the distinction is essential only for the purpose of this
Light, in Whom there is no darkness at all, cannot partic-             rubric in our Standard Bearer. We refer to the distinction
ipate in the darkness that conflicts with His own infinitely           of "public" and "private" worship.
perfect Being. He is GOD! To meet with Him in that state                  By the latter is meant that the whole life of God's people
is only to encounter the fierceness of His holy wrath and to           is and must be essentially worship. We warn against the
be consumed by the brightness of His radiant glory. Our                error that postulates worship as that exclusive exercise in
God is a consuming fire! It is a terror to fall into His hands.        which we religiously participate during a few hours of one
Every pretense of man in that fallen state to worship Hirn is          day of each week. This is the morbid Christianity of today
only an abomination and aggravation of His displeasure: for            by which many are deceived and made to think that a
the Scriptures unmistakably declare that even the plowing              place in heaven is secured for them because they do go to
of the wicked is sin and their prayers are only abomination.           church. We are called as the people of God to live our
Let it be added that the believer's participation in that              whole life in consecration and dedication to the Lord our
nature and his being in the body of sin all his life mars and          God. This we also desire to do if we have only learned ex-
leaves much to be desired in even the purest form of wor-              perientially the first beginnings of worship. There must be
allp.
pl  *                                                                  worship in our homes, our schools, our business, our sphere


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                         141

of labor and pleasure, as well as in our church. We must         receive it and apply it unto our lives and so worship God
walk with our God always and everywhere. Every sphere            acceptably and with godly fear.
and every relationship of our living must reverberate with           Public worship then as to its idea is not essentialli dif-
the consciousness that all things are naked and open before      ferent from that worship in which we are called to partic-
the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do. God is every-           ipate continuously. It differs only in form; and this is un-
where, and we are never without Him for even a moment            doubtedly the thought of the Heidelberger when, in ex-
in the world. How careful and how anxious we must then           pounding the fourth commandment of de law of God, it
be that we do not walk in ways where He cannot tread, and        expresses: "that all the days of my life I cease from my evil
practice things that He condemns: for at that moment His         works, and yield myself to the Lord, to work by His Holy
fellowship ceases with us, and our worship becomes its con-      Spirit in me: and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath"
verse. Today the spirit of worldliness, materialism, and         (Lord's Day 38). This is the meaning of keeping the Sabbath
kindred spirits have made deep inroads into the church,          holy in,concurrence  with this: "That I, especially, on the
necessitating an accentuation of emphasis upon practical         sabbath, that is, on the day of rest, diligently frequent the
Christian living: for without this our worship fades into        church of God, to hear His Word, to use the sacraments,
oblivion. If the dogmatics of the church is not transposed       publicly to call upon the Lord, and contribute to the relief
into a vibrant Christian living, it becomes dead  confes-        of the poor, as becomes a christian."
sionalism. The credo of the church is not a theoretic system         This worship, then, is also a meeting of God with His
but a dynamic power of life pulsating in every sphere~of  the    people. It is an inter-communion of fellowship. It is God
believer's existence. If orthodoxy is not manifest in Chris-     imparting Himself to His people through means which He
tian living, it becomes dead confessionalism. The gospel of      has instituted. In this worship there are properly two parts.
God is not a philosophy on humanitarianism; but it is the        First `a parte De&" that is, a part in which God comes to
power of God unto salvation, transforming us in the renew-       His people to bless them, and secondly,  "a parte  ecclesiue,"
ing of our minds, that we should present our bodies a living     or that part in which the church responds in faith and ap-
sacriiice  unto God, which is our reasonable service. Faith      proaches God to adore, praise, and glorify Him in worship.
without works is dead. To beautify our worship let us then       And it follows from this that the purpose of the gathering
begin by laboring diligently to enter into the rest which        of the church in worship is not a missionary or evangelistic
God has prepared for His people. Let us give the more            one, i.e., the saving of souls although this may result from
earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we let them        and be a fruit of that worship. aThe purpose of public wor-
slip. Let us not labor six days for the things that perish,      ship must be, firstly, the public and united service and
and live with those things in self-pleasure to promote the       glorification of God with thanksgiving and joy in an orderly
desires of our flesh; but rather let us heed the words of        manner; and, secondly, in subordination to this, the building
Jesus: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His right-          up and edification of the saints, the church, the strengthen-
eousness." That must constitute our life: for without it we      ing and growth in the knowledge and grace of our Lord
have not yet begun to worship God. And only in the way of        Jesus Christ. Through the means of public worship, and
that daily worship can we in the proper disposition ap-          particularly through the means of the preaching of the
proach God to worship in His House, in the beauty of His         Word and of prayer, the people of God are strengthened in
holiness, on the day which He has hallowed and sanctified.       their faith.                                                    G.v.d.B.

   It is to this worship that we refer when in the second
part of the distinction made above we speak of `public                                 Announcement
worship." With this worship we are to be concerned in our
present rubric, wherein we purpose to discuss the liturgical        An Office-Bearers' Conference will be held Tuesday,
forms that the church employs to enhance this worship. Be-       January 7, at 8:00 P. M. at Southeast Church. The Rev. R.
cause this aspect of our worship centers about the means of      C. Harbach will speak on the topic: "Neighborhood Evan-
grace which God has in Christ officially instituted in His       gelism." All ministers, present and former elders and
church, it, follows that from our public worship we derive       deacons, are "`urged" to attend.
the strength, guidance, comfort, admonitions, instruction,                                                    J. Bomers, Secretary
and all the spiritual blessings we need to bring our daily
worship into that-pattern of good things that are pleasing to                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
God. So there is an inseparable relation between these two,         The Consistory of the Protestant Reformed Church of  South
and we must not make separation. We are prone to do so.          Holland, Illinois, wishes to express its sympathy to OUT Pastor,
But we must not separate even theoretically, and even more       Rev. J. Heys, in the loss of his mother,
                                                                                        MRS. J.  HEYS,  SR.
so must we refrain from.doing  this practically. Our doctrine       "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
is and must always be our living. In the church we hear it                                                                      Ps.  11635
                                                                                                             L.  Lanting,  Vice President
expounded, explained, and preached in order that we may                                                      P. S. Poortinga, Clerk

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

                                                                                       points of their respective groups. In particular, the views of
Ij  A L L   AROUNQ   U S   11                                                          the leaders of the Negro and other community  groups  as to-the
                                                                                       issue of racial segregation, integration, or discrimination, and
                                                                                       of the leaders of appropriate groups in the community as to
                                                                                       other issues of public importance, must obviously be considered
THE FCC AND RADIO BROADCASTING                                                         and reflected, in order to insure that fairness is achieved with
                                                                                       respect to programming dealing with such controversial issues.
       Radio broadcasting, particularly religious' broadcasting,                          In determining compliance with the fairness doctrine the
has from time to time come under attack from one organ-                                Commission looks to substance rather than to label or form.
ization or another. Not so long ago the National Council                               It is immaterial whether a particular program or viewpoint is
                                                                                       presented under the label of `Americanism," "anti-communism"
of Churches made an attempt to gain control of religious                               or states' rights, or whether it is a paid announcement, official
broadcasting by asking for the right to approve all religious                          speech, editorial or religious broadcast. Regardless of label or
programs to be aired. Any program not approved by this                                 form, if one viewpoint of a controversial issue of public im-
liberal church body would then be kept from the air waves.                             portance is presented, the licensee is obligated to make a
       Now the government is -making a determined effort to                            reasonable effort to present the other opposing viewpoint or
                                                                                       viewpoints.
step into this field. The Federal Communications Commis-                                  The Commission does not seek to prevent the expression of
sion is assigned to watch over all broadcasting, and has                               any viewpoint by any licensee on any issue. It does seek to
recently put on its books what it calls its "Fairness Doc-                             prevent the suppression of other contrasting viewpoints by any
trine." This "doctrine" is supposed to prevent misuse  of'                             licensee on any issue when licensed broadcast facilities have
                                                                                       been used for the' presentation of one view of the issue. This
broadcasting in one way or another. But recently the whole                             is required by the public interest standard of the law.
thing has been applied in a very extensive way to all
manner of controversial programs. The following was sent                             Recent issues of the  Christian Beacon (weekly-  news-
to all radio stations:                                                            paper edited by Dr. Carl McIntyre and deeply devoted to
                                                                                  the "Twentieth Century Reformation Hour" - McIntyre's
         Broadcast Licensees  Advised  Concerning Stations' Respollr
         sibilitt~ Under The Fairness Doctrine As To Controversial                radio broadcast) have had much to say about this new
                               Issue Programming                                  ruling inasmuch as the editor is convinced that it is an effort
            Several recent incidents suggest the desirability of calling          to keep his program from the air. McIntyre is currently
         the attention of broadcast licensees to the necessity for ob-            broadcasting over better than 500 radio stations, and his
         servance of the fairness doctrine stated by  th-e Commission in          broadcasts are well-known for their attacks upon socialism
         its opinion of July 1, 1949 in Docket No. 8516. The Com-
         mission adheres to the views expressed in that opinion and               and communism' in governm'ent, upon the World Council of
         continues to apply that policy namely that the  licensee. has            Churches, and upon the Roman Catholic Church. McIntyre
         an affirmative obligation to afford reasonable opportunity for           is deeply distressed because it is next to impossible to
         the presentation of contrasting viewpoints on any controversial          fulfill the requirements of the law; and the alternative is
         issue which he chooses to cover.
            The Commission has undertaken a study to consider what                that radio broadcasting must be discontinued. Besides,
         actions, perhaps in the form of a primer or rules, might be              some stations already `have refused to carry his program
         appropriate better to define certain of the licensee's respon-           because they are afraid of trouble  with the FCC inasmuch
         sibilities in this area. Without undertaking at the present time         as they cannot possibly meet the requirements of this "fair-
                                                                                                         _.
         to specify all, or the most important, applications of the policy,       ness doctrine" law.
         it  is  appropriate to call attention to the Commission
               _-  -                                                's view of
         its application in three currently important situations.                    Undoubtedly the law has broader implications than Mc-
             (a) When a controversial program involves a personal                 Intyre's program. In fact this precisely shows the danger of
         attack upon an individual or organization, the licensee  must            it. It can be applied according to the whims of government
         transmit the text of the broadcast to the person or group  at-
         tacked, wherever located, either prior to or at the time of the          officials. It can be used to prevent the airing of any views
         broadcast, with a specific offer of his station's facilities for         that the administration in power does not happen to ap-
         an adequate response.
             ._ ---                                                               prove of. It can be applied to silence any attack on govern-
             (b) When a licensee permits the use of his facilities by             mental programs while permitting programs that support
         a commentator or any person other than a candidate to take,              the government's position. The result is, as McIntyre right-
         a partisan position on the issues involved in a contest for
         political office or to attack one candidate or support another           ly insists, that the.free exercise of religion and of speech is
         by direct or  indirect identification, he must immediately send          in jeopardy. The whole thing sounds like a very clever at-
         a transcript of the pertinent continuity in each such program            tempt to gain control over all communications media in the
         to each candidate concerned and offer a comparable oppor-                country so that only what the government wants people to
         tunity for an appropriate spokesman to answer the `broadcast.
             (c) When a licensee permits the use of his facilities for' hear will be broadcasted.
         the presentation of views regarding an issue of current  im-                If it chooses, this new doctrine can easily be applied to
        portance such as racial segregation, integration, or  .discrimina-        our own radio bro.adcast - "The Reformed Witness Hour";
         tion, or any other issue of public importance, he must  offer-           for it is easy to say that the distinctive emphasis of God's
         spokesmen for other responsible groups  witbin the community
         similar opportunities-for the expression of the contrasting view-        absolute sovereignty constitutes a controversial subject and


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               143
                                                                           ~_      .."
                                                                                     .s      s..
amounts to an attack upon the false religion `of our day.         ferencesj  to submerge their hatreds that lead to such dread-
And, if we need to supply those who' are supposedly under         ful events in a common brotherhood, to  lay- down their
attack with a copy of the message; and, if the station that       divisive causes, their bigotry, their narrowmindedness; and
airs our program must give equal time to anyone attacked          to stand together for the principles for which our fallen
free of charge, it stands to reason that no station will want     president has stood. I recall one news commentator urg-
our program any longer.                                           ing allthe people to begin now to worship together in the
    Significantly, the National Council of Churches sup-          same churches, to pray together to the same God, to aban-
ports this law.                                                   don all political opinions and religious scruples that divide
   But the Antichrist that shall soon come needs thought          us. We must be one they say, or it will happen again.
control to accomplish his purpose.                                   What was particularly offensive about it all was the
                                                                  sudden pious mask which America and the world put on.
THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD                                             Everybody (whether or not a few moments before the news
                                                                  they had been cursing God) suddenly felt the need to pray,
   Millions of words have been spoken and written since           to run to Church, to join with other churches in memorial
our president was killed by an assassin's bullet in Dallas,       services and national days of mourning, to remember to-
Texas November 22. And people who have desired to hear            gether all the good the president had done for God and for
or read the latest news have undoubtedly wearied of the           his country. I even heard commentators and news analysts
long and repetitious eulogies that filled our homes all day       apply passages of Scripture to the President which refer
long. Surfeited with words, a few more comments may               exclusively to Christ. This is blasphemy. And America,
seem unnecessary.                                                 once the shock has dissipated, returns again to her evil
   Yet it  remains for the Church of Christ to put these          ways.
events into their proper perspective; for we believe that
God does all things for the sake of His Church. And this             But the Roman Catholic Church has gained a tremen-
event also somewhat touches upon our life - and our sal-          dous amount of good-will through it all. Never before have
                     y
vation.                                                           they had the opportunity to present their theology to such
   For one thing, the `event was frightening and tragic be-       a large and sympathetic audience. And they made the most
cause it took from us our magistrate' whom God had placed         of it, particularly trying to be as inoffensive as possible to-
over us. We owed him  .the honor and respect that is re-          wards Protestants so that the best possible impression would
quired of all citizens to all in authority, for God had put       be left with the people. Men of the Reformation were
him in the president's office. We did not always do this.         heard to say that perhaps the Reformation was in a great
But, whether we happened to like or dislike the man;              measure a mistake. We have been misinformed, they said.
whether we agreed or disagreed with his policies; he was          The Roman Catholic Church is not so bad after all. They
a God-appointed ruler to whom we owed obedience. That             pray as we do and worship the same God and- believe in
he is taken away is very evil. And it is part of the entire       the same Christ; and even the mass is very impressive.
climate of our day where there is no respect any more for            But Rome still remains the Church which stands im-
authority of any kind. Such a deed can be performed only          movably fixed in error. She still has not washed from her
in a world where the principles of the fifth commandment          hands the blood of God's martyrs. Her mass is yet, as the
are hated. The nation must shoulder its part of the blame.        Catechism says, "an accursed idolatry." It may no longer
And the people of God must see that, to the extent they           be popular to say these things; but they are true nonethe-
have fallen under the influence of these rebellious times,        less, and need saying now more than ever.
they contributed to the evil.                                        All this can only aid the efforts of the Vatican Council
   Yet, God took him away. It was through the evil of a           to bring all Churches together into one. All this can only
wicked man. But God sovereignly puts rulers upon their            encourage Protestants to quicken their steps in their hasty
thrones and casts them down according to His own purpose.         flight back to "mother."
And we can but wonder how such a staggering event - stag-
gering in its influence upon the whole course of history in          But God rules in heaven. He works in mysterious ways
the world  - fits into the eternal purpose of Almighty God.       that are entirely beyond our comprehension. He does the
History will soon enough show us; but it seems as if this         unexpected, for we cannot fathom the inscrutable wisdom
end of the president will bring the world that much closer        of Him with Whom we have to do. But He is our Maker  -.
to the day of a one-world kingdom. Never before has the           and Redeemer Who keeps the cause of His people safe  fdr-
whole world been so closely united in one massive                 ever and makes all things serve their eternal salvation.
                                                      outpour-
ing of feeling as the world was a few weeks ago at the               Now He points us again to the end of the ages. Let us
death of John Kennedy. Already news commentators and              lift up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh.
high-public officials are urging men to put .aside their dif-                                                         H.  Hanko


          .                                   ~___~.              -_---de      _                          J--.   ---.--
(_~.
144            `*                             T H E   STANDA,RD   BEARER

                                                                       Hanko, we do believe in sanctihed  living, and according to
        NEWS FRQM OURCJ-IURCH                                          the `principle -of.`our  regenerated hearts-we  do- not find de-
                                                                       light in sin, -whether play-acted or actual!

                                                                             First's JuXi:d;:ko~~g'People's  Society  lwas -scheduled to
                                            D e c .   5 ,   1 9 6 3    meet with Southeast's Y. P;. Society' Sunday -afternoon, Dec.
                                                                       &at Southeast Church! `The. program, furnished by the
        The week-end of horror for the  citizens  of  the.  United     visitors, was to include a baritone horn solo by Don Jonker;
States led serious minded children of-God  to meditate upon            and -a- paper -by -Ben- Wiggerson; --TIhe- Evib of Television.
the mysterious ways of God, as -Rev. H. Hoeksema com-                  The host Society, under the leadership of- Rev. Schipper, is
forted his congregation in his Sunday evening sermon with              studying Paul's Epistle to the Galatians.
the Scriptural truth that whereas President Kennedy was
slain by human hands, yet behind that act was the inscrut-                   A news item in the Grand  R&pid~  Press  was of special
able wisdom of God Who rules over all the affairs of men.' interest to-Rev.-and Mrk. 1G. .Hanko while they were on their
Surely, "He removeth kings (presidents), and he  setteth  up: Western trip; Two-homes-had been looted, and the Hanko
kings." Dan. 2~21.                                                     parsonage at- ;l22I Bates-`St. was one of them!- Fred Hanko
                                                                       discovered-the.breakin:when  he checked- the residence Sun-
        Rev. H. Hankoj  of Doon,  has begun a catechism class for      day evening. -The house had -been ransacked -with contents
confessing -members of his congregation. His initial. an-              of drawers strewed:about,  -but the -extent of loss could, not
nouncement noted, "We intend to dis&ss -the Belgic Con-                be determined until the return of the travelers. What a
fession, a beautiful and important Creed of the Church, that           homecoming!~               1      _     _     1.1.
can be of benefit to all of us."                                                            -.    -3.
                                                                              Adams St. School prin&palj  Mr. Roland Petersen,~is  con-
        The latest lecture of Rev. Woudenberg in his series on         ducting a three-session-course on  the highly controversial
the Five Points of Calvinism has now appeared in  :mimeo-              subject, "Basic and' Modern'Math,"~whi~h  is taught in some
graph form. Copies of this speech were. made available                  of the classesin their school. The evening course is for the
to Randolph's congregation, and were mailed to the visitors            parents of the'children  involved;and if the second and third
                                                                                    ._..
at-the lecture.                                                         sessions are as interesting and- educational -as the first, the
                                                                        course will -surely  -Fe worthwhile. Before attending this
        Rev. C. Hanko and Mr. H. Meulenberg were  sched-                class the parents -were  being instructed by the children, a
uled to give .their latest illustrated lecture on "Mission Work         topsy-turvy situation, -indeed! '
in Jamaica" in Randolph. Wednesday evening, Dec. 4. By                        `Ihe.Bea&n  `Lights' Singspiraiion of November was held
this time all of our people have been given opportunity to             in Hope Church, Nov. 24; Ed Langerak  led in opening de-
hear this first-hand report of the .work  which has been ac-            votions and Gerald Kuiper led.the  singing, with Mrs. Kuiper
complished on that Island. Most of us will remember that                at the organ a&Lois Schipper at the piano. Special num-
Rev. Hanko assured the Jamaican Christians that we as Pro&              bers were given by Mr. Clarence Kuiper who gave an organ
Ref. Churches believe in living a sanctified life, as do they.          solo, "`An Ode of Thanksgiving," and by Mr. John Bult who
But has it occurred to you that Rev. Hanko probably made                rendered a vocal solo, "Thanks Be to God." The theme,
that assertion with tongue-in-cheek while aware of the fact             "Thanksgiving," was further developed in the songs that
that the T.V. `occupied a. tiommonpla&  corner in many of               were sung by the meqwomen  and children that came from
our homes? Surely, the play-acting .done  on the -T.V. screen           the area churches to complete a day of worship with praise
is the same abominable-sin in the sight of God as that of the           to our God.
movies which was agreed by all to- be principally of the
Evil One. In the movies  ;( T.V. `or otherwise) sin is-played,.               The Fall Mass Meeting of Young People's Societies
played for amusement's sake; sin, which unless it is forgiven           scheduled for Nov. 26 had to be postponed to another date
in the blood of our Lord -Jesus Christ, must forever bar us             to be announced later.
from the kingdom of God: murder, theft, divorce, adultery,                    Because it was Hull's turn to be responsible for the work,
disobedience, etc.-shall it be  plqed, and that for the mere            their bulletin carried a call for help to prepare for mailing
carnal enjoyment of ungodly  men? Shall we, Prot. Ref.                  the latest of pamphlets of the Reformed Action Society.
Christians, &id pleasure  in that which. is so terrible in the
sight of our God.2 God forbid that we should measure up                        Thought  for  today,  from Oak Lawn's bulletin, "Bearing
to the indictment so fearlessly rendered in Romans 1:32,                one another's burdens is very different from bearing  ci&un.
"Who knowing the just judgment of God, that they which                  on them!"
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the
same, but hue pleusure in them that do them!" Yes, Rev.                        . .  i see you in church.                          J.M.F.


