         VOLTJXE   XL                           JANUARY 15, 1964-G-  RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                    NTJMEZER  8

                                                                           You see, the difficulty is that you are created in the
                                                                        image of God! And that is the reason  .you cannot feed
                                                                        your soul and spirit and heart with the things of this world.
                                                                            Hence, the highest good for man is to have God for his
        SIMEON'S SIGHT OF GOD'S SALVATION                               heart, soul, spirit and life.
               "For mine eves have seen Th.y salnation." Luke 2130         You must have God through Jesus Christ His Son. You
,                                                                       must feed on Him, be satisfied with His image. Then, then
        The key word in my text is the word SALVATION.                  we shall be satisfied indeed;
         Salvation: what is it?                                                                   0  0  0  0
        That is quite easy to answer, but very difficult to under-.
     stand.                                                                But how is this possible?
        It seems to me that you could answer and say: Salvation            Man is corrupt, guilty, worthy of everlasting punish-
     is the attainment of the highest good! And I do not think          ment in hell.
     that many would disagree with you.                                    And every minute of every day he makes his burden of
        However, continue your quest and ask: But what con-             guilt greater, increasing his debt to God and his misery in
     stitutes the highest good? Then what?                              himself. The future looks ever blacker.
        I am afraid you would get a lot of incorrect answers.              There is a text in Hebrews 2 which somehow describes'
        Let us arrive at the correct answer by way of elimination.      this estate. "And deliver them who through fear of death,
                                                                        were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Hebrews 2:15.
        Salvation is not the world and its fulness.                        And note that in the original Greek you do not read.
        And that includes a11 and everything in heaven and on           "lifetime," but `to live," that is, the infinitive of the verb,
     earth. It includes all the planets, suns and moons and stars.      signifying that your entire estate on earth is meant. We are
     It includes all the real estate of the whole world. It includes    slaves to sin and death from the cradle to the grave.'
     all life as you live it on this earth, withall the health and
     strength and pleasure to boot.                                        Fear of dead!
                                                         I.
        You may. also include all the gold and silver and pre-             Do you remember?
     cious stones. All your money and all your possessions. It             When you saw yourself dying and saw your soul float
     aIso  inchrdes honor and position in the midst of the world.       through the atmosphere on its way to God? God, before
        Suppose you would have everything at your beck and              whose eyes all things are open and naked?
     call, in-the  heavens and on the earth, so that you would be          Yes, then you trembled. David would say: "The sorrows
     the absolute dictator of all things and all people  - even         of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon
     then you would not have touched salvation.                         me: I found trouble-and sorrow." Psalm 116:3.
        Oh, all these things  ywhich  I enumerated are good in             How then shall we feed on God and on His lovingktid-
     themselves. Of course, they are! They are God's creation           ness?
     and God's providence! And you certainly may enjoy them                We must be delivered from all this sin and guilt and
     as such.                                          ,__              damn-worthiness. We must again be received in God's favor.
        But they are not salvation.                                     We need His smile rather than His indignation and wrath.
                                                               .r
                               0  #  *  Q                               We must be enabled to love and serve Him. We must be


                                          &I.'
170                                               TH"b  ,S.?`ANDARD   -BEARER

so constituted that we find all our delight in Biinand in             Isaiah:  `<For since the beginning of the world men have not
Him alone. And then we must enjoy everlastingly His fel-              heard; nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen,
lowship  and His communion.                                           0 God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that
       My brother, my sister, when you have all that, you have        waiteth   for  Him*"
hold of salvation.                                                       And in the Psalms: Wait I say, on the Lord!
                            0  0  0  0                                   No, it is not the works that I shall do which shall bring
                                                                      salvation unto me. Neither is it the work that you shall do
       NOW then, all the foregoing (and more than my poor             for me that shall bring me salvation. It is the work that
eyes have seen) is in a little baby which Simeon carries              God shall do which brings salvation.
in his arms.                                                             A case in point is the deliverance out of Egypt.
       He was told by the Holy Ghost to go to the temple.                But has Israel understood? No.
       Well, he arrived at the temple, and while he waited               Now listen to the Holy Scriptures: "And Moses said
there he saw Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus.                      unto the people, Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation
   At that moment the Holy Ghost `must have told him:                 of the Lord, which He shall show to you today: for the
That is He!                                                           Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them
   And so Simeon takes the babe in his arms and blessed               again no more forever."
God. And among other words, he also pronounced my text:                  Is it not plain? You hear the same thing again: You shall
For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation!                                see the salvation of God!
   That is a striking text. That is, when you have eyes to               And Israel? They had to stand still and not do a single
see and ears to hear and hearts to observe. Many thousands            thing. God did it all alone.
have read this text, and have never understood it. Partly,               And now listen to Paul and he will teach you: "But to
because they could not understand, and  .partly,  because             him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth
they willed not understand.                                           the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom.
       It is very humbling to man.                                    4:5.
   You see, all that I said a while ago about your and mine              Or, please, come with me to the place of a skull: There
estate in the midst of the world, and what must happen if             hangs this little Babe, now grown to manhood. And He
you are to have salvation, it is all fulfilled by this little baby    hangs on the tree.
Jesus.                                                                   Do you know what He is doing there? He is destroying
       He does it all alone. And He does it all alone from the        all the sin, guilt, death, curse, wrath and damnation of the
very beginning to the very end.                                       church, of the whole church from Adam to the last soul that
       That's the thing which is not seen by most people. It          shall be saved. Jesus did it all alone.
is too humbling, too humiliating for the pride of life.                  Did you hear of anyone else being crucified for the sin
       But that is, nevertheless, the testimony of every page         of the church? I have not. Have you?
of Holy Writ: Salvation is of the Lord!                                  Did you hear of any one else pouring out the Holy
                                                                      Spirit of Pentecost?
                                                                              I have not.
       Simeon understood this wonderful Gospel.                          Simeon said that this thing of salvation was prepared
       But he was a special man. Righteous and devout.                by God `before the face of all the nations.
       The first virtue is plain: it means to be straight.                    No, God does not do things in a corner, in secret. God
       The second virtue is not so plain. In Dutch you read           is open, honest, straight forward, righteous and just.
"Godvreezend." That means to be Godfearing.                                   So it was through all the ages. All the works of God
       And the Holy Ghost was upon him. That makes all the            are described in the Bible from creation to recreation,
difference in the world. When the Holy Ghost chooses your                When Christ was born it was done before the face of
heart to be His sanctuary, all is well.                               all the nations. Even the wise men had to come from the
       His name is the Spirit of Truth. So when the Holy Ghost        east  to  be  witnesses.
is upon you you speak truth.                                                  So it was with Jesus' crucifixion. Every nation of the
   And he waited for the consolation of Israel. That is an            wor1d   was  represented*
expression you often read in the Old Testament. Attend to'                    So it was with de outpouring of the Holy Ghost. God


                                                      T.HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                                                       171

     made a noise that was heard all through Jerusalem SO that
     thousands amassed before. the, place where this glorious                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
     event took place.                                                                 Semi-riwnthly, except monthly during June, July and August
                                                                                          Published by,the  REFOIWED  FREE PUBLISHING  ASSOCIATION
                                 0  0  0  0                                                                                Editor - REV. HE&UN HOEICSEMA
                                                                                        Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema,  1.139  Franklin St.,  S. E., Grand Rapids 7,
         But Simeon believed and was happy and content. He                              Mich. Contributions will be limited to 300 words and must be
     had seen the Lord's Christ.                                                                                                  neatly written or typewritten.
                                                                                       All church-news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
         And now he wanted to go to heaven.                                                                    1123 Cooper, S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
         Now  lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace for mine                           Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included
                                                                                       must be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below:
     eyes have seen Thy salvation.                                                        All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
                                                                                                           Mr. James Dykstra,  1326 W. Butler Ave., S. E.
         To depart in peace!                                                                                                           Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
         What glorious boon for man.                                                          RENEWAL:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
                                                                                       received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscrip-
         To depart means to die. And death is the last enemy.                               tion to .continue without the formality of a renewal order.
     To die is awful, Man shrinks from death. It is so awful.                                                              Subscription price: $5.00 per year
                                                                                                  Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigun
     To die and fall into the hands of the living God.
         But how different when you die in peace.
        Peace: that state and condition where your heart and the                                                                                C O N T E N T S
     heart of God beat in unison.                                               MEDITATION-
         In that state to close your eyes, and say: For Thy sal-                               Simeo&; S&ghbo;f Gods Salvation . . . . .._............................... 169
                                                                                                                       . .
     vation I wait, 0 Lord!                                                     EDITOPJALS-
         He departed and is waiting for you and me! Amen.                                      Single or Double Track Theology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
                                                                       G.V.                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema
                                                                                As To Booxs  -
                                                                                               "The Growing Storm" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
                                                                                               "The Four Major Cults" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                  Book Briefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
        On January 14, 1964 our dear parents,                                                              Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
               MR. AND MRS. BERNARD WINDEMULLER                                 OUR DOCTRINE-
                                                                                               The Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I75
     celebrated their 25th Wedding Anniversary. We give thanks to God                                      Rev. H. Hoeksema
     for sparing them for one another. Our prayer  is that God may con-
     tinue to bless them in all things.                                        A CLOUD OF WITNESSES-
        Psalm   128:5.                                                                         Renewed Apostacy . . . . . . . . . . . ..___................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..,........ . ..177
        The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see de                                       Rev. B. Woudenberg
     good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.                               FROM HOLY  WRIT-
                                                    Glenn and Judie
                                                    Bob                                        Exposition of the Prophecy of Malachi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..-.......  179
                                                    Gerald and Elaine  Koop                                Rev. G. Lubbers
                                                    Paul                       I N  H I S   F M - -
                                                    Marcia
                                                    Susan                                      Religion of the Moment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
                                                    John Mark  '                                           Rev. J. A. `Heys
                                                    2 grandchildren            CONl'ENDtiG  FOR THE Fm  -
                                                                                               The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
                                                                                                           Rev. H. Veldman
                  Thy perfect righteousness, 0 God,                            THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS -
                     The height of heaven exceeds;                                            The Belgio Confession.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..__.._................................  . . ..I85
                  0 who is like ,to Thee, Who hast                                                         Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                     Performed such mighty deeds?                              ~HE&URCHATWORSHIP-
                                                                                              The Elements of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
                  Thou Who ha.st sent me many griefs                                                       Rev. G. Vanden  Berg
                    Wilt yet my soul restore,                                  ALLAROUNDUS-
                  And out of sorrow's lowest depths                                           Right to Work ._...........................................,..............................  190
                     Wilt bring me forth once more.                                           Mockery at the World's Fair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  190
                                                                                              To Stop Competition Between Baptists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
                                                                                              Another Attack On Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
                  0 turn again and comfort me,                                                           -Rev. H. Hanko
                    My waning strength increase,                               NEWS FROM OUR CHxnuzHEs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  192
                  And for Thy faithfulness, 0 God,
.                                                                                                         Mr. J. M. Faber
                    My praise shall never cease.


                                                      I.              >.                 .:
172                                          T.HE  STAN.DARD.-   BEARER
                                                                                               .._.                     -
                                                                                       .I _
II  -                                                                                fact that, although the Christian Reformed Church, in the
              E  1) I T 0 R I A L S                                                  abstract, confesses to believe the doctrine of total depravity,
                                                                                     in reality they deny it. They profess to believe that only
                                                                                     those are good works that proceed from a true faith, are
            Single Or  Double Track Theology                                         done according to the law of God, and are done to the glory
                                                                                     of God.  ,That is the confession of our Heidelberg Catechism
       In my last editorial on the above mentioned subject, I                        in question and answer 91. And it adds, negatively, that
mentioned that in the "third  point," the Synod of Kalama-                           not those are good works that are based on our own.imagi-
ZOO,  1924, wanted to maintain that the natural man performs                         nation or on the institutions of men. But although this is
that which is positively good in the sight of God.                                   their formal and official confession, they do not believe and
       On this I would like to elaborate a little.                                   apply it in their practical life. And not only this, but they
                                                                                     also deny this confession concerning the works of the
   Please, do not say that I write too much on this subject.                         natural man, officially, in the third point. In other words,
Do not forget that, according to Kuiper, it belongs to the                           although they profess to believe that the natural man is
glory of the Christian Reformed Church that they adopted                             totally depraved, in actual life there are no  such~ totally
and still maintain the "Three Points." In the second place,                          depraved men. All men can do good works, according to
remember that the reason why we are Protestant Reformed                              the third point.
lies exactly in the fact that, while the Christian Reformed
Church maintains the "Three Points," we as Protestant Re-                                3; But strange to say, these good works of the natural
formed Churches reject and condemn them with all our                                 man, have no reward. The reason for this seems to be,
heart. Finally, do not imagine that the question concerning                          according to the exponents of "common grace" and the de-
the "Three Points" is a minor question; for this is not true at                      fenders of  the "Three Points" that, after all, these so-called
all. These points express something .about God ,and man:                             good works of the natural man or of the ungodly, are not
about God they declare that His grace is general-or uni-                             his works, but they are really the works of the Holy Spirit.
versal; and about man that he is not totally depraved, but                           Say;`for instance, that an ungodly man sees that a child falls
can do much good. Over against this the Protestant Re-                               in the water and is on the point of drowning, and he rescues
formed Churches maintain that the grace of God is partic-                            it; would we not say that this is a good work? The answer
ular and concerns only the elect; while about the natural                            is, of course, in the affirmative. But is there no reward con-
man they confess that he is totally depraved a_nd s%n do no                          nected with this good work?: No; say the defenders of the
good whatsoever.                                       ' f(jC ..,p                   "Three Points." `But how'chn  this'be explained? The answer
                                                                                     is that this good or any civil :good is really- not done by the
       0, I am well aware that the Christian Reformed Church                         natural man, but .by the-`Holy `Spirit. "If man were left to
does not express it the way I do it in the above lines!: They                        himself he would not be able to perform even this civil
would make the distinction between commb~~~&!l?special                               good . . . For this reason the natural good does not entitle
grace; and they would make the distinction betgeen  natural                          man to any claim of reward" (Bed&of,  "The Three Points,"
and spiritual good. But. to us that makes no &ricipal dif-                                             ,'  I:..  _(
                                                                                     etc.).
ference. We emphasize that God hates the  srreprobate                                                         Cl ok!
wicked; and that the natural man always sins and,,& totally                              -This is a'very  strange doctrine indeed.
depraved.                                                                                To be sure, al$$-& believer in this world performs good
       And now we will continue our discussion  of  the "Third                       works, and that he. -does so is under the influence of the
                                                              /  ;jjT$#:  `.)i
Point."                                                                              Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. But in his case, the Spirit
                                                                                     radically changes the heart of man. And even then he does
       We may say that the "Third Point" contains the follow-                        not leave him alone but, from the heart, He influences his
ing erroneous elements:                                                      ,`i.
                                                                            .,i      whole life, hi&mind,  and wiil. But even so, if the believer
   1. It makes separation between good and good, be'tween                            performs good works, i$ is the believer himself, and not the
natural and spiritual good, between good.before men and                              Spirit, that performs them:  ' He does .so from the motive of
good before God. The "Third Point" declares that the                                 the love of God.         "
natural man is incapable of doing any saving or spiritual                                But, according to the doctrine~~of the second and third
good, such as believing in Christ, conversion,  walk$rg  in                          points, the natural man may and does perform the same good
the law of the Lord, etc.; but he is capable -of doing,much                          works as the believer; :he does, moreover, perform those
good in the sphere of his natural life. In other words, he is                        good works also-under the  influence  of the Holy Spirit; but
able to do good, even though he is totally corrupt and de-                           now it is, after all, not the natural man that performs those
praved. An act of the natural man may not be and is not                              works, but the Holy Spirit is-the  subject of them all. And,
rooted in faith, may be worthy of eternal damnation, and.                            therefore, he  ref* no  &w.ardl And what/is worse, be-
yet be pleasing in the sight of God.                                                 cause of these very works which the Holy Spirit performs
       2. In close connection with the  preceeding,   stands<-the                    through him, he  will be damned for ever!.' 1


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             173

   Is it possible that a natural man can perform any good             2. The third point makes God the author and the cause
work of which, not he, but the Holy Spirit is the subject? ..      of sin. Remember that, according to the third point, it is
                                                                   not the natural man that performs the so-called good works
   0, it is true that our Lord speaks of those that  say-          which he is supposed to do, but the Holy Spirit is the
"Lord, Lord," that claim that they have prophesied in His          Author of them. The Spirit of God so influences the cor-
name, have cast out devils, and have done many wonderful           rupt nature of the unregenerated man that, in his case, the
works, and to  whom, in the day of judgment, the Lord will         evil tree brings forth good fruit. The Spirit does not pene-
say: "I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work               trate into the heart of the natural man. The heart remains
iniquity." Matt. 7~22, 23. But even this does not mean that        corrupt. Yet God so influences the corrupt nature of the
it is not they, but the Holy Spirit, that performed those          sinner, i.e., his will and his thoughts, his desires and his
works. The very words they use, as they address the Lord           affections, that, with a heart filled with enmity against God,
in that day, proves de opposite. But, according to Berkhof         he performs many good works. The Spirit, as it were, forces
the natural man would not be able to perform civil good if         the natural man to do good. Nevertheless, his so-called
he were left to himself, i.e., without the influence of the        good works are all sin. That is why I wrote a moment ago
Holy Spirit; and because they are not his own, there is no         that the third point makes God the author of sin.
reward connected with his good works.                                 3. The third point is guilty of moral determinism. It
   4. In conclusion, I wish to state that the result of the        destroys the freedom of man as a moral agent. Man, the
teaching of the third point is, of course, that the doctrine of    natural man, is no moral agent at all in performing the
total depravity as taught in Scripture and the Reformed            good which he does. <This is the reason, too, why he can
Confessions is forgotten and denied. In theory, the natural        lay claim to no reward for the good work he does. For, do
man is depraved; but in reality he is, indeed, a very good         not forget that by the operation of the Holy Spirit, by which
man. And there is a good deal of harmony between the               he performs the so-called good works which he performs,
righteous and the wicked; much concord is established be-          the heart of man is not renewed. He is still dead in tres-
tween Christ and Belial.                                           passes and sins. He is still incapable of doing any good and
                                                                   inclined to all evil. If he were left alone, he would do only
                            II  0  #  D                            evil. Hence, the Spirit compels the natural man to do good,
                                                                   though his heart is not in it at all. The Spirit, therefore, is
                                                                   the real author of the so-called good works of the sinner:
   Hence, briefly, I would raise the following objections          the latter is a mere tool. Thus the moral character of man
against the Third Point:                                           is destroyed, his responsibility is denied, and the theory of
   1. It presents the difference between good and evil as          moral determinism is presented as Reformed truth!
relative. It lowers the standard of what is ethically good            4. In the fourth place, I object to the third point on the
and, to a large extent, obliterates the distinction between        ground that it is contrary to the justice of God. Briefly, the
righteousness and unrighteousness, between light and dark-         justice of God consists in this, that it always rewards the
ness. The definition which the Heidelberg Catechism offers         good with good, and, on the other hand, punishes evil with
of what is good is not applicable anymore. According to it,        evil. Now, according to the third point, the natural man
as we said before, only that is good which proceeds from a         performs much good in this world. It is true, that, accord-
true faith, is done according to the law of God, and to .His       ing to the philosophy of the third point, the natural man
glory. All the rest is sin. Surely, the so-called good of          himself does not perform this good, but the Holy Spirit does
which the third point speaks has no place in this definition.      it for him and through him. He is really not the subject of
The authors and exponents of the `Three Points" speak of a         the good works he performs. Nevertheless, according to all
relative good and a relative evil. Prof. Berkhof:speaks of a       outward appearances, he is a good man, and he does many
good that is relatively sinful and of sin that is relatively       good things. The justice of God would require that he
good. He condemns as absolutism the view that occurs in            would receive a reward for the good works he performs.
our Confessions that the natural man can only sin and actu-        But he does not receive any reward whatsoever. The third
ally sins at all times and in all that he does.                    point, therefore, is an attack on the justice of God.
   This view of relativity with respect to morality and               You will say that the arguments I raise against the third
ethics is certainly pernicious. It creates a sphere in which       point are sophistical. Let it be. But if this be the case, it
Christ and Belial may live together in brotherhood. The            is only because the third point itself is sophisticated. What
antithesis is obliterated. The church is .swallowed up by          else is the third point, as it teaches that the natural man
the world. The worldly unions are maintained. Presently,           does much good in this world which, nevertheless, is no
we will also confront the question: why is it necessary to         good at all, but pure sophistry?
maintain separate Christian schools, seeing that the world
is so good?                                                                                                                  H.H.


Ii4                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   .B'EARIZ,'R
      _
II                                                                     Predestination more terrible than it had been in the hands
                A S T 0 B 0  0.K.S'                               II of the African saint. He denied all human freedom and
                                                                       held that the divine decrees, which predestined both the
                                                                       saved and the damned either to heaven or hell, had been
                                                                       determined even before the Fall of Adam. This supralap-
           `The Growing Storm," G. M. S. Walker (Wm. B. Eerd-          sarian  double predestination appeared shocking to the ma-
mans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.  Price: $3.75)                jority of churchmen and Got&chalk  spent most of his re-
           This is the second volume of a projected series of seven    maining life in a monastic prison, where he died around 870
under the general heading, "The Advance of Christianity                without the sacraments, refusing to recant." Let alone the
Through the Centuries," edited by F. F. Bruce. Three vol-              fact that this presentation is hardly accurate and fair, it
umes of this rather ambitious project in the field of Church           certainly reveals that the author has no sympathy either for
History have now come from the press (Vol. I, "The Spread-             Gottschalk's or Augustine's presentation of the truth of
ing Flame," covering generally the ancient period; and Vol.            predestination. According to him, one is more terrible than
VI, "The Inextinguishable Blaze," dealing with 18th Century            the other.
church history.) The attempt is to produce a popular and                  If the reader can stand the disappointment of not finding
interesting, yet accurate and scholarly history. Generally             the Reformed presentation of church history in this volume,
speaking, the attempt thus far is rather successful. And the           he may nevertheless read it with interest and with profit.
project is a commendable one, especially because there is                                                                     H.C.H.
a lack of dependable and up-to-date works in this field.
There are plenty of general church histories, but nothing as
detailed and elaborate as this series will be when completed.             "The Four Major Cults," Anthony A. Hoekema (Wm. B.
In this reviewer's opinion, however, there is as yet nothing           Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. Price: $5.95)
on the market comparable to the standard set of eight vol-
umes by Philip Schaff.                                                    This is a 447-page volume which treats Mormonism,
                                                                       Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventism, and Christian
      -- As far as the volume under discussion is concerned, I         Science. The book covers, in order, the history, the source
believe it may be said that the book deals with a very                 of authority appealed to, and the doctrines of each cult.
difbcult period of church history, that of the Middle Ages.            There is also a section (five appendices) in which certain
"The Growing Storm" is, from a certain point of view, a                cult doctrines are  specilically criticized.
rather  `apt designation of the period also. Moreover, the
 author does a rather creditable job of tracing the devious               The book is designed for seminary, textbook use, but
lines of history in sketch form in the period from 600 A.D.            can readily be read by one without theological training.
to 1350 A.D. And more than sketches of the history one                 To this reviewer the. study of these and other cults does
could not well expect in a book-of some 250 pages dealing              not hold much attraction; it seems to he on the periphery
with so involved a period as that of the Middle Ages.                  of theological studies. This is not to say, however, that the
                                                                       book, in its field, is not useful. There is a vast amount of
           However, a Reformed student will be disappointed if in      research involved in this study. Its great value lies in its
 this volume he expects to find church history written in a            appeal to primarysource  materials and in the fact that it is
manner sympathetic to the Reformed position. In my opin-               well documented throughout. For anyone who wants to
 ion, an adequate history of the church in the Middle Ages             make a study of these cults, this book will prove to be a
 should do more in the way of tracing the history of the               useful reference work.                                 H.C.H.
 preservation of the. truth and of the true church in this dark
 period. As a sample of Mr. Walker's failure in this respect I                                                         . .
                                                                                                                '.     *
 offer the following excerpt on Gottschalk, the ninth century          BOOKBRIEFS
 champion of the truth of predestination: "The doctrine of               : "The Epistle of Paul to the Romans," F. F. Bruce. (Wm.
 Predestination was connected with that of the Sacraments,             B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. Price:
 for it raised the question of their universal efficacy. Gott-         $3.00)
 schalk, the leading figure in this controversy, was a poet of
 a high but melancholy order; his pessimism arose from the                 This is Volume 6 in the "Tyndale Bible Commentaries,"
 accident that his parents had forced him unwillingly into             New .Testament Series. Its claim is to be "a concise, work-
 the monastery of Fulda as a child oblate. In his early                able tool for laymen, teachers, and ministers." The attempt
 twenties he obtained a dispensation from monastic vows,               to be concise probably results in the treatment being too
 but this was cancelled through the opposition of his abbot,           scanty. Like most commentaries, `this one also is disap-
 Rabanus Maurus, and after an attempt at missionary work,              pointing when it comes to crucial passages. The section
 he then absorbed himself in the study of Augustine. By                dealing with Romans .9. to li is, tothe  say the least, weak
 concentrating on a single aspect he. made the doctrine of             and far from satisfying.                                 :


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  175

    "The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians," F. Foulkes (Wm.
B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. Price:                            .&$  `$  D  0  C  T  R  1  N  E
$3.00)                                                                    II
    This is Volume 10 of the same series mentioned above.
Its value is severely limited by its brevity. Its dependability                     THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH
for a Reformed student of Scripture is its major shortcom-                                          CHAPTER VII
ing. In general, this reviewer prefers "The New Interna-
tional Commentary" series, also published by Eerdmans.                                 THE IDEA OF THE SACRAMENTS
    "The New Testament In Plain English," Charles Kings-                        The First Helvetic Confession, Art. 21, also describes the
ley Williams (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids,                    sacraments. In this article the emphasis evidently falls on
Michigan. Price: $3.95). This is another of the multitude of              the fact that the sacraments, considered as a whole, do not
Bible translations with which the market is glutted now-                  merely consist in the signs and seals, but also include the
adays. I do not believe that generally in our homes, where                things signified. The article reads as follows: "The signs,
the Bible is "at home," the difficulty  of reading God's Word             which, in the church of Christ, are called sacraments, are
in the language of the Authorized Version is nearly as great              two, baptism and the eucharist (the Lord's Supper). These
as it is claimed to be. But if you are one of those who likes             symbols of hidden things do not consist of mere signs, but
to look up several different versions when studying a text                the signs and the things themselves. In baptism, indeed,
or a passage, here is another one to look up.                             the water is the sign, but the thing itself is regeneration and
    "Them He Glorified," Bernard Ramm (Wm. B. Eerdmans                    the adoption into the fellowship of the people of God. In
Publ. Co., Grand- Rapids, Michigan. Price: $3.25). This                   the eucharist the signs are the bread and wine, but the
little volume of 148 pages is a treatise on the last step of              thing itself is communion with the body of the Lord,
the  "ordo  salutis." One of its chief values is a consistent             procured salvation, and remission of sins.  W&h things in-
appeal to Scripture passages which speak of "glory" and                   deed are received as spiritual things by faith, as the signs
"glorification." This is not to express agreement with all                are received by the mouth of the body. For in these things
that is written. Nevertheless, the reader will find this book             is the whole fruit of the sacraments." It is clear that in this
stimulating and provocative of further study of this subject,             confession the sacraments do not merely consist in signs and
which perhaps does not always receive the extensive treat-                seals; but, as I said before, they include the things signified,
                                                                          "the things themselves."
ment it deserves in dogmatical stndies.
                                                             -H.C.H.            Also the Second Helvetic Confession has a very long
                                                                          article on the sacraments. I will quote from the translation
                                                                          presented by Schaff, "Creeds of Christendom," Vol. III, pp.
                                                                          84, ff. ,The article is quite long; and I will not quote it in
                                                                          its entirety, but only refer to the main parts of it: "God,
                                                                          even from the beginning added unto the preaching of the
                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                  word his saeraments, or sacramental signs, in his church.
   The Priscilla Society of First Protestant Reformed Church wishes       And to this does the Holy Scripture plainly testify. Sacra-
to express its sincere sympathy to two of its.members,  Mrs. C. Prince
and Mrs. H. Scbipper, in the death of their father,                       ments are mystical symbols, or holy rites, or sacred actions,
                                                                          ordained by God himself, consisting of his word, of out-
                      MR. JOHN KERKSTRA                                   ward signs, and of the things signified, whereby he keeps
   May our Heavenly Father comfort them in the assurance that this        in continual memory, and recalls to mind, in his church, his
is but a passing through to that better land, which is our hope in        great benefits bestowed upon man, and whereby he seals
Christ Jesus our Lord.
                                      Mrs. J. Oomkes,  President          up his promises, and outwardly represents, and, as it were
                                      Mrs. R. Kamminga, Secretary         offers unto our sight those things which inwardly he .per-
                                                                          forms unto us, and therewithal strengthens and increases
                                                                          our faith through the working of God's Spirit in our hearts;
                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                  lastly, whereby he does separate us from all other people
   The Priscilla Society of First Protestant Reformed Church              and religions, and consecrates and binds us wholly unto
wishes to extend its sympathy to one of its members, Miss Ruth            himself, and gives us to understand what he requires of
Bylsma, in the loss of her mother,                                        us." Here we may note that also in this description of the
                     MRS. SIDNEY  BYLSMA                                  sacraments we find substantially the same elements as we
   May the Lord comfort the bereaved with the assurauce  that all         already found in the Heidelberg Catechism and in the
His ways are for the good of His own, and that for the believer           Netherland Confession. Also here, however, it is empha-
death is gaia.                                                            sized that the things themselves, the things signified, belong
                                      Mrs. J. Ooinkes, President
                                      Mrs. R. Kamminga, Secretary         to the sacraments as a whole. Moreover, in this article of


     176                                   _    .THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

     the Second Helvetic Confession it is added  that-&o  the           the faithful, when they receive them from the minister, do
     Word, the Word of God, belongs to the sacraments;' and it          know that the Lord works in his own ordinance, and there-
     is even mentioned first.                                           fore they receive them as from the hand of God; and the
            The spoken Word of God, therefore, is an essential  ele-    ministers' faults (if there by any notorious in them) cannot
     ment in the sacraments. This is clearly expressed in the           hurt them, seeing they do acknowledge the goodness of the
     following quotation from the same article of the Second            sacraments to depend only upon the ordinance of the Lord.
     Helvetic Confession: "And as in the old church the sacra-          For which cause they put a difference, in the administration
     ment consisted of the Word, the sign, and the thing signi-         of the sacraments, between the Lord himself and his min-
     fied, so even at this day they are composed, as it were, of        isters; confessing that the substance of the sacraments is
     the same parts. For the Word of God makes them sacra-              given them by the Lord, and the outward signs by the min-
     merits, which before were not: for they are consecrated by         isters of the Lord."
     the Word, and declared to be sanctified by him who first              It is plain, therefore, that in the Second Helvetic Confes-
_    ordained them. To sanctify or to consecrate a thing is to          sion three things are especially emphasized. In the first
     dedicate it unto God and unto holy uses; that is, to take it       place, there are, of course, the signs and seals, the water in
     from the common and ordinary use, and to appoint it to             baptism and the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. Sec-
     some holy use. For the signs in the sacraments are drawn           ondly, it is emphasized that God alone can institute and
     from common use, things external and visible. As in bap-           maintain the sacraments, not man, even though he be a
     tism, the outward sign is the element of water, and that           minister. And, in the third place, it is also emphasized that
     visible washing which is done by the minister; but the thing       there are no sacraments without the Word of God,
     signihed  is regeneration and the cleansing from all sins.            The French Confession of Faith, which dates from 1559,
     Likewise, in the Lord's Supper, the outward sign is bread          Article 34, speaks of the sacraments in the following words:
     and wine, taken from things commonly used for meat and             `We  believe that the sacraments are added to the Word for
     drink; but the thing signified is the body of Christ which         more ample confirmation, that they may be to us pledges
     was given, and his blood which was shed for us, or the corn-       and seals of the grace of God, and by this means aid and
     munion of the body and blood of the Lord. Wherefore, the           comfort our faith, because of the infirmity which is in us,
     water, bread, and wine, considered in their own nature, and and that they are outward signs through which God operates
     out of the holy use and institution of the Lord, are only that     by His Spirit, so that He may not signify anything to us in
     which they are called, and which we find them to be. But           vain.. Yet we hold that their substance and truth is in Jesus
     let the Word of God be added to them, together with the            Christ, and that of themselves. they are only smoke and
     invocation upon his holy name, and the renewing of-their           shadow."
     first institution and sanctification, and then these signs are        Notice that in this article of the French Confession of
     consecrated, and declared to be  sanctiiied  by Christ. For        Faith the following elements are emphasized: 1) The Word
     Christ's first institution and consecration of the sacraments      of God is always the main means of grace; and the sacra-
     stand yet in force in the church of God in such sort that they     ments are added to the Word for more ample confirmation.
     who celebrate the sacraments no otherwise than the Lord            2) The sacraments are pledges and seals of the grace of God.
     himself from the beginning has appointed, have still,: even to     You understand, of course, that this last sentence does not
     this day, the use and benefit of that .first and most excellent    and cannot mean what is emphasized in some Reformed
     consecration. And for this cause, in the administration of         churches, as, for instance, in the church of the Liberated,
     the sacraments, the very words of Christ are repeated."            that on God's part the sacraments, and especially baptism,
        `In another quotation from the same article of the Second       are sincerely meant for all the children that are baptized.
     Helvetic Confession it is emphasized that the sacraments are       3) The sacraments.are  an aid and comfort to our faith, so
     necessarily ordained by God only. And it is also emphasized        that also here faith is presupposed. 4) The sacraments are
     that they presuppose faith in them that use them. "The             outward signs through which God operates by His Spirit.
     author and institutor of the sacraments is not any man, but        5) The sacraments of themselves, that is, as mere signs, are
     God alone: for man can by no means ordain sacraments; be-          nothing, but only smoke and shadow; and their substance
     cause they belong to the worship of God, and it .is not for        and truth is in Christ only.
     man to appoint and to prescribe a' service of God' but to             In Article 37 of the same French Confession of Faith it
     embrace and retain that which is taught unto him by the            is emphasized that in the sacraments the sign and the thing
     Lord. Besides, the sacramental signs have God's promises           signified belong together, as is evident from the following
     annexed to them, which necessarily requires faith: now faith       quotation: "We believe, as has been said, that in the Lords
     stays itself only upon the Word of God; and the Word of            Supper, as well as in baptism, ,God,`gives  us really and in
     God is resembled into writing or letters, the sacraments two       fact. that which He there sets forth to us; and that con-
     seals, which the Lord alone sets to his own letters. And as        sequently .with these signs is: given the true possession and
     the Lord is the author of the sacraments, so .he-continually       enjoyment of that which they present to us."
                                                                                                .,
     works in that church where they are rightly ,used; ..so that              `..     ,_.      .' :                             H.H.


                                          T H E   S.TANDARD   BEAR.ER                                                        177

                                                                   judgments of God. One was Tola, of Mount Ephraim, of
GOF WITNESSES  .j whom we know little, except that he judged Israel for
                                                                   twenty-three years and was of the tribe of Issachar. After
                                                                   him came Jair,  a man of Gilead, who judged Israel twenty-
                  Renewed  Apostacy                                two years. His work was apparently carried on by thirty
         And the LORD said unto the children of Israel,            of his sons who ruled over thirty cities. These were no
     Did not I deliver you . . , ?                                 doubt righteous men who labored in the fear of the Lord.
         Yet ye have forsaken me, a.nd served other gods:             During this time, however, the powers of sin were re-
     wherefore I will deliver you no more.                         building their forces. As time passed, the memories of
         Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen:            Gideon and the oppression of the Midianites were disap-
     let them deliver you in the time  of  your tribulation.       pearing; while at the same time the beckonings of sin were
                                          Judges lO:ll, 13,14      becoming more and more open. Slowly at first, but then in
                                                                   greater and greater number, people began to return openly
   The worship of idols held strong attachment for the             to the worship of Baa1 and Ashteroth. Nor was Israel's idol-
children of Israel. Perhaps it was not strange. The service        atry limited to these. They took to them other gods from
of idols was so much easier. Jehovah demanded so much              Syria and Zidon and Moab and Ammon and Philistia. Each
of those who worshipped Him. He -demanded a service                was a different god with a little different form of worship
which was pure from the inmost recesses of the heart. He           appealing to a different aspect of human lust; but they a11
demanded a true and spiritual love to be underlying every          stood in direct opposition to the love and service of Jehovah.
thought and word and deed. He demanded an obedience                In time Israel could hardly be distinguished from the days
which was unwavering to all of the vast coverage of the            before Gideon, or even from the heathen nations about
law. He demanded a complete commitment of life. The                them.
service of idols was so much easier. They were satisfied              The hand of the Lord was quick to answer to this in
with only external works. This was something that anyone           judgment. With the increase of sin came a withdrawing of
could do with time left over for themselves. As long as one        the strength of God from Israel. Soon the very nations after
went through the required formalities of worship it was            whom Israel had lusted and whose gods they now  wor-
enough; the rest of life could be lived as one pleased. And        shipped began to invade their land and oppress the people.
beyond that, the formalities of idol-worship that were re-         This time it was particularly the Philistines and the children
quired were easier too. They did not require the painful           of Ann-non. They were wicked people; and whenever the
self-examination, conviction, and repentance that Jehovah          opportunity arose, they poured forth their wickedness upon
always required. The worship of idols was adapted to sat-          the now defenseless children of Israel. Murder, theft, and
isfy the desires, inclinations, and lusts of the flesh. With it    plunder were the order of the day, with the hapless chil-
one's basest desires could be followed without fear. This          dren of Israel as the victims. As long as the opportunity
was so very difficult for Israel to leave alone.                   was there, the mere fact that Israel was serving their gods
   Nonetheless, under the judgeship of Gideon the service          did not stop them. There is no honor among the wicked.
of idols, and particularly of Baal, `was in a large measure        For eighteen years this oppression continued.
suppressed. In his very first act as judge Gideon had earned          It was then that a new and apparently clever solution
the name of Jerubbaal because he had taken up battle               presented itself to the minds of the children of Israel. They
against Baal, and he remained faithful to that distinction         were still able to recall how God had delivered their fathers
until the end of his life. Moreover, the superiority of Je-        from the hands of Midian  only after they had called upon
hovah had become so evident in the defeat of Midian  that          Him for deliverance. Why should not they do the same?
for a time the people were quite satisfied. to worship Him         A movement was started and soon a mighty cry went up
alone. But the inclination was still there. When Gideon            from every corner of the land. "We have sinned against
made an ephod with the purpose of honoring Jehovah, its            thee," cried the people to Jehovah, `both because we have
use was soon subverted, so that the ephod itself was wor-          forsaken our God, and also served Baalim."
shipped and became a sort of idol in its own right. This be-          Outwardly this was surely a wonderful confession and
came a snare to Gideon and his family, until it ended in the       in every respect sufficient. And yet there was something
dismal history of Abimelech. So it was cut short.                  terribly wrong. The people did not mean it. They were
   For a time events in Israel remained fairly peaceable.          willing to admit that what they had done was wrong and
During this time two judges labored in the work of the             the reason for their present suffering. They were, perhaps,
Lord with the distinction that they were not called to de-         even ready for a time to refrain from the practices of idol
liver Israel from the oppression of. any particular enemy.         worship. But-in their hearts they were already looking
Their duty was only to present Israel with the word and            for the day when the Philistines and Ammonites would be


178                                        THE,  S T A N D A R D   ..B~EARER

driven. out of their land, so that they could. return com-          fessed+and forgiven of God, and thus was not to be remem-
fortably to the idol worship which they  loved'b.est. They          bered.by  man. Even more, it had not been Jephthah's sin at
were rendering to Jehovah lip-service, while their hearts           all, but their father's, so that he only could be held account-
were still far from Him, thinking thereby to receive from           able for that. But here a concern for morality was to their
Him earthly gain.                                                   benefit, and piously they pushed Jephthah out of his father's
                                                                    house. In the street Jephthah began to realize how much
       But Jehovah was not to be duped by the people. He            alone he really was. He could turn to the elders of the
perceived the duplicity of their hearts and sent to them a          city, but they were not righteous men as his father had been.
quick answer, possibly through a prophet. "Did not I de-            They were, in fact, friends with his brothers in sin. To re-
liver you," He said, "from the Egyptians, and from the              main and challenge the act of his brothers would only en-
Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the  Phil-           danger his own life. A righteous man in Israel without a
istines? The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the            friend, he turned to flee from the city and the country to
Maonites, did oppress you, and ye cried to me, and I de-            live alone in the land of Tob.
livered you out of their hand. Yet ye have forsaken me,
and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no                 Still, in his exile, Jephthah remained a true and faith-
more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen;                ful son of Israel. He had felt the sin of his brethren, and
let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation."              he prayed for them. He saw the oppression of his nation,
                                                                    and he wept for them. He maintained a faithful vigil be-
   The day of complete deliverance under the judges                 fore the throne of Jehovah in behalf of the people under
was past. There had developed in Israel a hard core of              whose hand he had suffered so much.
reprobate men who would stop at nothing, not even at
hypocritical service of Jehovah, to gain their desired end.            Neither was Jephthah long alone. He was not the only
Henceforth, God would deliver the people in part when               one in that day which was dispossessed of his rightful place
sincerity in repentance would appear, as it soon did under          and position. There were many others like him. In many
Jephthah. But there would always remain some judgment,              respects they were not the choice of the land. They were
particularly through the  Philistines, until the day when           often crude and rough persons with moral mars somewhere
king David would rise to cleanse the land.                          in their history. They were the kind that could be piously
                                                                    put out of home and possessions with the claim that for the
   Just how wicked Israel had become became apparent in             country it was best. But at the same time they were often
the sad history of Jephthah. Jephthah's father was an honor-        those who, having tasted the sting of sin, felt most the
able man, head of the great city of Gilead and called by            need for Jehovah and His redemption. These heard of
the same name; But Jephthah was born of a harlot. After-            Jephthah  ,and came into the mountains of Tob to dwell
ward Gilead repented of his sin, and when he married a              with him.'
lawful wife received Jephthah into his home as his rightful            This was a strange 
heir and son. There Jephthah was raised in the.fear of the                                    group  of men gathered with Jephthah
Lord and became himself a godfearing man. But there                 in their mountain hideout. They were poor; for none had
were other sons that were born to Gilead's  true wife, and          been allowed to take any of his possessions with him. They
they were  different..  As members of the most prominent            had suffered, for their own kinsmen had driven them from
                                                                    their own country as undesirables. They were exiles. And
family in that great city, they tasted the sweetness of             yet their thoughts always went back to the country from
popular recognition. That to them was sweeter than any-
thing else. Because they were thus different from their             which they came, not in bitterness but in love. They prayed
                                                                    constantly for the deliverance of their brethren, both from
brother, a deep breech soon developed between them.                 their own sin and from the wicked that oppressed them. This
Jephthah was loved by his father, but hated by his brothers.        was the enemy of Jephthah and his men, Ammon, the op-
The older they became the more Jephthah's brothers were             pressor of their brethren. In fact, it was these men who
moved to envy to think that Jephthah, the one who least             first concluded that something should be done about it.
deserved it, should be.the rightful heir to their father's posi-    From their. mountain fortress they crawled forth to wage
tion and fortune. Thus, when finally their father ,died,  `they     war uPon the enemy. In foray after foray, they retaliated
determined to do something about it.                                for the, wickedness of Ammon. .Here was the first sign of
   There was an appearance of piety in the act- of the              strength and- promise for Israel. It was not found in the
brothers. They came to Jephthah and said, "Thou shalt not           heart of their own land; it was in an alien land among those
inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a            who had been driven from home as exiles. So had the glory
strange woman." For the first time in their lives these             departed from Israel.
brothers were concerned about the purity of the nation and
an infringement of the law of God. What they forgot was                                                                      B.W.
that the sin from which Jephthah was born had been con-


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R ,                                            179

                                                                  wicked were brutal despisers of this `burden" of the
1      F R 0 M  l-i 0 L Y W R I T  ..,,/I LORD. They were like those in ,Isaiah's day who said de-
                                                                  risively ~`X+mmandment  upon commandment, precept up-
                                                                   on precept, here a little, there a little . . . ,"
      Exposition of the Prophecy of Malachi                           It was in the darkest night of the lives of the true Is-
                                                                  rael of God in the Old  ,Testament  dispensation that the
The  Poitit Of Departure                                          prophetic light shone most brigbtly. The word of the
                                                                  Lord was not scarse in those days, when it seemed that the
     This prophecy is called "the burden of the word of the       glory of the house of David and of his throne would vanish
LORD to Israel." The term "burden" (massa) refers lit-            from the earth forever! It was then that God spoke partic-
erally to something which is a load, a thing to be lifted up.     ularly in various times and manners through the prophets.
It is the common term for the message which prophets                 Now the point of departure in Malachi's prophecy is: after
must bring to the people in Jehovah's name. Thus we read          the return of the remnant according to election from Babylon
in II Kings  9:26: "Jehovah laid this burden upon him,            under Cyrus, king of Persia (397 B.C.). As we stated in our
Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the         former essay Malachi is the end of the prophetic line, the
blood of his sons saith Jehovah, and I will requite thee          last of the "burdens" of the LORD to his people. It is
in this plate saith Jehovah." It is quite evident from the        the last word of the LORD to His people to warn them to
current usage of the term that massa really means oracle, a       walk in the footsteps of the faith of Abraham (Rom. 4:12).
divine and authoritative announcement of judgment and             It certain seemed that the hope of Israel was vain, and that
doom. Emphatically the prophet places on the foreground           its history might be a gallant Jewish epic, but that certain-
the truth that also this word of prophecy is not of any           ly the meaning of its existence and history could not very
private interpretation, by that it is directly from the           well be such that it would be a "light to lighten the Gen-
LORD, be it then delivered by the hand of His messenger.          tiles, and the glory of thy people Israel" (Luke 2:32). And,
     Here too we have the prophetic word shining in a dark        yet, as the centuries had gone by the pattern of .&the proph-
place. We do well to give heed to it until the day dawn,          ecies of the patriarchs who beheld from afar was becom-
and the day-star arise in our hearts in blessed hope of the       ing more and more evident to those who would but  be-
coming of the Lord to visit His people whom He foreknew           lievingly give heed to the "burden" of the LORD!
in love.                                                              We do well to  try to see this point of departure. It is
     It is of interest, and it adds credence to our point that    really not a point of departure in ?&toy. Its is dated his-
the term "burden" refers to the authoritative word of God,        torically 397 B. C., but its very real point of departure is
when one observes that this term is employed especially in        in the unchangeable and everlasting love of God in Christ
the time of Israel's history, from the time of Isaiah tillthat    Jesus to His people. That is the fundamental key-note;
of our prophet, Malachi. When one considers that it was           It is really the Gospel story: herein is love not that we
in Isaiah's day that the ten tribes are made tributary to         loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son a propi-
Tiglath-Pilesar (740 B.C.) and that Malachi, the last of the      tiation for our sins! Since such is the love of God for Israel
prophets prophesies after the return of Judah from Babylon        she may and must take courage in faith and hope.
about 445 B.C., which constitutes a period of some 300
years, one begins to understand the import of the term "the       The Key-Note of the Prophecy.
burden" of the Lord. Isaiah employs the term some 14
times against the various nations surrounding Israel; Jere-           We believe that the key-note of this prophets, to which
miah some 9 times. The term is also employed in this sense        we have alluded above, is that of the eternal love of God
of announcement of judgment in such prophecies as Eze-            for Israel,-as spoken here by the prophet in the verses 2 to
kiel, Nahum, Habbakuk, Zachariah. One receives a very             5 of Chapter 1. Here we read, in part, "I have loved you,
strong impression from this repeated usage of the term            saith the L'ORD."
"burden" by the prophets; there is a sense of urgency. God            The verb form employed here in the Hebrew is the
is stepping up, so to speak, the tempo of history in his          perfect. The term to love in the Hebrew is "ahebh," which
mighty judgments, bringing about the salvation of his             is generally translated into the Greek by the term
people. So much so is this that the wicked in Israel made         agapein  and refers to ethical love, which is the bond of
mockery of this burden o&f the Lord as we read in Jeremiah        perfection. This term for love has as its antenym: hate.
23:33-38:  "And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest     Here in the context it is thus employed: Jacob have I
shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD?           loved, but Esau have I hated. Compare Rom.  9:13 and
thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even           Col.  3:14.
forsake you saith the LORD. And as for the prophet, and              The perfect tense in the Hebrew as in the Greek does
the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the     not so much express the "`time when" as it does the "degree
LORD, I will even punish that man and his house?' The             of action finished or  uniinished." Now the Hebrew verb


180                                       T H E   ST,AN-D.ARD   .BE,ARER

here translated in the King James Version "I have loved" .truth that God loved Jacob as a person and hated Esau as
refers to God's love as a completed and- perfect act and          a-person. Nevertheless, we believe that here in this proph-
attitude on the part of God toward His Israel; I take it,         ecy the point of departure is God's love for Israel as a na-
therefore, that the prophet is here speaking of the love of       tion and His hatred for Edom as a nation.
the Lord was this was perfected up to that present moment            It should not escape our attention, nor should we be
in Israel's existence. That the Lord's love would be and          unwilling to see that Lord, in referring to Esau, has his
shall be perfected forever is not errpressed  in the verb, but    descendants in mind as the `people against whom the
is clearly taught in all of Holy Writ!                            LORD (as the LORD of hosts) hath indignation forever."
       Standing therefore with the prophets who had  .&is         Verse 5. In verse 2 mention is made of Esau and we read:
"burden" of God in his hand, we believe that Malachi  i.s         `And I hated Esau and laid his mountains and heritage
looking back over the many centuries of Israel's existence,       waste for the dragons of the wilderness."
her wee1 and woe, and in every point of that history the             What does it mean that the Lord loves Israel?
Lord's love blazes as the noon-day sun in its clarity upon
the Israel of God. It was pure and undiluted love of God,            It means that the Lord loves the people whom he fore-
rooted in His sovereign will and decree in Christ Jesus.          knew. Rom.  11:2. He never cast away His people. They
Always the key-note of history toward the elect Israel of         are the theocracy of God, the commonwealth of Israel, an
God was "But God being rich in mercy for His great love           organic whole. Paul likens them to an olive tree. ,The tree
wherewith He love us . . ." To this Mary gives utterance          never perishes, even when some of the unfruitful and dead
in the  Magnijkat, in the hill country of  Judea, when she        branches are cut off. Romans  11:17f.f.  For it is not all
exaltingly prophesies:  ". . . And His mercy is from genera-      Israel that is out of Israel. Such is the point of
tion to generation upon them that fear Him, He hath               departure here in Malachi. What distinguishes Israel
shewed strength with His arm . . . . He hath holpen His           from the other nations of the world, making it a peculiar
servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spake          people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar posses-
to  our'fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever . . . ."      sion, is exactly that God in his sovereign love has  for-
Luke 1:38-5%.                                                     ordained them to glory. Only in Christ, the Son of God,
                                                                  the Root of David, does Israel have meaning and a dis-
    But not all spoke as did the virgin Mary, in  the             tinctive place in history. The geneology is unto Christ.
Ma,gnificat.                                                      The meaning of Israel as a nation need not be, nor can it
  There were in Israel many who were not of Israel and            be perpetuated, as a nation. The preeminency  of Israel is
who were not accounted for the  seed,-the  true church of         particularly that the oracles of God were entrusted to
God in the world. For the rule of the Scriptures is:  iznd        them; Rom. 3:2.
if ye  are  Clwist's,  then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise! Gal.  3:29. And not all Israel             Let then the Israel of Malachi's day give heed. The
belonged to Christ, neither were all the Israel of God ac-        LORD did not  &dose  the:& because they were mightier;
cording to election. Thus Paul speaks inboth Gal. 3 and           nor because they were better. It was sovereign love. and
in Rom. 9, This apostle to the Gentiles, according to his         grace; apart from works of merit. We read in D%ut. 7:6-B
knowledge of the mysteries of God, thus gives us the `key         as Mlbivs:
                                                                       .c o
of knowledge." None can unlock the sense  oflrthe  Scrip-              "For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy
tures apart from it. The Bible remains a deep and dark                God; the LORD God hath chosen thee to be a special
enigma for those who refuse to read Rom. 9 and fearlessly             people unto himself, above all people that are upon
apply its instruction to the point, where one must say to             the face of the  ear& The LORD did not set His
those contradicting: "but who art thou, o man, that  an-              love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more
swereth  ,against  God." Rom. 9:20. All who willnot thus in-          in: number than any people; for ye were the fewest
terpret the Scriptures must strand on the rock of humanis.m,          of all people. But because the LORD loved you, and
Pelagianistic-Arminianism!!                             :,y           because He. hath kept the oath which He hath sworn
   Let us then notice that the prophet here speaks of                unto your fathers, bath  the LORD brought you out with
Jehovah's love to Israel. Although the name Israel- was             ' a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of
given to Jacob at Pniel (Gen. 32:28) and that name.. often            bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."
refers to Jacob's personally (Gen. 35; 37; 42; 43; 45; 46;           Such'is the genesis of the Israelof.  God.: She came forth
47, and many other passages in Scriptures) it here evident-       from:t& bowels of the love of God. That is the only reason
ly refers, as it does so often in Scripture, to the offspring     for her existence. She has nothing .which,,she  has notr re-
of the patriarch,. Jacob-Israel, in the nation of the twelve      ceived., -:As little as she must boast as if it were not grace,
tribes of Israel. God loved Israel as a nation and hated          so little must Israel deny this grace by doubting its faith-
Edom! -as a nation according to the  ,prophecy  here.. We         fulness and despairing of His love and pity.-
hasten to add, however, that this does not detract from.the                    .          ( C o n t i n u e d ) ,         G.T,.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               181

                                                                   in the little town of Bethlehem. You have believed in a
           I N   H I S   F E A R                                   babe but not in this Babe. Without faith in His virgin
                                                                   birth you: cannot and will not believe in His resurrection.
                                                                   Without faith in Him as the Son of God, you do not be-
                Religion of the Moment                             lieve in HIS birth in Bethlehem. You believe a myth. You
                                                                   believe and sing of a birth that simply did not take place.
   Many of us said it, and well-nigh all of us felt it.            YOU  believe a cunningly devised fable of human origin.
   It took the assassination of a president to get some de-        And if you believe in His virgin birth, in the coming of the
cent music on the radio! For three or four days the only           eternal Son of God in our flesh, Immanuel, then you can-
music aired was that of a high caliber. Even the callous,          not but believe also in His resurrection. Historical faith,
sin-hardened world felt that there was something wrong             that is, true historical faith, will believe each and every
with the clashing, discordant, wild, jungle noise that passes      single event recorded in Scripture as historical fact.
in these days for music, and that it was out of place.                Many there are who sang of Him, and sang beautifully
   There was an evident tone of sobriety for three or four         of Him in the season gone by. They sang not as the angels
days. Events of festivity were canceled. Football games            - though they may have sung their words -with faith and
were rescheduled for a later date. Parties were called off.        joy. They may have sung because it gave them carnal
Our Chicago newspapers even raised the interesting ques-           pleasure or because they were hired singers, talented men
tion as to whether the children might, in this moment of           and women who are willing to take His name upon their
national distress and loss, sing in the public schools "God        lips for thirty pieces of silver. They may be men and
Bless America," and whether prayers might now be offered women who are accustomed to taking His name in vain, who
in these schools.                                                  now are willing to sing beautifully of that name. They may
   It almost seemed as though there was a national revival,        have religion for the moment. But it is not faith. And to
an awakening to spiritual values, an appreciation of the           borrow the words of James, -their `<religion  is vain." Woe
things spiritual. It certainly showed that underneath all          unto them when they shall appear before this Christ! They
the bold, brazen wickedness of the age and moral decay of          may have sung of Him as the Prince of Peace, but no peace
the masses, there still, is knowledge of the things spiritual.     with Him will they find in that day when they stand be-
The world is pleasure mad. Men today are "lovers of                fore His judgment seat. In spite of all their beautiful sing-
pleasure rather than lovers of God" (II Timothy  3:4).             ing, yea, rather, because of their beautiful singing, Christ
But it is not because of lack of knowledge. Today it is not        shall say to them, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity"
a case of the people perishing for lack of knowledge. Nom-.        (Matthew  7:21-23).  Their cry that the); have done many
inally this is a Christian nation, Nominally the whole world       wonderful things in His name will not deceive Him or
is Christian; and only a few corners of this globe would feel      change His mind as to the ethical value of their works.
insulted, if you would call them Christian. In the season          Their religion of the moment will not satisfy Him, because
just gone by, it was very evident that Christ has been taken       He knows the heart. And the heart of His child does not
out of  CHRISTmas; but it is just as evident today that            have religion of the moment, but the love of God.
Christ has been taken out of  CHRISTianity.  Actually, of             Faith does not rejoice one day or one week in the year.
course, this could never be. Take Him out and all you              Faith does not move to sobriety and forsaking of the things
have left is -ianity, or better still "vanity." For there is no    of the flesh only in moments of loss and grief of the flesh.
such thing as  -ianity. It is nothing and vanity. Yet so           Faith does not put evil aside temporarily, while itching to
much of what Christ condemns, so much that opposes His             get back at it as soon as formalities are past. Faith does not
teachings and denies Him is called Christianity today.             distort the truth. Faith does not use it for commercial
   And, as we pointed out, the season now come to an               purposes. Faith does not use the truth, the glorious truth
end had a display of the things spiritual, an outward              of salvation in the Son of God in our flesh - either at Christ-
manifestation of knowledge of the truth. Call it historical        mas or Easter -for sales promotion. Jesus cleansed the
faith, if you like. But remember that this is not actually the     temple of those who would make it a house of merchandise.
case. It is not faith; and it does not believe even the his-       What would He say today of those who take out of the
torical part of the Word of God. True historical faith would       temple, out of God's house, the truth taught there, sung
be faith in ALL the history recorded in the Word of God.           there to God's praise, in order to help them sell more'
But the world manifestly does not believe it, in spite of          merchandise? What happened when the Israelites took the
the words that flow so freely from the lips. To believe the        ark out on the battlefield in the silly and sinful hope that
history of Bethlehem you have to believe the virgin birth          it would give them the victory? And was that ark anything
of that Babe. To believe the history of Bethlehem you also         else but the truth as it is in Christ? Was not its mercy seat
have to believe the historical fact of His resurrection. If        the symbol of God's mercy in HIM? Was not the blood
you do not, you have not-grasped and `believed His advent          sprinkled upon it the type of His blood that covers our


182                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D ' - B E A R E R                _I

guilt? No man might touch that ark, not even the priests.         $esh. And even while he worships things and ideas, he
They had to insert the long rod through the rings on its          concocts a Santa Claus to take the place of Christ. A peace
corners and carry it by that rod. Uzzah died a sudden and         on earth that some human Santa Claus must bring is the
awful death for touching it. You cannot touch that symbol         thing of which they actually sing and which they have in
of Christ with impunity. For you cannot touch the Son of          mind. We were rather amused while shopping to hear a
God, except by faith and in love, without being destroyed         little negro boy voice his mind on a program wherein var-
by His holy wrath. And you cannot do that in song either.         ious people were asked to state their opinions on any .matter
YOU touch Him when you mention His name. And unless               they wished. He said that he would like to see a colored
YOU  touch Him in love and by `faith, you will perish as          Santa Claus and wanted to know why all the Santa Clauses
surely as Uzzah did!                                              were white men. He had something there. In the midst of
                                                                  all our race riots and fight for desegregation, why did not
   Woe then to those who in religion of the moment sing           someone think of that? Peace on earth?? We have civil
of Him without that love of God and in what, for lack of          war in'our own land,.be  it a cold war and not a hot, shoot-
a better word, we call historical or even temporary faith.
Their knowledge condemns them. Their sin was not com-             ing war. The enmity, the bitterness, the hate, is there.
mitted in heathen darkness, but in a so-called Christian          And no one thought of desegregating Santa Claus and hav-
nation. The Church of God may even have been edihed  by           ing at least one negro Santa Claus in each city!
their song; but these singers go to hell for it! Is that             Of course, when you have the truth and you love it
strange? One of the most beautiful prophecies of Christ's         you need no negro  Saviour, but one of the seed of David
coming, and the one which the wise men knew and be-               and who as to His Person is neither white nor black but
lieved, was given through the mouth of reprobate Balaam.          the eternal, glorious Son of God. He makes peace between
Today God's Church is still thrilled by his words. But            white and black because being justified by His blood we
Balaam himself is condemned in no uncertain terms by the          have peace with God. Those at peace with God will
word of God. And at God's command he was slain by the             be at peace with men, regardless of their outer color - and
Israelites (Numbers 31:1-8). That which pleases man and           it is only skin deep -race and tribe.
entertains him does not necessarily please God and carry             But we? Is not our religion so often also a religion of
away His blessing. And that for a week or two there was           the moment? We pray when we get into trouble. We cry
religion of the moment in our midst does not mean that            for help when the way is rough and hard. And maybe we
men are not lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.         will give thanks when we receive what seems to us an
   We have said it before, and we will say it again. It           exceptional gift. But what about the moments in between?
never is a question simply' of not knowing the truth; it          Are we religious the moment we open our eyes from sleep
always is a case of not loving the truth that is known.           in the morning? Are we then religious each step of the way
The more clearly and deeply the unbeliever learns to know         through the  whde day? And are we religious as we fall
the truth, the more fierce his hatred becomes. Who com-           asleep again at night? Ah, indeed, with us too it is often a
mitted the' greater evil, the Jews who delivered `Jesus to        matter of the moment. We are saved only in principle now;
Pilate or Pilate? (John 19:ll) With all the coverage that         but for us the everlasting moment of religion comes. A day
radio gives to the world today, is there a corner of the globe    that never ends is promised to those who live in His fear.
where the gospel has not been heard? Is there a nation            Each moment therein will find us worshipping Him, thank-
that has not, with the wide coverage of magazine and news-        ing Him for salvation, and praying to .Him for the benefits
paper, read many hundreds of words about the birth of             of salvation. It will be Christmas forever each moment of
the Christ child? Is there a land where the sound of the          that everlasting life. There will be peace on earth, and all
gospel has not been brought yet? The truth is-there. Knowl-       on that earth will unceasingly ascribe glory to God in the
edge has been obtained. But love of that truth is not to be       highest, because they are the men of His good pleasure.
found. And so for a few days, for the satisfaction of the                                                                J.A.H.
flesh, the songs of Zion are sung and you have little dif-
ficulty finding a radio station that does not present carols
by skilled and trained singers for your listening. But that
there is no love for that truth is very evident the day after
Christmas and for more than three hundred days there-
after, till the commercial Christmas returns.                         His servant He called, a shepherd of sheep,
   Religion of the moment is exactly that! Men worship                From tending his flock, the people to keep;
the moment rather than the Christ of Whose birth the
moment speaks. The unbeliever worships t?&gs. He wor-                 So David, their  ,shepherd,  with wisdom and might
ships ideas and not the Person of the Son of God in our               Protected and `fed them and led them aright.'


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               183

II                                                                 must retain its literal meaning and not be understood fig-
          Contending For The Faith                            II uratively in the sense: "This represents My body." If this
                                                                   be  true; however, then the Lutherans may not interpret
                                                                   these words proleptically, futuristically, as applying only to
          The Church and  ihe Sacraments                           the time after Jesus' ascension. But this only serves to
                                                                   emphasize the hopelessness of Luther's interpretation of
            THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                            Matth.  26:26. It is simply a fact that Jesus was not yet
                                                                   gloriiled,  that the word "This" refers to the bread which He
 VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORD'S SUPPER)                           held in His hand, and that this bread and Jesus' body could
                   THE LUTHERAN VIEW                               not have been identical.
                                                                       However, Luther's main argument for his doctrine of
 In our preceding article, discussing the Lutheran view            consubstantiation is the ubiquity, omnipresence, of the body
of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we were criticizing         and blood of our Lord. ,This view is certainly impossible.
this conception of consubstantiation. The Lutherans be-            It is impossible, first of all, from the viewpoint of God. The
lieve that the body of Christ is present at the Lord's Supper      Lutherans would have us believe that God imparted His
exactly because it is everywhere present. We now continue          divine virtues of omnipresence, omnipotence, and omnis-
with our criticism of this conception.                             cience to the human nature of Christ. God, therefore, im-
      Thirdly, interesting is the argument of Muller. One might    parted Himself to a creature, made a creature, be it the
assume that if the body of Christ and His blood are every-         human nature of Christ, divine. But, how can the living
where present, then they are received in every ordinary            God impart Himself to a creature? How can the living God
meal as well as in the Lord's Supper. To say, for example,         make a creature divine, in addition to Himself? This con-
that  oniy the bread and wine as used in the Lord's Supper         ception surely smacks of pantheism, the heresy that God is
are @body  and blood Iof Christ, in the sense in which the         all things and that all things are God. God is the world, and
Lutherans believe this in their conception of consubstantia-       the world is God. Of course, we do not contend that Luther
tion, and that the bread we eat daily is not the body of our       was a pantheist. We are speaking only of his conception con-
Lord, would certainly seem to teach that the body and              cerning the ubiquity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And panthe-
blood of Christ are not present always and everywhere.             ism is a terrible heresy. The inescapable consequence of
But, the Lutherans deny that the body and blood of Christ          pantheism-is the denial of God. If God be the world and
are received at every meal as well as during the Lord's            the world be God, then the simple fact remains that there
Supper. They say that it is one thing to say that the body         is only the world, and God does not exist. This is funda-
of Christ is everywhere present, but quite another thing to        mentally the denial of all religion. If there be no God,
declare that. it is always accessible and everywhere given         then, of course, there is no sin, no prayer. This lies in the
whenever we eat our daily bread. But, this contention of           nature of the case. If there be no God, then there is none
the Lutherans does not completely satisfy. It is simply a          against whom we can sin and none to whom we can pray.
fact, is it not, that the Lutherans doctrine of consubstantia-     However, this view of consubstantiation is also impossible
tion is based exactly upon the omnipresence of the body of         from the viewpoint of the creature. No creature can be
Christ. : Well, that body of our Lord is always omnipresent.       God. This is simply a contradiction in terms, that a creature
So, why, then, is it not true that we always partake of it?        can be God or partake of the very essence and nature of the
Besides, did the body of Christ assume the attribute of            living God. A creature is creature. A creature is necessarily
omnipresence only after His ascension, as many Lutherans           and essentially finite, characterized by time and space. A
contend? It is for this reason that Muller argues that the         creature has therefore a creature's finite capacity. A creature
Apostles, at the institution of the Lord's Supper, must have       simply cannot be God and remain creature. He is either
partaken of the body and blood of our Lord in a manner             creature and not God, or he is God and not a creature. But
that was peculiar to that one occasion, and that Christ, as        it is impossible for a creature to be `creature and God at the
far as other Christians are concerned throughout the New           same time. And it is surely impossible to contend that the
Dispensation, only foretold that His body would be omni-           human nature .of our .Lord Jesus Christ can be human and
present and therefore present at and in the eucharist. Christ,     divine at the same time, partaking of God's divine attributes
therefore, spoke futuristically, and the words, "This is My        and infinite perfections.
body," must be understood in a proleptic sense, as apply-             To support this doctrine, Luther appeals to God's om-
ing to the time when His body would be ubiquitous after            nipotence. He claims that the Lord is able to do all things.
His ascension. This explanation, however, is surely not con-       The Reformed claim that it is contrary to the nature of
sistent with Luther's interpretation of Matth. 26:26. Luther       such a body as-that which belongs to man, that it should be
insisted upon the literal interpretation of the words: "This       in many places at the same time, and much less that it
is My body." He contended vehemently that the word,  `%," should fill all space. They contend that it is a contradiction

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

 to maintain that the flesh and blood of Christ .are omni-          and the--bBdy--of  our Lord at the same time. To say, how-
 present. Luther appealed to God's omnipotence. -However,           ever, that the bread Jesusheld  in-His hand is actually His
 this appeal is surely in vain. As Hodge remarks, contradic-        own body is absurd; it-is surely absurd to believe that the
 tions are not the object of God's power. We certainly do           bread Jesus held in His hand is anything else than bread.
 not limit the power of God when we declare that He can-            Luther, too, denied any change in the bread and wine. But
 not do the impossible. Is anything impossible with God?            then it is impossible for him to maintain his interpretation
 Of course, we maintain that there are impossibilities with         of the word "is." It certainly must mean: signify, represent.
 God. God cannot deny Himself. He cannot make right                 Besides, this form of speech appears throughout the Word
 wrong, or wrong right. God cannot become finite and He             of God. Jesus `is the door, Herod  is "that fox," etc. It must
 cannot make the finite infinite. God is not a man that He          be evident that these explanations cannot be maintained in
 should lie or change. God is truth, and He cannot lie;             the literal-natural sense of the word.
 He is independent, and He cannot become dependent; He is              In connection with the preceding paragraph, we could
 unchangeable, and He cannot become changeable; He is               also call attention to another expression which appears in
 righteousness, and He cannot act contrary to righteousness         the same context, Matt. 26~27-28,  and we quote: "And He
 and justice; He cannot act contrary to His will. In one of         took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
 our catechism books, Essentials, the following question ap-        Drink ye all of it; For this is My blood of the new testa-
 pears at the bottom of Lesson 14: "How do you explain              ment, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."
 that He could be born without original pollution?" This            Hence, "this cup is the New Testament in My blood," as we
 question concerns the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into         also read it in I Cor. 11:25. Shall we also interpret this ex-
 our flesh and blood, and we know that He was born without- pression literally-naturally? Is `this cup" the New Testa-
 original pollution. We are conceived and born as dead in           ment? Is it not perfectly obvious that Jesus, when speaking
 sins and trespasses, but Jesus was born holy and wholly un-        of "this cup," refers to the content of the cup, the wine in
 defiled. So now the question is asked: "How do you explain         the cup, and not to the cup itself? To speak of "this cup"
 it?" In other words, how is it to be explained that the Holy       and refer to its content is a figure of speech which we call a
 Spirit caused our Mediator to be born without original pol-        metonymy, the use of one word for another. In this case,
 lution? And the undersigned asked of a catechumen whether          the word, "cup," is used for its content. However, if the ex-
 the Holy Spirit could have caused him to be born with              pression, `this cup is the New Testament in My blood," be
 original pollution; and the answer, of course, is in the neg-      a figure of speech, why, then, is the expression, "This (this
 ative. Christ could be born without original pollution be-         bread in My hand, H. V. ) is My body," not also figurative?
 cause, as the Person of the Son, He was without original
 guilt and, therefore, also entitled to a spotless human nature.       The Lutherans, in distinction from the Reformed (whom
 But the point is that the omnipotence of God and the power         they call the sacramentarians), emphasize two elements in
 of the Holy Spirit must certainly be confined to God as He         the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In the first place, they
is God. He cannot deny Himself. He cannot cease to be               teach that the literal, natural body of Christ, born of the
 God. And He cannot make anybody else God. Luther ap-               virgin Mary, is actually present in, with, and under the
 peals, therefore, in vain to the omnipotence of the Lord.          bread; and His blood, shed upon the cross and which was
 Never does the Lord violate Himself. And never does He             the life of the body while on earth., is present in, with, and
 annul or violate the creature.                                     under the consecrated wine. And, in the second place, they
                                                                    emphasize-the mode and organ and condition of reception.
        Luther's appeal to Matth.  26:26 cannot be maintained.      According to the Lutherans,  .the body and blood are re-
 The passage is familiar to all of us: "This is My body." The       ceived corporally; the organ is the mouth; the laity simply
 Reformed view maintains that the word, "is," in this par-          receive the bread and wine. The body and blood of Christ
 ticular Scripture means : represents, signifies, symbolizes.       are received equally by believers and unbelievers, although
 The Lutherans insist that the word "`is" must be retained in       only the former receive it to their spiritual good. Also this
 its literal-natural meaning: This is My body. However; it          point of difference is clearly stated in the Formula of Con-
 must be beyond all doubt that Jesus refers to the broken           cord.
 bread in His hand. On the one hand, it must be obvious,                                                                     H.V.
 that Jesus could not refer to His body as glorified, inasmuch
 as the Lord had as yet not suffered and died. On the other
 hand, however, the Lutherans here appear to yield every-
 thing to Roman Catholicism. If it be true that "this bread                  A thousand ages in Thy sight
 is ,My body," then it must also be true that it is no longer
 bread. This is the only possible interpretation of the passage                 Are like an evening gone,
 if the word "is" be maintained according to Lutheranism.                    Short as the watch that ends the night
 Then the Romanists are surely correct. It cannot be bread                      Before the rising sun.


      _                                   -THE  STANDAR.D   B E A R E R                                                      185

                                                                   really incorrect. Man can never do anything creatively. In
11 -The Voice of Our Fathers                                 ii the strict sense of the word, he cam-rot be "original." God only
                                                                   creates, The universe is solely the product of His almighty
                                                                   will. Moreover, His will is limited by nothing. God is above
                 The  Bellgic Confession                           all laws: He establishes the laws, and is the sovereign
                                                                   Creator even of all the laws of the universe. As the divine
                                                                   Architect of all things, the Lord our God is absolutely SOV-
                                                                   ereign. He conceives of the whole world, not only as it
                         ( continued )                             stood in the beginning, but of the world in all its history,
                                                                   its purpose, its development, its &al and glorious revelation
Ths Work of Creation as Such                                       in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ; and even as He con-
    Faith, we have seen, has no objection to beginning with        ceives of it, so He creates it. The end is of Him; the means
the origin of all things and with their history where Scrip-       to reach that end are also of His making. The world is of
ture starts, Genesis 1: 1: "In the beginning God created the       His divine conception; and He calls into existence the ma-
heavens and the earth." Having emphasized this truth over          terial of that world. All things are exactly as He willed
against all deviating theories, we now turn to the positive        them to be. Creation is an altogether divine work, an act
teachings of Article XII on this subject, in order to elaborate    of absolute sovereignty.
on this doctrine of creation in the light of Scripture. Our           Hence, Scripture never speaks of creation as merely
Confession speaks both of the act of creation and of the           "`making something out of nothing." As a definition, this is
created product, to both of which subjects we must give our        inadequate. In the first place, `hothing," (and let it be
attention. Moreover, in connection with these, it also speaks      noted, `nothing" is quite inconceivable) is not the source of
of the purpose of creation. And all this stands in close con-      creation. God's counsel is the source of all created things.
nection with the idea of God's counsel in relation to crea-        In the second place, it is not true, according to Scripture,
tion, which our Confession also emphasizes. `We believe that       that creation is always out of nothing. In the one mighty
the Father, by the Word, that is, by his Son, hath created of      work of creation there are various acts of God according to
nothing, the heaven, the earth, and all creatures, as it           which He creates various creatures out of others. Thus, the
seemed good unto him, giving unto every creature its being,        plants and the animals are called out of the ground. To the
shape, form, and several offices to serve its Creator. That        waters God says: "Let the waters bring forth abundantly
he doth also still uphold and govern them by his eternal           the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly
providence, and infinite power, for the service of mankind,        above  the earth in the open  firmament  of heaven." And
to the end that man may serve his God."                            man also is created `bf the dust of the ground." Gen. l:ll,
   What is it to create? The dell&ion  has frequently been         24; Gen. 1:20;  Gen. 2:7. Only, therefore, as an expression
given that to create is "`to make something out of nothing,"       which emphasizes the omnipotence and freedom of the
This idea of a creation "out of nothing" also occurs in our        work of creation, an expression which emphasizes that be-
Confession:  ". . . the Father . . . hath created of noth-         fore the beginning of Genesis 1:l there was no creature,
ing . .  *  " The same idea occurs in our Heidelberg Cate-         nor anything out of which the Lord, outside of Himself,
chism: "That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,          could form the creation, can this expression "out of nothing"
who. of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in         serve. As far as any kind of definition is concerned, Scrip-
them . . . " Question and Answer 26. We may point out,             ture speaks different language. Scripture describes this
however, that neither in our Catechism nor in the Confes-          work of creation in several passages, and always uses es-
sion is this intended to be a  d++tion  of creation. That          sentially the same language. In Genesis 1, of course, there
this is true as regards our Confession is plain from, the,very     is the repeated, "And God said . . . And it was so." In
fact that it uses the term. `bath created" in this comrection.     Psalm 33: 6 we read: "By the word of the Lord were the
It would never serve as a definition to say that to create         heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath
is to create out of nothing, of course. Rather does our Con-       (spirit) of his mouth;" And again, in verse 9 of the same
fession intend by the use of this expression to emphasize          Psalm: "Forhe spake, and it was done; he commanded, and
that the act of creation is altogether a divine work. It is        it stood fast." In Romans  4:17 we  iind that God is the
to be ascribed to the act of God's almighty will. When man         God, `Who calleth those things which be not as though
makes something, he always makes something out of some-            they were." And in Hebrews 11:3 we read that `the worlds
thing. That is, he is strictly limited to the material out of      were framed by the word of God, so that things which are
which he proposes to make something. He must have the              seen were not made of things which do appear." And thus
wherewithal, must have the material, before he can ever            there are many passages of Scripture which speak of this
make anything at all. Sometimes the expression "create" and        same creative act, emphasizing that God, as the sovereign
the term "creatively" are applied to man's work. But this is       Creator of all things, is the Incomparable One, and empha-

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

sizing, too, that even as He created all things after the         vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and
"counsel of his own will," so, with a view to His people in       there is none else." And in Isaiah  48:12,13,  Jacob-Israel is
Christ Jesus, He yet sovereignly maintains and providential-      admonished: `Hearken unto me, 0 Jacob and Israel, my
ly executes His counsel. Thus, God's people are asked in          called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. Mine
Isaiah  40:12-14:  `Who hath measured the waters in the           hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my
hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span,           right hand hath  spaMed  the heavens: when I call unto
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and          them, they stand up together." Is it any wonder, there-
weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?      fore, that in the book of Revelation we behold the four and
Who hath directed the spirit of the' Lord, or being his           twenty elders falling down before Him that sat on the throne
counsellor hath taught him? With whom took he counsel,            and worshipping with the words, "Thou art worthy, 0
and who instructed him and taught him in the path of              Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast
judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him             created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were
the way of understanding?" And again, in a series of rhetor-      created?" Rev. 4:ll.
ical questions by which the Lord our God is contrasted with          Creation, therefore, may be defined as that act of the
the vanity of graven images, Isaiah 40:18,  ff., we read: "To     almighty will of God whereby He gave to the things that
whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye com-        were eternally in His counsel existence in distinction from
pare unto him? . . . Have ye not known? have ye not heard?        Himself.
hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not            Our Confession emphasizes this idea of God's counsel
understood from the foundations of the earth? `It is he           also. For it states that God created all things "as it seemed
that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants    good unto him." It is important to understand and maintain
thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens      this. Creation does not add anything to God's glory. For
as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in."      He is the Self-sufficient in Himself. He has no need of any
And again, in vss. 25 and 26 of the same chapter: "To whom        creature. And the world of created things does not enrich
then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy        God. Nor does creation presuppose any change in God. He
One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath               in the unchangeable One. But this can only be somewhat
created these things, that bringeth out their host by number:     understood in the light of the truth of God's eternal counsel,
he calleth  them all by names by the greatness of his might,      His good pleasure. And then we must remember, in the
for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." And in          first place, that God's counsel is  eternaZ.  It is not to be
verse 28: "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that         compared to the dead plan of an architect. But it consists
the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of         of all the living thoughts of God with respect to all  that,
the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no search-    ever exists, first of all. Secondly, God's counsel implies
ing of his understanding." In Isaiah  42:s the Lord, Who          that He conceives of and knows of all things not only as
calls His elect servant, describes Himself as follows: "Thus      they are formed in the beginning, but also as they shall be
said God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and               when all things in heaven and on earth shall be perfectly
stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that      united in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, this counsel' of
which  cometh  slut of it; he that giveth breath unto the         God includes not merely the beginning and the end which
people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein . . . "      He has from eternity established, but God knows all things
And in Isaiah 44~24: "Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer,          and conceives of all things in their development and in all
and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that         their relationships and their connection from the beginning
maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone;       to the end, And all of these things stand from eternity to
that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." Again, in             eternity before the divine consciousness. God knows the
Isaiah  45:11,12 we read: "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy          creation and the history of all things, the course of their
One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come            development in history along the way of sin and grace,
concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands           and the final destination arrived at along that course of
command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man             development; and He knows all this with eternal, sovereign,
upon  it:yII, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens,      unchangeable knowledge and perfect wisdom. The reality,
and all their host have I commanded." And to this same            the eternal reality, of all things, is with God in His counsel;
almighty work of creation appeal is made to confirm the           and from eternity all these things "`seem good unto Him."
promise that Israel shall be saved and established in the         In His counsel God rejoices in and glorifies Himself from
earth, Isaiah 45:17,X3: "But Israel shall be saved,in,  the       eternity to eternity.. In that sense God is the eternal Creator.
Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed       And in the act of creation God gives to those things which
nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the Lord         are eternally with Him in His,.decree existence in distinc-
that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth       tion from Himself;, .
and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in            In'the second place, this counsel of His good pleasure;


                                            T H E   S T A N D - A R D   B~EARER                                                 187

according to which God created all things, includes not              he lives in and exercises dominion over and uses God's crea2
only the whole creation as an organism, but all the different        tion as a rebel, in the service of the devil and sin. Neverthe-
creatures, as to their being, shape, form, and several offices,      less, his~calling  has not changed. All creation still points
or various functions and tasks. The whole of creation as a           him to his calling and sacred obligation, to serve his God.
unity is'the work of God's hand; and each individual crea-              In the third place, God maintains His purpose, even in
ture, occupying its own place in the whole, serving its own          spite of, yea, through, the sin and rebellion of fallen man.
particular purpose, having its own function, and that too, in        God in His eternal counsel had conceived a higher purpose
relation to the whole, is also formed according to God's  all-       and glory for the works that He created in the beginning,
wise and all-comprehensive counsel, His eternal good plea-:          His purpose, namely, in Christ, the Firstborn of every
sure. From this point of view, we may also note that in all the      creature, for Whom and by Whom all things were created.
creative work there is order and design. Man stands, as the          Col.  1:15-20.  With a view to that higher purpose of the
last product of God's work of creation, at the pinnacle of all       reconciliation and uniting of all things in Christ Jesus; both
created things. And all was created in order to serve as             which are in heaven and which are in earth, all things
his habitation. Moreover, there is correspondence between            were created in the beginning. This is undoubtedly the
the creative work of the first three days and the last three         deeper meaning of the expression in Scripture that at the
days, respectively. Indeed, God gave, according to His               end of His creative work God saw everything that He.had
good pleasure, to every creature its being, shape, form, and         made, and, behold, it was very good. And history cannot
several office.                                                      come to an end before the will of God with regard to that
   In the third place, we must remember that there is                final purpose of creation in Christ has been executed. TO
pcc9*pose  in God's counsel. This also is expressed in our Con-      that end, God not only created, but He does still uphold
fession. First of all, it is stated that the purpose of each         and govern all things by His eternal providence and infmite
creature is "to serve its Creator." In the second place, it is       power, so that all creation becomes the stage for the drama
stated that God "doth still uphold and govern them by his            of sin and grace, the fall and redemption, death and resur-
eternal providence, and  iniinite power, for the service of          rection, until the climax of the uniting of all things in
mankind, to the end that man may serve his God." What is             Christ shall be achieved. Then, when, in Christ, the highest
implied in this?                                                     revelation of God's covenant of friendship is reached - then
   First of all, we may maintain the truth of this in regard         the ultimate purpose of creation  &all be reached also, and'
to creation as it-was finished on the seventh day. Originally,       all creation shall perfectly serve elect mankind in Christ,
creation stood as one beautiful and harmonious whole. In             in order that man (the elect in Christ) may serve his God;
that creation, with all its rich variation of creatures, there          And then the Triune God, Who created all things, shall:
was an'ascending scale of creatures, from the lifeless created       be revealed and glorified in the ultimate sense. This must'
things, through the world of the living creatures, to man,           needs be the end. For, as our Confession states, creation is
who was created in the image of God. The purpose of each             the work of the Father, by the Word, the Son; and we may
creature individually and of all creatures together was to           add, this does not exclude the Holy Spirit. "By the Word of
"serve the Creator," that is, to reveal His handiwork and His        the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them
praises. At the head of all the earthly creation stood Adam,         by the Spirit of his mouth." Even, therefore, as God Triune
created in the image of God, a rational, moral creature,             is the author of creation, so all must needs be unto the
standing in true knowledge of God, righteousness, and                praise and glory of Him Who created all things.
holiness. He was able to read God's book of creation. And                                                                   H.C.H.
all that he read spelled out the name of the Creator, His
God. And thus, man, with head and heart and hand was
able as a conscious, moral creature to serve God, even as                       In God, the Lord, I rest,
all creation was in man's service and, for his use.                                His word of grace I praise,
In the second place, even in his fallen state, man still                        His promise` stands secure,
has the calling and is under the obligation to serve his God,                      Nor fear nor foe dismays.
the Creator, in and with all created things. To this end,                       Upon me are Thy vows,
even though all things have been vastly changed through                           0 God, in Whom I live;
the fall and the curse, God does still uphold and govern                        The sacrifice of I&se
them by his eternal providence, and infinite power, for the                        To Thee I now will give.
service of mankind. And man, though fallen, is still able
to put God's creation to his use. True, he is totally depraved.                  For Thou hast saved from death,
He is spiritually unable to do anything else,than  to sin. He                      From falling kept me free,
lives in God's creation, uses God's creation, and, in a limited                  That in the light of life
sense, still maintains -his domyiriion  over. God's'creation. But                 My walk may be with Thee.


188                                           THY  STANDARD  BEARER

                                                                      with our fellow-worshippers. If we--have -not -seen one -an-
         THECHURCHATWORSHI-P                                          other all week and feel~`the  need to -converse;why not go
                                                                      outside or to some other part -of-the -building or, better still,
      `0 Worship the      *
                      Lord m the beauty of holmess.                   wait until after the service? It will have to be admitted that
                                                                      such social-visiting is not an aid to our worship and it cer-
                 Thle Elements of Worship                             tainly does not contribute to impressing us with a sense of
                                                                      God's presence and the glory of His service. There is a time
                               (continued)                            and place for all things, and let each be kept in proper
       Many and varied are the activities of the worshippers          perspective.
when they gather together in the house of God, Perhaps                  There are bitter ways to spend the moments before the
many of us are not even aware of all that transpires in the
 1                                                                    service than indulging in idle conversation. This time should
short span ok ninety minutes spent in church. Much of what            be actively devoted to the task of preparing ourselves for
we do is done SO routinely that we fail to be impressed with          the service. This must not be construed to mean that this
the sigticance  of each step in the order of worship. Our             preparation begins when we enter the house of God and
mind and will is not always in that spiritual frame that is           negates that essential preparation that must characterize
requisite for us to enter -consciously into that exercise of          our entire life every day. But those moments in which we
`worshipping in spirit and in truth;" and, consequently, the          await the arrival of the consistory and minister ought not to
elements of worship pass us without personal appropriation.           be wasted but utilized in the most spiritually profitable man-
Thus our worship leaves much to be desired, and a re-                 ner. With this in mind we offer a few general suggestions
emphasis upon each of its elements will not be considered             as to what might be done.
out of place.                                                            On the Lord's Day God's people come out of another
       Before the church service officially begins there are two      busy week into His presence. They must now be freed +-om
elements that may be mentioned. The first deals with the              the thoughts of worldly things. The earthly and material
individual worshipper as he entered the house of God and              must give way to an exclusive consideration of the spiritual
awaits the beginning of the service. The second has to do             and heavenly in their minds and hearts. This is not done
with the consistory as it meets elsewhere in the building in          without great effort. Upon entering into the Lord's house
pre-service prayer.,                                                  then, let every one - young as well as old - offer up a silent
       Just what do we do, and then again, what should we do          prayer. The need of this will be felt when we enter God's
during this time before the service? In this connection it may        house in the proper attitude. We will experience a sense- of
not be superfluous to expose some present day evils that exist        need for the Bread of Life as well as feel our inability to
in the church and ought to be corrected. There are those who          appropriate that Bread. Our prayer will then be for our-
insist that all who are present early in the church should            selves and will reflect upon the many needs which we have
just sit still and wait. The difficulty  with this is that we are     to fit us for the worship. Though this is essentially its
just not made to sit by idly. Having been very busy during            purpose, the prayer will not exclude altogether the needs of
the week and sometimes even for an hour or two before                 those who are to minister, the needs of the congregation
worship, we find it difEicult suddenly to relax completely.           and all who have come to worship.
And even if physically our bodies may seemingly be at rest,              The prayers having ended we are immediately aware of
our minds continue to be very active. To devote this period           the sound of music that fills the sanctuary. The purpose of
to idleness is waste. We must find a more constructive and            this musical prelude is to aid further in preparing the con-
profitable purpose.                                                   gregation for worship. This must be borne in mind, and it
       Others seem to &ink that this time should be utilized by       is here that the organist must also realize a very important
talking with those that are sitting ne'ar them. They would            responsibility. The task of the organist is not to give a musi-
justify this by insisting that this is part of the exercise of the    cal concert or to demonstrate briefiy  what the organ is cap-
communion of saints. To what this leads in many instances             able of producing. Neither is it possible to put a Reformed
is nothing short of irrev&ence.  What a Babel of confusion            congregation in the proper disposition for worship by play-
results when one individual tries to out-whisper the next,            ing songs that unavoidably convey to the mind an Arminian
and both put forth an added effort to be heard above the              message. When the music is appropriate, some may choose
organ prelude! How do we expect to instill proper respect             to relax with it and spend  the moments before the worship
for the Lord's service.in  the hearts of our children when we         imbibing its soothing qualities.
so patently violate the rules of good conduct there  our-                 Others choose to be more active. Let us then prepare
selves?? Although there is nothing sacred, about the church           ourselves more directly by thinking on the nature and
building itself, we should nevertheless remember that the             purpose of the services. Can we give a good account of our
fact of its hallowed associations with the presence of our            own presence in the Lord's house? Do we realize the
God ought to prohibit the desire of incessant conversation            solemnity of the occasion? If the bulletin records the  Scrip-


                                             T H E    s T A N-`DLI:!k  g-p: ,+j &?A E E+jfi                                      189

ture reading for the day, why not turn to it in these moments        this explanation is quite plausible. At that time there was
and familiarize ourselves. with.  t&passage?  This--will- facil-     considerable- popular and civil interference with the reli-
itate our following the sermon presently. Should the text- be        gious-Mioiship  tif the seceders. Often their services were dis-
announced, ask yourself what it means to yotir spiritual life.       turbed and .broken up. Their ministers were heavily fined
Another profitable way to spend this time is by turning to           and imprisoned, and other leaders threatened from time to
the back of the Psalter and systematically, week by week,            time. Small wonder then, that the members of these small
meditating on the articles of the Confession of Faith. No one        and despised groups felt so keenly their dependence on Al-
can deny the value of such a practice in an age of confes-           mighty God and thus asked for His special protection dur-
sional ignorance. And should there still be time, we might           ing the services. This  explanatioti  would also account for
meditate on all the goodness which the Lord has shown us             the strange fact that whereas such prayers are very com-
and our families during the week that has again passed. We           monly offered up in the Reformed Churches of the Nether-
generally take so little time to do this in the hustle and rush      lands, one seeks them almost in vain in the State.Ehurbh.
of our daily living. Consider that through it all the Lord has           If this is so, one could argue from it in favor of abolish-
wondrously continued to lead us every step of the way and            ing the custom. We are not persecuted in our worship to-
now again has brought us into His house. Give Him thanks             day. Although it is true that we always need God's help,
for His kind and tender mercies. &Then  you will be prepared         we do not feel the need for special protection. The State
to engage actively in the praising of His holy and glorious          assures us that we have freedom of worship and it offers
Name. When we so engage in preparing ourselves for wor-              police protection if necessary to guarantee this liberty. Then
ship we-will discover that there is so much to be done and           too, there are already many prayers. Though it would not
so little time in  ijvhich to do it. And when the service is         be wrong to add another, there ought to be good reason for
ready to begin, we will  fitid ourselves in a spiritual  ex-         doing so: for mere multiplication here tends to meaningless
periencg  that blends itself with the tenor of worship rather        formalism.
than suddenly having to make an abrupt change when the
organ ceases and the minister begins to speak.                          Yet, this matter must be de&tied  on' its own merits.
                                                                     The consistory must realize its g&at responsibility in the
       During this time&e consistory, the office bearers of the      matter of worship. They have called together the people of
church by whom and under whose supervision the public                the Lord and made the  necessary  preparations for their
worship' service has been convoked, is meeting in another            worship. +Upon  them rests the responsibility to see that all
room. The significance of this meeting centers about the             is done in $ood  order, so that' &ad's Name is glorified and
prayer  that is offered here before the service. But before we       the church is edified. T$ alone ne6essiYates a prayer.              '
consider this `matter, let us ask the question whether this             The minister must &&ate in the ministry of the Word.
meeting is necessary? Is it essential to the worship of the          What a .great responsibility! The living!,?yard of the living
church? Is it perhaps just an old-fashiqned notion which             God is  ,to  b&br6fi'g&  by mere man? The message  to.,be
our fathers carried along with them from the Netherlands?            brought comes in God> ,yay;i"d must be entirely in a&
Would it not be betterithat  this p&&ice be abandoned and            cord with His Word. Who 1s sufficient  unto these things?
the elders and deacons then sit with their families before           Again, .i player  is most fit&g.      '
atid during the servide? Many advocate this, with the result
that in some Reformed Churches today this practice has                  But let the elders not forget themselves. They  are
been discontinued. We ,are convinced that this is a. los,si.of       charged with fee&g the  f&k. !l%ey must give a good ac-
spiritual value: for when the consistory no longer meets  .to-       count of their work of regulating and supervising the wor-
gether with the pastor before the servicej  both the congrega-       ship. Not only must they guard against heresy but they
tidn and`consistory lose sight of the official character of the      must also be able to assure themselves and others that the
administration `of the Word and Sacraments. Visible :ev-             church,`bas  been edified. Let them discuss these matters in
idence that this worship has been convoked and is super-             a spirif'bf  love with a view t$ the welfare of the church and
vised by the office-bearers of the church is lost, to the            the glory of God. Such a responsibility is great, and to
detriment of all the congregation.                                   discharge it &e elders need special wisdom and strength .
  :                                                                  that can-be obtained only through prayer.
       This fitting and venei-able  custom must .be -pf&Zerved.
Just when this practice originated is difFicult~~~ij"d&e&iine.          Hardly,,&.s it necessary to add that the content of this.
Those who are  acquaitited  with the  histoT:&  the  Dutch           prayer should be limited. The prayer should be directed
churches assure us thtit there are no:(&%dences  of it before        with a view to the service which is about to commence. It
the year -1800." Thus it is not a custom which we have re-           should, therefore, include the needs of the minister who is to
ceived from the earliest Reformed congregations, since it. lead the service; the needs of the consistory which is to SU-
is only some one hundred fifty years old.                            pervise  the service; and the needs of the congregation which
                                                                     is to participate actively in the service. Generalities should
       Some ha,& sugges'ted that this practici:  was begun in the    be omitted from this prayer. Its  specific idea is that the
days of the Secession of 1834. For more than one re'ason                                 `(Continued on page 191)


  lCJ($                                 T    H    E         ST.ANDARD   BE-ARER

                                                                      Yet-there is politics also in the whole matter. The Na-
  IITA~'~'~RO~ND us 11 tional Right To Work Committee has expressed its inten-
                                                                   tion of waiting till after the 1964 presidential election to
                                                                   push for further legislation in other states because they are
  RIGHT TO WORK                                                    afraid that any intensive campaigns at this time will hurt
                                                                   Rbpublican candidates - especially in Ohio and California.
      "`Right to work" laws have had a long history. in this       They point to the fact that unions are usually able to muster
  country. And this history is of great concern to the people      large blocks of labor votes when the issue of "right to
  of God who are conscience bound not to join existing labor       wbrk" comes up in an election year. So nothing more is
  unions, and who are often forced to quit their jobs and take     likely to be done until next fall, when the November elec-
  positions which offer lower pay because of these convictions.    tions are over.
      When the unions  iirst came to power in this country,           This highlights a  rathEr general weakness in this country.
  they fought hard and long for what they called a "closed         Issues are not often decided on the basis of right and wrong;
  shop." This law was also put into effect and required            more often than not they are decided on the basis of polit-
  workers to become union members before they were ever            ical expediency - whether or not a particular issue will hurt
  hired. In 1947 the "Taft-Hartley Act" was passed, which          a candidate and lose him votes.
  banned the closed shop. The result was that "union shops"
  and "agency shops" became the order of the day. A "union            It is ironic in the extreme that a country which boasts
  shop" requires workers to join the union (usually after 60       long and loud about be&g a land of freedom, and which-
  days from the time -workers are hired) and  piy regular          even tries to export this "freedom" to other uqderdeveloped
  union dues, or be fired. `An agency shop" does not require       countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, does not even
  a worker to join the union, but does require that an em-         give its citizens the freedom to work at the job they de-
  ployee bay regular fees, usually equal to union dues, either     sire without violating their religious principles. This is a
  to the union's charity fund, or to some charity of its own       very strange freedom indeed.
  choice.                                                             An interesting footnote is that our Synod has approved
      There have always been groups in the country who have        of working in an "agency shop" where an employee does
  advocated "`right to work" laws, however, and who have           not join the union but does pay an amount usually equal to
  worked to get these adopted by the states. "Right to work' union dues to a charity of his choice. The Synod, however,
  laws would give any man the right to work in any shop            did not approve of paying an amount equal to union dues
  or factory regardless of whether there is a union there or       to the charity fund of the union. And it should not approve
  not. There are at present twenty states that have "right to      of this either. This is wrong.
  work" laws on their books. These states are: Alabama,
  Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas,      MOCKERY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR
  Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North  ,Carolina,  North Da-         New York City is to be the host city for the World's
 kota, South Carolina, South  Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah,      Fair to be held in 1964. Protestants plan to erect there a
Virginia, and Wyoming.                                             Protestant Church Center as a kind of testimony and wit-
      Recently the whole question of `right to work" laws          ness of a religious character to those who come to visit the
  came up in the courts. The unions have contended that the        Fair. But recently plans were temporarily thrown awry,
  National Labor Relations Board had sole authority in decid-      according to the Presbyterian Journal, because two men of
  ing whether or not a state could have such laws, and             the committee in charge of this Protestant Church Center
  whether or not the "Taft-Hartley Act" provided for them.         resigned. The two who resigned were Emilio  Knechtle,
  The interest of the union in this question is clear, The Na-     chairman of the steering committee, and J. Marshall Miller,
  tional Labor Relations Board generally favors the union  -       coordinator. They resigned because they objected to a
  especially since the Democratic Administration has been in       fifteen minute film that was to be shown in the center;
  power in Washington. And they would be inclined to side          but their objections were overruled. The film will show a
 with the union also on the question of right to work. But         circus with Christ presented as a clown, and certain prob-
 the case went  to  the  Supieme  Court;  and, surprisingly        lems in Christian ethics discussed by the action. The two
  enough, the highest Court in the United States ruled that        men who resigned objected to the fihn on the grounds that
 the States themselves have authority to make such laws and        they could not see any religious significance to the whole
 to enforce these laws if they have them. The States there-        picture and that it did not present an evangelical witness to
 fore have now the power to ban not only the "union shop,"         viewers.                          :'
 but also the "agency shop" if Fhey so desire.                        It was wise for these men to resign, of course. If they
      This is considered~  quite a victory -for those who have     had any love for the Word of God in their hearts, they
  worked for "right to work" laws.                                 could- do nothing else. But it is not simply a matter of


                                               THE  ,STAN.?,,ARD  B E A R E R                                                                         191
                                                  II        .J'??,    /  I  (  /
"religiotis signiiicance" or "failure to present an evangelical                           to stay in orbit. But it could stay in orbit without rotating.
witness"; it is a matter of the crudest and coarsest bias-                                The-moon  does.
phemy imaginable. Isn't there any respect any more  f@:'                                     Anyway Josue  never said anything about the e?rth's ceasing
                                                                                          to rotate. In those days no one ever thought of such `a .SaY
thin& holy? Must even the Lord of heaven and earth                                       thing. They hadn't the slightest idea that it rotated at all.
be subjected to the horrible desecration of men who hate                                  Just one turn and it would surely dump everyone off into the
God under the hypocritical banner of religion? One wonders                               vast sea of waters under the earth.
that judgment does not strike from heaven in a moment                                        No, Josue  cried out to the sun that it should stand still in
against such godlessness.                                                                 Gabaon, and to the moon that it should remain in the valley
                                                                                         of Aialon.
                                                                                             "And the sun stood still,
TO STOP COMPETITI0.N  BETWEEN BAPTISTS                                                       and the moon stayed,
   Baptists in this country are divided into many  diffeient                                 while the nation took vengeance
                                                                                             on its foes."
denominations. Two of the largest are the Southern Baptist                                   Many years ago, when we studied the Book of Josue in
Convention and the American Baptist Convention, which is                                 the seminary, the usual explanation was that the Bible spoke
found predominantly in the north. These two groups have                                  in terms of appearances - of phenomena as they seemed to the
often been getting into each other's hair because of attempts                            people. So there must have been some massive refraction or
to establish new churches in each other's territory. Especial-                           reflection of light which gave the impression that the sun and
                                                                                         moon were standing still, and that the day was vastly pro-
ly the Southern Baptist Convention has been making deep                                  longed.
inroads into the north in recent years, and has succeeded in                                 For de modem explanation I will quote Father Joseph J.
establishing new congregations in cities where Northern                                  De Vault, S. J., from his commentary on the Book of Josue in
Baptists are locat&& &l which include Northern Baptist                                   de Pamphlet Bible Series of the Paulist Press: `These pseudo-
                                                                                         scientific explanations (refractions, etc.) collapse of their own
members. But the Northern Baptists have also had some                                    tortured weight. Happily, they are being replaced by a sane
success in gett&g Southern Baptist congregations to join                                 exegesis which recognizes the passage for what it is - a highly
their Northern  ConvFntion.                                                              poetic version of an emotionally charged cry of Josue, who
                                                                                         hoped for time, f&r daylight, in which to cwsh the enemy
   In the Washington area there are Baptist Churches that                                utterly. The enemy was crushed, so the time was granted and
belong to both conventions. Recently, in these churches,                                 this is expressed poetically in verse i3a, (which  I quoted
an unofficial group composed of .clergy, laymen, and conven-                             above) prosaically iu verse 13b ("Is this not recorded in the
tion executives has been formed whose purpose is to merge                                Book of Jashar? The sun halted in the middle of the sky; not
these tT7jTo bodies, One of the Srst actions. of .&is committee                          for a whole day did it resume its swift course.")
                                                                                             I have added the parentheses.
has been to present a resolution to both bodies to quit this                                 Father DeVault then explains that the Book of Jashar seems
compktition.  They are asking both conventions to "dis-                                  `to have been a collection of patriotic songs.
tinguish between necessary territorial expansions on the                               But there are many Protestants, Reformed among them,
North American continent" by approving an acceptable                                who, finding "scientific errors" in Scripture, would agree
form of expansion -`the ministry to those who, lack a Bap-                          with this interpretation of Joshua's prayer and the subse-
tist witness," and disapproving an unacceptable form  -                             quent miracle. I recall that when I was attending Calvin
"which results from the beginning of competing churches                             College, this miracle then already was brought into ques-
in the same immediate area." This resolution is intended to                         tion in the science classrooms.
pave th$. way for further discussions between the two bodies                           But a denial of this miracle (as well as any other in
in the hope that in the future merger will become possible.                         Scripture) will result also in a denial of the virgin birth of
   And so the mergers gal on and on and on . . .                                    Christ and the miracle of the resurrection of Christ from
                                                                                    the dead. For all miracles recorded in Scripture are types
ANOTHER ATTACK ON SCRIPTURE                                                         and shadows of this central wonder of grace which God
   The Roman Catholic Church has all but denied any                                 performed for our salvation.
miraculous  elements in Scripture. A good example of how                                                                                      H. Hanko
they dd this is to be found in a recent question and answer
appearing in the Catholic paper Our Sunday Visitor.                                                    THE CHURCH AT WORSl-iIP
        Can you run in your column the explanation of that which                                        (Continued from page 
     is  .found  jn the Book of  Josue (Joshua),  10:13, where  Josue                                                         189)
                                                                                    office-bearers officially invoke God's blessing upon the
     commanded the sun and moon to stand still for the length of
     an entire day. Scientists claim it impossible for the earth to                 church as it gathers-in worship.
     stop rotating. If it did the gravity of the sun would draw it                     Thus, both congregation and office-bearers, having been
     to itself and it would be consumed.                                            spiritually prepared, are ready now to engage in worship.
        Answer: I quite agree with you. that the earth could                        Step by step the service will unfold, with each element
     hardly stop rotating, though I doubt that it would be drawn                    serving to convey to the worshippers the choicest and in-
     to the sun and consumed simply because it stopped turning
     on its axis. That would probably happen if the  earth failed                   dispensable blessings of divine grace.                      Gl.v.d.B.


                                                                                                                                                 :
I

                                                                      ,____i- ,_-..,..- -------1            --.  ..:  -    _~      _~~.          -'
     192                                                         -    T--FGE  S - T A N D A R D   BEARER                                    _                          .--_.
                                                                                             and Mrs. Hanko also-  wish- to thank-the
                                                                                                                             _.                                   entire congregation
        NEWS FROM. OUR. CHURCHES-                                                            for :mak@g- this-,  addition ~possible. -They~  appreciate it very
                                                                                             much, and invite the congregation -to come and see it."
                     `All.tlie  saints salute thee'. .  ."  PI&.. 4:h                  II                                                              -_
                                          /            :    -                                , Did YOU &now-that  Hull's Christmas program included
               -_      .`
                          .;`
                                  :*:                            -    Jan.  5, 1964          a speaking choir?  and, that Randolph's Christmas program
                                                                                             made room to include some commemoration of the fact that
         Rev. G. Lanting, of Holland, is considering a call from                             the Heidelberg Catechism is now 400 years old? and, that
     our Redlands, California congregation:                                                  First Church's Jr. Young People's Society was treated to a
                                                                                             solo by Shirley Bouwkamp on a Cluzjietiu?  This is an Italian
         Southwest Church, of Grand Rapids, has called Rev. B.                               reed instrument which is blown by mouth and played on a
     Woudenberg, of Edgerton,  Minn.                                                         keyboard somewhat like that of an accordion.
         Our Missionary and his wife spent New Year's Day and
     Sunday, Jan. 5 in Michigan, and the following Sunday in                                    Mrs. Casemier, third grade teacher in Hope's School,
     Pella, Iowa on a preaching engagement. He also was sched-                               informs the readers of Hope's  High1ght.s that any  third-
     uled to meet with the Mission Committee on Jan. 6, for                                  grader will be happy to tell you how the earth was watered
     directives concerning his labors in the immediate future.                               b.efore there was any rainfall  prior to the Flood. This bit
     The Christmas program in Houston was -a "first" for the                                 of information was learned in their favorite afternoon class
     Texans who only knew of midnight services heretofore. This                              -that  .of Science.  .Well, that is already more than the
     time it .was held on Christmas Day with the children fur-                               wordly "scientist" knows!,                                      .
     nishing much of the program. Agatha Lubbers; the Mis-                                       Southeast's November, `63 statistics show a growth of
     sionary's daughter, narrated the old familiar Christmas                                 10 families, the total number of souls increased by 37. So.
     story; and a taped organ solo by Mrs. C. Lubbers, `previous-                            you see that this congregation is slowly picking itself up
     ly played on First Church's organ, was also heard. Selected                             from the staggering blow it received in `62. Surely, "He is a
     portions of Scripture were read by various adult members                                rewarder of them that diligentljr  seek Him." He&. 11:6.
     of the group, and,$e  singing.of  Christmas Carols rounded
     out the program.                           . .                                              Hope's congregation was called to a meeting Dec. 27
                                          : .                                                to discuss "the'proPosa1  .which the Consist&y is presenting
         Edger-tons congregation was without the usual .services
                             _                                                               in connection' with the erection of a new church building."
     of their minister Christmas,Day and the preceding Sunday.                               The result .of this meeting is not yet known to us, but as any
     Rev. and Mrs. Woudenberg -were, called to Grands  Rapids                                visitor can testify, the-need is great for they have already
     to the deathbed of Mrs. Woudenberg's father, and to the                                 outgrown -their`, latest` addition.
     subsequent funeral the.day after Christmas. Rev. Kortering,
     of Hull, conducted Sund.ay evening services for his colleague                               We appreciate the New Year's resolution suggested in
     in  Edgerton Dec. 22.  -~                                                               Southeast's bulletin:."that we as congregation, by the grace
                                                                                             of God, strive for  .more  perfect peace and unity; and as
         The "time to die" of Ecclesiastes  3 : 2' was forcibly brought                      individuals, that `we earnestly contend for the faith once
     to the consciousness of Rev. Heys and his. brothers in De-                              delivered unto, the saints." Indeed, in these endeavors the
     cember. In less than three weeks they were called upon to                               Apostle Paul would like to provoke us to em&ion  rather
     intrust to the grave the bodies of their father and their                               than to list it with the sins catalogued in Galatians 520.
     mother, `sown in incorruption (to be) raised in  incorrup-
     tion."                                                                                      R&ember  that `"disappointnrents"  need only the change
                                                                                             of one letter (an h for a d) and they become `his appoint-
         Did  you know that Rev. Lubbers has been asked to                                   m e n t s . "
     give a course in Greek to a young man of an Episcopal
     Church in Houston? This request came from the young                                         In these days of national religiosity let us keep this text
     man's pastor :that he might be better equipped to -enter                                of warning before our'minds: "And' eve& sP;irit that' con-
     their seminary.                                                                         fesseth..  not that, Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
                                                                                             God; and this is the spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have
         This paragraph was lifted from Doon's bulletin and it                               heard that it should come; and even now already is it in
     tells its own story: "The Consistory wishes to thank all those                          the world." I .John 4:3.
     of the congregation who have donated their time and labor
     in helping .with the new addition to the `parsonage. Rev.                                            see you in church.                                      %
                                                                                                 . . .                                                                          J.M.F.


