        VOLu,xE   XL                                     FEBRUARY  15, 1964 - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                                 Nummt  10

                                                                                    Let's look at the time and circumstances of this miracle.
              M E D I T A T I O N                                                   It was the time of His greatest popularity on' earth. Im-
                                                                                  mense crowds `gathered around Him, so that at times He
                                                                                  would sit in;a little boat away from the shore and speak to
   *                                                                              the multitudes that otherwise  .would throng Him.
           : THE  S&REIGN  OF THE  SEA
                .^.                                                        . .      They came from everywhere to see and to hear Him and
                                                                                  to be cured of their ills. -'
   And  He  aro.se and rebuked the wind,  and  said- unto the sea,
         Peace, be  still. And  the  wind  ceased and there  was a great          -`They-i  &me. from Galilee and,  Judea, from Jerusalem,
         calm,. Mark 4:39;`M.att. 8~23-27; Mark 4:36-41;  Luke 8:22-25            Idumea,   beyondi:Jordan,  `and from Tyre and Sidon.  .There
                                                                                  came even a blaspheming committee of Scribes from Jeru-
  Man! How, great arrd how glorious was man when com-                             salem;' Sometimes conditions were such that they could not
ing from the, Hand of the Creator!                                                eat bread. He raised the dead, threw out demons, healed
  There was literally nothing  .m the earth or in the elements                    the blind; the deaf, the paralytic, de dumb,. etc. And the
which could cause fear in Adam and Eve. All things were                           members of, His family thought Him beside Himself, that
subject to him. He was king.                  _                                   is, they thought Himto be insane.
  Now look at him!                                                                  And it  .was night.  :
  Here is his description by the Holy Ghost: "and deliver                           The Lord had a busy day. What understatement! We%
them who through-fear of death were all their lifetime sub-                       come back to that.                                :       `.,
ject to bondage." Heb. 2: I5                                                        But finally the Lord instructed the apostles to send the
  In the original you read; "all their to live", indicating that                  multitude away, to take a ship and cross over to de other
such bondage was a-matter of constant presence.                                   sideof   theSeaof  G a l i l e e .
  `Fear of death is our element; bondage our perpetual                              So they took Him "as He. was", and attempted to cross
condition.                                                                        t h e   lake..
  Now look at MAN again, but now I write His name in                                                       0       il    P     0
capital letters, for I have in mind Jesus, the Son of God!                          But. . . a great storm arose!
  He is the better Man, the elevated Man, the  glorified~
Man.                                                                                And what a storm that must have been. You get the idea
                                                                                  from the word that is used: "Seisma", which `means earth:
  And He is not simply the King of the earth; He is the                           quake. We have an English word "seismograph", that is;
King of the whole Universe. Unto Him is given all power                           an instrument which records the severity of a.n earthquake.
in heaven and on earth.                                                             It seems as though .the bottom of the lake is shaken by
  He is the great Liberator!                                                      an earthquake..
                                                                                      ."
  Yes, He liberates us from the shackles of sin, death and                          And not only that, `ii is called a great earthquake.
damnation. But He is also.the Liberator from all bondage
here on earth. When He has His abode in your heart, you                             A great earthquake in the waters!
                                                                                                            :`.
are quiet in the  greatest storms and turmoils on the earth.                        You can also sense it by the results. '
  He is the Sovereign of the earth; yes, and also the Sover-                        This story is repeated in Matthew and Luke.' And there
eign of the sea, as is shown in the miracle which we.medi-                        we read that the storm was so great that `the waves beat
tate on today.                                                                    into the ship, so. that it was now full." (Mark) `insomuch
                                                                                  that the ship was covered with waves." (Matt.) "and they
                            8     0     t          15                             were filled with water, and were in jeopardy." (.Luke)


218                                               T H E   STANDARD  BE.ARER

  It was about as far as you can go without going -under.          ing sound of wind and-storm, at the sight of His affrighted
  You can-also note `the severity of this earthquake-storm         disciples: He knows it all!
by the behavior of the apostles.                                     He arises from His bed ( ?).
  Now remember that these men were seamen, fishermen,                See Him stand there!
from their youth. They had spent their entire life on this           His robes waving violently in the driven storm.
Sea of Galilee.                                                      But you can rest assured that not a semblance of fear is
  But now listen to their agonizing cries: `<Lord, save us;        in His heart.
we perish!" Matt.; "&rest Thou not that we perish?!" Mark;           Why?
"Master! Master! we perish!" Luke.                                   Because He is the Sovereign of the sea. He has every-
  I tell you, when sailors start to cry like this, it must have    thing as in the hollow of His hand. You are about to see
been the most terrible tempest they had ever experienced.          the Son of the living God in action.
                                                                     He is so far from fear and dismay because of wave and
                          4     0     PI     0                     gust of wind or raging storm, that He first  tyms to  HIis
  But Jesus is asleep.                                             disciples to give them a mild rebuke, even before He per-
  I promised that I would get back to something I said             forms His miracle. (Matt.)
there: "They took Him even as He was into the ship."                 I said there a mild rebuke and that's what it is. Note the
  Of course, Jesus was asleep. That ties in with the whole         questioning form of speech: Why are ye fearful 0 ye of
context.                                                           little faith? Matt. Why are ye so fearful? How is it that
  Jesus had done an impossible task.                               you have no faith? Mark. Where is your faith? Luke.
  At another place we once read that Jesus noted that vir-           And, of course, it is true. If a man has faith, living faith
tue had gone out from Him. You know, a woman had                   in G,od and in Jesus, he does not act like these disciples.
touched Him.                                                       Faith is quiet, faith knows, faith trusts in God, no matter
                                                                   what.
Can you imagine what it means to perform miracles all
day long? Can you imagine what it means to have the                  Yes, but the waves and the sea, and drowning?
et&al `power of the Triune God go through your frame                 How about suffering, blood and death?
all day long? Besides preaching and teaching all day long            Yes, even in all these things we are more than conquerors
in the midst of His miracles? And they were not few either.        through Jesus who loves us. Thus speaks faith.
Repeatedly we read that they brought all their sick folk to          0, the disciples were not without faith. Note that Christ
Him and He healed them all,                                        speaks of their little faith. They had faith all right. But
  Now do you understand the phrase: They took Him as               here is the point: they did not exercise their faith. And
He  wm?                                                            then you get scared. 0 0 is *
  We will put it in our colloquial idiom: Jesus was dead-
tired. He was spent, wearied to the bone.                            But let us watch the Sovereign of the sea.
And so, when entering the ship He went at once to the                Majestically He arose, rebuked the waves and the sea, or,
hinder- part of the ship, found a pillow for His sweet head,       as others put it: He rebuked the raging of the waters, and
and fell into a deep sleep. And this sleep was so deep that        said unto the sea: Peace, be still!
even the earthquake storm did not wake Him.                          And then something happened that they never forgot.
  And, of course, also this absence of a conscious Jesus             Remember, there was a great earthquake of a storm, and
added to the fear of the disciples. The Master who always          now? There came at once, immediately, A GREAT CALM1
took the lead was asleep. And so they were left to their             The mountainous waves are suddenly gone, the shrieking
own resources.                                                     of the storm like-the shrieking of a thousand devils turns
  Well, these resources came to a sorry end.                       to a beautiful silence, and it is quiet and still. The surface
  There they stand around the bed (?) of Jesus, wringing           of the sea is now as the face of .a mirror.
their hands, and crying in their agony: We are but dead              Yes, I believe that I would have said it too, if I had been
men! Carest Thou not, 0 Master?!                                   there: What manner of man is this that even the wind and
                                                                   the sea obey Him?
                          0     0     u      0                                                Q     0      *    11:
  Jesus awakens.                                                     An interesting story.
  And He knows at once.                                              Yes, but that is the smallest part.
  There is a hymn, and a line comes to me at this juncture:          It is also a great sign.
a true line: He knows, He knows it all!                              Did you note that Jesus rebuked the sea, the wind and
  Well, He did. At the return of consciousness, at the rag-        the waves?                            , .


                                               T H E   STANDARD..BEARE,R                                                                                                                                                                219
  The devil was behind this whole business. God had dele-,                                                                                                                                                                        -
gated power to the devil, and he saw his chance. Here wti                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
have the whole N.T. church: Jesus and His apostles. 1'11,                         Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
                                                                                   Published by `the REFORMED  FREE  PUBLISHING  ASSOCIATION
kill them. Jesus at once recognizes the .hand of the devil                                                      Ed&i-r - REV. Hw HOEKSEMA
and rebukes him.                                                                  Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
  Often the church is iul the midst of such storms, while                         Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,
                                                                                  Mich. Contributions will be limited to 300 words and `rnw be
Jesus is asleep in the hinder  .part of the ship. And the                                                             neatly written or typewritten.
church does not exercise its faith. And when we cry: Jesus,                       All church news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
                                                                                                      1123 Cooper, S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
Master  care& Thou not that we perish? So we cried in                              Announcements. and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included
`24 and in `53.                                                                   must be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below:
  But He rebuked the wind, and the sea, and there came                             All matters relative to subscriptioti  should be addressed to
                                                                                                  Mr. James Dykstra,  1326 W. Bu.tler  Ave., S. E.
a great calm.                                                                                                              Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
  so  it happens in our personal lives and of our family.                             RENEWAL:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
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  We have a song in Holland. I do not know it any more.                              tion to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
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Ody parts of it. "Wij hebben  `s Vaders Zoon  aan boord en                                Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapti, Michigan
`t veilig strand voor `t oog." You have a song here in Amer-
ica.  And I do not know that either. But here is a line or
                                                                                                                                    CONTE.NTS
two: They all shall sweetly (2). obey His will. Peace, be                   __
still! Peace, be still!                                                     MEDITATION-
                                                                                  The Sovereign of the--Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...' .._...........____  217
                                                                 G . V .                           Rev. G. Vos

                                                                            EDITORIALS-
                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                Single or Double Track Theology .._._....... . .  .._....__..____..._  2#l
   The Ladies'.Aid  Society of the First Protestaht  Refoimed  Church                               Rev. H. Hoeksema
of Grand Rapids, Michigan, hereby expresses its heartfelt sympathy
to the Bylsma family in the recent loss of their mother                     OUR DOCTRINE  -
                                                                                        The Doctrine of the Church.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .:.. .222
                        MRS. HATTIE BYLSMA                                                          Rev. H. Hoeksema

   We keenly feel the loss of one of our members, even as the               A CLOUD OF WITNESSES-
family feels the loss of their mother, yet we rejoice in the fzict  &at                 Jephthah's Vow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..226
she is now before de throne OF God to serve Him  night and day                                     Rev. B. Woudenberg
in His temple. Rev. 7:9-17
                                       Mrs. J. Vander Wal, Pres.
                                           Mrs. C. Ha&o,  Sec'y             FROM HOLY WRIT-
                                                                                        Exposition of the Prophecy of Malachi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
                                                                                                    Rev. G. Lubbers

                                                                            IN HIS FEAR -
                   REPORTS TO SYNOD                                                      Faith and Hope Permeated with Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
  Members of Standing Committees and Special Study                                                  Rev.  J. A. Heys
Committees of de Synod are reminded to prepare their                        CONTENDING  FOR THE %AITH  -
reports to synod and send them to undersigned before April                               The Church and the Sacraments : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
15, 1964 so that they may be included in the Agendum.                                               Rev. .H. Veldman
                                   Stated Clerk of Synod
                                      G. Vanden Berg                        T& VOICE  OF .OUR FATHERS -
                                                                                         The Belgic Confession . ..I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,234
                                      9402 So. 53rd Court                                          Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
                                      Oak Lawn, Illinois - 60453
                           --                                               THE t%UP.CH AT wORSHIP.-
                                                                                         The Order of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
                     ANNOUNCEMINT                                                                   Rev. G. .Vanden  Berg
  Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                    ALLAROUNDUS-
meet on March 18 at Edgerton, Minnesota, the Lord will-                                  Space In Heaven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
                                                                                         The Pope In Palestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
ing. All matters for the agendum of this meeting must be                                 Meeting of the NCC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
in the hands of the clerk not less than thirty days before the                                      Rev. H. Hanko
meeting of  Classis.
                                   Rev. G. Van Baren, S.C.                  N E W S F R O M OUR CHURCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~...................................  ..240
                                   Box 222, Randolph, Wisconsin                                     Mr. J. M. Faber


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R - E R
                                                                    L  _
                                                                    .The Christian Reformed Synod, in the Third Point makes
          E  C) I T 0 R I A L S                                   a distinction between saving good and civil good. Let that
                                                                  be as it may, although I do not want to subscribe to the
                                                                  -distinction. Any act of man is either good or evil, i.e., in
       Single Or Double Track Theology                            the moral or ethical sense of the word.
  We must still discuss the Scriptural passages to which            Good is an act when it is motivated by the love of God
the Synod of  .the Christian Reformed Church refers as            and of men; evil an act when'in its deepest root it is moti-
proof for the "Third Point".                                      vated by hatred of God and our fellow men. There is noth-
  In another connection we already discussed the text in          ing else. There can be nothing else. Now, according to the
Luke  6:33.  We will not repeat this here.                        Synod of Kalamazoo, 1924, the unregenerate man can do
                                                                  what is called civil good. Hence, the Synod maintains that
  We must bear in mind that these passages are quoted             a man that is not motivated by the love of God and of the
(without any interpretation) to prove that the natural            neighbor, who, in fact, in his deepest heart is motivated
man can do good.                                                  by enmity against God and against the neighbor, can do
  The texts to which Synod referred are the following:            good. You may call it natural or civil good, -to me that
  II Kings 10:29,  30: "Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam,        makes no difference, - it is not sin but good, in the moral
the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed           and ethical sense of the word.
not from after them,. to wit, the golden calves that were           This I, and all Protestant Reformed people, deny.
inBethel, and that were in Dan. And the Lord said unto              To me, and to all of our people, an act of man is either
Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing that which         good or it is sin.
was right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of
Ahab according to all that. was in mine heart; thy children         But what, then, about Jehu?
of' the fourth generation shall sit on the `throne of Israel."      Did not God Himself say that Jehu did well in executing
                                                                  that which was right in the sight of God?    `.
  II Kings  12:2:  "And Jehoash did that which was right
in the sight' of the Lord all his days wherein Jehoiada the         .Concerning  this I make the following remarks:.
priest instructed him."                                             1. Jehu was, according to Scripture, a wicked man. Be-
                                                                  fore and after the statement that he had done well in execut-
  II Kings  14:3: "And he  (Amaziah)  did that which was          ing that which the Lord had commanded.  him;. we read
right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like David his father:    that "from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,  :who
he did according to all things as Joash his father did." II       made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not .fro.m,  after them, to
Cl-non. 25:2: `And he did that which was right in the sight       wit the golden.calves  that were in Bethel' and that were in
of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart."                       Dan." Is it possible, then, that he could do anything good
  Rom. 2: 14: "For `when .the Gentiles, which have not the        in the moral, ethical sense of the word? The answer to this
law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these,         question is and must be negative.
having not the law, are a law unto themselves." Here                2. It is evident that Jehu was a very able man. As a
Synod refers to vs. 13: "For not the hearers of the law are       soldier and general, he was courageous and undaunted in
just before God, but-the doers of the law shall be justified."    battle. He was thorough in all his work.
Also to Roy. 10:5:  "For Moses describeth the righteousness         3. It is very evident from the entire narrative that Jehu
which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things        saw in the command of God to extinguish the house of
shall live by them." And in Gal. 3: 12: "And the law is not       Ahab a golden opportunity to further his own cause,  -
of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them."       namely, that he might occupy the throne of Israel. That
  Now, what shall we say to these things?                         was Jehu's sole ambition. And that was also the motive for
  What about Jehu? Does the text from II Kings, quoted            all. that he did. His motive was not and could not be the
above, prove that Jehu, under the influence of the Holy           love of God. 0, yes, he did well. Perhaps, we may say that
Spirit (Point II), received grace (common grace is, after         he belonged to those men that are mentioned in Matt. 7:
all, grace) by which he `could do:' good?                         "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
  This, after all, is the question. It is not the question        prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out
whether Jehu was an able general, or whether he was               devils? and in thy name have done many wonderful works?"
zealous in the accomplishment of the task assigned to him.        No doubt, they did all these things. Jehu did de same
All this may readily be granted. Also today the natural           things; he also did wonderful works. But what did the Lord
man is often very able and ambitious. But the question is         say to them? He answered: "I never knew you: Depart from
whether he did good in the moral, ethical sense of the word.      me, ye that work in iniquity."
That is a question of motive. And motive is a matter of the         4. Moreover, for the very thing which Jehu did so well
inner man, of the mind, of the will, of the heart.                he was punished. For thus we read in Hosea  I:4: "And the


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER                                                  221

Lord said unto him, Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little        also refers to Rom. 10:5: "For Moses describeth the right-
while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house        eousness which is of the law, That the man which doe&
of Jehu, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the              those things shall live by them." And once more, it refers
house of Israel." Indeed, Jehu did very well in destroying         to Gal.  3:12: "And the law is not of faith: but, The man
the house of Ahab, but in doing so he was not motivated            that doeth them shall live in them." Apply all this to Rom.
by the fear of the Lord, but his own wicked ambition.              2:14, and you get the teaching: I) that the Gentiles are
Hence, in doing well he sinned.                                    able by nature to keep the law of God; and, 2) that the
  Hence, the text does not sustain the doctrine of the third       Gentiles, doing the things contained in the law, shall be
point that the natural man is able to do good, civil or            justified and live by the things of the law!
otherwise.                                                           How the Synod of Kalamazoo, 1924, could ever teach
  After this rather long elaboration of the example of Jehu,       such evident heresy and such palpable contradiction of
we can afford to be brief on what Scripture relates about          Scripture, I cannot understand.
Jehoash and Amaziah. These examples certainly do not                 If this were true, the heathen would be saved without
prove that there is a gracious influence ("common grace")          C h r i s t .
on the part of God upon the natural man whereby he is                But this is not the meaning of Romans 2: 14.
able to do good, civil or otherwise.                                 The very contrary is true. Nor is this the teaching of the 1
  1. As to Jehoash we read that he did right, not from             Bible in general.
the love of God, nor from the motive of a certain "common
grace"; but he was under the influence of Jehoiada, the              What, then, is the meaning of Rom. 2: 147
priest. And when the priest had died, the king, as is evident        Literally, the text, according to the original reads: "For
from the record we fmd of `him in the second book of               when the Gentiles, having not the law, do by nature the
Chronicles, ch. 24, forsook Jehovah and became wicked.             things of the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto
  2. To Amaziah applies the same thing. Of him we read,            themselves." And in vs. 15, which really belongs to vs. 14,
too, that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, II       we read: `Which shew the work of de law written in their
Kings  14:3. Thus also in II Chronicles  252: "he did that         hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their
which was right in the sight of the Lord." We must under-          thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one.
stand, in the first place, that this "right in the sight of the    another." What does it mean? The text certainly does not
Lord" refers to that which he did as king, particularly, to        mean that the Gentiles keep the law, but it does mean that
certain reforms he brought about. But, in the second place,        without revelation they do themselves what the law did for.
he did this "not as David his father," and he did it not           Israel. And what did de law do for the Old  .Testament
`with a perfect heart." Whatever his motives may have been,        people of God? The law distinguished, in the various de-
he did it                                                          partments of life, between what is good and what is evil: it
              not from "a perfect heart," not from the love of
Jehovah his God and, therefore, whatever he did was not            is good to serve the true God, to keep the sabbath, to obey
good, but was sin. That this is true is evident from what          those that are in authority over us, to preserve the neigh-
we read in II Chronicles  2514ff.: "Now it came to pass,           bor's life, to live chastely, to speak the truth; on de other
after Amaziah had come from the slaughter of the Edomites,         hand, it is not good to serve false gods, to desecrate the
that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set          sabbath, to violate or go against authority, to kill, to steal,
them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before              to swear a false oath, etc. Those are the things which i$he
them, and burned incense before them." And when a                  law did for Israel. And those are the things which the Gen-
prophet of God came to rebuke him, he said to the prophet:         tiles did, in a general way, for themselves. In making laws
"Art                                                               for and unto themselves, they plainly revealed that they
         thou made of the king's counsel? Forbear; why should-
est thou be smitten?"                                              could distinguish between good and evil. But this surely
                                                                   does not mean that they kept the law even as far as they
  I say again that the mere fact that a man can and does           knew it. The law was not written in their hearts, but the
something right is no proof at all that so-called "common          work of the law. And having that work of the law in their
grace" restrains him from sin. On the contrary, at the same        hearts, they, nevertheless, transgressed the law. And thus
time that he does well, he sins against God.                       they were without excuse in the day of the righteous judg-
  We must still call attention to Rom. 2:14, the text I al-        ment of God.
ready quoted above.                                                  At any rate, it is not difficult for any one to admit that
  It seems that the Synod meant to teach, on the basis             this is the correct interpretation of Romans 2:14. And the
of this text, that the heathen are able to keep the law of         Synod of Kalamazoo utterly failed to produce Scriptural
God, and, in fact, that they do keep it. For it refers to          proof for the Third Point.
Rom. 2:13: "For not the hearers of the law are just before            If Prof. Kuiper disagrees, I wish he would offer his own
God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." And it          explanation.                                              H.H.


 &.j                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                    And &at this smacks of Arminianism and Pelagianism goes
 b-ii-i DOCTRI'NE   1 without saying.
                                                                      We must therefore maintain that sacraments do not seal
                                                                    the persons that receive the sacrament, head for head and
         THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH                                 soul for soul. Nor do they seal an objective bequest  or
                                                                    promise of salvation to everyone that receives- the sign Of
                         &APTF.R VII                                the sacrament. According to Scripture, however, the sacra-
                                                                    ments seal the righteousness which is out of faith. The
           THE IDEA OF THE SACRAMENT`S                              seal, therefore, can only be meant for the believer, and
                                                                    therefore, for the elect. That is why the element of faith
   Only, it depends upon the acceptance of this gracious be-        was emphasized in all the quotations from the Reformed
quest on the part of God, whether or not the sacrament              symbols which we have already mentioned. In the sacra-
is applicable to and valid for him that receives it. This           ment God assures with an oath that He reckons faith unto
view of the sacrament is the conception of the late Profes-         righteousness. Hence,  throug,h  the same sacrament He as-
sor Heyns, who taught for many years in the Seminary of             sures the believers in Jesus Christ that He will surely grant
the Christian Reformed Church. And it is also the view              unto them, without doubt, the grace of. His covenant and
of the Liberated in the Netherlands, or those that belong           the salvation promised to them. In other words, the sacra-
to the Reformed Churches under Article 31.. According to            ments, like the preaching of the gospel, are not general, but
this conception, the essence of the covenant is the promise         particular. Even as the promises of the gospel are  pticu-
of, God. And the distinction is made between the objective          lar, and are only for the believer, that is, therefore, in last
bequest of salvation on the part of God and the subjective          analysis, for the elect, so also the seal of the sacrameht  is
acceptance of that bequest on the part of the believer. In          a particular seal. The sacrament sets the inviolable seal
the Baptism Form, Heyns made the distinction between the            of God upon the unbreakable  cormection  between faith
work of the Father and the Son, on the one hand, and the            and righteousness, without the works of @e law.  This is
work of the Holy Spirit, on the other. In the sacrament             evidently the, meaning of Romans 4:ll: "And he received
God the Father "witnesseth and sealeth unto us, that he             the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the
doth make an eternal covenants  of- grace with us, and adopts       faith which he had yet being uncircumcised." Sacraments
us for his children and heirs, and therefore will provide           have no positive value and meaning, except for the believer.
us  wfth every good thing and avert all evil or turn it to          Without faith one can never appeal to the outward sign
our profit." And according to this same Baptism Form, the           of the sacrament as a proof that he is saved. The sign has
Son `sealeth unto us,  that he doth wash us in his blood            indeed significance also for the unbeliever that receives the
from all our sins, incorporating us into the fellowship of          sign: but it is to his condemnation. This does not mean
his death and resurrection, so that we are freed from all our       that God through the sacrament ever lies. The sacraments
sins and accounted righteous before God." All this, accord-         never lie: for they testify that they are the seal of the right-
ing to Heyns, belongs to God's objective bequest of grace           eousness which is of faith. No more than the promise of
and salvation. It is the promise of God which is applicable         the gospel lies when it declares that all those that believe
to all that receive the sacrament. But whether those that           in Jesus Christ shall have eternal life, no more do the sacra-
partake of this sacrament will also actually receive that           ments lie when they seal the very promise of the gospel.
.salvation  depends upon the subjective state of him that           But exactly because it is faith that is required in the true
receives it, that is, upon the faith of the believer, and there-    participation of the sacraments, and faith is not of man,
fore, upon the acceptance on his part of the bequest and            but the work of God through the Holy Spirit, the author of
,of the promise of God. And therefore Heyns wapts to read           faith, therefore the sacraments, as well as the gospel, are
that part of the Baptism Form that speaks of the applica-           ultimately only for the elect. And just. as for the unbeliev-
tion of salvation and of all that we have in Christ by the          ing reprobate the gospel is a savor of death unto death, so
Holy Spirit in such a way that it is really dependent upon          also the sacrament, whether of baptism or of holy commun-
the choice and will of man. God the Father and God the              ion, is a savor of death unto death for those that have no
`Son objectively grant and bequest all that is included in the      faith. It is only to the believers, and therefore to the elect,
Baptism Form to everyone that receives this sacrament of            that in the sacraments God se& His salvation.
baptism. But when it comes to the Holy Spirit, Heyns wants            The sacraments, however, are signs and seals that are in-
to emphasize that the Baptism Form does not say that the            stituted by God in the church. God ordained them and
Spirit does dwell in us, but that He will dwell in us, apply-       separated them unto the purpose of sacraments. Bread, wa-
ing unto us all that we have in Christ. But this is impossible,     ter, and wine are indeed adapted in creation to be signs
because it really excludes from the objective bequest or from       of the grace of Christ. But without anything else, they are
the promise of God the work of the Holy Spirit and the              not sacramental signs. This they become through the fact
.application  of all the blessings of salvation to the elect.       that God  separated  them and ordained them specifically to


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             223

be signs of His salvation. This implies, of course, that the          The Second ,Helvetic  Confession `explains the sigdcance
church receives the Bacraments  in order that they should          of baptism as follows: 1) Baptism can be administered OI&+
be observed and administered by her. That this is true is          once, for "once received, it doth continue all man's life, and
evident from Scripture. That God instituted circumcision in        is a perpetual sealing of our adoption unto us." 2) Baptism
the old dispensation as a sign and seal of the righteousness       is a sign and seal of our being enrolled and received into
which is by faith is evident from Genesis  17:9-11:  "And          the covenant and family and into de inheritance of the
God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant,                sons of God. 3) It is a sign and seal of our being purged
therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.     from all our sins by the blood of Christ and of our adoption
This is. my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and          unto children of God. And, 4) it is also a sign and seal of
you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you             our inward regeneration and renewal through the Holy
shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of         spirit.
your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant be-            The Belgic Confession teaches, in Article 34: 1) That
twixt me and you." The same is true of the Passover. It            baptism is instituted instead of circumcision. 2) That by
also was definitely instituted by God for the church of the        baptism we are received into the church of. God  .and sepa-
old~  dispensation, as is evident from Exodus  12:14:  `And        rated from the whole world, that we may wholly belong to
this  day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall           God. 3) That by baptism God testifies that He will forever
keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye        be our gracious God and Father. 4) That baptism is a sign
shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever." And -@at          of tke washing away of the filth of our soul and of regenera-
baptism was instituted by God through Christ is also very          tion from children of wrath unto children of God. 5) It is
evident from Scripture. Matthew  28:19 reads: "Go ye               emphasized that this is not effected by the external water,
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name       but by the grace of God: "washing, cleansing, and purging
of the Father, and bf the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." And,        ,our souls of all filth and unrighteousness; renewing our
copcerning the Lord's_ Sw.pper, in I Corinthians 11:23-27  the     hearts, and filling them with all comfort, giving unto us a
apostle Paul speaks of having received the ordinance of            true assurance of his fatherly goodness; putting on us the
the Lord's Supper as a special revelation: "For I have re-         new man, and pu@.ng off the old man with all his deeds."
ceived of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you,              The .French Confession of Faith, Article 35, teaches the
That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was be-             following concerning baptism: 1)  That  baptism  is a sign
trayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake          and seal of our incorporation into the body of Christ, and
it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken          therefore of its resulting benefits, that is, the washing away
for you: this do in remembrance of tie. After the same             of our sins, and &e renewal by i$e Holy Spirit. And, 2) it
manner also he took the cup, when he had, supped, saying,          emphasizes that the grace of baptism is not limited to thg
This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as          moment when we are baptized, but continues throughout
oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as          our whole life.
ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's          The Scotch Confession of Faith does not contain a sepa-
death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this             rate article on the sacrament of holy baptism, but it speaks
bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be        in Article 21 of sacraments in general; and in this article
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." Sacraments,             -it has the following sentence concerning the sacrament of
therefore, are signs and seals of God's eternal covenant that      baptism: "No, we assuredly believe that by baptism we are
are instituted by God through Christ, to be administered           ingrafted into Christ Jesus, to be made  partakers  of his
and to be received by the church.                                  justice, by which our sins are covered and remitted." Hence,
                       CI     8     0.e                            also in this article we are taught that baptism is a sign and
                       CHAPTER  VIII                               seal of our incorporation into the body of Christ and of the
             THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM                              washing away of our sins.
  The Reformed confessions all emphasize the significance            In the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England
and the importance of the sacrament of baptism. Thus, the          baptism is presented as follows, Article 27:
First Helvetic Confession, for instance, in Article 21, empha-       1) Baptism is a sign whereby the people of God are dis-
sizes four elements concerning baptism: in the first place,        tinguished from the world.
that on the basis of Titus 3:s baptism is designated as the          2) Baptism is also a sign of regeneration, or of the riew
washing of regeneration. Secondly, it teaches that it is a         birth.
visible sign administered through the administration of the          3 ) Baptism is an instrument whereby they that rightly
church. Thirdly, it emphasizes that baptism is such a sign         receive the sacrament are grafted into the church of Christ.
only for the elect. And finally, this article of the First Hel-    We may note here that it is emphasized that only those
vetic Confession teaches that children are baptized because        that rightly receive the sacrament are thus ingrafted into
they belong to the people of God and are presumed to be            the body of Christ.
elect.  :                                                            4) Baptism is a visible sign and seal of the promises. of


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the forgiveness of sins and the adoption unto sons of God           baptism of John for the church of the new dispensation?
by the Holy Ghost.                                                  The  Ron&h Church rejects the idea that the baptism of
  5) Baptism is a means of grace for the confirmation and           John is .essentially  the same as Christian baptism. In the
strengthening of our faith.                                         Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Session VII,
                                                                    on baptism, canon 1, we read: "`If anyone saith that the
  We will not quote any more of the early confessions. All          baptism of John had the same force as the baptism of
we have to remark is that the Westminster Confession of             Christ: let him be anathema."
Faith repudiates the theory that baptism is based on pre-
sumptive regeneration; and it also seems to irnply that the           But even among Reformed theologians there are those
eflicacy  of baptism is experienced only by the elect.              that deny the identity of the two baptisms. They point,
                                                                    for instance, to the fact that Acts 19:1-6  clearly speaks of
  We must now, first of all, in our exposition of the sacra-        some that were baptized by John and were rebaptized by
ments call attention to the fact that these, that is, the sacra-    Paul. The passage is well-known; nevertheless, I will quote
ments, must be divinely instituted, and that too, in the            it here: "And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at
church. In the old dispensation there were many washings,           Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came
or puriiications.  But they had no sacramental value, for the       to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto
simple reason that they were not instituted to be observed          them, Have ye received the Holy~Ghost  since ye believed?
by the whole church, but regulated special cases, such as           And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard
a.woman after child-birth, contact with a corpse or carcass,        whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them,
or:eating that which died of itself. The same may be said           Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto
of the baptism of proselytes. Proselytes were also baptized,        John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with
as a sign, together with their circumcision, of their incorpo-      the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that
ration into the Jewish nation. Also this indicates that             they should believe on him which should come after him,
baptism  .as such was by no means an unknown rite, or               that is,  oa Christ Jesus. When they heard. this, they were
ceremony. But'hevertheless, it was not on the level of the          baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." vss. 1-5.
rite of baptism as it was instituted by Christ to be observed         The question is: where in this passage must be found the
by the entire church.                                               extent ofthe address of Paul to these men? For the passage
  The importance of this is realized also by the Heidelberg         continues as follows: "And when Paul had laid his hands
Catechism. Hence, it devotes an entire question and answer          upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake
to the institution of baptism, as follows:                          with other tongues, and prophesied." But even in the
  Where has Christ promised us, that he will as certainly           passage which we quoted, without verse 6, the question
wash us by his blood and Spirit, as we are washed with              remains: are the words of the apostle Paul included in the
the water  of.baptism?                                              whole passage, that is,  especially  also verse  5? If this is
                                                                    the case, the apostle teaches that the baptism of John was
  `In the institution of baptism, which is thus expressed:          identical with the baptism of Jesus. And this interpretation
%o ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in          seems to be the most probable. The clause in verse 5, "when
.+e `name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy            they heard this," may indeed, although not necessarily, leave
Ghost,' `he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved;        the impression that when these men heard the words of
but he that believe&  not, shall be damned.' This promise           Paul, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
is also  rep$ated,  where the Scripture calls baptism the           But in the original we have only the simple participle for
washing of regeneration, and the washing away of sins."             `When they heard thiz?" so: that, we have the perfect right
  That baptism is an institution of God through Christ in           to translate instead of "When they heard this," simply, "And
the church must be emphasized; and it is important that             having heard him." In that case, the speech of Paul to the
this is clearly understood and shown. Many in our day               men addressed reaches unto the end of verse 5, and, in fact,
attach no significance to baptism as a sacrament. To them           also to verse 6, so that we may translate: `Then said Paul,
it is a mere formality. The baby must be christened. At             John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, say-
best, this means that the child is marked as a member of            ing only to the people that they should believe on him
some church, and that it is not a mere heathen. Others              which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus; and
simply deliberately reject baptism altogether, and con-             those that heard John were indeed baptized in the name of
temptuously speak of "water baptism." And water baptism,            the' Lord Jesus." In that case, of course, the text does not
according to them, has no signi&ance  whatsoever; one must          refer to any baptism by Paul, but rather tells us that Paul
simply be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not with water. It         instructs those twelve men that the baptism of John had
is therefore very important that attention is called to the         the same significance as the baptism of Jesus, and that,
institution of baptism as of a divine appointment and               therefore, when they were baptized by  John, they were
ordinance.                                                          baptized at the same time in the name of the Lord Jesus
   Let us ask, first of all, what is the significance of the        Christ. In favor of this interpretation is also the fact that


                                          THE,  S T A N D A R D   `BEA-RER                                                  225

Paul is not presented as taking any action until the sixth         people; for all hold John as' a prophet. And they answered
verse, which informs us, as I already quoted, that when            Jesus and said; We cannot tell. And he said unto them,
Paul had laid hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upoti           Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."
them; and they spake with other tongues and prophesied.            Matt.  2123-27.  Besides, we read that Jesus and  John
If the text had meant to teach that Paul rebaptized those          baptized for a time simultaneously: "After these things
men, it would undoubtedly have read as follows: "`And              came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea; and
when Paul had thus spoken to them, he baptized them in             there he tarried with them, and baptized. And John also
the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he had laid hands             was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim,  because there was
upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they                 much water there: and they came, and were baptized."
spake with other tongues and prophesied."                          John 3:22,  23. Also this shows rather clearly that de bap-
                                                                   tism of John at the time was essentially, at least, the same
  It must be admitted, as to the identity of the baptism of        as the baptism of Jesus Himself.
John and the baptism of Jesus, that certainly baptism was            I must also say a word about the baptism of Jesus by
not formally instituted until the  gloriilcation  of Christ and    John. Of this we read in Matthew 3:X3-I.7:  "Then cometh
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Only then do we read            Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of
definitely that the disciples are commanded to go and to           him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be bap-
teach all nations, "baptizing them in the name of the Father,      tized of thee, and comest  thou to me? And Jesus answering
and of the Son, and of .the Holy Ghost." Matt. 28:19.  Not         said unto him, Suffer it tot be so now: for thus it becometh
only this, but at the time when John was baptizing, circum-        us to .fulill all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And
cision was still the sign and seal of the righteousness which      Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway  out of
is by faith; and that sign was not yet replaced by baptism,        the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and
as in the days of the new dispensation. John indeed, as' he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and light-
the greatest of all the prophets, stood on the very threshold      ing upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is
of the kingdom of heaven. Nevertheless, he belongs to those        my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
still that were in the old dispensation. For the same reason
John baptized only Israelites, and that too, evidently only          In this connection we must also ask the question: why
adult Israelites. Children were not baptized by John. Yet          was Christ Himself baptized? How, if the baptism of John
the fact remains that the baptism of John had essentially          was a sign of the remission of sins and could be received
the same signiilcance  as the baptism of Christ. It was the        only upon the repentance of the same, was it possible that
baptism of the remission of sins. For we read in Matthew           Christ could be baptized? Christ knew no sin. He was the
3:5, 6: "Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and         Person of the Son of God in human nature. He was holy,
all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of            undefiled, separate from sinners. He had no consciousness
him in Jordan confessing their sins.`" And also in Mark 1:4        of sin. How, then, could he properly receive the sign of
we read: "John did baptize in the wilderness, and preached         the forgiveness of sins? This seems to be a paradox; yet in
the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Besides,     reality it was very proper and necessary that also Jesus
there can be no doubt about the fact that the baptism of           Himself should be baptized. It is true, of course, that as an
John was divinely ordained. For of this we read in John            individual He was not a subject for baptism. For He in-
1:33:  "And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize         deed was without sin, holy and undefiled, and therefore had
with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt            no need of repentance and had no need of the forgiveness
see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same           of sins at all. But it is different as soon as we conceive of
is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." This is also           Him as the' Head of His church. With that church He was
true with regard to the question which Jesus puts to the           legally one, representing them before the face of God. The
chief priests and elders of the people when they question          sins of all His people were upon Him. Hence, as being
Him about the authority upon which He did those things,            under the law He was circumcised; and as being the end
that is, especially the cleansing of the temple: `And when         of the law, it was necessary that He should be baptized.
he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders      His baptism was unique in this sense; that it was a sign of
of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said,          His own sacrifice and of His own blood. This was His real
By what authority doe& thou these things? and who gave             baptism, of which the baptism of John was only a mere
thee this authority? And Jesus answered and said unto              sign. He said later to the sons of Zebedee, when they ap-
them, I also will ask you one thing, which if ye will tell me,     proached Him with the request that He would grant them
I will tell you by what authority I do. these things. The          that they might sit one on His right hand and the other on
baptism of Jolm,  whence was it? from heaven, or of men?           His left hand in His glory: `Ye know not what ye ask: can
And they reasoned with themselves saying, If we shall say,         ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with
From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then              the baptism that I am baptized with?" Mark 10:38.
believe him? But if we shall say, Of men;- we fear the                                                                     H.H.


 2 2 6                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                   life should be given in complete consecration to God, even
1 A  ,CLCiID  OF'WITNESSES  11 asthe carcass of the animal was completely consumed with
                                                                   fire.
                                                                   ,  -. In the second place, it was evident, however, that Jeph-
                                                                   thah in his vow had in mind nothing so common as an
                       Jephthah's Vow                              ordinary animal of his flock. He vowed to present to the
          And                                                      Lord "whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house
                  Jephthah  vowed a now unto  t7ae LORD, and
      said, If thou shalt without fail  deliver  the children      to meet me." There has always been, of course, a tendency
      of Ammon into mine hands,                                    to interpret this to mean that Jephthah expected that the
          Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth  of       first to come out to meet him upon his return from battle
      the doors  of  my house to meet me, when I return in         would be some animal that he kept around the house. But
      peace from the children  of  Amman,  shall surely be         a little thought quickly brings out the impossibility of this.
    the LORD's and I will offer it up for a burnt  ofiering.       Such animals as were suitable for sacrifices in the Old Tes-
                                                                   tament times were not such as one would keep in the
                                              Judges 11: 30,31     house; nor could they be expected to come out to greet
  The king of Ammon refused at the reasoning of Jephthah           one on his return. Neither would it constitute much of a
to withdraw his forces from the oppression of Israel; and          promise to vow to offer such a sacrifice. That would be
the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. From him went           expected of anyone returning victoriously from battle.
forth the call to all of Israel to come and fight the battle       Jephthah's vow was exceptional in that he promised to
of the Lord against Ammon; but from the tribes west of             present unto the Lord, not a substitionary animal, but a
the river he received no answer. Only ,in Gilead with the          member of his own household in complete consecration unto
tribes of Manasseh, Reuben, and Gad was there any sym-             Him. Even more, it would be that member of his  house-
pathy for his calling. Thus Jephthah went back and forth           house which would come forth first from his house in recog-
through the laud.. east :of.,.the  Jordan gathering together an    nition of the victory that God would give unto him. He
army against Am&n.                                                 surely must have realized that it might well be his only
  At last what force he could gather was ready, and he             daughter, whom he loved dearly, or his wife, if she was
marched with it toward the strongholds of Ammon. As                still living, or else one of his servants.
they went Jephthah was very conscious of the foolishness             Thus, finally, it could not have been his intent to present
of this action from a human ,point of view. His force was          this sacrifice through the shedding of blood upon an altar.
small, especially in comparison with the Ammonites, while          This was the manner of presenting an animal to the Lord
Amman  had the experience which he and his men did not.            because it was the only manner in which a non-rational
He and his men had only one thing upon which to rely,              creature could be of service in the worship of God; but it
the power with which Jehovah their God was able to work            could not be used in the presentation of a rational, moral
through them. Struggling with his own weaknesses and               person. The shedding of human blood upon the altar was
doubts, Jephthah knew where to go; he went to the Lord             indeed the custom of certain heathen nations in the utter
in prayer. It was then, to demonstrate how seriously he            depths of their depravity; but before the Lord such prac-
felt the need of God to bless them, that Jephthah made a           tices were the greatest of abominations. This Jephthah
vow. The vow which he made before God was this, "If                knew, for he was perfectly familiar with the law of `God
thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into         as he had revealed in his communications with the king of
mine hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth         Ammon. In the service of Jehovah there was a much higher
of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in              function which a living person could fill: it was the sacrifice
peace from. the children of Ammon, shall surely be the             of all earthly pleasures for a life of complete dedication to
LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." It is        the service of God and of His tabernacle. There is ample
well that we should examine this vow more closely, for it          evidence in the Old Testament that such lives of complete
is easily misunderstood.                                           sacrifice to the service of God were not uncommon, as the
  In the first place, we should note what was the basic idea       life of the Nazarites, and even of a small boy, such as
of the burnt-offering. The burnt-offering was a sacrifice of       Samuel, in the tabernacle. It was undoubtedly a sacrifice
complete consecration unto God. In it  the object offered          such as this which Jephthah had in mind,
was given completely to God, with nothing being left over            There is perhaps one more question which we should
for the service of man. Thus in the burnt-offering of the          consider at this point. That is how Jephthah could promise
tabernacle the carcass of the victim offered was burned            such a sacrifice of life for a person other than himself. One
until it was completely consumed. It was an offering that          thing should first be remembered, namely, that Jephthah
was presented in a person's awareness of his weakness and          was not excusing himself, for his life was already dedicated
of his sinful nature. The animal was for him in the nature         to the service of God. He had received the office of judge
of a substitute. Through it the offerer confessed that his         in Israel and would continue to serve in that o&e as long


                                          TH.E'  STANDARt)   B E A R E R                                                       227

as he lived. That which he was promising, therefore, was          But now Jephthah's daughter was all that was left of his
a sacriilce from his own household in addition to that which      family and name, and in consequence- of  his  VOW-  she
he was already making. In doing so he must have been              could not marry nor bear seed. It was Jephthah's own name
completely confident in the willingness of every member of        and position in the Israel of de future that was being
his household to make this sacrifice which he was promis-         sacrificed.
ing. He had worshipped with them often, and he knew                 It speaks of the greatness of love and depth of feeling
their hearts and the love of God which they held. He felt         that existed between Jephthah and his daughter that she
able to speak as the spiritual head of his household, know-       answered him as she did. Speaking  without complaint or
ing that every member would be ready to abide by his              a trace of bitterness, she said, "My father, if thou hast
promise.                                                          opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to
  Having made his vow, Jephthah went on to battle. The            that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch
account of this battle is very brief, telling us little more      as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine ene-
than that Jephthah was given a great victory, overthrowing        mies, even of the children of Amman." This was the voice
twenty cities and subduing the Ammonites completely. Thus         of a child who was no longer a child; she had arrived at
Israel was saved once again from its enemies.                     spiritual maturity before God. She showed complete respect
  The more detailed narrative takes up again  with the re-        and obedience to the vow of her father and to the name
turn of Jephthah to his home. The news of his great vic-          of the Lord before Whom it was made.
tory had gone before him. As he approached his home, his            Neither was it that Jephthah's daughter was without
only daughter, who was very dear to him, burst forth from         natural feeling or mature judgment with which to evaluate
the door of the house singing and dancing as she came to          the importance of what was asked of her. She realized full
meet him. Her timbrels  were in her hands, and joy radiated       well and grieved for it. This  is. evident from the request
from her face. It was then that the full impact of the vow        she addressed to her father, "Let this thing be done for
he had made hit Jephthah. It was now this daughter whom           me": she asked, "Let me alone two months, that I may go
he would have to present as a living sacrifice unto the           up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity,
service of God. To him and his home she was lost forever.         I and my fellows."
Struck with anguish he cried .out, "Alas, my daughter! thou
hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that             With a heart too heavy to say more, Jephthah answered
trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD,             merely, "Go."
and I cannot go back."                                              A more touching scene than the procession which left
  It must have been a sad and touching scene which took           the village the next morning to make .its way up the moun-
place there before the house of Jephthah. There was the           tain could hardly be imagined. These were young girls,
father, tattered, weary and haggard from the battle; and          usually gay and light-hearted; but now a special burden
the daughter, just coming to maturity, with all of the fresh-     weighed upon their hearts. One of their number was leav-
ness and sparkle of youth. Slowly and gently he must              ing them to meet with them no `more. It was not through
have explained to her the vow which he had made before            the usual way of marriage, for then they would have re-
the Lord, why he made it, and what it would mean for her.         joiced in her behalf; she had so often dreamed and planned
Henceforth she would have to leave her home and live a            with them concerning the weddings, husbands, and families
life of complete dedication to God, without marriage, and         they hoped to have. That was why, as  now-  they went;
without many of the pleasures of life which most people           they mourned. Jephthah's daughter was sacrificing all of
enjoy.                                                            this for the service of Jehovah. They were going with her
  Most painful of the results of this vow for both Jephthah       to mourn that which now she would never have. Modesty
and his daughter was the fact that henceforth it would be         forbade that it should be done publicly in de village before
impossible for her to marry and therefore  to' bring forth        the men. For two months they went together into the quiet
seed. Particularly in the nation of Israel was .&is diflicult.    of the mountains to bewail the virginity of their sister.
Israel was a nation that lived always with its eye to the           When finally they returned, Jephthah's daughter was
future. As a nation it was founded upon a promise, and            ready. We do not know what manner of service it was
lived by faith in that promise. All that took place was only      that she rendered; but even as he had vowed, so Jephthah
preparatory to the day when the promised son of Abraham           gave his daughter to the service of Jehovah. The result
would appear and the true and spiritual kingdom of Israel         was that it did more to establish his name in Israel than
would be established forever. Every true Israelite lived          anything else. Jephthah himself continued to live and labor
in anticipation of that day. And then as each generation          for a short six years longer; but his daughter was remem-
came to maturity, and as yet the promise was not realized,        bered by the daughters of Israel unto many generations,
that generation would look to the next to maintain its name       and yearly they went forth to praise the memory of the
and position in the nation `until the coming of the Messiah,      sacrifice which she had made.                           B.W.

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

                                                                  `by faith". Heb.  11:20. Isaac had "trembled exceedingly".
11. F R 0  AA  H 0  L Y W R  P  I- 11 Why? Because he saw, that, through the deception of
                                                                  Jacob, the LORD had thwarted his purpose to bless Esau,
                                                                  who had, by selling his birthright for a mess of pottage, de-
        Exposition of the Prophecy of Malachi                     spised  the  birthright!
       The Sovereign Love  of  the LORD for Jacob-Israel           He indeed blessed also Esau "concerning things to come";
                  Malachi 1: l-5 - continued                      but, as we pointed out in our former essay, Esau will have
  We cannot close our discussion and exposition of these          the place of subservience. Esau will come to an ignoble
first five verses of the first chapter of Malachi without say-    end; He must be great for twelve to fourteen centuries,
ing a bit more in detail about the hatred of the LORD for         only to demonstrate that "Esau have I hated"!
Esau. This hatred for Esau is, indeed, not presented and            We stated above that there is here something of the
mentioned here as a fact by itself; it is emphatically stated     dreadful and awful finality of God's finished work upon
by the LORD to show Israel, on this background, that the          earth in the end of Edom. Let us try to see what the LORD
love of God for Jacob is entirely sovereign. It is not of him     here states concerning Edom. Verse 3 speaks of the "moun-
that  willeth,  nor of him that runneth. Nevertheless, we         tains" of Edom as well as of Edom's "inheritance". The
must briefly analyze and trace this hatred of the LORD for        question may be asked: what is meant by the term "mom+
Esau as this is taught and traced out in the Old Testament        tains"? Does this refer to literal mountains and hills, or is
Scriptures, both as to Esau's person and as'to his posterity,     this figurative speech? We do know that the mountain is
Edom as a nation!                                                 the highest point of the land, and is often a symbol of a
  There is something cuhninative in de text,  "`And Esau          nation's glory, pride and strength. Then de phrase would
have I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and            mean that the LORD will humble the pride of Edom. Pride
gave his inheritance to the dragons of the wilderness".           is. self-elevation. Thus we read in Isaiah  16:6: `We have
There is a  finahty here in these words which shuts the           heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; even of
mouth of  ,unbelievers with irrefutable evidence. It has          his arrogancy,  and his pride and his wrath.; his boastings
come to pass!                                                     are nought." If the phrase refers literally to the mountains
  Lest it be misunderstood that Esau as a person was hated        of  Edom, it must mean that the Lord is going to change
of the LORD, .let it be noticed that Esau was a profane           the very earth's surface. The beauty of the land will be
man. He was what the Greek calls "bebeelos",  that is, one        taken away, and God will make a desert of it. That Edom
who did not distinguish between what was in the Sanctuary         has an "inheritance'" does not refer to an eternal inheritance,
of God and dedicated to God and His service, and what             but must simply refer to the land which they called after
was common. He did not and could not differentiate. He            their  -name, when they took it from the inhabitants of
did not desire the difference between the church and the          Mount Seir. Gen.  36:7.  They took it by force and dwelt
world, between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of            there. Yet, this was not outside of the providential guidance
the woman. He belonged to all those who are born in the           of the LORD, who determines Edom's appointed seasons
line of the Covenant and who, nevertheless, hate God. He          and the bounds of his habitation. Acts 17:26.
did not belong to those who love God because they are               What did the LORD do to Edom? He made his moun-
&t-beloved  of Him.                                               tain to be a "desert". The Hebrew term for desert is really
,"Esau have I hated" must refer,  ilrst of all, to him as a       the term  "Shamamah".       It is from the root of the verb
person. It was before the person, Esau, had done good or          "Slzameem" which means: to be astonished. The primary
evil, that it was said to Rebekah: the elder shall serve the      notion is that of silence, being put to silence. One who is
younger. And thus it is presented by Paul in Romans 9:11-         astonished is completely stunned, in a paralyzed condition.
.13. Were it thus, that God hated Esau for his evil works' Hence, the mountain of Edom and all her greatness will be
sake, then it would be because of his not willing and not         such that it is an utter astonishment, a cause for silence.
running. But that is emphatically excluded in Remans  9: 12.      It will have written upon it indelibly: the judgment of the
And if any then ask the brutal question: "Why doth he then        LORD! Only thus would this great change in Edom be
.find fault? For who withstandeth his will?" the answer           understandable and have meaning after so many centuries
must be: `Who art thou that repliest against God". Romans         of greatness. For the LORD says: I have rendered it thus.
9: 19,20.                                                         He has caused it to come to pass. The verb in Hebrew is
  We see a bit of this mouth-stopping reality in Isaac's          "aashim",  Kal. future of  "&urn", the future of volition.
blessing of Esau. Jacob had, indeed, deceived his father          God has set, has placed it thus, and rendered it such an
Isaac, and obtained the preeminent blessing. When Esau            object of astonishment.
returns from the field and learns that Jacob has prevented
him, he weeps with tears. And even though Isaac loved               Surely, here we see an indignation which is not to be
Esau and would have given him the blessing, he does not           repented of.
change the blessing, but refuses to change it. He does this         The change is so completely different from what happens


                                          T H E   ST.ANDARD   !B,EAR-ER                                                       2.24

to a nation that is conquered by another nation and made           our first instahnent in the Jan. 1, 1964 issue. There we
tributary. That had happened to Edom during the reign              called attention to the  nature  of the sins of the priests
 of David. But now the land of Seir is no longer inhabited.        which are rebuked in our prophets. They are the  sink of
The dwelling-place of man is made the abode of only the            apostates, we saw: principally the sin of Jeroboam, de son
most savage of wild beasts. The term for the wild beasts, in       of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. We need not elaborate,
Hebrew  "tarwaoth",   is translated in different Bible transla-    but for the rest we refer the attentive reader to the afore-
tions variously. It is rendered: dragons, monsters and             mentioned essay.
jackals. It was possibly a wild dog, the wolf and fierce
scavengers of the wilderness who lurk for their prey to              The remarks we here desire to make pertain to de rela-
forage a meager livelihood. What a picture of Edom's heri-         tionship of this part ,of the prophecy to, the fundamental
tage. Such is the description of all the great cities of man       key-note of "Jacob have I loved". For this entire section
when God comes to destroy. It is noteworthy, that, when            which we now will consider deals still with this problem.
Solomon had finished building the temple, he is told by the        It demonstrates very graphically and emphatically that it
LORD that if Israel will go and' serve other gods, and wor-        is not all Israel that is out of Israel. The mere fact that the
ship them, then they will become a proverb and a byword            priests, that Levi, is out of Jacob's loins through Leah, does
amongall  people, and "at-this house, which is high, every         not mean that they also are the beloved of God, the Seed
one that passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss, and     &led in Isaac! For the principle here too is: say not, We
`they shall say, Why bath the LORD done thus unto this             have Abraham as our fader! It is not a mere coincidence
land, and to this house?" The same destruction would come          that John, the Lord's messenger, preached to all desecraters
upon Israel which turned from the LORD.                            of the temple- and profaners of the land of  Bnmanuel,
                                                                   "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: and think
   And making the matter very final, the LORD tells Israel         not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our
that Edom will never again arise from the dust. She has            father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones
no future, nor has she any glory. Edom may say: we will            to raise up children unto Abraham." Matt. 3:8,9; Luke 3:8.
undo this; we shall again be. a country, and we shall estab-       And Christ, speaking with de unbelieving Jews of His day,
lish the glory of the fatherland. But the Lord says: it shall      tells them that if they were Abraham's children, they would
not come to pass. They may build, but he will throw it             do the works of Abraham. John 8~33-58.
down. It is the enclosure of wickedness. There' is nothing
good within Edom. It is wholly evil, wickedness. And,                Such is  the underlying principle here in this passage.
as such, Edom is a pattern of what happens to all the              The point  of departure here is in the sovereign love of God;
nations of the world, outside of the `border of Israel". Such      there is a difference between the lovers of the temple and
wickedness cannot be within the land of God, where the             the desecraters of the holy-place in  the land of Immanuel.
temple stands in the midst of its capital city, called Jeru-       Within the border of Israel the LORD's holiness will be
salem. Here is where the LORD has made His dwelling-               maintained. For God loved Jacob, that is, the true Israel
place forever.                                                     according to the election's purpose.

  Against this contrast of Edom we must see what the                ., When Christ comes, he will begin his labors by cleansing
LORD has in store for Israel, within the territory ( ZegebuZ-      the temple. John 2:13-22.  The zeal of the LORD's house
borderline) of the holy land where he will measure with            consumes him. At the age of twelve he said to his mother,
the plumbline of his justice and holiness. Here He will            "Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's business?"
maintain the difference between Jacob and Esau, between            Through the Spirit of Christ, (I Peter 1: 11) Malachi speaks
the objects of His love and hatred. Edom may be profane,           to the desecraters of the temple, and it is a warning for
but the  LORD's  ways continue .to run through the holy            the next four hundred years, till the time of the LORD's
place.                                                             suddenly coming to His temple. Then shall the LORD
                                                                   make his temple, by breaking down the middle-wall of par-
  Every eye shall see it. Isaac trembled exceedingly as he         tition, a house of prayer of all nations. Malt. 21:13; Luke
saw it by faith in distant perspective! Yes, the LORD loved        19:46; Eph. 2: 14-16.
Jacob and Esau He hated. But, let then the true Israel of
God take courage, is the "burden" of Malachi!                        The borders of the land of Immanuel shall be extended.
The House of Levi, the Priests, Reproved for Their Con-            "For from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the
tempt of  th.e LORD's House.  Malachi  1:6-2:17.                   same my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in
                                                                   every place incense shall be offered in my name, and a pure
  It ought to be evident that a few introductory observa-          offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen,
tions are in order here. It is true that we have made a few        saith the LORD of hosts." Mal. 1:ll.
introductory observations concerning this entire section in          Jacob shall, indeed, do valiantly!                     G.L.


230                                        T H E   SZANDARD   B E A R E R

                                                                    of the day will pass in which we will not consciously be
             I N   H I S   FEAR.-                                   relying upon and trusting in Him to continue all  this
                                                                    blessedness through the unending Sabbath of bliss. Will we
                                                                    doubt that this good can continue? How ridiculous! There
       Faith  and Hope Permeated with Love                          will be nothing more sure to us than that this is everlasting
  At the end of that "Love Chapter," I Corinthians 13,              and cannot end because our God is an unchangeable and
Paul states that "Now abideth faith, hope and love  ("char-         almighty  God. So much faith will we have in Him in that
ity" in some translations), these three; but the greatest of        day. Perfect faith, that is; a certain knowledge and a hearty
these is love." We do well to note that love is not the most        confidence that all this blessedness is ours forever, will then
enduring of all these, but the greatest. The position is some-      be ours.
times held that only love enters into the new Jerusalem.
There we will need no faith and hope, only love. This is              And as for hope; it is true that Paul writes, "Hope
not the case. In the new' creation the glorified children           that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth
will have a  perfect faith and hope. In this life we have           he yet hope for?" But Paul has a limited viewpoint of hope
such a weak faith and wavering hope. Will these not be              in mind here.`Hope is an intense and abiding longing with
perfected and ble enjoyed in all their wonder and blessed-          confident expectancy of attaining to that object hoped for.
ness in the kingdom to come? Are they merely crutches to            Will we cease to long in that new Jerusalem? We will have
help us through this life, temporary devices God gives us           that for which we long. It will not be expecting that which
in Christ for this life? Faith is a precious gift from God.         at the moment we do not have. But it will certainly be
But He will never give us that gift in its perfect form? Has        expecting more and more of that bliss and glory in the
Christ merited for us an imperfect perfection! Has He given         unending ages to come. We will not cease to desire. And
us some ,blessings that are to be discarded? Are not all the        therefore we will not cease either to hope. In fact, exactly
blessings of salvation everlasting? And the holy angels in          because then our love will be perfect, our faith and hope
heaven who never need any salvation, do they not believe            will likewise be perfect. Loving God with all our heart and
and hope?                                                           mind and soul and strength we will trust Him completely
                                                                    and unwaveringly. Filled with the love of God, we shall
  We surely shall `have faith and hope in the glory of the          desire and long for an unending life of such covenant fel-
new creation as well as love. Love is the greatest of the           lowship and bliss as that wherein we will at that moment
three; and love will remain the greatest of the three. For          be living.
in that blessed kingdom of Christ there will still be all
three. Love is the greatest now, and love will be the greatest        Once again, do we not read of the souls under the altar
then, because faith and hope depend upon it and must be             in Revelation  6:9 praying unto God? Can that be done
characterized by it, if they are to have any value and worth        without faith? Will we all not sing the praises of God in
for us. James tells us that the devils believe that one is          the glory of His kingdom? Can that be done without faith?
God and tremble. There is no love there. The greatest of            That whole life, when fully delivered from the motions of
all the activities of the rational-moral soul is not there. And     sin in the flesh and clothed with a spiritual body of in-
with their ,faith,  with their belief that one is God they still    describable beauty, shall trust God perfectly and expect
go into everlasting perdition. And what is true of faith is         Him to bless us everlastingly. In that day we will see how
also true of hope; for faith is the substance of things hoped       weak our faith and hope were in this life, and that rather
for, as well as .the evidence of' things not seen. Faith and        than to cease in the new Jerusalem these shall come to
hope are distinct. but very, very closely related to each           their own and attain to new and wonderful heights.
other and always found together.
                                                                      But to have faith and hope here below without the love
 `Of course, that faith and hope will not be in every re-           of God is to be faithless and in a hopeless position. Without
spect the same as they now are, while we are on this earth.         the love of God within us, the faith that we have is in man
But surely, all will agree that in the glory of that new            and self. The hope we have is wicked and for the lust of
creation we will still trust God. And trust is one of the           the flesh. There is a statement from the Word of God that
chief elements of faith. Faith is confidence. It means that         declares this truth. Solomon declares in Proverbs 10223  that
we rely upon one and have the conviction that he can do             "the expectation of the wicked shall perish." He has hope,
that which we desire of him and can be trusted. When we             even though it is no more than expectation that never
believe some one, we take him at his word. We trust him             results in attainment. There is that which he expects and
to speak the truth. Shall all this cease in regard to God and       because of which he puts his trust in things and men. But
His Christ when we are brought into the blessedness for             it will all perish; and he will perish with it. And it is to
which we trusted Him in this life? Will we distrust Him?            that truth that we would begin at this time to call your
Of course not; we shall trust Him perfectly. Not a moment           attention. Faith and hope without the love of God can only


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             231

 end in disappointment. For  .faith and hope without the         which he was convinced by Satan when he came in the
 love of God lead man to oppose the almighty, sovereign,         serpent in paradise. Very boldly he placed his word over
 Lord so gloriously celebrated in the Word of God, leads         against the word of the living God. He assured man that
 to everlasting joy and blessedness!                             he did not need to remain servant, but could rise to the
                                                                 position where he could decide for himself what is good
   If you were to ask the individual unbeliever what he          and what is evil. And man believed that nonsense! He ate
 expects, you would get a variety of answers. You might even     unchangeable God, Who is a consuming fire! But faith
 get the answer that he expects to go to heaven. In spite        and hope permeated with the love of God, the fear of the
 of his faith and hope which are without the love of God,       the words of Satan, and the poison of that spiritual food
he still is an unbeliever according to God's standards and       soon made itself known. It made him spit out the love of
the testimony of the Word of God. And that he expects to        God that was in his heart. His mind was brainwashed of the
 go to .heaven does not change the fact that he is an un-       truth as it is in God. The motions of mind and will were
believer. Because he does not love God, it is also an im-       reversed. Now he hated this God Who had made him. Now
aginary heaven to which he expects to go. If he really          he did not trust Him anymore, and any desire and longing
understood the heaven of Scripture, where there is intimate     for His fellowship which had been created inhis soul left
fellowship and service of the living God, he would con-         him entirely. He became spiritually an entirely  different
demn it as an evil to be avoided. The hopeless, faithless       creature. He had faith and hope, - and he must because
hater of God dreams of a heaven where God serves him and        he remained a rational-moral creature. But now his faith
he can continue his fellowship with the workers of iniquity,    and hope are permeated with hatred against God. He can
only now with impunity, never to suffer in any way or to        only trust self and dependent creatures. He can only hope
any degree for his evil works.                                  for that imaginary thing which Satan dangled before his
                                                                eyes  .with the lie. And the expectation of the wicked in-
  The answer, otherwise, may vary with the individual.          dividually and collectively is still that he will be like God.
                                                                                                             `p .
Ever since the Tower of Babel there has been a variety of
opinion in the world as to that for. which man ought to           Under de power of de lie every child is born. With a
work and what he can expect because of his works. And           heart filled with that hatred of God every individual babe
the heaven of the one race and tribe may vary to the            comes into this.world. With the desire to be in God's place
extreme from the heaven expected and sought by those of         every infant- greets this world, although at the moment of
another race. The music that seems weird and harsh to us        birth he is not. conscious of it in that particular form. And
may sound sweet and harmonious to other ears, And that          ultimately it comes to its climax and clearest manifestation
is only one small phase of what natural man concentrates        in the days of the antichrist, who, according to the apbstle
upon when he thinks of joy and bliss and delight. There         Paul,  ". . . opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is
must be music there. There must be beauty of color and          called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth
line and form. There must be banqueting and  revelling,         in the temple of God, shewing  himself that he is God." II
feasting and merrymaking. But just in what shape and form       Thessalonians 2:4. Towards that goal man is working. This
all these must take to make it a heaven for the individual      is his expectation. And it is all due to' the fact that he has
will vary with the individual and with the races, tongues,      faith and hope utterly devoid of the love of God. It is
and tribes. But you may be sure that what is expected by        evident in all the works of man's hands, of all that which
those who are without the love of God is not the heaven         you may read in the books which he writes, in? all his vain
that exists and the glory that comes for the child of God.      boasts which are published that this is his goal, and this
                                                                is what he expects. He expects some day to realize that
  And yet there is a certain conformity of expectancy           man of sin, the son of perdition, of which Paul speaks in
among the unbelievers. There is that for which all are          that chapter of II  Thessalonians..  The expectation of the
working, each from his own angle and with his own view-         wicked is the antichrist and his kingdom, in which he
point. Underlying it all is simply a faith and hope not         believes that he shall be like God, and for which he hopes
rooted in. the love of God, so that principally all are from    in utter hatred of God. To these matters we would call
a spiritual point of view united in one universal ambition.     your attention more specifically next time, the Lord willing.
Man has from the fall, in fact beginning with that fall in      But remember at the moment that it makes a great deal of
paradise, embarked on one fantastic project and pursued         difference whether your fear of God is the fear of reverence
it relentlessly through all ages and generations. There is      and awe rooted in His love, or whether it is terror before
that which from the dawn of history he has expected and         Him because of hatred of the only true God and an ines-
seeks in all his generations.                                   capable belief that He hates you. The fear of the Lord of
                                                                the regenerated child of God is one of faith and hope
  We can state it very simply and then explain in detail.       permeated with the love of God. His hope is gladness.
The natural man expects to be like God. That is the lie of                                                             J.A.H.


232                                        T H E   STANDAFD   B E A R E R

II                                                                 as well as worthy and believing, though with opposite
           Con&tiding  For `The Faith                              effects. This simultaneous co-existence of the two sub-
                                                                   stances (Christ's body and blood and the bread and wine)
                                                                   is not a mixture of the two substances into one, nor is it
           The Church and the Sacraments                           permanent; it ceases with the sacramental action, the
                                                                   earthly elements remain unchanged and distinct in their
            THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                            substance and power, but they become the divinely ap-
                                                                   pointed media for communicating the heavenly substance
      VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORD'S SUPPER)                      of the body and blood of Christ. They become so, not by
                    THE LUTHERAN VIEW                              priestly consecration, as in the doctrine of transubstantia-
                                                                   tion, but by the power and Word of God. The eating of
      Although we must yet call attention to the Reformed          the body is surely by the mouth, yet is not Capemaitic; and
conception of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we may           it differs from the eating of ordinary food. The object and
now present, `in brief, the three. Protestant theories of this     use of the Lord's Supper is chiefly  the assurance of the
means of grace. As far as the Zwinglian  theory is concerned,      forgiveness of sins, to the comfort of the believer. This is
that has been commonly defined as the commemoration                the Lutheran conception of the Lords Supper.
theory, according to which the sacrament of the Lord's               Luther's severe treatment and denunciation of the other
Supper is merely a remembrance feast, a remembrance of             reformers (whom he called the sacramentarians) was
the death of our departed Friend. However, his last word           greatly occasioned by a certain Carlstadt, one of his former
on the subject of the  eucharist (in a writing to King             colleagues and friends, who later became his enemy. In
Francis I) is this: "We believe that Christ is truly present       1523 he addressed a certain book to the Waldensian
in the Lord's Supper; yea, that there is no communion              brethren in Bohemia. In that book, Luther rejects their
without such presence . . . We believe that the true body          symbolical theory, as well as the Romish doctrine of tran-
of Christ js eaten in the communion, not in a gross and            substantiation, and insists on the real and substantial pres-
carnal manner, but in a sacramental and spiritual manner           ence of Christ's body and blood in the elements of the
by the religious, believing and pious heart." This passage         Lord's Supper. But,. also in that same book, he treats them
certainly is veiy similar to the Calvinistic view.                 very kindly, and he also commends them for their piety and
      Calvin was surely the greatest theologian and best writer    discipline in which they excelled the Germans. However,
among the Reformers. He accepts the symbolical meaning             personal attacks of Carlstadt upon Luther had a marked
of the words of institution: "This is my body;" he rejects         effect upon the German reformer. His tone of moderation
the corporal presence, the oral manducation, the participa-        was replaced by one of great severity, and he began to treat
tion of the body and blood by unbelievers, and the ubiquity        his Protestant opponents with as great  severity  as the
of Christ's body. At the same time, however, he strongly           Papists. His peculiar view of the Lord's Supper became
asserts a spiritual real presence, and a spiritual real par-       almost the sole serious doctrinal difference between these
ticipation of Christ's body and blood by faith. While the          two parts of the Reformation; and it has kept them apart
mouth receives the visible signs of bread and wine, the soul       ever since.
receives by faith, and by faith alone, the things signified          The split within the ranks of Protestantism, to which
and sealed thereby. He combines the crucified Christ with          we referred in our preceding article, is surely to be laid
the  glorifies Christ, and brings the believer into contact        at the door of the German reformer. Concerning this, there
with the whole Christ. He lays great stress upon the agency        cannot possibly be any doubt, The split occurred because
of the Holy Spirit in the ordinance.                               Luther insisted upon his view of the words of the institution
      All three reformers (Luther, Zwingli and Calvin) agree,      of the Lord's Supper, as recorded in Matt. 26:26.  This in-
negatively, in opposition to the Romish do,gma  of transub-        sistence of Luther upon his interpretation of these words
stantiation, the sacrihce of the Mass, and the withdrawal          of Christ must not be ascribed, it is agreed, to de reformer's
of the cup from the laity; positively, they agree in these         obstinacy or pride, although we cannot refrain from re-
essenti.al  points: the Divine institution and perpetuity of       marking that the Christian is very imperfect here in the
the Lord's Supper, the spiritual presence of Christ, and           midst of the world, and always wonder how large a role
the commemorative character of the ordinance as the cele-          one's old man of sin plays in these controversies. Luther
bration of Christ's atoning sacrifice, its importance as the       undoubtedly acted from his  inmost  conviction. He surely
highest act of worship and communion with Christ, and              regarded the real presence of the Lord in the Lord's Sup-
its special blessing to all who partake of it worthily. Luther     per as a fundamental article of faith, and he feared that
teaches a real and' substantial presence of the very body          the rejection of this article would lead consistently to the
and blood of Christ, in, with, and under the elements of           rejection of all mysteries and of Christianity itself. Luther,
bread and wine, and the oral manducation of both sub-              however, must be blamed for the split.
stances by all communicants, unworthy and unbelieving,               Luther and Calvin never met. However, Luther and


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             2-3

Zwingli did meet. Zwingli interpreted the word, "is," in          by private interviews between Luther and Oecolampadius
the ,expression,  "This is my body," in a figurative sense, as    on the one hand, and Zwingli and Melanchthon on the
meaning: "This represents my body;" and he based his              other hand. Subjects such as the Trinity, original sin, and
view largely on the word of Christ of John  6:63. In the          baptism were treated during these interviews; and we
year 1527, Zwingli wrote a Latin book in which he strenu-         understand that the German reformers were considerably
ously opposed the viewpoint- of Luther, and he sent a copy        relieved to discover that the Swiss reformers were as sound
of this book to the German reformer. This book was re-            as they were, although Luther must have handled his op-
spectfully written. Luther answered this writing of Zwingli,      ponent more severely than Melanchthon handled Zwingli
but in a very different tone. He ascribes the Swiss view to       (perhaps Zwingli was more than a match for Melanchthon) .
the inspiration of the devil (we must bear in mind, how-          Luther spoke  first, and he declared emphatically  that he
ever, that Luther very quickly ascribed divergent views to        would never change. He also protested against any argu-
the devil). He insists that the words, "This is my body," be      ments that would be derived from reason, and he wrote
understood literally. He denies a figurative meaning even         with a piece of chalk upon the table in large characters the
to passages as .l Cor. 10:4, John 15:1,  etc. When Paul says      words of institution with which he was determined to
that Christ is a rock, this must truly mean a .spir@ual rock,     stand or fall: This is my body. Oecolampadius replies that
and whenw.e read in John 15:l that Christ is a vine, this         he would not counter with philosophical arguments, and
must mean a spiritd  vine. However, is not Luther guilty          he appealed to the divine Scriptures. He quoted several
of the same thing  wherelof  he accuses others, namely, that      passages that obviously have a figurative meaning, espe-
he interprets expressions in the figurative sense? In this        cially John 6:63. He contended that John 6:63 furnished the
same book Luther ridicules the position of his opponents,         key to the entire problem, and that it excluded any possi-
that Christ is literally seated on God's right hand, and imr      bility of a literal interpretation. Zwingli also entered into
movably  .fastened, on a golden throne in heaven, with a          the discussions. He, too, quoted several figurative passages.
golden crown upon his head, although his opponents never          Luther, however, was adamant, always pointing his finger
dreamed of such things. Upon Zwingli's answer to this book,       to what he had written upon the table. Andhe  denied that
Luther wrote his "Great Confession on the Lord's Supper,"         the passage of John 6 had anything to do with the con-
which he intended to be his last word on the controversy.         troversy. Later, during this conference,. the subject of
He begins also tbis book with the devil, likens the writings      Christology and our Lords ubiquity were also discussed.
of his opponents to venomous adders, and asks the Lord to           When toward the end of the conference, Oecolampadius
convert them, and to deliver them from the bonds of Satan.        suggested that the discussion be closed, and it was urged
It is considered his most elaborate work on the eucharist,        upon the reformers to come to  some  kind of an  rmder-
the Lord's Supper.                                                standing, Luther declared very emphatically that the only
  Luther and Zwingli met at what is known as the Marburg          way to come to an understanding would be that their ad-
Conference in 1529, twelve years after his mailing of the         versaries believe exactly as they did. At the end of the con-
95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. The Swiss re-         ference, Luther begged pardon for his harsh words, as he
formers accepted the invitation to this conference with great     was a man of flesh and blood; and Zwingli, with tearful
joy and keen anticipation. However, this cannot be said of        eyes, begged the German reformer to forgive him his harsh
Martin Luther. He declared that a conference with the             words, and assured him that there was no man in all the
Swiss reformers (among whom were Zwingli,  Bucer and              world whose friendship he desired more than that of the
Oecolampadius) would be completely useless. He stated             German reformers. However, when certain Swiss-representa-
vehemently that he knew what he believed, and that no             tives present at the conference maintained the orthodoxy
man could possibly change him. He declared that he would          of the Swiss, Luther's reply was cold. Later, when Zwingli,
never yield as much as an inch to his opponents. At Worms         with tears in his eyes, approached Luther and held out to
the Gerrnan reformer stood before the Emperor, and with           him the hand of fellowship, Luther declined to take it,
invincible courage he witnessed for what he believed to be        saying again that their spirit was different than that of the
the truth according to the Word of God. But he entered            German reformers. Zwingli declared that their differences
the conference at Mar-burg with considerable reluctance.          were non-essential and that they did not forbid Christian
This conference at  Marburg  was held during the first part       brotherhood. He would have them confess their union in
of October in 1529. Luther's reluctance to attend this con-       all things in which they agreed, and, for the rest, to re-
ference could seem to indicate that the German reformer           member one another as brethren. This Luther refused.
was not too sure of his stand, although one must also re-         They could not acknowledge the Swiss as brethren, although
member that he was a man of unalterable convictions; and          they were willing to include them in that universal charity
it must have been his conviction that his view of the Lord's      which we owe to our enemies. From all this we must con-
Supper was in harmony with the Scriptures.                        clude that the blame for the split within the ranks of
                                                                  Protestantism must be laid at the door of the German
  The conference was preceded or, shall we say, opened            reformer.                                              H. V.


i34                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                   earth is the center of the universe, around which all  things
I[  ;  `:Thk  Voice  -of Qur Fathers                          II are created and about which all things move. To be sure,
                                                                   this is not to be understood in the local and physical sense
                                                                   of the word, From the viewpoint of the astronomer and of
                The Belgic Confession                              natural science, not the earth, but the sun, is the center.
                                                                   The earth is but a very small body in the whole of the solar
                            hlTICLE  XII                           system. But the Bible does not take this viewpoint. It does
                                                                   not measure the significance of any creature according to
                            (continued)                            its size, weight, or distance. The significant question in
                                                                   Scripture is: what is the spiritual place of any creature in
The  Creation  of  the  Angels (continued)                         the whole of the universe? What is the significance of any
Our Confession states, first of all, that God "also created        creature in the whole of God's purpose, His counsel? And
the angels good . . . ."                                           from this latter viewpoint, the earth is indeed the center of
  Upon occasion I have seen catechumens surprised to               the whole universe as it is created. That earth is created
learn that the angels are creatures; and not eternal beings.       as the dwellingplace for man, who is destined to be the
Obviously because the Genesis account does not speak at all        highest of God's creatures. That earth is to become the
of the creation of the angels, they assumed that the angels        stage for the realization of God's plan of salvation, for the
were not created, but are eternally with God. And indeed,          development of God's covenant, and for the waging of the
there not only have been those who have taught that                battle of sin and grace. On that earth the Son of God in
the angels were created before the beginning of Genesis 1,         human nature is to be revealed in the way of His incarna-
but also  those who maintain two eternal principles, the           tion, suffering and death, and resurrection, as the Head
good and the evil. This is, of course, the error of dualism,       of God's whole creation, in Whom all things shall be
and it is the error condemned in the last part of this article,    united that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and
where reference is made to `the Manichees, who assert that         invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or prin-
the devils have their origin of themselves, and that they are      cipalities, or powers. It is not unexpected, therefore, when
wicked of their own nature, without having been cor-               Genesis 1 is silent about the creation of the angels, but
rupted."                                                           places us on this earth, in order to tell us from our earthly
  Scripture, however, does teach, though not in Genesis 1,         viewpoint how God created all things. And in Genesis 1:2
that the angels were created. In Psalm  104:4  we read:            the earth is immediately presented as being separated from
`Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming            the rest of the "chaos," the unformed world-matter. All the
fire." And especially if we read this verse in its context, it     attention is focused upon that earth; and there is no men-
is plain that the reference is to the creation of the angels.      tion of the creation of the highest heavens, nor of the angels
In Colossians 1: 16 we. do not find the term "angels," but         that inhabit those highest heavens.
reference is made by the terms "thrones, or dominions, or            For the same reason, it is a largely speculative question
principalities, or powers" to' various classes or ranks of         as to just when the angels were created.
heavenly spirits. And of these it is stated: "For by him             This question is often asked. And in answer to this ques-
were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in       tion there are those who point to Job 3S:6 and 7, in order
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or          to prove that the angels were created on the first day. This
dominions,  cior principalities, or powers: all things were        passage belongs to the Lord's answer to Job "out of the
created by him, and for him." And indeed, such must be             whirlwind," and it is probably best that we read the verses
the case. The angels cannot be eternal beings, as God is.          concerned in connection with their preceding context, be-
Two or more supreme Beings existing side by side, equally          ginning with verse 2: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel
eternal and self-existent are impossible and inconceivable.        by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like
Only God is eternal and Self-existent. The angels, like all        a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
the earthly creatures, are finite, temporal, dependent beings.     Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
  If the question be asked why there is no mention of the          declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the
angels in the creation narrative of Genesis 1, we can only         measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched
attempt to approximate an answer. We would point to the            the line upon it? -Whereupon are the foundations thereof
fact that the entire viewpoint of `Genesis 1 is earthly, and       fastened? or who laid the comer stone thereof; When the
finds its climax in the creation of man, God's covenant            morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
friend, created after the image of God, the king of the            for joy?"
earthly creation. We must always remember this when read-            This passage has had various interpretations. As we said,
ing the Scriptural account of creation. Its standpoint is          some have drawn the conclusion from it that the angels
that of the earth, and that too, in the proximity of the           were created on the &-St day of creation. Others have main-
garden of Eden. Scripture's viewpoint is geocentric: the           tained that one can conclude from it that the angels were


                                          TH.E  S T A N - D A R D   .BEAR-E.R                                                 235

created even before the first day, i.e., before the "begin-        not the angels in this passage. Appeal has been made to the
ning" of Genesis 1:l. And still others have drawn the more         fact that this is supposed to be what is called "parallel con-
general conclusion that this passage proves at least that the      stmctioii," so that the term "morning stars" and the term
creation of the angels took place before the creation of man.      `sons of God" refer to the same thing, i.e., the'angels. But
  Now, I would say, in the first place, that in the strictest      this is hardly possible; for in that case the order would
sense of the word the passage proves only that Job himself         certainly be reversed, and the "sons of God" would be men-
was not there when God `laid the foundations of the earth,"        tioned first, and the figurative "morning stars" second. Not
and that he was not witness of the laying of the measures          only this, but there is very frequent mention of the stars
thereof, etc. This is surely the sense of the rhetorical ques-     and of various constellations in the book of Job; and always
tions that are directed in this passage to Job personally by       the reference is to the heavenly luminaries literally. Hence,
the Lord "out of the whirlwind." And it is only by a gen-          some very sound and conclusive reasons would have to be
eralization that this can be extended to all mankind, so           produced why in 38 : 7 the reference in "morning stars" is not
that one could conclude that no man was an eye-witness             literally to the heavenly luminaries. And this is significant:
of these works of God.                                             for the stars were created on the fourth  day,;and  therefore
  But if that general' conclusion is warranted, then the           the interpretation that vss. 4-6 refer only to the very first
questions remain: of whom does verse 7 speak, and does             day of creation-week cannot very well stand. Again, there is
it speak of the moment of the first day? To answer these           reason also in this reference to the stars to understand the
questions we must look a little more closely at the passage.       whole passage as referring generally to the work of God
And then we may note de following:                                 in creation as a laying of foundations for all the rest of
  1. In highly poetic language this passage speaks of the          God's work.
work of creation. It compares the created earth to a build-          Negatively, therefore, we reach the conclusion that there
ing, speaking of its foundation, its comer stone, its measures,    is no conclusive proof here, nor any where else in Scripture,
its line, etc. Hence, while it is true that the -language of       for the theory that the  .angels were created on the first
vss. 4 to 6 seems to speak especially of the very beginning        day of creation-week. Besides, there is no indication at all
of Gods creative work, .yet the conclusion is hardly war-          in Scripture as to exactly when the angels were created.
ranted that the first day of creation-week is meant exclusive-       Another theory is that the angels must have been created
ly. In fact, if we read these verses. in their following           on the sixth day. The Rev. H. Hoeksema suggests this in
context, it would seem that this interpretation is excluded.       his dogmatics, "Anthropology," p. 119, when he writes
The explanation has also been suggested, - which, I think,         (commenting on Job  ,38:6, 7) : "From this passage the con-
is by no means impossible, - that the reference here is to         clusion has been drawn that the angels were created on the
the entire work of the creation of the earth, presented here       first day, although it must certainly be said that the text
as a laying of foundations, of a comer stone, etc., with a         offers no strict proof for this contention, and that if we
view to the relation between the work of creation and the          may conjecture that there is a parallel between the crea-
subsequent work of God in the history and development              tion of the earth and that of heaven and the heavenly
of the world.                                                      beings, it would seem more natural to suppose that the
  2. There is, secondly, the question of the language of           angels were created on the sixth day." He adds, however:
verse 7. Who are the morning stars? Who are the sons of            "But for the time of `the creation of the angels we have no
God? As far as the latter term is concerned, there can             proof in Scripture.`" The idea is that in de week of crea-
hardly be any question. In the book of Job the reference           tion the creatures are formed in. the way of an` ascending
of this expression is to the angels. In Job  1:6 we read:          scale. The lower creatures are formed first, then the higher,
"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to                  and  firally  man. And if we consider that the angels belong
present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also            to the higher creatures, it is not impossible that they were
among them." This can only refer to the heavenly spirits.          created on the sixth day. However, there are also the fol-
Satan, though a fallen angel, also came among them; and            lowing considerations, even though the above conjecture
that he could do so need not surprise us. He appears here          may seem attractive:
as the "accuser of our brethren," Rev.  12:9, who is cast            1. In view of the fact that the angels do not belong to
out forever at the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ. A          the earthly creation, but the heavenly, they can-hardly be
similar reference we find in Job 2~1: "Again there was a           included in the ascending scale of earthly creatures.
day when the sons of God came to present themselves be-
fore the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present             2. There `is no proof, however logical it may appear to
himself before the Lord." Hence,. if this is the meaning of        be, that there is a parallel between the order of the heavenly
the expression "sons of God," in chapters 1 and 2, it must         and the order of the earthly creation.
needs have the same meaning in, chapter 38. We may say,              Hence, we shall have to say that the Bible does not
therefore, that there is indeed mention of the angels in           inform us as to the exact time of the creation of the angels.
chapter 38. I believe, however, that the `h?orning stars" are                                                           H. C. H.

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

                                                                  a passage is selected that is appropriate  iradd- most directly
       THECHURCH ATWORSHIP                                        related to the particular text that is to be .expounded-in  the
                                                                  sermon. And since "all Scripture is given by inspiration of
  "0 Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psalm 96:9a     God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc-
                3                                                 tion, for instruction in righteousness", it must not be read
                                                                  mechanically and thoughtlessly; but with careful considera-
               The Order of Worship                               tion of each verse we must be led to the particular text for
                        (Continued)                               meditation with a clear understanding of its context before
                                                                  our minds. Worship demands activity and this must be
  The church is assembled in worship. Her members have            expressed by the worshippers in all of the service. We
convened in the House of God in an attitude of spiritual          must actively `Seek out the Word of the Lord and read . . ."
reverence in the awareness of the presence of the Holy            (Isaiah 34: 16)
One. Into the sanctuary they have come; and suppressing,
inasfar as possible, the thoughts and cares of the present          Following the Scripture reading in our worship is the
life, they, in the seclusion' of God's House, are to be led to    reading of the Law and/or the Confession. The former
contemplate the things "eye hath not seen, ear hath not           is generally done in the first service, and the latter in the
heard, and which have never arisen in the heart of man,           second. The purpose of the reading of the law must be
but which God has prepared for them that love him".               clearly understood. This is one of the characteristic features
Through quiet meditation, prayers, music, and song the            of our Reformed worship, and this feature too distinguishes
souls of the saints have been conditioned for worship. The        our worship from that of other churches. It is a practice
benediction of grace has been spoken, filling them with a         that has been handed down from the time of Calvin and a
hidden power that lifts them out of this world into the           Lasco, who fashioned our Reformed liturgy. Only when
presence of God to see the beauty of His holiness.                we understand the place and purpose of the reading of the
                                                                  law in our worship will we be fortified to refute the con-
  The minister announces the passage of the Holy Word             tention of some who desire to exclude this as being inap-
that is to be read. He then pauses momentarily to permit          propriate for the New Testament Church.
the worshippers to reach out to the rack before them and
open the Bible provided, so that they may follow the read-          What purpose then should the law serve liturgically?
ing of the Word. Some do, and some don't. We can re-                Not only are we concemed  with this question, but it has
member the time when it was still common to see worship-          also occupied the attention of Reformed people in the
pers on the Lord's Day carrying their Bibles with them to         Netherlands. There, as well as here, the Reformed Churches
the House of  (God.  - They obviously desired to have that        are becoming more interested in liturgical matters. People
Word with them, so that in their worship they could see           are not satisfied with following the forms of worship simply
it as well as hem it. Today it is not necessary to carry it       because they have been traditionally established and ac-
since it is provided; but some seem to think that the             cepted. They want to and should know why.  This  is
purpose of these Bibles is solely to provide a toy wherewith      wholesome, for mere tradition sounds the death-knell for
the youngsters can be amused during the service. Why              vital Reformed religion. There is altogether too much dead
they are not used to follow the reading of the Word can           formalism in the churches and this is not salutary. Empty
only be conjectured; and the suggestion that failure to do        formalism can easily and subtly supplant vital spiritual
so might indicate a lack of interest in the Word would            worship. If then the reading of the law is to be more than
reflect a sad commentary upon the spiritual condition of          a formal tradition and is to inject spiritual vitality into our
the church today, Do we have to be forcibly deprived of           worship, we must do tbis intelligently and with purpose.
de Word once more before a consciousness of spiritual ap-
preciation is evoked in us? And if we do not read the Word          We are told that some years ago the consistories of
with the minister in the Divine Worship, how much reading         Leiden, The Hague West, and Beverwyk in the Netherlands
of it do we engage in privately and outside of the church?        introduced a new liturgy there that was patterned very
                                                                  closely after the Reformed liturgy outlined by Prof. K. Dyk
  In both the Old and New Testament the reading of Scrip-         of Kampen. Concerning the place of the law in this liturgy
ture has always had an important place in the worship of          we quote the following:
the church. Many examples may be found in the Old Tes-
tament where the law was read to Israel; and in Luke 4:16           `Particularly the order of worship referred to makes men-
we read that Jesus went up to Nazareth, and "as His cus-          tion of the place of the `law in the morning service. For a
tom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day,           long time it was customary in Beverwyk to sing a psalm
and stood up for to read; and there was delivered unto            of penitence immediately after the reading. Thus the Ten
Him the book of the prophet Esaias." This reading of the          Commandments were used purely as a teacher of sin.
Scripture forms the basis for the service; and, therefore,        However, the consistory was of the conviction that this


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  837

could not be the primary use of the law in the New Testa-         all ages through the well known Apostolic Creed, which is
ment Church. It should rather be held up to, the believers        most fitting for this purpose. This formulation contains the
as a rule of gratitude. This is also in harmony with the          sum of doctrine which the apostles as teachers of the uni-
position taken by our Reformed confessions. The Heidel-           versal church have laid down by divine inspiration. They
berg Catechism in Lord's Day II makes mention of the              did not pen these words, but all the ideas expressed were
summary of the Law in connection with the knowledge of            embodied in their teaching. This creed has been universally
sin. The Ten Commandments are used by the Catechism               accepted and lauded as the briefest and clearest presenta-
to teach us how to express our thankfulness to God for the        tion of our common faith. Countless times has it been put
deliverance received.                                             to good use not only to teach catechumens but also to serve
                                                                  as a basis for larger treatises on doctrine. Its beauty is
  "On the basis of this use of the law the consistory of          greatly enhanced by its simplicity.
Beverwyk decided to incorporate the following elements in
the morning worship. First of all, after the opening song           The question may be asked whether this creed should be
and salutation, the sumnnary  is to be read as the teacher        read by the minister or whether the entire congregation
of sin. Thereupon the congregation is to sing the appointed       should recite it. The former is proper, with the congrega-
psalm- of penitence, after which the Assurance of Pardon is       tion silently- expressing consent from the heart. No doubt
read. Then the congregation is to listen to the reading of        this is the more orderly practice; and when this is done,
the Ten Commandments as the Church's rule of gratitude.           there is never the difficulty of having the recitation of the
                                                                  creed sound like a confused mass of voices. Should there
  "Surely, there is much in the decision of the consistory        be strangers in the service, who have never heard these
of Beverwyk which commends itself to sound Reformed               majestic and meaningful statements before, they will be
reasoning. We have likewise contended that the mere read-         able;.to  follow them to the end. Only make sure that de
ing of the Law without anything else isolates this part of        congregation's participation is not passive listening, but is
the worship, which then degenerates easily into pure              active confession from the heart.
formality.
                                                                    Others there are, however, that strongly favor the recita-
  "Just what will such reading mean to the average wor-           tion method. Their reasoning is as follows:
shipper? To what conscious use will it be put by him, as
he seeks to worship the Lord? Surely if the Law is above            "There is another method, however, and this is much
all our rule for faith and practice, this must somehow come       more ideal. It is that of having the entire congregation rise
to expression in our services."                                   and repeat together its profession. We esteem this method
                                              .                   as preferable, because the very idea of profession implies
  It is doubtful that we would favor the proposed liturgical      the use of words. Witnessing signihes  audible speech first
revision suggested here, `but with the last statement above       of all, especially when taken in reference to our duty to
we agree. The reading of the law must somehow impress             the world.
the, worshippers with the fact that the law of God is the
only proper norm for faith and life. The church must live           "However, if this method is followed, the congregation
constantly in the consciousness of the revealed will of God       must learn to do so with reverence and clarity. Never should
as expressed in the law, so that by the grace of God she          she grow accustomed to the act. When  properly;;*done,  such
may walk according to that will, and thus the law may be          recitation is both instructive and impressive. For what we
the means unto increased sanctification. In that light we         confess on Sunday, we must also live by throughout the
must explain to the satisfaction of ourselves, our children,      week. Then what is said of Christ in Psalm 40 will by His
and others who may worship with us why we insist on               grace be true of each of us, `I have proclaimed glad tidings
reading the Law in the church and what place it occupies          of. righteousness in the great assembly; lo, I will not refrain
in our lives from day to day. If liturgical revision is neces-    my lips, 0 Jehovah, thou knowest. I have not hid thy
sary to attain this objective, we should have it. Let us          righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faith-
suppress all anti-nomian tendencies; and let us not slight        fulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy loving
the law of God in any way, but give prominent place to            kindness and thy truth from the great assembly.' " (Author
His precepts in our worship, so that they may be applied          is Dr. P. DeJong, minister of the Chr. Ref. Church)
unto our lives. And then men will see that we are children
of our Heavenly Father in the living  ,expression  of our           We fail to see where the believer's confession is negated
thankfulness for His redemption.                                  by the former method if it be remembered that confession
                                                                  is not by words, but is the living witness of the truth ex-
  In one of the services each Lord's Day the church ex-           pressed in this creed in the lives of believers day by day.
presses her faith in God and her unity with the church of                                                             G. v. d. B.

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

                                                                            Jewish feeling against the Romish Church. It was thought
11  ,A  L  E  -`A R  6-  U N  D  -U  $  11 that Paul intended to show the Jews that the Church had
                                                                            no anti-Jew feeling. This had become an issue since Pope
Lj^l^lll^lll.                                                         JI    Pius had been charged with doing nothing to help the Jews
SPACE  Iii HEAVEN                                                           during World War II when the Jews were systematically
  In an old book that recently came into my possession,                     slaughtered by the Nazis.
there was a newspaper clipping that is worth sharing with
our readers. It reads in full:                                                Others thought that the Pope was making an effort to
                           -SPACE IN HEAVEN                                 improve relations between the Israelis and the Arabs who
             Plenty of Room in the Celestial City for AU Mankind            have long been at each other's throats.
         "And he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs.            But the main reason for the visit was the meeting of the
       The length and the breadth and height of it are equal." - Rev.       pope with Patriarch Athenagoras, patriarch in the Eastern
       xxi, 16. TweIve  thousand"furIongs,  7,920,OOO feet, which being     Orthodox Church. Although Athenagoras is considered the
       cubed. is 496,793,088,000,000,000,000  cubic feet. Reserving half
       of this space for the throne and court of heaven, and half of        "primate" in  @s church, he does not have the authority
       the balance for the streets, we have the remainder of 124,198,-      over his 200,000,000 subjects that Paul has over his 580,-
       272,000,600,000,000 cubic feet. Divide this by 4,096, the            000,000. Athenagoras is only one patriarch among others
 cubical feet in a room sixteen feet square, and there will be              as, e.g., the patriarchs in Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria,
       30,321,843,`730,000,000  rooms. Vire will now suppose the world      etc.; while he is from Istanbul. And he must consult with
       always did and always  wilI contain  990,000,OOO  inhabitants,
       and that a generation lasts 33% years, making in all 2,970,000,-     the other patriarchs and gain their approval on any matters
       0OO;OOO  every century, and that the world will stand lOO,OOO,-      of church policy.
       000 years, or 1,000 centuries, making in  aII 2,979,000,000,000,-    The Eastern Orthodox Church split from the Roman
       000 inhabitants. Then suppose there were 100 worlds equal  to        Catholic Church in the Great Schism of 1054. There were
       this in number of inhabitants and duration of years, making a        two basic reasons why that split came about better than
       to&  .of  297,900,000,000,000,000  persons, and there would be
       more thana  hundred rooms sixteen feet square for each person.       900 years ago: one was the insistence of the Church of
  The mathematics are interesting, but the theology is not                  Rome to add the so-called "filioque clause" to the Nicene
very good. Apart from its universalism, the obvious mistake                 Creed. This "filioque clause" was added to teach that the
is that the kind of space found in this earthly creation is to              Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father but also from
be duplicated in'heaven;  ,while Scripture teaches that the                 the Son within the trinity. The Eastern branch. of the
bodies of the, elect in the resurrection will be spiritual                  Church would not accept this and split away. The second
bodies, inhabiting a spiritual heaven which is not like                     reason for the split was the gradual development of the
                                                                    this
material creation in any respect. Yet this is a common                      bishop of Rome into the pope of the church. The bishop
mistake. One hears it often made when, for example, min-                    of Rome was taking to himself more and more power, and
isters preach over the radio on Easter day that the resur-                  beginning to insist that he was the supreme bishop of the
rection body of &r&t was visible at the moment He arose                     church. The Eastern churches could not swallow this; and
-if only we had been there to see Him.                                      it became a partial reason for the split. In the intervening
                                                                            time other issues have naturally developed: Rome denies
THE POPE IN PALESTINE                                                       the cup of wine to the laity in the celebration of the mass;
  The pope has finished his visit to Palestine. The whole                   the Eastern Churches do not. Rome condemns marriage
world watched and most of the world rejoiced. Landing in                    after divorce; the Eastern Churches do not. Rome has
Jordan, the pope spent the greater part of his time in Pales-               made its doctrines of Mary infallible truths; the Eastern
tine visiting. such places as the Via Dolorosa ("The Way of                 Churches speak of them as "pious beliefs". And there are
Sorrows" over which Christ supposedly walked on His way                     others.
from Pilate to Golgotha), The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
(supposedly built on the site of the tomb of Joseph of                        In 1439 the two churches came together again briefly;
Arimathea where Christ was buried), the Garden of  Geth-                    but the issues were never really resolved, so that the break
semane, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Cana, Capemaum,                       came again.
and Bethlehem.                                                                NOW Paul and Athenagoras have met in Jerusalem and
  There were many reasons given for this visit of Paul, all                 have opened the way to discussion concerning unity. They
of which perhaps have an element of truth.                                  are both interested in bringing these two branches of the
  The pope himself said that he was going as a pilgrimage                   church together again. The work has begun. Both face
to sacred shrines. This is, of course, in keeping with Romish               opposition within their churches - the pope from his curia
theology which claims that there is special merit to be at-                 and the patriarch from his fellow patriarchs. But the future
tached to these holy pilgrimages. For example, the Church                   is filled with optimism, etc.
promises 100 days off from purgatory for praying the Lord's                   That the pope really ties.to take the place of Christ also
Prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane- which the pope                          became evident on this trip. Along one place of the route
also did.                                                                   the people who crowded around began to strew the way
 Some interpreted the visit as a political move to soften                   with  palm branches. in imitation of the triumphal entry


                                                    THE  S T A N D A R D   .BEAR,.ER                                                       239

of. Christ into Jerusalem. One news broadcaster was so car-                     have to do is agree that Peter founded the church in  Rome
ried away that he said that the pope "today occupies the                        and was the i&t pope- and had the right to pass the office on;
place that Jesus occupied when he was on earth."                                and, just in passing, all we also have to do is to get used to
                             0    Q      0     0                                the idea that Peter, of all disciples, could have accepted the
                                                                                ring kissing, the kneeling, and all those parades.
  According to the  Presbyterian Journal,  Pope Paul offered                       This idea of the pope seems very .basic to all the Roman
the following prayer at the anniversary of the opening of                       Catholics and utter nonsense to 350,000,000  non-Catholics. So
Vatican II, attended by more than 2,000 cardinals, patri-                       let us clear up this problem first, and then go on. It is as
archs and bishops:                                                              simple as that.
         0 Mary, we pray to thee for our Christian brothers still         MEETING OF THE NCC
      separated from our Catholic family. See how a glorious group          The National Council of `Churches is the liberal associa-
      of them celebrates your cult with fidelity and love. See how,       tion of churches in this country. It is the object of extensive
      in other groups, there is such Brmness  in calling one's self       criticism by conservative groups for its liberal Christ-deny-
      and in being Christian. May there now dawn the recollection         ing theology. It is also often criticized for its seemingly
      and worship of thee, most pious. Call all these sons of yours
      in the same unity, under your maternal and celestial protection.    communistic leanings. It has gone on record as favoring
        Watch over, 0 Mary, all mankind-this modern world in              the admittance of Red China into the Hnited Nations, the
      which the divine plan calls us to live and work in, a world         establishing of diplomatic relations between our country
      that turns its back on the sight of Christ; watch over this         and Red China, etc.
      world, so that it may emerge . . . from the frightful shadows         The organization met December l-7 at its Sixth General
      created by its own actions.                                         Assembly in Philadelphia. President Kennedy was to speak
        Your sweet, most human voice, 0 most beautiful among vir-
      gins, 0 most worthy among mothers, 0 blessed among women,           at this Assembly, and Dr. Carl McIntyre had strongly op-
      calls upon this world to turn its glances toward the light which    posed this. But the president's assassination made. that
      is the light of men- towards thee, who are the supporting           impossible.
      light of Christ, only and highest light in the world.                 As a result the Assembly spent a considerable amount
The  Journal  asks, "Had you been there would you have                    of time passing all kinds.of  resolutions that -had to do with
said Amen?                                                                this ,assassination  in one way-or  another. They sent a letter
  Commenting on all the movements toward church union,                    of gratitude `to Mrs. Kennedy which spoke of "the power
a certain Addison H. Leitch, writing in  Christianity Today               of the Christian faith to `cope with the evils and  Sorrows
makes some very interesting observations. We quote the                    of .-this world as that power has been-manifested in" her
last part of his article:                                                 life. They thanked God for the leadership  OF the late
        Getting back to that article in Time Magazine, I was think-       president. They sent their thanks to the broadcasting in-
      ing long and hard on the gesture toward church union genu-          dustry and the press for their coverage of the assassination.
      inely made by John XXIII and responded to by Protestants            They expressed their interest in the mental, spiritual, and
      with almost  girlish glee. The more I thought of it the less I      material welfare of the family of Lee Oswald and the fam-
      thought of it, and I went along with Time's query, "What
      Went Wrong?                                                         ily of the shot Dallas policeman.
        Once when I was a boy a high school track coach told me             One of the members, Bishop George W. Baber of the
      how to win a race: "Just get in front and don't let anybody         African Methodist Episcopal Church prayed, "In this hour
      pass you." Volleyball and tennis are very simple games. You         of our national and world sorrow, we pause to thank Thee
      just knock the ball back one more time than your opponent.          for John Fitzgerald Kennedy who now moves with Thee
      I was bowling last night, and all I needed to get a strike every
      time was to curve into the pocket between one and three. I          in glorious  realms  of eternal light; and for the impact of
      am impressed by these simplicities, but somehow they don't          his dedicated personality upon the lives of so many, great
      always work.                                                        and small, known and unknown, of all creeds and colors."
        I am not being naive when I suggest that the union of the         The Roman Catholics did not dare to take him out of
      churches is simple in the same sort of way . . .                    purgatory yet.
        For example, let us take up the simple problem of the posi-
      tion and power of the pope. This may or may not be a `non-            For the rest, the NCC busied itself mostly with questions
      theological factor" or an "unavowed motive," but it will do for     of how Christians can be of greater service. And evidently,
      a start. We point out immediately that along with 217,000,OOO       the Assembly was of the opinion that this can be done
      Protestants in the world there are 137,000,OOO Eastern Ortho-       mostly in the field of race relations. The meeting went on
      dox who do not believe in the supremacy of the Roman pontiff.       record as favoring current civil rights legislation before
      Now these 350,000,OOO  people must have something that
      bothers them about this pope business. According, to Rome,          Congress, of urging Congress to get busy and act on it; they
      the pope's spiritual titles are "Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus     turned their collective wrath against the people in this
      Christ, Successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, Supreme     country who are doing nothing or opposing the cause of
      Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate     the Negro, and they busied themselves with trying to make
      of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province,        their voice heard as far away as possible that they stood on
      and Sovereign of the State of Vatican City." So Rome and we
      divide. Now let's get together.                                     the side of Negro rights.
        We can begin very simply with an exegesis of "Thou art              About the gospel, the truth of Scripture, they had nothing
      Peter and on this rock I will build my church." Now all we          at all to say.                                              H. Hanko


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2 4 0 ` . " .                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

--                                                         -.    ,I    home in the morning, and holds de afternoon service in
11: `NEWS FROM OUft CHURCH-ES 11 the Legion Hall. Regular -Classical appointments keep their
                                                                       pulpit partially supplied; taped sermons from South Hol-
                                                                       land's Rev. Heys and from First Church in Grand Rapids
                                                                       supply their needs for the balance of their services. The
                                            Feb.. 5, 1964              Clerk, Neal Van Soelen, writes that the Prot. Ref. Church
  Our Redlands  congregation has extended a call to Rev.               of Pella is still definitely on the map!
B. Woudenberg, of Edgerton, Minn.                                        Another  first:  A tourist from the First Prot. Ref. Church
  The January News Bulletin of the Society for Secondary               of  Grand Rapids  was a visitor in the Sunday morning
Education (high school) contains some statements worthy                service of the First Prot. Ref. Church of Jamaica  Jan. 12!
of our notice. The Board announced that the purchase of                The tourist, Don Faber, and a friend toured the Caribbean
the property approved at the September meeting has been                Islands and stopped off at Jamaica for three days and
completed; and adds that the enthusiasm shown by the                   nights. They attended the morning service in the tabernacle
membership encourages them to attack the next problems                 at Lucea and heard a sermon based on Question 20 of the
with renewed vigor. They further report that 35% of the                Heidelberg Catechism! That last observation will please
budget envelopes are in use and can be expected to bring               Rev. C. Hanko who instructed the Jamaicans in the way
up about $3809.00 in this first year. That income with the             of Reformed Church practices. The young men were wel-
$1009,00  from church collections will make it possible for            comed with joyous enthusiasm, and after the service were
the Board, to meet the payments due on the property with               served a lunch by some of the good folk of ,Lucea.  In the
a little left over for the building fund. The report concluded         company of the brethren Elliott, Jackson, and others they
with: "How soon can we expect to have our own High                     traveled far back into the hills to Friendship Hill tabernacle
School?" "This is a question the Board cannot  answer; the             where Rev. .Frame was conducting an evening service. The
answer depends upon the extent to which our people are                 surprised pastor was happy to learn the identity of the
willing to work and to sacrifice for the cause. The time               visitors and introduced them to the congregation. The
will be short if our school receives full financial and moral          service ended with the singing of Psalter No. 200. Imagine
support from all of you.".                                             the emotions of the visitors to hear the familiar,  "Christ-
  South Holland's services have been re-scheduled. Begin-              shall ,have  dominion" sung to the accompaniment of drums,
ning January 5, the morning service has been changed from              tambourines and gourds instead of a large church pipe
9 to 9:30; the afternoon service has been dis-continued to             o r g a n !
be replaced with a 7 o'clock evening service.        .-                ~Rev. C. Hanko, in the evening service of Feb.  .ZL very
  Did you know that Rev. H.. Hoeksema accepted an in-                  forcibly; brought to the attention of his congregation the
vitation to speak before a Student Club of Hope College                admonition of Hebr.  lo:25 concerning the faithful fre-
Seminary Jan.  21? To an audience of Seminary professors               quenting of our assemblies. Beginning with the public wor-
and students Rev. Hoeksema spoke on,  Yihe Place of Rep-               ship. services the pastor enumerated all the activities of the
robation in the Preaching of the Gospel." Copies of  ihe               church' which demand our faithful attendance. Methinks
six propositions the speaker intended to develop were dis-             that specific Word of God points an accusing finger at each
tributed to the audience. They were: 1. The Counsel of                 one of us with lesser or greater urgency and should result
God in general, 2. Election, 3. Reprobation, 4. Relation of            in the plea, -"Forgive, Lord, forgive."
reprobation  .to election, 5. The Gospel, 6. The place of                We gather from the bulletins that Oak Lawn is the only
reprobation in the preaching of the Gospel. After the lec-             church w&h maintains a library. Last month seventeen
ture questions relating to the subject were answered by                new books were added to the shelves, and a new set of
the speaker. It is safe to say that those seminarians enjoyed          library regulations were adopted by the consistory.
that unique lecture -unique because that subject is com-                  The School Board of Loveland Prot. Ref. Christian School
monly hidden in the recesses of the Reformed Confessions               called a meeting of the society membership for a social
seldom seeing the clear light of exposition in these days of           evening Jan. 24. The meeting had a dual purpose: to bid
God-loves-all-men-ism. The enthusiastic reception given by             farewell to Mr. Tom DeVries and to welcome Miss Mary
the audience seemed to -indicate a repeat invitation in the            Pastoor - both of these young people are from First Church
not too distant future.                                                in Grand Rapids, Tom leaving the post of school teacher
  The smallest congregation in our denomination is located             for Mary to pick up. Loveland's parents are truly grateful
at Pella, Iowa. That very distinction makes them live in               to these young people who have taken the responsibility of
the consciousness of the promise of our Lord, "that where              teaching their children the three R's in the clear light of
two or three are gathered in My Name, I will be in the                 Scripture.
midst of them."-This. tiny -( 4 communicants, 8 souls), but
courageous congregation -meets in Elder Vander Molen's                    . . . See you in church.                     ,,  J.`M.  F .


