                                                       MARCH 1, 1964  -  GRAND'RAPJDS,  MICHIGAN                               NUMESER  11       __.

                                                                                   Yes, Christ also taught in Jerusalem, but that was the
I I           fii'.IE  D I TA T  I  0  N                                    II exception to the rule.
                                                                                   But all that was about to be changed. His last days He
                                                                                 would spend in Jerusalem, the City of the great King
                 THE SUFFERING SERVANT                                           where the Temple of Jehovah stood, the heart of the
         "FTom that time  forth  began Jesus to  shew unto His disciples,        Holy Nation.
         how that He must  go unto Jerusalem,  ancl suffer many things           .- Jerusalem! Jerusalem!  Sunk  in iniquity! Like unto a den
         of  th7te elders, and  ch,ief priests, and scribes,  and  be killed,    of robbers.
         and  be raised  again  the third  day."  Matt.  16:21                     You  are supposed to be the embodiment of the Love and
  From that time forth!                                                          Friendship of Jehovah-God, and the idea of the loving
  What does this mean?                                                           obedience of God's people  and the loving Sovereignty of
 It means this: before this time Jesus had taught the peo-                       God, but instead you are the awful pit where prophets,
ple, and He had spoken in parables, mysteries, similes, fig-                     wise men, and scribes are killed and crucified, and some
ures, etc., instictihg ,&em into the mysteries of the King-                      of them  are scourged in their synagogues, and further per-
dom.                                                                             secuted from city to city. But always under, the guidande
  It was His mandate,. from the Father,  to declare God!                         of Jerusalem.                      . .
  AndHedid.                                                                        But Jesus shewed.  unto His disciples that He must go to
  But from this time forth Jesus would shew them, that is,                       JerzLsalem!
He would give them the evidence, the proof of the main                             Degenerate Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stonest
program of the suffering Servant of Jehovah.                                     them that are sent unto thee!
  And that proof, that evidence would come  from the Holy                          A little later the Holy Ghost will say of you: "and their
Scriptures.                                                                      dead bodies (that is, the prophets of God) shall lie in the
                                D  *  II  3.x                                    street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom
                                                                                 and Egypt, where also our Lord is crucified."
  And that program would comprise, first of all, His advent ~
to Jerusalem.                                                                      And it failed to improve itself throughout the succeeding
  Conbary  to our expectations, He did not frequent Jeru-                        ages.
salem too much. He would rather live, walk and talk in                             Today Jerusalem is the Headquarters of the Babylonian
lowly Galilee. Some poet heard of this and sang of The                           World-empire, the great Whore, whose name is MYSTERY,
Stranger of Galilee.                                                             BABYLON THE GREAT, MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND
  And that was also  acco%ding  to the Holy Scriptures.                          ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Look it up, if you
  Many years back Isaiah had prophesied of this: Isa. 9:l                        will. It is the name which the Holy Ghost gives unto her
"Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her                        in Revelation 14: 5.
vexation, when at the first He lightly afllicted  the land of                     To that Jerusalem Jesus  must  go.
Zebulun and the land of  Naphtali, and afterward did more                          Note that must.
grievously afE!ict  her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan,                      There is an awful quality in that mz&. There are no two
in Galilee of the nations."                                                      ways about it. At one time even Jesus prayed about the
  There, in Galilee, was the place He called His home.                           possibility of another way: "Father, if Thou be willing,
Thkre He loved to walk and to talk and to teach and to heal                      remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but
the thousands. And from there He chose His disciples,                            Thine be done."
with the exception of one: Judas Iscariot, who came from                           And the answer? Here it is: NO!!!! You must drink that
Juda.                                                                            cup!


242                                               Tl3.E  ~,+&`ANDA~l>   ,REARER

  However, an angel appeared from heaven to strengthen             accursed, condemned, delivered to the worldly power, and
Him.                                                              finally killed on the awful cross of Golgotha.
  Beloved reader, that  must is God's unchangeable counsel        Jesus cried, first of all, through David: `Yea, for Thy
concerning His Son and your salvation.                  C          sake am I killed all the day long; I am counted as a sheep
  The great tragedy  must  take place.                            for the slaughter."
  Christ must die the most shameful death there, and no-             Later, much later, Paul heard that voice, and applied it
where else. He must die without the great City Jerusalem.         to himself and the whole true church of God.
  He rnti shed His blood there!                                      And since then, wherever the true church of God appears,
  And that Blood shall reconcile the true Jerusalem to God.       they are treated the same way.
                                                                     Just reveal the Beauty and the Glory of God, and men
                         -Q     0      Q     *                    shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of
                                                                  vile and evil things about you for God's sake.
  And that program shall comprise in the second place,
Christ's suffering,of  the leaders of Jerusalem.                                           0  L  0  0               P
  The fishers of Galilee were made fishers of men.
  The women of Galilee left their households behind them             However, when that happens, do not despair. But, rather,
and followed the Master wherever He went.                         rejoice, and be very glad, for such was done primarily to
  The children of Galilee were blessed by Jesus.                  Jesus, and to you for Jesus' sake.
  Thousands of sick were healed  in Galilee.                         Partake of Jesus' sufEering,  and . . . you will also partake
  And there His greatest miracles were performed.                 in His glory.
  But Jerusalem shall kill the Lamb of God. And it shall             For that is the third part of God's program which must
not be the scum of Jerusalem. Oh no.                              come to pass.
  It shall be the best and the honored, the elect men and            Although it seemed as though all was lost when Jesus
outstanding scholars and doctors of the law.                      hung on the accursed tree, He, nevertheless, obtained a
  Here are the names recorded by the Holy  Ghost:  the            glorious victory.
elders, and chief priests, and scribes.                              All the foregoing, no matter how horrible, was eternally
  Without controversy, the elders are the best, the cream         necessary.
of the crop, in all lands, in all history, in every community.      Jesus is the great Vicar, Substitute.
Nobody dreams of seating the scum in the elders' seat.               Jesus is the Substitute for the elect church, which in it-
  Elders are carefully chosen by the best men we have.            self is damn-worthy.
  They are the rulers of the church of God.                          And Jesus takes over all their damn-worthiness and in
  An elder stands for wisdom and power and strength.              their stead treads the weary pathway to everlasting death
In their counsels, deliberations, advice and decision they        and condemnation.
are entirely just, impartial and true.                               And the elders, chief priests and scribes are the agents of
  The chief priests are the sweetest of men. They stand           God. Look up Acts 4:27,25.
for all that is lovely, beautiful and attractive. Their whole        Necessary, I said. It was the only way of God's wisdom.
life is given over to concern for the misery and suffering        Only through the horrible spectacle of Golgotha could God
of the flock. They weep with those that weep. Is there any-       come to the highest glory of His name. It took that Cross
thing sweeter than that?                                          `to reveal just how lovely and attractive our God is.
  They are the men of the Love of God!                              Looking at that bleeding Lamb unto all eternity it will
  And the scribes?                                                not be too long to tell of His praises and to tell of His
  They are specialists of a kind.                                 dory.
  They are the specialists of the Word of God.                      The cross of Jesus tells us of a lovingkindness that beg-
  Scribes are men who are soaked with the Word of God.            gars description. Imagine, God Himself goes to hell for
Their whole life is taken up with the study of God's Self-        such worms as we are.
Expression, the Holy Scriptures.                                    God does not need us at all. He is the Self-SufFicient  in
  You can put it another way: Scribes are men who spe-            Himself. He needs no world, no angels, no elect men, no
cialize in the knowledge of God's heart! The opening Heart        heavenly music and chorus of millions of voices in order
of God is the Holy Scripture.                                     to enjoy Himself unto all eternity.
  What an assembly! Elders, chief priests and scribes!              He has His everlasting Covenant life in Himself, and is
                                                                  happy-
                         Q      ;D     Q     *                      God was happy in eternity before the world was.
                                                                    He does not need the creature.
  But what horror! Jesus must suffer many things of them!            But He wanted to show to untold millions how limitless
  By them the loveliest THING (Luke  1:35) the world              is His love and lovingkindness. He wanted to make His
shall ever see,  i.s scourged, mocked, derided, spit upon,        Name and His power known, and so He willed the wicked


                                                      T    H    E      STAN,DARD   BEAR;,ER                                                                                                                                                                         243

  and the devils and the hosts with their devilish howling                                                                                                                                                                                                   -
  about that Cross and that SufEering  Servant of Jehovah.                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
  He wanted the Blood of the Innocent as a Testimony .of                              Semi-muddy, except monthly during June, July and August
                                                                                         Published by the &FORMED FREE Pm~r.xoi~~c .h3OCIhION
  the everlasting power of His love.                                                                                       Editor  -  REV.  Hw HOEKSEMA
     Oh yes, we see it, we love it, we adore. it, and we sing                          Communications  relative to contents should be addressed to
   of it. And we shall never grow tired of telling Him how                             Rev.  H.  Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,
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  we love Him.                                                                                                                    neatly written or typewritten.
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                                                                                                                                                  C O N T E N T S
                      50th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                  MEDITATION-
                                                                                                The Suffering Servant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .._. _...... .__..... 242
      March  17th, 1964, is the day when we celebrate the 50th Wed-                                         Rev; G. Vos
  ding Anniversary of our beloved parents,
                                                                                EDITORL+LS-
                    MR. AND MRS. ALBERT TALSMA                                                 A Question .__.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._. . . I.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,244
                                                                                               D e Jong-Dekker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _. .244
                                                                                                            Rev. H. Hoeksema
      We  thank our God that He gave them to us, and for all the
   light of His grace which was shed upon our pathway. And it is our            OUR  Docrrinm  -
   prayer that Jehovah-God attend both Father and Mother on their                               The Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._.............  i . . . . ..____ 248
  pilgrim journey to heaven.                                                                                Rev. H. Hoeksema
                                        Their grateful children,                A CLOUD OF WITNESSES-
                                                                                               Shibboleth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Nick Talsma                                   Rev. B. Woudenberg
                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Earl De Good
                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Mulder     FROM  HOLY  WRIT-
                                                 Mr. and Mrs.  John Senko                      Exposition of the Prophecy of Malachi . . . . . . . . . . . . .._................  252
                                                                                                            Rev. G. Lubbers
                                                 Major and Mrs. C. P. Arnold
                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Peter Talsma      IN HIS FEAR -
                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Albert Talsma                     Faith and Hope Permeated with Love (2) .  ..___......_._............. 254
                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Tony Talsma                                   Rev. J. A. Heys
                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Harry Bergman     CONTENDING FOR THE  FAITH-
                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Talsma                    The Church and the Sacraments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.6
                                                                                                            Rev. H.  Veldman

                                                                                THE  LORD   GAVE  THE  WORD  -
                                                                                               The Mission Calling of Our Churches . . . . . . . .._____. ._:..._..........__..  258.
                                                                                                            Rev. C. Hanko

                                                                                -&I2 ckURCH AT WORSHiT-
     The South Holland-Oak Lawn Protestant Reformed Chris-                                     The Congregational. Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..__.. . 266
  tian School is in need of two teachers: Grades 1, 2 and 3;                                                Rev. G.  Vanden Berg                                                                    ~
   Grades 4, 5 and 6, to complete its teaching staff this coming                ALL  Anormn  Us-
  fall, 1964-1965.                                                                             Marriage in the Romish Church . . . . . . . . . .  .._____.._..........  262
                                                                                               News of Unions  .,......................................................................
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     262
     Kindly address your correspondence to:                                                    Religious Discrimination in Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263.
                                                                                               More About Religion in Public Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
                                                                                                            Rev.  H.`Hanko
                            Gysbert A. Van Bar-en
                            R.R. 1; Box 240 A                                   N E W S F R O M O U R CHURCHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
                            Chicago Heights, Illinois                                                       Mr. J. M. Faber
                                                                                r

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

                                                                 and, in fact, in regard to the contents of the "Redelijke
                                                                 Godsdienst" in general, we can recommend it to whoever
                                                                 can still read the Dutch language. This does not mean-that
                                                                 we would subscribe to all that Brake1 writes. Thus, for in-
                          A Question                             stance, we would have liked an adequate definition of elec-
  From Mr. Jack Arens, Holland,  Mich., I received the           tion and also of reprobation. The last-mentioned doctrine
following questions :                                            the author only mentions once or twice without further
  1. What do you think of the "kantteekeningen" in the           definition or explanation.
"Staten Bijbel"?                                                 Well, I hope I answered Mr. Arens' questions. If I did
  2.  Do you agree with the views expressed in Brakel's          not, he better come again.
"Redelijke  God&ens??                                                                                                    H.H.
  I have enjoyed reading these, especially Brakel's work.                             D e   J o n g   -Dekker
For example, this is what I find in Brakel's "Redelijke          Y e s - N o .   :
Godsdienst":                                                       In "Torch and Trumpet" there appeared an article of the
  "Als wij den wil Gods aldus onderscheiden (den  ver-           Rev. Alexander C. De Jong under the caption: "The Ser-
borgen  en den geopenbaarden wil), zoo stellen we geen twee      mon . . . the Sender . . . the Sinner." Just about the same
willen in God; de daad des willens is een en enkel in God,       time, Professor Harold Dekker had an article in "The Re-
maar de voorwerpen zijn verscheiden. Veel minder stellen         formed Journal" on the subject: "Redemptive Love and
wij tegenstrijdige  willen in God, als of God met zijnen         the Gospel Offer."
geopenbaarden wil eene zaak Wilde, en dezelfde zaak met            Both of these writers take the position that in regard to
den verborgen wil niet wilde; want de aanmerking van den         the preaching of gospel to all that hear it there are con-
wil Gods, in die verscheidene opzichten als verborgenen          tradictions in Scripture. De Jong calls them "apparent con-
sf `geopenbaarden, geschiedt ten opzichte  .van de  verschei-    tradictions," and Dekker uses the term `paradoxes"; but
dene zaken, die sommigen geopenbaard, anderen niet  geo-         substantially they mean the same thing.
penbaard zijn, en niet ten opzichte van .dezelfde  zaak en         Let me quote a few sentences.
in hetzelfde opzicht."
  Thus far the questions.                                          De Jong writes as follows  (Torch  ad Trumpet,  Feb.,
                                                                 1964, p. 8):
                           0  0  0  0                              "In the preaching situation God displays a love of  his
  .The first concerns the so-called "Staten-Bijbel," that is,    heart which is of a kind or character that corresponds to
the Bible `that was published by the injunction of the           the salvation offered. In describing this love of God we
States of Holland in 1619-1637, and the "kantteekeningen"        can make use of the same theological distinctions which we
are the marginal notes composed by various theologians and       employ when we speak of God's will. Reformed scholars
published together with the "Staten-Bijbel."                     consistently teach that there is a will of God, his revealed
  Now, as to the contents of these marginal notes, they          will, which displays a will toward the realization of some-
are a brief commentary of the whole Bible, and it stands         thing, which he has not decretively  willed. Since we must
to `reason that they are not all of equal value. Hence, my       not abstract Gods love from his will (God is  One-sim-
answer to Mr. Arens' first question must be: read the mar-       plicitas Dei) why can we not adoratively face the same
ginal notes with discretion and with a critical eye.             kind of apparent contradiction when we speak of  God's
  As to the second question, that concerning Brakel's            love? In the legitimate and necessary interest of maintaining
"Redelijke Godsdienst" (Reasonable Service of and Instruc-       the sovereignty and unique and free love of God to the
tion in the Knowledge of God), I would make the follow-          elect as revealed in the definite particularity of the atone-
ing remarks :                                                    ment we must not tone down, render suspect or question-
  1.  Brakel,  at the time when he wrote this work, was          able the genuine redemptive character of God's love
minister of the Word of God in Rotterdam during the              revealed in the preaching situation. Both aspects of  this
latter part of the seventeenth century and the first part of     apparent contradiction must receive their accent if we are
the eighteenth century.                                          to do full justice to the adorable greatness of God's love
  2. The second volume has a rather elaborate interpreta-        tp sinners."
tion of the book of Revelation. In the interpretation Brake1       The meaning is rather-plain. In what De Jong calls "the
follows the historical order, with which we do not .-agree.      preaching situation," God, in his revealed will, loves all
And, of course, the Pope- is the antichrist.                     men in as far, at least, as they come under the preaching
  3. In the quotation which Arens makes from Brakel's            of the gospel. And, of course, we must preach too. I will
work the latter speaks of the will of God and distinguishes      come back to this presently.
between the will of God's decree and the will of command,          Dekker writes as follows:
or the secret and revealed will of God. In regard to this,         "It has also been'urged that because,God's  love is sover-


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                245

eign it is inconsistent to speak of it as a `redemptive love          Jong has it in the above expressed view. The realities of sav-
which does not always redeem. But need such inconsistency             ing grace, according to him, are truly and sincerely offered
bother us? That is but another aspect of the great .paradox           to all. Hence, this offer of saving grace is certainly not
of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The para-             i r r e s i s t i b l e .
dox is just as great for those who hold that the sovereign               The other side of this contradiction we have already
God sincerely offers a salvation which is sufiicient for all and      partly quoted above.
which he desires all to have but which not all receive. But              However, he also expresses in the following words (on
the decisive question is not the size or difficulty of the para-      the same page of "Torch and Trumpet" quoted above)
dox. That matters little. The decisive question is where do           the other side of this contradiction:
the Scriptures posit the paradox? The Scriptures testify to a
divine love for all men in the atonement of Christ and in                "But, and this also needs saying, every sinner needs the
the universal invitation of the gospel. The biblical paradox          sovereign initiative of God's grace before he can appropri-
is that of a redemptive love which does not always redeem."           ate this available salvation to himself. If by the. phrase
                                                                      `salvation is available' one means `anyone can take it to
  Now, a paradox is virtually the same as an "apparent                himself because he has the ability to appropriate it,' one
contradiction"; for it is a proposition that is seemingly con-        must object strongly. The sinner is by nature totally unable
tradictory. It is, therefore, as I wrote in the heading above         to take to himself the salvation offered by Christ. But if
this paragraph: Yes - No.                                             one means by the phrase `salvation is available' that `salva-
  About this I make the following remarks:                            tion is truly present to those who hear on condition of re-
   1. As to the article by De Jong, he really camouflages             pentance and faith,' I can see no reason why this phrase
the matter. For he writes: "If Christ Jesus truly offers sal-         cannot be used. True, the phrase can readily be miscon-
vation in the preaching situation, is salvation truly available       strued, but that does not necessarily disallow its use,
to the hearer?" Here he should have written: is salvation             providing it is accompanied by careful explanation. The
truly available to uZZ the hearers? This is what he means             reality of the gospel offer - which no one in the Christian
to say anyway. Besides, who denies that salvation is                  Reformed communion would dispute  - underscores the
available to the hearer of the gospel? No one.                        availability of redemption in the preaching situation. Christ
  A little farther on he appears to limit these "hearers" to          is present offering himself in his own unique and sovereign
which salvation is available. Writes he: "Salvation is avail-         manner, which underscores human responsibility, displays
able to gospel hearers in the way of repentance and faith."           genuine love and is efficacious according to his sovereign
And again he writes: "In love Christ Jesus offers himself             will. The unique dynamics of the preaching situation, it
to all those who will repent and believe." And once more,             seems to me, precludes a simple statement like this: `Christ
he writes:  ". . . our Savior earnestly and lovingly reveals          did not secure salvation for all by his work. Therefore sal-
his intention to save all who will believe." Again, I say:            vation is not available for all.' "
De Jong camouflages the matter. For the clause, "all who                 There are several different elements in this paragraph that
will repent and believe," may be taken in a sound sense;              are contradictory in themselves.
for, after all, only those that believe and repent shall be              In the first part De Jong teaches the truth of sovereign
saved. But I am afraid that De Jong intends to use this               grace as well as of the total depravity of man. No one can
limitation of the hearers in the Arminian sense, in the sense,        appropriate salvation to himself. The sinner  is totally in-
namely, that in the preaching of the gospel Christ Himself            capable of doing so.
says to all the hearers: "I intend to save you and give you              Then he refers back to the idea of availability. Now avail-
eternal life, if only you will repent and believe; but if you         ability is itself a very ambiguous term. In the transitive
do not want to repent and believe, I can do nothing about             sense it may mean that something is of advantage to some-
it." For this reason De J&g can iinally write, without any            one, to benefit, to profit. In the intransitive sense it means
limitation, that "salvation, eternal life, the realities of saving    about the same thing: to be of advantage, to serve the
grace,.Christ himself, are present, truly offered to all." How        purpose, to be capable or e5cacious,  sufficient  to accomplish
otherwise could there be a contradiction?                             the object. It seems that De Jong (and also Dekker) use
  Of course, this element in the preaching of the gospel              the term in the latter sense, so that it means that the preach-
is pure Arminianism.                                                  ing of the gospel is in itself capable to save all the hearers.
  In fact, in the first article of the Remonstrance of 1610,          One can also say that the outward calling is  su5cient to,
the Arminians do better than De Jong, for there they em-              bring all the hearers to salvation. And this is not Reformed,
phasize that salvation is all through the grace of the Holy           but Arminian. Moreover, the Scripture plainly teaches that
Ghost. Only, in the fourth article they show their true               the outward calling, without the inward calling, is not
colors when they say: "But as respects the mode of the                merely of no avail to all the hearers, but is for some a savor
operation of this grace, it is not irresistible." But this is true    of death unto death and that, too, according to  God's
also of the first part of the preaching of the gospel as De           intention.

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

  De Jong writes that the sentence "salvation  iscavailable"           atonement and is an essential element .in the witness of the
i.e. to all -the hearers, is proper in the sense that "salvation       gospel."
is truly present, is genuinely being extended to those who               Of the su5ciency of `the death of Christ the Canons speak
hear on condition of repentance and faith." Also this is not           in II, 3 as follows:
Reformed. Faith is not a condition, but purely a gift of
God which he works in the hearts of all the elect. And do                "The death of the Son of God is the only and most perfect
not camouflage this truth by saying that God realizes the              sacrifice and satisfaction for sin; and is of infinite worth and
condition himself, for that is never the meaning-of the term           value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole
condition in the above quoted sentence. It refers to a condi-          world."
tion which the hearer of the gospel must fulfill.                        What does this mean?
  The last part of this paragraph I confess I do not under-              Does it mean, as Dekker would have it, that "it belonged
stand. De Jong is still writing about the availability of sal-         to the divine intention that the atonement would be suffi-
vation to all the hearers. If I insert in the last part of             cient for all men?"
                                                               this
paragraph the phrase "`all the hearers", then I get this:                Evidently, this cannot be the meaning. It ought to be
`Christ is present offering himself to `all the hearers' in his        evident that the Canons in this article simply emphasize,
own unique and sovereign manner which underscores                      not that the atonement of Christ is sufEcient  to expiate the
human responsibility, displays genuine love to `all the hear-          sins of all men, but that it is infinite, that it cannot be
ers' and is efficacious in `all the hearers' according to the          measured, or that its value cannot be calculated. It does not
counsel of God's sovereign will bver all the hearers.' The             mean, to be sure, that it was the divine intention that the
unique dynamics of the preaching situation in respect to `all          atonement would be efficacious for all men. The very con-
the hearers' precludes a simple statement like this: `Christ           trary is true, according to Canons  II:8 where we read:
Jesus did not secure salvation for all by his work,' (for `this        "For this was the sovereign counsel and most gracious will
he did, indeed, for all the hearers.`) `Therefore salvation is         and purpose of God the Father, that- the quickening and
not available for all;' (`for it is, indeed, available for all the     saving e5cacy  of the most precious death of his Son should
hearers.`)                                                             extend to all the elect, for bestowing upon them alone the
  This is a denial of God's sovereign election. And it surely          gift of justifying faith, thereby to bring them infallibly to
is a denial of limited atonement.                                      salvation: that is, it was the will of God, that  Clu$t, by
                                                                       the blood of the cross, whereby he confirmed the new
                          0 4  0  0                                    covenant, should effectually redeem out of every people,
  2. Now let us see what Professor Dekker writes on this               tribe, nation, and language, all those and those only, who
particular subject.                                                    were from eternity chosen unto salvation, and given to him
  First of all, I like to say that Dekker is very easy to under-       by the Father; that he should confer upon them faith,
stand. He does not camouflage as does De Jong. He still                which together with all the other gifts of the Holy Spirit,
maintains that God loves all men with a redemptive love.               he purchased for them by his death; should purge them
For this I can quote almost at random from his article in              from all sin, both original and actual, whether committed
the "Reformed Journal," Jan. 1964, under the title "Redemp-            before or after believing; and having faithfully preserved
tive Love and the Gospel Offer."                                       them even to the end, should at last bring them free from
                                                                       every spot and blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his
  However, it seems expedient that I begin at the point                own presence forever."
where Dekker explains three propositions: the sufficiency of             Dekker makes a quotation from the commentary of the
salvation for all, the availability of salvation to all, and the       Heidelberg Catechism by Ursinus.
divine desire that all men should be saved.                              This I do not consider important for more than one rea-
  As to the sufliciency  of salvation for al& Professor Dekker         son. First, it is very questionable whether Ursinus ever
writes as follows:                                                     wrote what Dekker quotes or whether he ever wrote the
  "With respect to the sufficiency  of salvation for all men, it       entire section in which the quotation is found. Second,
has been observed in the current discussion that this has              even if Ursinus wrote it, he merely gives various opinions
little to do with the redemptive love because the atonement            of other authors, not his own. Thirdly, even though he did
would have had to be the same for one as for all. This un-             write it, I will, for one, not be held responsible for what
derstanding of sufficiency is f,amiliar and generally accepted.        Ursinus wrote. Dekker writes that "Ursinus plainly puts
It should not, however, mislead us in this connection. For             universal sufficiency in the design of the atonement, that
the Bible goes far beyond abstractions of this kind and indi-          he uses without hesitation or equivocation the expression:
cates that it precisely belonged to the divine intention that          Yhrist  died for all . . . .  ." This I cannot find in the quo-
the atonement would be  sufhcient for all men. In other                tation made by Dekker. He may'show  me.            .?'
words, universal sufficiency belongs to the design of the                But after all is said, I confess that I never liked the ex-


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              247

pression  about the sufllciency  of the atonement, not because    life is thoroughly Scriptural and Reformed, while Dekker's
Dekker seems to like it so well, for I never liked it, but        proposition about the availability of salvation to all men is
because ,it is a mere piece of philosophy and is not found        Arminian.
in Scripture.                                                        Dekker also quotes Scripture to prove his proposition
   The second universal factor in the design of atonement         about availability of salvation for all.
is; according to Dekker, the availability of salvation to all.       Writes he:
On this he writes as follows:
                                                                     `Au. Biblical statements of the general offer of the gospel
   "The second universal factor in the design of the atone-       express availability. For instance, when Jesus said Come
ment, also to be reflected in our witness to the gospel, is       unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
that of the availability of salvation to all men. Webster's       give you rest' (Matthew  11:28), He was saying that the
Intercollegiate Dictionmy  defines avail&e as `at disposal,       offered rest is  available  to all on condition that they
accessible or attainable, ready, handy.' Is this not precisely    come."
what the sincere offer of the gospel says to all men about
the redemption in Christ? For if something which is offered          Is this true?
is not available, evidently there is no genuine offer."              Most emphatically not!
   Dekker then goes on to say that necessarily availability          And why not? For the following reasons:
presupposes and requires a condition, if only the condition
of taking. What he means is, of course, that the gospel is           1. First of all, because of the context. There Jesus is
at the disposal, is accessible or attainable to all men or, at    revealed as saying: f'1 thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven
least, to all the hearers, but that it is up to man, to the       and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the
hearer to take it. If man does not want to take it, the avail-    wise and prudent, and hast. revealed them unto babes. Even
ability is of no avail.                                           so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight." (In the
  But does not Dekker understand that if this is the case,        Greek:  eudokia   sou, thy good pleasure). Would you say,
                                                                  Professor Dekker, that salvation was available also to these
the availability of salvation to all men means absolutely         wise and prudent? Or were they the reprobates to whom
nothing for the simple reason that no sinner or natural man       God would not even reveal "these things," but from whom
can take it and does not want to take it? Or does Dekker
actually want to deny this total incapability of the natural      he hid them?
man and teach free will? It seems to me that either of the          2. In the second place, because the word "Come" is not
two alternatives must be true: the salvation proclaimed in        a condition, as Dekker has it, but it is the calling of the
the gospel is not available or attainable to all men or to all    gospel. Of course, if this would merely refer to the "out-
the hearers, for the simple reason that the natural man           ward calling" it would be of worse than of no avail. But
cannot and will not fulfill the condition of taking it;- or it    you may be sure that if Jesus says, "Come unto me," those
is available to all the hearers because the natural man is        that are so called will surely come.
able to "take" it.                                                  3. In the third place, the Lord does not even call all
  Which of these two does Dekker want? I would like him           men here, but he calls his people by name, i.e. by their
to answer this question. And, please, don't seek refuge in        spiritual name. And what is their name? It is "all ye that
paradoxes or contradictions, for both of these alternatives       labor and are heavy laden," i.e., those that are burdened
simply cannot be true.                                            under a `load of sin. And to them the Lord promises rest,
  Dekker even attempts to prove this contradictory propo-         i.e., of course, spiritual rest: forgiveness, righteousness and
sition by the following quotation from the Canons, II, 5:         eternal life!
  "Moreover, the promise of the gospel is that whosoever            0, how far remote are these words from Dekker's proposi-
believes in Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life.       tion that salvation is available to all men!
This promise, together with. the command to repent and              4. Fourthly, this is exactly the teaching of all Scripture.
believe, ought to be declared and published to all nations,       Just let me quote the following: `All that Father giveth
and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction,         me shall come to. me; and him that cometh to me I will in
to' whom God out of his good pleasure sends the gospel."          no wise cast out." John  6:37. And again: "No man can
  I `ask Dekker: is this the same as saying: Salvation is         come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw
available or attainable for all men because.all are able and      him."
willing to "take" it.                                               But I will have to continue this next lime, the Lord
  By no means. The difference is that the promise of the          willing.
gospel that whosoever blelieves in Christ shall have eternal                                                              H. H.


 248                                 THE'  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                    .-.          . .

                                                                 Word of God is in them. And not only did He call them
 11 0 U  R  D 0 C T  R I N E  11 into being, but He still is in them and upholds them by
                                                                 His almighty and omnipresent power. He sustains and gov-
                                                                 erns them in all their existence, in all their operation. And
                                                                 therefore, all that is and all that occurs in creation, from
         THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH                              the beginning to the end of history, declares and reveals
                                                                 the name of the Lord. It is a revelation of the living God,
                       &Al'TER  VIII                             Who is always near, so that the psalmist may sing: "Unto
        THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM  (continued)                    thee, 0 God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give
                                                                 thanks-: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works de-
   Baptism is a sign of submerging into death and bearing        clare." Psalm 751. However, that name of the Lord as it
 the punishment of sin, or of so submerging into death that      is revealed in creation is not sufficient to know Him as
 the justice of God is fully satisfied. And therefore it is a    the God of our salvation. Nay, more: that name reveals
 sign also of the rising again unto a new life. Thus Jesus       also His wrath, His wrath upon all the workers of iniquity.
 was baptized indeed. He descended into the depths of            We could never know the name of the Lord in all the works
 Gods wrath, into the deepest darkness of death, and tasted      of His hands, therefore, unless we behold those works in
 death for all His people. And He rose again,  justised by       the light of another name by which the Lord has made
 the very sentence of God upon Him, in the glorious resur-       Himself known to us. That name is in the Scriptures. And
 rection. Of this baptism into His own blood and into His        that name centrally is Jesus. It is only when we behold
 own death He received the sign when John baptized Him.          the glorious name of the Lord from the standpoint of that
He was about to enter upon His public ministry. In that          one name that it becomes the name of the God of our
ministry He was to announce the kingdom of heaven. Like          salvation. Apart from that one name, the revelation of God
 John, He was to preach that the kingdom of heaven was           in the things that are seen surely brings the name of God
 nigh. But unlike John, He was to preach in word and work        to us as a name of power and might, but, as has already
 that He Himself would bring that kingdom of heaven. He is       been said, also as a name of wrath, that loudly proclaims
 the Good Shepherd, the King, the Door, the way into the         that God is angry with the wicked every day, and that
 everlasting tabernacle of God. He was to enter into the         He will visit the workers of iniquity with His just punish-
 sheepfold and lead out His sheep. But all this was con-         ment in time and eternity. Rom. 1:X3, ff. But there+  an-
 centrated around His death. If He would not die, He would       other, a new, an -altogether wonderful revelation of the
 be none of all this. His death, therefore, was the essential    name of Jehovah: and that name is Jesus, Jehovahsalva-
 element of His whole ministry. And therefore it was very        tion. From the viewpoint of the name Jesus we behold the
 proper that He should be.baptized  of John as a sign of His     entire name of the Lord our God as a name of mercy and
ultimate baptism into death.                                     grace, as a name of salvation. And this is the name of
                                                                 Jehovah, the name of the Triune God as the God of our
 The formula for baptism used by the church is based             salvation, in which we are baptized. It is the name that
upon Matthew 28:19,  and it is indeed significant that this      was revealed in the fulness of time, when God sent His
 formula be retained. It must not be substituted by any-         only begotten Son into the world, made of a woman, made
thing -else. `In fact, only baptism that is administered in      under the law. It was revealed in the entire ministry of our
 the name of the Triune God is at all recognized by Re-          Lord Jesus Christ: for by His word and work God spoke
 formed churches. In the original we read `into the name."       to us as the God of our salvation, full of grace and mercy.
And this does not mean "upon the authority of the name           It was revealed as the name of reconciliation in the cross
 of the Triune God," but rather "`into the fellowship of God     of Golgotha: for God was in Christ reconciling the world
 Triune as He revealed Himself in the name of Jesus Christ."     unto Himself, not. imputing their trespasses unto them.
 The name of. God in Scripture has a very important sig-         Cf. II Cor.  5:lQ. It is revealed in the resurrection of our
 nificance, as we well know. It denotes God, or Jehovah,         Lord Jesus Christ from the dead as a name of everlasting
 Himself as He reveals Himself to us, as He is known to us,      righteousness: for He was delivered for our transgressions
 as He is near to us. God is God. He is the iniinite and the     and raised for our justification. Rom.  4:25. It was revealed
 eternal One, Who is Himself invisible. But He made Him-         as a name of glorification in the ascension of the Lord
 self a name. He revealed Himself. And by this name He           Jesus Christ and in His exaltation at the right hand  .of
 Himself came down to us, is known to us, is near to us,
 and surrounds us on every side. This name of the Lord           God. And it will be revealed in all the fuhress of its saving
in general is in all the works of God's hands. Thus the          power in the day of Christ, when He shall make all things
psalmist sings in Psalm 8:l and 9: "0 Lord our Lord, how         new, when the tabernacle of God shall be with men
 excellent is thy name in all the earth." All creation is the    forevermore. That is the name of God that was declared
 handiwork of God; and all creatures, therefore, spell His       unto us by the Spirit and through faithful witnesses. It is
 name. For they are created by the Word of God, and that         preserved for us in the Holy Scriptures. And it is still


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA.RER                                                  249

proclaimed.  bythe church. Into that name, therefore, that        Lord's Supper is not. essential to the significance of com-
is, into- the-fellowship of that name, and therefore, into the    munion, but belongs only to the mode of celebrating that
covenant fellowship of the Triune God in Christ Jesus our         sacrament, so immersion, in distinction from sprinkling. or
Lord, we are baptized. And from this it is very evident that      pouring; is certainly not essential to the meaning of the
baptism is a sacrament. It is an institution of God through       sacrament of baptism. Besides, there are plenty of indi-
Christ to be observed by the whole church in the new              cations in Scripture that another mode of baptism than
dispensation.                                                     that of immersion was employed. It is hardly reasonable
  When we consult the Reformed Confessions, we find that          to conceive of the possibility that John the Baptist at the
they one and all attribute a rich significance to the sacra-      river Jordan baptized the multitudes that came to him by
ment of baptism. Centrally, indeed, they all confess that         means of immersion into the river. It certainly is impossible
baptism  signilies  the washing away of sin through the           to believe that the three thousand that were baptized on
blood of Christ. Thus also the Heidelberg Catechism, in           the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem-were all immersed. Nor
Lord's Day 26, in answer to the question, "How art thou           does the baptism of Cornelius and his household leave the
admonished and assured by holy baptism, that the one              impression that suflicient water was brought into the house
sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is of real advantage to        for all to be baptized by immersion. The jailor at Philippi
thee?" teaches us: "Thus: That Christ appointed  this ex-         was evidently baptized in or near the prison; and he and
ternal washing with water, adding thereto this promise,.          his house were certainly not led to the river to be im-
that I am as certainly washed by his blood and Spirit from        mersed. And not only so, but sprinkling is at least sug-
all the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as I     gested in Scripture, even though it does not directly refer
am washed externally with water, by which the filthiness of       to the sacrament of baptism. In Ezekiel  36:25 we read:
the body is commonly washed away." (Question and                  "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall
Answer 69) In Question and Answer 70 the Catechism                be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols,
teaches us as follows: "What is it to be washed with the          will I cleanse you." And in Hebrews  10:22:  "Let us draw
blood and Spirit of Christ? It is to receive of God the           near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
remission of sins, freely, for the sake of Christ's blood,        hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies
which he shed for us by his sacrifice upon the cross. . . ."      washed with pure water."                                 H.H.
Other confessions, however, attribute a richer meaning to
the sacrament of baptism. According to them, it includes
the reception into the covenant of God and the inheritance                 Call to Aspirants to the Ministry
of the sons ,of God. It .signifies not only to be purged from        All young men desiring to study for the ministry of de
the filthiness of sin, but also to be endued with the mani-       Word in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and who have
fold grace of God. It means that we are adopted unto              not already been pre-enrolled, are asked to appear before
children of God, that we are enriched with various gifts          the Theological School Committee on its next meeting,
unto a new life. It signifies not only the remission of sins,     which will be held, the Lord willing, on Friday, April 10,
but it also is a sacrament of regeneration, purification,         1964 at 8 P.M. in the parsonage of the Hudsonville Protest-
renewal. There are indeed Reformed theologians who would          ant Reformed Church, in Hudsonville, Michigan.
emphasize exclusively that baptism signifies the washing             The qualifications requisite to enrollment are  the follow-
away of sins. According to them, the being buried with            ing :
Christ into His death and being raised again into a new              1. You must present a letter from your local consistory
life has nothing to do with the essential meaning of bap-         certifying that you are upright in walk and pure in
tism. But it is evident that their purpose is chiefly to de-      doctrine.
fend the mode of sprinkling over against those that insist           2. You must present a certificate of health, signed by a
that immersion is essential. and necessary for baptism.           reputable physician.
  Reformed theologians have always insisted that immer-              3. You must be a graduate from High School, being able
sion is certainly not the only proper way of baptism, but         to show that you have completed a one-year course in
that pouring or sprinkling is also quite sufficient. And this     History General and Church History; and that you have
position we hold too, also on the basis of Holy Writ. Even        completed the following College courses: Latin-two years,
if the original word for baptism signifies `to dip, or to im-     Greek-two years, German-two years, Philosophy-one year,
merse," - a meaning which is contested by some Reformed           Psychology-one year, Logic-one semester.
theologians, -we would still insist that sprinkling is quite        All correspondence relative to the above announcement
sufficient, simply because it belongs to the sign and not to      should be sent to the undersigned:
the essence of baptism. And because it is not essential, but                   Secretary of the Theological School Committee,
belongs to the outward form and symbol, sprinkling or                          Rev. M. Schipper,
pouring must be considered quite sufficient. Even as the                       1543 Cambridge Ave., S.E.,
common cup, in distinction from the individual cup, at the                     Grand Rapids 6, Michigan 49506


2550                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      -  _     .

                                                                            a double portion- in the nation through his sons Ephraim
   A CLOUD OF  WlTNES;SES  / ,&nd Manasseh. And then in addition when the two sons of
                                                                            Joseph had been brought to Jacob personally for his final
                                                                            blessing, Ephraim had been preferred above Manasseh,
                            Shibboleth                                      even though he was the younger of the two. Through all
                                                                            the years and centuries that had followed the  Ephra.imites
          And the Gileadites took the passages  of Jordan before  the       remembered this. There was always an underlying feeling
        Ephraimites;  and it was so, that when those  Eljhraimites
        which were escaped said, Let  us go over; that the men  of          in that tribe that  they among the tribes :of Israel were
        Gilead said  u,nto him, Art thou an Ephwimite? If he  said, Nay;    superior to the rest, and the proper leaders of the nation.
          Then said they unto him,  Sag  now Shibboleth:  and  he  said     Now in the days of lawlessness which characterized  the
        Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then       period of the judges, this proud attitude broke out in open
        they took  him, and  slew him at  the passages of Jordan; and       expression and became the cause of trouble.
        there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two  tlmu-
        sand.                                            Judges  l&5,6
                                                                              The ..fact was that Ephrairn lacked completely the su-
  During the period of the judges the national life of Israel               periority of which it boasted. Had they studied  the history
deteriorated badly. It began as a matter of negligence.                     of Israel carefully and objectively, they would have realized
The individual tribes of Israel failed to clean out the pockets             that a blessing had been given by Jacob which was superior
of heathenism which remained after the over-all conquest                    even to theirs, it was `the blessing of the tribe of Judah
of Joshua. It developed in the form of outright wicked-                     which contained the promise of the covenant seed. More-
ness.  .As time went on, the children of Israel began to                    over, Ephraim lacked not only men of leadership ability,
associate with these heathen peoples and finally to copy                    but also the spiritual strength and faith which were abso-
their idolatrous practices. The result was that the one                     lutely necessary to true leadership in Israel. But their very
thing which held Israel together, a common faith in Jehovah                 pride would not allow them to admit this. Rather they
and His promises, was no longer effective. Just how bad                     sought to defend their own exalted opinion of themselves
this splintering effect was, became evident in the later                    by refusing to recognize any right or ability of leadership
histqry of Jephthah.                                                        in anyone else.

  The  difllculty here arose particularly from  the tribe of
Ephraim. There had been rumblings of it already years                         In reality Jephthah had called them to battle against
before at the time of Gideon, when he had put to flight                     the Ammonites. This he made plain immediately in his
the hosts of  Midian.  He had sent messengers to mount                      answer to them. "I and my people," he said, "were at great
Ephraim, calling them to come and help him in the pursuit                   strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you,
of Midian.  They had come, and, taking the fords of Jordan,                 ye delivered me not out of their hands. And when I saw
had slain Oreb and Zeeb, princes of  Midian.  Still, when                   that ye delivered me not, I put my life in my hands, and
they had met Gideon personally, it had been with a bitter                   passed over against the children of Ammon, and the Lord
spirit of complaint because he had not called them before                   delivered them into my hand: wherefore then are ye come
the battle with Midian instead of afterward. But Gideon                     up  unto me this  day to fight  against me?"
had been able to sidestep their complaint by reminding
them of the  glory  they had gained by slaying Oreb and                       But as persuasive as this reasoning might appear to
Zeeb, and they had been satisfied.                                          have been, it had no effect upon the men of Ephraim:
                                                                            When the call mentioned by Jephthah had come to them,
  Now in the case of Jephthah the situation was-much the                    they had hardly even taken notice of it. After all, Jephthah
same. Jephthah received from  the Lord a great victory                      had not even been a member of their own tribe, and it had
over the Ammonites. Hardly had he returned from battle                      seemed quite a presumption on his part to think that he
before the Ephraimites came to him and said, "Wherefore                     could call them to battle. And even more, for anyone at
passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon,                  that time to suggest a campaign against the great and
and didst not call us to go with thee? we will burn thine                   powerful Ammonites had appeared little short of utter
house upon thee with fire."                                                 folly. But now the battle was over, and Jephtbah had won
                                                                            an amazing victory. It ,made them burn with jealousy to
  The difhculty  with the Ephraimites was that they pos-                    think that they had had no part in it, and it was not long
sessed an exalted opinion of what their position in the                     before they began to hate Jephthah for what he had done
nation of Israel should be. This no doubt went back to                      without them. It seemed to them that the only way in
their origin as a tribe. They were the descendants of one                   inrhich  they could vindicate themselves was to go out and
of Joseph's sons. Not only bad Joseph in his day been                       prove themselves stronger than he was; they would burn
the most outstanding member of his family, but before the                   down his house upon him with fire. There was no way of
death of Jacob he alone of all the family had been given                    reasoning with men like that; there was no way of turning


                                              T H E   STAND,ARD   B E A R E R                                                251

away the anger of their envy; they were determined to            deny being an  Ephra.imite,  they would tell him to  say,.
vindicate themselves with evil.                                  `Shibboleth".  Those  who were of other tribes were  per:
                                                         3. c    fectly capable of doing this; but the men of Ephraim would
  For Jephthah there was left only one thing to do. Regret-      only be able to say, "Sibboleth". With this they were ex-
fully he called out his army- again. Such arrogance and          posed and immediately put to death. The result was that
pride in Israel could not be allowed to go unpunished. The       there died of the Ephraimites 42,000 men.
price would be dear; civil war would rend apart the people
of God's chosen nation; and once the battle was joined, it         This was a sad chapter in the history of Israel. Un-
would have to be followed through until  the men of              doubtedly  the Ephraimites, by threatening de life of
Ephraim repented.                       I-                       Jephthah for no other reason than jealousy, had committed
                                                                 a-great sin, and it was necessary that for this they should
  In a way the battle was never really even. It was true         be punished. Thus the end result was surely just and of
that the men of Ephraim came from a large and influen-           the Lord. Nonetheless, it was evident that also  the men
tial tribe, while the men of Gilead gathered behind              of Gilead allowed themselves to be driven on by pride also,
Jephthah represented but a small part of the lesser tribes       as much or more than by righteous indignation. Thus they
beyond the Jordan. But with Jephthah and his men was             carried~the  slaughter of Ephraim much farther than was
the cause of righteousness. Thus the Lord was with them,         necessary. In all, this event makes clear how far the splin-
and they could not fail. Soon after the battle was joined,       tering of the life of Israel had developed. The various
the men of Ephraim were scattered.                               tribes were no longer bound together by one uniting faith.
                                                                 In their sin they were driven farther and farther apart.
  In this battle, however, there developed another aspect
of this history which was even sadder. When first the men          We do not know in how far Jephthah himself took part
of Gilead gathered to defend Jephtbah, the Ephraimites           in or even approved of the slaying of the Ephraimites. We
tied to turn them back with derision, "Ye Gileadites are         do read that he gathered the men to battle; but in connec-
fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among            tion with the "Shibboleth" incident his name is not men-
the Manassites." It was as much as to say that the men           tioned. It may well be that  this matter was carried on
of Gilead had no importance whatever in Israel, except           without his immediate knowledge or approval. We do read
that which they received from their associations with the        that he continued as judge after that, although  for a com-
tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. As is usually the case,          paratively short time. The total years of Jephthah's judge-
this use of ridicule had quite the opposite effect from that     ship were six. This work was continued and concluded in
which was intended. Instead of becoming discouraged, the         the land of Gilead.
men. of Gilead were infuriated. Incensed with anger and
hatred, they fought just that much more effectively. They          After Jephthah, the forces of Israel were never rallied
were men determined to justify their own existence, and in       to victory over their enemies again during all the remain-
addition they were thirsting for revenge.                        ing period of the judges, except, that is, for one battle
                                                                 during the days of Samuel. In a large part Israel became
  The result was that once the forces of the Ephraimites         the plaything of the surrounding nations. Especially the
were defeated, the men of Gilead still were not satisfied.       Philistines ran roughshod over them. Even before the ex-
Looking for still more revenge, they hurried to the fords        ample of a man such as Samson the people were too timid
of the Jordan river and took control of them. This was a         and fearful to be rallied in their own defense. Even more,
position of crucial importance, for every Ephraimite, in         they were too sinful to torn in repentance from their wicked-
order to return home, would have to pass over here. Neither      ness. It was a very low ebb in the history of God's cove-
did it take the Ephraimites long to discover their danger.       nant nation.
Each one of them that was taken was immediately put to
death without mercy. Thus, as they came down to the                Nor was it that the Lord left himself without testimony.
river to pass over and were asked by the men of Gilead,          He did send his judges. Three particularly are mentioned,
"Art thou an Ephraimite?" they would answer, "Nay." For          - Ibzan,  Elan, and Abdon. We must conclude that they
the men of Gilead this created a problem, for there were         were faithful in their labors for Jehovah; but their influence
many from other tribes that daily crossed over the Jordan        remained con&-red  to very local areas: Ibzan to Bethlehem,
river in the regular commerce which took place between           Elon to Zebulon, and Abdon to Pirathon of Ephraim. The
the different parts of the nation. But soon they came up         only distinction for which they were finally remembered
with a solution. It was a peculiarity of the tribe of Ephraim    was that in contrast to  the rest of  the nation they were
that it could not pronounce an "sh" sound. whenever they         prospered by God and were given many descendants. All
tried, it would come out as just a plain  "s" sound. Thus,       of the time the way was being prepared for two of the
whenever anyone would come down to the river and would           greatest judges of all, Samson and Samuel.              B.W.


252                                       -Ti3liI  IS'TANTjARD   B E A R E R

                                                                   more fundamental truth as this is expressed in the  first
l[----FR-O.M H 0 L  Y'  W, R  I-  Te 11 table of the law. He reasons from the type to the Arche-
                                                                   type!! Thus we have an example in I John  4:20; which
P                                                             I    read.
       Expbsition of the Prophecy of Malachi                         We ought to notice the following particulars.
          The House of Levi, the Priests, Reproved for               The LORD speaks of the relationship of a son to his
             Their Contempt of the LORD's House                    father. In this relationship he is to honor him, that is, he
                 Malachi  1:6-2:17  continued                      is to account him as the viceroy of God over him, knowing
                                                                   that he cannot love and honor God unless he honor his
The Logic of Jehovah of Hosts                                      father and his mother. And the same holds for the rela-
     We duo well, as we undertake to understand this passage       tionship of a servant (slave) to his master. The former
of the burden of the LORD, to take notice here of the              cannot obey the LORD except he obey his master. This
logic He employs in His reproval of the priests, and, in           is the clear teaching of the Scriptures. I Tim.  6:1-5,  I
them, of the apostate house of Jacob-Israel.                       Peter 2: 13 ff.
The. fundamental and basic presupposition is that the                The analogy here is not simply one of illustration but it
LORD has laid down and established the ordinances for              is one which is of such a nature that the illustration rests
Israel in placing them in their special relationship to them,      upon the very point that is illustrated. Christ states this
choosing them as a people from all the others, according to        very succinctly when, speaking of the great Commandment,
the word to Abraham, "In Isaac shall the Seed be called".          he says that the "second is like unto it". Matthew 22:39.
In the Seed we shall see the manifestation of the fulfihnent         Such is the logic of the LORD here in verse 6.
of the just demand of the Law and of the Covenant words.
The LORD has sanctioned this forever; His way is in the            Repro&e  Israel Confronted with Their
holy place, where blood must be sprinkled upon the                 Desecration.  of  the LORD's Temple
mercy-seat; righteousness and truth shall kiss each other.           When the LORD of Hosts here speaks concerning the
     The LORD takes His starting-point in this reproof of          attitude of the wicked priests toward His temple, reference
Israel in His own Word; He cites the fundamental princi-           is had toward the holy place itself, the dwelling-place of
ple of the fifth commandment in verse 6, where we read:            God with His people. Sometimes the Bible speaks of the
"A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master . . ."       temple and has reference to the entire building,  th,e entire
There is a very intimate and vital connection between              edifice, called in Greek the  hieron. See Matthew 4:s;  12:
this matter of the fifth commandment of the Decalogue and          5, 6;  21:12-l&  etc. But the Scriptures also speak of the
the fact that Jacob-Israel is separated from Edom, the bor-        dwelling-place of God,.the inner sanctuary. This is called
der of iniquity. For in Israel is the word fulfilled, the first    in the New Testament in Greek  naos.  Thus we read in
commandment with a promise. (Eph. 6: l-4.) Here is the             such Scripture passages as Matthew  23:16,  17, 21, 35, etc.
land of the sons who are free, who are obedient and who            This latter is really the pattern of the heavenly things. It
will live long in the land which the LORD their God will           refers to the holy of holies, the holy place, and the outer
give them. This commandment has the eternal sanction of            court, with their furniture, their sacrifices, their priests, and
the LORD of Hosts, who dwelleth between the cherubim!              the temple ordinances. These all are called in Hebrews 8
     Starting from this sure and steadfast covenantal promise      the picture of the heavenly according to the pattern which
and reasonable (logical! ) service (Rom.  12:1,  2), the           was shown to Moses on the Mount. Hebrews S:S; Exodus
LORD insists on Israel not conforming to the ways of this          25:40; Numbers 8:4.
world, to Edom, but to be renewed in the spirit of their             It is well to. keep this in mind.
minds, and prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect          The LORD of Hosts dwells in this temple. It is His lovely
will of ,God! Here is a fine and pure way of reasoning on          tabernacle. Here He spells out the Gospel-story of His re-
the part of the LORD.                                              demptive love, of His eternal Covenant. And this entire
     We would point out at this point that the reasoning of        love-story is corrupted beyond recognition by these repro-
the LORD is not like that of the philosophers, who reason          bate priests. They count the blood of the Covenant and
from the general to the particular, by a form of syllogism;        all that sanctifies an unholy thing. They are of a reprobate
nor is this a reasoning from the cause to the effect, as we        mind, and are unprofitable to any good work.
have on the part of Paul in I Corinthians 15, where Paul             Two matters are singled out here in this prophecy. It is
argues and testifies that if Christ is not risen, there is no      the table of the presence of God, also called the table of
resurrection from the dead. Furthermore, we do not have            shew-bread, and the altar of God. We believe that these
the reasoning here either from the greater to the lesser, as       are representative. The first was a picture of the Lord
Paul argues in Rom.  5:6-10,  and elsewhere often. The             dwelling with his people and feeding them with the,bread
Lord here argues His case from the lesser relationship to          of life; and the' latter is symbolic of the perfect sacrifice
the greater, or, if yen will, from the established truth as        to the LORD, the altar of dedication. This altar really
expressed in the second table of the law to the higher and         was twofold, the great altar in the forecourt, and the altar


                                            T H E   STANDARLi  `B E A R E R                                                    2s3

of incense in the holy place, which ideally in Hebrews, 9            is  contierned they place "polluted" bread upon the  table?
is placed within the veil, in the holy of  holies. Hebrews           Verse 7. And as for the altar they ofFer that which is `?ornJ,
9: l-7                                                      "        lame, and sick". Verse 13. And since this is a part for the
  Concerning each of these two pieces of temple-furniture            whole, the entire holy place is desecrated, polluted, -and
and their meaning we must say just a few things.                     defiled by them. In the second place, they do this in their
  The table of the LORD is called in the Old Testament               spiritually evil attitude toward God, which shows itself in
the "bread of the presence". We find a description of the            their evil and defiant speech. They talk back to the LORD.
dimensions of this table in Exodus 2523-30.  The descrip-            It is what Hebrews 12~2 calls `Such contradiction of sin-
tion of the bread which was to be set before the LORD we             ners against himself".
find in Leviticus  24:5-g, where we read'                             The LORD does not have pleasure in such.
  "And thou shalt take` fine- flour, and bake twelve cakes
thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou              The ULTIMATUM of the LORD of Hosts
shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure              Against Them. Verses lo-14
table of the LORD. And thou shalt put pure frankincense                The LORD reminds these that He is a great King. Vs. 14.
upon each row, that it may be a bread for a memorial,                The LORD's greatness was exhibited in His judgments
even an offering made- by a fire unto the LORD. Every                upon the nations. Think of His greatness over Pharaoh, in
Sabbath he shall set it in order before the -LORD con-               whom He showed his great power and might in the ten
tinually, being taken from the children of Israel by an              great plagues. Thus He has done with all the nations, -
everlasting Covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons';         Babylon, Philistia, Edom, Moab and the seven nations
and they shall eat it in the holy place; for it is most holy         which he slew that Israel might have an inheritance.
unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a                This should give reason to pause and reflect,  - and
perpetual statute."                                                  repent!
  We notice the following concerning this shew-bread:                  Now the LORD tells them in no uncertain terms, as did
  1. That it partakes of the nature of a sacriiice, a thank          Isaiah in the first Chapter of that prophecy, that He is
offering. It is to be used in thankfulness for the Lord's            weary of their sacrifices. Isa. 1:9, IO. Sodom and Gomorrah
mercies. It is not a bloody sin offering, but the bread              stand as mute witness at the beginning of the post-diluvian
points toward the finished salvation.                                era as a loud testimony, both in the Old Testament and in
  2. That there were twelve loaves of bread. One for each            the New Testament Scriptures. See Gen. 19:4;  Deut. 2923;
tribe. It reminds one of the bread which Christ broke and            Jer. 23:14;  Lam.  4:6; Amos  4:ll; Matt.  10:15;  Rom.  9:29;
blessed at the sea of Galilee, and from which they gathered,         II Peter  2:6; Rev.  11:s. The LORD is great among- the
when all had eaten and were filled, twelve full baskets;             nations. Let then the priests and reprobate Israel tremble,
John 6.                                                              and let the godly fear and take courage.
  3. These loaves were to be eaten by the priests upon                 For the LORD will close the temple. He will cause this
the sabbath and were to be replaced by new  and. fresh               house to be desolate. This Jerusalem that kills the prophets
loaves on each sabbath. It referred to the eating at the             and pollutes the temple shall be removed forever. The
marriage feast, in the future in the ages to come, when              LORD will make a finished work upon the earth. Except
the tabernacle of God would be with man.                             the LORD had kept to himself a remnant according to
  4. Still they proclaimed that the sabbath was made for             election, all would have become like unto Sodom and
man and not man for the sabbath, as we see in the fact               Gomorrah!
that David ate from this shew-bread when he fled before                But Jacob have I loved, and in the remnant according
the face of Saul. I Sam. 21.                                         to. election he shall do valiantly. The LORD's name shall
  When the significance is obliterated by other bread, then          be great among the Gentiles!
the table of the LORD is desecrated, polluted, despised.
Christ is not wanted as the true-bread from heaven as He                                    (to be continued)                 G.L.
is portrayed in these types and shadows.
  Besides this, attention is called to the desecration of the
altar upon which pure and perfect sacrifices must be
offered. Upon this altar must be laid the sacriiice without                       The wicked, by their sins o'ercome,
spot or blemish. And when this is not done, and the things                          Shall soon be brought to shame;
of Gods house are made common, as did the sons of Eli                             The-hand of God shall yet appear,
in the tabernacle at  Shiloh,  then the Lord's house is despised.                   And all shall fear His Name.
  Now the LORD actually  confronts these evil priests with                        The just shall triumph in the Lord,
the evidence of their reprobate ways. What do they per-                             Their trust shall be secure,
petrate which is so -evil? They do this in two ways. In the                       And endless glory then shall crown
first place, they do this ceremonially. As far as the table                       The upright and- the pure.                     _G'


254                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B.EARER

                                                                    or expects that in time mankind. shall be his equal, would
           I N  -  H I  S  F.E-  A  FV                        I even venture out on such a hopeless endeavor. Only a faith
                                                                    and hope utterly void of the love of God would produce
                                                                    such activity.
Faith and Hope Permeated with Love (2)                                And so it is with mankind. The expectation of the wicked
  The natural man still expects to be like God.                     shall perish; but that does not stop him from going ahead
  Such is the power of the lie sown in his soul in paradise         in his sinful expectancy. It does not change his carnal
that all his children are born with the folly in their hearts       nature. Satan cannot succeed in his devilish plot and pro-
and minds that they can become "as god, knowing good                gram of iniquity. The gates of hell cannot prevail against
and evil." This is man's basic sin. All the other sins which        God's Church. And one would expect Satan to have learned
he commits are the result and fruit of his unending attempt         that principle by now. All his work came to one grand
to be god. And it is not simply an expectation which he             climax at the cross. He succeeded in getting Judas to be-
has for the distant future. The individual sinner may expect        tray Christ, the Church-council to condemn the Son of God
the day when the humanrace has overcome God's curse,-               to death, and Pilate to be frightened enough to consent to
and thus overcome God,- but every step of his earthly way           His death. All seemed to be going His way. He had failed
he says, "I am God." No, you do not hear him say it that            so many times. Herod  did not get to kill that Christ-child.
way and in those words. The time will come when he will             No temptation in the wilderness was successful. Even the
be bold enough to say that before all men. As we pointed            taunt on the cross that, if He would come down, the mul-
out last time, Paul writes to  the Thessalonians and de-            titude would believe in Him did not perform the desired
clares that the man of sin, the son.of perdition, or antichrist,    effect. But even in this highly "successful" project, he lost
will exalt himself above all that is called God, or that is         out completely. Christ came into His kingdom through
worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God,          that cross. The sins of God's people were blotted out. And
shewing  himself that He is God. There is a de&rite develop-        Christ was taken to be Lord of all lords and King of all
ment of sin. And men become bolder and bolder in sin as             kings at God's right hand, so that He has complete domin-
the poison of the lie does more and more of its evil work           ion over Satan and all his host. Yet all this does not deter
in the human race. But the individual sinners from the              him from going ahead in his foolish attempt yet to wreck
time that Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit have              the whole Church and devour God's people. Having faith
`said that they were God.                                           and hope without the love of God, he simply cannot do
                                                                    anything else. It takes love to God to realize a faith that
  We do that every time that we sin! Every time we break            will believe in Him and His Son unto obedience and flee-
God's law, we declare by the very deed that we can do as            ing from the folly of sin. It takes a hope permeated with
we please. Is that not a divine prerogative? Do we not then         the love of God to expect anything else than the folly of
set ourselves up as God? We dare to oppose the one and              sinful dreams.
only true, living God. Who but the man who thinks that
he is God himself would even dare to do that? Was that                How beautiful that passage in Philippians 2:5-D!  "Let
not to be seen in the haughty speech of Adam and Eve                this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," Paul
after their fall? Adam dared to answer God with the accu-           writes, "Who, being in the form of God thought it not
sation, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she              robbery to be equal with God." Neither did Adam, before
gave me of the tree, and I did eat." And Eve dared to point         Satan came in the form of a serpent. Adam was content
out that it was God's serpent who beguiled her. Very soon           to be God's friend-servant, and the thought of being God
Cain dares to answer God as a god, "Am I my brother's               and robbing Him of His unique and sovereign position
keeper?" Such speech does not reveal a heart and mind               never entered his mind. Satan brought it in through the
that stands in His fear .and. has faith and hope in Him with        tongue of the serpent. Christ came in our flesh with a heart
love. It is the speech of a creature that considers himself         full of the love of God. In His pure mind the thought of
to be God's equal. Love to Him would result in humble               duplicating Adam's sin did not arise, not even when Satan
prostration before Him in the painful consciousness of guilt        tempted Him in the wilderness to receive it into His soul.
before His face.                                                    He had faith and hope permeated by the love of God. No
                                                                    fleshly foolish ideas ever were enter-tamed in His soul. But
  Since the fall and under the power of that lie, man strives       the soul devoid of that- love of God still in its folly hopes
in hatred of that God to escape His curse. Adam and Eve             for and believes in a state wherein man has escaped God
tried it with their figleaf  aprons. We try it in a thousand        by escaping His curse, and all this without God and the
ways, and, defying the living God, refuse to go to  the             cross of His Son.
cross of His Son, where the only salvation from the curse
can be found. Who would really be so foolish as to think              It seems even to us,- for our flesh belongs to that wicked
that he could actually get from under the God-imposed               world and is part of it,- as though man might make it. Man
curse? Only a creature that considers himself God's equal,          has come a long way from the "horse and buggy" days. We


                                          T.:H.E..`STANDA-RD   BEA.RER                                                      255

passed quickly from the jet age to the atomic age and               But hold fast to the Word of God! Solomon says that the
then into the space age. In science and invention, in edu-        expectation of the wicked shall perish..It will so completely,
cation and mechanics we have made tremendous progress.            .&at absolutely nothing of his work will enter the new
In medicine and surgery amazing feats have been per-              creation. By fire God will destroy all his high and majestic
formed. Diseases once fatal are hardly feared today. In-          bridges, his towering skyscrapers, his flowing freeways and
curable diseases of days gone by respond quickly to our           superhighways, his faster-than-sound fan jet planes and
antibiotics. There is even hope of some victory over cancer       mammoth rockets. All his pieces of art and literature shall
and heart diseases. Whereas the King of Israel said of the        go up in smoke. They shall read no Shakespeare in the
leprosy, of Naaman, `Am I God, to kill and to make alive"?,       New Jerusalem, nor study a Rembrandt. Nor even will
today leprosy is no longer looked upon as a fatal disease         Handel's Messiah be sung there. Nothing here on earth can
and as one wholly- incurable by man's medicines. Our              compare-with what will be in that place of bliss and glory.
homes, clothing and tools are tremendous improvements             And the works of men shall not enter, except the works of
over those crude instruments wherewith the godless sons           faith and hope permeated with love.
of Lamech sought to deliver man from the curse without              All that the wicked have made shall perish. And instead
the cross of Christ. Jabel, Jubal and Tubal-Cain felt the         of reaching the expected, they shall attain to the opposite.
curse and hated God for it. They would not prostrate them-        They shall not get above the curse and be God's equal.
selves on the ground before Him and pray for the forgive-         They shall not attain to a state wherein they shall decide
ness of their sins which brought on this curse. They had no       for themselves what is good and what is evil without suffer-
faith in His Son or hope for His Kingdom but a faith and          ing the wrath of God for doing what He calls evil. Read
hope that were fed by hatred of the living God. They              Revelation 17 and 18 and see how great is Babylon's fall.
rebelled against the idea of eating in the sweat of the
brow and dreamed of defeating God in His curse. They                And the wicked will perish with all their works! "Man's
will climb above the plane to which He had cast them              great adventure", his life apart from and in opposition to
after man's sin in paradise. Man will make his own para-          God will end in everlasting punishment. He will be plunged
dise. .And to a great extent .he has attained to the "expecta-    into a lake of fire where there shall be no hope of escape
tion of the wicked" of which Solomon speaks in Proverbs           and wherein he will no longer trust in self or creatures.
10~28.                                                            He will have `no hope of ever having gladness. His expec-
                                                                  tation, both that which he now expects and his act of
  He can send a payload of several tons into outer space          expecting shall perish. Great will be the fall thereof! If
and hit the moon with objects of his manufacture. He can          the love of God is not in his faith and hope, his everlasting
in the literal sense of the word move mountains with his          future is utter desolation. He may produce~`the  antichrist;
road equipment. He changes the whole face of God's                but he will be destroyed by The Christ.                J.A.H.
earth. He streaks out into outer space and circles the globe
and laughs at God's law of gravity. -He sees many a sunrise
and sunset in twenty-four hours. He seems to have gotten
above time and space. 0, he is getting there. Every day                           GUIDANCE FOR YOUTH
he is becoming more like God. His hopes soar. His faith
and confidence in himself grows. And all of it without the                 How shall the young direct their way?
love of God.                                                                 What light shall be their perfect guide?
                                                                           Thy word, 0 Lord, will safely lead,
  In .a moment he will show you events transpiring on the                    If in its wisdom they confide.
other side of the earth and let you hear men speaking on
the four corners of the earth. He rivals God in His omni-                  Sincerely I have sought Thee, Lord,
presence and all-searching eye. At the moment he can                         0 let me not from Thee depart;
bring you today events happening tomorrow on the other                     To know Thy will and keep from sin
side of the international date-line. How big is man!! How                    Thy word I cherish in my heart.
far has he not come since that dejected, helpless, ignorant
man and woman were driven out of paradise to till the soil                 ci blessed Lord, teach me Thy law,
without a plow or any idea of what.,a plow ought to look                     Thy righteous judgments I declare;
like, or what lasting material there was of which to make                  Thy testimonies make me glad,
it, and how to mold and shape it! The simple wheel which                     For they are wealth beyond compare.
is so common to us was utterly unknown to him, as were
such simple tools as hammer and chisel. One would be                       Upon Thy precepts and Thy ways
inclined to say that to a very great extent we have over-                    My heart will meditate with awe;
come the curse and att,ained some equality with this God                   Thy word shall be my chief delight,
Who- inflicted the curse upon us.                                            And I will not forget Thy law.


256                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   -BEAR,ER

II                                                                         severest `of all, and forms-a -parallel-to -his last-work-against
          Conteding For The  Faith  11 the papacy, of the same year, which surpasses in violence
                                                                           all.ghe ever wrote against the Romish Antichrist."
                                                                     J,
-
                                                                             In connection with this "Short Confession on the Holy
        T h e   C h u r c h   a n d   t h e   S a c r a m e n t s          Sacrament,`~ Melanchthon, to whom this writing of de
            THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                                    German reformer was a great grief, declared that it was the
 VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORD'S SUPPER)                                   most atrocious book of Luther. Melanchthon agreed with
                                                                           the judgment of Calvin, who wrote him, June 28, 1545: "I
                    THE LUTHERAN VIEW                                      confess that we all owe the greatest thanks to Luther, and
      Concluding our articles on the Lutheran view of the                  I should cheerfully concede to him the highest authority,
sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the following quotation or                 if he only knew how to control himself. Good God! what
quotations from the History of the Christian Church by                     jubilee we prepare for the Papists, and what sad example
Philip  Schaff may be of interest to our readers. In these                 do we set to posterity!"
quotations we obtain a picture of Luther's attitude toward                   And now we continue with our quotation from Philip
those whom he called the sacramentarians toward the end                    Schaff. "The `Short Confession' contains no argument, but
of his life, and this certainly confirms that the blame for                the strongest possible re-a&nation of his faith in the real
the split in the ranks of Protestantism must be laid at the                presence, and a declaration of his total and final separation
door of the German Reformer. We quote from Volume                          from the Sacramentarians and their doctrine, with some con-
VII of this work of Schaff, pages 654, ff.                                 cluding remarks on the elevation of the sacrament. Standing
      "We anticipate the concluding act of the sad controversy             on the brink of the grave, and in view of the  judgment-
of Luther with his Protestant opponents. It is all the more                seat, he solemnly condemns all enemies of the sacraments
painful, since Zwingli and Oecolampadius were then sleep-                  wherever they are. `Much rather,' he says, `would I be tom
ing in the grave; but it belongs to a full knowledge of the                to pieces, and burnt a hundred times, than be of- one mind
great Reformer.                                                            and will with Schwenkfeld, Zwingli, Carlstadt, Oecolampad,
                                                                           and all the rest of the Sc&zrmer, to tolerate their doctrine.'
      "The  Marburg  Conference did not  really  reconcile the             He overwhelms them with terms of opprobrium and coins
parties, or advance the question in dispute; but the conflict              new ones which cannot be translated into decentEnglish.
subsided for a season, and was thrown into the background                  He calls them heretics, hypocrites, liars, blasphemers, soul-
by other events. The persistent efforts of Bucer and Hedio                 murderers, sinners unto death, bedeviled all over. At one
to bring about a reconciliation between Wittenberg and                     time he had expressed some regard for Oecolampadius, and
Zurich soothed Luther, and excited in him the hope, that                   even for Zwingli, and sincere grief at his tragic death. But
the Swiss would give up their heresy, as he regarded it.                   in this last book he repeatedly refers to his death as a
But in this hope he was disappointed. The Swiss could not                  terrible judgment of God, and doubts whether he was
 accept the `Wittenberg Concordia' of 1536, because it was                 saved. He thinks that Zwingli either played the hypocrite
essentially Lutheran in the assertion of the corporal pres-                when he professed to many Christian articles. at  Marburg,
 ence and oral manducation.                                                or fell away, and has become worse than a heathen, and
      "A year and a half before his death, Luther broke out                ten times worse than he was as a papist.
afresh; to the grief of Melanchthon and other friends, in a                  "This attitude Luther retained to the end. It is difficult
most violent attack on the Sacramentarians, the `Short Con-                to say whom he hated most, the papists or the Sacramen-
fession on the Holy Sacrament' (1544). It was occasioned                   tarians. On the subject of the real presence he was much
by Schwenkfeld, and by the rumor that Luther had changed                   -farther removed from the latter. He remarks once that he
his view, because he had abolished the elevation and adora-                would rather drink blood alone with the papists  than wine
tion of the host. Moreover, he learned that Devay, his for-                alone with the Zwinglians. A few days before his death,
mer student, and  inmate  of his house, -smuggled the                      he wrote to his friend, Pastor Probst in Bremen: `Blessed
 sacramentarian doctrine under Luther's name into Hungary.                 is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the Sacramen-
He was also displeased with the reformation program of                     tarians, nor  standeth in the way of the Zwinglians, nor
Bucer and Melanchthon for the diocese of Cologne  (1543),                  sitteth  in the seat of the Zurichers.' Thus he turned the
because it stated the doctrine of the eucharist without the                blessing of the first Psalm into a curse, in accordance with
 specific Lutheran features, so that he feared it would give               his growing habit of cursing the pope and the devil when
aid and comfort to the Sacramentarians. These provoca-                     praying to God. He repeatedly speaks of this habit, especial-
tions and vexations, in connection with sickness and old                   ly in reciting the Lord's Prayer, and justifies it as a part of
age, combined to increase his irritability, and to sour his                his piety.
temper. They must be taken into account for an under-
 standing of his last document on the eucharist. It is the                   "Six days later (after his last sermon on Jan. 17, 1546)


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              257

Luther left the. city of. his public labors for the city of his    has at length broken forth in fierce invective, not so much
birth, and died in peace at Eisleben, Feb. 18, 1546, holding       against you as against the whole of us. On the present oc-
fast to his faith, and commending his soul to his God.:and         casion, I dare scarce venture to ask you to keep silence,
Redeemer.                                                          because it is neither just that innocent persons should thus
                                                                   be harassed, nor that they should be denied the opportunity
   "In view of these last utterances we must, reluctantly,         of clearing themselves; neither, on the other hand, is it easy
refuse credit to the story that Luther before his death            to determine whether it would be prudent for them to do
remarked to Melanchthon: `Dear Philip, I confess that the          so. But of this I do earnestly desire to put you in mind, in
matter of the Lord's Supper has been overdone;' and that,          the iirst place, that you would consider how eminent a man
on being asked to correct the evil, and to restore peace to        Luther is, and his excellent endowments, with what
the church, he replied: `I often thought of it; but then peo-      strength of mind and resolute constancy, with how great
ple might lose confidence in my whole doctrine. I leave            skill, with what  e5ciency  and power of doctrinal state-
the matter in the hands of the Lord. Do what you can               ment, he hath hitherto devoted his whole energy to over-
after my death.'                                                   throw the reign of Antichrist, and at the same time to
  "But it is gratifying to know that Luther never said one         d&se far and near the doctrine of salvation. Often have
unkind word of Calvin, who was twenty-five years younger.          I been wont to declare, that even although he were to call
He never saw him, but read some of his books, and heard            me a devil, I should still not the less esteem and acknowl-
of him through Melanchthon. In a letter to Bucer,  dated           edge him as an illustrious servant of God . . . This, there-
Oct. 14, 1539, he sent his respectful salutations to John          fore, I would beseech you to consider  first of all, along
Sturm  and John Calvin, who lived at that time in Strass-          with your colleagues, that you have to do with a most dis-
burg, and added that he had read their books with singular         tinguished servant of Christ, to whom we are all of us
delight. This includes his masterly answer to the letter of        largely indebted. That, besides, you will do yourselves no
Bishop Sadolet ( 1539). `Melanchthon sent salutations from         good by quarreling, except that you may  aiford  some sport
Luther and Bugenhagen to Calvin, and informed him that             to the wicked, so that they may triumph not so much over
he was `in high favor with Luther,' notwithstanding the            us as over the gospel. If they see us rending each other
difference of views on the real presence, and that Luther          asunder, they then give full credit to what we say, but
hoped for better opinions, but was willing to bear some-           when with one consent and with one voice we preach
thing from such a good man. Calvin had expressed his               Christ, they avail themselves unwarrantably of our inher-
views on the Lord's Supper in the first edition of his Insti-      ent weakness to cast reproach upon our faith. I wish,
tutes, which appeared in 1536, incidentally also in his            therefore, that you would consider and reflect on these
answer to Sadolet, which Luther read `with delight,' and           things, rather than on what Luther has deserved by his
more fully in a special treatise, De Coena Domini, which           violence; lest that may happen to you which Paul threatens,
was published in French at Strassburg, 1541, and then in           that by biting and devouring one another, ye be consumed
Latin, 1545. Luther must have known these views. He is             one of another. Even should he have provoked us, we ought
reported to have seen a copy of Calvin's tract on the              rather to decline the contest than to increase the wound
eucharist in a bookstore at Wittenberg, and, after reading         by the general shipwreck of the church."
it, made the remark: `The author is certainly a learned and
pious man: if Zwingli and Oecolampadius had from the                 And Schaff concludes with the remark that "this is the
start declared themselves in this way, there would probably        wisest Christian answer from Geneva to the thunderbolts
not have arisen such a controversy.                                of Wittenberg." What a wonderful letter of John Calvin!
                                                                   And such a letter from a man who is supposed to have
  `Calvin returned Luther's greetings through  Melanch-            been hard and cold and cruel! What a wonderful state-
thon, and sent him two pamphlets with a letter, dated              ment that, should Luther call him a devil, he would still
Jan. 21, 1545, addressing him as  ~`my much respected              consider him as an illustrious servant of the Lord! And
father, and requesting him to solve ,the scruples of some          with this we can certainly .agree.` There can be no doubt
converted French refugees. He expresses the wish that he           but that these severe utterances of the German reformer
might enjoy for a few hours the happiness of his society,' must be ascribed to his temperament, which was so apt
though this was impossible on earth.                               to boil over in every direction. It has been stated that
                                                                   Luther considered himself the leader of the Reformation,
 `Calvin regretted `the vehemence of Luther's natural tem-         and that it was so extremely difhcult  for him to tolerate
perament, which was so apt to boil over in every direction,' any opposition from those whom he considered to be his
and to `flashhis lightning sometimes also upon the servants        followers. There may be some truth in this. Human imper-
of the Lord:' but he always put him above Zwingli, and             fections must always play some kind of role in any reli-
exhorted the Zurichers to moderation. When he heard of
.&e last attack of Luther, he wrote a noble letter to Bul-         gious controversy. But he was surely a mighty man of God.
linger, Nov. 25, 1544, .in which he says: `I hear that Luther                                                              H.V.


 258                                        TH,E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                 hope to discuss later) whether radio ministry is mission
 THE LOIRD GAVE THE WORD....                                     work. .Soon the suggestion was made that there might be
                                                                 gross inconsistencies between the stand that was taken in
                                             (Psalm 68:ll)       1959 in regard to our mission calling and the stand that
                                                                 was taken in 1960 and 1962. There might even be some
        The Mission Calling of Our Churches                      flagrant contradictions between these various decisions.
   Normally, I suppose, a new department on missions in a        Therefore the mission committee was mandated to study
 church paper should start out with a discussion on the          the various decisions taken from 1959 to 1962 for possible
 history of missions, or especially on the principles that       contradictions in these decisions. (See Acts of Synod
 govern all mission endeavor. I also considered this when        1963, pg. 38.)
 I prepared the first article for this department a few            The Mission Board appointed a study committee and this
 months ago. And it is still my purpose; the Lord willing,       study committee has prepared a report from which I will
 to. discuss at some future date the history and principles      quote to you  -the various decisions of our past synods.
 of missions.                                                      The study committee informs us: "From the Acts of
   But in the meantime, there were other matters that            Synod 1959-1963 it appears that at least three of these
 forced themselves upon our attention. There was the             synods differed with the preceding synods in their defini-
 Jamaican mission field that had been explored. I was eager      tions of the mission calling of our Prot. Ref. Churches, and
 to inform you about this work because I realized that you       consequently differed  also in their definitions of the pur-
 were interested in knowing more about this field. And now       pose of radio broadcasting by the Mission Board. Moreover,
 the synod of 1964 is approaching. As every year, mission        in deciding upon matters of radio broadcasting, each of
 matters are an important item on the  synodical  agenda.        these synods did so according to its own definitions. All
 And many of these matters are of great interest to all of       this will become evident from the following brief summaries
 us as members of the Protestant Reformed Churches, and          of the decisions of the above mentioned synods."
particularly to the consistory members, and even more              In this present article I will quote only those decisions
 particularly to the delegates of synod.                         that pertain to the definitions of the mission calling of our
   There is one study committee that has already prepared        churches, leaving the matter of radio broadcasting for a
 its report on mission matters for the next synod. .This re-     future article.
 port was adopted by the Mission Board, which has kindly           Referring to the synod of 1959 the committee tells us:
 consented to give me a copy of it, so that you may become       "The synod of 1959 declared itself of the conviction that
 acquainted with its contents and I may have the oppor-          the mission calling of our churches was limited to the
 tunity to make a few comments on it.                            extension of our Protestant Reformed Churches. This it did
   The report I am referring to deals with the stand our         when, in deciding on policies regulating radio broadcasting
 churches have taken in regard to our own peculiar mission       by the Mission Board, it adopted the following: (Cf. Art.
 calling. And even more particularly it deals with the ex-       137, Acts 1959 )
 pression of that~calling  by our synods during the past five      `Ground: This is in harmony with the preamble of our
 years.                                                            Mission Committee constitution, paragraph 2,  `We  be-
   Let me explain. The synod of 1959 expressed a very defi-        lieve . . . However, we are convinced that our present
 nite stand on our mission calling. A year later, the synod        duty lies primarily in the field of church extension and
 of 1960 took a stand in regard to our calling to preach the       reformation.'
 Gospel beyond the sphere of our churches. The synod of
 1961 proceeded along the same lines that had been drawn           "In the light of this decision it may be said -that the
 up in. the previous synod. And in 1962 the synod adopted a      synod of 1959 re-&rmed the definition of the mission call-
 "Long Range Plan for Future Foreign Mission Work."              ing of our churches previously set forth by our churches
   From all this it must be very evident that our churches       and as incorporated in the preamble of the Mission Board
 have not ignored the mandate of Christ to preach the Gos-       Constitution."
 pel to all nations, but that the synod has been very active       Thereupon, referring to the synod of 1960, the committee
 in considering various problems that arose in connection        informs us, `At this synod the Mission Board presented a
 with our specific calling in fulfilhng  that mandate.           report of a sub-committee on foreign radio broadcasting.
   It may be even added for further clarification that most      The contents of this report includes a definition of the
 of our discussions centered about the policies governing        mission calling of our churches, the results, of an inv.estiga-
 our radio broadcasting. Actually it was the problem of          tion based on this definition, and  advicei as how best to
 radio broadcasting that brought about a new expression on       f&ill the calling as defined.     '
 policy from time to time. With the result that our synod          "As to the definition of the mission calling of our churches,
 of 1963 began to ask; just what is our stand on mission         the report states, `It is beyond dispute that it is our calling
 work, and what is the policy that governs our domestic and      as churches to witness to the truth of God's sovereign
 foreign radio ministry? The question even arose, (which I       grace, not only within the sphere of our churches, but also


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               2.59

beyond our sphere to others. This witness should be as                     "A. That neither contradictions nor discrepencies  exist in
broad as possible, reaching  as- many people as we can.' the decisions taken by the various synods. The advice of
`(Cf. B, pg. 139, Acts 1960.)                                            the committee of pre-advice to the synod of 1963. was evi-
   "This definition or concept of the mission calling of our             dently based on the supposition that the decisions and
churches the synod of I960 virtually adopted for its own.                regulations of the synod of 1959 were yet nonnative and
It did so first of all by deciding `to assent to the work done           regulatory. This, however, is not the case. The decisions
by  the (mission) committee in this respect and declare                  of 1959 were supplanted by those of 1960. And again, those
,&is activity in regard to foreign broadcasting to be com-               of 1960 were superseded by those of the synod of  1962.
mendable work.' (Cf. Art. 116, Acts 1960.) The implica-                  This is evident from the summaries presented. Consequent-
tion of this decision is that the work is assented to, and               ly; the decisions of the synod of 1962 concerning the defini-
declared commendable because it serves well to carry out                 tions of the mission calling.of  our churches and the purpose
the afore-defined  mission calling.                                      of radio broadcasting are alone presently normative and
   "It is further evident that the synod of 1960 adopted the             regulatory. And neither the budgets nor the broadcasting
above definition of our calling in that synod adopted the                activities of the Mission Board are in violation of these de-
advice contained in the report and authorized the Mission                cisions and definitions." A few additional remarks will  su5ce.
Board1  to contract with radio stations for foreign broad-                 It is evident that in 1959 our churches did decide that
casting.                                                                 our mission calling should be limited "primarily to church
   "From all the above it is to be-concluded that the synod              extension and reformation". This was declared to be in
of 1960 departed from, and to all intents and purposes                   harmony with the preamble of the Mission Committee con-
repudiated the definition of the mission calling of our                  stitution. It is also evident that the synod of 1960 had a
churches as established by the synod of 1959."                           broader view of our mission calling, for it speaks of .wit-
 Then referring to the synod of 1962 the committee states,               nessing "to the truth of God's sovereign grace, not only
"Concerning a definition of the mission calling of our                   within the sphere of our churches, but also beyond our
churches the report adopted- has the following:                          sphere to others. This witness should be as broad as pos-
   `B. 1). a. It is becoming increasing( ly) apparent that the           sible, reaching as many people as we can."
Lord has caused the gospel to be preached in all nations                   SNOW there is an obvious difference between these two
where it is His purpose to gather His Church.                            decisions. The one limits the mission activities of our
   `2). This does not mean. that the Church has no calling               churches to church extension close to home. The other con-
any'more with regard to missions. Rather we find this call-              ceives of our calling as extending beyond the sphere of our
ing in an entirely different direction.                                  churches, even as broad as possible. And as a result `of the
          k). . . . it remains a fact that there are small but strong    latter decision, our churches took up radio broadcasting in
bastions of the truth here and there throughout these coun-              foreign countries.                                         :
tries.                                                                     Is this an inconsistency or even a contradiction of policy?
          `cl). Bearing these things in mind we see the calling          It certainly must be if the former decision is in harmony
of our churches today to direct its attention towards these              with the preamble of the constitution and the latter is not.
remnants according to the election of grace to warn them                   But this is not the case. The entire paragraph of the pre-
of the dangers of apostasy, call them out of the apostatizing            amble referred to above, reads: "We believe that this mis-
churches, and restore them to the Church of Jesus Christ.' sionary activity includes the work of church extension, and
(Pg. 64, Acts, 1962.)                                                    church reformation, as well as the task of carrying out the
   "From these quotations we learn that the synod of 1962                Gospel to the unchurched and heathen. However, we are
adopted an entirely new definition of the mission calling                convinced that our present duty lies primarily in the field
of our churches. It is distinct from that of `the extension of           of church extension and church reformation."
our Prot. Ref. Churches' as defined by the synod of 1959.                  What has happened is that the synod of 1960 has broad-
It is distinct too, from the definition set by the synod of              ened the scope of mission work to include not only church
1960 which spoke of the calling as the broadest possible                 extension, but also church reformation. It has also conceived
`witness to the truth of God's sovereign grace'. The defini-             of our calling as extending to the unchurched and heathen.
tion now is to warn the small but strong bastions of the                 The synods of 1961 and 1962 have acted accordingly. And
truth which are found throughout many countries `of the                  the same may be said for our synod of 1963.
dangers of apostasy, call them out of the apostatizing                     This is also our obvious duty. We have a glorious Gospel
churches, and restore them to the Church of Jesus Christ.'               of sovereign grace entrusted to us. Apostasy is running
  Having given a clear and concise summary of the various                rampant everywhere. The time is growing short. We must
decisions of previous synods on our misison calling, the                 work to fulfill our calling even to the utmost of our power.
committee draws. the following conclusions :                             We can labor untiringly in the  conftdence  that God has
  "From the preceding summaries of the various synods                    used and will use our small efforts to His own good purpose.
from. 1959 through 1963 your committee concludes,                                                                            C. Hanko

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

                                                                   has much to commend itself to'us; However, if we .retain
         THECHURCHATWORSHIP                                        the congregational prayer before the sermon, let us remem-
                                                                   ber that the closing prayer must  also- be handled most
  "0 Worship the Lord in the  beauty  of  holiness."               reverently. To both prayers there must be specific purpose
                                                                   and they must be carefully designed to realize that purpose.
                                                                     The congregational prayer may include various elements.
               The Congregational Prayer                           It must, first of all, be concerned with the needs of the
                                                                   congregation for the particular hour of worship and for
  In our worship today the congregation is led by the min-         their life and conduct as the church of Christ in the-present
ister of the Word, before the preaching of the sermon, in a        world. The practical aim of the present worship must be
rather comprehensive prayer that contains various elements.        that through it the church is prepared to glorify God by
Then, immediately after the sermon, the minister leads in          living in the midst of the world in accord with His Word,
another prayer that is usually very brief. Now this order          and so show forth the praise of the Name of the Lord as
was not always followed in, Reformed Churches. From the            His peculiar and distinct people. To receive the necessary
collection of Christian Prayers handed down in our Dutch           blessing unto the attainment of that end the church
liturgy and translated into the English, we learn that some        approaches God in prayer.
centuries ago prayers were used and designated for use               In addition to this, various other elements may be added
after the preaching of the sermon. First of all, there is the      to this prayer. The needs of the church in general may be
Pmyer  for  the Needs  of  All Christendom  which, although        included and in this category such things as the following
considerably abridged in our English translations, is still        may be mentioned: "the needs of the ministry of the Word,
rather long. Then there is the Brief Form of Prayer a.@]           the instruction given in the church, the home, and the
t7z.e Sermon, the contents of which are also of a rather gen-      school, the society life of the communion of the saints, de
eral nature. There is also found a Prayer After the Expluna-       care of the sick and afflicted, the needs of the office bearers,
tion  of  the Catechism.  In the light of these three we will      the families and the individuals as parents, children, young
be able to understand what our fathers considered to be            people, aged of days, etc. From here the prayer may prop-
the purpose of this part of the worship.                           erly broaden out to include the needs of the entire Catholic
  Our fathers desired to place the chief prayer of the             Church of Christ; of which the local congregation is but
service after the sermon. This, we have seen, is the oppo-         a part. The particular denominational needs may also be
site of today's custom. And yet a little reflection on the         mentioned. And so, remembering that this is not all-inclu-
matter will prove that they had many good arguments in             sive, we soon detect the need of condensing this prayer, so
their favor. In order to be truly thankful we must first           that certain things are included in one prayer and other
know the way of salvation, which is explained in the               things in another. It is not possible to include everything
sermon. Our coming to God should be the response of his            in every prayer and neither is this necessary.
seeking us in the way of grace. Thus having been instructed          In the past we had certain formulated liturgical prayers,
and comforted, we are the better able to order our petitions       which we referred to before. These have not been pre-
before Him aright.                                                 served in our Psalters but we do find them in the Christian
  Then let us also remember that one of the purposes of            Reformed Psalter Hymnal. They are specially designed
true worship is the rededication of ourselves to God. Prayer       prayers for special occasions, as, e.g., the time of fasting,
is the offering up of our desires to him, the surrender of         time of confession, before meals, prayer for the sick,  mom-
our lives to His perfect will. It is the most fitting response     ing and evening prayers, opening and closing of ecclesias-
to the preaching of the gospel. And especially when, as in         tical assemblies, etc. Then, in addition to these, we have
-the first prayer mentioned above, the needs of all Christen-      specially designed prayers that are commended for our use
dom are remembered, this element of consecration  truly            as they are part of our liturgy and ought to be highly
comes to its own.                                                  regarded. These prayers are specifically designated for par-
  One other thing is apparent if we look at the prayers used       ticular occasions; and this need they also fulfill as, for
of old. The prayer after the sermon was not a summary              example, the time of baptism, Lord's Supper, Installations,
of the message. Never should the congregation be led to            etc. You find these in the respective forms in the back of
confuse the prophetic and priestly functions. When called          our Psalters.
upon to preach, let us preach. When we must lead in                  It is, of course, a very good custom that the minister
prayer, let the prayer breath the spirit of devotion and           leads the congregation in a brief prayer at the conclusion
communion with God. All summaries should be part of the            of the sermon. This prayer should be brief. Generally, we
sermon alone, and should not be appended to the sermon             would expect that thanks is offered for the blessings re-
in the form of a prayer.                                           ceived during the sermon and that the Holy Spirit will so
       There is no reason perhaps for changing our practice and    apply the Word that it will be instrumental in the day by
returning to that of the fathers, even though liturgically it      day sanctification of the church. Without this gift the


                                           THI~STANDARD   :%EA.XER                                                          261

means of grace will profit us but little. Through this bless-        "2. Moreover, in preaching the minister must be regarded
ing  -our lives will reflect true gratitude, a manifestation of    as God's servant, more particularly as the representative of
the spiritual fruits of. the service in which we have              Christ who is the Head of the Church. This immediately
participated.  ;                                                   binds the heart and mind of the preacher, since he may
                                                                   bring nothing which is at variance with the plain teaching
                         THE  SERMON                               of the Word. But it likewise binds the hearts and minds
  Of central importance in the- Reformed worship is the            of the congregation, since all must accept the teaching of
sermon! This statement is not intended to minimize the             Christ. The value of a sermon, therefore, must not be
importance of the prayers, songs, offerings, and other activi-     judged by external appeal and technical perfection but
ties in which the church participates in her worship; but          rather by whether it has reflected God's truth.
we want to single out that the worship of the church must
center in the preaching of the Word. The pulpit, the offi-           "`3. Closely connected with this was a third principle.
cial ministry, God speaking to His people through the o5ce,        In the days of Hyperius oratory flourished, and many people
gives meaning to the hour of worship. Take this away and           expected the sermons to be masterpieces of this art. The
all that is done falls flat. And where the preaching is effec-     author recognized that the minister must be trained as a
tive, it becomes the source of support for all the other           public speaker: Yet he insisted that the people remember
elements of worship.                                               that preaching because of its official character had an al-
                                                                   together different aim.
  Our attention, then, must briefly be focused. on the.
sermon. We will not engage now in a lengthy homiletical              "`4. And &rally the Biblical sermon produced, so he said,
discourse on the subject of sermons and sermon-making.             certain psychological results such as joy or sorrow, confri-
We will simply note that the word "sermon" is derived              tion or fear, depending on the spiritual condition of the
from the Latin term for talk or discourse. Thus one of de          hearers. The congregation should never be satisfied with
leading dictionaries defines it on this wise: "Talk or dis-        an abstract theological dissertation. It existed not for the
course; also, a discourse for the purpose of religious insfruc-    benefit of the minister and a few learned members but for
tion or exhortation, especially one based on a text of             the sake of all. Both sheep and lambs, all in their own way,
Scripture and delivered from a pulpit; hence, any similar          must hear and recognize the voice `of the Great Shepherd
serious discourse; a serious exhortation." This quite well         of the sheep."
covers'the  ground and will s&ice for our purpose.                   These principles were enunciated some four centuries
  Let us remember, however, that the sermon is not simply          ago. Since that time many have elaborated on them. Yet
a discourse on some religious theme. Many seem to think            they are still valid and will remain valid @il. the end of
this is so, and seem to be satisfied with no more than this;       time. Therefore all ministers and consistories and congre-
but that is only evidence of the fact that although in the         gations who seek to worship God  aright do well to give
beginning of their history Protestant Churches have gen-           diligence that they are practiced in purity. Only when the
erally held the sermon in high repute, Protestants today           sermon is proper can our entire liturgical service be spir-
have quite universally obscured its position and purpose.          itually effective.                                  G.v.d.B.
Neither is a sermon the opportunity for some learned
scholar to parade the accumulation of his intellectual store
and unburden his mind and heart of the fruits of his                              Joyful all ye people,
thought. Still less is it an attempt to serve gospel truths                              Sing before the Lord;
in the form of sugar-coated pills, so that people can hardly                      Shout and sing His praises
recognize and much less taste what they are fed.                                         Now in glad accord;
  Because it is undoubtedly true that the majority no                             With the harp and trumpet
longer are able to recognize a sermon, and readily accept                                Joyful praises bring;
the counterfeits that are so generally offered, .we would                         Come, rejoice before Him,
reiterate the principles set forth by Hyperius, a man of                                 God, the Lord, your King.
God who lived in Calvin's time, and who first formulated
the rules for Reformed preaching. We quote:                                       Waves of mighty ocean,
  "1. First of all, so Hyperius claimed, the sermon must be                              Earth with fulness stored,
thought of as the popular exposition of the Bible. The                            Floods and fields and mountains,
source material is Scripture alone. All topical preaching,                               Sing before the Lord;
attractive as it may be to some, is contraband. The exposi-                       For He comes with justice,
tion must be based on a text and explained so that a$ both                               Evil to redress,
learned and unlearned, may derive a blessing therefrom by                         And to judge the nations
the operation of the Spirit.                                                             In His righteousness.

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

                                                                     a) Age. A boy must be 16 years old and a girl 14.
  11 A L L   Ai'
                                   6IND  -t(.S  111. b) Impotence. If a man cannot fulfill the contract of
                                                                 marriage, there is ground for annulment.
                                                                     c) A man validly married to one wife cannot take
MARRIAGE IN THE  ROMISH  CHURCH                                  another.
  It is a well known fact that the Roman Catholic Church             d) A marriage between a baptized  person and .a non-
forbids divorce and remarriage. This position is, of course,     baptized person is not valid. Although. what is called a
in harmony with Scripture, and the Romish Church has             "dispensation" may be obtained under c&-tam circumstances
often been commended for'their stand.                            to permit this.
  Nevertheless, although this is ofscially  the stand of the         e) Any marriage attempted by a sub-deacon, a deacon
Church, there are all kinds of ways  m which a Catholic          or a priest would be annuled.
can get out of an undesirable marriage. One of these ways            f ) Any one under a vow of a religious order who
is through annulment of the marriage. There are many             marries must have the marriage annuled.
reasons why a. marriage can be annuled  according to Ro-             g) Kidnapping is a valid ground.for annulment.
man Catholic law-. A partial list of reasons for annulment           h) Crime is a ground.
was recently given in a Roman Catholic newspaper.                    i) Any marriage between first cousins or closer rela-
  The reasons are of three general types:                        tives is ground for annulment.
  1) There may be a defect in real matrimonial intention.             j ) Any marriage between two who have a "spiritual
This is explained to mean that a marriage must be by the         relationship" can be aanuled.  This refers to one marrying
free choice of  .will on the part of both parties, and that      a godchild, godmother .or someone whom he or she baptized.
both parties must be capable of giving such consent. Under         While some of these reasons are recognized also by law
this heading therefore, the following defects are mentioned:     and by all churches, nevertheless, it is obvious that with
       a) Marriage can be  annuled  when performed as a joke     their `law upon law and precept upon precept" they make
or a prank.                                                      of none effect the law of God.
       b) One of the two parties is insane and thus incapable    NEWS OF UNIONS
of giving real consent.                                            One of the chief objections against labor unions has al-
       c) One of the two parties has absolutely no knowledge     ways been that they take for themselves the authority of the
of what marriage is all about.                                   employer which has been conferred upon him by Christ.
       d) A person may marry someone else than he or she         They become a law to themselves and do as they please.
thinks: For example, one may marry an identical twin of            This has been possible in this country because the gov-
the supposed fiance and unwittingly marry the wrong one.         ernment has stood behind them in their greedy pursuit of
       e) One may marry with the intention beforehand of         power. Whatever they have done has had the sanction of
securing a divorce after a short period of marriage.             the government, and they have used this favored position
       f) One of the parties may have the definite intention     to acquire more and more power in labor relationships.
of refusing to have children in the marriage.        r             This trend continues and is getting worse, Several recent
       g) Force is exerted upon one of the parties so that he    news items show this.
or she marries. without free consent.                              &ie recent ruling gives unions tremendous power over
   These are all reasons for annulment if proved.                their own members. But these powers have direct effect
   2) The second type of reason for annulment is to be           upon employers as well, and take from them additional
found in a possible defect of form. That is, a marriage is.      rights which are reserved for them alone. The National
only truly a marriage if it is performed by a properly cred-     Labor Relations Board (NLRB ) has recently ruled that
ited clergyman and in the presence of two or more wit-           unions have the legal right to make and enforce their own
nesses. Some instances are:                                      internal rules. The particular .issue up before the NLRB
       a) A marriage is performed before one witness or          was a case involving production quotas set by the United
without any witnesses besides the pastor.                        Auto Workers at Wisconsin Motor Corporation. The union
       b) The pastor was outside his own prescribed terri-       determined exactly how much work could be done by any
tory when he married the couple. For example, he mar-            given worker in the plant. Some workers exceeded these
ried someone outside his diocese without proper permission.      quotas and were fined for this by the union. They refused
       c) The pastor was not properly appointed or installed.    to pay and the case went to court. The NLRB ruled that
       d) The pastor acted under duress so that he did not       the .members had to pay the fines because the union did
perform the marriage of his free consent.                        have the right to determine how much each employee
       e) A priest was not properly delegated when he per-       would produce in any given day.
formed the ceremony.                                                                      0  *  0  0
   3) The third type of defect that makes an annulment              Another case was closely related to this. A trial examiner
possible is some impediment in either of the parties. Some       of the NLRB ruled that if a union could fine its members
 examples :                                                      for exceeding production quotas, a union could also  fine its


                                           T    H    E      STAI&ARII   B~i2dii13~                                          263

 members for crossing picket lines. Usually, in the past, the     the granting of religious freedom to Protestants by Roman
 union has relied on its power to pressure all its members        Catholic authorities in countries that are under the control
 into refraining from working in a plant that is being struck.    of the Romish Church. Perhaps in the long run this will
 But this has not always been totally successful. If this new     be the case. But it is not yet.
 ruling stands, (it is being contested in the NLRB ) the union      A recent news item in the Presbytmian  Joup&  told of a
 now has the additional power of fining any of its members        press conference held by Benjamin Cardinal de Arriba y
 if they want to work when the-union itself has voted to          Castro, Archbishop of Tarragona. In this press conference
 strike. If therefore a union member is not in favor of a         the archbishop strongly stressed that if Protestants were ever
 strike and wishes to go to work anyway, he can be subjected      given legal status in Spain (which they do not have now),
 to heavy penalties and expect that the courts will back up       they would not be permitted to engage in any forms of
 the union. The result is that when a union member wants          proselyting. He said that there was no need of this since
 to fulfill his obligations to his employer (although, being a    Spain was already a Christian country and had the gospel.
 union member, his motives are generally monetary), he is         Protestants must be kept from making converts of any
 kept from this by the threat of severe penalty.                  Roman Catholic members. Inasmuch, he said, as they deny
   How any Christian can belong to a union under these            the Mass, the devotion of the church to Mary and allegiance
 circumstances is a mystery.                                      to the pope, they are guilty of serious heresies, and must
                             0  0  0  0                           be prevented from making propaganda for these in any
   In another ruling, a court of appeals agreed with a deci-      form.
 sion:of the NLRB that an employer had no right to establish        The general atmosphere in the world may be one of
 a profit sharing plan for its employees unless it included in    brotherly love between Catholics and Protestants. But if
 this plan also the union members in the plant. This ruling       you want to join in this spirit of brotherly love, you better
 had to do with a company that had working for it both            be prepared to adopt Roman Catholic theology. If you
union and non-union members. It had decided to establish          maintain  `the truth, you are not welcome.- The spirit of
such a profit-sharing plan for the non-union members. The         `brotherly love" excludes you.
 union went to the courts and obtained this favorable ruling.
                             0  0  0  *                           MORE ABOUT RELIGION IN- PUBLIC SCHOOLS
   It has also become increasingly popular for unions to            The Supreme Court has ruled that the public schools
 have some measure of control over the decisions of corpora-      must be neutral with respect to matters of religion. No
tions to move .elsewhere.  Usually corporations move because      devotions may be held; no Bible read; no religion taught.
 of union troubles and the high cost of labor. Naturally the        We have, on several occasions, pointed out that this means
 union does not like this because its members are thrown          not that the public schools will really be neutral, for neu-
 out of work.                                                     trality is impossible. Rather these schools become the
  .A certain factory had decided to move from Michigan            agents of false religion and forums of evolutionism and
 to Tennessee. This meant that the employees were out of          atheism.
 a job. The union went to court to force the company to            That this is really true is shown from a recent ruling by
 consider the needs of the employees that would be fired.         a State Board of Education in California.
A settlement was reached out of court according to which            Two housewives, according to the  PyesbyCepian  JOU?YULZ,
 the company paid  237 workers a total of $200,000 to cover       requested the Board to stop teaching evolution as a fact
wages and benefits of those who would no longer be work-          and present it only as a theory on the grounds that teaching
 ing for it. No doubt the settlement was reached out of           it as a fact made instruction atheistic. These women main-
 court because courts have already consistently ruled in          tained that their children were being denied equal rights
favor of union members on similar cases.                          because they believe in a fundamentalist interpretation of
   Now an employer cannot even move any more without              the Bible.
the consent of the union.                                           Similarly, the state superintendent of public instruction
   Gradually all the rights and the authority of employers        requested the board to edit text books so that evolution
are being taken away. Presently a plant will be entirely          would be presented as "an important scientific theory or
run by the union and the management will have nothing             hypothesis", and not as a fact.
more to say. Every decision will have to be made subject            But the Board turned down both requests and ruled that
to union approval. This can only lead to anarchy, for it          teaching evolution does not violate the constitutional guar-
is a flagrant denial of the authority of God vested in the        antees of religious freedom. So, legally, the truth is out-
employer; and therefore  an open evidence of opposition to        lawed and the lie is given legal standing. The truth denies
the sovereign authority of God over the life of men.              "equal rights"; the lie preserves them.
                                                                    This is certainly peculiar reasoning. But it is the only
RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATIION  IN SPAIN                               logical outcome to the miserable dilemma the State gets
   A most important result of the Vatican Council that re-        itself into when it begins to tamper with education.
cently held its second session in Rome is supposed to be                                                             H. Hanko


                                          -._-.--                                 ..-A~-      --____            _
264                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   -B.EARER;
                                                                   .  .From Loveland Rev. Van Baren went to Redlands, Calif.
       NEtiS FROM OUR-CHURCHES                                     on  a-three week, Classical. appointment. He was joined by
                                                                   Rev. J; A.. Heys Peb. 17 to conduct Church Visitation there.
              "All the saints Sal&e thee . . ." PHIL: 4:21         Rev. Heys then  ~stayed on for his three week appointment.
                                                                   So one notes how appointments for lectures, preaching en-
                                                Feb. 20, 1964      gagements and church visitation are maneuvered -to save
                                                                   time and traveling expenses.
       Rev. B. Woudenberg; of Edgerton, has received a call         .
from Redlands, ~California.                                         We have received a mimeographed copy of the  ,Church
                                                                   Directory from Doon's pastor.' It lists 21 families and six
  Our Missionary, Rev. G. Lubbers has received a call              individuals which. count up to 49 communicants and 101
from Southwest Church in Grand Rapids, Mich.                       souls. Besides the two Sunday public worship services the
                                                                   men, women and young people seek the communion of
  Contribution f?om the Radio Committee: The Lord will-            saints in their respective weekly society meetings. It is to
ing, Rev. H. Hoeksema will conclude his current series of          be noted that they take up a special offering each Sunday
radio messages Resurrection Day, March 29. Sermon titles           and special days (57 of them); all but two-benevolent
for the five Sundays in March are: Mar. 1-`"The Kingship of        fund and parsonage debt - are for causes not directly con-
Christ"; Mar,  15--"Condemned  by Pilate"; Mar. 22-"The            nected with their congregation. The prosperity of the times
Cross of Christ"; Mar. 29-"The Meaning of the Resurrec-            is also evident in that church for the Deacons had no op-
tion of Christ". You may have printed copies of these radio        portunity to dispense from the Benevolent Fund to any of
sermons and also the others in this series, by simply sending      their' members in `63. The pages of the directory, which
in your request to The Reformed Witness Hour, Box 1230,            concern the membership, list birthdays and anniversaries as
Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49501.                                     well as names and addresses. Some of the addresses are
                                                                   from 8 towns in Iowa and one in Minnesota. We appreciate
  Hudsonville's  Young People's Society visited First's Junior     this gift from Doon, and would like others from the churches
Society in February. The after recess program was mod-             that we might give a thumb-nail description of yola church
erated by Hudsonville's president, Mr. H. Zwak. The subject        on this page!
under discussion was, "Sports in the life of .a Christian", and
was introduced with a very good essay by Maxine Lubbers.             Rev. Lubbers Feb. 2nd morning sermon was on, "The
Maxine ably proved her conviction that active participation        New Testament Observance of the Sabbath", and was in
in some sports may be. of some value, but that watching            part motivated by the tract ministry of the local Seventh
others participate (either live or on T.V. ) is liable to lead
to m&-use of our time.' She stated that it should never be         Day Adventist Church whose evidence was found on the
done to the detriment of our school studies or of ourprepa-        neighborhood doorsteps. So, even thei? tract ministry bore
ration for Bible discussion in our society. That was a point       fruit for  OUT missionary's hearers!
well taken and could be seriously considered by the oldsters
that we might be  "Tedeeming the  $irne for  ,t7ae  darjs  aye           In two succeeding weeks South Holland's Men's Society
evil." Eph. 5: 16.                                                 heard after-recess papers, one by Mr. Gil Van  Baren on
                                                                   `Smoking in the light of recent medical reports", and one
  The Mission Committee in conjunction with the calling            by Mr. Gise Van Baren  on, "Social Security in t@ light of
church (First, of Grand Rapids ) has decided that our              Scripture". Methinks the first named evil might also be
Missionary shall continue to work. in that huge city, Hous-        viewed in the light of Scripture, as no doubt it was.
ton, Texas. Methods and means have been delineated so
Rev. Lubbers may reach out to more of the  1,200,OOO  in-                From Oak Lawn's bulletin we learn that some sixty copies
habitants of that city who have never heard the blessed            of their School's Paper,  The  Rex&m&,   are sent out each
truths dear to our Reformed people. It is not rash to say          month. In the last issue one of the ninth graders reports
that Rev. Lubbers is the only voice that consistently pro-         that.they  play chess, checkers and ping-pong during recess.
claims the absolute Sovereignty of God in that teeming             The speed of the moves of each of these games is in an
metropolis. Let us all remember him and his mission in             ascending scale in the same order as listed, you can be sure!
our daily prayers.
                                                                         `And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He
  Rev. H. Hanko, of  Doon, and Rev. G. Van  Baren, of              shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed
Randolph, conducted Church Visitation in Loveland, Jan-            before Rim at His coming." 1 JOHN 2:28.
uary 27. This was done after  !a public lecture by Rev.
Hanko to which all Loveland's people were invited.                       . .  * see you in church.                         J.M.F.


