    VOLU3IE   XL                          Mm+  lJTq'19@4   - GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                               Nwmm12  .

                                                                       Yes, we are going to see the dying of the Christ.



                    THE DYING CHRIST                                   Well, that death of Jesus was a most terrible death.
                                                                   There is no other death like this death.
     Jesus, when He had cried  "gain with a loud voice,                The three hours of darkness are now passed: the cul-
     t.$elded  up the ghost. And, behold, the veil  of  the
     temple was rent in twain from the to to the bottom;           mination of His death. And what a death!
     and the earth did quake, and the rot -s
                                            x  rent; And the           A horrible death for He was the LIFE! He was the
     graves were opened; and many bodies of the saihts.            Holy One of Israel. He was the personification of Innocence.
     tohich  slept arose, And came out of the graves after         When we go to hell, we will at once feel that we belong
     His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and  ap-
      peared unto many. Now-when the centurion, and they           there. Our person, our body, our soul, our spirit, our every-
     that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earth-            thing belongs in hell. Because we are corrupt and evil from
      quake, and those things tlzat were done,  they feared        our youth.
      greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son  of God.                 But Jesus is as holy as God is holy. And He was treated
                                                Matt-  27:50-54    like the worst of the worst.
     And wh.en Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said,             Death is separation of that which belongs together. Well,
     Father, into Thy hands I commend  My spirit: and
     having said thus, He gave up the ghost.                       if there was anyone who belonged in the bosom of the
                                                   Luke 23:46      Father it was Jesus. But a few minutes ago He cried piti-
                                                                   fully: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?!
   We stand around the cross of Jesus and we see the dying             Death is punishment for sin. Death is therefore hell.
Christ.                                                            And its extent is eternal. That brings to mind another phase
   What shall we do?                                               of the suffering of Jesus.
    Shall we weep for Him?                                             When we go to hell, we stay there unto all eternity.
   No. Remember Christ's rebuke of the daughters of Jeru-               But when Jesus suffered hell on earth, He completed
salem. If we weep at all, let us weep because of our terrible      that hell in thirty-three years. That is to say, He concen-
sin and guilt which made this spectacle necessary. '               trated all the eternal suffering in a comparatively short
                                                                   period of time.
   Besides, what you see here at the Cross of Calvary is the            And there is another concentration which spelled suffer-
most beautiful THING you will see unto all eternity.               ing for Jesus: .He concentrated all the suffering of the elect
   There is a great white throne in heaven, and in the midst       and placed it on His own head. He suffered alone for all
of that throne John saw SOMEONE who beggars descrip-               His people.
tion. That's why John simply likens Him to the most pre-                The wicked suffer hell too, but each suffers for his own
cious thing he knew: the jasper stone most precious, which         sin, and there is a difference. The closer we were to Jesus
is like our present diamond stones.                                and the church, the worse will be our punishment, but
   And in the midst of that manifestation of Jehovah stands        each sinner suffers for his own sin, and not for anybody
the Lamb of God, standing as if slain.                             e l s e .
   In other words, Jehovah will take care of it in eternity             But Jesus suffered alone for millions.
that no one ever forgets the most beautiful THING He                    What horrors for Jesus!
ever revealed, namely, Jesus Christ, the, Son of the living
God, who went to hell for such worms as you and I.                                               0 4  0 4


     266                                          T H E   S,-,TANDAl-$D_BEAREJl

        Well, He bows the weary head, and gave up the ghost.                   devils and men taunting Him, and with the tornadoes of
            And that is. terrible for the world, and for Satan.           -    God's wrath howling around Him. And in the midst of
            It is the bruising of the head of the devil, and it is the         those horrors He cried out: I love Thee, 0 My God!
     condemnation of the world.                                                   What glorious death of Jesus!
            In that Cross the world is judged and condemned.                      Henceforth He may lay down His weary head in the
            It is evident in the signs which accompany the death               bosom of the Father. And He did.
     of Jesus: the earth quakes, the rocks are rent and the graves                Henceforth He will walk the way of exaltation. He will
     are opened. The world is condemned.                                       receive a Name that is above all names in this world and
            They show it too. Look. at them: there they go! They               in the One to `Orne*
     beat their breasts and flee, the cowards.                                                           0:  0  Q 4
            HOW  is the dying of Jesus the condemnation of the
     world?                                                                       And it is also a fruitful death,
            There were many years when I heard that statement                     Take your cue from that centurion: Truly, this was the
     and did not understand it.                                                Son of God!
            Let me show you.                                                      Oh yes, Jesus' death is fruitful for the church of all the
            The whole world, that is, the Romans, the Greeks, the              ages*
     Barbarians; the passersby, and the church condemned Jesus,                   Millions are reaping the fruit of Calvary.
     hung Him on the accursed tree, derided Him, sneered at                       Some in the Old Testament saw His day ages before it
~    Him, spit upon Him, and laughed Him to scorn. Even the                    happened: Abraham.
     church was party to all that. It is like Isaiah said: We hid                 There was an exclusion, a terrible exclusion for 4000
     as it were our faces from Him!                                            years. Yes, people were saved, but they were either the.
            Now here is the point: when you do that to a beautiful,            holy line from Adam over Henoch to Noah, or the  patri-
     attractive, comely, lovely, holy, righteous and perfect                   archs  and the Israel of God.
     BEING, you condemn yourself. You show what kind of                           But how about the untold millions that lived in Africa,
     person you are.                                                           Europe, Asia, and on the isles of the sea? They came and
        And the whole EVENT was public property.                               lived for a little while and went to hell.
            The whole world and the church were publicly  con-                    But -after Jesus' death the middle wall of partition was
     demned on the day that Jesus the Innocent died on the                     broken down, and the Gospel marches on throughout the
     cross.                                                                    whole world.
            That is the reason why Jesus Christ is set for a fall to              Oh, that centurion! He is the firstfruit of the harvest of
     many in Israel.                                                           the world.
        The carnal Israel is also condemned.                                      And God gave His sign of that happy event: He tore
        As a nation she is annihilated.  And  Jerusalem went to                the veil from the top to the bottom. Listen to Hebrews
     heaven when Jesus died.                                                   10:19, 20: "Having therefore brethren boldness to enter
                                                                               into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living
                                 a  0  0  0                                    way, which He hath concecrated  for us through the veil,
                                                                               that is to say His flesh- let us draw near with a true heart
        But Jesus' death was also a glorious death.                            in full assurance of faith . . ."
        We hear much about public worship.                                        Fruitful death of Jesus?
        Well, the cross is the most beautiful public worship this                 In the sweet bye and bye the whole church of God will
     sorry world has ever seen.                                                arise from the dead, and will be gathered in the heavenly
        And  you  know how public it was. There were the  Jerusalem.
     Romans, the Greeks, the Barbarians, the passersby, the                       And the sign of that thrice happy event is also shown
     cream of the Israelitish nation, and the true church of                   at the,scene  of the dying Christ.
     Jesus.                                                                       When He bows the head and gives up the ghost, the
            And it WAS worship. It was the most beautiful worship              graves are opened and many of the bodies of the saints
     you can imagine. It was the revelation of the loving obe-                 which slept arose, and went into the holy city, and appeared
     dience of Jesus to the Father.                                            unto many.
            Adam and Eve were obedient too in the period when                     Oh, they are the watch of honor for Jesus, and they are
     they stood in original righteousness. But that obedience                  the types of the great Resurrection Day.
     was as easy as falling of a log.                                              They are the types of the glorification of the Church of
            But Jesus stood in the bottom of eternal death, with               God, of the saints that fell asleep for 4000 years.


                                                   T H E   STAND&RD   B-EARER                                                                                                                    267
/
        Fruitful?
        By the death of Jesus the way is opened for the mani-                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
     festation of the eternal Covenant. God all and in all!                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and' Augu-st
                                                                              Published by the  RnPor&nm   Fnmr  h3LISHING   hsOCIATTON
        Also fruitful for Himself, for He is going to inherit the                                   Editor - REV. Hw Horum=
     joy that was set before Him when He entered upon the way                Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                             Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St.,  SE., Grand Rapids 7,
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        Shall we weep at the sight of the dying Christ?
        Oh no.                                                                                                     C O N T E N T S
        But we will sing, we will joy in the completed work of         MEDITA TION -
                                                                                 The Dying Christ  ,_.....,____........................................................  265
     God's salvation.                                                                    Rev. G. Vos
        Is it a wonder that our fathers call the day GOOD              EDITORIALS-
     FRIDAY?                                           3       G.V.              0 ,   1924!  ..,..............,.................................................................
                                                                                                                                                                                                 ,268
                                                                                 De Jong-Dekker .._ _.. __... ___ ______._.._._.  ._ __..___.._...._  _..____....  . . . 268
                                                                                          Rev. H. Hoeksema

             Call to Aspirants to the Ministry                         OUR D OCTRINE -
                                                                                 The Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . ..__.._....................................  271
       All young men desiring to study for the ministry of the                            Rev. H. Hoeksema
     Word in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and who have            A CLOUD  OF WITNESSES  -
     not already been pre-enrolled, are asked to appear before                   The Birth of Samson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,274
     the Theological School Committee on its next meeting,                                Rev. B. Woudenberg
     which will be held, the Lord willing, on Friday, April 10,        FROM HOLY  Wnrr-
     1964 at 8 P.M. in the parsonage of the Hudsonville Protest-                 Exposition of the Prophecy of Malachi  .._............................. 276
     ant Reformed Church, in Hudsonville, Michigan.                                       Rev. G. Lubbers
       The qualifications requisite to enrollment are the follow-      IN HIS Fu-
     ing:                                                                        Faith and Hope Permeated with Love ( 3 ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
       1. You must present a letter from your local consistory                            Rev. J. A. Heys
     certifying that you are upright in walk and pure in               C
     doctrine.                                                              ONTENDING FOR  THE  Fm  -
                                                                                 The Church and the Sacraments  _____._.........._...................... 280
       2. You must present a certificate of health, signed by a                           Rev. H. Veldman
     reputable physician.                                              THE VOICE OF  OUR  FATHERS-
       3. You must be a graduate from High School, being able                    The Belgic Confession ___ .  ..__  .____....  . . . . . . 282
     to show that you have completed a one-year course in                                 Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
     History General and Church History; and that you have
     completed the following College courses: Latin-two years,         rm &IJRCH AT WORSHIP-
                                                                                 Offerings and Alms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..___............. __._____.______...............  284
     Greek-two years, German-two years, Philosophy-one year,                              Rev. G.  Vanden Berg
     PsychologyLone  year, Logic-one semester.                         ALLARouNDus-
       All correspondence relative to the above announcement                     To Be Without God  _...............................................................  286
     should be sent to the undersigned:                                          Why Not to Teach  iu a Secular College .  .._............................ 286
                                                                                 Mergers ( Con? ) ._..__  _._. .  ..__ .  .._._  ._..  _. . . . .  ..____ 287
                     Secretary of the Theological School Committee,
                     Rev. M. Schipper,                                                   Rev,. H. Hanko
                     1543 Cambridge Ave., S.E.,                        N E W S FROM OUR CHURCHES . . . . . . . . .._.____...............................................                           288
                     Grand Rapids 6, Michigan 49506                                       Mr. J.  M. Faber

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

II                                                                    "First Point" teaches that God is gracious to (or loves) all
             :E  Cl I T 0 R I A L S                                   men in the preaching of the Gospel (redemptive love).
                                                                      The trouble is, of course, that the Synod of 1924, not being
                                                                      able to find anything in Scripture on the Kuyperian theory
                            0 ,   1924!                               of "common grace" inadvertently quoted texts that refer
                                                                      to saving grace, and thus became Arminian.
      Recently, I read an article in "Torch and Trumpet"                Such is my brief comment on the first paragraph of the
written by Martin  LaMaire,  elder of a Christian Reformed            article by Martin LaMaire in "Torch and Trumpet."
Church in Chicago, Ill., in which he attempts to criticize              Once more, however, I emphasize that the Christian Re-
Professor Harold Dekker in regard to the latter's view on             formed Synod retract the "Three Points" before they treat
the love of God to all men. As far as the article itself is           the Dekker-case.
concerned, I cannot find anything in it that has not been                                                                      H.H.
written in the (Christian Reformed papers repeatedly.
      However, I cannot help to call attention to the very                                De Tong - Dekkq
first paragraph of the article which reads as follows:                Yes -No.
      `%orty years ago the Christian Reformed Church deemed             Dekker also quotes, to prove his contention that  "all
it necessary to exercise discipline against two of its ministers      Biblical statements of the general offer of the gospel express
whose public writings denied the teaching of Scripture that           availability," from- John 7:37: "If any man thirsts, let him
God displays a favorable attitude, or non-redemptive grace,           come unto mk and drink." And he offers a brief comment
toward all of mankind. Today it is wrestling with the theo-           on this text as follows: "He was saying, it appearS, that the
logical pronouncements of a Calvin Seminary professor who             water of life is available to all on condition of coming
has gone to the opposite extreme by denying that God's                and drinking."
love is qualitatively differentiated . .  ."                            But on this passage, as on the text from Matt. 11, we
      On this I wish to make a few remarks:                           have the following remarks:
      1. First of  all, I must explain the title which you find         1. Jesus here calls unto Him those that thirst. It goes
above this article, `0, 1924!" Is it not striking that, especially    without saying that the Lord speaks of spiritual, not of
in regard to the "Dekker-case,"' and the present controversy          natural thirst. Now spiritual thirst is an intense longing
in  the Christian Reformed Church, the "Three Points" and             for spiritual water. And spiritual water is the fulness of
the Synod of 1924 always somehow enter into the discus-               all the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord; or, in other
sion? There must be something wrong with the "Three                   words, it consists in all the blessings of the kingdom of
Points." This is not the case with any other cotitiovtirsjr  in       heaven, such as the forgiveness of sin, righteousness, holi-
thk Christian Reformed  Church as far as I can remember.              ness, and eternal life. It is also evident from all Scripture
The Bultema case was settled in 1918 and was never men-               that no natural man ever thirsts for this spiritual water.
tioned again. The same is true of the Jansen-case. But in             TJnless  a man is born again by the Spirit of God, he cannot
regard to Synod of lb24 and the notorious "Three Points"              even see the kingdom of God.
this is quite different. It seems to me that the Christian              2. Now, Dekker explains the text in John 7:37 in such a
Reformed  Church would like to get rid of those obrioxious            way that the water of life is available to all the hearers,
"Three Points" and cannot,' do not know how. I would                  but on condition that they come and drink. On this I have
advise the Christian Reformed Church to retract those                 the following remarks:
miserable "Three Points" and confess that in 1924-25 they               a. First of all about this "condition." A condition is some-
did wrong by casting us out of the Church. Then, and then             thing which man must fulfill. We must not say, as I have
only, they will be able properly to handle the "Dekker-case."         said before, that God Himself fulfills the condition, and
I do, of course, not expect that they will take my advice,            that, therefore, we can still maintain sovereign grace w&e
but, nevertheless I give it to them.                                  speaking of conditions. No one understands the term `con-
      2. Why it is that the Christian Reformed Church cannot          dition" in that sense in the sentence: "the water of life is
properly solve the "Dekker-case?" Why will Professor  Dek-            available to all on condition of coming and drinking."
ker be justified (as is my prediction),- as he virtually was          The meaning is rather that if the hearers fulfill the con-
already justif?ed  by the Synod of 1963?  The answer is very          dition of coming and drinking, then, and then only, will
simple: his doctrine that  `<God  Loves-All Men" is quite             Christ give unto them- the water of life. This is surely the
in harmony with the "Three Points." This is, especially true          meaning which Dekker gives to the word. How otherwise
of the "First Point." To put it very brieBy, the "First Point"        could he write that the water is available to'all?
teaches that God is gracious in the preaching of the Gospel             b. However, there is, indeed, a grammatically conditional
to all men or, at least, to all the hearers. Now what, pray,          clause in this text. But this is not found in the last part
is the difference between this proposition and that of  Dek-          of the text where it speaks of coming and Ng, but in
ker? There is none. Dekker teaches that God's redemptive              the very first clause: "If any man thirsts." And this makes
love is for all men; the Christian Reformed Church,  .in the          the text very particular, for, as we already ertplained,  not


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              269

every man thirsts, but only those that are born again by           the universal -availability of salvation is included in the
the Holy Spirit and that are efficaciously called by the           design of the. atonement and is an essential factor in OUT
powerful Word of God. Just as not every man is laboring            witness of the gospel."
and heavy laden, but only the elect, so every man is not             In the above paragraphs, Dekker writes that available is
longing or thirsty for the water of life, but only those that      a plain English word. To me this is not the case. In my
are caused to be longing for the water of life, that is, those     first article on this subject I wrote as follows:
that are regenerated by the Spirit of God through the                "Then he (De Jong, H.H.) refers to the idea of availa-
Word; and that is, therefore, the elect.                           bility. Now availability is itself a very ambiguous term.
  c. Besides, we must not overlook the fact that Christ is         In the transitive sense it may mean that something is of
speaking here and calling unto Him those that are thirsty          advantage to someone, to benefit, to profit. In the intransi-
for the water of life. To be sure, also the preacher of the        tive sense it means about the same thing: to be of ad-
Word of God calls the thirsty, in fact, calls all the hearers      vantage, to be capable or efficacious, suflicient to accomplish
to come and drink of the water of life. But, in the first          the object. It seems that De Jong (and also Dekker) uses
place, he must be careful that he does not corrupt the text        the term in the latter sense, so that it means that the preach-
and say: "you are all thirsty, the water of life is available      ing of the gospel is in itself capable to save all the hearers.
to you all; all you have to do is to come and drink, for that      One can also say that the outward calling is su5cient to
is the only condition you have to fulfill; if you do so, Christ    bring all the hearers to salvation."
will surely give unto you the water of life freely." For then        I understand very well that Dekker does not want this.
you preach the lie. Christ would never say this. Always He         In fact, in the above quoted paragraphs, he denies this and
proclaims: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;        maintains that God only can give the grace of repentance
and him that  cometh  to me I will in no wise cast out."           and faith. Nevertheless, on my part, I maintain what I
John 6:37. And, in the second place, this external calling         wrote in the above `description of availability, and. Dekker's
is worse than of no avail to the hearer that does not come         use of the term. I cannot  help that Prof. Dekker (and De
and drink. But, I say once more, it is Christ that is here         Jong, too) write in contradictory or paradoxical language.
calling the thirsty  f,s come unto Him and drink, and when         I do not believe in contradictions. I believe that Scripture
He calls, the thirsty will surely come and drink.                  always teaches the same truth. I believe that when there
  Before Prof. Dekker describes the third "universal fac-          are passages in the Bible that appear to contradict the gen-
tor, the divine desire that all men shall be saved," he at-        eral teaching of the Scriptures, such passages ought to be
tempts to explain the term "availability"; and at the same         explained in the light of the current teaching of the Bible.
time he seems to' express agreement with the Reformed              The Scriptures certainly do not teach Reformed truth and
truth that God only can give repentance and faith. But I           Arminianism at the same time. And, therefore, when  Dek-
rather quote him literally lest I should be liable to the          ker writes that "the universal availability of salvation is
accusation that I put words into his pen that he did not           included in the design of the atonement and is an essential
write or mean to write. He writes as follows:                      factor in our witness of the gospel," I must maintain, as I
  "Some of those who have written on this matter appar-            wrote above, that he teaches that the external calling is
ently insist that salvation is available only to those whom        su5cient to bring all men to faith and salvation.
God graciously enables ,to repent and. believe, since ulti-          In fact, this is evident from the texts he quoted and is
mately they are only able actually to avail themselves of it.      also evident from the texts he quotes further in his article
With the premise underlying such a statement I am in full          and which presently I hope to explain.
agreement. (As I stated in my original article of a year             And why should Dekker invent (for an invention it is,
ago: `When it comes to the efficacy of the atonement, there        as far as Reformed doctrine is concerned) an ambiguous
can be no doubt that its existential limitation is to be ex-       term (for ambiguous it certainly is) like available and
plained ultimately in terms of the sovereign disposition of        availability?
divine grace. On this score the Scriptures, explicated by            I am  conlldent  that the general run of our Reformed
the Canons of Dort, are decisive and convincing.`) How-            people, and the majority of our catechumens do not under-
ever, to use the word available in this way is to use the          stand what it means.
word in a sense different from its ordinary and proper               Are there not sufficient terms in our Reformed doctrine
meaning. Availability has nothing to do with the ability           to express the relation between the Gospel and the hearers,
or inability to obtain. To say that something is available         such as the external and internal calling?
only to those who actually meet the conditions for obtain-           But I must still briefly discuss the third "universal factor"
ing it arbitrarily alters the meaning of a plain English word.     which Prof. Dekker mentions in his article in the "Reformed
  "I am using the word auailab&~  in its generally accepted        Journal." It is this:
meaning, fully aware of the  -fact  that the condition for           "The third universal factor, the divine desire that all men
obtaining salvation is to repent and believe and that He           be saved, has for a long time been accepted among us.
does not give this ability to all. So understood, I affirm that    Clear biblical teaching such as Ezekiel X3:23, 33:I, II Peter


.276                                   T H E ' S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

3:9, and I Timothy  2~1-4,  has established a firm concensus        propositions in connection with each other, and the calumny
that God indeed desires that all shall come to salvation.           is washed- off at once. God requires of us this conversion,
This factor, too, then belongs to the universalism of the           or %urning away from our iniquity,' and in whomsoever He
atonement and to the general offer of the gospel, and it must       finds it He disappoints not such an one of the promised re-
be included in our witness to the redemptive love of God            ward of eternal life. . . . Now all this is in perfect harmony
as it extends to all mankind."                                      with His secret and eternal counsel, in which He decreed
   So, God desires all men to be saved!                             to convert none but His own elect. None but  God's OWN
   I would like to ask Prof. Dekker: is that desire realized?       elect, therefore, ever do turn from their wickedness. . . .
I am confident that he has to answer this question in the           He brings unto eternal life those whom He willed according
negative, for all men surely are not saved.                         to His eternal purpose, regenerating by His Spirit, as an
  But, then, the further question arises inevitably: why            eternal Father, His own children only."
are they not saved? There can be only one answer to this                 And on I Tim. 2:4 he writes:
question: They do not want to be saved. This is the Armin-               "The  di5culty  which, according to Pighius, lies in an-
ian doctrine of the free will of the sinner.                        other place of Paul, where the apostle affirms that `God will
  And this Arminian error has been for a long time accepted         have all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of
in the Christian Reformed Church, according to Dekker.              the truth' is solved in one moment, and by one question,
Yes, I believe this to be fact, i.e. it has been officially  ac-    namely, How does God wish all men to come to the  knowl-
cepted by that Church since 1924 in the form of the "Three          edge of the truth? For Paul couples this salvation and  this
Points," especially in the first of them. That is why I advised     coming to the knowledge of the truth together. Now I would
Dekker more than once that, if the Christian Reformed               ask, did the same will of God stand the same from the be-
Synod ultimately would condemn him because of his er-               ginning of the world or not? For if God willed, or wished
roneous doctrine that God loves all men, he ought to appeal         (desired, according to Dekker) that His truth should be
to the "Three Points."                                              known unto all men, how was it that He did not proclaim
  I .will not, at this time, try to explain the texts to which      and  make known His law to the Gentiles also? Why did
Dekker refers. This I did so often already that it becomes          He confine the light of life to the narrow limits of Judea?
wearisome. -Besides, Dekker himself does not attempt to             . . . Moreover, who will be found so profanely mad as to
offer any exegesis. He merely takes for granted that they           say that God cannot convert the evil wills of men, which
prove his erroneous doctrine. But I rather quote a passage          He pleases, when He pleases, and asp He pleases, to good?
or two from Calvin in `Calvin's Calvinism" where he refers          Now when He does this, He does it in mercy; and when He
to the same texts as those to which Dekker refers, I Timo-          doeth it not, in judgment He doeth it not."
thy 2:4; Ezekiel X3:23.                                                  And a little farther on, the apostle explains that the con-
  In these passages he refutes that arch-Pelagian Pighius.          gregation is exhorted to pray for all men, even for kings
Writes Calvin: "`All this Pighius loudly denies, adducing that      and all that are in authority. And then, Calvin explains:
passage of the apostle (I Tim. 2:4) `Who will have all men          "For (saith the apostle) God will all men to be saved.
to be saved; and referring also to Ezek. 18:23, he argues           Who does not see that the apostle is here speaking of
thus, `That God willeth not the death of a sinner,' may be          orders of men rather than of individuals? . . . The plain
taken upon his own oath, where He says by that prophet,             meaning therefore is that God willeth the salvation of all
`As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the wicked        men considered generally, whom He therefore mercifully
that dieth; but rather that he should return from his ways          calls, or invites, unto Christ by the open preaching of the
and live.' "                                                        Word."
  To this Calvin replies: (I quote in part; the entire pas-              Now, let Dekker explain these passages in the  Arminiar,
sage you may find in "Calvin's Calvinism" pp. 98 ff. )              way if he wishes.
                                                                         I have more to write next time, the Lord willing.
  "But men untaught of God, not understanding these                                                                            H.H.
things, allege that we attribute to God a twofold or double
will. Whereas God is so far from being variable, that no
shadow of such variableness appertains to Him, even in
the most remote degree. Hence Pighius, ignorant of the                        QF'FlCCE. BEARERS CQNF'EREMCE
divine nature of these deep things, thus argues: `Wbat else              An  05ce Bearers Conference will be held Tuesday,
is this but making God a mocker of men, if God is repre-            March  31st, at 8:00 P.M. at the Hudsonville Church.
sented as really not willing that which He professes to will,       The Prof. H. C. Hoeksema will speak on the topic: "The
and as not having pleasure in that in which in reality He           Consistory's Calling with Regard to Parents and Their
has pleasure? But if these two members of the sentence be           Children's Education,  - Does It Include Discipline?" All
read in conjunction, as they ever ought to be - `I have no          ministers, present and former elders and deacons, are
pleasure in  the- death of the wicked'; and, `But that the          `urged" to attend.
wicked return from his way and live' - Read these two               :                                          J. Bomers, Secretary


                                           T H E   STAND,ARD   B E A R E R                                                    271

                                                                      The-same is,taught in Colossians  2:ll and 12, a text, by
       0 U R  D 0 C T R I N  lk                                     the way, which also teaches plainly that baptism is come
                                                                    in the place of circumcision: "In whom also ye are circum-
                                                                    cised with the -circumcision made without hands, in put-
                                                                    ting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
            THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH                              of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
                                                                    risen again with him through the faith of the operation of
                        ChAPTER  VIII                               God, who hath raised him from the dead." Also this pas-
                                                                    sage, like the one from Romans 6, emphasizes the fact that
       THE iACRAMENl' OF BAPTISM (continued)                        baptism signifies our incorporation into the death and
                                                                    resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. And that baptism
    And that immersion as a sign of baptism is not necessary        signifies more than the mere forgiveness of sins may also
to express the essential idea of the sacrament may also be          be gathered from Titus  3:5: "Not by works of righteous-
gathered from the foot-washing of the disciples,, which             ness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
Jesus performed in the upper room where He was gathered             saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of
with His disciples to celebrate the last supper, John 13:4-10.      the Holy Ghost." Now, it may be doubted whether the
After Peter had objected to Jesus' washing his feet, and the        word "washing" in this text refers directly to baptism, or
Lord had answered that if He did not wash his feet, Peter           whether regeneration itself is called a washing. But there
would have no part with Him, and the apostle rushed to              can be no doubt about the fact that the text at least refers
the other extreme and said, "Lord, not my feet only, but            to baptism. Also here, therefore, we have plain proof that
also my hands and my head," the Lord answered him: "He              baptism signifies not only the remission of sins, but also
that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is            our regeneration and renewal by the Spirit of our Lord
clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all." Surely,           Jesus Christ.
in the bodily sense of the word one is not ent@ely  clean by
having his feet washed. But if bodily washing is a symbol             In the prayer before baptism in our Form for the Admin-
and a sign of a spiritual reality, foot-washing is entirely suf-    istration of Baptism are mentioned the two great types of
ficient, according to the words of the Lord. On the basis           baptism, namely, the flood and the passing through the
of all these passages of Scripture, it certainly seems evident      Red Sea. We read as follows: "0  Almighty and eternal
that immersion is not necessarily the only mode of baptism.         `God, Thou, who hast according to thy severe judgment
                                                                    punished the unbelieving and unrepentant world with the
   But although centrally the sacrament of baptism signifies        flood, and hast according to thy great mercy saved and
the washing away of our sins through the blood of Christ,           protected believing Noah and his family; Thou, who hast
it implies much more. This is evident from such passages            drowned the obstinate Pharaoh and his host in the Red
as  Remans 6:3-6: "Know ye not, that so many of us as               Sea, and hast led thy people Israel through the midst of
were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his              the Sea upon dry ground, by which baptism was signi-
death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into             fied . . ." And this also is based on Scripture. We may refer
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by           to I Peter 3:21: "The like figure whereunto even baptism
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in             doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth
newness of life. For if we have been planted together in            of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward
the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness         God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." When the apostle
of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is cruci-       writes in this verse about "the like figure whereunto," he
fied with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,             refers to the immediately preceding verse, where we read:
that henceforth we should not serve sin." It is true, as some       "Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-
Reformed theologians emphasize, that this passage does not          suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the
speak directly of the sacrament of baptism, but rather only         ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were
of spiritual baptism. But it is also true that it speaks of         saved by water." It ought to be plain, therefore, that
this spiritual baptism under the figure of baptism itself. And      baptism is typified in the water of the flood. It was not
then it teaches us very plainly that baptism signifies our          by the ark, but by the water of the flood that the eight
incorporation into Christ, so that we are planted together          souls were saved. They were saved in the ark, but not by
in the likeness of His death and resurrection. For the text         the ark. The meaning is, evidently, that the flood separated
tells us that when we are baptized into Jesus Christ, we            the church in the ark from the wicked world and from
are baptized into His death. Secondly, it teaches us that           total destruction. And this is effected in reality by the
baptism is the symbol of our being buried together with             death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. That
Christ into His death. And, thirdly, it teaches us that             baptism is typified not only by the flood, but also by the
baptism signifies our being raised with Christ in newness           passage through the Red Sea is evident from I Corinthians
of life.                                                            10: 1 and 2: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should


                                                             i
272                                         T H E   `STAN?A-eJD   -`,BEARER

be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud,          ship of God, life eternal in His everlasting covenant. And
and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized                thus baptism has a very rich significance.
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." Egypt was a type
of the bondage of sin and of the fellowship with the world.            It undoubtedly need not be emphasized that the sacra-
And Moses, the mediator of the old covenant, was a type              ment of baptism is not effective in itself. That is, through
of Christ. The passage through the Red Sea, therefore,               the ceremony of baptism grace is not conferred upon the
was a type of the separation of the church from the wicked           one that is baptized. The theory that baptism works by
world and of her deliverance from the bondage of sin,                itself and confers grace upon the one that is baptized in
and of our baptism into Christ, the Mediator of the new              the church was taught already in a very early age of the
covenant.                                                            church in the new dispensation. This was emphatically
                                                                     taught especially in respect to the baptism of infants. Even
  It is undoubtedly true that the forgiveness of sins is             a man like Augustine held to this theory. According to him,
fundamental as far as our salvation is concerned. Never-             baptism was absolutely necessary unto salvation because
theless, it is also evident from the doctrinal part of the           it removed the guilt of original sm. Later in the Romish
Form for the Administration of Baptism that the sacrament            Church this theory was fully accepted: not only in the
signifies indeed much more than the washing away of our              case of infants, but also `in the baptism of adults the out-
sins. In that Form we read not only that holy baptism                ward sign is always effective, according to them. In "The
"witnesseth and sealeth unto us the washing away of our              Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent" it expressed
sins through Jesus Christ"; but it also teaches that through         this  o5cially in the Decree of the Sacraments, Canon 8.
baptism "God the Father witnesseth and sealeth unto us,              In this canon they declare him accursed who denies that
that he doth make an eternal covenant of grace with us,              the sacraments do not confer grace upon him that receives
and adopts us for his children and heirs, and therefore will         them through the act performed, but who insist that faith
provide us with every good thing, and avert all evil or              alone in the divine promise s&ices for the obtaining of this
turn  .it to our profit." Again, it teaches also that "when          grace. And the same view is expressed in Canon 6 of the
we are baptized in the name of the Son, the Son sealeth              same chapter, in the following words: "If anyone  saith
unto us, that he doth wash us in his blood from all our              that the sacraments of the new law do not contain the
sins, incorporating us into the fellowship of his death and          grace which they signify; or, that they do not confer grace
resurrection, so that we are freed from all our sins, and ac-        on those who do not place an obstacle thereunto; as though
counted- righteous before God." And it teaches us that               they were merely outward signs of grace or justice received
"when we are baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost,                 through faith, and certain marks of the Christian profes-
the .Holy Ghost assures us, by this holy sacrament, that he          sion, whereby believers are distinguished among men from
will dwell in us, and sanctify us to be members of Christ,           unbelievers: let him be accursed." According to the Roman
applying unto us that which we have in Christ, namely,               Church, the grace bestowed upon him that is baptized
the  .washing  away of our sins, and the daily renewing of           delivers by itself, as a sign, from the guilt of original sin
our lives, till we shall finally be presented  `tiithout  spot or    and of all actual sins committed up to the time of baptism.
wrinkle among the assembly of the elect in life eternal."            It, also delivers from the corruption or defilement of sin
It is evident, therefore, that the entire promise of God,            and from eternal punishment. It incorporates the one that
sure and unconditional, to the elect, is sealed and signified        is baptized into the communion of saints, and effects spir-
by the sacrament of baptism. Baptism, therefore, has a               itual renewal by the infusion of sanctifying grace.
very rich significance. For the water of baptism signifies
the death of Christ into which we submerge, and from the               The Reformed churches always rejected this. The mere
which we arise unto newness of life. The water in bap-               fact that one has received the outward sign of baptism by
tism signifies the blood of Christ. And that blood means             the church does not mean that his sins are washed away.
that He voluntarily laid down His life and satisfied God's           It is very well possible, according to their view, that one
righteousness, and thus made an atonement for sin.' Hence,           is externally baptized, and therefore is received as an exter-
in that blood we have both the remission of sins, the re-            nal member of the church in the world, and yet has no
moval of the guilt of sin, and also the cleansing from all           part with Christ and all His benefits. As de apostle writes
defilement and pollution of sin. Not only justification, but         in Romans  2:28 and 29: "For he is not a Jew, which is
also regeneration and sanctification are symbolized in the           one outwardly; neither is that ~circumcision, which is out-
                                                                     ward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly;
water of baptism. Through that death of Christ we pass               and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not
through baptism. On this side of  that water of baptism              in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God."
there is the guilt of sin, death, corruption, pollution, the         What is said here of the Jew and of circumcision certainly
world, and damnation. But as we pass through the water               applies also to the members of the New Testament church
of baptism, we find on the other side righteousness before           and to baptism. The blood of Christ alone is able to cleanse
God, peace, perfect freedom, and the favor of the friend-            us from all sm. There is no other remedy that can cleanse


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                        273

 us from sin except that act of perfect obedience that was         ment to walk with it, the nature of which they are unac-
 accomplished by Christ when He shed His blood and                 quainted with, and of what belongs to a member ,of it, either
 poured out His life for us. And the application of that           as a duty or privilege; nor are they capable of answering
 blood of Christ is effected upon the sinner by the Holy           the ends of church-communion, the mutual edification of
 Spirit of grace. It is the Spirit of Jesus Christ that takes      members and the glory of God: and such who plead for
 our soul into the blood-bath and washes away the guilt            their membership, make a poor business of it; not treating
 of sin to justify us, and the pollution of sin to sanctify us.    them as members, neither by admitting them to the ordi-
 It is the Spirit that takes the blood of Christ and pours it      nance of the supper, nor by watching over them, reproving,
 over our souls, completely cleansing us from all iniquity.        admonishing, and laying them under censures, when grown
 It is the Spirit of Jesus Christ Who applies unto us the          up, and require them, were they members." To me it is
 death of our Savior, and causes us to partake of and ap-          rather evident that Gill is an obscure writer; he is not
 propriate that deed of Christ whereby He poured out His           very clear.
 life as a sacrifice for sin, so that it becomes our own by a
 true and living faith. And of this power of the blood of            On page 900 he argues particularly against infant bap-
 Jesus Christ to cleanse away our sin, and of this grace of        tism, as follows: "Not the infants of any, be they born of
the Holy Spirit whereby He brings our souls into a saving          whom they may; and to whom the above characters, de-
 contact with that blood of Christ, baptism is a sign and          scriptive of the subjects of baptism, do by no means belong;
 seal.                                                             with respect to their first birth, though born of believing
                                                                   parents, they are carnal and corrupt, and children of wrath,
   We must now ask and answer the question: who are the            as others; That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and they
 proper candidates for baptism? To this question the Re-           must be born again, or they cannot see, possess, and enjoy
 formed churches always have answered: all adults that             the kingdom of God, or have a right to be admitted into
 have not been properly baptized before and who profess            the church of God now, nor will they enter into the king-
 their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but also all children of    dom of God, into heaven hereafter, unless born again; their
 believers.                                                        first and carnal birth neither entitles them to the kingdom
                                                                   of God on earth, nor to the kingdom of God in heaven, be
   Baptists of every color, be they  Arminian  Baptists or         it taken in either sense; for the baptism of such there is
 so-called  Calvin&tic  Baptists, most emphatically deny that      neither precept nor precedent in the Word of God." This,
 infants of believers have the right to be baptized. One of        that there is neither precept nor precedent for infant bap-
 the most emphatic of these latter, that is, of the so-called      tism in the Word of God, Dr. Gill then attempts to prove.
 Calvinistic Baptists, is Dr. John Gill, from whose work,                                                                            H.H.
 "The Body of Divinity," I quote the following arguments
 against infant baptism.

   First of all, on page 856 he argues that children are not                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
 included in the church of Christ. Writes he: "Not the
 infants with them; who were neither baptized nor admitted          ..On March  13th, 1964, our dear parents,
 to membership in the churches; no one instance of either                         MR. AND MRS.  JAKE VAN DEN TOP
 can be produced in Scripture: they are not members by
 birth; for that which is born of the flesh, is flesh, carnal      commemorated their 45th Wedding Anniversary.
 and corrupt, and unfit for church fellowship: nor do they
 become such by the faith of their parents; for even their           We thank our Heavenly Father who has spared them for us these
                                                                   many years. Our prayer is that the Lord may continue to bless them
 faith does not make them themselves church members,               throughout the further part of their lives. May they always experi-
 without a profession of it, and giving up themselves to the       ence the joy and peace which is the heritage of them that love God.
 church, and received by it into it: men must be believers
 before they are baptized; and they must be baptized be-                                    Their grateful children:
 fore they become members; and they cannot be members
 till they make application to a church, and are admitted                                           Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Van Den Top
 into it. Infants, as they are born, are not meet for mem-                                          Mr. and Mrs.  William Van Den Top
                                                                                                    Mr. and Mrs. Albert  Van Den Top
 bership, being unregenerate, unholy, and impure by their                                           Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Van Den Top
 first birth, and must be born again ere they are fit for the                                       Mr. and Mrs. Minard Van Den Top
 kingdom of God, or a gospel church state; the federal                                              Mr. and Mrs. Pete Van Den Top
 holiness, talked of, is a mere chimera, and is unsupported                                         Mr. and Mrs. Ed Van Ginkel
 by I Corinthians  7:14; they are not capable of understand-                                        Mr. and Mrs. John Van Den Top
                                                                                                    Mr. and Mrs.  Ehnver  Van Den Top
 ing and of answering questions put unto them; nor of giv-                                     3 6   G r a n d c h i l d r e n
 ing up themselves to a church; nor of consent and agree-                                            1 Great-Grandchild


274                                        T H E   S.TANDARD   BEARsER
                                                                                    -.
                                                                  $ently, trusting still in the goodness of God and rejecting
11  A  CLCN.lD'  OF.  W,lTWEt%ES  11 t&`tiays of the heathen.
                                                                  ' It happened,  howev&,  one  day, as  Manoah's  wife was
                                                                  laboring alone in the field, that suddenly a new thing was
                 The Birth of Samson                              brought about in their lives. The angel of t& LORD ap-
         And there was a certain man of Zorah,  of the fam-       peared unto her  and spoke: "Behold now, thou art barren,
       ily of the Danites, whose name was Manoah;  and his        and bearest not": He said, `but thou shalt conceive,  and
       wife was barren, and  bare  not.                           bear a son. Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink
         And the angel  of  the LORD appeared.  z&o the           not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
       woman, and said unto her, Behold  ~r?ow, thou art          for, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor
       barren, and  beayest  not: but thou shalt  cotweiue,       shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite
       and bear a son. . . .                                      unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver
         And the  woman bare a son, and  calledF  Ms name         Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."
       Sa.mson: and the child grew, &cl the LORD blessed          : For  Manoah's  wife this was. almost too wonderful to
       him.                                 Judges 13 : 2,3,24    imagine. It meant, in the first place, that the reproach
                                                                  of her barrenness was to be lifted. It may well be difficult
   As the period of the judges went on, the depth of sin          for us to understand how important this was for a woman
into which the children of Israel fell became increasingly        of that day. Her life, as the life of every true Israelite,
greater. In the early  days after Joshua, the nation of           was bound up in the typical life of the nation. It was a life
Israel generally had been responsive to the hand- of the          of hope, always looking ahead to the coming of the Messiah
Lord when He  chastized  them. Under the oppression of            who would obtain the victory over sin and establish the
an enemy, they wouia turn in repentance until the Lord            kingdom of God forever. After their personal salvation,
delivered them. But as time went on, this responsiveness          nothing was more important to the Old Testament saints
became less. In the days of Jephthah there had even been          than that their place should be retained in the typical life
a false  and insincere movement of repentance to which            of this nation through the children  wl+h they brought
the Lord refused to listen. Only after the people turned          forth. Thus, to have no children meant that one's place
sincerely away from their sins did the Lord deliver them.         in the nation would be lost. To the barren wife this was
But then, after Jephthah and the minor judges which fol-          the severest of all reproaches. Many years Manoah's  wife
lowed him, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, even this was too              had labored under it, no doubt with tears and prayers. But
much. God gave them over to the cruelest and most oppres-         now the message of God was come that she was to have
sive enemy they had ever known, the Philistines; but the          a child..
people, rather than turning in repentance to God, submitted         Even more, this child which she would receive was to be
themselves and adapted- to the every wish of their enemy.         2 Nazarite from his birth. This was of special significance
When God sent to them one of the most outstanding judges          in Israel. A Nazarite was a person whose life was given
of all, the people refused to rally behind him and even           over in holy dedication unto God. T&s was symbolized in
betrayed him to the Philistines. Samson throughout his life       the threefold denial which he made in his life. First, he
remained a lone figure, fighting a lonely but valiant battle      would drink no strong drink to symbolize his denial of the
against the enemy of God's people. His life was a testimony       pleasures of life for the service of God. Secondly, he was
against the day in which he lived.                                not to come in contact with a dead body, because death
  The parents of Samson were but common people from               was the result of sin and the curse. (Seemingly, hdwever,
the tribe of Dan, inhabitants of the hills close to &border       in the case of Samson this was exempted because of his
of  Philistia.  This couple,  Manoah  and his wife, were the      calling as judge to wage battle with the Philistines.) And
exception in Israel; for they  iri their simple way had re-       finally, he was not to have his head shaved with a razor
mained faithful to the worship of Jebovah. They refused           or his hair cut, to symbolize that he remained free from
to give recognition to any of the idol gods of the heathen        all of the fashions and influences of men. In all such a
round about them. The result was that in their worship            person was called to a holy life in complete dedication to
they were left very much alone. By far the majority in            the service of God. In the days of  Manoah  and his wife.
Israel had long since joined the heathen in their wicked          such Nazarites were all too rare. Under the expanded  in-
festivities, leaving the few remaining Jehovah worshippers        fluence of sin few cared to live in holy dedication. But
done. For  Manoah  and his wife this was even more so             they were different. They were still children of faith, and
because they had not been blessed with children with whom         she could still rejoice in the thought of a child dedicated
to share their faith  and worship.  Manoah's  wife, in spite      unto God from his very birth.
of her personal~faitli,  stood in her barrenness as a symbol        But her deepest reason for joy was to be found in the
of the spiritual state of  ISrael in that clay. But  Manoah       promise that this child would "begin to deliver Israel out of
and his wife bore their loneliness and their reproa& pa-          the hand of the Philistines." The Philistines were the most


                                         ~THE  STAN.PARD   B%AJlER                                                         275
                                                             :
terrible enemy that Israel had ever known. Not only did           the  wo&n  al&ady, "Of all that I said unto the woman
they go through the land oppressing the people and bring-         let her beware. She may not eat anything that cometh of
ing misery upon them, they encouraged  and instructed the         the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor
people in the practices of idolatry  and sin. They were           eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her
undermining and destroying the moral life of the nation.          observe."
Even stronger than her personal craving for a child was             His enthusiasm and confidence growing, Manoah  thought
her desire that this enemy should be driven from the  lad         to become more intimate  and said, "I pray thee, let us
which she loved. And now both desires were to be fulfilled        detain thee, until we shall have made ready a kid for thee."
together.                                                           Patiently the angel explained, "Though thou detain me,
  No sooner had the angel departed than she turned  &cl           I will not eat of thy bread: ad if thou wilt offer a burnt
hurried to her husband that she might share with him the          offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD."
revelation she had witnessed. "A man of God came tinto              Still Manoah  would not be discouraged. Pushing to learn
me," she excitedly confided, `And his countenance was like        more he asked, "What is thy name, that when thy sayings
the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible: but I          come to pass we may do thee honour?"
asked him not whence he was, neither told he me his name:
but he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear          Laconically the angel replied, "Wherefore askest  thou
a son; ancl. now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat      after my name, seeing it is wondelful?" Here was the crux
any unclean thing: for the child shall be a Nazarite to G&3       of  -the whole matter. It anticipated the prophecy of Isaiah,
from the womb to the day of his death."                           "And his name shall be called Wonderful." This was Jesus
                                                                  Christ in His Old Testament form as the angel of Jehovah
  Manoah  listened to his wife's account with surprise and        preparing the way for the salvation of His church. He was
with mixed feelings. He knew the honesty of his wife and          truly Wonderful, - the miracle  of all time, the very Son
the reliability of all that she said. He indeed wished with       of God sent to redeem His people from the curse of sin.
all of his heart that the promises reported might truly come      Nevertheless, even in all of His greatness, He did not assume
to pass. But still there remained so many questions un-           unto Himself the glory. He directed that worship and
answered, so  many  things which he would have asked the          sacrifice should be directed to Jehovah, the Triune God.
angel had he been there. Actually Manoah  found it hard
to rise to the level of believing confidence which his wife         At last Manoah  seemed to sense some of the awful great-
manifested. He really wanted very badly to witness himself        ness that was being revealed to him. Ceasing to ask his.
the vision his wife had seen. Thus he cried out in prayer         pryfng  questions, he obediently went and prepared a kid
to God, "0 my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst           for sacrifice. There upon  the rock in the presence of the
send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do            angel he offered. it unto Jehovah. Then, while Manoah  and
unto the child that is born."                                     his wife looked on, the angel did  wonderously,  and shining
                                                                  with heavenly glory ascended in the flame of the altar unto
  This `prayer of Manoah  was not altogether commendable.         heaven.
It reflected as much  icll!e  curiosity as serious concern; it      Struck with awe,  Manoah  and his wife fell with their
reflected in its desire to question the angel of God less         faces to the ground and  worshipped.  Now truly  Manoah
understanding than the simple unquestioning faith of his          began to realize the terrible presumptjon  of his many pry-
wife. Nevertheless, Manoah  was a true child of faith, and        ing questions. Turning to his wife in despair he cried, "We
it was important that he should be assured of the way of          shall surely die, because we have seen God."
the Lord for his family. Thus God listened to his prayer.           It was the quiet strength of faith which answered him,
  This second appearance began in the same manner as the          "If the LORD were pleased to kill us, he would not have
first. He came to Manoah's  wife while she was alone in the       received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands,
field. But she realized that this was an answer to her hus-       neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would
band's prayer. Without questioning the angel herself, she         ai at this time have told us such things as these."
ran to tell her husband, "Behold, the man hat11 appeared
unto me, that came unto me the other day."                          "And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson:
                                                                  and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him."
  Manoah  came quickly, full of questions which he had                                                                   B.W.
been mulling over in his mind. Immediately he began,
"Art thou the man that spakest unto the woman?"                                       Announcement
  The answer of the angel was short and curt, "I am."               Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
                                                                  meet Wednesday, April 1, 1964 at 9 A.M. in the Hudson-
  Undaunted  Manoah  continued, "How shall we order the           ville Protestant Reformed Church. Consistories will please
child, and how shall we do unto him?"                             take note in the appointment of their delegates.
  Brieey  the angel only repeated what he had told unto                                        Rev. M. Schipper,  Stated Clerk.


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                                                                   ism, denying the Deity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity,
11  F R O M   H O L Y   WRIT-II vicarious atonement, efficacious grace, we see these same
,IL.                                                         AI    antichrists. For who is antichrist, but he, who denies that
                                                                   Jesus is the Son of God, who came into this world?
       Exposition of the Prophecy of Malachi                         Upon such Paul thunders his anathema!
                      Malachi 1:6-2:17  ~'                           Be such, then, ministers of influence and might in the
The Ultimatum of the LORD - continued                              present World Council of Churches, or be they deniers of
                                                                   these same Gospel truths in some lone, outlying, country
  Yes, the LORD will make a finished and completed work            church, they are under the ban of the great Apostle's
upon the earth as pertains to His temple in the earthly            anathema. Yes, though they should be an angel from
land of Immanuel. In this strain the prophet Isaiah had            heaven!
already written some three centuries earlier than Malachi.
We refer to the passage quoted in Romans 9:27.  Here Paul            And they are under the ban and curse of the "burden"
says that "Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number          of the LORD by the hand of Malachi! Do we not read
of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the     the following shocking and terrifying words in verse lo-b,
remnant that shall be saved: for ,the'LORD will execute            "I have no pleasure in you, saith  the. LORD of hosts,
his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting' it short."      neither will I accept an offering at your hand?" This is
Here in the verses 7-14 we see this same awesome perspec-          indeed an ultimatum! It is in essence what will  .be told
tive and prediction of final judgment upon the apostate            by Christ as stated in Matthew  7:23, "And then will I
house of Israel which are out of Israel, yet are not the           profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me ye
Israel of God!                                                     that work iniquity." Such will be told the false prophets
  The question has been answered differently as to exactly         and all who love the lie. To be true, they will plead that
who the LORD has in mind here. Does he refer here to               they are good men. They make this world a better place
the people in Israel, the fathers and mothers, the sons and        to live in; they are very religious; they build schools and
the daughters? Or is this a word directed toward the leaders,      seminaries; they give scholarships for education and help
the priests? We believe that this is written primarily for         students for the ministry; large sums of money are expended
the priests and directed to them. In so doing, all who give        for hospitals and insane asylums and  even prisons. And in
heed to these priests and to abhor the  sacrificesj  are in-       all of this humanism and false humanitarianism they are
cluded. In a word: this is directed to the reprobated Israel       branded by the apostle John as being the `inany antichrists"
as represented in these apostate and anti-Christian priests.       who are already in the world, who went out from us be-
For these priests are the Old Testament  a&i-Christs.  They        cause they were not of us. I John 2:X3, 19. Wherefore the
are against Christ as He was depicted, portrayed and re-           Masonic  Lodge,~ the teachings of Mohammed, Christian
vealed in the sacrifices and ceremonies of the Law.                Science, the Unitarianism of the Latter Day Saints, Je-
  It may not be superfluous to point out that the charac-          hovah Witnesses, etc., etc., are all antichristian. And of all
teristics here given of these priests and this people are          these the LORD says: I have no pleasure in you!
those of the apostate church at any time during the Old              The negative,  `I have no pleasure in you" positively
Testament, - as well as during the New Testament dis-              means: I have an abhorrence of you! When the Lord has
pensation. Whenever the Gospel is not preached, or an-             no pleasure in a religion and in religionists, it is because
other gospel is preached, which is not another (Gal. l:l-6),       they are an idolatrous abomination!
the thunder of God's anathema comes upon such desecraters            Strictly speaking, the LORD has all of His good-pleasure
of the Gospel of Christ, while they stand in the pulpit            in the Son of His love. This Son He called out of Egypt,
promulgating their antichristian teachings. During the time        and He is present in the elect remnant of Judah, as to the
of the early history of Israel it meant that the true prophets     flesh, and He will be born in the fulness of time. God has
were killed, and the worship of the Baalim and Astoreth            no pleasure in this apostate and denatured priesthood of
was instituted as in the days of Jezebel, who caused Elijah        Levi. He would rather see the temple closed!
to cry out: all the prophets have been slain, and I alone            It is interesting to note that in verse 10 the King James,
am left. (Rom. 11:2-4) Later, after the Babylonian captiv-         Version reads, "Who is there among you that would shut
ity, there was no return to worshipping of idols; yet the          my doors for nought? Neither do ye kindle fire on mine
idol of Greek philosophy as seen in the  Sadducees  of Jesus' altar for nought." However, there is also a translation which
day, who knew neither the Scriptures nor the power of              reads as follows: "Oh, that there were some one among
God, and the legalism of the Pharisees, who had no need            you that would lock up the doors (of the sanctuary), that
for the propitiatory work of the sacrifice, became the denial      ye might not light up mine altar for nought." According to
of the temple sacrifices; and they are the antichrists of          the former translation (KJV), Malachi accused the priests
Jesus' day. Today with all forms of  Pelagianism,  Armin-          of being mercenaries who are not satisfied with their temple
ianism, and the Modernism of our day which parades under           stipend of the tithes. They work for gain, are mere hire-
the high-sounding titles of Neo-Calvinism, neo-Evangelical-        lings. According to the latter, the Lord laments that it


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            277

 would be far better to close the temple altogether and' re-     dedication of the temple, and that which was uttered by
move it far from before His face. And, in the light of the       Jeremiah the prophet, announces, to this denatured house
 sequence, there is much in favor of this translation. For       of Levi, these apostates in the temple, `Your house is left
the next sentence is, "Neither will I accept (in favor) an       desolate to you!" Compare I Kings 9:6-9; Jer. 22~5;  25:9b.
offering from thy hand." Compare Isaiah 1:ll.                    This house will be an astonishment, a hissing and perpetual
                                                                 desolation. It will never be rebuilt, but it will be a testi-
   Oh, the good-pleasure of the LORD shall indeed prosper.       mony of the judgment of the Lord.  Instead of the temple
Truly, it does not come to its intended end here in these        and its mercy-seat will be the curse of the law and the wall
priests. It will come to pass in the Man of  Sorrows,  as        of wailing - forever!! Matthew 23:38.
 depicted in Isaiah 53. Levi, at his best, can perfect noth-
ing. At his best, Levi is but a servant in the shadow and          Such are the perspectives which are shown us in their
type of better things to come. The first temple was fash-        broad outline here in this first chapter of Malachi!
ioned after the pattern of things which the LORD showed            These priests treat the LORD and his temple sacrifices
Moses on the mount of God in Horeb. Of this the writer           with contempt. No earthly monarch and governor would
of the Hebrews says, `See, saith he, that thou make all          accept such disrespectful gifts from the hands bf their sub-
things  acco+ing to the pattern shown thee in the mount."        jects! "Present it to thy governor, will he be pleased with
Hebrews  8:5; Exodus  35:40;  Numbers  8:4. But Malachi          thee: will he accept thy person, saith the LORD of hosts?"
is not addressing `Levi at his best; he is speaking to Levi
as they have made the house of God a house of merchan-             The time has come for the pleasure of the LORD to
dise, a den of thieves. And this Levi does not simply not        prosper. The time has come that in Abraham and His
perfect anything; he. corrupts all the pattern of things         Seed all nations shall be blessed. A better temple is in the
which point to Christ, and upon him comes the judgment           offing. Here there will be a better and more excellent priest-
of the LORD of hosts.                                            hood after the order of Melchizedec. Yes, here there will be
                                                                 a better Covenant based upon better promises. It will be
   Here we are placed in the climate of the tenfold "woes"       the covenant which the LORD will write- in the heart of
which the Lord Jesus utters upon Jerusalem, which "killeth       all his elect saints, the true Israel of God: Jacob have I
the prophets". It `would lead us too far  a.ileld  to go into    loved! It will be better sacrifices, the blood of him which
all the details of these expressed `woes" recorded in            speaketh better things than Abel.
Matthew 23. SufEce it to say that these were uttered by            The LORD is jealous of His Name!
the Lord on the last Tuesday, the last day of his public
ministry in Jerusalem. It was the day in which he shut             The LORD's Name must not forever be blasphemed be-
the mouth, the contradiction, of sinners, such as the Hero-      cause of Israel among the nations!
dians, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees  and all the chief         What a glorious panoramic view. is here disclosed by the
priests. And he links them with all  who, had killed the         LORD of hosts. From here on the scene will unroll before
prophets from the days of the righteous Abel to the horrible     the eyes not only of the prophets, but angels shall stoop
murder of Zachariah the son of Jehoiada the high-priest!         down in wondrous amazement and intense worshipful inter-
They are the spiritual sons of these prophets. Matthew           est at the sight. It shall be the unfolding of the manifold
23:31. They are thus veritable vipers, serpents that cannot      wisdom of God, that the Gentiles shall be fellow-heirs and
escape the judgment of God. They are the unthankful in-          fellow-partakers with the saints of the Old Testament.
grates as in the days of the righteous Abel to Zachariah,        I Peter  1:12; Eph. 3: l-11. Ah, it  will be the unfolding of
son of Barachiah, who was slain in the very temple of God        the eternal purpose of God in Jesus Christ. The middle-wall
between the holy place and the altar, where he stood to          of the partition shall be broken down. It will be the one
reprove those who had turned from the service of God to          new man in Christ.
that of horrible idolatry! II Chron. 24:20,  21                                        (to be continued)
  This is the Jerusalem which never would gather the true
children of Jerusalem under the shadow of the Almighty
in the most holy place of the mercy-seat. How often had
they not been sent to do this very thing in the temple -
only so to distort the temple worship that the true people
of God could not lay hold on the promises of life as shown                          Teachers Needed
in the temple sacrifices in their spotless purity and blame-       The Hope School is in need of 2 teachers for 2nd and
lessness!                                                        5th grades. Please send all inquiries to:
  And to these Malachi announces that the temple doors                                       Mr. Don Lotterman, Board Sec'y
will be closed. And Jesus, picking up the announcement                                        1926 Porter SW
of the LORD already to Solomon at the occasion of the                                         Wyoming, Michigan, 49509

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

                                                                     desire.. ., He knows God as the sovereign Lord of heaven
            -I  N  l-l I  S F  .E  A,  It-`-`  11 and earth. And he wants God to be exactly as He is. He
                                                                     prays that God's name may be hallowed, that His kingdom
                                                                     may come and that His will may be done on earth as it is
   Faith and  Iigpe Permeated with Love (33                          in heaven. How utterly impossible that he would seek to
       (Note: A rather serious error crept into the first article    overthrow Jehovah and supplant Him! He would be restored
  .of this series,  Sta.ndard Bearer, Feb. 15, p. 231. The           to the image of `God so that he could again shine with
   seventh and eighth lines of the second column should              God's virtues, be His spiritual diamond to reflect the glory
  follow the second line of the first column. The correct            of God.
  reading of these two sentences then is: "For faith and               That is the faith and hope of the man who has the love
  hope without the love of God lead man to oppose the                of God in his heart. He believes in love that all this may
   almighty, sovereign, unchangeable God, Who is a con-              be his. By faith he takes hold of God's promises in love.
   suming fire! But faith and hope permeated with the love           And then he hopes for it as well. For note that after John
   of God, the fear of the Lord so gloriously celebrated             had stated that although it doth not yet appear what we
   in the Word of God, leads to everlasting joy and                  shall be, we shall be like Him, he adds in the next verse,
   blessedness!")                                                    `And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth  him-
   The expectation of the wicked is that he will be like             self, even as He is pure." Such surely is his hope. But you
God. For he expects some day to get completely from                  can see, can you not, that no man will have that faith and
underneath God's curse. The sin he committed in para-                that hope without the love of God. No man who does not
dise he compounds now by further rebellion against God               love God would hope to be like that which he hates. For
and to know for himself what is good and evil.                       it is either love or hate. And our faith and hope will either
   But the hope of the righteous also is to be like God.             be permeated with hatred towards God or love towards
There are many texts in Holy Writ that express this literally.       Him. God is there every step of our way. We cannot avoid
In Psalm 17 the contrast is made between the aspirations             Him. And either we love Him there before us, or we hate
and apparent success of the wicked and the hope of the               Him. Either in love we run to Him with our faith and
righteous. The psalmist declares in verses 14 and 15, ". . .         hope; or in haired we run away from Him. And because
they (the wicked) are full of children, and leave the rest           the righteous love God, they by faith take hold of His
of their substance unto their babes. As for me, I will behold        promises and hope for their realization.
thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake           Thus it is that the hope of the righteous is Christ and
with thy likeness." And John writes in I John 3:2, "Beloved,         His kingdom. Whereas the wicked expect the antichrist
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear               and strive to produce him as soon as possible, in order to
what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear,             get from under the curse; the righteous hope for Christ to
we shall be like him, for'we shall see him as he is."                come and realize deliverance from the curse in the right-
  But, oh! what a difference between the expectation of              eous way of His -cross and return with bodies delivered
the wicked to be like God and the hope of the righteous              from the motions of sin. The righteous hope to be delivered
to be like Him. The wicked  strive and expect  .to take              from the curse in a righteous way. If this were not the case,
God's place. There. certainly is a reason why God declares           he would not be righteous. Indeed, no man is righteous
in the first of the ten commandments, "Thou shalt have no            in himself. And even to the righteous much sin still cleaves.
other god besides me." The very negative form indicates              But the righteous is fully justified by the blood of Christ.
that this is exactly what the natural man is doing all the           All his sins are blotted out. And he has received the Spirit
time. Thus. it is throughout the law. God points out sins            of Christ to make him holy in principle. Although right-
in which man is by nature walking. And the root sin of               eousness and holiness are distinct from each other, they
it all is that we do not have Jehovah for our God, but have          are always found together. The man who is righteous is
gods besides and in place of Him. Essentially man is that            also holy. The man who is holy is always righteous. For
god himself. He is a god unto himself. His wishes must               in those who sins are blotted out so that they become right-
be done. The god of gold and silver must be a god who                eous (guiltless) the Spirit is always sent to make them holy.
will serve the flesh of man. And he strives all the time to          And the righteous man then is the man who loves God
get equal with God so that he can get rid of Him. He hates           and has received that love of God upon the basis of the
God and would be like Him only in the sense of  hating               righteousness of Christ which is imputed to him.
-His power, authority, and glory.                                      This- love of God then characterizes all his faith and
  The hope of the righteous is to be spiritually like God.           hope. And that makes all the difference in the world. As
He would be holy as God is holy, righteous as He is right-           rational-moral creatures all men have faith and hope. All
eous. He has by faith seen His Christ, and he would be like          put their trust in something or someone. All expect, and
Christ. Never would He think the robbery of being equal              as the world says it, "Hope springs eternal in the human
to God, for the life of Christ in Him has no such wicked             breast." But it does make a great deal of difference whether


                                          T H E   STANtiAiiD  B E A R E R                                                     279

the love of God flows into these and characterizes  them'%        His love, _ And faith and hope permeated with love-mean
whether hatred against God produces them.               1.,       peace and joy and gladness that increases everlastingly.
  The man whose faith and hope is permeated with the                And what is it then in your life?
love of God shall be like God. In principle he is already
like unto Him. And in the new creation he shall see his             We can make all kinds of distinctions and divide the
desires completely fulfilled. Now in this life already he         peoples of the world into all kinds of classifications. We
has the gladness of which Solomon speaks when he says,            can speak of nations, tongues and of tribes. We can speak
"The hope of the righteous is gladness; but the expectation       of bond and free, male and female, children and adults.
of the wicked shall perish." His fleshly eye sees the ungodly     We speak of democratic nations and communistic nations.
prosper. Every passing day it may seem as though the              Mention is made of the haves and have-nots. The Jews
wicked will attain to their goal and that we shall be put         liked to speak of Abraham's seed and the heathen. Whoever
to shame. The Church of God will become smaller and               was not of Abraham's children was simply heathen.
smaller. She will lose her possessions while the wicked in-         But from a spiritual point of view there are  ody  two
crease in possessions and- wealth. The Kingdom of God             kinds of people in this world. Either we are wicked or we
will begin to look more and more like a foolish dream. And        are righteous. It is just as simple as all that. There is no
yet because he has faith and hope permeated with the love         class in between. One of two is true, all our sins are blotted
of God, he sees Christ on the throne and enjoys citizenship       out by the blood of Christ, or we are yet in ALL of our
in His kingdom already in this life. He has spiritual glad-       sins.
ness. He sees by -faith that man has not dethroned God and
cannot dethrone Him. He sees that although the wicked               And so also there are in this world only those who expect
may seem to conquer this disease, God, brings another one         the antichrist and those who hope for Christ. Scripture
to plague him. He sees that the wages of sin, namely,             knows of only two kingdoms from a spiritual point of view.
death, are there every day for the wicked as well as for          We are citizens in the kingdom of darkness or in the king-
the righteous. And he sees and reads God's signs of the           dom of light. We are under the dominion of Satan or we
times. Loving God he rejoices in the tokens of  God's             are ruled by the Spirit of Christ. We seek the things above,
faithfulness which he sees round about him. He does not           where Christ is seated at Gods right hand; or we seek the
rejoice and is not glad to hear of thousands upon thousands       things made by man under the instigation and influence
killed in war and earthquake. But he rejoices to see the          of Satan.
faithfulness of God as he is made aware of wars and rumors          What is it then in your life? Tell me whether your hope
of wars. For today nation rises up against nation and king-       is Christ and His kingdom or the antichrist and the lust of
dom against kingdom, and earthquakes are reported in              the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life fostered
diverse places. It does not give him personal joy to see the      and promised there; and I will tell you whether you are in
apostasy that is sweeping the world; and yet he does see          for gladness that grows in richness, or hopeless despair and
this also as a fulfillment of God's promise and rejoices to       loss of all you have. Do you love God? You shall be like
see His faithfulness.                                             Him and know His love for you. He will make you glad
  And when he lies upon his death bed, he knows that he           and increase the gladness as the everlasting moments of
is very near the object of his hope. When men no longer           His kingdom pass by. You will walk in His fear also in
expect him to live, and he himself is also aware of the fact,     that new Jerusalem. For it will be a fear rooted in love,
he expects to enter into life far above what he has experi-       an awe and reverence that can only grow as we see anew
enced in the flesh. His hope is not dimmed. His eye of            the depth and wonder of that love. Yet not your heart be
faith is not closed. But because he has these in the love         troubled by the world's seeming success. In His fear is
of God, he groans within himself, waiting for the adoption,       hope and gladness. And there alone will you find peace.
to wit the redemption of his body.                                                                                       J.A.H.
  Not all fear of the Lord is to be commended. There is a
fear that is without His love. That fear is terror and fright!
That fear calls for the mountains to fall upon and the hills
to cover the subject of that fear. Such fear dreads the day                    The wicked in their base designs
of His coming. That fear can still be experienced in the                         Grow arrogant and bold;
lake of fire and makes one no  different  from the devil                       Conspiring secretly they think
himself. But the fear of the Lord that is rooted in love                         That God will not behold;
and characterized by that love is awe and reverence and
looks for the day of His coming. And walking in His fear                       They search out more iniquity,
means that we love Him, love His commandments, love                              Their thoughts and plans are deep,
His Son and His Church and can find gladness only in Him                       But God will smite, for He is near
and in the things of His kingdom. In His fear means in                           His saints to guard and keep.


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                                                                       we may justly infer the exhibition of the substance; for,
                                                                        :
     11 Conteriding For The Faith  ,] unless any one would call God a deceiver, he can never
                                                                       presume to  af8rm that he sets before us an empty sign.
                                                                       Therefore, if, by the breaking of the bread, the Lord truly
                                                                       represents the participation of his body, it ought not to be
             The Church and the Sacraments                             doubted that he truly presents and communicates it. And
              ,THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                             it must always be a rule with believers, whenever they see
                                                                       the signs instituted by the Lord, to assure and persuade
      VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORDS SUPPER)                           themselves that they are also accompanied with the truth
                      THE REFORMED VIEW                                of the thing signified. For to what end would the Lord
                                                                       deliver into our hands the symbol of his body, except to
       We will now discuss the Reformed view of the sacrament          assure us of a real participation of it? If it be true that
     of the Lord's Supper. And, of course, it speaks for itself        the visible sign is given to us to seal the donation of the
     that, inquiring into the Reformed conception of this sacra-       invisible substance, we ought to entertain a confident assur-
     ment, we ask ourselves the question: what did John Calvin,        ance, that in receiving the symbol of his body, we at the
     the reformer of Geneva, say about this subject? And then          same time truly receive the body itself."
     we would remark, in the first place, that sometimes this
     most famous of all reformers seemed to teach that the               In connection with this quotation from Calvin, we
     broken body and shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ must          would call attention to the following. It must be conceded
     be identified with the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper,       that, also in this quotation, the reformer certainly difl!ers
     that there is an influence of Christ's glorified body upon        from the view of Luther. He writes, for example, that there
     the believers. In support of this, we wish to quote from his      is an immense local distance between Christ's body and us.
     Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Chapter XVII,      Lutheranism, we know, teaches that the body of Christ is
     Paragraph X: "We conclude, that our souls are fed by the          omnipresent. He also writes that it is really the Holy
     flesh and blood of Christ, just as our corporeal life is pre-     Spirit Who unites things which are separated by local
     served and sustained by bread and wine. For otherwise             distance, and he therefore declares  that-.our  communion
     there would be  no- suitableness in the analogy of the sign,      with the body of our Lord occurs really through the Holy
     if our souls did not find their food in Christ; which cannot      Spirit. Moreover, Calvin speaks of the elements of the
     be the case unless Christ truly becomes one with us, and          Lord's Supper as signs and seals, declares that we deal with
     refreshes us by the eating of his flesh and the drinking of       a figurative expression, that the name of the thing is given
     his blood. Though it appears incredible for the flesh of          to the sign, and he grants that the breaking of the bread
     Christ, from such an immense local distance, to reach us,         is symbolical, and not the substance itself. Luther, we
     so as to become our food, we should remember how much             know, did not want to speak of the elements of the Lord's
     the secret power of the Holy Spirit transcends all our senses,    Supper as signs, denied the symbolical character of the
     and what folly it is to apply any measure of ours to his          Lord's Supper. However, Calvin also asserts in this para-
     immensity. Let our faith receive, therefore, what our un-         graph that it is folly on our part to apply any measure of
     derstanding is not able to comprehend, that the Spirit really     our senses to Christ's immensity, that the secret power of
     unites things which are separated by local distance. Now,         the Holy Spirit transcends all our senses. He also asserts
     that holy participation of his flesh and blood, by which          that the Holy Spirit really unites things which are separated
     Christ communicates his life to us, just as if he actually        by local distance, and that Christ communicates his life to
     penetrated every part of our frame, in the sacred supper          us, just as if he actually penetrated every part of our frame,
     he also testifies and seals; and that not by the exhibition of    and that He does this, not by the exhibition of a vain or
     a vain or ineffectual sign, but by the exertion of the energy     ineffectual sign, but by the exertion of the energy of His
     of his Spirit, by which he accomplishes that which he prom-       Spirit. Christ, so Calvin continues, exhibits and offers to all
     ises. And the thing signified he exhibits and offers to all       who come to that spiritual banquet the thing signified, and
     who come to that spiritual banquet; though it is advan-           therefore, if, by the breaking of the bread, the Lord truly
     tageously enjoyed by believers alone, who receive such            represents the participation of his body, it ought not to
     great goodness with true faith and gratitude of mind. For         be doubted that he truly presents and communicates it.
     which reason the apostle said, `The cup of blessing which         Moreover, Calvin concludes with the remark that in receiv-
     we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?         ing the symbol of his body, we at the same time truly re-
     The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the          ceive the body itself. However, we would also remark that
     body of Christ? Nor is there any cause to object, that it is a    the reformer of Geneva also declares in this quotation that
     figurative expression, by which the name of the thing signi-      only the believers partake, spiritually, of this spiritual
     fied is given to the sign. I grant, indeed, that the breaking.    banquet.
     of the bread is symbolical, and not the substance itself:           That Calvin, however, did not subscribe to the Roman
     yet, this being admitted, from the exhibition of the symbol       Catholic or Lutheran conceptions of the Lord's Supper is


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   .B,EARER                                                281

surely clear from the following .quotation, Book IV, Chapter      in a very -real sense of the word. Calvin teaches em-
XVII, Paragraph XII: "I now proceed to the hyperbolical           phatically that, receiving the symbol of Christ's body, we
.additions which superstition has made to this. sacrament.        at the same time truly receive the body itself. However,
For here Satan has exerted amazing subtlety to withdraw           the reformer emphasizes that this communion with the
the minds of men from heaven, and involve them in a               body and blood of our Lord is exclusively spiritual. He
preposterous error, by persuading them that Christ is at-         speaks of the preposterous  .error of the Romanists, that we
tached to the elements of bread. In the first place, we           must be careful not to dream of such a presence of Christ
must be careful not to dream of such a presence of Christ         in the sacrament as the ingenuity of the Romanists has
in the sacrament as the ingenuity of the Romanists has            invented. He declares that he- has not the least doubt but
invented; as if the body of Christ were exhibited, by a           that the body of Christ  is- finite, that. it is contained in
local presence;to be felt by the hand, bruised by the teeth,      heaven, and that it is contained in heaven until it  shall
and swallowed by the throat. For this was the form of             return to judgment. And he considers it utterly unlawful
recantation which Pope  Nicolas  directed to Berengarius          to bring this body of Christ back under these corruptible
as a declaration of his repentance; the language of which is      elements, or to imagine it to be present everywhere.  HOW-
so monstrous, that the scholiast exclaims, that there is dan-     ever, so Calvin continues, we need not seek recourse to
ger, unless the readers be very prudent and cautious, of          these Romish or Lutheran views of the Lord's Supper in
their imbibing from it a worse heresy than that of Beren-         order to enjoy the participation of it, since the Lord by His
garius; and Peter Lombard, though-he takes great pains to         Spirit gives us the privilege of being united with Hims~If
defend it from the charge of absurdity, yet rather inclines       in body, soul and spirit. The bond of this union, according
to a different opinion. For, as we have not the least doubt       to Calvin, is not the external bread and wine, but the Spirit
that Christ's body is finite, according to the invariable con-    of Christ. He is the Channel by Whom we are conjoined
dition of a human body, and is contained in heaven, where         and through Whom Christ Himself is conveyed to us. So,
it was once received, till it shall return to judgment, so we     according to Calvin, Christ is actually bestowed upon the
esteem it utterly unlawful to bring it back under these           believers through the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper,
corruptible elements, or to imagine it to be present every-       but this occurs spiritually, through the Holy Spirit as the
where. Nor is there any need of this, in order to our en-         Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.
joying the participation of it; since the Lord by His Spirit
gives us the privilege of being united with himself in body,        This, we understand, is a radical departure from the
soul, and spirit. The bond of this union, therefore, is the       Romish and Lutheran views of the Eucharist. Indeed, we
Spirit of Christ, by whom we are conjoined, and who is,           could quote much more from the Institutes of the Reformer
as it were, the channel by which all that Christ himself          of Geneva, in which he sets forth the awful heresy of the
is and has is conveyed to us. For, if we behold the sun           Popish mass, but this ought to be sufficient. Calvin declares
darting his rays and transmitting his substance, as it were,      unequivocally that the human nature of Christ is not omni-
in them, to generate, nourish, and mature the roots of the        present, that it is in heaven and will remain there until He
earth, why should the irradiation of the Spirit of Christ         returns upon the clouds of heaven. He surely declares that
be less effectual to convey to us the communication of his        it is wholly wrong to cause that body of Christ to return
body and blood? Wherefore, the Scripture, when it speaks          under the corruptible elements of the Lord's Supper, and
of our participation of Christ, attributes all the power of       that the sole bond of union between Christ and us is none
it to the Spirit. One passage shall suffice instead of many.      other than the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit we
In the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, Paul          actually partake of the body and blood of our Lord, but
represents Christ as dwelling in us no otherwise than by          this occurs only in a spiritual sense of the word. And this
His Spirit. By the representation, the apostle does not de-       is surely the language of all the Reformed Confessions as
stroy that communion of the body and blood of Christ of           we also shall see, the Lord willing, in subsequent articles.
which we are now treating, but teaches that it is solely          According to Calvin, we cannot eat and drink the body.
owing to the agency of the Spirit that we possess Christ          and blood of Christ with the mouth, but only by faith. Our
with all his benefits and have him dwelling within us."           Lord Jesus Christ cannot be included in the earthly ele-
                                                                  ments. We must seek His communion only by faith, and
  In this quotation Calvin clearly repudiates the Romish          it occurs only through the Holy Spirit.
and Lutheran views of the Lord's Supper, It is true that                                                                  H.V.
the reformer teaches an actual partaking of the body and
blood of our-lord Jesus Christ when we partake of this
sacrament. How true it may be that the breaking of the
bread is symbolical, he surely maintains that, in the Lord's              Down unto death Thou leadest Me,
Supper, the believer does not merely partake of bread and                  Consumed by thirst and agony;
wine. The Lord's Supper is not merely a remembrance feast.                 With cruel hate and anger fierce
The. believer partakes of the `body -and blood of the Lord                 My helpless hands and  feet-  they' pierce.


282        i.      _      _                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                       .

                                                                     forerunner, John the Baptist, and also the birth of the
          Tee' `Voice; of Our Fathers                             1 S&or Himself was announced by the angel of Gabriel.
                                                                     When the Savior is born in Bethlehem, the angels of God
                                                                     joyously  .publish  it to the shepherds in the fields of Bethle-
 .,       T,.      .`
                         ..T'he Belgic Confession                    hem. The first resurrection gospel is preached by angels.
         .,  .:                  ARTICLE   XII                       And when the Lord of glory ascends to heaven, it is angels
                                  (continued)                        who proclaim to the disciples that He shall come again, in
                                                                     like manner as they have seen Him depart. And thus de
The Nature and `Work of the Angels                                    angels shall also have a part in the final coming of our
       Concerning the subject of de nature and work of the            Lord Jesus Christ and in the last judgment. And when the
angels our Confession does not go into -detail. It tells US          new order of things shall be inaugurated in the day of
briefly: 1) That the angels were created good. 2) That                our Lord Jesus Christ, the angels shall  share in the glory
they were created to be God's messengers. And, 3) that                and salvation of God's people. For all things, both in
they were created to sewe God's elect.                                heaven and on earth, shall be reconciled unto God and
       When we consult Scripture, we find that there is con-          united in Christ, the Firstborn of every creature. Col. 1:15-
siderable data concerning the nature and work of the angels.          20. Always, therefore, the angels are very interested in the
It is impossible for us in the scope of this discussion to            things pertaining to de salvation of God's people. And they
expound all that Scripture tells us; but we do wish at least          are not only inquisitively interested, but they have a part
to call attention to some of these things, and also to explain        in the accomplishment of the work of salvation, Cf. Genesis
some of them more fully.                                              18, 19; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3: 19; Ps. 68: 17; Ps. 34:7; Luke
       From Scripture we know, in general, that the angels, in        15: 10; Matthew 18:lO;  I Corinthians 11:lO;  Ephesians 3:lO;
distinction from man, are created heuuedy. Man is destined            Matthew  16:27;   24:3;  13:41,  49; I Peter  1:12, and many
to have his abode in heaven; the angels have their abode              other texts.
in heaven from the beginning. Man is created of the earth,              We know also from Scripture that there are different
earthy; the angels are from the  beginning with God in                kinds of angels, as well as angels mentioned by their indi-
heavenly glory. In the second place, the angels are spirits.          vidual names. There are cherubim and seraphim; there
This is according to Scripture, Psalm 104:4,  "Who maketh             are thrones and dominions and principalities and powers.
his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire." This passage       There is a Gabriel, that. standeth before God. There is a
is quoted also in Hebrews 1:7. And Hebrews 1: 14 again                Michael, the archangel, who contended with the devil, dis-
refers to the angels as `ininistering spirits, sent forth to          puting about the- body of Moses (Jude 9)) and who with
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." This              his angels made war against the dragon and his angels
does not mean, remember, that the angels are not finite               (Revelation  12:7).
creatures: they are. But it refers to the fact that the angels          Hence, it is very evident from Scripture, even though
are of a spiritual, not a material substance, just as the             we may not be able to understand very much in detail as
saints shall have "spiritual bodies" in the resurrection. In          to the place and work of these mysterious heavenly spirits,
the third place, the angels, according to Scripture, are              that they play a very large and a very real part in the
servants. Thus they always appear in Scripture. They are,             economy of salvation, probably a more real part than we
of course, servants, first of all, in relation to God Himself.        usually conceive them to have, and certainly a function of
This is implied already in the name angel. An angel is a              which we are not always aware.
messenger, one  ,who is sent. Scripture refers to them as                                     0  #  0  ib
such more than once. Thus, we read in Psalm 103:20,  21:
"Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that            When we consider the nature and position of the angels,
do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his                 we are quite naturally inclined at once to consider their
word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of            position in relation to m and to ask the question: what
his, that do his pleasure." But also in relation to God's             is the relative position of the angels in comparison with
people, the elect, the heirs of salvation, the angels are             man?
ministers, servants. This is literally stated in Hebrews 1:14,          Thus, a certain brother asked me the question not long
which we quoted above. And as such servants the angels                ago whether it could  also  be said that the angels were
very frequently appear in Scripture. One of the functions             created in the image of God. This is a rather intriguing
of the angels, both in the old and in the new dispensation            question, and one which had never occurred to me before.
is to make known unto God's people the will of God, the               Of man, of course, we read literally that God said, "Let us
gospel of  .their salvation. Very `often individual angels            make man in our image, after our likeness." Of the angels
appear to God's people, from the time of the patriarchs  on;          we do not read this in Scripture. And yet, while the angels
throughout the old dispensation, And also in  con.nection             are heavenly spirits, in distinction from man, we know that
with the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the f&ess             also the angels are rational, moral creatures. We know, too,
of time the angels make their appearance. The birth of the            that they are certainly created with knowledge of God,


                                          T H E   f3TANDAR.D  - B E A R E R                                                     283
                                                                                                                   _ _    _
righteousness, and holiness. And we even know from Scrip;           "Dat de mensch de meerdere is, behoeft geen breed
tore that they are called "sons of God." Hence, from this         betoog. De mensch is Gods hoqgste  schepsel, vooral wan-
point of view I suppose it could be said that the angels          neer men hem ziet in  zijn uitgebreidheid: heel de mensch-
also were created in the image of God. However, I would           heid Dat bij het begin der wereld twee menschen tegenever
add: 1/ That the Scriptures never literally say this concern-     een `menigte  des hemelschen heirlegers' staan, bewijst niets
ing the angels. 2/ That while it is true that also the heav-      tegen onze stelling; "t is in het aantal niet gelegen, al zijn
enly creatures are by Scripture included in the work of           er duizenden  bijeen.' Dat eene menschenpaar draagt in zich
salvation in Christ, so that also the angels belong to the        heel de menschheid; en haar `ziet" God in haar voltooiden
"all things" that are reconciled unto God and united in           bloei.  Daarin  is de menschheid meer dan het engelenleger.
Christ, nevertheless the Scriptures concentrate not on the        In den tijd, die voor de `evolutie' der menschheid is ges-
angels as the "sons of God," but upon the elect church and        teld, ontplooit deze  zich in al haar heerlijkheid. En binnen
its members. And concerning the latter they tell us that          den kring van het geschapene heeft zij rijkere uitdrukkings-
we shall  be. perfectly conformed to the image of Gods Son,       mogelijkheid, een breeder functioneerend leven. dan de
our Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, Christ took on Himself           engel. De  engel  heet  Ziturgische   geest (Hebr.  1:7,  14), tot
not the nature of angels, but the flesh and blood of children.    dienst uitgezonden ter wille van menschen die de zaligheid
And not the angels, but elect men are called in Scripture         zullen  beerven.  `Op zichzelf' zou dit voor ons  doe1 nog
the brethren of Christ, our elder Brother. Hence, I would         niets zeggen,  indien   met door den brief  aan de  Hebreen,
certainly emphasize that this is not at all the viewpoint of      in bet tweede hoofdstuk, de meerderheid van den mensch
Scripture, whenever it speaks of the angels.  3/ In the           boven den  engel   duidelijk  geleerd werd. Wij  doelen bier
third place, I would add that the angels, in rel,ation to men,    op een plaats, die schijnbaar het tegendeel bewijst:  2:7.
appear as  servants.  Not the angels, but the elect church        Daar wordt gezegd, dat God den mensch  `een weinig
and its members in Christ occupy the primary place in             minder dan de engelen gemaakt  :heeft.' Evenwel, deze  ver-
God's counsel of salvation. And the angels appear as serv-        gelijking wijst niet naar den oorspronkelijken  toestand
ants and adjuncts. What their precise position and work           in den staat der rechtheid, maar op hetgeen daarna gevolgd
will be in the new heavens and the new earth we may               is; de uitspraak is gedaan uit het standpunt van een gevallen
not be able to say; but we may undoubtedly assume that it         wereld. Psalm 8, waaruit  Hebreen 2 citeert, is uit het
will not be different essentially from their present status.      standpunt van een gevallen wereld geschreven. Dat bhjkt
                                                                  we1 uit het spreken (in verse 3) van een `vijand',  .een
  This brings us to a rather interesting and also an impor-       `wraakgierige'. Als nu in dezen psalm de mensch bijna een
tant question concerning the -relative position of the angels     goddelijk wezen' (Noordtzij ), bijna een wezen van `boven-
in comparison with man in connection with Hebrews 2:5-g,          aardsche' heerlijkheid genoemd wordt, dan is deze lofver-
as it quotes from Psalm 8. In the passage from Hebrews            heffing op den mensch, die in een gevallen wereld leeft,
we read: "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection       nog des te meer een bewijs voor de  hoogheid  van den
the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain         mensch in een niet-gevallen wereld. Dit  `minder-dan-de-
place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful       engelen-zijn' teekent volstrekt niet de oerverhouding van
of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou           den mensch tegenover den  engel. Want Prof. Grosheide
madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst         merkt in zijn Kommentaar (Bottenburg, Amsterdam) hier
him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works       op, dat het woord `mindermaken' eigenlijk is: vernederen.
of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under        De mensch is vernederd  onder de engelen; en dit ireronder-
his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he      stelt, dat iemand uit hooger staat naar  lageren  wordt
left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not        gebracht. Het is niet een lage plaats aanwijzen, maar
yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who-`was          vernederen, minder, lager  maken.' Bovendien kan de griek-
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of          sche term, die in onze Statenvertaling is weergegeven door
death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the              `een weinig', niet alleen dit beteekenen, maar ook:  voor
grace of God should taste death for every man."                   k&en  tijd. Wij behoeven, zegt Prof. Grosheide, `niet zoo
                                                                  te beslissen, dat we een van de twee (beteekenissen) be&t
  On the basis of this passage some teach that God created        uitsluiten. Nu  -zal hier  we1 allereerst  korten  tiid bedoeld
man higher than the angels, that through sin man has come         zijn, want de schrijver maakt een  tegenstelling,  tusschen
to occupy a position lower than the angels, and that in           wat de mensch eerst is, en hetgeen hij later ontvangt.' En
Christ the original relation is restored, so that once again      wat ontvangt hij later? Een heerlijkheid, waarbij  alle ding,
man is the highest of God's creatures. This is the explana-
tion offered, for example, by Ds. J. G. Feenstra in his eir;      niets uitgezonderd (vs.  8), den  menxh   onderworpen  zal
planation of Article XII in his book,  "Onze  Ge1oof&eli+         zijn. Ook de  engel dus. Die heerlijkheid geldt  we1 van
denis," pp. 135 and 136. In this view he follows Dr. K.           Christus  `in de eerste plaats' ( Grosheide), maar `door Gods
Schilder, whose view is set forth in "Wat Is De Hemel?"           genade straks ook van anderen' (idem).
on pp. 137-139, as follows:                                                           (Continued on page 285)


284          >-     __:.      _                  TgE:  S T A N D A R D ' B E A R E R

                                                                         spiritual practice.  .The importance of how one gives is
          THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP                                          emphasized in many places in Scripture. Consider Luke
                                                                         2i:3, 4 where Jesus says to His disciples: "Of a truth I say
       ,"O Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psalm  96:9a     unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they
                                                                         all; for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the
                                                                         offerings. of God; but she of her penury hath cast in all the
                            Offerings cmd Alms                           living that she had."
       There is one el.ement  in our worship yet that requires our         The apostle Paul instructs the church at Corinth: "Every
attention and concerning which we have a few things to say               man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him
b,efore  we proceed to discuss our liturgical forms. That ele-
 ._                                                                      give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a
ment is the offering and the giving of alms in the church.               cheerful giver." It is not the amount of the gift that deter-
       Although generally no distinction is made between alms-           mines its real value but it is the spirit of love and cheerful-
giving and the offertory, these two are not the same. In                 ness with which it is given. To contribute an assessed
the former we are participating in a spiritual act of worship            amount into the offering plate of the church each week
in which an important phase of our calling as Christians                 merely to meet an obligation is to make giving burdensome
is realized, while in the latter we are only  fuliXl.ing the             and to be deprived of the spiritual joy and blessedness of
obligations which rest upon us by virtue of our belonging                contributing to the support of the Kingdom.
to the household of faith. What is meant is that in the                    This is not to say that there is no obligation imposed
terms of  Schaff-Hertzog, "An alms is a gift to which the                upon the members of the church which must also be met
recipient has no claim and for which he renders no return,               when the offering plate is passed. Salaries, fuel bills, utili-
made purely from pity and a desire to relieve need." It is a             ties, building maintenance and other expenses must be paid
love-gift to assist the poor and needy while in the general              and to meet these expenses  aZZ the members of the church
offerings received in the church, the members meet their                 are jointly responsible. The point, however, is that in ful-
ilnancial obligations toward the needs of the church as such.            filling these obligations, we do so cheerfully, with joy and
In the one case one is fulfilling a legal as well as moral               gladness in our souls, and so emulate the Giver of every
obligation while the giving of alms is a voluntary act of love.          good and perfect gift, Who with all the love of' His heart
       This distinction, however, is not above criticism. The            gave us His only begotten Son. Giving is worship, and
implication is that members of the church are obligated to               therefore the spirit of giving must be the same as the spirit
contribute a certain amount toward the support of the                    of worship.
church, but are not under any obligation to assist the poor,               In this connection many things can be said concerning
This supposition certainly is not true, for Scripture is plain           the proper system of giving in the church. The subject of
in this regard. "The poor have ye always with you", Jesus                the so-called budgetary system in distinction from the vol-
tells us; and the background on which this was said makes                untary or free will system of giving has been discussed at
it plain that these poor are to be helped and befriended.                length in the past, and for the present we will refrain from
Consequently, whether an offering in the church is for the               entering into that aspect of the matter. Perhaps at a later
budget or some special cause or for charity, giving to these             time we can write separately on that matter.
various needs is not wholly without obligation.
       It is not at all difhcult  to misconstrue giving as an element      With one of the most beautiful facets of Christian giving
of our worship. Already in the early church the erroneous                we are now primarily concerned. That is the giving of
conception crept in that giving was an act of merit and                  alms. It is more than a grave danger that we drift away
satisfaction. The influence of this thinking is reflected in             from true alms-giving; for without doubt it is true that in
many of the early fathers' writings. Clement II, for example,            many congregations the offerings for  benevolences  is no
wrote : `Alms giving, therefore, is a good thing, even as                longer held in the high esteem which once characterized it.
repentance for sin. Fasting is better than prayer, but alms-             Many things have contributed to this, and it seems to me
giving than both. And love covereth a multitude of sins; but             that these same things have greatly contributed toward the
prayer out of a good conscience delivereth from death.                   decline of the office of deacon in the church. Neither is it
Blessed is every man that is found full of these. For alms-              difficult to find the connection here. The office of deacon
giving lifteth off the burden of sin."                                   was originally instituted for the purpose of providing men
                                                                         who would make it their business to look after the needs
       Another error is that which places undue emphasis on              of the poor. Consequently, when this work is taken away
the "what" of giving instead of the "how". Quotas, goals                 through other agencies, it is to be expected that the giving
and percentages must be attained at all costs, and there is              toward charity will also decline and there will be a depar-
no regard for the manner in which the solicited funds are                ture from the original pattern. Such is the case today.
obtained. This is contrary to the Scriptural idea of this                Remarks are frequently heard that, indicate that the contri-


                                       .c.    TH.E  S T A N D A R D   -BliA'kE'k                                                  2S5
                                                                                                                    .      ~.~

butions  toward the upkeep  and. work of the church are             regarded not merely as a plain evidence of righteousness
regarded as far more important than the giving of alms.             (on the -part of those who give) but also as an act of jus-
In many churches an otiering  for the poor is received not          tice, a just debt owing to the needy." All the texts referring
more than once a month; and we are told that in one church          to the giving of alms make mention of a lack of some or all
at least it is customary to receive an alms-offering Only at        of the necessities of life. And from the history of the
the time of the celebration of the Lord's Supper, which is          Christian Church it can be shown that the times of deepest
four times a year. When these practices are questioned,             spirituality among God's people coincided with the times
the answer is generally given that these offerings are no           of greatest concern for the physical welfare of the poor.
longer needed because there are no real poor in the congre-         God's plan of redemption never ignores the exigencies of
gation, and that if there were, they would receive assistance       daily life.
from the welfare state.                                               Surely, today, when poverty is rampant in many parts of
  Now even though it is true that the Church Order does             the world and the physical needs of many of God's children
not explicitly demand the receiving of a benevolent offer-          are so pressing, no church can say there is no need for alms.
ing each Lord's Day, and does not anywhere specify how              No church has the right to neglect almsgiving on the pre-
many of these offerings have to be received over a given            supposition that it has no poor. Jesus said, "The poor ye
period of time, the ordination form for deacons does in-            have always with you". Realizing that God's children are
struct us that the task of their office is "to collect and          all of one body, let us restore the offering for charity to its
preserve with the greatest fidelity and diligence, the alms         rightful place in our worship; and let us, out of the abun-
and goods which are given to the poor: yea, to do their             dance which the Lord has given us, not begrudge assistance
utmost endeavors, that many good means be procured for              to those that need it, but give liberally and cheerfully in the
the relief of the poor." And the congregation is enjoined to        awareness that the earth and the fulness with, which it is
"provide the deacons with good means to assist the indi-            stored, the world and its dwellers belong to the Lord.
gent." Furthermore, under the instruction of the fourth               Giving will then take on new meaning. It will constitute
commandment in the Heidelberg Catechism, we are pointed             a very vital part of our worship: for we will then no
to the proper observance of the sabbath in this answer:             longer consider the church service as consisting solely of
  "First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be        a preaching service. Neither will our giving become a
maintained; and that I, .especially  on the Sabbath, that is,       meaningless formality but it will be an experience of spirit-
the day of rest, diligently frequent the church of God, to          ual blessedness that will afford no small joy. And through
hear His word, to use the sacraments, publicly to call upon         diligently practicing this spiritual art we will be more and
the Lord, and contribute to the relief of the poor, as be-          more freed from such vices as covetousness, greed, .envy,
comes a. Christian." (italics mine)                                 and the like, which induce us to put more value upon the
                                                                    material things of this world than on the care of our needy
  From the above it is evident that the support of the con-         brethren. When the offering plate, therefore, is passed, let
gregational and even denominational programs does not               us make the "how" of our giving dominate the "what" we
belong to the classification of alms-giving. They are kept          give, and let the former be in spirit and truth.
distinct. Gifts for evangelization, missions, and the like are                                                            G.v.d.B.
not true alms. The duty of preaching the gospel outside
as well as within the church is resident in the church, and
consequently it is part of the program of the church to
support that work. Nor may we classify our gifts toward                            THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS
Christian education as alms-giving. As it has been expressed,                         (Continued from page 283)
`"rhe maintenance of the Christian religion for ourselves             "Het is waar, dat in de gevallen wereld de niet-gevallen
and our children demands educational institutions founded           engel  over krachten  beschikt, die de mensch niet de zijne
upon God's Word and by supporting these educational in-             noemen kan. Maar dit doet niets af van onze stelling. De.
stitutions we are first of all benefiting ourselves." This is       trouw gebleven knecht is er altijd `beter' aan toe dan de
not charity. It is support given in the line of duty. Like-         verloren zoon, die zwijnendraf moet eten en in lompen
wise there are many causes and many offerings received for          gekleed gaat. Maar als de verloren zoon terugkomt, dan
these causes that cannot be classified as the giving of alms.       herstelt de  Vader  de  oude   dingen;  en uit die herstelling
                                                                    kan men dan weer de oorspronkelijke orde  aflezen.  Welnu,
  That seems to restrict the use of the term "ahns" to gifts        gelijk de Vader  van den verloren zoon, toen hij hem terug-
received for those who are in physical need. The dictionary         gevonden had, den zoon naast zich zette en den knecht ook
defines the term as."charitable  aid or relief, as for-the poor;    hem liet dienen, zoo keert straks ook tusschen mensch en
something given as charity." The. International Standard            engel  de oude verhouding terug."
Bible Encyclopedia proceeds on the assumption of the cor-             The above quotation I will summarize next time, D.V.;
rectness of that definition when it states, "Almsgiving was         and also criticize the view expressed in it.           H.C.H.


286                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER

                                                                                      If I had imagined that God had given up the secular col-
Ij A L 1 A -R 0 U I'4 D U S 11                                                      leges and universities, perhaps I should feel differently about
                                                                                    being here. But the Collettes and Judys (the two students with
                                                                                    whom the professor spoke) and scores besides convince me
                                                                                    that these too are his harvest fields. That's the reason I'm
TO BE WITHOUT GOD                                                                   here. It's cold, but it's never dull.
                                                                           -`.I The trouble is, however, that the professor, unwittingly
  Last summer tragedy struck the family of a-prominent                     no doubt, gives some very good reasons why not to teach
author in New Pork City. His 21 year old daughter and a                    in ,a secular college. These reasons ark' to be found in the
roommate were brutally killed in an apartment building                     fact that in the course of his conversation with "Judy" he
by some unknown murderer.                                                  made some very serious theological errors which make one
  The father writes in a national magazine of his experience               wonder whether he really believes the truth of Scripture at
in the trying days that followed and of his attempts to                    all. The conclusion seems to be that it is necessary to deny
come to some measure of peace in reconciling himself to                    one's faith to teach in a secular college. ..->
this tragic event. In an article in which he traces his family's             Here are several parts of the+`conversation  in which these
history and the history of his slain daughter (a history, by               errors are taught.
the way, filled with a great deal of other tragedy), he tries                In the early part of the discussion the talk was of God-
to place this brutal murder into some religious perspective.               His being and His work of creation.
The result of his attempt is that he concludes. that religion                          "Well, God undertakes to do things in this matter. Frankly,
has really nothing to do with it all. Some of the language                          I don't care whether it's six days or six billion years. He adds
makes one shudder. To be without God is a terrible thing.                           various dimensions to his creation-time and motion and life
  I quote some of his remarks:                                                      and various stages of intelligence. . . ."
          I am obliged to reject the words of St. Paul when he said,         This is tantamount to  a  denial of creation.
       "All things work together for good to them that love God."            Next the conversation turns to sin and the determination
       I am obliged to reject the adage that tells us no man is given      of God to save. The conversation runs as follows:
       loads heavier than he can carry. Whenever we are given                          "God had intended that human beings would live in har-
       loads too much for us to carry, we collapse. . . .                           mony with His will. You know, Judy, we're put together in a
          It helped me  - and I think it will help you if you need                  strange way. There seem to be certain laws that govern the
       help-to get rid of all the rubbishy platitudes as soon as you                universe and we're intended to follow them. . . ."
       can face the fact of your loss. God's hand is in none of these                  "On an even bigger scale we've started running against the
       horrors. The most sustaining single sentence that came to us                 will of God, in our relation to the world around us, the people
       in over a thousand letters came from (a) doctor: "This did                   we associate with, and with God himself. We ruin the world
       not happen for the best; this happened for the worst."                       and we injure other people."
          That was the truth of it. And that sentence, cold as it is,                  "I understand that.`:
       laid out the tragedy flat and bare and clean and final. . . .                   "Now that human beings have decided to go their own
          Do (we) have "words to live by"? I think so, although                     way, God can do any one of several things. First, he can wash
       none of us accepts God as the Christian Churches urge us to                  his hands of the whole affair and simply destroy the universe;
       accept Him. Though believing in the existence of a higher                    in fact, forget that he ever got involved in it. Or he can do
       power, we have all, in our several ways, rejected the more                   what he did with the fallen angels  - condemn them to eternal
       formalized Personification that the average churchgoer prays to.             futility. He could also do what a lot of people imagine he
          Praying to God will bring no comfort. . . . God had nothing               really did do. You know, `Oh, Adam, you stupid boy; You
       to do with the murder . .  ., anymore than He had anything                   really didn't mean. it, did you?' Don't a lot of people think
       to do with creating the hideous social deformity that is her                  God is going to be soft-headed about the whole business
       killer. . . .                                                                of sin?"
          God has never protected anyone from anything, and is not
       in that business. We are chemical sports, only briefly to wear        This is little better than the Pelagian conception of sin;
       these present forms, already entering the undignified but in-       there is nothing of the terrible and total depravity of man
       evitable, timetable `attrition of devolution. . . .                 whereby he sins against God's most high majesty and de-
  All this is terribly hopeless. The tragedy may be deep;                  serves only eternal hell. And this is a fearfully weak de-
and it may be difficult to speak of true comfort if one has                scription of God's sovereign counsel.
never endured such sorrow. But we ought to be daily grate-                   But the author at least does not say that God simply
ful that in His mercy God has given to us an only comfort                  overlooks sin. He insists that salvation is possible only
for time and for eternity, in life and in death.                           through Christ. But he gives this reason - and spoils even
WHY NOT TO TEACH IN A SECULAR COLLEGE                                      this:
  In the latest issue of The Reformed JournaZ,  Prof. J. J.                            "It's simply that God has unlimited respect for our integrity
Lamberts writes an article defending his choice to teach in                         as human beings. He's given us a free will, an ability to make
                                                                                    choices. If he'd forget about it and say that our choices didn't
a secular college. The article is mostly concerned with two                         really matter, then we'd be on a level with the animals, or be
conversations with students in which the professor spoke                            robots. But God respects our freedom of choice so completely
of the faith of the gospel. The point of the article is there-                      that he will let us destroy ourselves before he will lift a finger."
fore summarized in the concluding paragraph when the                         This is nothing less than Pelagianism at its worst.
professor writes:                                                            But then the discussion turns to the life of Christ. In


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E - A R E R                                                      287

discussing the incarnation, the life and the death, the resur-                 the one who was most  specific about it, I guess. He  WCLS  riding
rectiqn  and the ascension of Christ, the professor. makes                     to Damascus one day  to.persecute some  .of the believers. First
several-obvious and serious errors: I) He seems to teach the                   he wasn't thinking about anything in particular and gradually
                                                                               he started hearing in his mind a sermon he had listened to
`Irenosis" doctrine that Christ laid aside all His divine attri-               some time earlier -a sermon by a young fellow named
butes when He entered into our flesh. 2) He ,denies  that                      Stephen. He kept hearing it over and over, like a tape. All
Christ was conscious (at least in his earlier life and min-                    at once Paul stopped-could it be? Could it possibly be . . .?
istry) of His divinity and of His purpose in coming into                       And it seemed to him like an overwhelming  blaze of  light:-
the world - to save His people through His own death of                        Stephen had been right! And at that moment Jesus Christ
                                                                              - spoke to him and Paul answered, `Who are you, Lord?  "
the cross. 3) He teaches that at the resurrection and the                   Then the inevitable Anninianism.
ascension of Christ, Christ's human nature really became                             "He says, `I am standing at the door knocking.' He  wants
divine because it took on several of the divine attributes,                    you to open it. Do you understand that?"
if not all of them.                                                                  "I understand."
  Listen again to the conversation:                                                  "Would you be ready to turn over your life to him, just
        "It (Philippians  2:5-7) has to do with Jesus Christ. He was           like that?"
      God just as much as the Father and he was equal to him. But                    "Yes.`:
      at a special moment in time he `stripped himself.' You remem-                  "I'm going to pray with you and after I've prayed, you may
      ber he was all powerful-or omnipotent- and now he laid                   tell him aloud that you want him to take you just as you are."
      that aside and became weak; he was everlasting and became             The moral of the story is, Don't teach in a secular college.
      mortal so that ordinary human beings would be able to kill            And how can this appear in a "Reformed" church paper?
      him; he was omnipresent, and now he became simply a baby
      in a dusty camel shelter. In fact, he discarded or held in          MERGERS (Con91
      abeyance every one of his attributes except maybe one."               Time gives us some news about recent developments in
        "What was that?"                                                  mergers.
        "Love."                                                             Lutheran Church leaders met recently to draft a new
        "Oh."
        "You must remember some of the story. A baby is born and          proposed constitution for a cooperative service agency that
      a few shepherds get excited, but that's about all. As a child he    would replace the present National Lutheran Council.  This
      grows up,  .goes to school and like other Jewish boys he mem-       National Lutheran Council has been a cooperative venture
      orizes the Old Testament. Every now and then, it seems to           of the Lutheran Church in America (3,100,OOO. members)
      me, something will flash into his mind and he'll wonder why         and the American Lutheran Church (2,300,OOO  members).
      that seems to have a special meaning for him. When he's
      twelve he goes to the temple and feels completely at home           The new constitution will make it possible for two other
      there so that he says `something very curious about being in        Lutheran Church bodies to cooperate also in various
     his `Father's house.' He learns a trade and becomes the village      church work. These two bodies are the comparatively con-
      handyman until he's about thirty. Then he hears about a             servative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (surprisingly
      preacher who has started telling people that the kingdom of         enough), and the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches
      God is almost ready to appear, so he feels drawn to meet  this
     preacher. He is baptized and suddenly he feels such a powerful       with 20,000 members.
     impact of the Spirit of God that it seems as though he has             This is supposed to pave the way for theological discus-
      been struck full force by a dove. Forty days he stays in the        sion that will hopefully result in complete merger between
     wilderness, trying to figure out what has happened. Then he          these four denominations.
      starts wandering around the country talking to people and                                         (f a  0  (c
     telling them that he has good news for them. . .  ."
        `L. . . More and more he realized what was going to happen          A joint study committee has reported on the possibility
      to him if he kept on being perfectly obedient to the will of        of merger between the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.
      his Father. Finally he managed to run head-on into the              (Southern) and the Reformed Church of America. The re-
      religious people who couldn't imagine that God would ever           port is very optimistic in that it finds no major obstacles
      appear like that. . . . As a result they resolved to destroy him    to complete merger. The Southern Presbyterian Church
      and finally they captured him for the purpose of crucifying him.
  This is a denial of many important parts of the gospel                  numbers 928,000 members; the Reformed Church in Amer-
narrative and of the life of the Son of God among us.                     ica numbers 232,000. Leaders expect that a formal an-
  But then the resurrection and the ascension:                            nouncement of merger could possibly come in time to
        "The truth is, Judy, this person has been completely obedient     celebrate the 400th anniversary of John Calvin's death,
      to the will of God, to the extent of being willing to die. Now      May  27. This  however is according to  Time,  whose cor-
      that he has gone the utter limit, God begins to restore to him      respondents must have talked to different people than
      the attributes he laid aside. First he gives him life, not just     the correspondents of the Presbyterian Jownul.  This latter
      in the sense of resuscitating him, but restoring the immor-         paper reports also on this, but says that this report must
      tality he has laid aside. Then presently he leaves his disciples    come to the Presbyterian Assembly in April and the RCA
      and God restores his omnipresence, so that he can say, `I am
      with you always'. . . ."                                            Synod in June. If these two assemblies accept the report,
  Then the discussion turns to salvation. First of all Paul's             they might instruct a committee to proceed with a definite
conversion is described - and denied.                                     plan for union-which will then be quite a ways in the
        "Jesus Christ talked about being `horn again.' But Paul was       future.                                                    H. Hanko


      288                                                   THE:  S T A N D A R D   BEAR-E-Rm--m-r-`-.  -_---,  -~-  .-
                                                                                 -     .-
       .,           .           ..`                                                    .A Soup S$per  was served in Hudsonville,  sponsored by-
       I          NEWS,   FROM   Q&,`
                                                        CHU$&`
                                                                         $            Hope School's Auxiliary, and-one by Adams St. School was
            .._                                                                       served inFirst Church. The last mentioned drew a large
            -                   "`All the sad s&de- thei .L . ."- PHIL: 4 ;2i         company of diners, even two from South Holland, Ill. Thus,
                                                                                      by means of willing workers and ~hungry givers amid the
       .                  _.                                   March 5,1964           friendly atmosphere of Christian fellowship, a substantial
       `, Rev. B. Woudenberg, of Edgerton, has declined the call                      boost is given to their respect&  schools.
      from -Redlands.                                                                        The young people of Randolph Church were invited by
            The crowded conditions in the auditorium. of Hope's                       the young people of Oak Lawn to be overnight guests Fri-
      Church  has.led to`a temporary. solution. Each  Stiday five                     day, Feb.  21. An evening of spiritual edification and social
      families are appointed to worship in a basement room,`which                     fellowship was planned by the  host. society. A pancake
      has been furnished with comfortable seats and a loud-                           breakfast was to be served in the church basement Satur-
      speaker. This will, no doubt, add five  fan&es  to `the grow-                   day morning to be followed by other planned activities until
      ing list each week that eagerly wait for their new church                       the time of the guest's return to Randolph. Due to unfore-
      to be erected, and should be a psychological boost to the                       seen circumstances this publicized meeting had to be post-
      financial drive currently being carried on. In order to im-                     poned to a subsequent Friday. The bulletin announced this
      plement this, the bulletin each week lists the families that                    meeting to be a first, but it probably won't be the last such
      will be contacted for this purpose.                                             venture  .between  societies too distant to drive back and
                                                                                      forth the same evening.
            Hull's pastor, Rev. Kortering, has announced de outline
      of his Lenten series under the theme, `Christ, Our Con-                                A quiet and sobering thought from Smcthtiast's  bulletin:
      quering King". The first three sermons under the sub-                           "Nothing can long continue sacred to the man who has
      title, "His preparation for Battle", are: "His Face towards                     lost his sense of the sanctify  of the Lord's Day."
      Jerusalem", "Employing His Strategy", "`A King without an                              Twin reasons for rejoicing in the Manse at Oak Lawn:
-  A r m y " . The next four sermons are sub-titled, "The En-                         Twin girls were born to Rev. and Mrs. Vanden  Berg Feb.
      counter" with these subjects: "Silence", "Thorns, the Kingly                    26. Names.- Lois Kay and Linda May.
      Crown", "Golgotha,  the Battlefield". The final two under,                             According to' Oak Lawn's bulletin, Dr. Payson  says, "The
      "Victory" are: "The Victory Cry", and "He Is Not Here".                         symptoms of spiritual decline are like those which attend
      Each of the sermons are accompanied with their texts,                           the decline of bodily health. It generally commences with
      which gives the congregation a splendid opportunity for                         a loss of appetite, and a disrelish for wholesome food,
      preparation to receive the instruction from the Word of                         prayer, reading the Scriptures and devotional books. When-
       God as expounded by their pastor.                                              ever you perceive these symptoms be alarmed! Your  spir-
                 The Young People's Mass Meeting was held Feb. W-at                   itual health timin danger! Apply immediately to the Great
       Southeast Church. The first number on the program, after                       Physician for a cure.`"
       Scripture reading and prayer, was a piano-organ duet, a                               Have you noticed any symptoms lately? '
       beautiful rendition of "Abide With Me". The speaker of the
       evening was Seminarian Robert Decker who spoke on, "Love                              May all the sick and shut-ins share with the saints of old
      Your Enemies". The speaker treated his subject by answer-                       this comforting gem from the Holy Scriptures:. "For this
       ing three questions, `What is the Biblical idea of Love?",                     God is our God for ever and ever. He will be our guide
       "Who are your enemies?" and, `What does it mean to' love                       even unto death." PSALM 84:14.
      your enemies?" Our Seminarian developed his theme by                                   . . . see you in church.                                      J.M.F.
       stating that Love is from God and that it returns to Him;                                                         -.
       that our love is a reflection of His Love, and that we must
       manifest that love to those who despitefully use us; that is:                                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
       to rebuke him for his sin, call them to repent, and pray that                         On April 2, 1964, our beloved parents,
       they may be called from darkness into Light. It was truly                                      MR. AND MRS. DONALD DYKSTRA, SR.
       a Prot. Ref. speech to a Prot. Ref. audience. After recess                     will commemorate their 40th wedding anniversary. We thank our
       and refreshments the young people enjoyed a Finn on the                        heavenly Father for sparing them these many years for us and for
       Islands of the Caribbean, including Jamaica with some                          each other. It is our prayer that God will continue to bless them
                                                                                      in their remaining pilgrimage.
       of the people of the First Prot. Ref. Church of Jamaica,                                                                Their grateful children:
       Lucea Branch. Rev. M. Schipper,  Southeast's pastor, closed                                                                Mr. and Mrs. Tunis Dykstra
       the meeting with prayer.                                                                                                   Mr. and Mrs. Albert Dykstra
                 In- a February meeting of Southeast's Mr. and Mrs.                                                               Mr. and Mrs. Amold.Dykstra
       Society Miss Agatha Lubbers gave a talk and showed pic-                                                                    Donald Dykstra, Jr.
                                                                                                                                  Mr. and Mrs. Richard Dykstra
       tures of Houston.                                                                                                               20'grandchildren


