    VOLUME  XL                                    APRIL  1,1964 - GRAND  RAPIDS, hbxmm                                 NUMBER 13

                                                                         All through de life of  .Jesus  the devils fought against
            Ad  E  Q  VT/IT I  CYN                                     Jesus with bitter hatred. .._
                                                                         But Jesus had the victory over both the world and the
                                                                       devils.
                  'QE GZAD TIDINGS                                       His life, His words and work, His trial and condenma-
                                                                       tion showed clearly how horrible the world and the devils
      "And the angel  .answered  and said unto. the women, Fear not
      ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is    were. The more they conspired against Him, the more it
      not here: for He is risen; as He said." Matt.  28:5, 6a.         showed that they were wicked and- evil. And the more
                                                                       it showed that Jesus was the Great` Innocent.
  Isaiah tells us that God's thoughts and ways are higher                But He also had .the victory over the curse; of the law.
than ours, and here we have a case in point. (Perhaps the              He bore the wrath of God against de sin of the elect. He
greatest point.) A few women are the first to hear the glad            erased the hand.writing of sin that was against it, writing
tidings.                                                               it  -on the bloody cross; and when He died; the sin and
  The women.                                                           guilt was eternally gone.
  They. wept at the cross; they prepared spices and oint-                He overcame death, the grave and hell, and in its stead. -
ment; they came very -early to the sepulchre.                          he merited life, glory, and everlasting heaven for Himself
  What does all this prove?                                            and all those-that were and are in Him.
  That they loved Jesus.                                                 IBs death on the accursed tree merited a glory that is
  And that God, as ever, bows down to the lowly to reveal              not to be compared to any other glory.
His wondrous lovingkindness.                                             It was a glory that transcends the glory of earlier resur-
  Ah yes, His thoughts and ways are higher than our                    rections, such as the resurrection of Lazarus, the young man
thoughts and ways.                                                     of Nain and the resurrection of the little girl. They returned
  Here we have the greatest event in all history of all the            to the sinful life of man- on' earth. He inherited a glory that
ages, and the first who will' hear of it are a few lowly               will be fully revealed when a new.heaven'and  a new earth
women of Galilee!          0  rx  0  0                                 are manifested.
                                                                         It is a glory, that ,transcends  the glorious life of Adam and
  Yes; we want to talk to you a little bit about the glad              Eve in the first Paradise.
tidings of Jesus' resurrection.                                          His glory and victory is that of the new heaven and
  Let us look first at its contents.                                   earth, everlasting, spiritual. He received a name that is
  And then for Jesus, first of all:                                    above all other names in this world and that which  is to
  It was the victory over His enemies.                                 come.
  There was the world  with all its wickedness. They had . But there is more in the resurrection of Jesus.
conspired against  Him from all sides. And I mean the                    His resurrection is the proof that God accepted the price
world both within and without the church of God. Finally               for the sin of the world.                                    .
there was not one left who stood with Him. They all left                 Therefore it is said that the resurrection of Jesus is the
Him, even His own disciples. When Jesus finally hung on                justification of the whole church of God.
the accursed tree there was a terrible silence on the part                                          0 4  e  0
of those who might be called His own.                                    And who are the objects of these glad tidings?'
  And there was the devil and his demons. They were all                  Let me tell you the answer to that question according to
arrayed against Him.                                                   the vast majority of our present preachers: these glad ti-
  Lucifer, that is, Satan, inhabited a sorry man, Judas, in            dings of Jesus' resurrection are for everyone that hears the
order to bring Jesus to the cross.                                     Gospel.


2            9              0                  T H E   S - T A N D A R D ' B E A R E R

     But it is not true.                                              Jesus' resurrection is certainly no glad tidings for those
     Listen to the text: "Fear not ye!"                             that corrupt the  truth of the Word of God, and always
     Why did the angel say this?                                    make out a case either for man, or against God and His
     For the simple reason that you could still see that silly      everlasting counsel. In other words, His resurrection is no
watch fleeing to Jerusalem. They had become like dead               glad tidings for the Arminians .and the Pelagians, for those
men, and ran.                                                       unhappy beings who knowingly corrupt the beautiful Word
      0 yes, the resurrection of Jesus is a cause for great fear    of God.
for very many people. They will see this resurrected Jesus            Jesus' resurrection is no glad tidings for all those who
when He returns as Judge. And they will be condemned                just live, eat, drink, buy and sell, marry and are given in
by.Him. .                                                           marriage, period. There are an increasing number of those
     And think on that Sanhedrin. Also for them it is a cause       in Christian (?) circles. Their god is their belly, and they
for everlasting grief and shame. Can you not see that  San-         are solely concerned with earthly things,.
hedrin standing before the judgment seat of the resurrected           The only right way is from the Cross to the grave.
Christ in the day of days?                                            Only  those who seek the Crucified One find the Risen
: And it has further implications.                                  One.
     It is exactly the risen -Lord who shall judge .and condemn                               v:  e  0  d
the world of all the ages.
     He does that now already at the right hand of God.               Why?
     But He will reveal it when He comes with the clouds.             Christ's resurrection is our resurrection from the dead.
     For whom then is the resurrection of Jesus a matter of           For over 4000 years the earth was one great graveyard.
glad tidings?                                                         Israel's poets sang: Did God create men in vain? Who is
     Well, look at the text.             `.                         there among us who will not sleep the sleep of death?
     First of all,, for the women, chief of which is Mary           Everybody lives, dies and falls into the grave.         .
of Magdala.                                                           Whenever someone commits suicide, we marvel and are
     And in general they are the lovers of Jesus. Ask yourself      amazed. I would say that it is strange that there are so few
this question, a question which God asks of all men who             suicides. Look.at man. There he lies in the cradle. It does
`borne  under the preaching of the Gospel: "WHAT DO'YE              not take long and the little boy and the little girl learn
THINK OF JESUS WHO IS CALLED THE CHRIST?"                           that they will live at the most 70 or 80 years, and then they
     The answer to that question decides whether or not the         will lie down cold and still like grandpa and grandma, and
resurrection of Jesus is glad tidings for you or not.               will be buried.
     Please, listen to what the angel says: `for I know that          Why should anyone want to live? We all stare into the
ye seek Jesus."                                                     future and all you see is a hole in the ground, six feet deep,
     That remark is the key. If you are a stranger at  Gol-         and the mourners go about the streets.
gotha, the garden of Joseph is a place of horror for you.             Moreover, the boys and girls that have Bibles and go to-
But if you look with longing at the crucified Christ, the           church and Sunday Schools hear of the judgment day when
speech of the angel at the grave is as heavenly music in            God will reward the good and punish the wicked. They
your ears..                                                         hear of God who is a consuming fire. They can read of the
     Yes, yes, yes, I admit that these simple women sought          rich man who opened his eyes in the flame, being  in.
for a dead Jesus, and also that. they did not understand            torment.
the theology of the resurrected Christ. But I also know               Why should anyone want to live?
this: these simple women loved Jesus, they loved God His              Well, here is a most glorious answer.
Father; and they loved the truth.                                     Jesus rose from the dead and took with Him to heaven
                                                                    the whole church.
                                 8  0  n  0                           Jesus arose from the dead and appears before our won-
                                                                    dering eyes from our earliest infancy when mother and
     And that's the way it is today, yesterday and tomorrow.        father tell us about His saving work.
     The resurrection of Jesus is glad tidings to all the lovers      Later He gives us His Holy Spirit of grace, and the Bible
of Jesus. And His resurrection is a cause of indescribable          begins to live for us and in us.
horror for those that hate Him.                                       We begin to seek the crucified Lamb of God and find
     For these last He is a consuming fire.                         Him. We follow Him to the garden of Joseph and we
     I said there: `for those that,hate  Him."                      behold the risen Lord.
     And that includes all those who despise the truth, will          We cry out with the jubilant disciples: Jesus is risen
never go to church, do not read the Bible, and never pray.          indeed and was seen of Cephas.
It includes all those who never seek God in their heart;              And our wondering heart murmurs: If Jesus forgave
who never weep because of their sins; who never condemn
                                          /                         Peter, He will also forgive me! Yes, beloved, we love Jesus!
themselves.                                                         Do you?                                                      G.V.


                                                    ` T         H       E           STANDARD   BEA,=RER                                                                                                                       2 9 1

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   Rev. C. Hanko will speak on "The Relationship between                                                                               CoNTENTS
 the Magistrates and the Chur&h."                                                     MEDITATION-
                                                                                               The Glad Tidiugs ._.  ______,   _......   ._. __ ___ ___ . . . . . . ..___......_ 289
   Men, reserve this date and enjoy an evening of  Chris-                                                Rev. G. Vos
 tian fellowship.
                                          Hollis  Heemstra,  Secretary                EDITOFUALS-
                                                                                               De Jong-Dekker .                                                                    ._.                                           ..292
                                                                                                         Rev. H. Hoeksema

                                                                                      CONTRIBU'IlONS  -
                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                              Mr. Arie Nobel, Jr . . . . . . . . ..______...........................................  294

   The Ladies Aid of the Protestant Reformed Church of Edgerton,                      OUR  Doom-
 express their deepest sympathy to Mrs. Art Verhey in the loss of her                          The Doctrine of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
 Father,                                                                                                -Rev.  H. Hoeksema
                     MR. JOHN VAN LANT, SR.
                                                                                      SPECIAL  &PORT-
 on March 6, 1964, at the age of 77 years. Luke 20:16.                                         The Second Vatican Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
                                         Rev. B. Woudenberg, Pres.                                       Rev. G. Van  Baren
                                         Mrs. Dick  Bleyenburg,   Se&y.               THELORDGAVET&WORD...-
                                                                                               Radio Broadcasting as Mission Endeavor... _.__.,  __. __. __ .__ . .._ . ..300
                                                                                                         Rev. C. Hanko

                                                                                      IN  HIS  FEAR-
                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                      ,Bread  for His Service .: . . . . . . . ..___________......................................                                          302
                                                                                                         Rev. J. A. Heys
   On`March 30, 1964, our dear parents,
                MR. AND MRS. ADRIAN LENTING                                           COIWENDINGFORTHE  FAITH-
                                                                                               The Church and the Sacraments _____._..___________........................  304
 celebrated their 25th anniversary.                                                                      Rev. H.  Veldman

   We are thankful to God who has given them to  us,. and that He                     Trnr  VOICE OF OUR FATHEXS-
 may continue to bless them as He has done in the past, is the prayer                          The -Belgic Confession . . . . . . . . . ..______._......................................  :..306
 of their grateful children.                                                                             Rev. H. C. Hoeksema
   Ps.  36:10, "Oh continue Thy lovingkindness unto them that know                    THE ChIJRCH AT WORSHIP-
 thee: and thy righteousness to the upright in heart".                                          Our Liturgical Forms . . . . .  .:.  _. .  ._.  __.  __. __  __. ___ ,308
                                            Pvt. Henry John Lenting                                     .Rev. G.  Vanden Berg
                                            Pvt. Adrian Jerry Lenting, Jr.
                                            Leonard Lenting                           ALLARouNDus-
                                          Jacob Cornelius  Len&g                                Federal Aid to Christian Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
                                            William Lenting                                              Rev. H. Hanko
                                            C o r n e l i a   L e n t i n g
                                            Robert Allen Lenting                      NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES . . . . . . . . . . . ..______..........................................  312
                                                                                                          Mr. J. M. Faber
                                            James Richard Lenting


292                                       ,THE,  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                  I-_ _
II                                                               consists in the seeming contrast between God's decretive
               E D I T O R I A L S                               will and the revealed will. According to the former, God
                                                                 loves only the elect, while according to the latter we may
                                                                 certainly speak of  "the genuine redemptive character of
                                                                 God's love in the preaching situation." And he concludes
                    EDITORIAL NOTE                               this paragraph by the words: "`Both aspects of this appar-
                                                                 ent contradiction must receive their accent if we are to do'
      We are pleased to present in this and in a few issues      full justice to the adorable greatness of God's love to
to come a guest writer, Rev. G. Van  Baren.  The staff           sinners."
decided at its last annual meeting to present from time to
time a few special articles on subjects of current interest.       As I understand Dekker, he will have very little objection
We asked Rev. Van  Baren  to write about the Vatican             to De Jong's explanation as expressed in the above words.
Council. Rev. Van  Baren originally intended to write            After all there is really no difference between De Jong and
two or three articles, as we suggested; but as he prepared       Dekker. Both teach, to put it simply and clearly, that God
to write, it became apparent that more articles would be         loves all men with a redemptive love. De Jong says virtu-
-needed in order to provide our -readers with an adequate        ally the same thing as does Dekker although the approach
description and evaluation of Vatican II. Much has been          and  .the phraseology is a little different.
written on this subject, and mention of it has also -been          But let us now continue, for De Jong has more to say on
made from time to time in "All Around Us." But Rev. Van          t h i s   s u b j e c t .
Baren purposes to give a more detailed description and
evaluation; and we hope our readers will find his articles         He writes:
beneficial.                                           H.C.H.       "By saying `God reveals a genuine redeeming love in the
                                                                 gospel offer and yet he reveals this love in a unique way
                                                                 which does not cancel out or ignore the particular redeem-
                                                                 ing love of his decree or Christ's atoning work,' we can
                                                                 deal with Editor Vander Ploeg's question. In his analysis
                                                                 of Dekker's views he raised this question: `If God actually
                    De Jong - Dekker                             bestows his in&rite love. that is redenz@ve~upon  someone,
                                                                 ho.w could this possibly stop short of being at the same
love, redemptive, redeeming                                      time a redeeming love? (The Banner, March 1, 1963, p.
      Dekker tries to make a distinction between redemptive      9) .' It seems to me that if we respect the theological formula
and redeeming love. De Jong writes about this, too, in his       (if there is a  better one I would be most happy to learn
article in  "Torch  and Trumpet." And I quote him:               of it), namely, God wills earnestly and genuinely in his
                                                                 revealed will that which he is not pleased to will in  his-
      `It seems to me that Prof. H. Dekker's distinction be-     secret or decretive will, then we can say in answer to the
tween redemptive and redeeming love does not do full             Editor: `We don't know. God's love as his will is so in-
justice to all the facets of the problem. Perhaps if he          effably great, so adoringly variegated, so ~multiform  in its
would employ the distinctions indicated above, he could          oneness, that we can only bow before his unsearchable
more adequately emphasize his point that there is a real         ways. The love of God, revealed, displayed, bestowed in
redemptive love displayed to all who hear the gospel (re-        the preaching situation freely comes to all, and yet we know
member that his original intention was geared to missions)       that his love is irresistible and insuperable as it works itself
and still unambiguously articulate the unique character of       out according to the counsel of his good pleasure.' This
God's love to the redeemed (the elect) for whom complete         attempted answer to Vander Ploeg's legitimate question  .is
redemption was secured in Christ's work. It seems to me          only a `confession of faith, devoid of logical consistency,
that when all is said and done Dekker must hold to some          hopefully unrelated to theological irrationality, and elicited
qualitative distinction when he speaks about God's love to       by the ways of our Triune God whose judgments are un-
sinners. It will be both instructive and interesting to hear     searchable and whose ways ,are past tracing out."
more from our Professor in this matter . . ."
                                                                   What shall we say to all this? For the present, I will
      Here we must stop for a moment.                            brieffy  make the following remarks:
      De Jong writes that it would have been better if Dekker     I. First of all, I would say that De Jong does not an-
had employed the "distinctions indicated above."                 swer the question put by the Editor of The Banner. Vander
      He refers especially to the preceding paragraph, which     Ploeg-  asked a question about the redemptive and the re-
we have already quoted before. There he speaks of an             deeming love of `God. This distinction is made by Dekker,
"apparent contradiction," and the apparent contradiction         and, as we have seen, De Jong virtually agrees with him.


                                          T H E   S T A N D A 'R D   B E A R E R                                             293

But Vander Ploeg does not, as isevident from his question.           Of course, the beginning of all this doctrinal corruption
Now, De Jong claims that he answers Vander Ploeg, but in           must'be found in the "Three Points" of 1924, especially .m
reality he does not. The editor of The  Banner  virtually          the first of them. As I advised Prof. Dekker more than
states that there is no difference between redemptive and          once: if he were ever attacked officially in regard to his
redeeming love of God. The redemptive love  ,of God is             heretical view that God loves all men, he could safely ap-
the same as his redeeming love. One that is the object of          peal to the "Three Points" which virtually teach the same
the one is also the object of the other. De Jong, first of all,    error.
says that there is both a redemptive and a redeeming love
of God: "God reveals a genuine redeeming (I think he                 However, I confess that it makes me unspeakably sad
means redemptive love. H.H. ) love in the gospel offer and         that in such a comparably short time the Christian Re-
yet he reveals this love in a unique way which does not            formed Church, in which I used to have a place, has so
cancel out or ignore the particular redeeming love of his          far departed from the truth that they can now embrace
decree or Christ's atoning work."                                  the error that God loves all men.

   When in quoting the above sentence I wrote in paren-              Principally, the doctrine that God loves all men is a denial
theses : "I `think he means redemptive love," I may be             of the doctrine of-reprobation. What is reprobation? It is
mistaken. But if this is the case, if he really meant to write     the sovereign and unchangeable decree of God according
redeeming love, then: 1) He does not answer Vander Ploeg           to which He determined from all eternity to lead the non-
at all, for he wrote exactly about the  .distinction which         elect, in the way of sin, to everlasting damnation. The
Dekker tries to make between redemptive and redeeming              relation between election and reprobation is not  such- that
love. And, 2) Who does not know or who denies that the             they stand on a par with each other, but rather such that
redeeming love of God is revealed in the gospel?                   reprobation serves election. But the question is: why is
                                                                   reprobation denied? Why is it never mentioned? And why
   2. De Jong finishes his-supposed answer to Vander Ploeg         is it not preached? My answer is that if one believes that '
by saying in very flourishing-style: "We don't know." God's        God loves all men, reprobation must be denied. It would
love is great, so ineffably great1  And that great love of God     be a contradiction in terms to maintain that God loves the
is revealed and displayed- in the preaching situation ( I wish     reprobate wicked.
that De Jong would expliain  what he means by "`the preach-
ing situation," for I do not understand this term) <and that         But how about Scripture? Does it teach that God loves
great love comes freely to all, yet it works itself out ac-        all men, that He loves the wicked reprobate? Did He love
cording to the sovereign and decree of  God!-: In other            all men in the predeluvian  world who, evidently, so hated
words, this is really a mystery:  `We  don't know." This;          the people of God that, ultimately, only eight  .souls re-
then, is  the,final  answer to Vander Ploeg's question.            mained whom God saved in the ark? Did He love the peo-
   But what is so mysterious about Vander Ploeg's question?        ple of Sodom and Gomorrah whom He utterly destroyed?
He simply states in question form that redemptive love is          Did He love Esau,  as some claim He did, even though the
the same as redeeming love. And there is surely `nothing           Scriptures plainly declare that God hated, him? Did God
mysterious about this whatsoever. A child can understand           love the Pharisees of Jesus' day although He pronounces an
this.                                                              eightfold woe upon them? Did God love those whom Paul
                                                                   mentions in the first chapter of his epistle to the Remans?
  3. But now it becomes high time that we analyze this             And how about the author of Psalm 139, who exclaims:
phrase: redemptive and redeeming love of God somewhat.             "Do I not hate them, 0 Lord, that hate thee? and am I
And then I would emphasize the following:                          not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate
                                                                   them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies."
   a. In the first place;that it is love, love of God. Whether     May we say the same thing? Or must we condemn these
you speak. of' redemptive or redeeming love, it surely is          words of the psalmist?
love. God loves all men! This is the fundamental tenet of
Prof. Dekker and also of De Jong, and others with them:              b. And now a few words about. `redemptive" and  "re-
God loves everybody! He hates no one! Let no one fail to           deeming."
understand this. And let not Dekker and De Jong and
others with them camouflage or cover this up in order that,          According to Webster, to redeem is to rescue and deliver
for the time being, at least, they may appear to be Re-            us from the bondage of sin and from the penalties of Gods
formed or even Scriptural, for it is neither! As long as God       violated law. And it even quotes the text from Gal. 3: 13:
gives me life and breath I will shout from the housetops:          "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
anyone that claims that God loves all men is neither Re-           made a curse for us.""And  as to the adjective "redemptive"
formed nor Scriptural, but is simply a heretic and nothing         he has the explanation:. "Serving or tending to redeem;  re-
else!                                                              deeming; as the redemptive work of Christ." We may,

                                                                                                                                     ,


                                                                                :

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

perhaps, also quote Webster on the noun "redemption." On
  this he has: "The procuring of God's favor by the sufferings       11  C 0 N T  it I  B U T  I. 0 N S  11
  and death of Christ; -the ,ransom or deliverance of sinners
  from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God's violated
  law"; And again he quotes a text from Ephesians 1:7: ."In
  whom we have redemption through his blood."'                       Dear Editor of the Standard Bearer:
                                                                        With reference to the Standard Bearer March 15, 1964,
    Now, it is` rather striking that the adjective redempeive        page 288, I read the following:
  does not occur in the Bible. It is not found in the original,
  either in the O.T. Hebrew or in the N.T. Greek. There is                       According to Oak Lawn's bulletin, Dr.  Payson  says, "The
                                                                           .symptoms  of spiritual decline are like those which attend -the
  more than one word  for, the idea of redeem, redeemer, and                   decline of bodily. health.  It generally commences with a  loss
  redemption, the verb and the nouns; but the adjective                        of ,appetite, and a disrelish for wholesome food, prayer, read-
  redemptive is never -found. And this is true, not only of                    ing the Scriptures and devotional books. Whenever you per-
  the original, but also- of the English translation, as far as                ceive these symptoms be alarmed! Your spiritual health is in
  I can find.                                                                  danger! Apply immediately to the Great Physician for a cure."
                                                                                 Have you noticed any symptoms lately?
    Is this, however, so important? Even though the term
  for .yedemptive  is not used in the Bible, it is, nevertheless,       Is not this quote the rankest type of  Arminianism  found?
  a good English word and, therefore, may legitimately be            For the following reasons:
  used,                                                                 1) The sickness that we do have is DEATH unless we
    This is true, of course.                                         are regenerated.
    But it is quite different when it is employed to build             2) When we are guilty of decline and of doing works
`. upon it an entire philosophy about the. love of God to all        that are not pure, Scripture says that we are NOT honoring
 men, as does De Jong, and also Dekker. The last mentioned           the true God. Our worship and offerings are filthy in His
 writer we will discuss in our next article. However, De Jong        sight.
 is quoted by Dekker in the Reformed Jozcrnal  of Jan., 1964           ,3) In- such a state the WORD, that is Christ, must come
  (or, perhaps, I should say  `ieferred to") in the following        to us. It is not that we apply for a cure. Nor do we ever
 paragraph:                                                          cooperate in doing this.
    "The excellent contribution of Dr. A. C. De Jong to this           4) This is found in Scripture:
 discussion ( Reformed Journal, May- June, 1963) is relevant                       :..:
 here. He notes that the term redemptive means simply `con-            "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not
 nected with redemption' and recognizes the legitimacy of            as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence,
 using it to describe the love of God for all men. In the sec-       work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. FOR
 tion of his article entitled, `God's Love and the Complexities      IT IS GOD WHICH WORKETH IN YOU BOTH TO
 of History' he sets forth a concept of universal redemptive         WILL AND TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE. Phil.
 love which has my full and appreciative approval."                  2:12,  13.
 - The reader will understand how vicious and corrupt it               Furthermore, if this is the case  in. the church, that is
 is to build an entire doctrine upon a term that is not even         with regard to the people not doing as they ought, I do
 found in the Bible. Scripture speaks of "redeem," of "re-           not see that giving a spiced Arminian pill solves the prob-
 deeming" love of God, of "redemption," and of the "Re-              lem. How much better to come with the words of the true
 deemer," but never of "redemptive love of God." Just put            prophets, such as, "Repent and turn from your evil ways
 it to a test by replacing the term  "redemp.tive" by the            for the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and bring
 Biblical word redeem and you get the following:                     forth fruits meet for repentance." This is all the work of
                                                                     God. Finally, what is material such as this quote from Dr.
    "He notes that the term -redempfiion means simply `con-          Payson  doing in the Standard Bearer?!
 nected with redemption' and recognizes the legitimacy
 of using it to describe the love of God for all men. In the           The structure of the quoted article shows that it pre-
 section of his article entitled `God's Love and the Com-            sumes the structure of doctrine that the Arminian would
 plexities of History' he sets forth .a concept of- universal        use, that is, the human is able and willing to turn to Christ `
 wdeeming  love. . .  ," (I underscore).                             even when he is backsliding. But we KNOW that God
    This is not only absurd, but is also worse than Arminian-        always preserves His church. We cannot even cooperate,
 ism. It is Barthian.                                                because all our good works are Gods. TO GOD BE THE
                                                                     GLORY!
    Next time we will discuss what Prof. Dekker writes on                                               Respectfully submitted,
 this subject, the Lord willing.                           H.H.                                        A r i e   N o b e l ,   J r .


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11                                                                   2) "If infants, as part of all nations, and because they
       O U R                 DQCTRINE  11are such, are to be baptized, then the. infants of heathens,
                                                                   Turks, and Jews,.ought to be baptized, since they are part,
                                                                   and a large part, of all nations."
                                                                     3) -"Disciples of  Christ and such who have learned to
        THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH                                 know Christ, and the way of salvation by Him, and to
                                                                   know themselves, and their need of Him, are characters
                       C H A P T E R   VII I                       that cannot agree with infants; and if disciples and learners
                                                                   are the same, as is said, they must be learners or they
       THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM (continued)                        cannot be disciples; and they cannot be learners of Christ
                                                                   unless they have learned something of Him."
  He, that is, Dr. Gill, refers for proof to the  .text in           4) "These two acts, teaching, or making disciples, and
Matthew  19:14,  which speaks of Christ's' blessing the little     baptizing, are not, to be confounded, but are two distinct
children, and tries to show that there is no precept in these      acts, and the one is previous and absolutely necessary to
words for infant baptism whatsoever. His arguments are             the other: Men must first be made -disciples, and then
as follows:                                                        baptized."
  1) "Let the words be said to or of whom they may, they             Next, Dr. Gill proceeds to show that there is no precedent
are not in the form of a precept, but of a permission or           for baptism of infants in the Word *of God. He refers to the
grant, and signify not what was enjoined  `as necessary, but       baptism of John, and argues that among those "`who flocked
what was allowed of, or which they might be."~                     to John's baptism from all parts, we read' of no infants
  2) `These children do not appear to be newborn babes.            that were brought with them for that purpose, or that were
The words used by the (evangelists, neither puidia nor bre-        baptized by him. And though more were baptized by
phee, (that is: `children" or `babes"),,do not always signify      Christ than by John, that is, by the apostles of Christ, at
such; but are sometimes used of such who are capable of            His'order,  yet no mention is made of any infants baptized
going alone, and of being instructed, and of understanding         by them." And again, he refers to the three thousand per-
the Scriptures, and even of one of twelve years of age."           sons that were baptized on the day of Pentecost, and.
  3)  `<It cannot be said whose children these were; whether       argues that there was not a single infant among them. Nor
they belonged to those who brought them, or to others;             is there in all the accounts of baptism in the Acts of the
and whether the children of believers, and of baptized per-        Apostles in different parts of the world mention of a single
sons, or not; and if of unbelievers, and of unbaptized per-        instance of infant baptism. He admits that there is -indeed
sons, the pedo-baptists themselves will not allow such             mention made of households or families baptized, but
children to be baptized."                                          there is no certainty that there are any infants in these
  4) "It is certain they were not brought to Christ to be          families. and that they were baptized or else'must  be bap-
baptized by Him, but for other purposes."                          tized. He argues that there certainly were no infants in
  5) "This passage rather concludes against pedo-baptism           the household of the jailer at Philippi, but only adult per-
than for it, and shows that this practice had not obtained         sons, for the apostle spoke the Word of the Lord to all
among the Jews, and had not been used by John, by Christ,          that were in his house, "which they were capable of hear-
and by His disciples; for then the apostles would scarcely         ing, and it seems of understanding; for not only he rejoiced
have forbade the bringing of these children, since they            at this good news of salvation by Christ, but all in his
might readily suppose that they were brought to be                 house hearing it, rejoiced likewise; which joy of theirs was
baptized."                                                         the joy of faith; for he and they were believers in God,
  6) "The reason given for suffering little children to come       Father, Son, and Spirit." The same, he argues, is true of
to Christ,  fof of such  is the  7cingdom of heaven, is to be      the household of Stephanas. Also of that household it is
understood in a figurative and metaphorical sense; of such         certain that it consisted of adult persons, "believers in
who are comparable to children for modesty, meekness, and          Christ, and very useful in the service of religion; they were
humility, and for freedom from. rancor, malice, ambition,          the firstfruits of Achaia, the first converts in those parts,
and pride."                                                        and who addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints";
  Next Dr. Gill refers to Matthew  28:19,  to prove that also      and therefore  they.must be adult persons, and not infants.
in this text there is no precept for infant baptism. He              -In.the  third place, Dr. Gill argues that no "`infant bap-
argues as follows:                                                 tism is to be concluded from any things or passages re-
  1) "The baptism of all nations is not here commanded;            corded either  inthe Old or in the New Testament." ,He
but the baptism only of such who are taught; for the               argues that since baptism is an ordinance peculiar to the
antecedent to the relative them, cannot be aZZ nufions; since      New Testament, it cannot be expected that there should
the words pa.nti ta ethnee, all nations,. are .of a neuter gen-    be any directions about `the observance of baptism in the
der; whereas autous, them, is of masculine."                       Old Testament. There is nothing there that is in favor


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 of infant baptism. And also for this ,Dr. Gill offers several      the covenant of grace cannot be broken; God will not break
 attempts- to prove his proposition.              ,                 it; and men cannot; it is ordered in all things, and sure,
    1) "It is n0t.a fact, as has been asserted, that the infants    and is more immovable than hills and mountains, Ps. 89:34."
 of believers have, with their parents, been taken into the         d) "It is certain it had things in it of a civil and temporal
 covenant of God in the former ages of the church,  if by           nature; and a multiplication -of Abraham's natural seed, and
 it is meant the covenant of grace; the first covenant made         a race of kings from him, a promise of his being-the father
 with man, was that of works, made with Adam, and which             of many nations, and a possession of the land of Canaan
 indeed included all his posterity, to whom he stood as a           by his seed: things that can have no place in the pure
 federal head, as no one ever since did to his natural off-         covenant of grace, and have nothing to do with that, any
 spring; in whom they all sinned, were condemned, and               more than the change of his name from Abram to Abra-
 died; which surely cannot be pleaded in favor of the in-           ham." e) "There  .were some persons included in it, who
 fants of believers. After the fall, the covenant of grace,         cannot be thought to belong to the covenant of grace; as
 and the way of life and salvation by Christ, were revealed         Ishmael, not in the same covenant with Isaac, and a pro-
 to Adam and Eve, personally, as interested therein; but not        fane Esau: and on the other hand, there were some who
 to their natural'seed and posterity, and'as interested there-      were living when this covenant of circumcision was made,
 in; for then all mankind `must be taken into the covenant          and yet were left out of it; who nevertheless, undoubtedly,
 of grace, and so nothing peculiar to the infants of believers,     were in the covenant of grace; as Shem, Arphaxad, Mel-
 of which not the least syllable is mentioned throughout the        chisedec, Lot, and others; wherefore this can never be the
 whole age of the church, reaching from Adam to Noah."              pure covenant of grace."
 A similar argument is made with regard to the covenant               f) Dr. Gill has still more arguments. And the next argu-
 of God with Abraham: "The next covenant is made with               ment he makes against-infant baptism is, to my mind, rather
 Abraham and his seed, on which great stress -is laid, Gene-        absurd. He argues that the covenant mentioned in Galatians
 sis 17:10-14.  And this is said to be `the grand turning point     3, which could not be disannulled by the law, cannot have
 on which the issue of the controversy very much depends;           been the covenant of grace, but must have been some other
 and that if Abraham's covenant,  tihich included his infant        covenant, because "the distance of time between them does
 children, and gave them a right to circumcision, was not           not agree, but falls short of the apostle's date 24 years."
 the covenant of grace, then it is confessed, that the main         g) Also the next argument is of little force. He argues,
 ground is taken away, on which `the right of infants to            namely, that the covenant of grace was made with the
 baptism is asserted; and consequently the principal argu-          elect in Christ as the Head of the covenant, while the
 ments in support  -of the doctrine are overturned."' And           covenant *with Abraham was made with Abraham as the
 then Dr. Gill continues: "Now that this covenant was not           head of that covenant; and so, seeing that the covenant
 the pure covenant of grace, in distinction from the cove-          cannot have two heads, it cannot have been the same cove-
 nant of works, but rather a covenant of works, will soon           nant. 11) The same is true of the next argument. The cove-
 be proved; and if so, then the main ground of infant bap-          nant with Abraham cannot have been the covenant of
 tism is taken away, and its .principal  arguments in support       grace because it was made with Abraham and his carnal
 of it overturned: and that it is not the covenant of grace         seed, and therefore included such men as Ishmael and
is clear." For this proposition Dr. Gill offers the following       Esau, and others. i) The next argument is of a similar
 arguments: a) "From its being never so called, nor ,by any         nature. The covenant with Abraham cannot have been
name which shows it to be such; but the couenant  of  civ           the covenant of grace; because it would then have excluded
cum&ion,  Acts 7:8. Now nothing is more opposite to one' from the covenant of grace some persons that belonged in
 another than circumcision and grace; circumcision is a work        that covenant and that were still living at the time when
 of the la%, which they that sought to be justified by it, fell     the covenant was made with Abraham, such as Shem,
from grace, Gal.  5:2, 3, 4. Nor can this covenant be the           Arphaxad, Lot, and others. j) Also the next argument is
same as we are now under, which is a new covenant, or a             rather silly, and really defeats his own purpose. For it
new administration of the covenant of grace, since it is            tells us that after all the covenant with Abraham was not
abolished, and no more in being and force." b) "It appears          made with children, but with adults: for it was made as
to be of a covenant of works, and not of grace, since it was        the covenant of circumcision, and children certainly could
to be kept by men, under a severe penalty. Abraham was              not circumcise themselves.
to keep it, and his seed after him; something was to be-done          2) Dr. Gill also argues that no command was given to
by them, their flesh to be circumcised, and a penalty was           baptize infants in the New Testament, that therefore it
`annexed, in case of disobedience or neglect; such a soul was       could not possibly be the will of God to baptize infants.
to be cut off from his people: all which shows it to be,            Under this head he also has several sub-arguments, which,
not a covenant of grace, but of works." c) "It is plain, it         however, we will not relate, because they are too well
was a covenant that might be broken; of the uncircumcised           known. He refutes some of the -arguments from the New
 it is said, he h&h broken my covenant, Gen. 17: 14, whereas        Testament that claim that baptism is come in the place


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               297

of circumcision, such as the arguments from Acts  2:39,           again received unto grace in Christ; as God speaketh unto
Romans  11:16,  ff  ., I Corinthians  7:14, in order to show     Abraham, the father of all the faithful, and'therefore  &to
`that in the  NFW Testament no grounds can possibly be           us and our children ( Gen. 17:7), saying, `I will establish,
found for infant baptism. And finally, he refutes some           my covenant between me  an& thee, and thy seed after
arguments that are objections- against adult baptism exclu-      thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant; t0
sively. Under this head he argues especially from the word       be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.' This also
baptizoo, `to baptize," to show that immersion is the only       the apostle Peter  testiEeth,  with these words  (Acts 2:39),
prober mode of baptism.                                          `For the promise is unto you, and to your chiIdren, and to.
  `We will not try to reply to all these arguments of Dr.        all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God
Gill +d of the Baptists in general in, detail. The crux of       shall call." Therefore God formerly commanded them to
the question is, after all, whether or not children belong       be circumcised, which was a seal of the covenant,  and of
to the covenant and to the church of God, and therefore          the righteousness of faith;  and'therefore  Christ also em-
should be baptized. And this again  is based on another          braced them, laid his hands upon them, and blessed them
question, whether or not the covenant is the same through-       (Mark 10). Since then baptism is come in the place of
out the ages of the old dispensation and of the new, and         circumcision, therefore infants are to be baptized as heirs
whether, therefore, circumcision is essentially the same as      of `the kingdom of God and of his covenant. And parents
b a p t i s m .                                                  are in duty bound further to instruct their children herein,
  The Heidelberg catechism, in Question and Answer 74,           when they shall arrive to years of discretion."
mentions, three grounds: for infant baptism: 1) that the           But the question naturally arises: why are children in-
children are included in the covenant and church of God;         eluded  in the coven& of God? And the answer to this
2) tllat the promise of the coventit is for them as well as      question must be: because God establishes his covenant
for the adult, that is, the promise of redemption and of         in the line of continued generations. And this leads us to
the Holy Ghost; 3) that baptism as a sign of the .covenant,      what may be considered the chief ground for infant bap-
like circumcision,, must therefore be applied to infants as      tism, namely, that throughout the ages- of history there is
well as to adults. In the Netherland Confession, Article         only orie covenant, one people, and one sign of the cove-
34, virtually the same grounds for infant baptism are men-       nant, even though the latter was circumcision in the old
tioned: "Therefore we believe that every  man, who is            dispensation and is baptism in the new. After all; the deep-
earnestly studious of obtaining life eternal, ought to be but    esi! reason why all Baptists reject the baptism of infants is
once baptized with this only baptism, without ever repeat-       that they fail to recognize the truth that  t&e people of God
ing the same: since we cannot be born twice. Neither dot11       are one and the` same throughout all  ages, and that de
this baptism only avail us at the time when the water is         same covenant is established with them and tith'their seed
poured upon us, and received by Gs, but also through the         throughout their generations, both in the old and in the
whole course of our life; therefore we detest the error of       new dispensation. This failure is alsd apparent from all
the anabaptists, who are not content with the only baptism       the arguments which Dr. Gill produced to combat infant
they have once received, and moreover condemn the bap-           baptism.
tism of the infants of believers, &om we believe ought to          The Word of God  .knows  of only one people, the seed
be baptized and sealed with the sign of the covenant, .as        of Abraham, the spiritual seed, the elect, the children of
the  &&h-en in Israel formerly were circumcised, upon the        the promise. This is  true both of the old and the new
same promises which are made unto our children. And              dispensation. It is by no means correct to say that in the
indeed Christ shed his  blgod  no less for the washing of        old dispensation the Jews were the seed of Abraham, while
the children of the faithful, than for the adult persons; and    in the new dispensation believers are his seed. The Jews
therefore they ought to receive the sign and sacrament of        as such never were the seed of Abraham. It is indeed cor-
that, which Christ hath done for them; as the Lord com-          rect to say that for a time the seed of Abraham were
manded in the law, that they should be made partakers            found exclusively among Abraham's descendants, as they
of the sacrament of Christ's suffering and death, shortly        are found now among all nations. But  ,Scripture never
after they were born, by offering for them. `a lamb, .which      identifies Abraham's descendants with the seed of Abraham.
was a sacrament of Jesus Christ. Moreover, what circum-          The latter, the children of the promise, are at all times only -
cision was to the Jews, that baptism is to our children. And     the believers. In the times of the old dispensation they
for this reason Paul calls baptism the circumcision of           -are found in the generations of Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham,
Christ." And once more, essentially the same argument is         Israel. In the`new dispensation they are among all nations,
followed in "The  Form for the Administration of Baptism."       there being no digerence  ani more between Jew and Gen-
There we read: "And although our young children do nbt           tile. But wherever. they are found, the children of the
understand these things, we may not therefore exclude            promise, named after Abraham as the father of believers,
them from baptism, for as they are withotit  their knowl-        are always the true children of God, the believers, the elect.
edge partakers of the condemnatiion in Adam, so are they         These, and these only, are the seed of Abraham.            H.H.




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2 9 8                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                       -

                                                                            Cal" is derived from the Greek, meaning "from the inhabited
                SP'ECIAL REPORT                                             world." For the Roman Catholic Church, an ecumenical
                                                                            houncil would be a gathering of the hierarchy of the entire
                                                                            church which will render decisions on controversies or on
       TIE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL '                                         faith and morals. Other churches, particularly the Greek
     I. An Introduction to the Second Vaticafl  Council                     `Orthodox, have objections to the term "ecumenical" in the
  There was a time, not so long ago, that in the Protestant                 case of this Vatican Council, for they regard themselves
home the pope and his church were considered the personi-                   also -as part of the historic  dhurch. Since they are not
fication of the antichrist and his hosts. Even today certain                given a -voice in the council, so they contend, it cannot
peoples reveal strong opposition to the Roman Catholic                      trdy be called "ecumenical," that is, from al& the church in
Church: Think, for instance, of the nomination of Kennedy                   the whole world. To avoid as much as possible any offense
a few years ago for the presidency. This is seen occasionally               on this account, Rome quickly named the present Council:
too when sons or daughters marry those of another -de-                      `Vatican II." Almost invariably Rome will refer to the
nomination  and" join the church to which their spouse                      Council by that name rather than the more general <`Ecu-
belongs. If the other denomination happens to be Protes-                    menical Council."
tant (no matter how `inodern"), not much is said; but                         There are recognized  by. the Roman Catholic Church,
should that denomination be the Roman Catholic Church,                      prior to Vatican II, a total of twenty Ecumenical Councils.
the action is then considered virtually the equivalent of                   The first of these was that of Nicaea in 325 A.D., which
selling one's soul to the devil.                                            decided against Arianism and set forth the truth of the
  But in recent years several developments have. taken                      divinity of Christ. The last Council, prior to Vatican II,
place which have gained for the Roman Catholic Church                       was Vatican I, which assembled first in 1869. It was this
a great measure of respectability and even admiration in                    Council which established the dogma (for the Romish
the minds of many Protestants,  - particularly those in our                 Church) of papal infallibility when the pope spake  ex
country. These same developments have increased talk of                     cathedra.  It was this decision which led many to believe
the possibility of mergers, or at least, cooperation, with the              that there would never be another  ,ecumenical  council -
Roman Catholic Church. There was, first of all, the election                since now the pope could declare infallibly the position of
of a Roman Catholic president in our country. Secondly,                     the church. Preceding Vatican Council I', had been the
there was the terrible assassination of this same president                 Council of Trent, which met between 1545 and 1563. It
with the resultant nationally televised Roman Catholic                      was this council which set forth the Romish doctrines,
funeral service., Finally, and of continuing impact, there.                 opposing those taught by the Reformers.
has been the Roman Catholic Council which has been                             The present council, number twenty-one, according to
meeting at the Vatican in Rome.                                             Romish calculations, began meeting on October 11, 1962.
  It is this last event that I plan to consider in this and                 Its second session opened on September 29, 1963 and con-
subsequent articles.. Will this Council indeed "renew" the                  cluded this .past December 4. In how many more sessions
Romish Church, as the late Pope John wished? Will it serve                  and how many more years this council will meet, no one
as a beginning step toward reunion between Rome and the                     knows for sure. Estimates range from one concluding ses-
"separated brethren? We might well ask also if this Coun-                   sion this summer (1964) to as long as ten or more years.
cil is not a preliminary step toward the establishment of                   THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL  '
the one antichristian church which will seek to suppress                      Modem-day councils must be convoked by the pope him-
and kill the true Church of Jesus .Christ  shortly before- He               self. From the various accounts given, it appears that
returns.                                                                    Pope John XXIII originally and suddenly conceived of the
  It must be noted that, though there are criticisms con-                   idea of a council, and convoked it even over opposition of
cerning the present progress of the Second Vatican Council,                 a large part of the Curia.
men are almost unanimous in evaluating the Council and                              A few months after his election in 1958 Pope John XXIII
its purposes favorably. Typical of  s&h evaluation is the                         was talking  .about the ttate of the church with his secretary
article- Pope John's Great Gift:            -                                     of state, the  ,late   Domenico  Cardinal Tardini. The prospects
                                                                                  for de future  could not have been reassuring. . . . Suddenly,
            Measured even against the other portentous events of 1962,            as the Pope recalled it recently:
      the turning point that Christianity reached in the opening ses-               "Our soul was illuminated by a great idea which we felt in
      sion of the Ecumenical Council in Rome is already assured a                 that instant and received with indescribable trust in the Divine
      firm place in history. By convening the council to "renew" the              Lkster. A word solemn -and binding rose to our lips:. `A,
      Roman Catholic Church, Pope John XXIII set in motion ideas                  c0uJ-Jcjy  "3
      and forces that will affect not only all Christians, but the whole       At the first session cf Vatican II there were gathered some -
      world's population long after the  secuiar  concerns of this tense
      yet hope-filled time have dimmed.1           -                        2,700 Roman  Cathol!::  ieaders (compared to approximately
THE HISTORY OF "ECUMENICAL"  COUiUCiiS                                      750 at Vatican I). This gathering represented the Roman
   What would an "ecumenical council" be? A council is an                   Catholic hierarchy of the entire world:' cardinals, patriarchs,
assembly met for deliberation or to give advice. "Ecumeni-                  primates, archbishops and bishops, and the abbots and


                                                            T H E -   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                         299

,         superiors of certain orders. These men are called upon to                          bled and collated in  iifteen volumes totaling more than nine
          decide. Their decisions, subject only to papal confirmation,                       thousand pages. The  first volume, the only one made public,
          are binding on all Roman Catholics3                                                contains the Pope's speeches that refer to the Council up to
                                                                                             the summer of 1960. The rest is secret as far as the public is
            One very serious question has been asked: why a council?                         concerned, but was classified and indexed for the convenience
          Many Protestant leaders were admittedly very surprised at                          of the various bodies engaged in preparing the work of the
          the convoCation  of this council. They were even more star-                     ColmciI.
          tled to hear the divergent views expressed at the sessions.                          Early in June, 1960, Pope Jobn announced the formation
          In his book, The Vatican. Council and All Christians, Claud                        of ten commissions besides a Central Commission, a Secretariat
                                                                                             for Promoting Christian Unity, and two other secretariats to
          D. Nelson states:                                                                  deal with administrative details. The ten commissions have
                 For our purpose let us say,  ihst, that the council is not a                dealt with  theoIogy,  the episcopacy, church  disciphne,  the re-
               parliament. Its acts are not binding unless and until they are                ligious orders;  the sacraments, the Sacred Liturgy, studies and
               approved by the pope. The pope, on the other hand, has ade-                   seminaries, the Oriental churches, missions;and the apostolate
               quate authority without the support of the council. . . . When                of the laity. . . . Also, an eleventh commission was added
     1         the pope makes it plain that he is speaking  ex  c&e&u,                       during the summer of 1960, to deal with ceremonies, protocol,
               his teaching is nevertheless considered as authoritative. . . .               and related matters.
                 Not only does the pope have  suf&ient authority to rule                       . . . Each of the preparatory bodies, organized according to
               without a council; he has an elaborate administrative  organiza-              its particular needs and materials, has -held  several plenary ses-
               tion. For each of the major concerns of the Church there is                   sions during the two years of preparation, bringing in members
     ~         a congregation, headed by a  ~cardinal, with an adequate staff.               and cons&ants from all over the world. Their work was passed
               . . . These various bodies are  CollectiveIy  referred to as de               on, in turn, to the Central Commission, which organized the
               `Curia," which means court in the old  monarcbial sense. Their                material for communication in advance to members of the as-
               members and staff resident in Rome number in the hundreds.                    sembly and thus, in effect, prepared the agenda.5
                 It is  not.  even necessary for the pope to assemble a council          After three and a half years of intensive preparation, the
               in order to have the advice of the bishops around the world.            council. began its sessions. Even then it appears to be very
               A very careful sort of referendum preceded the proclamation
               of the dogma of the assumption of the Virgin Mary. Also,                difhcult  to bring a schema to final adoption. The council
               bishops have their appointed schedule of regular visits to Rome         must first decide what material will be treated. Before the
               and to the pope, called  ed  limina  (to the threshold)?                iirst session, over seventy schemata (preliminary drafts)
            Yet, there were very good reasons for calling this council.                were projected. During the first session only five reached
          Pope John (who has been called "an intuitive being who                       the beginning of the voting stage and none were ready for
          can pierce to the heart of a matter without taking the cir-                  final adoption when the council recessed. By the time the.
          cuitous route of deeper and more discursive minds")                          second session opened, the number' of schemata had been
     1 astutely realized this. For, first of all, this proved to be's                  cut down to seventeen. Before the third session, the num-
          very effective (though expensive) means of keeping the                       ber likely will be even less.6
          Roman Catholic Church before the eyes of the world,  -                         The discussions and voting are evidently very protracted
     ~ for what news media failed to report the happenings of                          affairs. -Discussion is all in Latin, although at the second
     1 the council? But, secondly, and I believe primarily, the                        session a translation system was introduced. The members
          council is a deliberate attempt to change the image of the                   of the council, after discussion, must vote on each chapter
          Romish Church in the world's mind. Such a goal could                         of a certain schema. The vote can be one of three: pi&et
          hardly be attained apart from the council. It is true that a                 (approval),  pkzcet   jzctiu  modzim `(approval, but with  cer-
     1 definite attempt is being made to "renew" the Roman Cath-                       tain changes of expression), or  nm-placet (disapproval).                         .
          olic Church-but in a way that makes the Romish Church                        If there is disapproval, or approval but with reservations,
          appear very democratic (thus breaking down the old image                     the chapter of the schema must be reworked (in harmony
          of a one-man, authoritarian, popish rule and, consequently,                  with the desires of the majority of the council) by the
          removing many of the old Protestant fears of the hier-                       conciliar commission (composed. presently of thirty mem-
          archy); and the council is meant to convey the impression                    bers) appointed to treat  that aspect of the agenda. After a
          of religious liberty within the church - and even to those                   schema is fully approved, it becomes church law (and thus
          without. How successful this has already been is only too                    binding on all Roman Catholic members) only after it re-
          obvious when one reads the "Protestant" comments on the                      ceives papal confirmation. To date two schemata have been
          council.                                                                     so  con&med on December 4, 1963: The Constitution on
                                                                                       Sawed LiturgzJ and The  Corwtitution on Social Communica-
          THE, COUNCIL IN ACTION
            To give an idea of the preliminary work required before                    tion. These. I hope to. consider in greater detail later.
          the council even began to meet, I quote again from the                                                                                        G.V.B .
                                                                                       1.  Reader's Digest, April 1963, page 141
          book, The Council &d A71 Cliristians:                      -                 2. Robert T. Elson, Life, October 12, 1962
                      The first stage of the Council's work was designated as ante-    3. Time, February 9, 1959, pg. 54
               preparatory. This period lasted some eighteen months. During            4.  Claud D. Nelson,  Tlxe  Vatican Council and All Christians, Associa-
               that time, bishops and heads of seminaries around the world               tion Press, pp. 42-44
               consulted their fellow Catholics and sent in their opinions and         5. Ibid. pp. 47-49                                                           .
                desires with regard  t.o the Council. That material was  assem-        6. Council Jottings, America, November 9, 1963, page 553


 300            i                             T\HE  S T A N - D A R D   BEARE~R

                                                                   mit&e constitution, Paragraph 2, "We believe that the
    THE LORD GAVE THE WQRD....                                     `missionary activity includes the work of church extension,
                                                                   and church reformation, as well as the task of carrying out
                                               (Psalm 68:ll)       the Gospel to the unchurched and heathen. However, we
                                                                   are convinced that our present duty lies primarily in the
                                                                   field of church extension and church reformation."
   Radio Broadcasting ,as Mission Endeavor                            "Your committee further expresses:
    IS radio broadcasting mission work? This is the question          "1. That the pzcrpose  of radio broadcasting by the Mis-
 that has been raised repeatedly in connection. with our           sion Board is church extension and not the extension of
 mission program during the past years. Sometimes the ques-        already existing churches. Ground: Question 15 .asked by
 tion was asked: What is the purpose of radio broadcasting?        the Church Visitors, This implies that church extension
 Or again, Should our churches engage in radio broadcast-          work is the task of the local church in its area.
 ing in areas where it is impossible to follow up this ministry       "That in cases where., a local church furnishes good rea-
 by personal contact?                   _'                         sons for broadcasting in its local area, with a view to
    The "Mission Board Study Committee Report,"                    church extension, and where a local church needs help in
                                                         whicll
 we discussed already last month in the Standard  Beare?           broadcasting, it is permissible for the Mission Board to
 and which- will appear at the next synod, also treats             give financial assistance." (See complete report in the Acts
                                                           this
 matter of radio broadcasting rather extensively just because      o$ Synod, 1959, pp. 123-125. )
 the problem of radio broadcasting has been so intimately            The "Mission Committee Study Report" tells us, "The
 related to the various problems of mission endeavor during        synod of 1959, therefore, defined both the purpose and
 the past few years. Referring from time to time to this           scope of radio broadcasting by the Mission- Board as lim-
 report,. I shall follow the decisions of our past synods from     .ited to the work of church extension. And we may remark
 1955 to our present time.                                         in this connection that  the synod of 1959 was the first to
                                                                   regulate radio broadcasting."
The Synod of 1958.                                                   This conclusion of the "Mission Committee Study Re- .
   At this synod the Mission Board reported as follows: "Ac-       port" is correct if only we bear in mind that the problem
 cording to the decision of the `synod of 1957, your commit-       before the 1959 Synod was: chzrrch extension ory,e.xtznding
 tee took on another broadcasting station. This station is         local  chrches. During the years  I957 to I959 the Synod
 located in Beaverdam, Wisconsin, and covers the area of           had taken on radio stations in eaverdam.,  Wisconsin, and
 our Randolph congregation and the surrounding communi-            in Bellingham, Washington, to give support to the local
 ties, . .  a Thus we are now broadcasting ,from Oskaloosa,        churches. To this the Synod of .I959 objected, stating that
 Iowa; Bellingham, Wasbington; and Beaverdam, Wisconsin.           the purpose of radio broadcasting is church extension, and
 . . . We advise Synod to continue these stations for another      should therefore `be adapted to our Mission effort in gen-
 year."                                                            eral and to the labors of the missionary in particular." The
   The I958 synod decided to appoint a study committee,            Mission Board was advised to discontinue the radio sta-
 "who shall:                                                       tions in Beaverdam and in Bellingham. (See Acts, art.  P37,
   "I. Investigate the entire matter of radio broadcasting         Pg.  47.)
      by the denomination and by the' Mission Board at               This also accounts for  `the fact that the synod of I960
         present,                                                  did not hesitate to adopt a much broader policy in radio
"2. And report to the next Synod."                                 broadcasting than the church extension mentioned in the
   The Synod of 1959.                                              Acts of 1959.
  -At this synod. the committee appointed in 1958, brought           Synod of 1960.
 its report.                                                         Quoting from the "Mission Board Study Committee Re-
   As to the principle of radio broadcasting, the committee        port," "The synod of 1966 also adopted. a distinct definition
 reported, `Your committee is agreed that radio can be, used       of the purpose of radio broadcasting by the Mission Board.
 as a proper means for Mission endeavor, . . . we find it          From its decision to assent to the work of the Board con-
 proper that the Synod, through its Mission Board, enters          cerning foreign broadcasting, and to `declare this work com-
 into the labor of radio broadcasting." And grounds are            mendable, we also conclude that the synod' adopted the.
 also'furnished for this conclusion. See Acts, 1959, pg. 123.      conclusion of the Board `that the most effective way `to
   As to the radio work that was carried on by the Mission         achieves  this purpose (witness of God's sovereign grace)
 Board, the Committee reported: `Your committee #reaches           at present is to enter the field of foreign broadcasting.'
 the conclusion that radio broadcasting by the denomination        ( Cf. B. p. 139, Acts, 1960. ) And -that this was the mind
 should be adapted to our Mission effort in general and to         of the synod of 1960 is seen from its decisions to contract
 the labors of our  missionary(  ies) in particular. Ground:       for foreign broadcasting and to instruct the Mission Board -
 This is in.harmony  with the pre-amble of our Mission Com-        to prepare a long range plan for future mission'work; this


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                301

latter  to include what tapes to be used in foreign broad-         the synod of  1963.  decided. upon  two matters re radio
casts. (Cf. Art. 116, p. 38; 4), p. 141, Acts 1960.)               b r o a d c a s t i n g .
   `Thus the synod of 1960 adopted a distinct definition~of           "1. The first matter is related to the action taken in
the purpose of radio broadcasting by our churches. And             1962 in which synod referred the long range plan for future
that this definition applies not only to foreign.broadcasting,     mission work to the Domestic Mission Board, authorizing
but also to domestic is substantiated when, in the adopted         it to carry out the present feasible recommendations of the
report it is stated that the witness to the truth of God's         plan. The Mission Board reported that it had not .acted on
sovereign grace 5s being done in our own cormtry through           the authorization. Consequently the synod of 1963 decided
the efforts of our missionary and through our radio broad-         to  `ins%ruct the Mission Committee to do the work and
casting in various parts of the country." (Cf. B, p. 139,          report to the next, synod.' (Acts 1963, art 122, p. 33.)
Acts 1960.)                                                           `2. The second matter had to do with advice rendered
   At this synod the Mission. Board was instructed to con-         by synod's committee of pre-advice on mission matters." In
tract for broadcasting with the Voice of Tangier, Mono&            this connection the question arose concerning possible dis-
and also Station Hoyer, West Indies. Moreover,' the Mission        crepancies between the decisions, of synod during the period
Board was instructed to prepare a long range plan for fu-          from- 1959 to 1963. And it. is with those possible discrep-
ture foreign mission work.                                         ancies that the MBSC has prepared the report we. have
                                                                   just discussed.
  Synod of 1961.
- The MBSC informs us concerning this synod, "In  con;               The Synod of 1964.
nection  with our mandate we need only remark that the               The matter of domestic and foreign radio broadcasting
synod of 1961 continued in the footsteps of the synod of           will also appear  on- the agenda of the 1964 synod. The
1960. It decided to continue both the domestic-and for-            synod will have to decide on continuing the stations we now
eign broadcasting authorized by the previous synod and             have in the United States- or possibly even adding to these
adopted budgets for both approximating those adopted in            stations.
1960. In so doing it re-afhrmed  the position of the synod           At present the Reformed Witness Hour is being aired
.of 1960 as to the mission calling of our- churches and as         from six stations in our country. Three of these stations,
to the purpose70f  radio broadcasting by the Mission Board."       Those in Grand Rapids and Holland, Michigan  and. in
                                                                   Pottstown, Pennsylvania, have been supported by the radio'
  The Synod of 1962.                                               committee of First Church, Grand Rapids. Two of these
  At this synod the committee appointed to prepare a long          stations are being sustained financially by the Mission Board
range plan for foreign mission work presented its report in        of our  churches,  namely,  Oskaloosa, Iowa and  I-Iouston,
which it expressed that "it remains a fact that there' are,        Texas.       ne of them is almost completely supported by the
small but strong bastions of  the truth here and there             Mission Board, but the Radio Committee of First Church
throughout these (foreign) countries. Rearing  these  things       has also contributed to this station during the past two
in mind we see the calling of our cburcbes  %oday %d direct        years. This,  is the station that has %be wide coverage in
its attention towards these remnannts  according to election       the West, namely, Yankton, South Dakota.
of grace to warn them of the dangers of apostacy,  call them         Besides these stations, we have also two stations  that           -
out of the apostatizing churches, and restore %hem to the          reach beyond our own country. The one is the small sta-
Church of Jesus Christ." In this connection it was also men-       tion in Curacao, West Indies, which has always offered its
tioned by the study committee that the purpose of radio            services without  charges. The  other is tbe Trans-World
broadcasting is "to dind out where these groups of believers       Radio from Nlonte Carlo extending over the continent: of
may still be in order that through  this. means the Lord           Europe into England. The manager of this station informs
may point us to field of labor." (Cf. Acts, 1962, p. 65.)          us that we have a distinctively Reformed witness which is
  Tlius the MBSC (Mission Board Study Committee) re-               being appreciated particularly by those of Reformed per-
port  states,, "In this connection it is worthy of note that in    suasion both in England and in %urope.
%he last sentence under B, 3 of the plan we read concerning
                    ,-                                               A new station is opening in Bonaire, Netherlands An-
the purpose of radio broadcasting that "this is already being      tilles, that will reach down into South America to'the  south,
accomplished in our own country." This can only mean that          and into the United States, including Jamaica, as far as the
the above defined purpose of radio  broadcas%ing  is applied       south-eastern States. This station also belongs to the Trans-
not  .only to foreign broadcasting, but also. to %ha%  on the      World Radio and has offered us some very good time slots
domestic scene. All radio broadcasting comes under this
definition."                                                       at comparatively reasonable rates.
                                                                    Although our denomination is numerically small, we have
  The Synod of 1963.                                               had a wonderful ~opportunity  to proclaim the %ruth of God's
 ..`The MBSC report informs us, "Aside from authorizing            sovereign grace far abroad throughout the world. May the
the continuation of radio broadcasting over stations previ-        Lord direct us in this calling also in the future.          C.H.
ously used, and adopting budgets to cover needed expenses,                                      (Continzl&   on  page  303)

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

                                                                       This  means that we are also a step or two removed
                       H I'S  F  E A  R                              from the consciousness of our needs and their supply by
                                                                     an almighty and sovereign God. Rain for us is nothing
                                                                     more than a nuisance. Sunshine is that which will give ns
                                                                     a nice coat of tan. The two essentials which we get en-
                 Elread for His Service                              tirely free of charge are for us nothing more than either
                                                                     a nuisance or that which we can press into the service of
   Here in these climes there are increasing evidences of the        our flesh. That rising of the sun each morning is such a
 return of Spring. In our complex life of today this has lost        common occurrence that we fail to see the wonder of it.
 so much of its significance. In our pleasure-mad world the          We take it for granted and would  .consider it a wonder
 outlook of man is so different from `what it was only a few         only if it did not come up tomorrow morning. The scien-
 generations ago. We live so far away from the soil today.           tist will explain to you exactly what causes the rain, what
 That all our food is grown in the soil and comes to  US             conditions must be present before it can rain, and how
 directly or indirectly from that soil `is `to today's child well    much rain we can expect out of a certain cloud formation
 nigh a revelation. Yet the fact remains that we, who have           and approaching storm. It is all quite a natural thing,
 been created out of the dust of the earth, depend upon that         and the God, Whose wonder it is is left entirely out of the
: earth for the necessities of our life. Man has erected and         picture.
 runs some wonderful factories. But he can never approach              The farmer who knows the value of rain and sunshine,
 the "factories" which God has created. Each and every               who scans the sky the fist thing in the morning and takes
 plant is a wonderful factory that manufactures  our food            note of it in the evening before the sun has gone so far
 for us or supplies with food the beast of the field whose           behind the horizon that no rays of light reach us any more,
 flesh we will consume or whose milk we will drink.                  is not necessarily more spiritual and more apt to believe in
   Two plants next to each other in the same soil, receiving         God. He has a better opportunity to observe the works of
 the same amount of rain and sunshine will produce strongly          God. `But that in itself will never make him a better Chris-
 contrasting fruits. Not only may the color be red instead           tian or a more faithful steward of God's goods and priest
 of green, but the taste may be sweet rather than bitter.            over His creation. But a life close to the earth, a life
 The flesh may be hard or soft, covered with a hard shell            where we live more fully in the consciousness of our utter
 or have a pithy core. But each Plant will produce its own           dependency upon God, has its advantages and blessings
 kind. Without these plants we could not live, even though           for the believer. There can be-no doubt about it that our
 we could live without man's processing plants and preserv-          complex, highly specialized life with all the inventions and
 ing and packing plants. Upon God's `factories" we depend.           ."labor saving devices" have all served to foster that carnal
 Man's factories make it easier for us to have fruits out of         position in which God is not in all our thoughts. He is in
 season and to ship them from one corner of our country to           so little of our thought. Between Him and us we have
 another. But how would we, who `are of the dust of the              allowed so much to be brought. We see little or no con-
 earth and depend upon that dust, be sustained by it, were           nection between His rain and sunshine and the can of
 it not for these plants which draw out of the soil the              food we have opened or the frozen vegetables we have
 minerals and elements which we need, combining them with            heated for our meal.
 the sunlight and. oxygen in the air, and make palatable
 food for us?                                                          So far have we separated ourselves from Him in our
                                                                     way of life that we almost question the need of praying,
   Yet we are rapidly becoming a generation that lives out           "Give us this day our daily bread." Prayer Day services, -
 of cans and packages. We know  .our stores and super-               which are held the second Wednesday of March by the
 markets where these foodstuffs may be purchased. Our                churches who hold on to the Reformed faith,  - are rapidly
 children see them as the source ,of all our food; and the           losing their significance for us. There are so many other
 farmer and farm behind that store are not known to them.            matters which seem so much more important. A special
 Paul tells Timothy, however, that "the husbandman that              day of prayer for crops is overshadowed by the need for a
 laboureth  must be first partaker of the fruits." It is rarely      special day of prayer for peace and the removal of the.
 today that we get vine-ripened and tree-ripened fruit. It. international tension of a cold war. Besides, we have our
 must be picked before it is ripe and has its best taste, for        lockers and freezers full. The table is heavily laden with
 it must be shipped and be displayed on the counter or               food; and `man has learned to farm  scientically,  so that
 shelf. Otherwise it must be salted or heated and preserva-          there is an abundance of food, more than we can use and
 tives must be added. And we miss so much of that which              that must be destroyed because there is no market, and it
 our grandparents were wont to enjoy. All this is supposed           spoils before it can be consumed. To pray, "Give us  :&is
 to be in the name of progress. But all this surely does             day our daily bread," seems to be outdated, or at best it
 make us a step or more removed from the soil from whence            seems to be a prayer that `we can pray only in times of
 our food&i&  come.                                                  famine and depression.


                                            THE;   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               303

   How difficult for us to live in His fear!                         God. `Had they listened to that word and heeded it, they
    It would seem as though the only time we can live in             would not have died. Now they were driven from the free
  His fear is when we are in need and in trouble. For the            of life and physical death began its destructive process in
 rest we can forget God and have little consciousness of             their flesh. They could eat and eat and eat some more of
 need of Him. He gave promise that seedtime  and harvest,            the same foods they formerly used; but that very eating
 cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night            now destroyed their bodies and in process of time wore
 shall not cease till Christ returns. A promise like that we        them out. Now, as the world says, "You just cannot win."
 can easily believe as long as there is seedtime  and harvest.      We must eat to live; and yet the food we eat wears out the
 Even the ungodly world after the flood found it quite to           body and brings us ultimately to death.
 its liking to believe the Word of God that He would no                For man is a spiritual being as well as, a physical being.
 more destroy the world with a flood. That meant for them           He needs spiritual food as well as physical. And he MUST
 that they could go ahead with their carnal ambitions. It           live by .every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of
 meant that they had time to subdue the earth and conquer           God. When he eats physical bread in defiance of that word
 it for the flesh without fear of being interrupted once again.     that proceeds forth from the mouth of God, he will not
 That also explains why the followers of Nimrod dared to            only enter into physical death but into the eternal death
 build their tower and city of Babel in the plain of Shinar.        of hell. All the earthly bread he may eat cannot keep him
 There was no attempt to build it on the highest mountain.          from that awful end. But living by the words that proceed
 0, the ungodly do believe. So do. the devils. Even as they         from the mouth of God he may enter into physical death
 did not believe in the first flood, now they do not believe        and live forever in the glory of God's kingdom.
 in another one. If there is that which is to their advantage,        And so as the season is again at hand when our seed is
 they will gladly believe it. If Jesus would only be an             entrusted to the soil, and we wait for God's cheering rain
 earthly king, the Jews would gladly have received Him as           and warming sunshine, let us not neglect the spiritual
 their king and believed that He was the promised Messiah.          bread of life. We live in His fear only when we seek bread
 And so still today, man is willing to believe that the sun         in order to be able to serve Him. Paul declares that "every
 will rise tomorrow, that we will get sufficient rain for a         creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be
 harvest in the Fall. Somewhere the sun will shine. Some-           received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctsed by the word
 where the rain will fall; and if it does not, man will in          of God and prayer." Let us then receive all in thanksgiv-
 his ingenuity steer the melting snow in his irrigation ditches     ing. The creature is good. It is our use of it that is so very
 or pipe under pressure the waters of the rivers and ponds          often sinful. We seek it to consume it in our lusts. It never
 for his crops. It seems as though we are becoming less and         reaches any higher than our carnal, selfish ambitions, even
 less in need of God and can overcome His drought.                  though it is God's creature.
   There is need for us to reconsider. There is need today            Of Him and through Him and unto Him are all things.
 for some serious reflection for the sake of our faith. It was      How necessary then. that in our lives all things are con-
not without reason that Jesus raised the question, "Shall           scioudy  and 2L;illingZy  of Him, through Him, and unto Him.
 the Son of man find faith?" It is not without reason that He       In His fear we will live in the consciousness of our utter
 declared that unless the days would be shortened the very          dependency upon Him, we will be thankful for every
 elect would be deceived. They shall not be deceived. God           creature which He gives us and then reveal this by using
has and will have His seven thousand who do not bow the             all of His creation in His service. In His fear is in His
 knee to Baal. But it will be di.fEcult  for them and for their     service. In His fear means that we know that He is God
 children. Make no mistake about that. The' whole world             and that we manifest this in obedience before Him.
under Satan's influence and spurred on by the spirit of the                                                                J.A.H.
 antichrist, man in his lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and
pride of life, all touch us and our children. And being by                       THE LORD GAVE THE WORD . . . .
nature part of that wicked, depraved, and godless world,
we speed along with the world in its godless thinking and                               (Conthued   from  page 301)
progress.                                                             Note: Our readers may be interested in knowing that
   Let us not try to live by bread alone. It simply cannot          another transistor recorder has been donated by a. family
be done. One can exist by bread alone as the ox and the             in one of our Michigan churches to be sent to Rev. Elliott,
mule can live by earthly food alone. But no man has yet             in order that his churches also may benefit from our ser-
lived by bread alone. Show me a man whose life has been             mons in their Sunday worship services. Moreover, that
to this day sustained by bread alone. All have died; and            former members of the Rock Valley church have `donated
it is appointed unto  all men once to die,  - even though           Psalters for Jamaica, which are being sent to these churches
some may attain to a far riper age than others. Adam and            by our congregation in Hull, Iowa. We are grateful  with.
Eve found out that living by bread kills. They were to              the churches in Jamaica for this means of closer contact
live by the words that proceeded forth .from the mouth of           with each other.                                        C.H.


  304        '                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
  (j                                                                 as we have observed, they sometimes distinguish them with
           Contending  ..For The Faith                               various titles, to celebrate the dignity of the mystery. . . .
                                                                1 But, say our opponents, if there be a conversion, one thing
                                                                     must be changed into another. If they mean that some-
                                                                     thing is made what it was not before, I agree with them
           The Church and the Sacraments -,                          (Calvin means with this statement that the bread and wine,
           THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION                               which continue to be bread and wine, nevertheless are
                                                                     changed inasmuch as formerly they were merely bread
  VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORDS SUPPER)                             and wine, but now they are symbols of the body and blood
                                                                     of our Lord. H.V.). If they wish to apply this to their
                  THE REFORMED VIEW                                  absurd notion, let them tell me what change they think
 We concluded our preceding article with  tl$ remark                 takes place in baptism., For in that also the fathers state
  that what we had quoted of John Calvin from his "Insti-            a wonderful conversion, when they say, that from the cor-
  tutes" in connection with his conception of the Lord's             ruptible element proceeds a spiritual ablution of the sod,
  Supper' ought to be su5cient.  However, while reading from         yet not one of them denies that it retains the substance of
  this amazing work of the reformer of Geneva, I came upon           water."
  certain remarks which I would. like to pass on to  OUT               In paragraph 15, Calvin refers to I Cor.  10:4, and we
readers, in addition to what we quoted in our preceding              quote : "They would never have been so shamefully deluded
  article. All these quotations are from Book IV, Chapter            by the fallacies of Satan, if they had not been previously
  XVII.                                                              fascinated with this error-that the body of Christ con-
    In paragraph 14 Calvin writes that the Roman Catholic            tained in the bread was received in a corporeal.manner  into
  doctrine of transubstantiation is a conception of recent in-       the mouth, and actually swallowed. The cause of such a
  vention, and we quote: "Hence proceeded that pretended             stupid notion was, that they considered the consecration as
  transubstantiation, for which they now contend with more           a  kind of magical incantation. But they were unacquainted
  earnestness than for all the other articles of their faith. For    with this principle, that the bread is a sacrament only to
  the first inventors of the local presence were unable to           those to whom the word is addressed; as the water of bap-
  e~xplain  how the body of Christ could be mixed with the           tism is not changed in itself, but on the annexation of the
  substance of the bread, without being immediately embar-           promise, begins to be to us that which it was not before.
 rassed by many absurdities. Therefore they found it neces-          This will be further elucidated by the example of a simi-
  sary to have recourse to this fiction, that the bread is trans-    lar sacrament. The water which flowed from the rock in
 muted into the body of Christ; not that his body is properly        the wilderness, was to the fathers a token and sign of the
 made of the bread, but that Christ annihilates the sub-             same thing which is represented to us by the wine in the
 stance of the bread, and conceals himself under its form.           sacred supper; for Paul says, `They did drink the same
 It is astonishing that they could fall into such ignorance,         spiritual drink.' But the same water served also for their
  and even stupidity, as to promulgate such a monstrous              flocks and herds. Hence it is easily inferred; that when
 notion, in direct opposition to the Scripture and to the            earthly elements `are applied to a spiritual use, no other
 doctrine of the primitive Church. I confess, indeed, that           change takes place in them than with regard to men, to
 some of the ancient writers sometimes used the word  con-           whom they become seals of the promise." In this quotation
 `version,  not with a view to destroy the substance of the          Calvin refers to the incident in the wilderness, when God
 external signs, but to signify that the bread dedicated to          supplies His people with water out of the rock. Now we
 that sacrament is unlike common bread, and different from           know that the Scriptures declare to us that this Rock is
 what it was before. But they all constantly. and expressly          Christ. So, the water which flowed from the rock in the
 declare, that the sacred supper consists of two parts, earthly      wilderness was to the -fathers a token and sign of the same
and heavenly;' and the earthly part they explain, without            thing which is represented to us- by the wine in the Lord's
 the least hesitation, to be bread and -wine. Whatever `the          Supper. This means that whatever change  takes place, does
 Romanists may pretend, it is very clear that the .authority         not take place in the elements of the bread and wine (inas-
of the ancients, which they frequendy presume to oppose              much as also the flocks and herds partook of the water),
 to the plain word of God, affords them no assistance in the         but only in the men who partake of them.
 support of this dogma; and, indeed, it is comparatively but           In paragraph 22 Calvin answers the charge that the re-
 of recent invention, for it was, not onlly unknown to those         formers have no high regard for the authority of Christ,
 better times, when the doctrine of religion still flourished        and we quote: "But if some  .obstinate man, shutting his
in its purity, but even when that purity had already been            eyes against every other consideration, should insist on this
 much corrupted. There is not one of the ancient writers             single expression, `This is my body,' as though it made a
 who does not acknowledge in express terms that the con-             distinction between- the supper and all other sacraments,
 secrated symbols of the supper are bread and wine; though,          the answer is easy. They allege that the verb substantive


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               305

is too emphatical to admit of any figure. If we giant this,           I would conclude this article by calling attention to two
the verb substantive is also used by Paul,' where he says,         more paragraphs from @lvin's "Institutes." Iri paragraph
`The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the          23 we read the following: "The objection which they urge,
body of, Christ? But the communion.of  the body is- some-          from the improbability that Christ, when he was preparing
thing different from the body itself. In almost all cases of       peculiar consolation for his disciples in seasons of adversity,
sacraments, we find the same word used  - `This is my              should express himself in enigmatical or obscure language,
covenant.' `it is the Lord's Passover.' And to mention no          ,is completely in our favour. For if it had not been under-
more, when Paul says, `That Rock was Christ,' why do they          stood by the apostles, that the bread was called his body in
consider the verb substantive less emphatical in that pas-         a figurative sense, because it was a symbol of his body, they '
sage than in the speech of Christ? Let them also explain           would undoubtedly have been disturbed about so monstrous
the force of the verb substantive in that place where John         a declaration. Almost- at the same moment, John states that
says, `The Holy Ghost ,~LXXS  not yet, because that Jesus was      they were. embarrassed and perplexed with every minute
not yet glorified.' For if they obstinately adhere to their        difficulty. They who debated among themselves how Christ
rule, they will destroy the eternal existence of the- Spirit,      was to go to the Father, and were at a loss to know how he
as if it commenced at the ascension of Christ. Let them            would depart from this world; who could understand noth-
answer,  $  the last place, what is the meaning of Paul,           ing that was said of a heavenly Father, because they had
when he calls baptism `the washing of regeneration, and            not seen him;, how could they have been so ready to believe
renewing,' though it is evidently useless to many. But             any thing so entirely repugnant to every dictate of reason,
nothing is more conclusive against them than that passage          as that Christ was sitting at the table before their eyes, &d
where Paul says, that the  ChUrch  is Christ. For having           yet was invisibly enclosed in the bread? By `eating' the
drawn a similitude from. the human body, he adds, `So also         bread without any hesitation, they testified their consent,
is Christ'; by which he means not the  only begotten Son           and hence it  aphears that they understood the words of
of God, in himself, but in his members. I think I have SO          Christ in the same sense that we do, considering. that it is
far succeeded, that all `men of sense and integrity must be        common in all sacraments for the name of the sign to be
disgusted with the foul calumnies of our adversaries, when         tiansfetied  to the thing signified." This reasoning of Calvin
they charge us with giving no credit to the words of Christ,       is surely plain. Would not the disciples, had they not un-
which we receive with as much submission as themselves,            derstood the Saviour to be referring to bread and wine, h
and consider with greater reverence. Indeed, their supine          the ordinary sense of the word, have questioned the Saviour
negligence is a proof that it is a subject of little concern to    as to the .meaning of His words, "This is my body?" They
them, what was the will or meaning of Christ, provided             understood so little of what Jesus told them. And they would
they can use him as a shield to defend their obstinacy; as         understand the Saviour in the sense that Roman Catholicism
our diligence in inquiring into Christ's true meaning is a         understands the words of the institution of the Lord's Sup-
sufEcient  proof of our high regard to his authority. They         per? This is impossible.                     1
maIiciously  represent, that human reason prevents us from
believing what Christ himself has declared with his sacred           Finally, Calvin refers to the words of the SaViour  that He
mouth; but how unjustly they stigmatize us with this re-           would not always be with His disccples in the midst of the
proach, I have explained, in a great measure, already, and         world.. He tells them, .iri plain language, that He will pres-
shall presently make still more evident; Nothing prevents          ently leave them and go to His Father. ,Lutheranism con-
us, therefore, from believing Christ when he speaks, and           tends that the body and blood of our Lord are ubiquitous,
immediately acquiescing in every word he utters. The only          everywhere present. The ubiquity of Christ's body and
question is whether,it bk- criminal to inquire into his genu-      blood is one of the grounds  for' their conception of  con-
ine meaning." It is evident from this passage that when            substantiation.  But Christ declares unto' His disciples that
Roman Catholicism, and Lutheran&m,  too, lay all empha-
sis upon the word, "is," in the expression: "This is  -my          he would presently leave them, and that He would not be
body," they completely fail to lay an equal emphasis upon          with them in the midst of the world. The advent or coming
similar passages in the Word of God; and this surely proves        of the Spirit, and the ascension of Christ, are clearly op-
that they deliberately  interpret  the Scriptures simply to        posed to each other; and, therefore, it is impossible for          _
suit themselves and their own conception of the sacrament          Ctist'to dwell with us, according to His flesh, in the same
of the Lord's Supper. I-t is common throughout the Word            manner in which He sends His Spirit. And Calvin concludes
of God that not only is the name of something superior             this paragraph by calling  .attention  to the fact that also
transferred to that which is inferior, but, on the contrary,       Augustine gives the same interpretation to that passage in
the name `of the visible. sign is likewise given to the thing      which Christ declares that Him they would not always have
signified; as when-God  is said to have appeared to Moses          with them. This passage is recorded in Matt. 26:11, in the
in the bush, when the ark of the covenant is called God,           home of Simon the leper, where Jesus was anointed by                    .
and the Holy Spirit a dove.                                        Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.                  -H.V.


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I/====Ezof] ated,for a little while beneath the angels; but in Christ the
                                                                  old things and the former relationship are restored. And
                                                                  from this restored relationship we  ,can deduce what the
                                                                  original relationship  between  man and the angels was.

                 The Belgic Confession                              Now what must we think of this interpretation?.
                       ' hTICLE XI                                  In the first place, we would surely grant at once that the
                        i continued)                              passage in Hebrews 2 and that of Psalm 8 are in essential
The Nat&e and  Work of the  An@ (continued)                       agreement, and that Dr. Schilder in his book proceeds cor-
  ,Summarizing the view of Dr. K. Schilder,, cited in the         rectly when he views the two passages in connection with
last issue from  "Wat Is De  Hemel?",  we find the follow-        each other. We must certainly proceed on the supposition
i n g   e x p r e s s e d :                                       that the words of de  c$otation  in Hebrews 2 have  essen-
  l/ Man is from the beginning  G~d's highest  crkature,          @lly the same meaning as in Psalm 8, from which they
especially when he is viewed in his potential expansion:          are quoted. But then, if we consult the context in Psalm
the whole of humanity. Humanity is greater than the host          8, it is plainly evident that the psalmist describes man not
of angels. And before what is called the "evolution" of           as he is fallen through his own  wilful disobedience, but
humanity  (refeltig  evidently to the fall), this greatness       as he was originally created by God and as he, according
of man over the angels  m,+nifested  itself in all its glory.     to God's purpose, shall be through grace in Christ Jesus.
In the sphere of the creature humanity has a richer poten-        The claim is made that  *Psalm 8 is written from the stand-
tial of expression and a more broadly functioning life than       point of the fall, and that this is substantiated `by the
the angel.                                                        mention of the "enemy" and the `avenger" in verse ,2. But
  2/ While in itself it  proves nothing that the angel is         this hardly holds ivith respect to the contents of the psalm-
called a "ministering spirit" in Hebrews 1:7, nevertheless        ist's contemplation. While the psalmist himself is in a
the excellence of man over the angels is clearly taught in        fallen world, in the midst of the enemy ,and the avenger,
Hebrews 2: 7.                                                     he nevertheless contemplates the work of creation. There
 - 3/ The passage in Hebrews 2 appears to teach the op-           is absolutely nothing in the psalm which indicates a refer-
posite, namely, ,that man was created a little lower than         ence to the fact of sin and of  the fall. Consider the con-
the angels; these words, however, are written not from the        text: "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
viewpoint of the  original  position of man in the state of       the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What:
rectitude, but from the viewpoint of the fallen  wo&Z. In         is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man,
the fallen world man is lower `than the angels.                   that thou visitest him?  Fdr thou hast made him a little
  4/ This view rests on several exegetical grounds. In the        lower than the angels,. and hast crowned him with glory
first place, it is claimed, Psalm 8 is written from the stand-    and honour. Thou made& him to have dominion over the
point of the fillen world, as is evident from the mention         works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his
of the "enemy" and the "avenger" in verse 2. Hence, if, as        feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
Noordtzij claims, to man is ascribed in this psalm an almost      The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
divine, being and' a super-earthly glory, then even, this is      passeth through the paths of the seas." Ps. 8:3-S. In this
true of man as  he lives in a  fallen  world, which is only       entire dontext  there is no indication whatsoever that man
more proof of the exalted position of man in the original         `Was made a little lower than the angels" through sin. The
state of righteouiness. In the second place, it is claimed        only explanation that fits is that man was thus made ovig-
that the expression "`made  a .little  lower than the angels"     I,rzuZZy  by God that he was a little lower  than the  ang+s.
really refers to an act of humiliation, not to a creative act     There is no ground in Scripture for the idea that man by
whereby man was created in a lower position than the              virtue of his creation was king over all the works of God's
angels. This humiliation, which took place at the fall, pre-      hands and `that he ruled over the whole creation. Man was
supposes that man is brought from a higher position to a          indeed king, but he was not king over heavenly things,
lower position. In the third` place, the argument is that         and thus, not higher than the angels. According to the
the Greek for "a little" can also mean. "for a short time,"       record in Genesis, God said, "Let us make man in our
and that in  this instance it means just this, because the        image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over
text draws a contrast between what man first is and what          the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
he later shall receive. He shall receive a glory in which         the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
all things shall  be subject to him, including the angels.        thing that creepeth upon the earth." Gen. 1:26. And again,
This glory pertains to Christ, in the first place; but by         in verse 28: `And God blessed them, and God said unto
grace it presently pertains also to others.                       them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
  5/ Hence, in conclusion, man was originally more glori-         gnd subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the
ous than the angels; through sin and the fall he is humili-       sea, and  oyer the fowl of  +e air,  and over every living


                                            T . H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              307

thing that moveth upon the earth." By virtue of his crea-            offered in "Wat Is De Hemel?" a mistaken interpretation
tion man was emphatically .an eiwthZy king over an ewthZy            of .Hebrews  2:9, where the quotation from Psalm 8 is ap-
kingdom. And this was entirely in harmony with the nature            plied to the Lord Jesus Christ: "But we see Jesus, who
with which he was created. For the first man, Adam, was              was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
 of the earth, earthy. I Corinthians 15:47. There is no single       of death, crowned with glory and honour." The mistaken
indication in all of Scripture that he, was also king over           interpretation is that the Lord Jesus through the suffering
heavenly things, the angels included. To be sure, the di-            of death was made a little lower than the angels.  This
vinely conceived destiny of man, according to the counsel            same mistake is made in our King James Version by placing
 of God, was that he should have dominion over all things,           the comma after "death" instead of after "angels." And the
the heavenly things included. But that destiny could never-          mistake. is compounded by the marginal rendering of the
be reached by Adam, who was of the earth, earthy, and                word "`for" by the word <`by." The original Greek does not
who was made a living soul; it would only be achieved by             allow this rendering. The expression in the Greek means
the Lord from heaven, Who became the quickening Spirit.              "on account of the suffering of death (&a to patheemi -LOU
   In the second place, what a strange designation of the            thanatou)  ." And the expression properly belongs' with the
fall and of man in his fallen condition it would be to say           words "crowned with glory and honour," so that' the whole
merely that `he was made a lit&lower than the angels.`"              sentence reads as follows,: "But we Jesus, who was made
Consider the implications here. Man, who, according to               a little .lower  than the angels, on account of the suffering
this view, stood in a position of dominion over the whole            of death crowned with glory and honour." The text there-
creation under God, was served even ,by the angels. And              fore tells us that the reason for Christ's glorious exaltation,
now he is fallen into the horrible misery of sin and guilt           His being crowned with glory and honour,  liesin  His deep
and death; he is dead through trespasses and sins, darkened          humiliation, the suffering of death. And thus interpreted,
in his understanding, perverse in his will, alienated from           the expression "made a little lower than the angels" refers
the life of God, is become a child of hell, and is destined,         neither to the humiliation of man in the fall nor to the
unless the grace of God rescues him, for everlasting deso-           voluntary Self-humiliation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Glation. And, mark  you, the only designation of this terrible         Finally, let us note the bad implications of this view with
fall is that he is made Zozoer  thuti the ungeb? This would          respect to the purpose of God and with respect to the work
indeed be a strange and lame way of designating *man's               of Christ. For if it is true that man originally stood above
fallen estate! Nor is it true that the original terms, either        the angels as `king of the whole creation, heavenly as well
in the Hebrew (chasur) or in the Greek ( elattooo ) demand           as earthly, then it follows that the work of Christ merely
this interpretation. It does full justice to the  me~aning  of       restores the original state of things, and simply serves to
the terms to understand them as meaning that man was                 carry out the original  creation+dea  in spite of the devil
made inferior, of a lower rank, than the angels. Moreover,           and sin. The work of Christ merely serves to bring us back
to interpret the text as above and then to apply it to the           to the position in which Adam once stood and which we
deep humiliation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as is done in             would still occupy if Adam had not sinned. The work of
Hebrews 2, is incomprehensible and nothing short of pre-             Christ is in that case only repair work. And the question
posterous. This whole interpretation, therefore,  is absurd.         confronts one then: why did God follow the long `way
If, a king is deposed from his throne and cast. into a vile          around? Why did God choose to follow the long and fear-
dungeon, there to await the execution of the death  penalty,         ful way of the death of His only begotten Son, the deep
would anyone be so foolish as to say that he was made                way `of sin and grace, if that death of Christ merely restores
a little lower than his ministers of state? And if Adam was          what was once a reality in Adam? Is that-,the  way of the
king even over the angels, but in the fall was cast into the         divine wisdom? Is not the death of Christ largely useless
prison house of sin and death, would Scripture be so foolish.        in that case? Could not God have far better achieved His
as to say that he was merely. made a little lower than the           purpose by maintaining the. original state of things?
angels?                                                                But if we interpret Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2 correctly,
   In the third place, to interpret the original words for "a        also in the light of the rest of Scripture, we obtain this view.
little" as meaning "for a little while" is linguistically pos-       The first man was indeed king over the earthly creation
sible, both in  Psalm 8 and in Hebrews 2, i.e., as far as            and was made a little lower than the angels. This first
the terms themselves are concerned. But, in the first place,         man, and `in him the entire race, the elect included, fell
this interpretation does not fit in Psalm 8, and therefore           into sin,and death. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord from
.one would not expect to find such a designation of time             heaven, assumed our human nature, i.e., also became a
in Hebrews 2. And, in the second place, even if it be                little lower than the angels. And being found in- fashion
granted that the meaning is "for a little while," all that           as a` man, He humbled Himself even unto death, yea, the
we have said in our-first and second points of criticism             death of the cross. As our Head He tasted death, not in
remains true.            -                                           order to restore us to the original position of Adam, but
   In `the fourth place, there ,is implicit in the interpretation                        (Continued  on  page 311)


308                                        T H E   `S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                      Turning our attention to the several liturgical formularies,
       THE CHURCH  AT.wORSHIP                                       we will begin with the one that bears the title:
   "0 Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Psalm 96:9a             F O R M   F O R   T H E  A D M I N I S T R A T I O N   O F  B A P T I S M
                                                                      From earliest times holy baptism has been held in. high
                 Our Liturgical Forms                               esteem and has been regularly practiced in the Reformed
                                                                    Churches. Throughout the church world this sacrament has
  The Reformed Churches are rich in their liturgical                been regarded as the sacrament of initiation into the church
heritage!                                                           of Christ. To us it is a sign and seal of our incorporation
                                                                    into the covenant of grace and Christ Himself, or His
  This heritage, in distinction from that of many other             church.
churches, is not enveloped with numerous  externals  that
only enhance superstition and contribute little or .nothing           In our churches we believe that children as well as adults
at all to the true worship of God; but it is composed of a          are the proper subjects of baptism and so we have provided
series of simple, well-written,, doctrinal formularies that are     in our liturgy two forms for baptism. This does not mean,.
invaluable aids in bringing out the significance of singular        of course, that we believe in two baptisms. On the con-
worship practices of the church.                                    trary we hold to the truth contained in Ephesians 4:4, 5.
                                                                    "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called
  Though these forms do not stand on a par with the in-             in. one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one bap-'
errant Word of God and are not even to be equated with              tism." Yet we make use of two forms,  - one for adults,
the major confessions, known as the Three Forms of Unity,           and another for the children born of believing parents. The
yet their importance is not to be underestimated. We must           circumstandes surrounding the entiance  of these two classes
maintain a Reformed emphasis not only in the official               into the church are so vastly different and reflect so richly
preaching of the Word but also in the administration of             the manifold grace of God, that the explanation of the
the sacraments, the ordination of office. bearers, the execu-       manifestations of God's grace in the one case does not
tion of Christian discipline, etc. In all of these liturgical       quite cover these in the other case. But still in both cases
practices the specific content of the form used is of utmost        we insist on baptism as the sign and seal .of divine grace
importance, for therein is the liturgical meaning defined.          manifested in drawing us out of the world unto ,God. We
If then the liturgy of the church is to speak directly to the       will, firstly, concern ourselves with the form for the admin-
lives of the members of the church, it must be understood           istration of baptism'as it pertains to infants.
and appreciated. None of these acts performed on various
occasions is without or void of significance. If they were,           The importance of baptism Mayo also be historically at-
the faith of the church would degenerate into something             tested. Anyone that is acquainted with the history of the
superficial and purely traditional,                                 Christian church knows that some of the most radical
                                                                    schisms and heresies which have rent the body of Christ
  In considering these liturgical formularies it must be            on earth were occasioned by divergent-views of the sacra-
remembered that our main interest here is liturgical rather         ments. These have been the chief battlefields of the fol-
than doctrinal. This should be remembered, lest we expect           lowers of Christ. Lutherans and Reformed have parted
to find in these articles a detailed doctrinal exposition of the    --ways largely because of radically different interpretations
nature and purpose of these various liturgical practices.           of the presence of Christ in the Holy Supper. One of the
Much as such a study may be desired and however neces-              most basic rifts in Christendom exists between Baptists, on
sary it may be in our present day because of  the wide-             the one hand, and all other denominations on the other.
spread eclipse of the meaning of these things, it would be          This difference concerns far more than merely the question
quite improper to review the doctrinal aspects of these             of whether the children of believing parents should be bap-
subjects in this column.                                            tized. But even among those who insist on infant baptism
  Nevertheless let not the reader construe this to mean that        we find almost irreconcilable differences. The Greek Ortho-
we will altogether exclude dogma from our considerations.           dox baptize. all by immersion, children as well as adults.
Our liturgical formularies are in their very nature doctrinal       The Roman Catholics and to a smaller degree the Lutherans
and it would be impossible to consider-them without allud-          have added to the administration certain other practices
ing to these things. However, we will try to retain a proper        such as exorcism, the presence of godparents, the sign of
balance. Certain details we will have to omit at the expense        the cross, and less known rites. Although our form for
of leaving unanswered many questions, simply, because               baptism does not directly reflect upon all these differences,
these things belong properly to the field of exegesis and           it is to be noted that the liturgy followed in our churches
theology rather than  liturgies. Though the liturgy of the          is determined by our doctrinal view of the subject; and so
church is clearly interwoven with its doctrinal pattern, we         we believe that our formularies refledt  most completely and
will strive to avoid a doctrinal discussion as much as is           beautifully the plain teachings of the Bible. This is s&i-
possible.                                                           cient  refutation to all heresy. More potent rebuttal is not


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               309

.to be found anywhere. When, then, the members of the             baptized with water actually receive divine grace. Still
church understand the basic teachings on this subject and         others hold that it is merely a ceremony initiating into the'      .'
discern how these are distinguished from the administra-          visible church as a religious society. Others insist that it is
tion of many other denominations, they will be able to truly      the token of active faith on the part of those who receive
appreciate this sacrament as a part of the liturgical practice    the,sacrament.  Some have completely rejected baptism as a
or public worship of the church.                                  sealing ordinance and hold that it is only a symbol an-
  Baptism is the mark and ensign of the Christian!                nouncing that Christianity is the religion of purification.
                                                                  On the part of some we find too high a value ascribed to
  By baptism we are distinguished from all those who are          the outward element used and the formula pronounced by
outside of Christ, who are alienated from the  &ommon-            the officiating clergy. Here spiritual grace is identified
wealth of the promise, who he in the midst of death. It is        with external administration, and this results in supersti-
the badge of the army of the Lord in this world. Those who        tion. In most other cases there is a  radica.1  divorce between
have received the sacrament in accordance with His Word           the grace of God and the administration, with the result
belong to Him and represent His cause here below.                 that baptism is robbed of all spiritual significance; All this
  Therefore in baptism are we received into the fellowship        tends to accentuate the need for a sound but brief form
of the church. This is evident from the clear language used       setting forth the truth concerning baptism, so that the
in our Belgic Confession which reads: "By which (baptism)         church may be led to understand clearly its meaning. Such
we are received into the Church of God, and separated             is our beautiful Baptism Form, which we purpose, D.V., to
from all other people and strange religions, that we may          begin to discuss in the next issue.
wholly belong to Him, whose ensign and. banner we bear;             Our Baptism Form was composed by one Petrus Datheen,
and which serves as a testimony to us, that He will forever       who was a Flemish Reformer who had been driven by per-
be our gracious God and Father. Therefore He has com-             secution to England, and then later to Germany. He is best
manded all those, who are His, to be baptized with pure           known in that he wrote a number of the well-known Hol-
water. . . ."                                                     land Psalms. Ds. B. Wielenga, minister of the Word in                    .
                                                                  Arnhem, informs us that Datheen did not do this alone.
  Here we see that our Confession makes no distinc-               He tells us that Caspar van der  Heyden gave much as-
tion between the church as institute and organism; the            sistance in this work, and he also contends that both A
church as it is -formed and manifests itself in the world         Lasco and Calvin had a large influence upon this work.
and the church `which in essence is the body of Christ.           It is even possible that the prayers of this form have upon
Neither does it differentiate between, baptism as an out-         them the stamp of men like Micronius and Zwingli. Yet
ward sign that is borne by all who are affiliate with the         Datheen is the main author, and in its original form the
institute and that deeper spiritual reality by which believers    Baptism Form was `considerably longer than the one in use
are incorporated into Christ and made to be one with              today. It was at the Synod of Dort in I574 that the orig-
Him. To our fathers the church was no human society               inal was abridged. Since that time very few alterations
for the propagation of religion and the betterment of the         have been made.                                       G.v.d.B.
world, and baptism was no half-way sort of thing on the
way to salvation. The church is essentially the body of
Christ, and through baptism the members of that body
are joined to Him by the spiritual bond of faith and made
heirs of the promises of God. Baptism signifies and seals
the righteousness of God which is by faith  in'Jesus  Christ.
This view is basic to our understanding the Baptism Form,                             T e a c h e r s   N e e d e d
which, incidentally, is one of our most beautiful, profound,
and expressive confessions.                                         The Hope School is in need of 2 teachers for 2nd and
                                                                  5th grades.  -Please send all inquiries to:
  A sound view of baptism is not only desired, but it is                                        Mr. Don Letterman,  Board Sec'y
very necessary in an age and world where all kinds of
unbalanced and erroneous conceptions are freely propa-                                          Wyoming, Michigan, 49509
gated, with the result that the proper place of the sacra-
ment in worship is obscured and forgotten. This inevitably
is damaging to spiritual life, and one must be blind to fail        The Adams Street Protestant Reformed Christian School
to see the evidences of a lack of baptism-consciousness in        is in need of two teachers, one for the third grade and one
the church world today. Where is the evidence of the              for the fifth or sixth grade. Persons interested in either of
spiritual ensign and mark of the Christian?                       these positions are urged to contact Chas. H. Westra, 845
  Many churches teach that baptism is the direct instru-          Alexander S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan (49507) or phone
ment or vehicle of divine grace, so that those who are            (area code 112) CH 5-8794.

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

                                                                        5) Finally, God has given us `the good gift of the state
   11 A L L   AR:OU.ND   us  jl- a great institution beneath whose wings we praise God.
                                                                     We owe this state obedience, respect, allegiance and taxes.
P-                                                             J,    It owes us discipline, order, and a return on our investment.
FEDERAL AID TO CHRISTIAN  SCHOCU                                     In fact, we are the state. And this helping hand which we
                                                                     extend to ourselves we are obligated to accept.
      In a recent issue of  Christianity Today  two articles were       The article is concluded with several objections that the
printed on the subject of federal aid to education: one  a.16        author answers.
cle supported such aid; the other article opposed it.
Because of the,importance  of this question and its general           1) Why the federal government? The federal govem-
interest for our readers, we shall summarize somewhat in             ment ought to be used for this because it alone is in the
detail the arguments both for and against.                           best position for an equitable collection of money and a
      Writing in favor of such federal aid is Lester DeKoster,       fair distribution of benefits.
director of libraries at Calvin College.                                2) Although federal aid may imply federal control, the
      He introduces his arguments by pointing out that already       solution to this threat is to guard against. it and refuse to
considerable aid is given to and received by Christian               permit  the~government  to interfere in our personal respon-
Schools. As example, he points to various GI Bills -that             sibilities. It need not be a danger if we are alert, as e.g.,
poured money into private schools, the Surplus Property              in England and Netherlands where the schools are sup-
Act which provided grants of land, buildings, supplies; the          ported by the State without interference. The danger of
College Housing Act which makes federal loans available              federal control is, however, exaggerated, since we already
at low interest rates for dormitory construction; the De-            receive federal aid without any strings attached. In fact,
fense Education Act which makes loans to students and                Christian Schools are the best safe-guard against govem-
grants to faculty members; - in all forty-one federal pro-           ment control,  - Christian Schools that flourish through state
grams which siphon money into various schools without                aid.
distinction as to whether they are public or private.                  3) Finally there is the question of the  consi&utionali~
      Pointing, to the future and the tremendous increases in        of state aid. But this issue has not yet been decided and
enrollment, the professor points ;out that the education of          must be settled in the courts.       '
all these students will take money, money that people'sup-
porting Christian education will be unable to provide. He              Opposing federal aid to Christian education is V. Ray-
gives five main reasons therefore why Christian schools              mond Edman,  president of Wheaton College, Illinois.
ought also to share in federal aid.                                    By way of introduction, the author makes the following
      1) Our democratic way of life implies the principles of        points :
Christianity. Liberty flourishes where these Christian prin-          . 1) The issue of federal aid must be decided on matters
ciples flourish. Therefore Christian education has a `high           of principle, not on the question of expediency.
moral claim upon federal tax support." Being good for our              2) By federal aid is not meant distribution of surplus
cquntry,  it deserves the country's help.                            property, support of service academies, ROTC, student aid
      2) `To gain federal aid is to acquire for ourselves what       programs, GI Bills, and loan programs.
rightly  -belongs  to us since all of us pay, on an average,           3) Federal Aid is a nice word for funds taken from the
$300.00 per year to support education.                               people in taxes, diminished appreciably through their pas-
3) Federal aid is only just payment for work well done.              sage through the vast network of government bureaus, and
Christian schools are turning out citizens who take useful           returned again to the states and various agencies. Aid is
and honorable places in the American life. "For this service,        `hot new wealth; it is our money, handled and directed by
the nation owes in simple justice adequate recompense. We            government officials, for purposes determined by them-
need not be shamefaced to ask for it:- by what strange               s e l v e s   ."
reticence do we delay presentation of our bill?"                       4) Although cost of education is mounting, the way of
      4) The rising cost of tuition, building programs, moderni-     aid is the easy way to meet the problem; and the easy
zation of existing laboratories and classrooms is pricing the        way is not always the right way.
Christian School out of the market. If something is not                5) The arguments for federal aid are based upon  two,,
done, the day will  come' when Christians can no longer              assumptions mainly:
afford to send their children to a Christian school. "These            a) "A centrally planned society is the best for all the
are matters of conscience! They concern every member of              people."
the Christian community. They involve the very character               b) "The colleges cannot meet the rising costs and other
of our nation. They are not resolved by proclamation of              demands upon them."
principle, nor by mumblings of fear. The Christian edu-                Both of these assumptions, the author says, are untrue.
cator is his brother's keeper  - every last hopeful, earnest,        The first is false because the government does not know
seeking one of them."                                                the `best interest of its people better than the citizens


                                               T H E   S T A N D A B D   B E A R E R                                                  311

     themselves, nor that bureaucratic planners are more intel-         being made against the home already; and they must, at
     ligent than the people themselves." In the early histoy of         all costs, be resisted.
     our country federal aid to education was proposed and re-'           In conclusion, the author writes: "For our Christian
     jetted  as being outside the province of the government.           schools in particular the question of federal encroachment
     With respect to the  secobd assumption: throughout all our         into the field of education finally resolves itself  &to the
     history, in war and peace, in depression and prosperity, the       choice of aid or independence, subsidy or standardization
     citizens have provided for their own educational institu-          and secularization,  stipport  from the government or con-
     tions. "It is late in the day for the national government          tinued dependence on God through his faithful stewards.
     to think that it can better provide for higher education than      . . . The alternatives are the hard and good way df progress
     the people  th&mselves."                                           based on the merit of our programs and the quality of our
       Six main arguments against federal aid are then advanced.        graduates, and the apparently easy. way of giving in to
/       1) It is unnecessary. The schools have been remarkably          mammon. It may even be necessary at times to walk in
     successful in providing for themselves; and there is no            the rags of self-determination of Our own plans and. pro-
     evidence that they cannot continue to do so.                       gra.ms  under God rather than to be clothed in the dubious
       2) The case for federal aid is based upon the assump-            riches of dependence on federal support."
     tion (obviously false) that money is the answer to good                                       `
                                                                                                   0  (I:  0  *
     education. History proves that it is not necessarily the             We too have to make up our niinds on this issue. It still
     government supported schools which give the best in-               seems to me that the latter author comes the closest to
     struction.                                                         expressing what ought'to be our stand. The threat of fed-            .-
       3) Subsidy from the government will inevitably lead to           era1  aid &nd federal control is clearly the central issue. And
     standardization.  The gqvernment will want to say what            it is r&l. It is the' argutient that tips the scales against any
     kind of education is given in schools supported by it.            help from the St&e.
     "Authoritarian control of education requires standardiza-                                      3%  Q  0 a
     tion and, raises Jefferson's uncomfortable question: `Whose          One brief item in connection with the above discussion.
     foot is to be the `measure to which ours. are all to be cut          The executive council of the AFL-CIO, recently  h&ving
     or stretched?  "                                                  met h Miami, has also spoken on this issue - although not
       4) Subsidy means control. Although politicians deny it,         for the first time. ,What business it is of theirs is not clear;
     it remains a fact. The presidknt of Harvard,  Nathan Pusey        but they have come out in favor of ,&rect grar$s  (not loans
     is quoted as saying, "It seems obvious that, oGer a period        t&at. have to be repaid) to be given to all educational in-
     of  years,,- in their power to grant or withhold  funds,  the     stitutions including non-public ones. The only restriction is
     agencies of  govetie.nt  are likely to have much to say           that aid should be given to schools to .teach only such sub-
     about the direction research is to follow. Many educational       jects which are not religious. In other words, there are
     leaders continue to believe this kind of decision had best        various subjects taught in the school, according to this labor
     be left to the colleges and univ&sities." Also a decision of      union,' w&h have nothing to do with religion, and into
     the Supreme Court is quoted: "It is hardly a. lack of due         which religion is not introduced. The Council cited such
     process for government to regulate that which it subsidizes."     subjects as Science, Mathematics, Foreign- Languages, Eng-
     Congressman Watkins Abbitt ( D-Va.`)  is quoted as saying,        lish, Geography, History.
     "There is `here deponstrated  an all-out effort to federalize        Quite some school that would be where all these subjects
     the schools and nationalize the lives of American citizens.       are "neutraP'!                                        *
     . . . History teaches us that when the central authority gets        This is not, however, i original idea with the AFL-CIO,
     control of the education of our youth, it is a long step          but has been proposed in the recent past also by the Roman
     toward a totajitarian  government and dictatorship. . . . Fed-    Catholic Church and other educators.                 H. Hanko
     eral Aid means Federal Control."
       5)  TO  subsidize the schools with tax money will mean
     that, because of the separation of church and state, the                            THE VOICE OF. OUR FATHERS
     schools will have to become "neutral" in matters of religion.                            (Continued from  page 307)
     And neutrality is atheism. "To expend federal funds for           to raise us to heavenly glory and to dominion  over all
     higher education will plunge the nation headlong into the         things in heaven and on earth. And as far ai the second
     problem of whether public money can be used to promote            Adam is above the first Adam, so far is the glory of our
     religion. The alternatives will be r&gion  and. no federal        %ina,l  destiny exalted above the glory which we had in para-
     money,` and federal money and no religion."                       dise the Xirst.  Of that first glory, which man had in para-
       6) Federal aid will shift the responsibility for the educa-     dise,  tihen he was a little lower than  the angels, but
     tion of children from the parents to the state. This will         ultimately of the glory to which we are predestinated in
     be disastrous, for it means the undermining of the home           Christ, when'we shall have dominion over all thugs, P&m
     which is the basic unit of all life. All kinds of attacks are     8 sings..         _                                        H.C.H.


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312  :                             ,  '  -Y-II-E75-TX-NDi~D                       B E A R E R

                                                                            Rev. R. C. Harbach, and, "The Movie", which in this day
                                                                            of living-room-television-movies is somewhat antiquated. It
                                                                            would be interesting to know to what foreign lands  OLU
                                                                            pamphlets. have winged their way. One of the latest re-
                                                                            quests for the entire series has come from a Missionary in
                                                March 20, 1964              Mexico whose supply- had been left in Ceylon, Africa. This
                                                                            Missionary-uses these, as well as Rev. Hoeksema's Exposition
   Rev. G. Lubbers `has, accepted the call to the Southwest                 on the Heidleberg Catechism (which the Ref. Witness Hour.
Church of `Grand Rapids.                          `
                                                  .                         publishes),-as study material when he translates the precious
   Lynden's new trio consists of the R,evs. 6. Hanko, J. A.                 truths of the Holy Scriptures into the Spanish language. It
Heys, and G. Vanden  Berg.                 :      .   .   d-z  L--A         is indeed. gratifying to lmow that these published works
                                                                            may go out.into all the world, and that they may be instru-b a
   &z&o  ~N&us:  Professor H.  CT Hoeksema has prepared                     mental in making The Word to be `a light upon the path
four radio messages for our Reformed Witness Hour which,                    and a lamp unto the feet of those in far-off lands with alien
the Lord willing, will be broadcast during the month of                     tongues. Surely, the Lord's ways are mysterious &d past
 April. The general theme of'these radio sermons  is, "The                                                                       . . . .
                                                                            finding out!                                               r . . .
 Preaching of the Gospel" and proclaim the truth "that the
 Gospel ought to be declared and published to all nations                     Members of the Hudsonville Men's Society have agreed-to
 and to all persons promiscuously .and without distinction,                 discontinue smoking during the entire session of their meet-
 to whom God, in His Good Pleasure, sends the Gospel.."                     ings. Me&inks the Surgeon General's Report had nothing
 The first sermon in this series-to be aired April  5-is                    to do with this decision, but is merely a genuine concern
 entitled "The General Preaching of the %ospeP'. This will                  for the allergies of the non-smoking brethren.
 be followed (April 12) with a. message concerning "The                       Randolph's Adult Bible Class, in an after recess discus-
Address of the (Gospel". The effect of the preaching of the                 sion, interested themselves with the meaning of II Thes. 2:7,
 Gospel is proclaimed the succeeding. Lord's Day with the                   and the archaic English of the King James version was
 title "The Fruit Upon the Preaching". Prof. Hoeksema con-                  `_translated into modem English by Mrs.:G. Van Baren who
 cludes this month's radio sermons with "The Power of the                   introduced the subject. The discussion which  followe.d  was
 Preaching". Messages  such as these  c&r be a wonderful                    of timely interest, for the Church must always be aware of
 source of inspiritation and comfort in moments of medita-                  the coming of "The `Man of Sin".
 tion. Why not write for your free copies of these Distinc-                       A.
 tively Reformed radio sermonsi)  The mailing address is -                    Hope's Men's Society was host to Southwest's Society
 The Reformed Witness, Hour, P.O. Box 1230, Grand Rapids,                   March 2. Southwest provided the after recess program
 Mich.  49501.                                                              which was a paper on, `And through thy knowledge shall
                                                                            the weaker brother perish, for whom Christ died?" Offhand,
   Holland's congregation is'enjoying  the new pews which                   could you answer this question, "How would it be possible
 were installed in their sanctuary last month. A thank-you                  that one for whom Christ died would perish because of
 to all who assisted in the installation found its way into the             your knowledge?" .;
 Feb. 23rd bulletin.                                                   i      At a joint `meeting at:First Church, Robert Van Dyke, of
   On the evening of the American Irish's day of idol wor-                  the visiting Holland Society, read a published paper on,
 ship the people from our Iowa churches were gathered in                    "The Angel of Jehovah". From this, and from the discussion
 Christian fellowship; enjoying a lecture by Rev. D.  Eng-                  that followed, the men learned thatit&  manifestation was a
 lesma, of Loveland. This lecture. was sponsored by the                     preview of the Incarnated Second Person of the Holy
 Northwest Iowa Prot. Ref. School Society.                                  Trinity come down to earth in the special interest of His
   Hope Church's financial drive for a new church edifice                   peculiar people in the execution of His Plan of Salvation. ~
 was completed March 10, having canvassed the entire mem-                     The Reformed Witness, Northwest Iowa's and Randolph's
 bership at their homes. The outcome of this drive has not                  tract-ministry, has just released their latest publication. The
 yet been tabulated for publication.                                        title of this pamphlet is, "Stone for Bread".
   Did you know, that the Sunday School of First Church                       The young  people" of our churches are busy trying to
 maintains a supply of pamphlets which they have published                  raise the necessary monies to underwrite the 1964 Con-
 as a Mission Project? In each Sunday School session a                      vention. The last two weeks of March saw the members of
 "Mission collection' is taken and earmarked for this special               the Young People's Societies of `First Church canvassing the
 project. There are 15 pamphlets on the list at present, 13                 homes for voluntary contributions to this worthy cause.
 of which came from the copius  pen of Rev. H. Hoeksema.
 The two not included are, "Calvinism  - The Truth" -by                       . . . see you in church.                                      J.M.F.


