                                           pn'
                                                      e



                                                                          earer


A   R E F O R M E D   S E M I - M O N T H L Y   M A G A Z I N E





       IN THIS ISSUE:

              Meditafion:  The Wonder of Thanksgiving

              Conservafive,  or Conservafive?                              :
                            . .

              The Baptismal Vow


              Praying For Those In Authority




                                                                           Volume XLI / Number 4 / Novem her 15, 1964

 -3                                                        .:     .<.,'  .,     ;'
                                                                                      :     -
                                                 ~.  I.


I    74                                                                                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                       CONTENTS                                                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER
           Meditation  -                                                                                                                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and  Augwst
                 The Wonder  of Thanksgiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
                       Rev.   J.  Kortering                                                                                                       Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
           Editorials  -
                 The  Christian   Reformed   Synod   and the                                                                                                    Editor - Rev. Herman Hoeksema
                 "Dekker Case" (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76                 Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                        Prof.   H.  C.  Hoeksema                                                                                               Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., SE., Grand Rapids 7,
                 Conservative   or  Conservative: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
                        Prof.  H.  C.  Hoeksema                                                                                                Mich. Contributions will be limited to 300 words and must be
           Our Doctrine  -                                                                                                                                        neatly written or typewritten.
                 The Sacrament   Of The Lord's Supper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79                                             All church news items should be addressed toMr. J. M. Faber,
                        Rev.   H.  Hoeksema                                                                                                                 1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
           The Church  At Worship  -                                                                                                           Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included must
                 The Baptismal  Vow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
                        Rev.   G.  Vanden Berg                                                                                                 be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below:
           The  Lord  Gave The Word  -                                                                                                          All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
                 The  Evangelical   Approach   In  The  Old   Dispensation   .  .  .  84                                                                  .Mr. James Dykstra. 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
                        Rev.   C.  Hanko                                                                                                                            Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
            From  Holy  Writ  -
                 Praying  For  Those  In  Authority   ,............................   85                                                          Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
                        Rev.   G.  Lubbers                                                                                                     received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
            In-His Fear -                                                                                                                      scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
                 A Call To Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87                           Subscription price: $5.00 per year
                        Rev.   J.  A.  Heys
            A Cloud Of Witnesses -                                                                                                                  Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
                 Naomi   And  Ruth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .89
                        Rev.   B.  Woudenberg
            Trying  the Spirits  -
                  Christian Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91
                        Rev.   R.  C.  Harbach                                                                                                     "Confession of sin is not the cause or condition
            Contending For  The Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93                      of pardon, nor the manifestation of it, but is descrip-
                        Rev.   H.  Veldman
            The  Voice  Of Our  Fathers                                                                                                        tive of the person, and points him out, to whom God
                 The Belgic  Confession  Article  XII (Continued)  . . . . . . . . . . 95                                                      will and does make known His forgiving love."
                        Prof.   H.  C.  Hoeksema
            News  From  Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96                                                                              - John Gill
                        Mr.  J.  M.  Faber





                                                                                                   THE  WONDER  OF  THANKSGIVING

                                                                   "For all things are for, your sakes, that the abundant grace might
                                                         through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of G0d.l'
                                                                                                                                                           Text: II Corinthians 4: 15

                                                                                                                                    Rev. J.  Kortering
           It is a wonder that we give thanks to God.                                                                                          frail frame of a dying saint. History is replete with
           The wonder lies in the words, "all things are for                                                                                   such scenes. For your sakes1
     your -sakes." This is a hard saying, who can under-                                                                                           Amazing, all things for your sakes1 `His ways are
     stand it? Without understanding it there is no thanks-                                                                                    past finding out.
     giving.                                                                                                                                       We must exclude nothing from its scope.
           All things are on account of us !                                                                                                      There are moments of spring-time; they are filled
           That which. meets  lthe eye seems to contradict                                                                                     with cheer. The buds of childhood blossom into the
           I see a father turn his head from his wrecked auto,                                                                                 fragrance of youth. It does one's heart good to step
     the stains on the front seat lurch out at him, shocking                                                                                   into school and behold the youth of the church learning
     him with reality, his  helpmeet  is dead.                                                                                For your         the fear of the Lord. The soul of man breathes in
     sakes I                                                                                                                                   buoyant spirit as he sows the grain, nurtures the seed-
           Glance a moment into a hospital room, take note of                                                                                  lings, and harvests the bounty. Smiles mark the face
     the silent tears of a mother that gave birth to her                                                                                       of a mother that is able to arise each day with the
     first-born child, - dead. Lying in the next bed is an-                                                                                    task before her, and she has the strength to accom-
     other mother who delivered her sixth healthy child.                                                                                       plish it. Our hearts flutter with ecstasy as we gather
     Words cannot express the feverish anguish of the                                                                                          in church and are greeted, "Beloved in our Lord
     tormented soul. For your sakes1                                                                                                           Jesus Christ, our help is in the name of Jehovah who
           A father stands at the door waving good-bye to his                                                                                  made heaven and earth." All for our sakes!
     son, leaving for battle. Many never saw their sons                                                                                            Winter time is markedly drear. Go to the hospital
     again. For your sakes1                                                                                                                    and view the panorama of death. The bottle of tears
           Listen to the fire crackle, swiftly it consumes the                                                                                 overflows there.         Drive past the Funeral Home, its


                                                 T H E   STAthkD   B E A R E R                                             75

 lights are burning a full 15 hours a `day. If you stop           sustaining grace. This truth is learned however, only
 there you will see death in its naked reality. The               with groanings. God makes us helpless sometimes, to
 gaping jaws of the grave are about to close, and we              teach us that He is God. It is then we turn in true faith
 shudder. A farmer looks over the field of corn stand-.           to Him, see ourselves naked and undeserving sinners
 ing 3 feet high on the "Fourth"; a few moments later             and sing, "The loving-kindness of my~God ismore than
 the awesome rattle of hail reduces his dreams to a               life to me". Difficult days are spiritually rewarding;
 vapor. One mighty nation explodes the "big bomb,"                they are for our profit. For that we also thank God.
 and the whole earth is rocked to its foundation. All                  Thanksgiving is not of the natural man. It is a
 these things are for your sakes.                                 wonder.
     Amazing, but there is still more.                                 By nature we are no different from the world round
    All these things are for our sakes in order that we           about us, a world that cannot give thanks. According
 may give thanks to God! It seems reasonable to thank             to our flesh we like to boast when we prosper. In our
 God with a smile on our faces, but to thank God through          pride we think we deserve a comfortable life because
 tear-stained eyes appears contradictory.                         we are clever business men, we know how to manage
    Thanksgiving is a wonder!                                     our affairs, we live a sane life and get along well with
    What is thanksgiving?                                         people.         We so easily forget God! With that attitude
    In a word it is telling God that He is good. In thank-        there is no thanksgiving. In days of sickness and trial
 ing God our lips burst forth with melody, our hearts             we begin to feel sorry for ourselves, we grumble and
 are lifted up in spiritual ecstasy. as we acknowledge            complain. Then too, we forget God and in that frame
 God's greatness and faithfulness. This implies that              of mind cannot give thanks. No, it is not natural to
 we must be very spiritual in our thanksgiving. The               give thanks, it is a wonder!
 heart of the thankful is near to the heart of God. He                 The wonder of thanksgiving is a wonder of grace.
 is filled with the consciousness that there is no God                 So our text tells us, "For all things are for your
 like unto Jehovah.    The swelling tide of the love of           sakes, that the abundant grace might through            the
 God pours from the flood gates of the soul and sings,            thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God."
~ "Give thanks to God, for good is He, His grace abideth               Grace triumphs over sin.
 ever". Mark the thankful, take notice that he is filled               Sin is ugliness. No matter how you look at sin or
 with the overwhelming consciousness of his own weak-             whatever point of view you take, the conclusion is al-
 ness, his attention is focused upon Jehovah.                     ways the same, it is ugly. Scripture draws a horrible
     Such thanks is not conditioned upon external cir-            picture of the sinner! Look at the lepers that dwelled
 cumstances.                                                      outside Israel.        Plagued with putrifying sores, their
    Has the Lord blessed you with a comfortable life?             bodies were corrupted with a "living" death. As the
 You have reason to thank Him! Consider your bless-               disease spread through the body, its wiry fingers
 ings . Add up your material assets, it may surprise              grasped for the vital organs that it might choke off
 you how much you have. Think upon the health that                life.      No wonder they had to cry out, "Unclean, un-
 the Lord has given to each of us. Above all, consider            clean". They were a cast-off people, repulsive in the
 that you are not a rich fool! Many there are who are             eyes of the masses. God placed those lepers in Bible
 building for themselves a little kingdom, greedily               times as a graphic portrayal of the corruption and
 tearing down their barns and building bigger; but the            guilt of our sin. We are lepers before God.
 Lord comes silently in the night watches and casts                    Grace is beauty. God is the gracious God, most
 their soul into the unquenchable fire. Their children            beautiful in Himself and the fountain of all beauty. I
 piously weep and lay the body in the grave, but soon             cannot pretend .to describe all the beauty of God; now
 they run for the inheritance like blinded swine and              we see through a glass darkly. God has revealed His
 drown in the river of death. What folly! Thank God               beauty unto. us in earthly form. In the vastness of His
 that we are not that way. Let's sing sincerely, "All             creation and in the sweetness of His Word we are able
 that I am I owe to Thee, thy wisdom Lord hath fash-              to discern a little spark of that beauty. We see the
 ioned me".     Give thanks that we may be Christian              beauty of His light, His goodness, His power, His
 stewards in the house of God, recognizing that .a11              mercy, and so we could go on and on. Most important
 material things, -yea life itself,  - are given us of            for our text, God freely decided to work upon the
 God to use in the blessed covenant life with Him.                ugly sinner and make him beautiful, yea with such
    Has the Lord blessed you with sickness and sor-               beauty that it would reflect His own! Grace toward
 row?    YOU also have a reason to thank HimI Do not              the sinner is God's work whereby He freely takes an
 doubt that trials are a blessing. Our Father knows               ugly, leprous sinner and transforms him into the
 that we are so easily enslaved in the things of this             image of His own beauty. That grace of God is power;
 world that we must needs be reminded of our pil-                 ful. Consider its earthly reflection when Elisha said
 grimage.    There is no question, these blessings are            to Naaman the leper, "Go and wash  inthe River Jordan
 difficult for the flesh.    One that lies in the hospital        seven times," and he, obeying, was cured of his
 looks enviously at people walking by. Tears flow as              leprosy. Jesus said to the ten lepers, "Go, show your-
 we turn away from the grave.         A father's heart is         selves to the priest," and they were healed. So God
 anxious when he returns home having searched all day             through our Lord Jesus Christ works in our hearts
 in vain for work. Yet, our God never tries us above              through the preaching of the gospel and transforms
 that which we are able to bear; He provides us with              us by the power of His grace.


76                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

      That grace is abundant.                                             In that way God receives all the glory.
      It is abundant in two ways.       The first is that it              Consider the direction to which our text points us.
renews the whole man.            Already at the moment of              Beginning in heaven, we see our sovereign God gov-
regeneration, the potential of all beauty is capsuled,
                       -.-                                             erning all things in such a way that through the res-
as it were, in the seed of the new life. Through the                   urrection of the body we shall surely be glorified.
calling of the gospel, God works upon that life, quickens              There is no question about it, "For all things are for
it into conscious expression. God channels His grace                   your sakes". In order that ,we may understand it and
to us through the means He has ordained, and thus                      live in the conscious joy of our eternal hope, God
powerfully and efficaciously transforms us into the                    blesses us with grace. By that grace we know that all
reflection of His own beauty. That touches our whole                   things are for our sakes and thank God for it. Through
being. Our heart is renewed, our mind is enlightened,                  our thanksgiving the grace of God returns unto the
our will is bent toward God, our hands and feet are                    Giver and "redounds to His glory."
commissioned into His service; in one word, we are                        God's blessings always end in God Himself.
completely beautified by grace. So abundant is that                       That is proper, for He is God!
grace, that our whole man is able principally to live                     Do not become proud and say that our thanksgiving
the beautiful life. Still more, that grace is abundant                 adds to God's glory. That is impossible. God is Him-
in that it is also able to beautify us in every circum-                self the most glorious God. The glory of God is the
stance. "My grace is sufficient for thee." Whether                     radiation of the sum-total of all God's virtues. Even
our life be difficult and we are beset with cares, or                  as the glory of the sun is radiated against the clouds
whether we prosper in a way the flesh desires, the                     in the sunset, so God's glory is radiated in all His
abundant grace of God is able to keep us beautiful,                    revelation. That glory causes one to stand with open
able to draw us into a vital relationship with God.                    mouth and wonder.         Before the glory of God we are
      Now you see, thanksgiving is a wonder of grace!                  filled with awe and reverence. It forces us to bend
The effects can be seen not only on Thanksgiving Day,                  our knee and praise Him.          We do not add to God's
but every day.      Behold the child of God who has his                glory; we acknowledge it.         That is what God had in
barn filled with cattle, his children are healthy and                  mind all along. He has that as His eternal purpose.
strong, he has all that heart could desire; you see him                He rejoices when His creatures acknowledge that He
bend his knee and hear him whisper in ardent prayer,                   and He alone is the glorious God.
"Thanks, 0 God, Thou art good." Beside him kneels                         We do that when we thank Him. We tell God He is
the saint with tearful eyes, his heart is heavy; yet he                good, and in so doing acknowledge His glory.
breathes the amazing prayer, "Thanks, 0 God, Thou                         Heaven begins in this life.
art good." There you see grace in action.                                 Such thanksgiving is a wonder, a wonder of grace.



                                       THE  CHRISTIAN   REFORMED  SYNOD
                                            AND  THE  "DEKKER  CASE"

                                                                (2)
                                                 Pyof.  H. C. Hoeksema
                                        CHURCH  POLITICALLY   IMPROPER

      In evaluating the action of the Christian Reformed               sults in any case which becomes the official concern
Synod in the so-called "Dekker Case" it .is certainly                  of the churches.
important to consider the matter, first of all, from a                    Hence, the very first element which all parties
formal, church political point of view.          We must               concerned, including the Christian Reformed Synod,
ask the questions: l/ Did this matter come before                      should have considered was this church political aspect
the CR Synod in a proper, legal way?  2/ Was the                       of `the case.       And it is the main contention of this
"Dekker Case" as it was presented to Synod a proper                    editorial that the CR Synod erred in this respect
matter for Synod to consider and to treat? Probably                    and considered the church political aspect of the Dek-
it needs no special mention that any business trans-                   ker Case only partially. The overture of First Orange
acted by an ecclesiastical assembly must be properly                   City was declared legally before the Synod; and this
treated under the Church Order; nevertheless it is                     was perhaps technically true, although I have serious
well to stress this even though it would seem to be                    doubts whether this was a matter for ovevtuve,  in-
a self-evident truth, especially because the importance                stead of protest  and appeal., But the main question,
of good order and of so-called "technicalities" is                     namely, whether this was a proper matter for an
frequently minimized in our time. It must always be                    ecclesiastical assembly to treat, that is, - and I stress
remembered that unless good order and sound church                     this,  --as it was presented  to Synod,- this question
polity are observed, one cannot expect successful re-                  the Synod apparently never considered. This I would


                                                                                                                     ,:;



                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 77      '

call a fundamental mistake, and one that could con-          dubious procedure to come with an overtureon  a matter
ceivably have very serious practical consequences            of this kind.      It seems to me that the dissatisfied
in the further development of the "Dekker Case."
                  ._..                                       consistories in Classis Orange City should have followed
   Let me attempt to make this clear.                        the way  oi'  -protest  .and appeal,  both with respect
   In the first place, we may take note of the fact          to the decision of Classis and with respect to the teach-
that Classis Orange City beat a hasty retreat after          ings of Dekker.       The decision of  Classis Orange
the Synod of 1963. You will remember that in 1963            City by which they virtually abandon their position of
Classis Orange City came with an overture asking             1963 was certainly a fit subject of protest and eventual
Synod to require of Prof. Dekker further explanation         appeal to Synod, especially after delegates from two
of his position under the provisions of the Formula          consistories had registered their negative votes. And
of Subscription. Classis Orange City. believed Prof.         since Professor Dekker in his capacity as a seminary
Dekker's interpretation of John 3:16 to be unscrip-          professor is directly under the supervision of Synod
tural, claimed that Dekker's position was contrary           and its Board of Trustees, the way of protest against
to Canons II, 8 and 9, and referred to the amount            his public writings certainly stood wide open. But
of journalistic comment as evidence of suspicion. Syn-       instead of a protest there came merely an overture.
od rejected the overture on the grounds: "1) Classis            In the second place, while in a technical sense
did not supply adequate grounds for its charges. 2)          Overture No. 45 was legally before Synod, I submit
Classis did not submit sufficient `grounds for its sus-      that the overture presents absolutely no concrete case.
picion."     That overture was basically a sound one.        To put it in the language of the Church Order, the
It presented a concrete case, in effect asking for an        overture does not present an  ecclesiastical matter.
examination of Prof. Dekker under the Formula of             While I would suppose First Orange City wants to
Subscription. Synod deemed the overture insufficiently       get at Prof. Dekker's views, all the overture actually
grounded. And although one might disagree as to the          asks for is an abstract study, in the light of Scripture
justice of Synod's decision, it seems to me that Synod       and the Creeds, of "the doctrine of limited atonement
gave Classis Orange City a clue as to the direction          as it relates to'the love of God." Now surely, a study
it should follow, namely, come with adequate grounds         of doctrine is not an ecclesiastical matter, that is,
for its charges and sufficient grounds for its sus-          not a matter for treatment by ecclesiastical assem-
picion. One would have expected the classis`to spell         blies. Study of doctrine belongs in the pastor's study;
out its .overture  more fully and to pinpoint its charges    it belongs in the catechism room; it belongs in the sem-
and then to come back to the Synod of 1964 with an           inary class-room; it belongs in religious magazines.
airtight case.    Then the Synod would be compelled          In fact, it belongs in every covenant home. We all
to take a stand and either to justify or condemn the         can profitably study the doctrine of limited atonement
position of Dekker. That certainly would have brought        as it relates to the love of God. But there is one place
matters to a head and to some kind of conclusion,            that mere study of doctrine does not belong, and that
one way or the other.                                        is in the official proceedings of ecclesiastical assem-
   For some reason or other, however, Classis Orange         blies.
City was sidetracked.       They put off any further            True enough, First Orange City adds: "giving
overture to Synod "until it has fully evaluated the          special attention to the issues raised by Prof. Dekker
position of Professor Dekker...." Moreover,  classis         in  The Reformed Jouv-tu~l.`~    But what does this mean
dismissed its study committee. Apparently, therefore,        as far as ecclesiastical action is concerned? Abso-
the whole matter is ended in  Classis Orange City            lutely nothing! They might just as well have added:
unless and until some consistory begins action anew.         "giving special attention to the writings of R.B. Kuiper
   In the second place, there were negative votes            in Torch and Trumpet, H. Hoeksema in, The Stundurd
recorded at Classis Orange City by delegates from Hos-       Bearer,      and Prof. L. Berkhof in his  Systematic
pers and from First Orange City. The former then             Theology."' In fact, if the overture wants a study,
addressed a letter to the Board of Trustees. While           there is no end to the writings which could be re-
we do not know the contents of that document, we do          searched.
know that the Board of Trustees preferred no charges            Moreover, the overture* asks Synod "subsequently
against Dekker, and, in fact, expressed appreciation         to declare its position relative to this matter." What
of his interest and confidence in him. First Orange          matter? Grammatically the words "this matter" can
City forwarded an overture to Synod, No. 45, which           only refer to "the doctrine of limited atonement as it
Synod decided was legally before it.                         relates to the love of God." But must a Reformed
   Meanwhile, in the third place, Classis Wisconsin          denomination in the 20th century declare its position
also became sidetracked in a discussion with the Board       on that matter?      Is not that position declared in our
of Trustees, with the result that the consistories of        Creeds? Just what does Orange City want? It is
Delavan and Racine could not get a hearing at Synod          evident to all that they wanted to get a Synodical  ex-
on the ground that their matters were still in process       pression on Prof. Dekker's views. But they bring no
in a minor assembly.                                         case whatsoever, and they ask Synod to do what they
   The upshot of all these proceedings is that actually      themselves are unwilling to tackle.
Synod had nothing before it, and therefore erred in its         That the above is true is evident alsofrom  the weak
decision.                                                    grounds presented by First Orange City. In ground
   In the first place, it is, to say the least, a very       "1" they speak merely of the  "position.commonly


      I
     78  /                                               T H E   STANDARD  BEARER

     held by  .thel CRC." This .is vague and undefined.               how  Can such variation be "productive of a confusion
     Is that the position of the Creeds? Then First Orange            which will disrupt the unity of the Church and weaken
     City could hardly come, as they do, with the hypo-               the Church's doctrinal position?" Certainly, variation of
     thetical supposition that thisposition is "erroneous.,'          opinion and free discussion and interchange of opinions
     They must come with a gravamen against the Creeds                is healthy, is it .not? The only time when such vari-
     then. Evidently they mean some current theological               ation can produce confusion and weaken the doctrinal
     opinion within the limits of the-creeds;  but they leave it      position of the church is if there is heresy involved.
     .undefined. How can that be the subject of ecclesiastical        But of heresy and doctrinal error Orange City mentions
     investigation and decision? In ground "2" they do not            not  .a syllable.
     assert-that Prof. Dekker's position is faulty, but they              Hence, I submit `again: First Orange City had no
     say, "If (it) is faulty...." Well, if it is faulty, First        concrete case to present to Synod.
     Orange City should point it out, on the basis of Sdrip-              And Synod, from this point of view, and on Orange
     ture and the Creeds, and then it would be the fit sub-           City's basis, `should `never have acceded to Overture
     ject of ecclesiastical action. .If it is not faulty, then        No. 45.
     let Dekker `write and develop his views to his heart's               This is not to- say that First Orange .City should
     content. But it ought to be either-or. Ground "39.'              n&have &d: and could not have &d a concrete case.
     is equally vague and weak. It does not speak of doc-             I believe they could and should have had a case. But
     trinal error or even suspicion of error. It speaks of            they did not present one.
     a. "variation' of opinion and position." Is there not                Further ~comment will have to wait' until the next
     room for such variation in .Reformed churches? And               i s s u e ,   D . V .


                                              CONSERVATIVi  OR  COhiSERVATIVE?
                                                         P~of. H. C. Hoeksema
              AS  YOU   may guess from the above caption, these       sphere of things `political; but it means that we must
     remarks have to do with politics.            Fortunately the     think and act as Reformed believers, - Calvinists, if
     election belongs to the past, so that Icannot be accused,        you will. It means that we must think and act out of
     when I write these lines, of attempting to influence             the principle of regeneration. Andy it means that all
     votes for one candidate or the other. My interest lies           sound political principles must be "firmly founded on
     elsewhere.                                                       sound, Scriptural, Reformed, doctrinal, or theological,
              Many of us are acquainted with what are called          principles.       Our world-and-life view, also as far as
     "right-wingers"  o r "ultra-conservatives." We are               politics is concerned, dare not be separated from our
     undoubtedly also acquainted with the fact that they              Reformed beliefs.
     frequently attempt to give their political propaganda a              Simply put: a genuine political conservatism is
     religious and "Christian" coloration, even to the extent         inseparable from theological conservatism.
     that sometimes it is difficult to distinguish whether one            But for that very reason, no Reformed believer
     is listening to some kind of sermon or to a political            should be deceived by the brand of religiously-tinted
     harangue. Some of these so-called "ultra-conserva-               conservatism that is so widely peddled in some areas
     tives" seem to identify a political awakening or                 today.
     resurgence of their particular brand of conservatism                 Yes, I have a concrete instance in mind.
     with a spiritual awakening of America.                               Recently our fair city of Grand Rapids was propa-
              It is this kind of thing which gives cause for con-     gandized by one of these conservative movements, and
     ,cern,  lest people of the Reformed faith be deceived by         a well-known spokesman was featured at a public rally.
     it, as, I am afraid, some are. It is therefore not my            True to form, this rally, essentially political innature,
     purpose to quarrel with these conservatives' politics            was also labelled as a Reformation Rally, due to the
     as such, nor even with their political principles as             circumstances that Reformation Day was soon coming.
     such. But I am very much concerned about the religious           Support of some local ministers was sought and gained
     and doctrinal principles which underlie and which cannot         also.       Undersigned was requested to appear at a
     be separated from their politics and political principles.       similar rally in another city in behalf of the same
     And I am the more concerned because of the very fact             movement and to deliver a Reformation-Day speech as
     that a definitely religious and allegedly "Christian,'           part of the program which was to feature this same
     coloring is given to their propaganda. Hence, I want             spokesman of ultra-conservatism, - a request which,
     to discuss this from the viewpoint of a preacher, not            needless to say, I refused.
     that of a politician.                                                However, the day following this Grand Rapids rally
              Lest there be misunderstanding, let me say, first of    I had the opportunity of a face-to-face conversation
     all, that I am not addicted to the view that religion and        with this spokesman of ultra-conservatism. (I will not
     politics are two absolutely separate spheres. On the             mention names because I am interested in the move-
     contrary, our politics and political principles must             ment, not in personalities.) In this face-to-face con-
     certainly proceed from our faith. That means not only            versation I was interested in discovering what I could
I    in general that we must think and act Christianly in the         about this gentleman's doctrinal and ecclesiastical


                                                    THE STANDARD.BEARER                                              7    9

position. And, in a comparatively brief conversation I             3. While pretending to represent a Christian move-
discovered some. perturbing facts indeed.           Let me      ment and seeking the support.of  evangelical ministers,
mention some of the more significant ones: _. `-                he does .not even believe the Bible as .God's infallible
   1. While making violent propaganda :against  the so-         Word. He stated flatly that Paul was mistaken when
called social gospel, he himself conceives of thegospel         he wrote that Christ was. coming. soon, and insisted
as a kind of social-political gospel. While he admit-           on it even when I confronted him with the fact that
tedly had little interest in the Old Testament, he              what Paul wrote was the Word of God. For the Old
understood the New -Testament as consisting in Christ's         Testament he had little use, and he could not accept
teachings over against Phariseeism. And the present             that Psalm 137:9 -is the Word of God: "Happy shall
day political conspiracy of world. communism .(to which         he be,. that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against
the so-called liberals of our day are a `party, in his          the stones ."
view) is really the embodiment of the principles of              4. Finally, although our conversation was termi-
Phariseeism as taught in the Babylonian Talmud.                 nated  before~ we directly discussed this subject, I
Hence, he suggested that in. our seminary we should             gained the distinct impression that he was, if anythmg,
give thorough instruction in the Babylonian Talmud, SO         post-millenially orientated in his political thinking,
that we could truly understand the teachings of Jesus in        striving for and considering as very really possible
the New Testament. Now this whole notion is, to be              a vast spiritual revival and awakening of "Christian
sure, outlandishly strange.     Also it is an essential         America" over against the "anti-Christian" forces
denial of' the r&al gospel of Jesus Christ as the gospel        of the world conspiracy, so that a wonderful Christian
of our salvation.     But it is also nothing less than a        democracy can take over, a sort of kingdom of Christ
social gospel of a different kind, having no more right         on earth.
to the name Christian  than does the social gospel.
   2. While much opposed in his teachings to ecu-                  Now in the light of the above we should face the
menicalism;  which is characterized as a co-conspir-            question -heading this editorial:      Conservative or
ator in the gigantic plot  to, take over "Christian"            Conservative?     That is: Is a movement of this kind
America, this gentleman. wanted an ecumenicalism of             theologically conservative, or is it even in the true
his own brand. Not being satisfied with his present             sense of the word politically conservative?
church-home, he wanted a church that would serve
as "an umbrella for .Methodists,  ~Episcopalians, Pres-            The obvious answer is: Neither.. . . .Nor ! Because
byterians, Baptists, etc." He supposed that he wanted           it is not the one, itcannotpossibiybe the other.
something like the Bible Presbyterians, but the latter             And Christians, especially Reformed Christians,
were not broad enough to include Baptists. Now what             ought not to he deceived by such religio-political move-
is this. but  .the very principle of ecumenicalism to           ments with a pseudo-evangelical mask.
which he is so violently opposed?        `.





                                      THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  CHURCH
                                                      Chapter  IX
                                 THE  SACRAMENT   OF  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER
                                         (continued from November 1 s t issue)
                                                     Rev. H. Hoeksema

   And as to the substance of the bread and wine                begotten Son of God, is not to be adored with worship,
being changed permanently into the substance of the body        even external of latria; and is, consequently, neither
and blood of Christ, Canon IV teaches as follows: "If           to be venerated with a special festive solemnity,
any one saith, that, after the consecration is completed,       nor to be solemnly borne about in procession, according
the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are not             to the laudable and universal rite and custom of holy
in the admirable sacrament of the Eucharist, but are            Church; or, is not to be proposed publicly to the people
there only during the use, whilst it is being taken,            to be adored, and that the adorers thereof are idolators:
and not either before or after; and that, in the hosts,         let him be anathema."
or consecrated particles, which are reserved or which              It is well-known that the laity do not partake of
remain after communion, the true body of the Lord               the communion wine, but only of the wafer. The Ro-
remaineth not: let him be anathema.,, And once more,            mish Church admits, of course, that this usage is
in Canon VI we read: "If any one saith, that, in the            contrary to Holy Writ, as well as to the custom of the
holy sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ, the only               early church, but it claims that it is not necessary


1     ,;;:;.            `:                                                  d
       `.
       `.

                 .80                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER
/I                to partake of the wine on the ground, in the first place,             is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
              .' that the blood is in the body, and, secondly, that seeing              world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves,
                  the whole Christ as to His body, soul, and divinity                   saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
                  is in every particle of both species, he who eats the                 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto
                  consecrated bread eats the whole Christ.                              you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and
                              But this is absurd.                                       drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth
                              And what is worse, it is not only absurd, but it          my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life;
                  is also a violation of the very words of Christ.                      and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh
                         The Lord did not only say after He broke the bread,            is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He
                  "Take, and eat ye all of it;" but He also said, according             that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth
                  to the revelation which Paul received concerning the                  in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me,
                  supper of the Lord in I Corinthians  11:23, ff.: "For                 and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even
                  I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered               he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
                  unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which                 down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna,
                  he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given                     and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live
                  thanks, he brake it, and said,                 Take, eat: This is     forever.    These things said he in the synagogue, as
                  my body, which is broken for you:                 this do in re-      he taught in Capernaum.           Many therefore of his
                  membrance of me.                   After the same manner also he      disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an
                  took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup                    hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in
                  is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft                  himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said
             as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often                         unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall
                  as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew                  see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
                  the Lord's death till he come."                                       It is the spirit that quickeneth: the fleshprofiteth nothing:
                         We understand, of course, that this custom ofgiving            the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
                  the believers only the bread, or the wafer, and with-                 they are life. But there are some of you that believe
                  holding from them the wine is the result of the doctrine              not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were
                  of transubstantiation.              For according to this theory,     that believed not, and who should betray him. And
                  the cup after consecration does not contain wine, but                 he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can
                  the real blood of Christ.                And it was feared that in    come unto me, except it were given unto him of my
                  passing the communion cup a drop of wine, that is,                    Father."
                  therefore, a drop of the blood of Christ, might be                       Concerning this passage of Scripture I would re-
                  spilled.. And in order to avoid this profanation, it                  mark, first of all, that certainly there is no direct
                 was decided that the priest alone should drink the wine,               reference to the institution of the Lord's Supper here.
                  while the laity received only the bread, or the wafer.                And even though there be a very indirect reference
                  Thus the beautiful symbolism of the supper of the                     to that institution, there still is certainly no proof
                 Lord was corrupted and profaned. This corruption                       for the doctrine of transubstantiation. Certainly the
                 did not enter into the church all at once, as we have                  Lord does not speak in this passage of a literal eating
                  already shown. It gradually developed. Even some of                   of His flesh and a literal drinking of His blood. This
                  the early church fathers already began to speak of the                is exactly the error which the Capernaumites made.
                  signs of the Lord's Supper as being connected with                    For we read: "The Jews therefore strove among them-
                  the body and blood of Christ. Augustine did not teach                 selves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to
                  anything like the doctrine of transubstantiation. He                  eat?" vs. 52.       And at the end of His discourse in
                 held that the unbeliever received nothing through this                 Capernaum the Lord specifically states: "It is the
                  sacrament.            But in the Middle Ages the heresy of            spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the
                 transubstantiation was gradually adopted, although even                words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
                 then some opposed this theory.                   The Scholastics,      are life." The Lord therefore is speaking of His sac-
                 whose purpose always was to maintain and defend the                    rifice which  .presently  He is to offer on the cross,
                 tradition of the church, also defended this corruption.                and which cannot be partaken of except by faith. Hodge
                  And the Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, adopted it;                  remarks in this connection that this argument proves
                  and, as we have shown, the Council of Trent in the                    too much for the Romanists.           Says he: "Our Lord
                 sixteenth century finally set its seal upon it and pro-                expressly declares that the eating of which He speaks
                 nounced anathema upon all that did not subscribe to                    is essential to salvation.       If, therefore, His words
                 this theory.                                                           are to be understood of the Lord's Supper, then a
                        In support of this erroneous theory the Romish                  participation in that sacrament is essential to salva-
                 Church also appeals to Scripture.                  They point es-      tion. But this the Church of Rome explicitly denies,
                 pecially to John 6: 48-65, where we read as follows:                   and must in consistency with its whole system, insist
                 "I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna                    on denying.     Romanists teach that spiritual life is
                 in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread                     as necessary to an experience of the benefits of this
                 which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat                      sacrament, as natural life is to the body's being
                 thereof, and not die.                 I am the living bread which      nourished by food. They further teach that baptism,
                 came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread,                   which precedes the eucharist, conveys all the saving
                 he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give                 benefits of Christ's redemption; they therefore cannot


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                81

make the eucharist essential and consequently they             wine; and they taste like bread and wine. Yet, accord-
cannot, without contradicting Christ or themselves,            ing to the Romanists, after the formula of conse-
interpret John  6:48-65 as referring to the Lord's             cration is expressed by the priest, the substance of
Supper."                                                       bread and wine are transubstantiated into the sub-
   The Romish Church also appeals to the words of              stance of the body and blood of Christ. Hence, it is
the institution of the Lord's Supper: "This is my              evident that through the priests' God is presented as
body." But, as has been frequently pointed out over            making a lie.       And this is nothing  .but blasphemy.
against this argument of the Romanists, the copula-            (Cf. Hedge,. "Systematic Theology," III, Chapter 20,
tive verb is certainly does not necessarily denote the         p. 684)
identity of the subject and the predicate which it
connects. In the first place, when the Lord pronounced            But after all, the most serious objection to this
these words, "This is my body," He was still present           doctrine of transubstantiation is, perhaps, that it pre-
in the flesh; and therefore He cannot mean that the            sents the grace of God as being in things. According
bread which at that moment, at the institution of the          to this doctrine, the gracious operation of God through
Lord's Supper, He hands to His disciples is identified         the signs and seals of the Lord's Supper is not upon the
or transubstantiated into His own body. Certain it is          heart of believers, but upon the signs themselves.
that in the night in which He was betrayed the disci-          The signs are changed. The bread is changed into the
ples did not eat the body of the Lord, but mere bread.         body of Christ; and the wine is changed into His blood.
Besides,. the word is in Scripture frequently means            Christ, therefore, operates magically upon the signs;
signifies;      Of this there are many examples in Holy        and they are placed within the physical reach of the
Writ.        In Matthew 13:38 we read, "The field is the       partakers.    Grace is in things.       And by a physical
world," meaning , of course, that in the parable the           act of taking and eating and drinking, those that par-
field signifies the world. In John 10:7 we read: "Then         take receive the grace of Christ. They can lay hold
said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,          upon the grace as it is presented in the bread and wine      .
I am the door of the sheep." And again, in verse 9 of          with their physical hands. They can taste it with their
the same chapter we read: "I am the door; by me if             physical mouth.      They can chew it with their teeth.
any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and       They can digest grace in their stomach. As one of
out, and find pasture." In the same sense, when the            the defenders of this doctrine expressed it in the
Lord at the institution of the Lord's Supper pronounces        eleventh century: "The very body of Christ was truly
the words, "This is my body,"the verb `is simply means         held in the priest's hand, broken and chewed by the
signifies  or  symbolizes.      And therefore there is no      teeth of the faithful." Hence, according to the  Ro-
reason whatsoever in Holy Writ to interpret these words        mish Church, it is not necessary in order to partake
as indicating a change of substance. The signs cer-            of the Lord's Supper to possess an active faith,
tainly are not changed into the body of Christ.                but merely to go to the eucharist with an empty stom-
   Another objection against the theory of transub-            ach. This probably is the principal error of the doc-
stantiation is that it involves an impossibility. Con-         trine of transubstantiation. And because of this prin-
cerning this Hodge remarks: "The impossible cannot             cipal error, our controversy with the Romish Church
be true, and, therefore, cannot, rationally, be an object      is still very significant. We must not foster the no-
of faith.      It is impossible that the accidents or sen-     tion that our controversy with Rome on this score is
sible properties of the bread and wine should remain           antiquated and of no significance. For after all, the
if the substance be changed.        Such a proposition has     chief and fundamental error of the fallacy of tran-
no more meaning in it than the assertion that an act           substantiation is, this, that grace, that the righteous-
can be without an agent. Accidents or properties are           ness of Christ and salvation, are bound up in physical
the phenomena of substance; and it is self-evident that        things, and that too, by the act of the institute of the
there can be no manifestations where there is not              church. The blessings of salvation are therefore di-
something to be manifested. In other words, nothing,           vorced from the operation of the Holy Spirit and from
a non ens, cannot manifest itself. Romanists cannot            the activity of faith.     They are made accessible to
turn to the theory that matter is not a substance; for that    all that can eat and drink, hear and see, and under-
is not their doctrine.        On the contrary, they assert     stand with their natural minds. And therefore the error
that the substance of the bread is transmuted into the         of the Romanists concerning transubstantiation is not
substance of Christ's body. Nor can they help them-            far different from the theory of common grace. It
selves by resorting to the prophetic doctrine that all         also' postulates that grace is in things. The reprobate
accidents are phenomena of God, for that would upset           too receive many blessings from God: food and drink,
their whole system."                                           life and health, etc.      According to the defenders of
   This latter objection we may put in adifferent form.        this theory, all things are grace to the wicked, the
According to the doctrine of transubstantiation, God           reprobate. And according to them, even the preaching
creates a lie. For we must remember, as was stated             of the Word is grace to all that hear. And therefore,
above, that according to the Romish Church the acci-           we must insist that grace is never in things, that
dents or properties of the bread and wine remain even          it is only through an operation of the Holy Spirit that
after the consecration. The bread and wine still appeal        we can receive grace,, and that this operation of the
to our senses as bread and wine, and nothing else. They        Holy Spirit is only in the elect.
look like bread and wine; they feel like bread and                                (to be continued)


82                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER

                                     74 e (pmc4
                                     ("0 worship the Lord  in the beauty of holiness." Ps. 96:9a)

                                                 THE  BAPTISMAL  VOW
                                                      Rev. G. Vanden Berg

      "Do you promise and intend to see these children                  the future of the church stands in jeopardy. This
(this child), when come to years of discretion (where-                  thought may not be construed to mean that the existence
of you are either parent or witness), instructed and                    of the church is dependent upon man or man's efforts.
brought up in the aforesaid doctrine, or help or cause                  Neither is the future of the church conditioned by or
them to be instructed therein, .to the utmost of your                   dependent upon our action or lack of action as parents
power ?"                                                                overagainst our children. On this point we are agreed
      This is the third and final question asked of parents             as unitedly we sing, "The Lord our God builds up His
at the baptism of their children. An extremely im-                      church, He seeks her wandering sons," and unitedly
portant question it is, for an affirmative answer in-                   confess, "That the Son of God from the beginning to the
volves them in a most sacred pledge.                It is not a         end of the world, gathers, defends, an preserves to
temporary thing that, upon the completion of the bap-                   Himself by His Spirit and Word, out of the whole human
tism rite, can or may be ignored or forgotten. Neither                  race, a church chosen to everlasting life." (Lord's Day
may this solemn pledge be side-tracked at the parents'                  21)
convenience in preference to other interests which all                         However, let it not be overlooked that our God is a
too often crowd into our lives at the expense of the                    God of means and order. Even as the Old Testament
proper training of the children which God has com-                      is replete with warnings, examples, and admonitions
mitted to our care.          It is a vow to GOD which is                directing us to the fact that God would not bless and
binding upon us every day and the confrontation--of                     prosper His people Israel when they walked not in His
which is inescapable.        It involves a most profound                ways, but He visited them with plagues and consump-
responsibility from which we cannot shirk with im-                      tion, so we are assured that our future generations
punity.     And in it we pledge, not a partial dedication               will not stand in the defense of the heritage of truth
of effort, but the undivided consecration of all our                    we cherish today except that they are most punctili-
powers to a task that merits every expenditure of time                  ously brought up in that doctrine throughout their
and resources for it concerns the training of the seed                  formative years.             We cannot afford to neglect our
of the covenant of Jehovah. To equate that with such                    solemn pledge to God. He is not dependent on us but
things as the procurement of physical luxuries, the                     we and our children are wholly dependent upon Him.
accumulating of temporal possessions, the  bursuit of                   And since He is holy and just He will not regard our
our social or economic ambitions, is most unjust; for                   negligence with impunity. Invariably we reap as we
there is really no comparison of value here. Yet we                     sow.
often act as though the proper training of our children                        It is the opinion of this writer that one of the most
is" only a matter of secondary importance and with                      serious, if not the most serious, defect in the history
vehement protestation do we rise up against the prob-                   of our churches has been our failure to establish a
ability of its interfering with our mad and carnal                      sound and complete system of education for our chil-
pursuit- after temporal interests.        We murmur and                 dren. We have proceeded too long on the false assump-
complain about the high .cost of the instruction of our                 tion that if only as churches we maintain the pure doc-
children but we do not hesitate to spend many times                     trine we would be unaffected though our children are
its equal for the things of this world that please us.                  left to be educated by Christian Reformed and, in
Have we perhaps forgotten that we did not vow to God                    some instances, worldly educators. We have neglected
that we would spend our every effort to amass wealth                    the tri-unity of church, home, and school; and this
and riches unto ourselves in this world, but we did                     neglect has already reaped its toll. Wedo not overlook
promise, to the utmost of our power, to bring up our                    nor deny that there were serious doctrinal issues in-
children-in harmony with the demands of His covenant?                   volved in the split of our churches in 1953; but this
Spiritual sensitiveness to the awesome character of                     notwithstanding, undersigned feels that this compro-
the sacred baptismal pledge presses us into a channel                   mising position on education has not abated but con-
of duty that runs contrary to our flesh. All this tends                 tributed greatly to the fact that pver half of the de-
only to magnify the difficulty of adherence to that VOW,                nomination could and did leave the truth in that history.
but in no way does it minimize its necessity. Though                           It may be argued that the matter of education is
we, the parents, are askew, the calling is the same,                    strictly a parental responsibility which is of no direct
and our obligation to it remains unchanged.                             concern to the church whose calling it is to preach the
      Of significance is the vow contained in this third                Gospel. We are not advocates of the parochial system
question, not only for the parents, but for the entire                  of education. With this we express no dissent; but we
church as well. Her future well-being is intimately                     must, nevertheless, goint out that the argument does
bound up in the fidelity of parents to the baptismal                    not completely absolve the church. Her task is cer-
vow. Without a rigid adherence to this sacred pledge                    tainly j to demand compliance with the sacred vows


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 83
which are spoken and witnessed in her midst. And                than that of Protestant Reformed Education because
here a weakness in the emphasis upon her insistence             we can teach them God's Word as'we see it only in
that parents bring up their children in harmony with            that light, because a world and life view is inculcated,
the doctrine in the school as well as in the home and           and it's got to be the right one because we are not
church .easily creeps in because the strength of her            living up to our baptismal pledge as we should the
admonition is thwarted by practical argumentation.              way it is now. You know you can say, "But the home
The result is a continuance in an inconsistent and              and the church counteract whatever evil there is in
wrong way which can only bring about deterioration              the school;" but by the same token whatever evil there
instead of the strengthening of the church's fortifica-         is in the school counteracts the home and the church.
tions.    From this point of view our future is not             After all, non-Protestant Reformed people and anti-
promising unless, by the grace of God, there is a               Protestant Reformed  .people  cannot instruct Protestant
resuscitation of interest in Protestant Reformed edu-           Reformed people; and for all these reasons the prin-
cation, a breaking loose from all apathy and a re-              ciple is not difficult to see. In this way we shall edu-
dedication to our baptismal vow, manifested in a                cate our children ..,..... Among us as Protestant Re-
united determination and effort to provide for our              formed, the man of God must be constructed. If you
children without compunction of material sacrifice.             are going to construct a brick building you use brick
The vows spoken in the love of God cannot be realized           don't you?      And you don't use Christian Reformed
except by the love of God springing out of and filling all      material to construct a Protestant Reformed man. If
the heart and mind and soul and strength. And without           you are going to build a Protestant Reformed man out
this the vow had better be left unspoken.                       of your child you'll have to use Protestant Reformed
   That the third question of the baptism vow relates           material!"2
to the matter of education is further evident from                 We might add that this is precisely .what we prom-
other Protestant Reformed writings.                             ise to do to the utmost of our power when we present
   In a recent lecture by Rev. D. Engelsma in which             our children in baptism. Let us never forget that!
he criticizes the position of those who deny the cove-             Finally, we quote Rev. H. Hoeksema as he com-
nantal basis of Christian Day Schools, we find the fol-         ments on the third question of baptism. He writes:
lowing statements: "And if you read that article by                "The third question: This question demands of
Dr. Daane (spokesman for the view criticized) you will          parents a promise, or sacred pledge: (1) That they
notice that he makes a very strong point of it that if          assume responsibility for the instruction of their
his substitute basis for Christian education be ac-             children:
cepted, ministers of the Word and consistories and                  "(a) They must either instruct them personally or
parents may no longer appeal to the baptism vow any             through others: `help, or cause them to be instructed.'
more in support of these distinct institutions of learn-        This means that they are responsible for the instruc-
ing. If the parents do not stand before the obligation          tion of their children principally as. parents, not only
before God to establish and maintain separate and dis-          in the home, but also in church and school.
tinct institutions of learning, those institutions of learn-        "(b) This instruction must be `in the aforesaid
ing are doomed."1                                               doctrine,' and therefore, in the Reformed truth as in-
   In another lecture, given several years ago by Rev.          dicated in the second question.
R. Veldman, we come upon statements like these:                     "(c) This instruction must be to the utmost of
   "Beloved, our obligation, our own moral respon-              their power.      The fathers certainly emphasize the
sibility, is toward the cause of Christian Education            seriousness of the education of their covenant children
itself and toward the will of God and our ownsolemn             according to the,Reformed  faith."3
baptism pledge to bring up our children in the afore-              In conclusion for this time, we quote the following
said doctrine to the utmost of our power. And so,               comments from The Banner:
beloved, by no stretch of the imagination could it                  "The third question is based in a sense upon the
possibly be our calling and responsibility to have our          second. Now parents are asked to promise that they
children instructed year in and year out, generation            will instruct their children in that doctrine. This be-
after generation, by those that cast us out.":!                 gins, of course, in the home. Yet the phrase `to the
   Again, "It is said, beloved, to mention another ob-          utmost of your power" plainly includes more. Parents
jection, it is said the home and the church are the             obligate themselves to insure Christian training for
basic agencies in the educating of our children. If             their chidren in both the church and the school. Only
you are faithful there you are doing your duty. You             churches and schools where the `aforementioned doc-
have nothing to fear. And the rest will follow. You             trine', that is, the Reformed faith, is taught and cham-
are adhering to your baptismal pledge to bring up               pioned, can satisfy the requirements of covenantal ed-
your children in the aforesaid doctrine to the utmost           ucation for our seed. When parents minimize the need
of your power. Now these people ought to know, be-              of church attendance and catechetical training for their
loved, that that has never been the position of the Re-         children, they are breaking their solemn vow. And how
formed Churches and the Reformed people . . . that the          is it possible for parents who have made this promise
baptismal pledge has always been applied in the past            in sincerity to be lukewarm to the necessity of distinc-
to the schools as well."2                                       tively Christian schools in an age whengodlessness and
   But once more: "And so its time to conclude. On              secularism like a plague have infected tens of thousands
the basis of all this, what principle can be more right         who bear the mark of the covenant? No means at our


       a4                                               THESTANDARDBEARER

       disposal may be neglected.
             "Although no influence of home or school or church
       will automatically guarantee the salvation of our chil-        i Rev. D. Engelsma, "Protestant Reformed  Educa-
       dren, we may surely believe that all who honor God by            tion  - Some Thoughts on Principles."
       obeying Him in the covenantal training of their children       2 Rev. R. Veldman, "The Ideal of Protestant Re-
       will be honored by Him. He may test our faith in this            formed Education".
       respect often, but He will never put toshame  those who        8 Rev. H. Hoeksema, "Liturgic Notes".
       trust His word of promise."4                                   4 Rev. P. De Jong, The Banner, July 9, 1954.

                                7443 AW! ga& 7463 WA! . . . (Psalm 68:11)
                              THE  EVANGELICAL  APPROACH  IN  THE  OLD  DISPENSATION
                                                           Reva  C.  Hank0
                                                 (Continued from Novem bev 1 issue)
             Later Naomi went toMoab and witnessed there of her      shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall
       God to her two daughters-in-law, with the result              condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of
       that God caused Ruth to forsake all her former life           Jonas, and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here."
       and accompany her mother-in-law to Judah, while  Or-             Always there was the promise that in the new
       pah turned back to her idols and her people. Both             dispensatibn  the descendants of Japheth would dwell
       Ruth and Orpah had been instructed by the same                in the tents of Shem, the covenant would break away
       witness of Jehovah; both considered returning with            from the narrow confines of Israel as anation to extend
       Naomi to her land and people, weighing the conse-             to many nations, peoples, and tribes of the earth. God
       quences of the step theywould be taking. Orpah weakens        would gather His church also from the Gentiles.
       and drops back to her idolatry and heathen practices.            Third, we may not fail to notice that the preaching
       Ruth, in spite of all the warnings she receives about         of the Gospel still was not universal in the old dis-
       the problems involved in returning with her mother-           pensation.    God brought His Word wherever He would,
       in-law, experiences the grace of God in her heart to          but certainly not to all nations and peoples promis-
       confess: "Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return          cuously.      In fact, the witness of the Gospel was so
       from following after thee: for whither thou goest  I[         limited that by far most of the nations never came in
       will' go; and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people     contact with it. When Paul speaks of the living God to
       shall be my people, and thy Godmy God." Ruth 1:16.            the people of Lystra, he says, "Who in times past
             And still later, in the days of the apostasy of the     suffered all nations to walk in their own ways."
     , ten tribes, when God was about to cast them out of            Acts  14:16. And to the men of Athens he repeats, that
       the land to disperse them among the nations, Jonah            "the times, of this ignorance God winked at; but, now
       was sent to Nineveh to call them to repentance. Re-           (in the new dispensation) commandeth all men every-
       luctantly the prophet went, realizing that God would          where to repent." While in his epistle to the Romans
       soon make an end of Israel as a nation to turn to the         Paul is even more emphatic, declaring that the wrath
       Gentiles, even as the prophets of the past had said.          of God is revealed from heaven against those who
       What was Jonah's message according to the command             possessed "natural light" and yet'suppressed the truth
       of God?      Was he told to proclaim a universal love         in unrighteousness: "For the wrath of God is revealed
       for all men, an offer of salvation toall who will accept,     from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
       ignoring the righteousness of the living God? In the          of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; be-
       first chapter of Jonah's prophecy, verses 1 and 2,            cause that which may be known of God is manifested
       we read: "Now the word of the Lord came unto Jo-              to them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the
       nah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh,        invisible things of him from the creation of the world
       and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up           are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
       before me." And again after the bitter experience of          are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so
       being swallowed up by the fish and the wonderful ex-          that they are without excuse." Rom. 1:18-20.
       perience of being spewed out upon dry land as one                Finally , we must conclude that this entire evan-
       raised from the dead, the word of the Lord came to            gelical approach in .the old dispensation can be un-
       Jonah, saying, "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great            derstood  only  in the light  of  the antithesis,  God
       city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." 8    gathers His church in the midst of an evil world. The
       It must be that the preaching which God wanted Jonah          nations of the world exalt themselves in wicked de -
       to preach to Nineveh was simply this:          "Yet forty     fiance and vain boasting against God and His Christ.
       days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." The present           Lot is delivered out of Sodom, while fire and brim-
       day evangelist might throw up his hands in horror             stone rain down from heaven upon those wicked cities.
       at such a mandate, and yet it was this very preaching         Israel is brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand,
       of the Gospel to the Ninevites that brought repentance        while Pharaoh and his host perish in the Red Sea.
I      unto salvation. Jesus tells us that "The men of Nineveh       The Canaanites are destroyed to give to Israel the


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 85
promised land. Syria, Assyria and Babylon are used             not fail, "And in the days of these kings (of iron
by God to purge Israel from their sin. But boldly              and clay) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,
they exalt themselves against God and His people.              which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom
Daniel is sent to the courts of Babylon to witness             shall not be left to other people, but it shall break
to the world power of that day that God, the God of            in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it
Daniel and the God of Israel, is the only true God.            shall stand forever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that
In. terror the kings of Babylon are forced to admit            the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands,
it, even though they refuse to give up their gods.             and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the
The heathen may. boast and the peoples may imagine             clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made
a vain thing, but God leaves His testimony among them          known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter;
of the image with its head of gold and feet of iron and        and the dream is certain, and the interpretation
clay crushed by the Stone that is cut without hands            thereof sure." Dan. 2:44,45.
from the side of the mountain. The Word of God can-




                                     PRAYING   FOR  THOSE  IN  AUTHORIT'Y
                                 Exposition of I Timothy 2:1-7 and Related Passages
                                                      Rev. G. Lubbers
   The subject on which I will now write was given                 I have looked at my task in this light and have
to me in question form and I was privileged to speak           made a survey of the Bible on the question of the prayers
on it for the meeting of the Men's League meeting held         of the saints for those in authority, as these prayers
in Hudsonville recently. It was the desire and decision        are concerned with the gathering of the church, the
of the League that this lecture given in their midst           course and progress of the Gospel-preaching in all the
be published for the benefit of a wider reading'circle,        world, and the final coming of the Kingdom of heaven
and I gladly comply with that decision. Herewith I             in the day of Christ. Our task is thus that of exegesis,
then make a beginning of publishing the same in the            synthetical exegesis. YOU WILL DO WELL TO KEEP
present form.                                                  YOUR BIBLE AT HAND.
   It should be borne in mind that I was given a mandate           To properly understand our subject I find it prof-
and request from the committee of the Men's League             itable to develop three theses for your consideration,
to answer the question, "Must we pray for those in             which I here submit.
authority?" You will bear with me that I recast this
question into a positive proposition; that, instead of         Those in Authovity Aye Ministers  of God.
speaking on the question, I speak on the answer                    The classic Scriptural passage which we must
which I believe is clearly and succinctly given in Holy        here consider to give direction to our thinking is, no
Writ. The understanding reader will perceive that I            doubt, Romans  13:1-7. However, there are many
could very well simply have spoken on I Tim.  2:2;             other passages both in the Old Testament and in the
that I could simply have read this text, and sat down,         New Testament which we must pass in review at this
and considered my task ended as far as the question is         juncture.
concerned. However, I took it that the original ques-              We place on the foreground the proposition that
tioner was well aware of this passage from I Timothy           all government in the world is ordained  of God!
2:1-7 and related passages, and that it was his desire             Thus in the Old Testament we have the original
that this question should be treated in a thetical and         mandate to Adam, so to speak, concerning his subduing
constructive way in the light of all of Scripture.             all things in the earthly creation. In the monologue
   Certainly the Men's League and no one of my read-           of God recorded in Gen. 1:26 we read, "Let us make
ers is really interested in my private opinion concern-        man in our own image, after our own likeness: and let
ing this matter. Should anyone think that I am going to        them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
write my opinion in this study and lecture concerning          the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle and over
the demerits and merits of the candidates for the              all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
presidency of the United States, he must needs be              creepeth upon the earth.". This is dominion, govern-
disappointed in this study; he had better be disen-            ment with which Adam was vested as the viceroy of
chanted.      I hold that in the church we are interested      God.      When God saw all that he had made and that it
in the more sure prophetic word which shines as a              was "very good," this also included the government of
light in a dark place -until the day dawn and the day-         man over the three aspects of creation: sea, air, and
star arise in our hearts. II Peter 1:19. The undersigned       land !
is only interested to have such a discussion of the sub-           Again, in the Old Testament Scriptures we have
ject that hearers and readers are assured in their             the well-known passage in Gen. 9: 5,6, where we read:
hearts that what I write and spoke is: thus saith              "And surely your blood, the blood of your lives,
the Lord !                                                     will I require; at the hand of every beast will I re-


a6                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

quire it, and at the hand of man, even at the hand of          powers that be! Ministers of God, who must be God's
every man's brother, will I require it.  Whoso  shed-          vice-roys on earth in civil affairs! He takes the po-
deth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed:              sition, the exalted position of Daniel, as we have this
for in the image of God made he man." Whether we               recorded in Daniel 2:20-23, where we have a rhapsody
may conclude from this passage that before the Deluge          of Daniel, a prayer, an acknowledgement of God.
there was no government vested with the sword, and that        Here we read: "Daniel answered and said, Blessed be
God Himself did this directly without the instrumentality      the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and
of man, we leave an open question, and to the area of          might are his: and he changeth the times and seasons:
conjecture, and to those who fancy it their duty to spec-      he removeth kings and setteth up kings: he giveth wis-
ulate where the Scriptures make no clear revelation            dom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know
and pronouncement. However,, it is beyond a shadow             understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things;
of a doubt that here in Gen. 9:  5,6 God definitely            he knoweth what is in darkness, and the light dwelleth
spells out the authority of the sword-power against            with him.       I thank thee and praise thee, 0 thou God
those who break the second table of the law, and in so         of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might,
doing the first table of the law. Matt. 22:34-40. The          and hast made known unto me now what we desired of
Scriptures here teach capital punishment upon the              thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's
murderer who has put forth his murderous hand                  matter." Daniel takes the stand there that God lifts
against the man created in God's image!                        up the kings and dethrones them, even though this
      When we turn to the Bible and study the civil laws       be done through the machinations of men, of one against
in Israel we notice that here the Lord definitely makes        the other!
a distinction between the moral law, the Decalogue,               Or let us heed Paul's beautiful oration as he stands
the ceremonial laws, and the civil laws. The mor'al            in the Areopagus in Athens in Mars Hill as we have it
law is eternal, and is of central, basic importance.           in Acts 17:26, where we read: "And he hath made of
It is the law of all laws. The ceremonial laws are a           one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face
part of the dispensation of the grace of God under the         of the earth, and hath determined the times before
shadows, portraying the Christ to come. The civil              appointed, and the bounds of their habitation." Just
laws dealt with the matters of civil affairs and the          how long a nation shall be a nation, where their
sword-power against the transgressors of both the              geographical boundaries will be, is determined by God,
first and second tables of the law. In a word, it dealt        as we read in Deuteronomy 32:7-9:` `Remember the days
with: false religion, murderers, thieves, adulterers,          of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy
liars.                                                        father and he will shew thee; thy elders and they
      In all of these cases we have considered the out-       will tell thee:      When the Most High divided to the
standing fact: all government is ordained of God! That,       nations their inheritance when he separated the sons
let it be remembered, is our basic proposition.                of  Adam,  he set the bounds of the people according
      In the New Testament Scriptures we refer primarily       to the num bev of the ckildven of Isvael.For  the LORD'S
for this point to Romans 13:1-7. Paul speaks here not         portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance."
simply concerning  ' `authority," but definitely con-         This setting of the boundaries of the nations was
cerning the "powers that be." Here we read: "Let               according to the number of the children of Israel,
every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there         so that it had to serve the gathering of the elect, the
is no power but of God, and the powers that be are            church, out of every tongue, tribe, people and nation.
ordained of God," Now these powers whichwere in that              Paul in Romans 13 teaches definitely that there
day of Rome were not the most acceptable from the             is no authority but by God. I would like to point out
viewpoint of personal liberty  1      Nero was on the         that according to the Greek text twice it is emphati-
throne I    It was the year 60 A.D. when Paul wrote           cally stated that government is thus by God, in such
this letter to the Romans. Once and again he would            a manner, that it is in the world without human inter-
have desired to come to Rome, but he had been                 vention or medium. Government is not in the world
let hitherto. But as soon as he could he would come           through men, but it is a reality by God's secret
to Rome too.      The conclusion is warranted that what       providence, in his inscrutable wisdom as he directs
Paul writes in Romans 13 was written after his third          the affairs of men, so that there is never a place under
missionary journey and possibly while he is a prisoner        the sun, under heaven, where there is no government!
in Caesarea these two years. It was about this time           You can have the most chaotic circumstances, you
that while in Festus' court he says: "I appeal to             can have revolutions, you can have bloodshed; but,
Caesar."      It is good to bear that in mind, that Paul      strictly speakmg,  there is no such thing as an intev-
was under the imperial state of Rome when he writes           Yegnum .       There is no hiatus in God's ordinance be-
Romans 13 concerning the duty of every soul to subject        tween the two regimes. God mainiains  government.
themselves to the powers that be. He is a living ex-          Let me here state that poor government is always
ample of it in his own life, which will lead eventually to    better than no government. Government is of God;
his execution at Rome. Tradition has it that he was           government may be poor, but it is far better than an-
beheaded outside of Rome at the Tve Fontane.  Even            archy !
though he must stand trial before Nero in Rome, that              And that government is of God, Jesus, the Son of
frivolous monster of iniquity, he teaches and acknowl-        God, Himself confesses before Pilate, as recorded in
edges such as being ordained of God.        They are the      John 19:11, where he says: "Thou wouldest not have


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 87
                                                                                  I
     (be having) authority against Me at all, except it were         sake, that is, for the sake of a conscience that bows
     given thee from above". And there again in the Greek            before the Word of God. It must be a sanctified con-
     text Jesus uses "thou wouldst not be having this                science! It .must not be conscience which pretends to
     authority constantly." It is the verb tense giving              be an -autonomous guide and rule apart from the
     us a moving-picture view. PILATE WOULD NOT BE                   revealed will of God. In Romans 13 Paul is speaking
     HAVING THIS authority except it had been given him,             to the church and not to the world. He is addressing
     as it culminates in this trial, except it were given him        those whom he can beseech by the mercies of God
     from above. And we know that Pilate, not so many years          that they walk in their reasonable service, and that they
     later, was defrocked by Caesar because of his malad-            approve what is that good, acceptable and perfect will
     ministrations and cruelties, and banished into Gaul             of God -also in respect to those in authority. Only
     (Spain).                                                        they whose sins are forgiven, only they who are
        In the light of the foregoing we take the stand that         sanctified by the grace of God, only they who have
     all authority is of God and is ordained of God !                renewed hearts and enlightened minds, have a sancti-
        In the second place under this proposition that              fied conscience, and can for conscience' sake bow in
     government is of God I want to point out that those             godliness before the authorities.
     who are in authority must be obeyed fov conscience'                                  (to be continued)




                                                         A  CALL  TO  ARMS
                                                           Rev. J. A. Heys
        We are in the church-militant.                               generated child of God. Sometimes it spreads out to
        It may not at times loolc that way. There is so              other regenerated children of God because of his or
,    much laying down of arms that one wonders whether               their flesh, or because of the flesh of both. Besides
     the church has forgotten that she is thechurch-militant         this, there is the ever-abiding enmity between the
     here below.                                                     seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The
        Indeed, she is at the same time the church-trium-            new man in Christ comes in conflict'with the old man
     phant. Faith is the victory, Johndeclares in I John 5:4.        of sin in the world. And that seed of `the serpent is not
     He does not say that faith ultimately gets the victory.         always so clearly to be recognized.         In John's day
     He does not say that faithwill helpus to gain the victory.      already the church had to be warned against false
     Emphatically he declares that faith is the victory. And         prophets and had to be admonished to "try the spirits"
     Paul declares in Romans 8:37 that we :.`are more than           whether they were "out of God." The world we have
     conquerors" through Him that loved us. We are not               little difficulty recognizing as the seed of the serpent.
     simply sure of having the victory at the end of time.           But the false church, and the false prophet of that
     We are at present more than conquerors in Christ.               church, poses as a wolf in sheep's clothing. He has a
     From His ascension to God's right hand we have with             form of godliness although he denies the power thereof;
     Him been sitting in heavenly places. In principle the           and that form often leads us to sup with him rather
     battle is all over. He paid for our sins in full on the         than to fight him. But it all underscores the fact that
     cross.       He was raised because we were justified,           we are still the Church-militant and will be till God
     Romans  4:25. He `was exalted and given dominion over           takes away that flesh from us and removes from off
     all things in heaven and on earth, over Satan and his           the face of this earth, in,the day of Christ, the in-prin-
     host and all the subjects of his kingdom of darkness.           ciple-defeated enemy.
     We have a King Who is Lord of all lords and King of                That enemy has work to do yet in the fulfilling of
     all kings.       Christ now has dominion, over land and         God's counsel.      The measure of iniquity must be
     sea.        Earth's remotest regions now His empire be:         filled. The little seed, - little but potent and signifi-
     Psalm 72:8 is realized.                                         cant seed, - sown in paradise sprouted into a tree
         However, we are still on the battlefield; and the           which, in the first generation already, in fact in the
     time for the wiping off from the face of the earth of           firstborn of woman, brought forth murder; and soon
     the kingdom of darkness is not yet. We ourselves                enough produced a world ready for the judgment of
     still have the old man of sin with us. And that makes           the flood, -and thereby chopped down to a great ex-
     for contention and strife even in the church. It makes          tent. That seed is growing again from the shoot that
     for a battle and struggle in the individual, regenerated        sprang up from Noah and his son's flesh. That tree
     child of God. Paul's experiences as related in Romans           must bring forth every possible bit and kind of fruit.
     7 are ihose of every regenerated child of God, although         It must become abundantly evident to the church that
     they may not at all times be to the same degree. That           we are saved only by grace. It must become abun-
     flesh is not, and according to Romans 8:7 cannot be,            dantly evident to the world that try as man may, he
     subject to the law of God. The new man in Christ,               cannot and never will be like God, except as God makes
     according to I John 3~9 cannot sin. And so a continu-           us once again to be spivituully  like Him in Christ; that
     .ous struggle, a battle of faith is waged inside the re-        to live apart from God is death; and that man in para-


88                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

dise began to walk a pathway that can only lead to             Arminianism, - and throw out all discipline because
destruction.     It must become plain that all his ingenu-     it is contrary to their idea of love, and then will fight
ity, knowledge, science, invention, and progress in            tooth and nail for social improvements? They believe,
the service of mankind and without the fear of God can         as a church or church group, mind you, in fighting for
only lead him to ruin. He begins to see that today,            worldly things; but to fight for the spiritual, for the
although he will not admit it. That little seed of sin in      truth and for upright walk they find not in their souls.
paradise has brought him to where the tree has brought         Let us beware lest we seek peace with men and find
man to the point where five nations, in this way of knowl-     ourselves opposing God Who is Truth and Righteous-
edge, science and the like, have it in their wisdom and        ness.
power to wipe man from off the face of this earth.                It is quite possible to have a love commended by
Babylon with all its gold and silver and merchandise,          men and towards men that actually is rooted in hatred
with all its skyscrapers and engineering feats will            towards God. It is the love of the flesh and not at all
destroy itself and has created a world of tension and          the love demanded by God's law. It is the love that
fear the like of which the world never saw, either be-         you can find in the brute beast for its own and is no
fore or after the flood. And all this must be. There-          compliment at all to the rational-moral being made in
fore the church is still on this earth; and although we        God's image. It is therefore very easy to leave a man
have the victory and are more than conquerors in Christ,       in his sin and fail to exercise any discipline upon him
we are still on the battlefield and surrounded by the          in that fleshly love which brute beasts can have towards
enemy. Elect must yet be born and reborn and so be             each other. Meanwhile we are fighting against God Who
gathered into the church of God. The wicked must               hates all sin, and we willingly allow rebellion against
progress in their sin, -and can do nothing else,  -            Him. It is so easy to keep silent and even fellowship
until the Judge comes and that which Satan sowed in            with those who deny God His glory by false doctrine
paradise is seen for what it actually is worth, and the        and do so because we do not want to hurt the feelings
tree is chopped down and thrown into the fire.                 of the heretic. But is it love to God when we condone
      Is the church fully aware of its calling to fight?       the lie that presents Him in an evil light and in fact
      There are so many evidences of infiltration of the       calls Him a liar?
enemy, of fifth columns and "brain washing," that a               The tragic thing in our church world of today es-
call to arms is not out of place at all today. There is        pecially is that although the antichristian forces are
so much spiritual apathy today. And the false church           fighting furiously and relentlessly to set up their
is so feverishly at work in the attempt to swallow up          kingdom and banish the church of Christ from this
the true church and destroy her. Satanknows the value          earth, there is so little fight in the church of Christ,
of the worldly philosophy that if you cannot defeat            at least in much that which calls itself His church,
them, then join them.         And join not to adopt their         No, of course, we are not advocating bitterness
doctrine and righteousness but instead from within to          and fighting with the flesh or tongue against those of
instill doubt and evil.                                        the household of faith. We must not be a people with
      Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the         a chip on our shoulders. We must seek to understand
earth.     Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall         as much as we desire to be understood. In the love of
be called the children of God. Love your enemies,              God and in His fear we must be afraid of fighting His
and do good unto them that persecute you. Bless them           children.    Paul admonishes us in Titus 3:9 to "avoid
that curse you. Who wants to deny any part of this?            foolish questions, and geneologies, and contentions."
That would indeed be fighting in the camp of Satan.            All this, however, does not take away the Word of God
There is not too much danger at the moment that we             in I John 4:l that we are to try the spirits and not be-
might militate against these texts and this truth. Our         lieve every spirit in the world. Evil and the lie, no
danger comes from the other quarter, namely, that             matter in what form they may come, must be opposed
we are deceived into a wrong interpretation of these           and not defended. False doctrine and evil practices
texts and lay down our arms because we have been              must be condemned in no uncertain terms and not be
brain washed spiritually. We have been turned away            commended e.ven by silence.
from the other side of the picture. We have quietly               It is high time that the church be alerted to the
yet persistently been caused to overlook all the texts        closest enemy, and not the more remote. It is time
in Scripture that demand of us that we fight the good         for the church to be called to arms for a battle that
fight of faith. I Timothy 6:12; II Timothy 4:7; Genesis       is being waged rather than to look away towards one
3:15; Jude 3. To these texts you may also add the fact        that may come in the future. It has been stated that
that Paul in Philippians 2:25 and Philemon 2 speaks of        the church needs to unite in order to have a stronger
himself and the believers. as soldiers.                       front against Communism.          Roman Catholics and
      Indeed, there is that desire for peace. There can       Protestants have a common enemy and ought to find
also be that fear of war. But far more important is           a common ground where they can stand and fight to-
the fear of the Lord. And that fear will never allow          gether against this enemy. But Communism is not The
compromise with the lie and evil practices. It will           Enemy of the church. It is an enemy of the State. In-
always stand for the truth and righteousness; and then        deed, if it prevails and we obtain a communistic form
there will be a fight. Why is it that in many a church        of government, our freedom of religion will be gone.
and church circle there is no desire to fight for doc-        It is an atheistic ideology. No one in the church can
trinal purity, -- but they will fight you, if you deny        or wants to deny that. But the false church and the


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           a9

false prophets of that church are far more to be                       not ruling Him out of the safety of His church are we?),
feared than corrupt governments of foreign nations.                    and then the world is safe for the reiigion of the Anti-
Rome was atheistic also in the day when Jesus walked                   christ. What have we gained?
on this earth. But Jesus warned His disciples not of                         Shall we unite all those who claim `to believe in
Rome but of the leaven of the Pharisees. He also                       God? The Jew does. The Modernist does. Even Com-
pointed out to John `on the Isle of Patmos, for our in-                munists have been heard to say that God also helps
struction and comfort, `that the Antichrist comes after                them. Shall we say, "No creed but Christ?" All who
the manner of the one-world political ambitions of the                 claim to believe in Christ can unite? Will there be
Communists. But He also pointed out that false proph-                  room for me, when I insist that Christ atoned for the
et who serves this beast and practices deception to                    sin of all His elect and did not simply make it possible
turn the worship of men to that beast. Let the church                  for all men to be saved, if they will only accept it?
today understand that there are forces in the church-                  Will there be room for the Modernist who denies that
world that exactly seek to destroy the church from                     Christ is essentially the Son of God and wants only a
within.                                                                Christ Who has the title, "Son of God?"
   Satan knows all the tricks. And when four hundred                         Who was more. dangerous to Israel? The heathen
years after the Reformation "divide and conquer" did                   who worshipped Baal, or Jeroboam who introduced
not bring about the desired effect, and a stubborn                     the golden calves? Shall we take up arms against the ?
"little flock" (which is yet "an innumerable host"                     out-and-out wicked world and let the enemy creep into
and figuratively "seven thousand" that have not bowed                  our own camp?
the knee to Baal) still remains faithful to the truth, he                    In His fear the church is afraid togo along and have
resorts to this: "Join them" and then corrupt them                     friendship with any but those who love God and the
from within.     Must fear of Communism, -which is                     truth and confess Him to be sovereign in ALL His
nothing less than the wicked world that never makes                    works.              In His fear the church does not fear Com-
profession of Christianity or worship of God, -must                    munism, -the bold wicked world that will persecute
fear of that wicked world drive the church to unite                    and never permitted man to worship God, -but fears
with the false church? And will that preserve the fear                 the false church, the'false prophet, and false doctrine
of God upon this earth?                                                that lead us to join in the practices advocated by Com-
                                                                       munism and the world. Because she fears God, she
   What if Communism is defeated? What if it falls by                  takes up arms, the sword of the Spirit, which is the
its own weight, and it pleases God to crush it by ca-                  Word of God to keep pure in doctrine and in an upright
lamity and famine and disaster upon disaster (We are                   walk.




                                                NAOMI  AND  RUTH

                            Then she (Naomi) arose with hev daughters in law, that she might
                        yeturn  from the country of Moab....
                           And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, OY to return from fol-
                        lowing after thee: fov whithev  thou goest, I will g&; and where thou
                        lodges&  I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
                        God.                                                                         Ruth L-6, 16

                                                  Rev. B.  Woudenbevg

   For a third time we are given adetailed description                 lech, a man of Bethlehem-judah, and his family. These
of the low degree of spiritual life into which the children            were true, believing children of God who had never
of Israel had fallen during the latter period of the                   shared in the idolatry and moral wickedness which had
judges. The first two, the sin of Micah's images and                   become so predominant in the nation as a whole. They
the sin of Gibeah in Benjamin, depict the very lowest                  must have been, or they would never have been able to
depths of depravity into which Israel had fallen. One                  give the sincere testimony of truth which led Ruth the
can only be shocked to learn that such wickedness                      Moabitess to salvation and to one of the most beautiful
could have taken place among the people of God. The                    confessions of faith found within the Scriptures. But
third, recorded in the book of Ruth, comes almost as                   this did not mean that the wickedness ofthe day had not
a relief. It reminds us that in spite of the great sins                left its effect also upon them. It was not so much that
of the people, faith was not yet dead. There were still                they were led into outward sin, but rather that they
those who believed and gave honor to God. But even                     were driven into silence. This was the great sin of the
among them, the laxity of the day had left its tainting                righteous in Israel during the period of the judges. The
effect.                                                                law had stated very clearly that when idolatry arose in
   The book of Ruth opens with the history of Elime-                   Israel, it was to be punished with the severest penalty,


  90                                               THE  STANDA~II  BEARER
                                                        I

  even death. But this was not done. When it first arose,       Moab there was food for the body, but there was none
  the true children of God, preoccupied with their own           at all for the soul. Slowly, subtly, this sin which they
  lives, allowed it to go on without opposition. The result     had committed began to eat away at their best re-
  was that it grew, until at last they found themselves in      solves. They had been quite sure that they would never
  the. minority. Then it was harder to speak out and de-        be able to feel at home among these heathen, and at.
  mand that the precepts of the law be obeyed, and it took      first they didn't.. Spiritually they were alone; there
  courage. But those who had not been faithful in little        was no tabernacle to which they could go; there was no
  had not the strength. to be faithful. in much. The true       one at all who shared their convictions. Still, life was
  children of God in Israel withdrew into spiritualseclu-       easier in Moab. The peo$e in Moab lived wickedly
  sion, bemoaning then wickedness of the day but doing.          also; but that was to be expected, and somehow it did -not
  nothing.                                                      bother as it did at home. The tensions were gone. The
        Thus it was that in the days of Elimelech a severe      Moabites were content to let them live the way they did
  famine. fell upon the land. Elimelech and the righteous       without sneering like the wicked of Israel had. Life
  in Israel who still remembered the law knew what the          was easier, and there was plenty to eat. Amazingly
  reason was.        God had said plainly through Moses,        soon Elimelech and his family found themselves quite
  "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken          comfortably ~located  in that heathen land. They were
DT unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do         satisfied;
  all his commandments and his statutes which I com-                But God was not. He looked down upon them as in-
  mand thee this day; that all these curses shall come          dividuals even as He did upon the nation of Israel as a
  upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in         whole. Days'and months and years passed by, and they
  the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the.field. Cursed       felt less and less inclined to return to Israel. -Then
  shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall .be the        God visited them.       It- was a severe and hard blow.
  fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase     Elimelech died.
  of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.... And thy            Elimelech's wife, Naomi, found herself alone in a
  heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the          strange land with two children.         No doubt, in her
  earth that is under thee shall be iron. The LORD              sorrow Naomi's thoughts went back often to Bethlehem-
  shall make the rainof thy land powder and dust: from           judah from which they had come and where still lived
  heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be             all of their old relatives and friends. She wished she
  destroyed." (Deut. 28:15-18,23,24) Now the worst had          were there, for in Israel there was a comfort in sor-
  happened.       The livelihood of Israel had been taken       row which none of the Moabites could understand. She
  away.        It was the result of Israel's sin. This the      knew then as they had always known that someday she
  righteous knew; but what they failed to understand was        would have to go back. That was where she belonged.
  that they also were responsible because they had               But life is more complicated than one at first thinks.
  failed to punish the sinners when they could.                 How could she make that long journey without a hus-
        Those days were hard, and Elimelech in his family       band and with two sons which hardly remembered
  felt the pinch. They were strangers in their own land,         any more when they had come out? And when they
  and the curse of God was upon it. Thus searching around        arrived, what would they do for a living? Here in
  for a solution, he came upon one that was really not a        Moab her sons had grown up; they were known and
  solution at all. The famine, he learned, had not reached      able to find work; but what did they know of making a
  the land of Moab; he would go there. It seemed reason-        living in' Bethlehem-judah? Besides, it was doubtful
  able.       He found little fellowship in Israel any more     whether the young men would even be willing to go
  anyway. Why should he and his family suffer for the           along. All of their friends were inMoab, and soon they
 sins of the rest.        Taking his wife and two sons, he      would be expecting to marry. They were, perhaps, al-
 `went.                                                         ready courting the Moabitish young women whom
        In doing this Elimelech committed a great sin. He       eventually they married. These were nice girls, as
  only multiplied his guilt.      We can well imagine his       nice as one could possibly hope for them to find in
  reasoning, of course. His stay in Moab would be only          this land, nicer than many Naomi had known back in
  temporary. He would just stay inMoabunti1  the famine         Israel. They were kind and considerate, nor did they
  was lifted, and then he would return. His family would        show any antagonism toward the faith of Naomi and
  be spared the hardship which they did,not  deserve, and       her sons. In fact, at times they revealed a remarkable
  everything would be all right. One often meets such           degree of interest and would join in their worship. So
  reasoning; but it is foggy. A righteous man when con-         the day of return, because of what seemed overwhelm-
 fronted with evil among the people of God may never            ing considerations, was put off. Mahlon and Chilion,
  turn himself in sullen silence and withdraw. He must          Naomi's sons, married the young women, Orpah and
  withstand the evil and demand that it be corrected. This      Ruth.        Again Naomi found herself thinking less and
  may be hard; it may entail suffering; but it is the only      less about the day when they would have to return. It
  way that is blessed. Nor is it, as he may well have           would have to wait, even though by now it was known
  thought, that one man against a thousand can only be          that the famine in Israel was ended.
  ineffectual. Gcd demands the same responsibility of               But the Lord would not wait. The Lord visited
  the individual that He does of the whole.                     Naomi  again> this time with a double affliction; in
        Elimelech, by withdrawing to Moab, was placing          quick succession Mahlon and Chilion too died.
 himself in a worse position than he was before. In                 At last, in the midst of her extreme grief, Naomi


                                                   ..-  -.
                                                .THE-STANDARD  BEARER                                                  .91

began to re-evaluate her life, this time not just in          young, and she had nothing to offer them. Patiently
terms ,of practical considerations but in the light of        she explained, "Turn. again, my daughters: why' will
the law of God. No longer was she able to. put aside          ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my
as somehow irrelevant the fact that the same God who          womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again,
visited Israel with a famine because of its wickedness        my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to-have
had also forbidden his people to leave the land of prom-      an husband.      If I should say, I have hope, if I should
ise and dwell among the heathen. They ,had always             have an husband also tonight, and should also bear
known this, but only now having been deprived of her          sons; would ye -tarry for them till they were grown?
husband and children did Naomi come to- recognize             would ye- stay for them from having `husbands? nay,
how serious had been their error. There was no ques-          my `daughters; for it grieveth- me much for your
tion left: she had-to go back.                                -sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against
   Empty and poor as never before, Naomi set out for          me."
her home. With her went ,her two daughters-in-law.            What Naomi said .was only too true, and together
They were good girls, considerate and kind. They had          they wept.     At last Orpah kissed her mother-in-iaw
fit well into her home. They had always joined willingly      and turned to leave; but Ruth refused to go.
in their prayers and worship to Jehovah God. It was              Patiently Naomi insisted. To Ruth she said, ."-Be-
an expected kindness that they would not leave her to         hold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people,
travel the whole distance alone. Sadly and with little        and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law."
to say, the three women made their way toward Israel.            The answer of Ruth shall forever remain one of the
When at last they came to the border between Moab             great and beautiful confessions of all times: She said,
and Israel, Naomi turned to them with tears in her            "Intreat  me not to leave thee, or to return from fol-
eyes and said, "Go, return each to her mother's               lowing after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; a&d
house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have              where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be
dealt with the dead, and with me." So she kissed them         my people, and thy God, my God: where thoudiest, will
and wept.                                                     I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to
   It only reflected their kindness the more when they        me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and
answered, "Surely, we will return with thee unto thy          me."       God had used His strange and hard dealings
people."                                                      with the family of Naomi to bring Ruth unto a believing
   Perhaps for amoment in her loneliness Naomi con-           faith and into the line of the covenant. From her seed
sidered it; but it did not make sense. They were yet          would come forth David, and eventually Christ.




                                               CHRISTIAN   SCIENCE

                                                 Rev.  R. C. Havbach
   It was Plutarch who said, "It must be borne in mind        For how could they comport with her theories ? The
that my design is not to write histories, but lives;"         religious background of this woman was that of an
and since the foundress of Christian Science was Mary         apostate Congregationalism, spiritism, and unitarian-
Baker Glover Patterson Eddy, who had close associa-           ism. She was known to have been addicted in her later
tions with another man, a Mr. Frye, there is the better       years to morphine, which she took to help her through
part of nine lives. Mrs. Eddy thought of herself as a         her fits. Her life is described as a baffled one, miserable
Minerva, goddess of invention and patroness of physi-         and unhappy, with "fear its keynote, fear of inferiority,
cians and actors, and has been portrayed as a Xantippe,       fear of disease and pain, fear of poverty and of de-
Socrates' hen-pecking wife, a tongue-scalding shrew.          pendence, fear of reality, fear of self" (E; F. Dakin's
She also sets herself forth as, at the age of twelve,         MYS.  Edcfy,  index, Fear, a slave to).
(official church. records show she was seventeen)                Following the title page in "Science and Health
following Christ's footsteps when she entered the  Con-       With Key ,to the Scriptures" we discover this pearl of
gregationalist temple and disputed with the elders            wisdom: "There is nothing good or bad, but thinking
against the doctrine of predestination. She revealed          makes it so." - Shakespeare.          As you remember,
her contempt of this truth when she referred to it as         Buddha also thought like this. He, a rational-moral
"the practically rejected doctrine of predestination"         being, believed he could think himself into non-being.
(Science and Health, 1906 ed., p. 150). Her family            DO you want good, nothing but bliss? Thinking makes
physician said that Mary had "hysteria mingled with           it sol     What did Mrs. Eddy mean by this ? Consider
bad temper." The latter may indeed bring on the               her advice to be given a child hurt in an accident. "The
former.      It is of interest to note that the most con-     better and more successful method for any mother to
spicuous part of her costume was the gold-rimmed              adopt is to say, `Oh, never mind1 You're not hurt, so
spectacles she wore.       She resented the optics, as,       don't think you are.' Presently the child forgets all
naturally, she was often asked why she wore them.             about the accident, and is at play" (ibid. p. l154). The


92                                                THE STANDARD.BEARER

 best refutation of this. "thinking makes it so" jargon         pot  1 No, we restore ourselves "indoinggood," that is,
 would be to place over against it what you think when          in "our apprehension of the truth" (p. 80). This ren-
 you stumble in the dark of your bedroom and stub               ders food unnecessary. "The primitive custom of tak-
 your toe.     .To this way of thinking the rebuttal of a       ing no thought about food left the stomach and bowels
 great American writer provides us with his classic             free to act in obedience to nature..." (p. 176). In what
 a n s w e r .                                                  period of history was that custom in vogue? Does she
                                                                mean pure, primordial man? We are sure she does
      Mark Twain in his book,Chvistian Science, imagines        mean that hunger pains are an error of mortal mind,
 a conversation' between a man who has fallen over a            coming as a result of "thought' about food'." But even
 seventy-five foot'precipice and a villager whom he had         if it were so that ceasing to think about food made
 sent for aid to the female healer from Boston. "Did            eating unnecessary, how could it follow that then the
 you tell her I walked off a cliff seventy-five feet high?"'    intestinal tract would be free to act according to its
 "Yes."       "And struck a bowlder at the bottom and           nature?      If the proper function of the mind is to blot
 bounced?"        "Yes."    "And struck another one and         out all thought of food, what is the natural function of
 bounced again?" rcYes.r' "And broke the bowlders?"             stomach and bowels?
 "Yes." "That `accounts for it; she is thinking of the              In almost every work critical of Mrs. Eddy her
bowlders.      Why didn't you tell her I got hurt, too?"        words written in 1901 concerning her magnum opus
 "I did..." "And...she wished me to remember that               appear: "I should blush to write of Science and Health
there was nothing the matter with me?" "Those were              with the Key to the Scriptures, as I have, were it of
 her words." . . . "Why?" "She said you would need              human origin, and I apart from God, its author; but as
 nothing at all." "But I am hungry and thirsty, and in          I was only a scribe echoing the harmonies of heaven in
 desperate pain."      "She said you would have these           Divine Metaphysics, I cannot be super-modest of the
delusions, but must pay no attention to them. She               Christian Science text-book." Is the meaning that if
wants you to particularly remember that there are no            this book were of mere human authorship, she would be
 such things as hunger and thirst and pain." "She               ashamed to own it, but that since it is from God, and
does, does she?" "It is what she said." "Does she               she only the stenographer, the amanuensis, the copyist
seem to be in full and functional possession of her in-         of the divine original, then no one can blame her for
tellectual plant, such as it is?" Witte?" "Do they              her inordinate boasting in its praises? Perhaps so.
`let her run at large-,..or do they tie her up?" "Tie her       Certainly she did not hesitate to sing her own praises,
up?" "There, good night, run along; you are a good              declaring that nearly two thousand years ago God who
girl, but your mental Geschivv is not arranged for light        revealed himself in a man with the Scriptures, had now
and airy conversation. Leave me to my delusions."               revealed himself in a woman "with Key to the Scrip-
      Then in Science and Health (pp. 177-8) there is the       tures."       But then if this text-book is the key to the
teaching that poison has no power to kill; it is the            Scriptures, it certainly ought to harmonize with the
belief that poison is deadly which kills. A man may             Bible, the key to which it is supposed to be. Then
take strychnine, thinking it is quinine, but it kills him.      compare Eddyism with the Bible. First, its doctrine
Why, when he takes it believing it to be quinine? She           of God denies the Trinity. "The theory of three per-
explains this by saying that although the man took what         sons in one God (that is, a personal Trinity or Tri-
he thought was harmless, "the vast majority of man-             unity) suggests polytheism" (p. 256). It denies the Holy
kind" believes strychnine to be poison, and so it kills         Spirit.      "This Comforter I understand to be Divine
the man despite his own belief1 "The result is con-             Science"       (P. 55).    It denies the creation of the
trolled by the majority of opinions." What if the ma-           universe, stating that God "never created matter"
jority of people could be induced to believe that whiskey       (p. 335).     It denies the creation of man when it
is nourishing, not intoxicating? Not another drunkard           claims "he co-exists with God and the universe" (p.
would be found on the face of the earth1 But what if the        266).      Its Christology is Nestorian. "The invisible
majority opinion could be persuaded to believe that             Christ was imperceptible to the so called personal
milk is intoxicating? Then the world would be full of           senses, whereas Jesus appeared as a bodily existence.
drunken infants1 Mrs. Eddy herself is almost as en-             This dual personality of...the eternal Christ and the
_ tertaining as Mark Twain. But she goes on. A woman            corporeal Jesus manifest in human flesh, continued until
who "always breathed. with great difficulty when the wind       the Master's ascension, when the human ma;erial...
was from the east" she cured at her bedside. "I then            Jesus disappeared, while the spiritual self, or Christ
requested her to look at the weather-vane. She looked           continues in the eternal order of divine science" (p.
and saw that it pointed due east. The wind had not              334).      Its conception of the virgin birth denies that
changed, but `her thought of it had and so her difficulty       fundamental truth. "The Virgin-mother conceived this
in breathing had gone...she never suffered again from           idea of God and gave to her ideal the name of Jesus...
east winds..." (pp. 184-5). Elsewhere, expatiating on           Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self-conscious com-
the dissipation of fatigue, she avers that food and drink       munion with God" (p. 29f). Its anthropology denies, the
are not necessary for refreshment. "A cup of coffee             fall of man, denies that man has since lost the image
or tea is not the equal of truth, whether for the inspi-        of God, and claims that with proper reflection it "can-
ration of a sermon or for the support of bodily endur-          not be lost" (p. 259). Sin does not exist, the soul can-
ance" (pp. 79, f.). Useless then for our ministers to           not sin, therefore, and, consequently, the soul is not
continue the habit of warming the study with the coffee-        lost (p. 311). Concerning the atonement we read, "The


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 93

material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to             it as a rising above "the physical knowledge of his
cleanse from sin when it was shed upon `the accursed           disciples" (p. 46), when "the human, material concept,
tree' than when it was flowing in his veins" (p. 25).          or Jesus, disappeared" (p. 334). It denies the last
The vicarious death of Christ is denied in the words;          judgment.      "No final judgment awaits mortals" (p,
"Final deliverance from error . . . is not reached . . . by    291).      It denies the resurrection of Christ. Jesus'
pinning one's faith without works to another's vicarious       three days in the tomb was to provide him "refuge
effort" (p. 22). Christ did not pay the price of sin -         from his foes, a place in which to solve the great
the sinner himself must do that. "One sacrifice, how-          problem of being" (p. 44). The disciples thought Jesus
ever great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The        had died, but after his crucifixion "learned that he had
atonement requires constant self-immolation on the             not died" (p. 46).      It denies heaven and hell. "The
&Inner's part. That God's wrath should be vented upon          sinner makes his own hell by doing evil; and the saint
His beloved Son, is divinely unnatural. Such a theory          his own heaven by doing right" (p. 266). "Heaven is
is man-made.      The atonement is a hard problem in           not a locality, but a divine state of Mind" (p. 291).
theology, but its scientific explanation is, that suffer-      Christian Science denies the reality of sin, sickness
ing is an error of sinful self which Truth destroys..."        and death. But this damnable heresy is throughout full
(p. 23). Modernism would agree that "the efficacy of           of sin, suffers with more than one kind of sickness and
the crucifixion lay in the practical affection and good-       ends in eternal death. Mrs. Eddy and her "science"
ness it demonstrated for mankind" (p. 24). It denies           revealed as much blackness of darkness as can en-
death, which is only "a mortal belief or error" that           shroud and fill the totally depraved soul of the natural
"what appears to the senses to be deathis but a mortal         man.
illusion" (p. 289). It denies the ascension, speaking of





                                                    Rev. H. Veldman
THE CANON OF SACRED SCRIPTURE
   We concluded our last article on the canon of the           lieving in the infallibility of the pope, declares that
sacred Scriptures with a quotation from Josephus, a            the pope is infallible only then when he speaks offi-
noted Jewish historian. He writes that there are only          cially.      The pope is not always infallible. And the
twenty-two books (the Old Testament) which have been           apostles were not always infallible. This is clearly
justly believed to be divine, and that the Jews have been      established in Paul's epistle to the Galatians. In this
led instinctively from the moment of their birth to            epistle the apostle Paul accused the Apostle Peter of
regard them as decrees of God, and to abide by them,           deception, and it `is clear that Peter was not guided in
and, if need be, gladly to die for them.                       his deception by the Holy Spirit. But the apostles were
   It is not difficult to show that these twenty-two           inspired whenever they functioned apostolically. What,
books which are mentioned by Josephus  are exactly             then, enabled the church to declare that these books,
the same as are now contained in our Old Testament.            and not others, constitute the written Word of God? To
And we may add to this that Josephus does not cata-            this we answer that the church was led to do this by
logue the apocryphal books with the sacred Scriptures.         the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures
However, what is most important is the fact that Christ        contain within themselves the testimony that they are
and the apostles plainly witness that the Old Testament        the Word of God. And the church was led by the Spirit
Bible already existed. They quote from most of these           of God to recognize these books as the Canon of the Holy
books; they speak of the whole of the Old Testament as         Scriptures. Rev. Hoeksema has used the following ex-
the Scriptures, the Holy Scriptures, the Law and the           ample to illustrate this thought. We quote the follow-
Prophets; and this Scripture is to them the Word of            ing, see Volume IV, page 163: "But by what was the
God, the end of all argument, authoritative for faith          Church guided in fixing the Canon? Our answer is
and life. That God saith and the Scviptuve  saith are          twofold. In the first place, she was guided from with-
for the Apostle Paul exactly identical.                        in by the Spirit of Christ that was given unto her and
   Besides, the question must be asked: who collected          dwelled in her.       It was the very Spirit that had in-
all these books so as to constitute one volume? And            spired the organism of the Sacred Scriptures. The
the answer is: the church collected these books into           author of the whole Bible dwelled in the Church. But
the one volume of the Old Testament. But how was               was there nothing in the books that guided her? We
the church guided in its collection of these books ? We        think there was. There was in all the books together
may safely assume that the sixty-six books of our Bible        the revelation of the fulness of Christ. It was that
were not the only books written by divine inspiration.         picture of the Christ, as He was revealed in all the
The apostles must have written other `inspired books           colors of hope in the old dispensation, that must have
besides those which constitute our Bible. The apostles         guided the Church of old; and it is easy to see, that
were always inspired in speaking and in writing when-          the Church of the new dispensation must have noticed
ever they functioned apostolically. Even Rome, be-             before many years passed after the apostles had de-


                                                                                                         - 1
94                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                            2

parted, that their writings furnished exactly that             absolutely authoritative rule of all doctrine and life.
which, with the possession of the Old Testament only,          We believe that the Scriptures must dictate to us what
was still lacking of the whole of the image of the             we must believe and how we must walk and conduct
Saviour . If a life-size portrait of my mother is torn         ourselves in the midst of the church and of the world.
into several fragments, and mixed with parts of other          All higher criticism is from below. Acritical approach
pictures, I will be guided by the knowledge of the fea-        toward.the  Holy Scriptures is simply out of the question.
tures of my mother from within, and by the lines in            And a neutral attitude toward the Word of God is utterly
the various fragments from without in collecting the           impossible. This is our position, individually, and also
whole and determining when the picture is complete.            as Protestant Reformed Churches.
Thus, it seems to me, it was with the Church. There                The opinion has been advanced that we must be
was in the various books of the Old and of the New             neutral as we approach the Word of God. We must be
Testament a full revelation of the God of our salva-           unbiased in our .attitude toward the Word of God. Such
tion in Christ Jesus. And there was within the Church          a neutral approach, it is claimed, is dictated by honesty.
the Spirit that was the Author of the very picture of          It is always wrong to be biased in one's opinion. And
Christ in the Holy Books. The organic operation of             this also applies as we approach the Word of God. We
these two factors enabled the Church to separate the           must not simply assume them to be true. We must ex-
sacred books from, others and to fix the Canon." So,           amine the Bible and determine for ourselves which
two factors guided the Church of God in determining            parts of it are true or false. That is the only possibly
the canon of the Holy Scriptures: first, the guidance          honest `approach.      We must be fair in our judgment.
of the Holy Spirit within the church of God, and,              All prejudice and bias is unfair and unjust. A neutral
secondly, the objective testimony of the Word of God           approach is the' only fair and just approach.
itself, that it is the revelation of the fulness of Christ.        This view is completely impossible and contrary
      Finally, one may object that the Bible as originally     to fact.     And, it is decidedly dishonest. It certainly
inspired is no longer in existence. And this is true.          does not state the issue correctly and honestly. Fact
The original manuscripts have disappeared. So we have          is, no man is neutral as he approaches the Word of
no Bible, it is alleged, no inspired Word of God after         God.    If the believer be accused of approaching the
all. However, in connection with this we may say the           Scriptures with a biased attitude, the same accusation
following. It is true that all we have today is a copy of      may also be lodged against the unbeliever. We con-
the original manuscripts. We have almost 4000 copies           cede that the believing child of God approaches the
of the New Testament alone. And these copies are               Holy Scriptures in faith, never questions their truth
characterized by approximately 150,000 deviations and          or veracity, submits himself humbly to the Word of
differences. These copies, we understand, are human            the Lord, and recognizes the fact that they stand
copies of the original manuscripts, or, stated more            above him even as the living God stands above him and
exactly, copies of each other. However, concerning             above every living creature. This we gladly concede.
these differences, ninety-five per cent of the differ-         But we hasten to add that the unbeliever is character-
ences is of no significance whatever. `And not a single        ized by the very opposite as he approaches the Word
difference affects any article of our faith. This simply       of God. He hates the living God. And he is governed
emphasizes that the Lord also watched over the trans-          by that hatred as he reads the Word of the Lord. He
lations. He not only wrote the Bible, but also watched         denies that the Bible is the only authoritative rule for
over it while it was being copied and translated. And          doctrine and life.       He elevates himself above the
this is surely a marvelous thing. Is it not a marvelous        Scriptures.      And we hasten to add that this lies in the
thing that a book can be copied thousands of times and         very nature of the case. We will either submit our-
never lose its original significance? Is this not also         selves to the Word of the Lord or elevate ourselves
the wonderful word of the Lord? Now we must bear in            above it.
mind that the original manuscripts of the Old Testa-               Besides, what right do we have to assume any
ment were also no longer in existence when Christ was          other attitude toward the divine Scriptures than that
among us, Only copies of those original manuscripts            of humble submission? God wrote His Word. That the
were in existence. But our Lord Jesus Christ quoted            truth of divine inspiration is based directly upon the
from those copies of the Old Testament Scripture.              Word of God we know. We read in II Tim. 3:16: "All
And He quoted them in such a way that they are the             scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profit-
infallible Word of God, the only authoritative rule for        able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in-
our faith and life. Never ,did He quote them in such a         struction in righteousness." And in II Pet. 1:19-21 we
way that He questioned their authority because they            read: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy;
were merely copies and not the original manuscripts.           whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light
                                                               that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and
THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES                              the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first,
                                                               that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private in-
      We assume and are led by the unalterable convic-         terpretation.     For the prophecy came not in old time
tion that the Holy Scriptures are the inspired Word of         by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they
God. We believe that we may never assume any other             were moved by the Holy Ghost." However, the truth of
attitude toward the Scriptures than that of humble sub-        divine inspiration is not merely based upon certain
mission, recognizing the Word of God as the only and           individual passages of the Word of the Lord, but upon


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                                                 TH<  STANDARb.   BEARER                                                    95

the entire testimony of the Scriptures. The Lord does              living God, is He not? He has written His own Word.
not approach us in His Word apologetically. He does                Imagine if a father were to write a letter to his son,
not introduce Himself and then attempt to prove His                and that son were to question his father's authorship
existence or His authorship of the Bible.          He has          of that letter!        It is surely the abyss of abominable
simply revealed Himself. Very majestically the Word                conceit to question any part of the Word of the Lord
of God begins with the solemn declaration: "In the                 and to assume a so-called neutral approach in our at-
beginning God created heaven and earth." And through-              titude toward the Holy Scriptures. Imagine: God Him-
out the Bible the Lord speaks to us with divine authority.         self wrote His own Word; and man should assume an
He does not ask of us to believe in Him, to accept His             attitude of neutrality over against it? Indeed, no man
Word. He does not confront us as a beggar, requesting              has the slightest right to question the Word of God. No
and begging us to believe all that is recorded in the              man had anyhing to do with its composition. And no
Scriptures.    He simply speaks to us as the living God;           man has therefore any right to doubt the divine author-
throughout the Bible we have the constantly recurring              ity of the Holy Scriptures. The Bible is the Word of
refrain: "Thus saith the Lord." And why should the                 God. And that Word of God must come to us with divine
Lord be apologetic in His revelation to us? He is the              authority.




                             THE  BELGIC  CONFESSION  Article  XIII  (continued)
                                                 Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

GOD'S PROVIDENCE AS GOVERNMENT (cont.)                             is a common favor, or grace, of God displayed to
   We must still consider briefly two more elements                mankind in general in that work of God's providence.
in connection with God's government as an element                  And then, of course, we confront the question: what
of divine providence.                                              grace do the reprobate receive in God's providential
   In the first place, we, must remember that the pos-             government of things ?          The answer is: absolutely
itive motivation'of God's government is His grace over             none I     And the reason is that through His provi-
His people in Christ Jesus our Lord.           This must           dential government God, on the one hand, realizes
never be overlooked. God's providence must never be                His counsel of reprobation, sets the wicked in slippery
conceived of as a mere cold, bare display of a certain             places, and casts them down into destruction.
irresistible power whereby all things are rigidly and                 There is indeed grace displayed in God's provi-
inexorably controlled, purely for the sake of the mani-            dence and motivating His divine government of the world;
festation of a sovereign power. Nor, certainly, must               but that grace is His one grace over His people in
God's providence be confused with a "common grace,"                Christ Jesus our Lord.
whereby God still has in mind the creation ordinance,
maintains it, and brings to light the riches of creation               This stands in close connection with the truth which
under the dominion of man. According to this theory                we have already explained, that it is according  to
God is favorable to all men, and, in spite of Satan's              God's  holy will,  His counsel, that God governs all
diabolical attempt to frustrate God's creation-purpose,            things.       God had before His mind but one purpose.
God by common. grace restrains sin and checks the                  That purpose was to bring all things to perfection in
power of the curse in creation, so that there remains              Christ, the Firstborn of every creature, and that too,
much good in man and in creation, and so that God                  as the first begotten from the dead. The goal fixed
realizes His ordinance and purpose of creation. In                 in God's eternal good pleasure was the new creation,
this view there is essentially no room for the work                in which righteousness shall dwell forever, the creation
of God's grace in Christ Jesus. That work is a new                 of which Christ shall be the everlasting Head in Whom
work, separate and different from the "commongrace"                all things are united.        That sole purpose of God's
work and purpose of divine providence. Nor, by the way,            eternal counsel constitutes the goal of His divine
should we allow ourselves to be misled by the idea                 government of all things in time. It is with a view
that "common grace" and "providence" are but two                   to that goal and the realization of that purpose that
different terms for the same reality. In the past it               governs all things, in harmony with His counsel,
has sometimes been suggested that the whole common                 from the very first beginning unto the end of the world,
grace controversy really revolved about terminology,               the consummationof all things at the return of our Lord
and that what we want to call "providence" others                  Jesus Christ. From the very beginning nothing in all
want to call "common grace." Nothing could be far-                 the world ever occurs which does not happen accord-
ther from the truth.      We mu.st always remember,                ing to His counsel and by His divine government. And
of course, that words and theological terms have                   in His government of all things the Almighty follows
meaning, and that this meaning is inevitably carried               an absolutely straight course toward the goal. There
by those terms. To confuse providence with a certain               are no accidents. There are no interfering powers.
"common grace" inevitably conveys the idea that there              There are no unforeseen circumstances. There are


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96        c;                                                 THE  Stk+lARFBEARER

no mistakes.          There is never any retracing of the                        are so in his hand, that without his will they cannot
way. There is never any possibility that things might                            so much as move." It is plain, too, that our Con-
have been accomplished in a different, a better way                              fession means this in the most inclusive sense of the
than that which the Lord follows. There is essentially                           word, namely, that absolutely no creature and no event
never any spoiling of God's work, any frustrating of                             is excluded from God's government.          All the brute
His purpose. Through all the events and circumstances                            creation, all the living and moving creatures, all
of history God's almighty hand is on the helm of the                             rational, moral creatures, in heaven and on earth and
ship of the universe, and He pilots that ship from the                           under the earth, including righteous and wicked, whether
beginning of Genesis 1 over the ocean of history to                              men or angels, -they all are under the sovereign
the harbor of the consummation of all things in the day                          control and direction of God's government. That this
of our Lord Jesus Christ, following a straight, un-                              is indeed the meaning of our Confession is plain
deviating course.                                                                not only from the plain statement, "...nothing  happens
       All this implies the second element which we must                         in this world without his appointment." But that by
consider yet in connection with God's government of                              this "nothing" our Confession means exactly nothing
all things, namely, that this government is all -com-                            is clear from the fact that immediately after this
prehensive: nothing is excluded from it. Our Con-                                statement the article deals with the relation between
fession could not phrase this any more succinctly.                               God's providence and sin.        This can only be because
It tells us literally: ". ..nothing happens in this world                        the Confession includes the acts of devils and of
without  his appointment." Our Heidelberg Catechism                              wicked men under the government of God. Otherwise
emphasizes the same thing, Lord's Day X:  "...he                                 this problem would never arise.
upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures;
so that..... all things come, not by chance, but by his                                  Hence, to this particular aspect of God's govern-
fatherly hand." And again: ` ` . . . since all creatures                         ment we must give our attention next time, D.V.



                                       ("All the saints salute thee . . ." Phil. 4:21)

                                                   Nov. 5, 1964 MY. J. M. Faber
       Rev. J. Kortering, of Hull, Iowa declined the call                        in Hudsonville Oct. 26. Rev. G. Lubbers, of Southwest,
from Isabel, S. Dakota.                                                          gave the address which was an answer to the question, ,
                                                                                 "Must `we pray for all in authority?"
       The Fall Mass Meeting of the young people of the
Grand- Rapids area was held in Southwest Church                                          Randolph, which has no Sunday School, nevertheless
Oct. 27. Rev. J. A. Heys, of South Holland, was the                              furnished S.S. papers to the children of the church.
speaker; his topic was, "An Ecumenical Appraisal of                              They are displayed with the Radio Sermons in the
the Reformation." This was a -scholarly discourse on                             bulletin board rack.                                           I
the effect of the Reformation upon the church as it                                                                                             I
exists in the world at any one time, but especially                                      In an October sermon Kalamazoo's congregation
upon that church as it exists today. This assuredly was                          learned that the Book of Ruth is not merely a history
not any ordinary run-of-the-mill Reformation Day                                 of a family of Israel but is also a lesson in the declining
speech, but was a fresh outlook upon an historical                               way of a backslider.
event that affects us centuries later. The. musical part
of the program was furnished by Don Jonker on his                                        And in Oak Lawn the Young People's Society in-
baritone horn, with Mary Kregel at the piano. After                              vited the adult members of the congregation to their
recess and refreshments (sweet cider and doughnuts),                             meeting Sunday evening, Nov. 1. The Bible discussion
colored slides were enjoyed. The pictures? The                                   centered around the miracle of Jonah's deliverance
European trip made by Karlene Oomkes and Chris                                   from death by drowning, and the after recess discus-
Faber. Chris was at the projector and Karlene did the                            sion was introduced by Rev. Vanden Berg and was on
narration.                                                                       "The future of the Prot. Ref. Churches." After the
                It seems that in one of the foreign countries
Karlene could converse freely with the natives while                             meeting the young hosts served coffee to their guests.
Chris wished she could.
                                                                                         Loveland's membership was called to a congrega-
       Hull's congregation approved the recommended                              tional meeting Oct. 12 to approve a proposal by the
heating improvements in their newly acquired property,                           Consistory to purchase property situated at Grant and
and were also asked to approve the Consistory's                                  Fifth Sts. which was formerly a Roman Catholic church.
proposal to sell their present parsonage.                                        The proposal included a six months' option to buy an
                                                                                 adjacent building, and definite plans to raise the
  The Men's League Membership Meeting was held                                   $7,000.00  figure involved.


