                                        IIe

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                                                 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 THlS ISSUE:

         Meditation  - A Prayer For Convenient Food


         Editorial  - Mission Gains the Criterion?


         Freedom To Serve


         Mormoriism




                                                      Volume XLI/ Number  11/ Mavch 1, 1965


2 4 2   \                                                                                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

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       A  Prayer  For Convenient Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  .._...... 242                                                                             Editoov  -Rev. Herman Hoeksema
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               Rev. G. Vanden  Berg                                                                                                                                Con&tories!
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               Rev. H. Hanko                                                                                                                                               newly married couples in your congregation right:
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                                                                                                A PRAYER FOR CONVENIENT FOOD

                                                                                                                                            Rev. J.  Kovteving

                                                          "Give me  neither   poverty   nor riches; feed me with food convenient  fov
                                                         me  Lest I be fill and deny thee and say, Who is the  Lovd?   OY lest I be
                                                         poor, and steal, and take the name  of my  God in vain." PYOV. 30:8b, 9

        Feed me!                                                                                                                                                  Our text is a prayer of faith.
        This is a prayer; our hands are folded.                                                                                                                   It is the prayer of a little child, whether he be ten,
        That is proper, our posture in prayer agrees with                                                                                                      fifty, or ninety years old. A babe cries for food when
our petition, "Feed me."                                                                                                                                       he is hungry, so we children of God cry to Father,
         Sometimes those hands are small withpudgyfingers                                                                                                      "Feed me." We knw we are so dependent.
that dovetail pillows of flesh.  Some  are gripped like a                                                                                                         There is still more proof.                     The content of this
vise controlled by ribbons of steel; others are pale and                                                                                                       petition reveals a deep spiritual attitude toward life.
trembling.                         Some are gnarled with age, clothed with                                                                                     "Give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with
transparent flesh that exposes the rivers of life quiv-                                                                                                        food convenient for me: lest I be full and deny thee
ering with each pulsation of the weakened heart.                                                                                                               and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal
        Many kinds of hands, but they are all folded.                                                                                                          and take the name of my God in vain." One who prays
         And the lips utter the same cry, "Feed me."                                                                                                           this way has an honest understanding of himself as a


                                                 THESTANDARD BEARER                                                243

sinful creature standing before the perfect Creator.             Still more, He controls the distribution of earthly
These words are Spirit breathed.                              things.    He gives to one and takes away from another.
   Man is of the earth, earthy. He was fashioned out          He maketh rich or bringeth to poverty. He not only
of the earth; for, "God formed him out of the dust of         owns commerce; He controls it.        The plan that He
the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of       follows is not subject to change, He has laid the course
life, and man became a living soul." AS such man              long before the worlds began. In His perfect counsel
was made distinct from the angels who are heavenly            He has determined exactly who should be born and how
hosts. Man must breathe the air of the earth if he will       much each one should have of the earth's wealth. All
stay alive; he must eat of the fruit of the earth if he is    that you own this very day is not yours through your
to continue to breathe. "The earth hath he given to the       own clever dealings or your superior ability to get
children of men." Ps.  115:16.   Man is dependent on          ahead; it was given you of God.  He  distributes to each
the earth for his physical life.                              one.
   The. significance of this becomes all the more acute           So we pray, "Feed me with food that is allotted to
when we bring into focus the consequence of sin upon          me." Now you understand: we say give me the portion
the earth: it was cursed for man's sake. Before the           that thou hast determined should be mine for this day.
fall she was his mistress offering to man her fruits             How much is that?
with open arms; now her back is turned upon man and               Looking back, it is not difficult for us to answer
she kicks up her heels and blasts him with her wind,          this question. We look in our cupboards, look in our
entangles him in her poisoned net, and pricks him with        garages, check our bankbook and we can pretty well
a carpet of thorns. No longer can man reach up and            estimate how much God has allotted us.
pluck the fruit of life; with sweat and groans he now             With the words of our text, however, we are not
must wring from nature his daily bread.         A myriad      looking back; we are looking ahead. We are looking
of forces march against man, trying to puncture               into the future which we cannot discern and which we
his lungs.        The burning sun would dehydrate man         cannot know. In this prayer we are telling God what
into a morsel for vultures; the frigid blast of the wind      we would  like  to have, always praying in subjection to
shrieks her ominous threat to stiffen him into a pillar       His will.     What we desire is, ' `neither poverty nor
of ice.      Armies of insects worm their way through the     riches," adding immediately, "Feed me with food ac-
earth to nip off his seedlings and destroy his crops.         cording to thy will."
Some of them slip into man's blood stream and with                Prayer Day is soon upon us and we will gather in
deadly tentacles grab at his vitals to bring him back to      the House of God to pray in a special way. Our
the dust.                                                     prayers will be directed to God, petitioning Him to
   We are dependent upon that kind of earth for our           supply our natural and spiritual needs. We think upon
physical life.     Our life is very fragile. We need the      the warm springtime when the plow will soon slice
right kind of diet, or we weaken. We need protection          the earth into fresh furrows. We consider the seeds
from the elements of nature, or we perish. We have            that will be planted and sown, that will need rain and
need of  food;  all these things which we need in order       sunshine, that must be cultivated and sprayed, and ere
to live are included in  [his one word. Jesus called it       long harvested. We think about our jobs in the factory
"bread" in  &e prayer he taught  US.                          and the general economic situation. We confess to-
   Agur now leads us in specifying the  amount we             gether that our health and strength which we will need
desire, namely "food convenient for me". As such,             to enable us to work must be given to us, We know
however, the word means very little to us. When we            Jehovah owns and controls all, and therefore we will
speak of convenient things we have in mind those              pray to Him to feed us with just sufficient that will
things that are useful and advantageous to us. So we          allow us to carry on our task as children of God.
consider conveniences of life to be refrigerators,                Agur reflects spiritual qualities that put us to
central heating, electrical appliances, etc. The word         shame.       It is not certain who Agur was, perhaps a
in this context means something quite different.              contemporary of Solomon who wrote wise sayings and
   Literally, we could better translate this word             reflected this deep spiritual outlook, which  Solomonin-
"allotted to me" or "my portion." Then too we must            corporated in his own collection; or it is possible that
be careful to understand it properly. Certainly we do         he lived in the days of Hezekiahwho  added to the works
not pray to God and lay claim to something to which we        of Solomon, and that Hezekiah inserted them. At any
have a  Tight.      We do not stand before God and say,       rate,' he was a man of God. He prayed in the Spirit,
"Give me my allotment which I deserve," for that              "Give me neither poverty nor riches." There aren't
would be the height of presumption. Nor is that the           very many people, not even "Christians" who pray
idea of our text. Rather we recognize that God owns           that way. How do you pray?
all the things of the earth, the cattle on a thousand             According to the flesh we like much. We like to
hills are His, His hands formed the dry land; they all        increase our income, so that we can do more and buy
belong unto Him. The trees of the forest, our houses          more things. We dream of improvements. Sometimes
and lands, the furnishing of our homes, our jobs and          I even hear a religious tone to this desire for riches.
wages we earn, our health and safety all belong ab-           If we have more money we can do more radio work,
solutely unto Jehovah.       He owns the stock market,        we can send out more missionaries, we can improve
industry and commerce, ships on the sea and jets              our schools and pay higher salaries. All would be so
that sweep through the air. All things belong unto Him.       true if we only had more money and could be rich.  We


244                                                  THESTANDARDBEARER

are inclined to get on our knees and say, "Lord, make             to God, "Do not make us poor, for then we so easily
me rich."                                                         break thy law and rebel against thy distribution." The
       Agur prays, "Give me not riches." What does it             very thought  of. doing that makes us shudder, for God
mean to be rich? We like to think of the rich man as              is a righteous God.
one with a house set on a hill, who has servants who                  You understand the reasoning. For the sake of our
work about his residence, has a sauna room inside  his            souls we pray that our bodily needs may be supplied
house and a swimming pool in the back yard, travels to            just sufficiently; not an abundance, nor a lack, for
Florida for the winter, owns a good business, and so in           either extreme endangers us spiritually.
general has all his heart could desire. There is one                  "Feed me." No that doesn't mean we sit down to
thing wrong with this idea of the rich: it places him so          wait for the ravens to come. We recognize that God
far away from us.          At that rate very few are rich!        alone  provides our bodily needs. We must work in our
Rather, a rich person is one who could easily give                daily calling as God gives us strength; yet all our work
away a pair of shoes and not miss them; he could skip             avails nothing unless God blesses our labors. We pray
a meal and not fall over fainting. The rich have many             for that blessing.
things they could easily do without and not suffer if                 What if our "allotment" (convenient food) is riches?
they should lose them. Are you rich?                              We must not rebel against God and say we did not ask
       The Spirit leads us in praying, ` `Give me not riches."    for so much. We must recognize that if God be pleased
The reason? "Lest I be full anddeny  thee and say, who            to give us much of this world's goods, it is a  spivitzd
is the Lord?" The easiest thing for us to do when we              burden; and so we turn daily to God, beseeching Him
are rich is to forget God. When we have abundance,                for grace to be faithful and use our riches  aright. So
we like to pat ourselves on the back and boast how good           also if God be pleased to make us poor, we recognize
we are.        Our human nature likes to take the credit          a  spivituul  burden; for we are prone to complain and
for success and, by so doing, deny God. For the busi-             criticize His distribution.
ness man it is expressed by boasting of his many                     Our desire, and thus our prayer is that earthly
customers, forgetting that God brings them in one by              things may not interfere with our fellowship with our
one.        For the laborer who works with his hands or           God, but, on the contrary, may be the means by which
mind it is expressed in bragging of the good job he has           we serve Him perfectly.        Hence, we desire neither
and so earns good wages, forgetting that God gives him            poverty nor riches; just sufficient for each day.
strength and health to do his work faithfully. The                   We unfold our hands and go to work.
farmer likes to estimate success by the size of his                  God answers prayer.
farm and the number of corn cribs he fills and-cattle
he feeds, forgetting that God sends the sunshine and
rain and bestows harvest as a gift upon him. You see,              CALL TO ASPIRANTS TO THE MINISTRY
for our spiritual good we pray, "Lord, do not give me
riches: for then I will be so inclined to forget thee."              All young men desiring to study for the ministry of
And that we hate to do, .for we love Jehovah. From our            the Word in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and
spiritual hearts we desire to be spiritually strong and           who have not already been pre-enrolled, are asked to
pray that material success and boasting may not inter-            appear before the Theological School Committee on its
fere with our fellowship with Jehovah our Covenant                next meeting for this  -purpose,  which will be held, the
God.                                                              Lord willing, on Friday, April  9,  1965  at 8 P.M. in the
       He also adds, "Give me not poverty". That is the           parsonage of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
other extreme.       Some of God's people know what that          Church, in Hudsonville, Michigan.
means too.       For us here in America, we have to look             The qualifications requisite to enrollment are the
back quite a few years to recall destitute times. Pov-            following:
erty in its strictest sense means that one lacks the              1. You must present a letter from your local consistory
necessities of life to such a degree that his very                   certifying that you are upright in walk and pure in
existence is threatened.        Even as riches implies an            doctrine.
abundance, so poverty implies a lack. That brings one             2. You must present a certificate of health, signed by
sometimes to the point of desperation; one has too                   a reputable physician.
much of this world's provision to die, yet not enough             3. You must be a graduate from High School, being
to live.      Such poor have no place to go for help. The            able to show that you have completed a one-year
benevolent fund is depleted; the neighbors will not or               course in History General and Church History; and
cannot help; the bread box is empty; and the store will              that you have completed the following College
not sell. They grovel in the earth seeking food, lest                courses: Latin -- two years,      Greek -- two years,
they die.       Some experienced that in the depression;             German  - two years, Philosophy -- one year, Psy-
some men saw that in the Orient during the war;                      chology  - one year, Logic -- one semester.
some experience that even today; and we may en-                      All correspondence relative to the above announce-
counter that when we "cannot buy nor sell without the             ment should be sent to the undersigned:
mark of the beast." When conditions become so des-                  Secretary of the Theological School Committee,
perate, we are inclined to steal and to curse God.                  Rev. M.  Schipper,
Even the best of God's people do that sometimes. The                1543  Cambrid.ge Blvd.,  SE.,
spirit is willing, but the flesh is so weak: So we pray             Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      245





                                             FULL SPEED AHEAD!

                                                Prof. H.  C. Hoeksema

    Many of you have undoubtedly been wondering                    work to be done yet, even after the first proofs are
whether there is any progress being made with the                  ready.    Not only is there the work of proof-reading,
publication of Rev. H. Hoeksema's dogmatics.                       which is time-consuming and meticulous work; but there
    This is a progress report.                                     is also the work of preparing a textual index and an
    During the past months, as soon as it became                   index of subjects, --work which cannot be completed
 apparent that the goal in our drive for funds would be            until the page-proofs are complete. The whole proc-
reached, a sub-committee has been busy investigating               ess will require several months; and estimates are
the best means of publishing this book and getting it on           that the book will be on the market some time in the
the market.     At a recent meeting of the Permanent               fall of the year, D.V. But it will be worth waiting for!
Committee for the Publication of Protestant Reformed                  What will be the price of the book? If there is not
Literature, this sub-committee brought a very attrac-              too much variation from the present estimate of the
tive proposal. Mr. Robert  Kregel, of  Kregel Publica-             size, we will be able to retail this large volume at a
tions, presented a very detailed analysis of all the               price of $12.95.
various steps involved and their cost, and offered to                 In conclusion, the following:
take charge of the entire project, including the farming              1. First of all, the committee extends a word of
out of composition (typesetting), printing, binding,               hearty thanks to all who have contributed to our pub-
jackets, etc., as well as assistance on sales and dis-             lication fund. These contributions have come from all
tribution and publicity, on a basis of cost  plus $500.            over our denomination; and it is gratifying to know of
This was by far the most detailed and carefully worked             your tangible support.
out proposal obtained. Besides, it was nicely within                  2. Remember, those of you who may still wish to
bounds as far as available funds are concerned. The                contribute, that this "dogmatics project" is, hopefully,
total cost, based on present estimates of the exact size           the  first   of our publishing efforts. More contributions
of the book, comes to  $5,859.50.  Cash and pledges on             are indeed welcome; and they will hasten the time when
hand, although I do not have the exact figures before              we can begin on another project.
me, total slightly more than this amount.                             3. Watch for news of a pre-publication sale of Rev.
    How soon will the book appear?                                 Hoeksema's dogmatics. The committee intends to con-
    I cannot give you a definite date. However, as soon            duct such a sale some months before publication date;
as a few details are worked out by the  sub-committe.e,            and the pre-publication price will bring you handsome
a contract is signed, and undersigned can confer with              savings over the full retail price of  ,$12.95. Do  not
the printer on some of the details of composition, we              write in now. There will be ample publicity when the
can go ahead full speed. There is a large amount of                time comes, and you will be kept informed.



                                      MISSION GAINS THE CRITERION?

                                                            (4)

                                                Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

 Not A Biblical  Standard                                          all, they will not be satisfied with that kind of mis-
    We have seen that Prof. Dekker, although he does               sionary outlook."         In Dekker's opinion, therefore,
 not state positively what would constitute a normal               Christian Reformed evangelism shows little success,
measure of evangelistic success in terms of the  num-              and this lack of success should lead the Christian
ber of converts gained, considers the record of his                Reformed Church to conduct earnest self-criticism and
 own denomination to be a poor one. And  .on the basis             even agonizing reappraisal of the method, the motiva-
 of this poor record, Prof. Dekker apparently comes                tion, and the message of their evangelism. I believe
 to the conclusion that there is something wrong with              it is fair to state, therefore, that according to Prof.
 the mission method and motivation of the Christian                Dekker  miss@  gains  azTe the  cvitevion whereby the
 Reformed Church. Further, this wrong he attributes                mission message must be judged.
 to the  message.    "Certainly," he writes, "if Chris-               Now this may be a good method to follow in the
tians believe that God loves all and Christ died for               world of business and salesmanship and marketing.


246                                                i    THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                        ::
If'& certain firm markets a product, and if that prod-             Jesus Himself, what do the Scriptures say in John 12:
uct does not sell, finds little or no reception with the           37,ff. Listen: "But though he had done so many mir-
consumer, the proper thing to do is to conduct an                  acles before them, yet they believed not on him: That
a.&nizipg  reappraisal. There is  somethidg  wrbng.  1s           f the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled,,,
it5 in the sales `department?         Are there' not'enough       `. which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report?
salesmen on the road? Is not enough time spent in                  and to whom, hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
promoting the product? Is the advertising budget not               Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias
large enough? Or is the fault with the advertising                 said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened
message?        Of course, if the product is good, but if          their heart; that they should not see with their eyes,
the sales program does not properly and fully present              nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and
the product and accurately represent the good points,              I should heal them. These things said Esaias when he
the advantages of that product, then the public must not           saw his glory, and spake of him."
be blamed; nor must the product itself be blamed;                     The latter passage reminds us also of the prophets
but the `advertising department is not properly `moti-             of the old dispensation and their "evangelism."
vated and is not getting the true  m9ssage  conoerning             was  iIsaiah himself, in the first place, who experienced
this product across.                 .z,y  `.i.                    the  $ruth., of Isaiah  53:l.. He preached the gospel of
 `;~ This is  inde$d  a rather  biunt  example.  j; But it         Christ, though he preached `in an old dispensational
seems to be an example of Prof. Dekker's reasoning                 set&g and in old dispensational terms. And he found
with respect to missions.                                          the results of his preaching td'beverymeager in terms
       And this is an excellent method to follow in the            of numbers of converts gained. Very few had believed.
world of business and marketing.                                   Did he judge his ministry to be a failure? Did he
       But when it comes to missions, this method is               engage: in an agonizing reappraisal of the motivation
definitely not Biblical.                                           and  :the' message of his prophetic ministry? Did he
       Let us turn to Scripture in order to see this. Is           come to  the conclusion that some changes were neces-
this the method of Christ, of the prophets, of the                 sary,? It is a  fact  that the results were meager. He it
apostles? Did they judge the success of their evangel-             is, first of all, who asks the question, "Lord, who
ism by its results, that is, by the  number.of converts            hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm
gained? And if there were but few converts, did they               of the Lord been revealed?" But it is also a fact that
consider their mission unsuccessful?               And if they     he went out preaching well aware that his "mission
found it unsuccessful, did they'conclude that it was               gains" would be meager, Isaiah 6:9-13:          "And he
time to "reappraise" their motivation and their mes-               said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but
s a g e ?                                                          understand not; and see ye indeed, but  perceive.,not.
       First of all, let us look at some Scriptural examples.      Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears
       And then we may take the example of the ministry            heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they  s.ee with their
of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself as our prime                      eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with
example. He was certainly the perfect "missionary."                their  h&rt, and convert, and be healed. Then said I,
But His "evangelism" often netted very meager results.             Lord,  how. long? And he answered, Until the cities be
When He appeared in the synagogue at Nazareth and                  wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man,
preached the gospel, "all they in the synagogue, when              and the land be utterly desolate, And the Lord have
they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And               removed men far away, and there be  adgreat  forsaking
rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him               in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth,
unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built,            and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree,
that they might cast him down headlong." Luke 4:                   and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they
28, 29. Here was a case of meager results, therefore.              cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the sub-
When the Lord Jesus went to the country of the                     stance thereof."
Gadarenes, they prayed Him to depart out of their                     The same experience was the lot of a Jeremiah,
country.       When the same Lord Jesus multiplied the             an Ezekiel, a  Hosea,  and, in fact, of all the prophets.
loaves and fishes and fed five thousand in Galilee,                   Never were the "mission gains" in Scriptural
what was the end result? It is recorded in John  6:66:             times spectacular in terms of numbers of converts.
"From that time many of his disciples went back,                   On the contrary, they would certainly have to be
and walked no more with him." And what was behind                  characterized as "meager." It was always a remnant,
this forsaking of the Lord? They had said, "This is                a tenth, a very small minority, a "seven thousand  ,that
an hard saying; who can hear it?" John  6:60. And                  had not bowed the knee to Baal," a "little flock," that
what was the reaction of the Lord Jesus.                Did He     was converted and gathered. And the rest, the large
change His message and His  .method and say, "0, my               imajority,i, were  blinded  and  harden& through  -.the
good people, you have misunderstood me. Don't go                   means of the same mission message by which the
away from me.         Perhaps I did not make myself clear.         remnant was converted and saved, and they rejected
But the message of my preaching is that God loves you              the Word of the gospel.         They stoned the prophets.
all, and that I came into the world to die for all of you ?"       They slew those that were sent unto them. They
His immediate reaction is recorded for us in John  6:67:           crucified the Lord of glory.
"Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?"              But never do you find in Scripture the "agonizing
To mention but one more instance from the ministry of              reappraisal" of the message and the method and the


                                                                                                                                                  `f
                                                                                    _ -:
                                                                   L
                                                 ,    THE STANDARD `BEARER                                           ;     .i .          " 2 4 7   `I

 motive which Professor Dekker suggests as being in-              if the cause of `the gospel was to  aavanqe, one might
 dicated by meager results. Always the "missiona&es"              expect that there would have to be  `a relatively large
 went right on preaching wherever and whenever they               measure of fruit upon the preaching. In the second
 were called. And what did they preach? The answer.               place, whether the congregations were fairly large or
 is simple. They proclaimed the whole counsel of God,             very small, -- and think, for example,: what a struggling
 the sovereign God of our salvation  iq Christ Jesus.             and small  congregat@n  the church at  Philippi  was,  -
  And what was the content `of that "`whole counsel of            they were all, in.comparison  with the hordes of pagans
 God?" That God loves all men, and that Christ died               who remained unconverted, but little flocks.                         Per-
  (and, in the old dispensation, -would die) for all men?         secuted minorities they were, in the midst of the
  Never! The gospel of salvation was always particular,           strongholds of heathendom.                  And the missionaries
  addressed in its very contents to the elect according           were themselves persecuted from city to city, im-
  to their spiritual identity: to the meek, the broken-           prisoned, and finally put to death for the cause of
  hearted, the captives; the bound, them that mourn in            Christ.      Who were in  the.,majority,  the vast majority?
  Zion, those who were in ashes, those,`who were clothed          Where did the power lie? It was not until the fourth
  in a spirit of heaviness. Isaiah  $l:l-3.                       century, when that unholy alliance of church and state,
     Nor is it different  irfthe time of the apostles.            or rather, that unholy domination of the church by the
     We certainly must not have the impression that in            state, was consummated, that Christianity -became in
  the apostolic era the preaching of the gospel, whether          any sense a majority religion! In the third place, think
  to Jew or Gentile, was an overwhelming success in               of that outstanding example of meager fruit: Athens!
  terms of numbers of converts gained. Perhaps when               Athens, that cultural center of the world! Athens, the
  we read in the book of Acts of the thousands who re-            religious city  pav excellence! Meager fruits? Listen!
  pented and were baptized at Jerusalem in the immediate          "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead,
  post-Pentecost era, we are at first glance tempted to           some mocked: and others  said,..,We will hear thee again
  think that now at last things have changed.                     of this matter.           So Paul `departed from among them.
     But let us keep our bearings in this respect, and            Howbeit. certain men  clave unto him, and believed:
  observe the  foilowing:                                         among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a
     1) It is true that, especially in the first part of the      woman named Damaris, and  .others  with them." Acts
  book of Acts, Scripture numbers the converts to the             17:32-34.
*  .`church in the thousands, speaks of 3,000 on the day of        3) #`ever do you find the "agonizing. reappraisal"
  Pentecost, of "many, "  ,and of 5,000 in Acts  4:4, etc.        &" the "message and the motivation which Prof. Dekker
  However, we  must!remember  that even as far as these           swgests.        Scripture nowhere judges the success or
 `thousands of converts from the Jews are concerned;:;            ftilure  of mission endeavor in terms of the number of
c_ this, is not to be compared to today's evangelism among        converts gained.           And it certainly does not judge the
  the so-called unchurched, that is, the branches< that           co'rrectness  or incorrectness of the message  andmoti-
  have been cut off. Secondly, it must be borne in mind           vation of missions on this basis. On. the contrary, you
  that this was the time of transition from the old to the        find other indications in Scripture, even concerning
  new dispensation, and in this light their conversion            the relatively large number of converts in apostolic
  must be viewed.      Thirdly, when you `compare these           times. You, find this: "And the Lord added to the church
  thousands with the` 120 that were gathered in the upper         daily such as should be saved." Acts  2:47. And in
  room, the growth of the church was indeed amazing;              Acts  13:48  we read:  `f.  .-',and as many as were ordained
 .when, however, you compare these thousands with the             to eternal life believed." According to Acts  18:9, 10,
  number of those who did not believe, then you must              what encouraged and. motivated the apostle was this
  remember that  the; church was in the  minority.  The           word of the Lord: "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold
  power remained  in' the. hands of the unbelieving ene-          not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall
  mies of the gospel; and presently the church, Christ's          set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in
  little flock, was scattered abroad by persecution.              this city."       Notice this: before Paul's mission at
     2.) Among. the Gentiles, as the gospel advanced to           Corinjh was even fairly begun, much less completed,
  Antioch, to Asia Minor, and thence to Europe, many              the Lord says to him in advance: "I have much people
  congregations were established. Apparently the  mis-            in this city."                          .+' . .
  sio&rytravels  of Paul were highly successful in terms                In conclusion, therefore, I fail to find in Scripture
  of numbers of converts gained. However, again we                the method and the standard of judgment that Prof.
 must see the whole  pioture.' In the first place, here           Dekker seems to follow.                I  f.ail  tz  .find in Scripture
 was a completely new field of mission endeavor; and              this reasoning from results, this drawing of  conclu-

  : Gift I&? ..; Ii: ..-a. :                                                                    WRITE TO: James Dykstra, Bus.  Mgr.`
                                                                                                           1326 W. Butler Ave., SE,
                                   .  Gift  Subscription                                                   Grand Rapids,  Mich. 49507
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                                  l 


248                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

sions as to the success or failure of'mission endeavor          the Word of God? How many, even in Reformed circles,
on the basis of statistics. And I cannot avoid the im-          are genuinely concerned whether these would-be evan-
pression that this is an example of utilitarianism ap-          gelists proclaim the Arminian and Pelagian lies which
plied to missions.       And of utilitarianism the church       our fathers of Dort characterized as hellish? How is
should have nothing!                                            it possible that men who have signed their name to the
       All this I say not only in reaction to Prof. Dekker's    Formula of Subscription in the Christian Reformed
writings, but also for the instruction and warning of           Church can openly support Billy Graham and Leighton
our own churches. I am fully aware that we are readily          Ford as, for example, recently in  De  Wuchtev?  How
tempted to measure the church by the pound, and to              much rather we look at the vast crowds that will gather
measure the success of mission endeavors in terms               in the auditorium or the stadium of a big city to hear
of numbers of converts gained. This tendency is very            these pseudo-preachers of the gospel! How the news
strong in the ecclesiastical world of today. How many           accounts in religious periodicals, as well as in daily
families in that area are interested? How many souls            papers, will keep close tab on the number of converts
are there at that mission station? How many can you             gained, the number of "decisions" for Christ! How
count on to organize? How large is your congregation?           little concern, with all the missionary concern, there
How many families did you gain in the past year? How            is for the pure preaching of the Word,for the gathering
many of those families came from the outside? How big           of the  chwch,  for the maintenance of the purity of the
is your seminary? How many students do you have?                church, for the sanctity of the Lord's table! If only
(Yes, I speak from experience in regard to  the.latter          there is a passion for souls ! If only the mission work
question.      I even had a lawyer strike a low blow and        is outwardly successful! If  only the church grows and
attempt to discredit me as a witness because I had              becomes  big1 If only the church and its institutions
only one student at the time, -- a low blow which even          attain some stature in the eyes of the world!
a worldly master-in-chancery recognized as being                   Let us remember one thing, and take it to heart.
"below the belt.")                                              There is one sure way to rapid growth for a church.
       There is a certain glamor about numbers, isn't           Corrupt the doctrine of the gospel: and, simultaneously,
there? How many are concerned whether the modern-               relax the strictness of discipline. You will grow then;`
day crusade-evangelists actually preach the truth of            but your church will die as it grows.





                                      THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES


                                                     Rev. H. Veldman


According To The Fathers  (Continued)                           to the varying opinions of heretical sects -together
       In this article we will conclude our quotations from     form the one infallible source and rule of faith. Both
Philip Schaff's "History of the Christian Church," to           are vehicles of the same substance: the saving revela-
show to our readers how the church, during the early            tion of God in Christ; with this difference in form and
periods of the new dispensation viewed the doctrine of          office, that the church tradition determines the canon,
the inspiration of the Scriptures. In Vol. III the author       furnishes the key to the true interpretation of the
discusses the Third Period, A.D. 311-590. In para-              Scriptures, and guards them against heretical abuse.
graph 118, pages 606 ff., he continues to call attention        The relation of the two in the mind of the ancient
to Sources of Theology, Scripture and Tradition.                church may be illustrated by the relation between the
       "The church view respecting the sources of Chris-        supreme law of a country (such as the Roman law, the
tian theology and the rule of faith and practice remains        Code Napoleon, the common law of England, the Con-
as it was in the previous-period, except that it is further     stitution of the United States) and the courts which ex-
developed in particulars. The divine Scriptures of the          pound the law, and decide between conflicting interpre-
Old and New Testaments, as opposed to human writings;           tations.    Athanasius, for example, "The father of
and the oral tradition or living faith of the catholic          orthodoxy," always bases his conclusions upon Scrip-
church from the apostles down (this "catholic church"           ture, and appeals to the authority of tradition  only in
must not be identified with the Romish Church of later          proof that he rightly understands and expounds the
date; this "catholic church" is the universal church of         sacred books.    The catholic faith, says he, is that
Christ since the days of the apostles -- H.V.) as opposed       which the Lord gave, the apostles  preached,  and the


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   249

fathers have pwsevved; upon this the church is founded,          views, the fathers of our period, like Irenaeus and
and he who departs from this faith can no longer be              Tertullian before them, had recourse through the un-
called a Christian."                                             broken succession of the bishops.          With them the
   This, we understand, is a far  cry.from  the'present          Scriptures are the supreme law; the combined wisdom
position of Rome, Rome views Tradition as of equal               and piety of the catholic church, the organic body of
authority with the Scriptures. According to Rome, one            the faithful,  .is the judge which decides the true sense
needs not to quote from the Bible; Tradition is quite            of the law. For to be understood the Bible must be ex-
sufficient.    However; if the relation between Tradition        plained, either by private judgment or by the universal
and the Bible be the same as between the Constitution            faith of Christendom.       Strictly speaking, the Holy
of the United States and the courts of our land, then it         Ghost, who is the author, is also the only infallible in-
must be evident that Scripture is the sole rule for              terpreter of the Scriptures. . . .  .Even Augustine, who
doctrine and life.                                               of all the fathers stands nearest to evangelical  Prot-
   "The old catholic doctrine of Scripture and tradi-            estantism, on this point advocates the catholic principle
tion, therefore, nearly as it approaches the Roman,              in the celebrated maxim which he urges against the
must not be entirely confounded with it. It makes the            Manichaeans: `I would not believe the gospel, if I. were
two identical as to  substance,,while the Roman church           not compelled by.the authority of the universalchurch.'
rests upon tradition for many doctrines and usages,              But he immediately adds: `God forbid that I should not
like the doctrines of the seven sacraments, of the               believe the gospel.' " Calvin, in his Institutes, also
mass, of purgatory, of the papacy, and of the im-                calls attention to this saying of Augustine, and he shows
maculate conception, which have no foundation in                 that that church father certainly did not mean with this
Scripture.     Against this the evangelical church pro-          statement what is commonly and understandably as-
tests, and asserts the perfection and sufficiency of             cribed to it by the Romish Church.
the Holy Scriptures as the record of divine revelation;             We also wish to quote from Calvin. That noted re-
while it does not deny the value of tradition, or of the         former, of course, also affirms his belief in the doc-
consciousness of the church, in the interpretation of            trine of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. He
Scripture, and regulates public teaching by symbolical           does this in his "Institutes of the Christian Religion."
books. In the Protestant view tradition is not coordinate        In Book I, Chapter VII, IV, he writes, and we quote:
with Scripture, but subordinate to it, and its value de-         "It must be maintained, as I have before asserted, that
pends on its agreement with the Scriptures.              The     we are not established in the belief of the doctrine till
Scriptures alone are the  norma  fidei;  the church doc-         we are indubitably persuaded that God is its Author.
trine is only the  momma   doctvinae.  Protestantism             The principal proof, therefore, of the Scriptures is
gives much more play to private judgment and free                every where derived from the character of the Divine
investigation in the interpretation of the Scriptures,           Speaker.    The prophets and apostles boast not of their
than the Roman or even the Nicene church."                       own genius, or any of those talents which conciliate
   When we read that the two, Scripture and Tradition,           the faith of the hearers; nor do they insist on argu-
are identical as to substance, themeaningis, of course,          ments from reason; but bring forward the sacred name
that Tradition is of value only insofar as it is in agree-       of God, to compel the submission of the whole world. . .
ment with the Word of God. Roman Catholic Tradition,             . .It is true that, if we were inclined to, argue the point,
however, teaches many things which are not recorded              many things might be adduced which certainly evince,
in the divine Scriptures. And the test to which Tradi-           if there be any God in heaven, that he is the Author of
tion must always be subjected is exactly whether it be           the Law, and the Prophecies, and the Gospel. Even
in conformity with the divine Scriptures.                        though men of learning and deep judgment rise up in
   "Protestantism retained the New Testament canon               opposition, and exert and display all the powers of
of the Roman church, but, in accordance with the or-             their minds in this dispute, yet, unless they are wholly
thodox Jewish and the primitive Christian view, ex-              lost to all sense of shame, this confession will be ex-
cluded the  Apocrypha  from the Old. The most eminent            torted from them, that the Scripture exhibits the
of the church fathers speak in the strongest terms of            plainest evidences that it is God who speaks in it, which
the full  inspiration   and the infallible  authority  of the    manifests its doctrine to be divine. And we shall soon
holy Scriptures, and commend the diligent reading of             see, that all the books of the sacred Scripture very far
them even to the laity.      Especially Chrysostom. The          excel all other writings. If we read it with pure eyes
want of general education, however, and the enormous             and sound minds, we shall immediately perceive the
cost of books, left the people for the most part dependent       majesty of God, which will subdue our audacious con-
on the mere hearing of the word of God in public wor-            tradictions, and compel us to obey him. . . .  .With  the
ship; and the free private study of the Bible was re-            greatest justice, therefore God exclaims by Isaiah,
pressed by the prevailing spirit of the hierarchy. No            that the prophets and all the people were his witnesses;
prohibition, indeed, was yet laid upon the reading of            because, being taught by prophecies, they were certain
the Bible; but the presumption that it was a book of             that God had spoken without the least fallacy or am-
the priests and monks already existed.                           biguity. . . .  .Herein  God deigns to confer a singular
    "The Holy Scriptures were universally accepted as            privilege on his elect, whom he distinguishes from the
the supreme authority and infallible rule of faith. But          rest of mankind.      For what is the beginning of true
as. the Scriptures themselves` were variously inter-             learning but a prompt alacrity to hear the voice of
preted, and were claimed by the heretics for their               God? By the mouth of Moses he demands our attention


250                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER

in these terms: `Say not in thine heart, Who shall as-                who would engage in a war with the Babylonians, who
cend into heaven: or, Who shall descend into the deep?                would subjugate such a powerful monarchy, and re-
The word is even in thy mouth.' "                                     lease the people of Israel from exile. Does not this
       And then Calvin proceeds to show the truthof divine            bare narration, without any ornaments of diction,
inspiration by referring to the content of the Word- of               plainly demonstrate that Isaiah delivered the undoubted
God.      He writes that the diction of some of the writers           oracles of God, and not the conjectures of men? And
is neat and elegant, and even splendid, as the writings               how must we explain that Jeremiah, just before the
of David, Isaiah, and others, and that the literary style,            people were carried away, limited the duration of their
of Amos the herdsman, Jeremiah, and Zechariah                         captivity to seventy years, and predicted their libera-
savours of rusticity; but the divine inspiration of the               tion and return? Was not his tongue under the direction
Word of God remains secure. He calls attention to                     of the Spirit of God? Thereupon Calvin calls attention
the various prophecies in the Old Testament that can                  to the time of the Maccabees, and to that Old Dispen-
never be explained merely in the light of human reason                sational monster of iniquity, Antiochus, who com-
or ingenuity and which prophecies are fulfilled. Indeed,              manded all the books to be burned. What can explain
he realizes that clamorous men, who would ostenta-                    the preservation of the Old Testament Scripture if not
tiously display the force of their understanding in op-               that it was the Lord Who marvelously preserved His
posing divine truth, even dare to question whether                    own Word. Then the reformer calls attention to the
such a man as Moses ever existed, but he dismisses                    New Testament, and, among other things, he mentions
such effrontery as madness. He asks that, when Moses                  the apostle Paul.         Paul was a cruel and sanguinary
mentions the impious murmurings of Aaron, his brother,                enemy, was converted to a new man. And this proves
and Miriam, his sister, whether he spake according to                 that he was constrained, by a command from heaven,
the dictates of the flesh, or obeyed the command of the               to vindicate that doctrine which he had before opposed.
Holy Spirit? Besides, Calvin continues, whereas Moses                 And he challenges wicked men to deny that the Holy
enjoyed the supreme authority; why did he not leave to                Spirit descended upon the apostles on Pentecost and
his own sons, at least, the office  ofthe high-priesthood,            that they were taught by them.         And he concludes by
but place them in the lowest station? The reformer                    calling attention to the fact that the truth of the in-
calls  .attention  to the prophecy of Isaiah with respect             spired Word of God was confirmed and witnessed by
to Cyrus, by whom the Chaldeans were to be subdued,                   the blood of so many saints! Of course, we are not
and the people restored to liberty. This prophecy was                 surprised that Calvin maintained the infallibility of
uttered by Isaiah long before that emperor was born.                  the Holy Scriptures. In our next article we will con-
How could any man divine that there would be a Cyrus,                 tinue our discussion of the Reformed Confessions.
                                      ,





                                                       GOG AND MAGOG
                                 ,                          (Continued)

                                           Exposition  of  Ezekiel.28,  29 and Rev.  20:8, 9

                                                          Rev. G.  Lubbers

The Identity  of  Gog [continued)                                     have come "to battle," having been gathered by Satan
       Since the Scriptures ever interpret the Old Testa-             for this purpose.
ment in the light of the New Testament, we believe that                   In order to see this, we need to have an understand-
we do well to attempt first to understand from Rev.                   ing of the nature of the book of Revelation in general
20:8,9 concerning the identity of Gog and, of course, of              and of the intent of the vision which John sees on the
Magog.                                                                island of Patmos as recorded for us in Revelation
       In Rev. 20 Gog and Magog are the "nations which                20:1-10.    It is, then, quite evident that John was shown
are in the four quarters of the earth." Any attempt to                in visionary form the following:
find these nations on the map as known nations in the                     1. He is shown a long period in history, after the
Old Testament must fail. We do not find such nations                  exaltation of Christ at God's right hand, and before the
such as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece-Macedonia,                       final return of the  Pavousia,  in which there is a drastic
and Rome.        But Gog and Magog do not fall into the               curtailment in the work of Satan, the Dragon, the old
class of historical nations in the past.             Rather they      Serpent.    Satan, during this time, can do many things.
are "many nations," and they are  from, "the four                     Here too he is limited by what God permits him ef-
quarters of the earth." Besides, they are nations who                 ficaciously to do.        But there is one thing which Satan


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                ,251
I
     cannot do during this period here indicated. He "can-         false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
     not deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth!     for ever and ever! See vs. 10.
     He cannot make the nations rise up against the church            Such is the identity of Gog and Magog!
     to destroy her from off the face of the earth.                   At least such is the identity of these nations ac-
        2. This long period is designated with the term "a         cording to Rev.  20:`1-10.
     thousand years." It is true, chiliasts attempt to make           With this interpretation accords what we read in
     this period of a thousand years refer to the glorification    Rev.  16:12-14. Here we read: "And the sixth angel
     of earthly Jerusalem, prior to the final return of            poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates;
     Christ; but there is not support for this their conten-       and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the
     tion in Scripture. The term "thousand years" is rather        kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three
     the symbolical number of the full span and measure            unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the
     of time in history as determined by God's counsel and         dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the
     as realized by His providence, his government in his-         mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits.
     tory.     We hold that this period of a tmusand years         of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the
     refers to the entire time when the church in the New          kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather
     Testament dispensation is gathered out of every tongue,       them to the great day of God Almighty."
     tribe, people and nation! Incidentally, it is due to this        In the first place, it ought to be observed, that what
     dispensation of God that the church cannot be surround-       transpires here is under the direction of Him who sitteth
     ed when one nation rises up against the church. In the        upon the throne, God.         He has the book in His right
     Old Testament dispensation Israel was ever surrounded,        hand, and it was given to the Lamb, the Lion of the
     could be surrounded. It was literally surrounded from         tribe of Judah, the Root of David. Rev. 5:1-9. All is
     the time of Joshua till the day of Christ's appearance        directed from the throne of God as the unfolding of
     upon earth, and that, too, so that it was in the center of    His counsel.
     the world. However, such is not the case in the New              In the second place, we notice that the entire
     Testament dispensation. Only when the totality of the         scheme of the book of Revelation is such that it is
     nations rise up against the church can she be sur-            controlled by the number seven; seven seals, seven
     rounded, as the camp of the saints, the holy city. This       trumpets, seven vials. The seventh seal becomes the
     will not be able to take place "during the thousand           seven trumpets, and the seventh trumpet becomes the
     years."                                                       seven vials.    And this passage from Rev.  16:12-14 is
        3. At the end of the thousand years, Satan shall be        the pouring out of the sixth vial  inthese "seven vials."
     loosed out of his prison. He will then be able to be the      They are the vials which are filled with the wrath of
     instrument in the hand of God to bring the nations from       God Almighty, His just judgments upon the nations.
     the four-corners of the earth "to gather them to              They proceed from God's holy temple, from the holy
     battle." And we are told that the "number of whom is          of  holies.  Thus we read in Rev.  15:8: "And the temple
     as the sand of the sea." Rev.  20:8.                          was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from
        We may, therefore, deem it established from Rev.           his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple,
     20 that Gog and Magog are the many nations, a great           till the seven plagues of the seven angels were ful-
     throng of peoples under the spiritual deception of            filled."
     Satan.     They walk in the lie. They think they shall           In the third place, the symbolism here in Rev.
     attain in their purpose and design, but they shall            16:12-14 is such that it is based on the Old Testament
     miserably fail.      They are deceived!     Yet, in their     situation of Israel in the land of Canaan as her enemies,
     deception, with fanatical hatred they shall come to           the Pan-Asiatic nations come from across the Eu-
     battle against the church, as the church is among many        phrates river, the nations of Assyria and Babylon,
     nations, the so-called Christian nations. And in their        which came to take Israel and Judah captive re-
     total assault upon the nations where the church is            spectively.     Such is the symbolism here. Thus we
     gathered, they shall succeed finally once more to sur-        can understand the sentence, "And the water thereof
     round the "camp of the saints," as did the Assyrian           was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east
     king Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah. Yet, in this          might be prepared." This does not meanthat  the kings
     battle, which shall be the final one, the strategy is not     shall come from the east literally as they did during
     really Satan's, but the Lord's. They are brought to the       the time of Israel and Judah, but rather that what hap-
     place where the nations shall be finally and forever          pened' there historically shall happen at the pouring
     destroyed, so that they shall never more imagine vain         out of the sixth vial according to the same pattern, be
     things against the Lord and against His anointed Son.         it then on a larger and broader scale. Of that the text
     The Lord in the heavens shall laugh at them and have          here speaks.
     them in derision1      Psalm  2:4. Then shall the Lord           In the fourth place, that the nations which come are
     break them with a rod of iron, and shall dash them to         "deceived" by three unclean spirits. These come
     pieces as a potter's vessel!                                  "from the mouth of the dragon," and "out of the mouth
        For, according to Rev.  20:9, "fire came down from         of the beast" and "out of the mouth of the false prophet."
     God out of heaven, and devoured them." Their over-            The influence here is:
     throw is as final as that of Sodom and Gomorrah. For              1. Directly of Satanic origin, in the first place. It
     after this the devil that deceived them is cast into the      is a matter which comes up in the mind of the Devil.
     lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the           He is "let loose" for a season.


252                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER

       2. It is also from the mouth of the "beast," that is,        as "Gog and Magog," that is, they are the kings who
it is of a political, antichristian nature, the political           ever arise and make war against the church of God. In
powers which make war upon the saints and which come                the Old Testament that was against the land of Israel,
up out of the sea. Rev.  13:l.                                      and in the last days it will be against the church of God
       3. The religious, idolatrous powers which are in-            in every tongue, tribe, people, and nation.
spired by Satan and which stand in the service of the                  We believe that a study of the various elements in
beast.      This is the entire seed of the serpent of which         Ezekiel 38 and 39 will confirm what we have learned
we already read in Gen. 3:15.                                       from Rev.  20:1-10; it will show that we are correct
       In the fifth place, that this is to be the last "battle"     concerning the identity of Gog and Magog.
of the ages between the two Seeds, the Seed of the                      First of all, we would observe that the "land of
woman in and through the Christ and His church, and                 Magog" represents in Ezekiel  38:5,6 the inhabitable
the entire demonic world, including angels and men.                 world of three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe.
Wherefore they are brought to the place called in the               There we read: "Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with
Hebrew tongue "Armageddon," that is, the valley of                  them, all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer and
Megiddo.       As is well-known, the valley of Megiddo is           all his bands, and many people with thee." When we
the place where Deborah and Barak slew the armies in                remember that these three continents were the then
the day of the judges, and of whichDeborah sings in the             known and inhabited world, the entire world where
Song of Deborah as follows:                                         history is made and recorded, we see that Magog is
       "The kings came and fought, then fought the kings            presented in its global nature!
of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they                    Closely connected with the foregoing, and confirm-
took no gain of money. They fought from heaven, the                 ing it, is that fact that the lands against which God at
stars in their courses fought against Sisera.              The      the head of Magog comes to battle are also of this
river of  Kishon swept them away, that ancient river,               "global" nature!     These lands too are in the afore-
the river  Kishon.       0, my soul thou hast trodden down          mentioned three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.
strength.       Then were the horsehoofs broken by the              Thus we read in Ezekiel  38:11-13: "And thou shalt
means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty               say, (speaking of Magog), I will go up to the land of
ones." Judges 5:19-23                                               unwalled villages: I will go to them that are at rest,
       Truly this will be the "Waterloo" of the nations of          that dwell safely, all of them dwelling within walls,
the earth.       It will be a re-enactment, only on a far           and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil, and
larger scale, of what took place at Megiddo. It will                to take a prey: to turn thine hand upon the desolate
truly be the battle of God with His foes.                           places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that
       What we  .read  here in Rev.  16:12-14 is most rele-         are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten
vant to what John sees in the vision in Rev.  20:1-10               cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
concerning the loosing of Satan for a season so that he             Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish,
deceives the nations at the four quarters of the earth.             with all the young lions, shall say unto thee, Art  ~thou
The two cast a perfect light upon each other, and both              come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company
are at t.he end of history.                                         to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take
       The "kings of the east" are essentially the same             away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?"



                                           f4?  &td  O&  ZiVZheddea

                                        ON THE THRESHING FLOOR OF BOAZ

                                                      Rev, B.  Woudenbevg

                             And he (Boaz) said, Who  avt thou? and she answered, I am Ruth thine
                          handmaid: spread  thevefove  thy  skirt  ovey thine handmaid;  for  thou  art
                          a near kinsman.
                             And he said, Blessed be thou  of  the LORD,  my  daughter...  Feav not;
                          I will do to thee all that thou  requivest...."               - Ruth  3:9-11

       It was the season for the threshing of grain in Israel,      from the straw and chaff, and another year's supply of
one of the most joyful of the year. It marked the climax            food would be secured. To the faithful of Israel, there
of the harvest festivities. All of the grain had been               were definite spiritual overtones to all of these labors.
gathered from the field and was safely held in storage.             They lived in the constant realization that all that they
All that remained was for the kernel to be separated                had and all they received was from the hand of the Lord.


I                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                               253
     It was the gift of His grace and the assurance of His         proceeded to join the crowd that was gathered at the
     covenant.       In their labors of harvest, they gave ex-     threshingfloor of Boaz.
     pression to this.       Psalms and hymns were sung by            There were many there beside Ruth, many more
     them as they labored together at the harvest. Numer-          than were actually needed to perform the labor of the
     ous festivities of thanksgiving were held with prayers        evening.    This was a festive occasion. All friends and
     of appreciation to their God. Every day they lifted           neighbors were invited to join the celebration at one or
     their voices together in praise unto Jehovah who              another of the threshingfloors about the community.
     blessed them with His grace.                                  Particularly at the floor of Boaz were there to be found
        This was particularly true at the time of threshing.       those who still held most closely to the true faith of
     The greater part of the work, the actual winnowing of         Israel. Boaz was a God-fearing man, and the religious
     the grain, took place in the evening when the night           elements were always kept on the fore at the celebra-
     breezes would blow in from the sea. During the day            tion which he prepared.     Such was no longer common
     the grain would be laid out on the threshingfloor, and        in Israel, and his hospitality attracted those who were
     the oxen would be driven over it again and again to           still of serious spiritual intent within the community.
     break loose the kernels from the chaff. Finally, to-             The fact that Ruth appeared at these threshing fes-
     ward evening, all of the laborers would gather together       tivities was perhaps not too surprising to any. Her
     to the threshingfloor,. many of them bringing their           reputation as a God-fearing young woman was already
     families to share in the festive occasion. No sooner          well established in Bethlehem, and the threshingfloor
     would the evening breezes spring up than the labor            of Boaz was the most natural place for her to join the
     would begin. Slowly the grain would be tossed into the        harvest celebrations, especially because it was known
     air, the chaff blowing away in the breeze while the           and rumored about how that she had gleaned the fields
     heavier kernels of grain settled to the floor again.          of Boaz all through the harvest already. Neither did
     Again and again this would be repeated until all that         many fail to notice the absence of her widow's weeds
     remained was the pure grain to be gathered into sacks         for the first time that night, and perhaps many sus-
     and stored away.       When at last, toward midnight, the     pected her intentions toward Boaz, many except Boaz
     evening breezes would die, a great feast would be             himself.    His feeling may well have been that she was
     spread for all the laborers with songs and dances of          seeking to attract the eyes of some  ofthe younger men.
     praise to God. Only then would the people settle down            When at last the midnight threshing meal was finished
     among the sheaves and sacks of grain to sleep until           and the festivities ended, the crowd began to disperse.
     morning. Then the process would begin once again.             Some returned to their homes, while others merely
        Aware that this was happening, Naomi gave to Ruth          settled down to sleep among the sacks and sheaves,
     the instructions that she did. She said, "My daughter,        particularly those who in the morning were to prepare
     shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with      the floor for another day of threshing. In the darkness
     thee? And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose          and confusion, none noticed Ruth still lurking among
     maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to             the shadows. Her eyes were upon Boaz as he finished
     night in the threshingfloor. Wash thyself therefore,          the duties of the evening. When at last he lay down to
     and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and           sleep by the freshly winnowed grain, she marked the
     get thee down to the floor: but  malce not thyself known      place.
     unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drink-         It was not until everything was quiet on the thresh-
     ing.       And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou     ingfloor that Ruth crept forth to the place where Boaz
     shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt       was lying. There she lay herself down at his feet and
     go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he        taking the covering from off his feet began to pull it
     will tell thee what thou shalt do."                           over her body. With a start, Boaz awoke and asked,
        Naomi could allow the matter to rest no longer. It         "Who art thou?"
     was of vital importance to them that the name of her             Quietly and simply Ruth answered, "I am thine
     husband and sons might not be blotted out from Israel.        handmaid Ruth: spread therefore thy skirt over thy
     They had waited long enough for Boaz to take the in-          handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman."
     itiative; and, in spite of his great kindness, he had not.       The gesture and the request of Ruth were extremely
     Now it was necessary for them to press the matter             touching. It was not a demand, althoughshe might have
     themselves.       Naomi was determined to do so, although     made such according to the law.         It was a plea, a
     in the most reserved and unpretentious way possible.          plaintive prayer that he would look unto her in her
     Where the law of God allowed for the childless widow          need and provide that which only he as a kinsman
     to make a public demand for marriage by a kinsman,            could. It was expressed in as gentle and unpretentious
     they would press the matter privately, lest Boaz              a way as was possible.
     should be publicly shamed. But the matter could wait             Boaz was amazed. To him the whole matter had
     no longer; it was to be pressed immediately and without       appeared quite the opposite.      He did desire to have
     delay.                                                        Ruth for a wife; he had almost from the moment that
             Following the instructions of Naomi, Ruth for the     he had first met her.      But it had always appeared to
     first time laid aside her widow's weeds and dressed           him an impossible dream. In the first place, he was
     herself in the customary clothing of a young woman in         not the nearest kinsman, as Ruth apparently thought.
     Israel. This in itself was a public declaration of her        There was another closer than he  .upon  whom the re-
     intentions to seek another husband. Thereupon she             sponsibility or privilege of a kinsman (however one


254                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

looked at it) fell. In the second place, it did not seem       Boaz to act in her cause, to see that her rights under
possible to him that Ruth should actually desire to            the law should be observed. And Boaz knew just ex-
have him for a husband. He was extremely conscious             actly how this should be done. He would not take Ruth
of the age difference between them. If one as desirable        to wife without consideration of this closer kinsman;
as Ruth wished for a husband, it seemed only natural           that would endanger the rights and name of Elimelech
to him that she would seek him in her own age group.           and Chilion  in Israel, and he would not do that. But he
The only thing that would seem to suggest  otherwi-e           could present the case before this relative for a deci-
was the spiritual considerations; and in that day one          sion one way or the other that the matter might be
did not expect such to be determinative.                       finally resolved. This he promised to Ruth.
       Thus he replied to her, "Blessed be thou of  the           For the rest of the night, Ruthslept upon the thresh-
LORD, my daughter: for thou has  shewed more kin;              ingfloor as Boaz instructed her. He would not send
ness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch         her out alone and unprotected into the night. Never-
as thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich.        theless, he called her early in the morning before
And now, my daughter: fear not,  I will do to thee all         anyone else was up and around. As he said to her,
that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth        "Let it not be known that a womancame into the floor."
know that thou art a virtuous woman. And now it is             He was jealous that her reputation should bepreserved.
true that I am thy near kinsman: howbeit there is a               Before Ruth left, however, he said to her, "Bring
kinsman nearer than I. Tarry this night, and it shall          the vail that thou hast upon thee,  andhold  it." Into this
be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the       large, outer garment, he poured a full six measures of
part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman's part:        fresh barley.      It was a testimony on his part that he
but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then      had received Ruth and her request with favor. As he
will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the LORD           said to her, "Go not empty unto thy mother in law."
liveth; lie down until the morning."                              When Ruth returned to her home, still very early in
       This answer of Boaz reflected the fact that he had      the morning, Naomi was waiting. Quickly she asked
given very much thought to the whole situation. Boaz           Ruth, "Who art thou, my daughter?" It was not that
loved Ruth, and he had wanted to do the duty of a kins-        Naomi did not recognize Ruth, she could have been
man to her for a long time. But there were other con-          expecting no one else at that hour of the morning. What
siderations under the law which he could not ignore.           she meant was that Ruth should tell her if in the night
There was yet living in Bethlehem a closer relative to
Ruth than he.                                                  she had become the betrothed of Boaz.
                   As long as that man had not refused to
do the duty of a kinsman to Ruth, he was the only one             Patiently Ruth explained to Naomi all that had
who could raise up a legal heir to the name and family         happened, laying before her the six measures of
of Ruth's first husband. It was up to Ruth to take the         barley which Boaz had given her.        For Naomi it was
initiative in obtaining a decision from him one way or         enough.    As she said to Ruth, "Sit still, my daughter,
the other.     For Boaz to have done anything on his awn       until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man
without her would have been impossibly presumptuous.           will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this
But now Ruth had acted. She had, in effect, requested          day."





                                                FREEDOM TO SERVE

                                                    Rev. J. A. Heys

       "Every man did that which was right in his own          last breath of this life. And a period of time elapsed
eyes."                                                         when there was no man or group of men to keep order
       Thus the book of Judges presents it in the very last    and decency. Each went his own way. Each was a law
verse of its last chapter.                                     to himself.      Each man was free to strive to take away
       And the explanation of all this is, "In those days      the other man's freedom.
there was no king in Israel: every man did that which             That is what happens ! When there is no king and
was right in his own eyes."                                    no central government, those most free in the pursuit
       It is not our intention to advocate a monarchy. A       of their evil lusts, take away the freedom of the meek.
good democracy is to be chosen above a corrupt mon-            Those with the most gold and silver and power trample
archy.      The point in that statement in Judges  21:25 is    upon those who cannot compete with these advantages.
that there was no government, no ruling body in Israel.        Then might makes right; and the end result is that
Moses and Joshua had gone the way of all flesh.                every man is not able to do that which seems right in
Samuel was not yet in the land of the living. Judges           his own eyes.       It may work for a time that each one
had been raised up by God, but they also had taken their       goes his own way; but soon enough the freedom of


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 2     5    5

 some is stolen by those who are bolder and more                music and art this revolt against rule is to be seen.
 calloused in their sin.                                        Some call it art, but the farther you can get from
    We can only wonder whether we will not soon be              beauty of line, and the more clashing the color, the more
 in such days as those of which Judges  21:25  speaks,          praise the "painting" receives; and words of ridicule
 but from a different point of view.            In Christian    about prize-winning pictures abound.         It seems as
 Economics,  volume XVII, Number 1, the January 12,             though hanging such a piece of "art" upside down or
 1965 issue, the Rev. I. E. Howard raises an inter-             even  f.raming the piece of cloth on which the "artist"
 esting question- as he views evidences of this fact that       cleaned his brushes expresses much more and is more
 to such a great extent today men do that which is right        beautiful than the "painting" itself hung properly. In
 in their own eyes and flout authority and rule. He asks        the field of "music" the closer one can come to jungle
 the question, "Is it Democracy or  Mobacracy?" And             noises, dissonant, harsh and weird sounds, the more
 he refers to the incident  of. the riot at the University      "musical" the composition is. It is an age of riot and
 of California on December 3, 1964. But this is only            revolt, with everyone free to express the devilishness
 one incident in a multitude that threatens to turn our         of his heart with the expectancy that men will praise
 democracy into mobocracy.        The Rev. Howard has           him for it.
 coined a correct word for it.      Not only do gangster           Now freedom is to be coveted, and freedom is to
 mobs run and control much of that which goes on in             be cherished.
 our country, but mob riots and revolts, rebellion and             But man does not have freedom until he has free-
 revolution are rather the order of the day.                    dom to serve. Not only is it chaos, rather than free-
    Men speak so quickly today of their rights and              dom, when all are allowed to go their own way; but it
 then in their pursuit go and trample onsome  one else's        is the slavery of sin that causes men to do that which
 rights. The sit-down strikes in the factories of dec-          is right in  their own eyes.     Only God has the right to
 ades ago were mobocracy in which the possessions               determine what shall be done and what may not be
 of others were boldly and wickedly destroyed without           done.    Therefore only that man is free who is able to
 penalty to the evil doers. The manufacturer today is           serve God according to His sovereign will.
 often denied the right to ship out his products or get            Jesus stated it in different words when He declared
 in raw materials, to hire men or to lay off men. He            in John  8:31, "If ye continue in my words, then are ye
 is denied this right by men -who are not the  God-             my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and
 ordained authorities but who claim that right to bar,          the truth shall make you free." There are not many
 to boycott, to obstruct, and to harass.        The right to    free men in the world then, for there are not many
 take life, to cause injury, to cause a man's milk,             who are Jesus' disciples indeed.      And to be His dis-
 meat, and produce to spoil, to keep him from making a          ciples indeed certainly means that we are His disciples
 livelihood for his family is claimed by those who think        in deed as well as in name.
 only of their "rights" and want no king in "Israel"               Have you ever noticed how Paul and James and
 but one that will allow them to continue their evil.           Peter and Jude introduce themselves to their readers
    By democracy some mean self-rule in the narrow,             as "servant of Jesus Christ?" An apostle is a servant.
 selfish sense of the word. Democracy means: Let me             He is one who is sent out by Christ to witness concern-
 do as I please, and if you do not give me my way, I            ing Him and to represent Him in  ,this world. He
 will not call it democracy anymore but tyranny. When           serves in that capacity.        And we had better get it
 there  - is no king in Israel, men are going to go their       straight and accept it as an. undeniable fact that the
 own way. And when men themselves become king and               highest freedom and the only freedom is to be able to
 decide matters by majority vote, it stands to reason           serve the living God.       To do that which is right in
 that, when the nation turns from God, and those who            our own eyes is to be a slave of sin. To be able to do
 live in His fear become the minority, liberties are            that which is right in God's eyes is freedom and life.
 going to be taken away from this minority by govern-              It is to be understood that in the world and among
 ment decree.    But in mobocracy it is defiance of the         the unbelievers these truths are not accepted and that
 government, condemnation of the government and of              they make no sense at all. For man under the power
 their enforcement officers for protecting those whose          of the lie can only see the truth as false, the light as
 ways and ideas differ from the mob, the majority of            darkness, righteousness as unrighteousness, and wis-
 bold and carnally courageous men.                              dom as folly.       One has to be made free from the lie
    This right to assert self, this demand for freedom          by the truth before he can understand what true  free1
 to do as seems right in one's wicked eyes is not con-          dom is. We are all aware, no doubt, of the three stages
 fined simply to the affairs of the State. Men do not           in man's progress from paradise to the new Jerusalem
 simply rise up as a mob against government decrees             and expressed in the freedoms which he experienced
 and get away with it exactly because the mob cannot be         on the way. We will give it in the English, although
 apprehended, and the State is often in no position to          some of the force and beauty is missed that the Latin
 jail and feed them all. But all down the line in every         contains: Adam was created  iable  not  to sin, that is
 sphere and department of life, there is that clamor for        free to do the good. He fell into sin and became  not
 freedom and the right to do that which is right in one's       able not to sin.       He lost his freedom and became a
 own eyes. The riot in California was in the university.        slave to sin.       In Christ he becomes not able  to sin
- And a spirit of rebellion against law and order has           and reaches a state wherein he is free from sin and
 been in the world for some time. Even in the fields of         free only to serve God. This is the truth in that beauti-


256                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

ful statement of John wherein he comforts the elect,            either to the fact that we or they are walking against
regenerated sinner, "Whosoever is born of God doth              God.    And we have true freedom then only when we
not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and              serve God.
he cannot sin, because he is born of God." There you               Surely, this is a freedom that no man can give us.
have true freedom. -Not until man has the life of God           This is a freedom which the governments of this world
in him, so that what is right in God's eyes is what is          cannot guarantee and in which actually they have no
right in his eyes, does he have freedom. He must be             interest.      To give this freedom one must be able to
free to serve God, or he is a slave of the worst sort.          control the heart of man and to fill it with that love of
Satan gives no Emancipation Proclamation. All those             God.    And he who does not have it himself cannot give
not born of God in that day when Christ returns will            it to others. Those who do have it receive it from God
receive no Emancipation Proclamation from Him eithe;.           and are unable to  imparC  it to others. How many a
It will be consignment into outer darkness, where man           parent would give that love of God to his child, if only
will have no rights to anything good, and where he will         he could! It is God's gift to give to whom it pleases
know in the awfulness thereof that he has been deprived         Him in His mercy to give it. And freedom to serve
of all right except to despair and pain.                        means also freedom to praise and thank God for this
       With that life that is free only to serve God we will    gift through the Son of His love.
also serve our fellow men.          If we love God, we will        Are you free?
in that love deal with all His creatures in the way that           The answer to that question is found in the answer
He has prescribed for us in His law. To serve Him               to this other question: Do you like to serve? Riot and
we must serve with the creatures round about us. And            revolt are not service and surely are not in His fear.
we can serve the rational-moral creature round about            Peace and service are the works of those who live in
us only by dealing with him in that love of God.                His fear. Freedom to serve Godisfreedom that comes
       It is to be expected that among unbelievers there        from God.       And freedom to serve God is a freedom in
will not be that love of neighbor to neighbor. A fleshly        His fear.
love between those related by blood may be found. But              Indeed, there are those who must give out the law.
that is found also in the beasts of the field. We are           There are those who must be served  andmay  rightfully
speaking of a love towards God manifested in using              behave as masters and employers. But unless they
his creatures in accordance with His will. We mean              serve God in giving out their orders, they are slaves
a love that bows before God's will and is in itself a           of sin and in bondage even while they hold others in
matter of the will and not of the emotions of the flesh.        bondage.       The true freedom we will enjoy in that day
Such a love towards God you will not find in the unre-          when the kingdom of God is come in the new Jerusalem.
generated.      It is therefore a foregone conclusion that      We will be free to serve God and completely freed
capital or management is going to abuse labor. It is            from the slavery of sin. God's law will be our delight;
going to get the last ounce out of labor for the least          and we will understand that to be out of that law is
in wages, risk the laboring man's life, deliberately            slavery of the worst sort.      We were created to serve
place him in danger, create a sweat-shop, and discard           God, and we cannot be truly happy until we are free to
him cruelly after his health is broken in that inhuman          do so again with all our being.
condition of toil.       What else can you expect? It is
everyone for himself, if it is not everyone for the
glory of God, And it is for that very reason also that
labor rises up in rebellion, maintains the right to hold
the job and to keep others from it, while it seeks to
force capital to its knees by the curtailment of work                                  IN MEMORIAM
and loss of business. Capital speaks of its rights, and
labor speaks of its rights. Each does that which seems          On February 2, 1965, the Lord suddenly took into His
right in its own eyes and both are beneath serving each         Eternal Glory, our beloved wife, mother, grandmother
other, because both are beneath serving the living God.         and sister,
Men, as they are by nature, seek a freedom not to                            GERTIE FLIKKEMA  - PASTOOR  -
serve.       They desire to live a life that is not one of
service to their Creator, and as a consequence they             at the age of 61.
have no thought of serving each other. Even then, when             We believe and are comforted that our loss is her
for utilitarian reasons he will serve, it is because he         gain, which is to be with the Lord in the home of many
wants to be served, and not because he wants to serve           mansions, not redeemed with silver or gold; but with
God.       It is a vicious circle, a vanity of vanities, for    the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. I Peter
which there is no hope apart from the regenerating              1:18, 19.
grace of God.                                                           Mr. John Flikkema, Sr.
       That which unifies mankind and ends all revolt,                  Mr. and Mrs. John C. Flikkema
revolution, riot, and rebellion is and must be that men's               Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Jay Flikkema
hearts are united in the love of God, and consequently                  Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius G. Lubbers
in the desire to serve Him.          We must all walk with              Helen Jean Flikkema
God, if we are all to walk together. Whenever we find                   8 Grandchildren
ourselves walking against our fellow men, it is due                     Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Pastoor (brother)


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      257


                                    74t3  &zwzd  A?6  7&wdtp
                                    ("0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Ps. 96:9a)


                                        THE PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

                                                    Rev. G.  Vanden   Berg

   The prayer that concludes the administration of the                     The prayer itself may be divided into two parts.
sacrament of Holy Baptism is a beautiful expression                   The first part contains an enumeration of the blessings
of thanksgiving that, with the exception of a single                  for which the church gives her thanks to God. In the
word, has been preserved for us in its original form.                 second part the church addresses itself to a prayer in
In about the middle of the prayer we find the phrase,                 behalf of the children that have received baptism; and
"that Thou wilt be pleased always to govern these                     the substance of this prayer is that the Almighty God
baptized children by Thy Holy Spirit".            The word            and Merciful Father is besought to apply through
"baptized" in this connection did not appear in the                   Christ and by the Holy Spirit all these blessings of the
original prayer but was added later. Its' omission or                 church unto these baptized children throughout the days
inclusion in the prayer does not in any way alter the                 of their life in the midst of the world. It is to be noticed
prayer and therefore the matter is of minor signifi-                  that this second part of the prayer is not to be con-
cance.     The prayer in its entirety is a beautiful and              strued as though the church is now dealing with doubts
most appropriate thanksgiving.                                        and uncertainties; but rather these various petitions
   Before we proceed to discuss the content of this                   are based upon the same confidence that is expressed
prayer it must be observed that it is the church, or-                 in the first part of the prayer. In this light the entire
ganically considered, that is' here giving thanks. To                 prayer is essentially the giving of thanks: for, based
this church belong all believers and their spiritual                  on the assurance of God's merciful faithfulness, we
seed. The church is the spiritual body of Jesus Christ,               direct our requests to Him, while already we are con-
chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world,                fident that with us and our children He will and does
and therefore, according to God's sovereign, elective                 maintain His covenant.       And, therefore, even as we
and irrevocable purpose, is made the recipient of all                 ask Him "to govern these children.  `. .  .etc." we al-
the blessings of grace and salvation which are signified              ready give thanks that He does so, unto the end that
in baptism.    For these blessings the church now gives               His glorious Name may be magnified  I and praised.
thanks.    She does not pray now that these blessings                 Understanding the prayer of thanksgiving in this way,
may become her possession, but rather she prays in                    we wish to make a few  comme&s yet on the two parts
this thanksgiving in the consciousness that all these                 of this beautiful prayer.
things are already hers in Christ. This greatly en-                        In the following quotation from the Baptism Form
hances the beauty of the prayer.                                      we have the enumeration of those merciful bounties of
   Emphasis may be placed momentarily upon the fact                   God for which the church expresses thanks.  ". . . .we
that it is the whole church that is praying this prayer.              thank and praise Thee, that/Thou hast forgiven us, and
This is not the prayer of the minister or of the parents              our children, all our sins, through the blood of Thy                      /
who had their child baptized. Not at all. It is the prayer            beloved Son Jesus Christ;' and received us through thy
of the congregation. And this follows because it is the               Holy Spirit as members of thine only begotten Son, and               1
whole church that administers the sacrament, that is                  adopted us to be Thy children, and sealed and confirmed ,`:'
witness to all the bountiful blessings of God's mercies               the same unto us by holy baptism." Concerning this  `;
set forth in the baptism, and that now breaks forth in                we quote the following.                                         !
thanks to God for these benefits which she, the con-                       First, that only four specific blessings are  men,/
gregation, has received. We do well to remember this.                 tioned here does not mean that the list could not b'e
When the sacrament of baptism is administered, the                    made much larger. On the contrary, it would not at  all
members of the church are not to be passive on-                       be difficult to add to this `endlessly, for the merciful .
lookers, but they are rather actively to participate in               bounties of God are past counting. But the point is
the sacrament itself. The sacrament, our Belgic Con-                  that we do not here attempt to "count our blessings,
fession teaches us, God has ordained for us, "thereby                 naming them one by one," but in this prayer the basic
to seal unto us His promises, and to be pledges of the                blessings of salvation are mentioned in the awareness
good will and grace of God toward us, and also to nourish             that  all of our redemption and glorification is implied
and strengthen our faith. . .  ."l Thisfaithof the church             in these. Having these we are full.
is incited to activity through the celebration of baptism                  Secondly, it is to be noted that all these blessings
as well as in the Lord's Supper; and this activity of                 are  spiritual   and therefore  intangible.     We are oft
faith is climaxed in the prayer of thanksgiving; for in               times more than inclined to judge the love and favor
this prayer the consciousness of her blessedness is                   of God toward us by earthly and visible standards.  .We
expressed.                                                            count our blessings in terms of the abundance  or lack


     2.58                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER

     of material things we possess.             We judge that God's            family they receive the confirmation of all the blessings
     blessing is upon the church when she grows numeric-                       of salvation through the sign and seal of baptism. By
     ally, enjoys peace and prosperity in  .the world, and                     faith, the gift of God, we receive eyes to see, ears to 
     makes herself outwardly an attractive organization.                       hear and hearts to understand and appropriate the
     We forget that the trials and tribulations, struggles                     blessings of God's mercy.         This is the joy and  salva-
     and battles, opposition, scorn and persecution, which                     `tion of believers.
     the church toward which God is longsuffering is  called                       Fzinally,  we may point out  `her4 yet that baptism is
     to endure, are in reality the tokens of His bountiful                     called a  seal. A seal is a  guaragtee,  an irrevocable
     loving kindness. For "it is given to you to  suffer for                   pledge; and that which is sealed" in holy baptism is
     Christ's sake" and that is a blessing of grace.2 Grace                    not an arbitrary' or conditional  prpmise,  which would
     is not in things, but it is the favorable disposition  ,f                 be quite meaningless, but baptism geals unto us all the
     God toward His people in Christ and through which He                      blessings of salvation. in Jesus  Chgist `our Lord. How
_    endows them with the intangible riches of His I<ingdom                    appropriate, then, that having celebrated this sacra-
     and sustains them through all their sufferings unto the                   ment. the church renders praise and thanksgiving to
     glory which He has prepared for them and given unto                       her merciful Father for this manifestation of His
     them by promise.                                                          goodness.              :
             In the third place, we observe that of the four'             *       Concerning the  1aq.t part of the baptismal prayer,
     blessings enumerated in the Baptism Form, the first                       jYhich  consists' of  `a prayer for the baptized child or
     is fundamental and basic to all the rest. The forgive:                    children, we read:                       ?
     ness of sins is implicit of our eternal justification.                        "We beseech Thee, through the same Son of Thy
     God has  forgiven  us and our children all our sins.                      love, that Thou wilt be pleased always to.govern these
     Those of the past, present, and future are  ,,already                     baptized children by Thy Holy Spirit, that they may be
     blotted out through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ.                    piously and religiously educated, increase and grow up
     This is  .;a wonderful assurance and certainly does not                   in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they then  may.acknowl-
     give those who possess it the license to walk in more                     edge Thy Fatherly goodness and mercy, which Thou
     sin, so that this forgiveness may be  themore  bountiful;                 hast shown to them and us, and live in all righteous-
     but reality is that those who have the forgiveness of                     ness, under our only Teacher, King and High Priest,
     sin are also delivered from the power and dominion
     of sin and so do not walk after the flesh but after the                   Jesus Christ; and manfully fight against, and over-
     Spirit.                                                                   come sin, the devil and his whole dominion, to the end
                  They. are in Christ Jesus, and only by virtue
     of that union, are they the recipients of this grace from                 that they may eternally praise and magnify Thee, and
     both its negative  and positive viewpoints. Forgiveness                   Thy Son Jesus Christ, together with the HolyGhost,`the
     does not simply mean that God does not charge us with                     one only true God. Amen."
     sin; but it positively involves the sentence of acquittal,                   One cannot fail to be impressed by the profound
     of justification. God declares that those whom He for-                    spiritual character of this prayer.           It petitions the
     gives are  Yighteous,  and on the basis of that righteous-                Triune God for that which is basically and fundamentally
     ness alone they enter into the kingdom of heaven.                         important for our children.        It seeks that only which
             Fourthly,  ._ then,, what follows in the prayer is the            they and we really need. How different this often is
     enumeration of this same blessing from the viewpoint                      with us.     Even if we do not express it audibly in our
     of its application to the hearts of the saints and their                  prayers, we often do express our concern for" the
     subjective experience  c$' it.  .:,They are received through              material comforts and temporal advancement of our
     the Holy Spirit as members df Christ. They are adopted                    children, while we  pvidence small- concern for their
     into the family  06  GOdi: and in the communion of that                   spiritual and  eternal: well-being. We are even ready
                                         -`:                                   to let  the-  latter  be  sacrificsd  upon the altar of the
                                                                               former.      Oh  tl$at  we may be  ,given to understand that
                       RESOL UTION `OF SYMPATHY                                the one thing  .Qur children need in this life is that
     The Mr. and Mrs. Society of Southeast Church wishes                       pious and religious education,. applied by the grace of
     to express its sincerest sympathy to the following                        God, so that they may know their calling to fight the
     members:                                                                  powers of darkness and to live from the principle of
                            Mr. and Mrs. J. Bos                                the new obedience, as children of light in the midst of
                        Mr. and Mrs. J. Flikkema                               the darkness that is ever becoming increasingly dark.
                         Mr. and Mrs. C. Lubbers                               The prayer of baptism does not concern itself with the
     who have been cast into sorrow through the loss of                        natural things but with the spiritual things. It asks
     their Father, Mr. William BOS, and their beloved                          God so to equip our children that they, with us, may
     Mother, Mrs. Gertie Flikkema.                                             "seek  first  the kingdom of God and his righteousness;"
             Revelation  14:13  "And I heard a voice from heaven               and for thecrest,  it leaves those things to God, knowing
     saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die                     that they shall be added unto us according as we have
     in the Lord from henceforth:               Yea, saith the Spirit,         need.3 No, God does not promise us houses, lands,
     that they may rest from their labors;  and.their  works                   money, position, and honor in the  -world; but He does
     do foliow them."          ..                                              assure His people that  He,will  give them  aEZ they need
                                        Rev. M.  Schipper,  President          to "praise and magnify Him eternally;" and with this
                                     Mrs. J.  Koning, Vice-Secretary           we must learn to be satisfied.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   259

    The prayer indicates clearly that the believing           It is a God-centered prayer, for it means that the
fathers understood that life then will be a struggle. It      church expresses the sincere desire that God will
will be a constant battle.      Always and again, to the      continue and perpetuate  Hiti covenant with us and our
very end, we will have to fight, and we will have to          children in the midst of a hostile world unto. the end.
teach our children to be fighters -not with weapons           kid when all is done, the victory achieved, and'the
of the flesh but with spiritual weapons. Let us never         glory of that holy and righteous cause made manifest,
grow weary in this but remain vigilant and faithful           the praise and honor will ascend eternally unto Him
even unto death.                                              that sits upon the throne.         For  "of him and through
     The prayer of the church, then, proceeds from the        him, and to him, are  all things: to whom be glory
faith that these children are regenerated and, therefore,     forever."4
have the principle of that new life in their hearts.
Hence, the church does not pray "that they may re-            (1) Belgic Confession, Art. 33
ceive forgiveness. . .  .etc" or even that they may "be       (2) Philippians 1: 29
                                                              (3) Matthew 6:33.
converted" but simply that the principle of this new          (4) Romans 11:36
life in them may be developed and brought to maturity.


                                          7+&y  7h  S#Md

                                                   MORMONISM

                                                  Rev. R. C.  Havbach

     For the origin of Mormonism, with its initial con-       (Journal of Discourses, VI, 4).         "He (Adam) is our
 stituency taken from apostate Baptists and Methodists        Father and our God and the only God with whom we
 -- for the origin of the Book of Mormon, literary product    have to do" (JD, I, 50).          "There is no other God in
 of a worn out  Presbyterian'minister  turned would-be        heaven but that God who has flesh and bones" (Compend.
novelist -for the rise of the founder, a  rag-tagmoney-       of Thebl., 287). "Each God through his wife or wives,
digger and undefeated champion liar  - for  a resume of       raises up a numerous family of sons and daughters. . ."
the extra-biblical Mormon "scriptures," written in a          (The Seer, I, 37). God is a demi-god, a human-angelic
would-be imitation Bible  style, pompous, verbose,            being; he is anthropomorphous, mortal, polygamous
nonsensical-for a history of the Mormons, full of             and a hamartological, polytheistic being.
violence, treason, treachery and expanding American              Of Christ it is said, "He was not begotten of the
Islamism.- for the organization and methods of the            Holy Ghost" (JD, I, 50).           "Lucifer, the son of the
`&%rmon church, with its worse than Romish hierarchy          morning, is our elder brother and the brother of Jesus
 and its communistic  paradish  -for its polygamy and         Christ, but he rebelled against God and was cast down
phallicism - for its conflict with archaeology and            from heaven. .  ." (The Deseret News, Jan. 21, 1928).
Egyptology-- for more detail on these and other:  re-'        "We say it was Jesus Christ who was married to the
l'ated facts in connection with Mormonism, read the           Marys and Martha" (JD, II, 80). Christ was begotten
excehent-  bookletF on the subject published by Eerdmans,     by natural generation from his natural parents, the
Baker, and Zondervan book houses. For in the study            Virgin Mary and God the Father. "And who is the
and pursuit of the labyrinthine elements of this eccentric    Father?       He is the first of the human family (i.e.,
cult  therje  is more than entertainment of natural curi-     Adam). Jesus. . .was begotten. . .by the same charac-
osity. Weapons and live ammu@tion:are  provided against       ter that was in the Garden of Eden, and who is our
 a subtle enemy.                                              Father in heaven" (JD, I,  50,51).       This is a denial of
     With  this-,article we concern ourselves with what       the eternal generation of the Son, of the deity of Christ
Mormons believe. Exactly what  do;they  believe? Have         and of the virgin birth,  "of the sinless humanity of
you not read vague reports of their horrible doctrine?        Christ, of the doctrine of the trinity and of the peculiar
However,  we.qe not interested in hearsay, but in the         properties of the Persons of the trinity.
teachr?ig  :!of Mormonism as it really is. So let us ex-         The Holy Spirit is a substance, such as electricity
 amine the `Mormon Articles of Faith. Article 1 declares:     or animal magnetism, "a divine substance or fluid"
:  ".  ,e  b@ieve in God, the Eternal Father, and His Son,    (Key to Theol., 10th ed., 46). Christian Science shud-
F
  &us  &&ist, and in the Holy Ghost." Nothing horrible        ders at the idea of "substance" and of "animal mag-
 about that, is there? We would, nonetheless, like to         netism." The latter Mrs. Eddy feared, denounced, and
know what that means.        Does it mean what it says?       laid all evil to it. But we object to attributing anything
How do Mormons think of the terms "God," "Christ"             material or temporal to the Holy Spirit. As God, the
 and the "Holy Spirit"? Thus: "Are there more Gods            Spirit is essentially Spirit and a divine personal being,
than one ?    Yes, many" (Cat., p. 13). "God himself          not a juice. See Jn.  16:13-15.          -
was once as we are now, and is an exalted man"                   Article 2.        "We  belie$e  th& men will be punished


260                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

for their own sins, and  notfor Adam's transgressions."         tainly then there must be thousands of verses in the
Now although no one would dream of the first article            Bible free of pollution and uncertain translation, other-
as having the meaning the Mormons attach toit, never-           wise the Mormon "scriptures" do not escape pollution
theless this second article is plainly erroneous. It            and imperfection. But what else does Article 8 mean?
claims, as the ancient lie of Pelagianism did, "that no         This: -- "The modern Christians with the Bible in their
one shall be condemned because of original sin, but             hands are in as gross darkness as the worshipers of
that all are free from the guilt of" that sin. (Rejection       Baal" (Spencer's Letters, 119-20). And this:  ". . .
of Errors, II, V).       This is antipodal to Scripture that    many of the Gentiles (any non-Mormon, including the
all men died in fallen Adam (Rom.  5:12, 16). The               Jews ! - RCH) shall say: `A Bible! a Bible ! We have got
church has always from the beginning opposed the lie            a Bible, and there can not be any more Bible !' Thou
"that original sin cannot suffice to condemn the whole          fool, that shall say, `A Bible, we have got a Bible and
human race, or to deserve temporal and eternal pun-             we need no more Bible'. . .because ye have a Bible ye
ishment" (ibid., II, I). This is actually a denial of the       need not suppose that it contains all my words; neither
righteousness of Jesus Christ.          For if men are not      need ye suppose that I have not caused more to be
punished for Adam's imputed transgression (singular),           written" (BM, 2 Nephi  29:3,6,10). But see Rev.  22:18,
Rom.  5:15,17,18, neither can they be saved by Christ's         19; Dt.  4:2; Prov.  30:6; Isa.  8:20.
imputed righteousness.                                             Article 11.     "We claim the privilege of worshiping
       Article 3.    "We believe that through the atonement     Almighty God according to the dictates of our con-
of Christ all mankind may be saved, by obedience to             science, and allow all men the same privilege, let them 
the laws and ordinances of the Gospel." Beside being            worship how, where or what they may." If this is 
a denial of the scriptural truth of particular atone-           true, then why do they say the following of the evangel-
ment, this article is in keeping with the Mormon                ical, historic, orthodox Protestant churches? `&Any
teaching of universal salvation. What this statement            person who shall be so wicked as to receive a holy
means is this: "The atonement of Christ wrought a               ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of the
universal redemption for all men from the mortal death          apostate churches will be sent down to hell. .  .unless
incident to the transgression of Adam, and it  provided         he repents of the unholy and impious act" (Seer, I, II,
a means of propitiation for individual sin whereby the          255).
sinner may attain salvation through obedience" (Tal-               Article 12:     "We believe in being subject to kings,
mage, The House of the Lord, 79, emph. added). "There           presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring
is but one price set on forgiveness for individual trans-       and sustaining the law." Then why come up with the
gressions (Christ's atonement covered original sin              following? "The (Mormon) priesthood is the legitimate
only - RCH) . . .and that price. . .is obedience to the         rule of God, whether in the heavens, or on the earth,
laws and ordinances of the Gospel" (ibid., 65). The             and it is the only legitimate power that has a right to
above article is also to be understood in harmony with          rule on the earth; and when the will of God is done on
this remark: "The sectarian dogma of justification by           earth as it is in heaven, no other power will be or
faith alone has exercised an influence for evil since the       rule" (JD, V, 186).
early days of Christianity" (Art. Faith, `25 ed., 479).            Article 13.      "We believe in being honest, true,
Justification by faith is called "this pernicious doctrine"     chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to 
(ibid.).     Further teaching on salvation is expressed         men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition
thus: "Q. What will be the consequence if they (the             of Paul: `We believe all things, we hope all things,' we
United States) do not embrace the Book of Mormon as             have endured all things. If there is anything virtuous,
a divine revelation? A. They will be destroyed from             lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after
the land and sent down to hell like all other generations       these things." What fault can we find with this article?
who have rejected a divine message" (The Seer, 215).            None, if it means what it says! But if it does, then why
       Next, due to lack of space, we go to Article 8. "We      these words from Brigham Young? "I have many a
believe the Bible to be the word of God, so far as it is        time in this stand dared the world to produce as mean
translated correctly.        We also believe the Book of        devils as we can. We can beat them at anything. We
Mormon to be the word of God." What is meant by                 have the greatest and smoothest liars in the world, the
the clause, "so far as it is translated correctly" is           cunningest and most adroit thieves, and any other shade
this: "Add all this imperfection to the uncertainty of          of character that you can mention. We can pick out
the translation, and who, in his right mind could for           elders in Israel right here who can beat the world at
one moment suppose the Bible in its present form to             gambling, who can handle the cards, who can shuffle
be a perfect guide? (Then "what light shall be their            them with the smartest rogue on God's footstool. . .We
perfect guide?"  - Psalter No.  323, RCH). Who knows            can beat the world at any game. We can beat them be-
that even one verse has escaped pollution, so as to             cause we have men here that live in the light of the
convey the same sense now that it did in the original?"         Lord; that have the holy priesthood and hold the keys
(Divine Authority of the Bk. of Mor., 218). Even one            of the kingdom of God" (Deseret Eve. News, VI, 91).
verse?       There must be thousands of verses in the           You can now plainly see that these articles as they
Mormon "scriptures" word for word identical with                stand by themselves do not in the least reveal the dis-
passages from Isaiah and from the New Testament,                tinctively Mormon idea, nor their real and practical
including the ministry of John the Baptist, and all in          doctrines.    There is not so much as a hint of these
the very words of our 1611 King James Bible.  Cer-              omitted doctrines in the published articles, unless we


                                                   THESTANDARDBEARER                                                    261

find it in Article 7: "We believe in the gift of tongues,       Make an investigation of this cult, such as we have,
prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation          "and who in his right mind could for one moment  sup-
of tongues,  etc.  "    Included in that "etc." is all the      pose" it to be of Jehovah God, or anything but a rank
above Mormon enlargement on the articles, with their            fake!      "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
doctrine of the "everlasting covenant of polygamy," of          spirits whether they are of God: because many false
baptisms for the dead (salvation for the dead),  baptis-        prophets have gone out into the world" (I Jn.  4:l).
ma1 regeneration, the universal Fatherhood of God and           "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in
the universal brotherhood of man, universal salvation,          sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves"
pre-existence of man, reincarnation, "the plurality of          (Mt.  7:15).      "And if the prophet be deceived when he
Gods," the plurality of wives and conjugal love in              hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that
heaven.                                                         prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and
   Beware of Mormonism's pious, lamb-like mask,                 will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel"
for beneath there lurks its true dragon character.              (Ezek.  14:9).





                                                      Rev.  H.  Hank0

Move on Aid to Schools                                              b) Grants and loans to colleges and universities
   The question of federal aid to schools already arose         whether public or private would be increased so that
during the  I<ennedy  administration, but failed to gain the    more scholarships could be given.
approval of Congress, mostly because the issue of aid               c) Most important of all, another $100 million is to
to private and parochial schools was brought up by the          be set aside to set up educational centers and services
Roman Catholics. Kennedy refused aid to these schools,          in which public and non-public school children would
and the program floundered. Johnson, with his vision            be educated together in a sort of federal version of the
of a "great society" has revived it. In order to retain         "shared time program."
some hope of passage of an education bill, something                Educational services in which public and private
had to be done about this thorny problem of whether             students would share include the following, according
private schools would also receive aid.                         to  Christianity   Today:
   Johnson has tried to skirt the issue by proposing                Special courses in science, foreign languages, lit-
a limited amount of aid to private and parochial schools        erature, music, art.
under certain specific limitations.      Although the pro-          Programs for the physically handicapped and men-
gram is chiefly aimed at providing adequate schooling           tally retarded.
for children reared in poverty-stricken areas (as part              Instruction in the sciences and humanities during
of the so-called war on poverty), he has made conces-           the summer for economically and culturally deprived
sions chiefly to Roman Catholics who are loudly in-             children.
sisting on their fair share of federal money.                       Special assistance after regular school hours.
   Out of a total budget of $4.1 billion to be set aside            Common facilities that can be maintained more
for education, about 15% is earmarked for private and           efficiently for a group of schools than for a single
parochial schools. This figure of 15% is supposed to            school,  - laboratories, libraries, auditoriums, and
equal the percentage of all children of school age not          theaters.
enrolled in public educational institutions.                        A system by which gifted persons can teach  part-
   There are several ways in which the president                time to provide scarce talents.
hopes to dodge the basic issue of aid to schools other              A means of introducing into the school system new
than those belonging to the public school educational           courses, instructional materials, and teaching prac-
system. He wants, in the first place, to leave the issue        tices.
of whether or not schools get aid up to the individual              A way of tapping the community's extra-curricular
states.     Secondly, he proposes giving the money to           resources for the benefit of students,  - museums, con-
students rather than to the schools. (Cf. my article in         cert and lecture programs, and industrial laboratories.
the February 1 issue of the  Stunduvd   Beaver   on the             We have discussed this shared time program be-
"CEF."       One wonders whether the "CEF" has had              fore.      It originated with the Roman Catholics and is
any influence on the president's proposals in this              already being tested in many areas throughout the
respect.                                                        nation.      The idea behind it is that there are many
   Thirdly, the proposals are limited to specific               subjects taught in the private and parochial schools
fields of education.                                            which have no religious slant to them, which are,
   a) Elementary and secondary religious schools                therefore, identical with the subjects taught in the
would be eligible for public school textbooks purchased         public school system.        In these subjects, so the pro-
with federal funds.        A total of $100 million is set       ponents of the shared-time program reason, it is pos-
aside for this purpose:                                         sible for all students to study together. Any religion


262                                                 THE STANDARDBEARER

is irrelevant to them anyway.                                   have fought to retain the heritage of the Reformation.
       Surely this movement will receive added impetus          Among these can be numbered especially the Missouri
from the federal government if Johnson's proposals              Synod Lutherans and the Wisconsin Synod Lutherans.
are accepted by Congress.           The result will be that     However, evidently in recent years the Missouri Synod
increasingly public and private school children will            Lutherans have gone the way of their denominational
more and more be educated together.                             family and drifted far from the conservative position
       This is, however, a complete denial of the very          they once occupied.           The evidence of this came out a
purpose of Christian instruction. There are several             few years ago when the Wisconsin Synod Lutherans
remarks we wish to make in this connection.                     severed relationships with the Missouri Synod on the
       1) There are several courses offered in schools          ground that the Missouri Synod had gone modernistic.
which are usually mentioned as being adaptable to a                     Recently this has been further substantiated by the
shared-time program.          These courses include such        fact that within Lutheranism a new denomination has
subjects as cooking, baking, shop, etc.            But it is    come into being calling itself the Lutheran Church of
doubtful, to say the least, whether subjects such as            the Reformation.            This denomination is composed
these belong in a school curriculum.            Schools are     chiefly of churches and people who left the American
built as parental schools, but in order to give educa-          Lutheran Church and the Missouri Synod Lutherans.
tion to children which they cannot receive at home.             The criticisms were much the same as the criticisms
Surely such courses as the above can well be given at           raised against all the churches of our country in recent
home if they are needed. The same thing applies to              years. The Missouri Synod harbored  inits seminaries,
the over-emphasis on physical education. Gymnasiums             universities, and pulpits men who denied the infallible
are mentioned as one facility which can be used by              inspiration of Scripture; the miracles of the prophets,
both public and private school children. But, while it          apostles and Christ; the creation, fall, and flood nar-
is no doubt valuable to have a limited physical educa-          ratives, teaching instead the theory of evolution; the
tion program in the school, there is a terrible over-           divinity and atonement of Christ; etc.
emphasis on sports in our day which is corroding the                    The voice of the Lutheran Church of the Reforma-
educational value of the schools. In other words, there         tion (although evidently not official) is a paper called
is a tendency that ought to be resisted for parents to          the  Lutheran  News.           If what this paper writes about
push their entire responsibility of educating their             Missouri Synod Lutherans is true (and there is no
children on the schools. This ought to be resisted.             reason to doubt it) the state of affairs within this
       2) If religion is not relevant in courses such as        denomination is  &ery bad.              All the major doctrines of
science and mathematics, language and literature, who           Scripture are `under attack by professors, leaders,
is to say that religion is relevant in history and geog-        doctors, and ministers. And their views are not con-
raphy? Every subject in the curriculum speaks its               demned or criticized, but are gaining ever larger
own language concerning God's revelation of Himself.            audiences.
There is no such thing as neutrality, -- in any subject.                With all this, the Lutherans are deeply involved in
But if certain subjects are set aside as having no              modern apostate ecumenicism, especially the World
religious significance, the result will be that only            Council of Churches and the  NationalCouncil  of Churches.
some courses in Bible and religion will be left for                                             *  *  *  :`6
the private and parochial schools.        But we don't need
schools to teach these subjects.        For while they are              There is a branch of the Lutheranfaithin Australia.
taught in our schools with a great deal of profit for           In the  .above-referred-to   Lutheran News,  a page out of
our children, if these courses are the only reason to           the  Sunday  Truth  from Brisbane, Australia was re-
have Christian schools, we can better close the doors           produced in which the Lutheran Church in Australia
and teach these subjects in the church.                         repudiated the theory of evolution. Following are some
       83) It appears as if, through this entire federal aid    interesting quotations.
program, the way is being paved for an amalgamation
of public and private schools into one unified school                      .  .  . The controversy is over the teaching of organic
system under the control of the government where                        evolution, that is the transmutation (change) of a
atheism and evolutionism become the new religion.                       species, or genus or kind, by way of a slow, gradual
The only ones who will escape this system are those                     development covering a vast period of time, into a new
who are willing to forego federal funds in the educa-                   genus or- kind, the higher from the lower. . . .
tion of their children. And even they may very well be                     On behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
                                                                        Queensland, I (F. W. Noack, President) herewith submit
hard pressed by the government in one way or another                    the following statement:
to join this one governmental school system.                               We cannot possibly accept evolution as a fact, be-
Some News About  Lutherans                                              cause contrary to the claim of the advocates of evolu-
                                                                        tion it has not been proven to this day. . . .
       The main Lutheran denominations in this country
(the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church                   Here a long list of scientists, some of them them-
of America) have for many years already hastened                selves evolutionists, is made with quotes from their
down the road of apostasy. There have been, however,            works in which they admit that evolutionism has never
segments of Lutherans who have remained more or                 been proved.          One quotation will give the gist of them
less conservative and orthodox in their theology and            all.


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         263

      The great thinker, Dr. R. A. Milikan,' famousphysi-            "Some dapper preachers claim that the age has
   cist and Nobel prize winner, who died in 1953, states:        outgrown doctrine.         (But) a man can outgrow theology
   "The pathetic thing is that we have scientists who are        either by ceasing to be clear-headed, or by ceasing to
   trying to prove evolution, which no scientist can ever        b e   religipus, and in no other way. I suppose some
   prove." Dr. Milikan was an evolutionist.
      The Darwinian Anthropologists for many decades             escape in their haste by both ways at once."
   have been very busy to discover the missing links be-                                                                - A. A. Hodge
   tween the ape and man. What is the truth concerning
   the famous so-called links:. . .                                  "The fact is that here we arefacedin principle with
Then again follow some quotations from scientists:                a choice, between two versions of Christianity. It is a
      "The whole of the bony fragments on which these             choice between historic Evangelicalism and modern
   famous (missing links) are built are not more than a           Subjectivism; between a Christianity that is consistent
   child could carry in a small basket."                          with itself and one that is not; in effect, between one
      "Even if these fragments are of humans why should           that is wholly God-given and one that is partly man-
   they not  be examples of deterioration rather than             made.       We have to choose whether to bow to the
   evolution?"                                                    authority claimed by the Son of God, or whether on
      "The fossils of man leave us mystified about his            our own authority to discount and contravene a part of
   beginnings.     Long study of the skulls has failed to         His teaching; whether to rest content with Christianity
   give any conclusive picture of man's early evolution,          according to Christ,, or whether to go hankering after
   in fact many of the theories have not stood the test of        a Christianity according to the spirit of our age;
   new fossil finds."
      "Man is not an ape, and in spite of the similarity          whether to behave as Christ's disciples, or as His
   between them there is not the slightest evidence that          tutors.     We have to choose whether we will accept the
   man is descended from an ape. No missing link has              biblical doctrine of Scripture as it stands, or permit
   ever been found."                                              ourselves to re-fashion it according to our fancy. We
                                                                  have to choose whether to embrace the delusion that
The author then goes on:                                          human creatures are competent to judge and find fault
                                                                 with the works of their Creator, or whether to recog-
      We roundly reject evolution for it is diametrically        nize this idea for the blasphemy that it is and drop it.
   opposed to the Scriptures' doctrine of creation. If           We have to decide whether we are going to carry our
   evolution is a fact then there was no Fall into sin, then      repentance on the intellectual level, or whether we shall
   Christ's work of redemption becomes meaningless,               still cherish our sinful craving for a thought-life free
   then the Bible is wholly and sole the work of evolving
   man, and has become obsolete long ago, then God is            from the. rule of God. We have to decide whether it is
   eliminated. . . .                                              right to make such an idol of nineteenth-century
      Next we also reject Theistic evolution which holds         biblical criticism that not even God is allowed to
   that some Superior Being called the primitive masses          touch it.      We have to decide whether to say that we
   into existence and established certain laws for develop-      believe the Bible and mean it, or to look for ways
   ment of things over a great period of time from a             whereby we can say it without having to accept all the
   simple to a complex state. If Theistic evolution is           consequences. We have to choose whether to allow the
   accepted then we cannot escape the appalling conclu-          sovereign Spirit to teach us faith in Scripture as such,
   sion that God is not only the Author of good, but also        or whether to appeal to historians to delimit the area
   the Author of evil. Impossible!                               of scriptural assertion within which faith is permis-
      . . . . To  conclude, because evolution has not been
   scientifically proven, because many leading  scienists        sible.       ,We have to choose whether, in presenting
   roundly reject it, because of its serious detrimental         Christianity to others, we are going to rely on the
   effects on civilization, above all, because it strikes at     demonstration of the Spirit to commend it, or on our
   the very heart of the Scriptures, eliminating God and         own ability to make it masquerade as the fulfilment of
   Christ's work .of redemption, we are compelled to             secular thought. Evangelicals have made their choice
   reject evolution, and we protest against teaching the         on all these issues.            What their critics are really
   same in a direct or indirect way in our schools.               asking them to do is to reverse it: to enter into a
   It is refreshing to see a group in our day take a             marriage of convenience with Subjectivism. But  Evan-
stand not only against atheistic evolution, but also             gelicals cannot in conscience consent to being thus
against theistic evolution.     It is sad that among Re-         mis-mated."
formed churches there is hesitancy in rejecting this                          ,-- " `Fundamentalism' and the Word of God,"
heresy and even eagerness to embrace it with all its                                             J. I. Packer, Eerdmans, 1959.
terrible consequences.                                                                   PROPAGANDA MEETING

                                                                                 Northwest  Iowa  Pmt. Ref. School Society
   The Protestant Reformed Christian School of South                                TIME: 8  p.m., Tuesday, March 16
Holland is in need of 2 teachers for grades 1, 2, and 3,                            PLACE:  Hull  Pmt. Ref. Church
and grades 4, 5, and 6.  Send.all  correspondence to:                               SPEAKER:  Rev. H.  Hanko
                  G. A. Van  Baren
                   R. 1, Box 240A                                                 A special invitation is extended to  ail
                                                                                           classical delegates.
                   Chicago Heights, Illinois


264                                                          THESTANDARDBEARER



                                        Zew  yearn  Ohm  &%&4e4
                                       (-All   the saints salute thee . . ." Phil. 4:21)


                                                    Feb. 15,  1965                   The Publication Committee which publishes the
       Rev. H. Hoeksema's condition remains about the                           qorks of Rev.  H; Hoeksema met Feb. 9 and concluded
same--on a gradual decline. But he joyfully receives                            all the business necessary to the printing of his "Dog-
the comfort from the Word of God which he himself                               matics."      A local publisher has been secured at a
ministered to others in bygone years. Rev.  G. Vos, of                          reasonable cost and the work will be carried out with
Hudsonville, suffered a collarbone fracture in a fall on                        dispatch. May this be but the Committee's first pub-
the ice near his home on Feb.  9.  He did not preach                            lication of Rev. H. Hoeksema's important contribution
Sunday the  14th, but hoped to teach catechism that                             to the development of the truths of Holy Writ.
week and resume his preaching duties the next Sunday.                                                      * *  *
Mrs. C. Hanko has been transferred from the hospital                                 Some of the "Quiet Thoughts" found in Southeast's
to the parsonage and is being cared for by family and                           bulletins give a jolt not so quiet. "The idle Christian
friends.. She spends a little- time each day in a wheel-                        is the raw material out of which backsliders are made,"
chair, speaks but a few words at a time, but seems to                           is one which probes the conscience of thosenamed with
be content in the Lord's way. There has been a marked                           an electric shock.
improvement in her condition since her home-coming.                                                        * * *
                            * *  *                                                The first reminder of summer activities appeared
       The above accounts of illnesses in three of our                          in First Church's bulletin in the depth of winter. It
parsonages, which are but examples of those found in                            was a call to mark the date of the annual Sunday School
so many of our homes, are all a part of that, "In the                           picnic: June  16!
day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" but all                                                    * * *
the sick may find comfort in the Scriptures which say,                               January was an important month on Loveland's
"But though the outward man perish, yet the inward                              History Calendar. The congregation decided to build
man is renewed day by day.            For our light affliction,                 a' new church edifice which will serve as church and
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more                            school.     The school will be housed in the church base-
exceeding and eternal weight of glory." 2Cor.  4:16,17.                        ment designed for that purpose.
                            *  * *                                                                         * * *
       Rev. and Mrs. H. Hanko left  Doon  Feb. 8 for  Red-                           Advance notice: Easter Sunday evening, April 18,
lands, Rev. Hanko to pay a visit to his mother and                             the Radio Choir will give a public program in First
Mrs. Hanko to remain for a while to minister to the                            Church at 9 P.M. This program is sponsored by the
invalid.      Rev. H. Hanko combined this trip with the                         Protestant Reformed High School Circle.
Church Visitation in Loveland and  Redlands which he                                                       * * *
will conduct with Rev. J. A. Heys of South Holland.                                  During the last week in January Hull's pastor and
                            * * *                                              his family moved into their newly acquired parsonage.
       Doon's Young People's Society had to give up their                      A bulletin announcement carried Rev. Kortering's
evening schedule for two weeks in February: the 7th                            grateful thanks to all who helped in this project, 
because of the singspiration held in their church, and                         cleaning ladies and toting men.
the 14th because of an evening service which was                                                           * * *
scheduled so that Rev. Woudenberg might preach for                                   In a letter of information the consistory of South-
them during their pastor's absence. The  Singspira-                            east Church in Grand Rapids acquainted the congrega-
tion was led by Mr. Gerald Kuiper, former music di-                            tion with a plea from the Mission Committee that all
rector of Hope Church in Grand Rapids.                                         our churches join in sending help to the churches of
                          * * *                                                Jamaica with whom we have been working. They were
       The Reformed Witness Hour features Rev. J. A.                           also informed that a substantial gift was given from
Heys, of South Holland, Illinois for this month. The                           their Benevolent Fund for that purpose.
general theme of the series of sermons for March is                                                        * * *
"The Man After God's Heart". The schedule is as                                      We note that the visits made by our Western min-
follows:      Mar. 7 -- "Divinely Chosen";             Mar.  14--              isters are usually utilized in a two-fold way. On a
"Filled with Righteous Indignation"; Mar. 21  - "Hated                         C,hurch Visitation call to South Holland Rev. Van
Without a Cause"; Mar. 28 -- "Saved in a Multitude                             Baren  also gave a lecture in their church; and Rev.
of Mercy". Copies of these sermons may be had upon                             Heys lectured in Loveland while on a similar official
request by writing to The Reformed Witness Hour,                               visit in that city with Rev. H. Hanko.
Box 1230, Grand Rapids, 1 Mich.                                                      . . . . see you in church. J.M.F.


