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A  REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY   MAGAZINE





 I N   7/-//S  I S S U E :


              Meditation  - Gethsemane


              Editorial  - Mission Gains The Criterion?


              The W.C.C.  - And The Kingdom Of God


              Neo-Evangelicaiism




                                                           Volwpe  XLI  /  Nwn  bev  22  /  March 15, 1965    \


266                                                                                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER

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              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                        Editov  - Rev. Herman Hoeksema
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              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                        Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1218 Griggs St.,  S.E., Grand Rapids,
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              Rev. H. Veldman                                                                                                      _
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                                                                                                                             GETHSEMANE

                                                                                                                      Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

                                                                 And he went a little  favthev,  and fell on his face, and  prayed,
                                                                  saying, 0 my  Fathev, if it be possible, let this cup pass  from
                                                                  me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Matthew 26:39

        Gethsemane!                                                                                                                       lasting desolation,  - a loneliness which mere human
        Amazingly profound mystery!                                                                                                       soul requires an eternity to endure?
        Unfathomable it is, because it reflects a depth of                                                                                    Gethsemane! Amazing obedience! Who can fathom
suffering that human soul can never probe. It is the                                                                                      its depth, the depth of an obedience that indeed shrinks
moment of anticipation, but its anticipation is that of                                                                                   before the terrifying prospect of a "cup" that is a
the steepdescent into the terrible darkness of desolation.                                                                                veritable abyss of suffering, but that is at the same
         Gethsemane, profound in its awesomeness! Does                                                                                    time perfect in its complete and active submission to
not its profundity lie in the stark terror of its utter                                                                                    Father's demand?
loneliness? Does it not reflect the loneliness of ever-                                                                                        Gethsemane!


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 267

     Blessed mystery!                                          Savior agonizes before the face of His Father. Into the
     Awesomely dark, yet incomprehensible in' its light!       garden He had gone with the three disciples of the in-
     For through the darkness of the garden shines the         timate circle.      But unable to share the burden of His
 light of the cross.      And the light of the cross is the    sorrow even with them, and painfully aware that even
 light of an eternal love! For there, in the garden, the       they could not grasp the situation, He had  .separated
 will of the Father and the will of the suffering Servant      Himself and gone a stone's throw farther. There He
 of Jehovah meet. And while it is that very meeting that       kneeled down (Luke), He fell on the ground (Mark), He
 makes the cup so bitter, yet the mystery of salvation         fell on His face (Matthew). And He begins to plead in
 is that they meet in sweet accord! And meeting, they          the amazement of His sorrow about the possibility of
 reveal a love, amazing and uniquely divine, for sinners       another way of suffering and obedience. Thrice He
 such as you and I.                                            wrestles thus in prayer! "0 my Father, if it be pos-
     Blessed Gethsemane!                                       sible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as
                          *********                            I will, but as thou wilt." His soul is plunged into the
     Gethsemane!                                               depth of sorrow and darkness. The agony of the shadow
     Bitter cup!                                               of the cross grips  Him.. And if such be the agonies of
     There is a cup which the Lord must drink; and             anticipation, what unspeakable "pangs of hell" must
  about this cup He prays in Gethsemane's supplicatory         be involved in the reality of the tree itself1
 wrestling. The contents of this cup fill the Savior with          Is it not, in the second place, in this light that we
 dread. And this dread moves Him to pray, "If it be            must understand Scripture's description of our Lord
 possible, let this cup pass from me." Obvious it is,          here in the garden? Why, except for the shadow of the
 therefore, that the Lord knew and experienced by way          cross, does Scripture tell us that He "began to be
 of anticipation what this cup contained.                      sorrowful and very heavy," (Matthew), that He "began
     What else can this "moment" of Gethsemane mean            to be sore amazed and very heavy," (Mark)? And does
 than that the fearful reality of Golgotha's stark terror      He not explain to His disciples, "My soul is exceeding
 now casts its dark shadow fully over Jesus' soul?             sorrowful, even unto death?" His anticipation of that
 What else is Gethsemane than the starting-point of            suffering seems to lead Him to the very brink of death
 the final -descent of our Lord's awful suffering7 From        itself!      And the sweating as it were great drops of
 the garden the way leads downward, -through the               blood, as well as the appearing of an angel to comfort
 palace of the high priest, through Pilate's judgment          Him, confirm this.
 hall, through the palace of that Edomite,  Herod,  out-           So perplexing and. amazing is the load of His, suffer-
 side the camp, to the cross, --to the terrible darkness       ing that He fain would be set free!
 of desolation. Does our Lord not know it? Has he not                                    *********
 dismissed the traitor? And does He not momentarily                You recognize that suffering, do you not? By faith?
 expect the arrival of the forces of darkness hastily              His cup is the cup prepared and determined by the
 called together at the behest of the traitor? And does        Father. The drinking of that cup is the demand of the
 this not explain Scripture's record when it says that         Father's will.
 He "began" to be sore amazed and very heavy?                      The bitterness of that cup does not consist merely
     Indeed, that cup and its contents constitute a figure     in the pangs of His outward suffering on the cross. For
 of the suffering which the Savior must "drink." That          while truly that suffering was very great, so that when
 suffering He must take unto Himself. He must volun-           one considers the steady increase of its agony of soul
 tarily assume the role of sufferer. He must drink in          and body, beginning with His capture in the garden and
 the contents of that cup, assimilate that suffering, so       ending with the cruel nails in His hands and feet, one
 that it becomes, as it were, part and parcel of Him, is       can only exclaim in amazement that human frame
 experienced in every fiber of His existence.       And is     could bear so much in so short a span of time, yet
 not this something of what Scripture means when it            that was only the external aspect of His suffering.
 tells us that He, Who knew no sin, became sin and a           That was the suffering inflicted bymen. And there have
 curse for us? Besides, was not that suffering divinely        been others, -- martyrs,  - who have endured similar
 determined in its measure? And is not His cup, there-         sufferings, and that too, with a song of praise on their
fore, the divinely determined measure of the suffering         lips.      No, there is a depth of suffering in that cup, a
 of the cross, of the curse of death, which the Savior         bitterness of agony, which mere men could not inflict.
 must voluntarily assume and by which He is literally          It is the depth of suffering that has its explanation in
~ made a curse for us?                                         the fact that He, the perfect  Servant  of Jehovah, must
     All the Scriptural details of Gethsemane's drama          atone for the sins of you and me and all His elect
 substantiate this, and they all serve to underscore the       people, given Him by the Father from before the
awfulness of that suffering. It was an amazingly deep          foundation of the world. That atonement demanded the
 sorrow that there began to enfold the soul of the suffer-     satisfaction of the just demand of God with respect to
ing Servant. It was a sorrow  towhich no other sorrow,         our sin. That just demand of God is the demand of the
, no matter how deep, can ever be compared. It was a           perfect love of God wherever and howsoever God re-
sorrow which caused Him to be all alone, so that He            veals Himself. And for the guilty and in themselves
 might indeed cry out, "Behold, and see if there be any        hopelessly damnable sinners at whose head our Lord
 sorrow like unto my sorrow?"                                  consciously stood, this demand of divine justice re-
    Consider, first of all, the very prayer in which the       quired that He should bear all the burden of the wrath


268                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

of God against sin in perfect and loving obedience.                Gethsemane reveals it: there is no other way than
       In the prospect of this outpouring of the vials of       the way of the cross !
God's wrath the Savior stands- in Gethsemane. He                   That way of the cross is thewayof God's righteous-
.knows  what awaits Him. Obediently He has come to              ness and holiness.        It is the way of His eternal good
the garden, that the Father might be glorified in Him.          pleasure, according to which the conflict of the ages,
And as He enters the garden, the amazement of that              soon  ,to be fought, must serve the purpose of the
prospect overwhelms His soul.                                   revelation of all the glory of His infinite goodness as
  Gethsemane's  prayer is the echo- of that amazed              He redeems His own and establishes His perfect cove-
cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"               nant, and as He judges and condemns the world, openly
       This cup! If it be possible, let it pass from Me!        triumphing over the forces of lawlessness. And in this
                          *********                             battle the Servant of Jehovah, God's representative,
       Gethsemane! Profoundly awesome!                          must "risk" it with God alone, fighting not with an arm
       Gethsemane! For sinners such as I!                       of flesh and against flesh and blood, but fighting a
       How terrible, then, must be my sins ! And how in-        spiritual battle in behalf of the righteousness and
finite `must be the spotless holiness and perfect right-        holiness and glory of God.
eousness of God!         Still more: how infinite is His           Gethsemane! The amazing, but the only way!
eternal love!                                                      And the only way for us! For even as there was no
       For in Gethsemane we hear the beloved Son of             other way for the Son, there is no other way for us
God, -- be it in the flesh, --,praying  in the agony of His     sinners than the way of faith in the righteousness of
soul, in unspeakable dread, that the Father may con-            His cross.
sider the possibility of another way. No, He does not
refuse to serve the Father's glory.             But He asks                               *********
whether there is not another way, a way less horrible
and dark. The question of His obedient but fearfully               Saving mystery!
amazed soul is whether this is the only possible cup.              For in Gethsemane there was no question in the
       And Gethsemane has an answer to prayer that is           Suffering Servant's prayer of obedience or disobedi-
clear and unmistakable.        That answer, not given in        ence.      The only question concerned the awful way.
audible words, but as plain as though it were spoken,           And His prayer is the supplication of perfect obedience,
is: "No; this is the only way."                                 of voluntary submission to the Father's will. For
       No other way is opened in answer to this prayer.         does He not pray with a wholehearted perfection as no
The cup is not taken away.             And though thrice His    one else could ever pray: "Not my will, but thine be
petition is urgently sent heavenward, heaven's silence          done?"      And does He not rise from His crawling in
is clear testimony that He must drink the cup. He               the dust as a worm and no man, --that blessed Son of
must travel the way of the cross to the very end.               God in the flesh, -ready voluntarily to surrender
Still more: is not the very fact that an angel is sent          Himself?
to comfort Him clear testimony that sustained by                   Gethsemane! Reflecting the light of Calvary!
strength from on high, and loved by the Father all the             Light of eternal, divine, sovereign love!
way, He must nevertheless traverse that way, step by               Hallelujah, what a Savior!
suffering step?                                                    My God, how great Thou art!





                                           MISSION GAINS THE CRITERION?




                                                   Prof.  H. C. Hoeksema


The PYopev Standard                                             failure of the church's mission message and methods
       Having come to the conclusion in previous  install-      by the numbers of converts gained or not gained, I
ments that the answer to the question that forms the            wish to conclude this phase of the discussion on a
title of this editorial is emphatically negative, so that       positive note.     I have tried to show that Professor
we must never be tempted- to judge the success or               Dekker's entire approach to this phase of the subject


                                                     THESTANDARDBEARER                                                    269

  of missions is fallacious: it is a "success" approach.         zealous.    Nor do I deny that at times the church is
  And I venture to say,  - although I emphasize again            sadly lacking in the proper zeal. I would even say that
~ that Professor Dekker has thus far made no attempt to          the church is, being imperfect in this world, never as
  define "success" in missions,  - that Dekker's defini-         zealous and as wholeheartedly active in the sphere of
  tion of what constitutes genuine "success" in missions         missions as it ought to be and as it could be. But that
  would differ radically from mine.                              zeal must be properly motivated, and it must be prop-
     However, I would certainly agree with Professor             erly directed. To this end our earnest self-criticism
  Dekker that the church must engage in earnest  self-           must serve.
  examination and self-criticism with respect to its                 .And then let it be at once established that all of our
  mission message and methods. I would even under-               mission zeal and efforts, all our mission message, all
  score this.    For if there has ever been a day when           our methods, must be subject to Christ and subject to
  much that passes for mission-preaching and mission             His work whereby He, the Son of God, "from the
  methods cannot measure up when subjected to careful            beginning to  the' end of the world, gathers, defends,
  scrutiny according to proper tests, it is the day in           and preserves to himself by his Spirit and word, out
  which we live.      There is much so-called "mission           of the whole human race, a church chosen to everlasting
  zeal," and the church is full of mission "zealots."            life, agreeing in true faith." Heidelberg Catechism,
  And if a church or an individual does not get on the           Qu. 54. Any mission that is not willing to serve this
  band-wagon of this mission zeal, he is soon castigated         purpose and this work of Christ, and toserve  this only,
  as one who does not believe in missions and who has            has no right of existence before God. Any mission
~ no mission zeal at all.        But one thing is certain:       labors that have another aim than this are not worthy
  whatever "mission zeal" is found in the church should          of the name "mission." Christ, the risen and exalted
  be a sanctified zeal. It should be more than a superfi-        Lord, is the great church-gatherer. Christ the Son of
  cial and frenzied enthusiasm. It should not be a zeal          God, operating by His Spirit and Word, is the Mis-
  that is fired up by the apparently sympathetic, but false-     sionary, the Author of all mission work.
  ly sentimental, emotional appeal that there are "so                With respect to the question of the proper criterion,
  many poor, lost, unsaved souls who are all the objects         or standard, of the missionary's message andmethods,
  of God's love, and who will go lost forever if we do not       therefore, this can mean but one thing. The proper
  do our utmost to bring the gospel to them and convert          standard according to which the message and methods,
  them." This is the kind of talk that is often heard in         as well as the motivation, must be judged is the Word
  our day from so-called  evangelicals.  If the reader will      of Christ, the Scriptures.
  pardon the expression, I call this "pure bunk." Worse              Any appraisal or criticism of our mission endeav-
  than that, it is the lie! For not only is it not true that     ors, whatever the aspect subjected to scrutiny,  must
  all the poor, lost, unsaved souls are the objects of           measure  up  to the test  of  the Scriptures.  Lest there be
  God's love, but the fact is that there is not the slightest    any misunderstanding on that score, I mean the Scrip-
  danger that a single lost soul who is of the number of the     tures  according  to the Reformed  interpretation   thereof
  elect will go lost forever. This is impossible. But            as embodied in the  Three  Forms of Unity.         Why must
  this vague, undefined passion for souls, this mission          this last be added?      Negatively, the reason is that
  zeal that is essentially man-centered makes its inroads        there are many who  claim  to perform mission work
  into Reformed circles.      I am not saying that this is       according to the Scriptures, but whose claim is false.
  Dekker's mission theory; but whatever his theory is,           And positively, the reason is that the Reformed inter-
  he is no t doing very much to stop this tide of false          pretation embodied in our confessions is the  tmcth,
  enthusiasm by the ideas he is promoting. And whatever          pure and simple; it is the systematic setting forth of
  Professor Dekker may be battling in the Christian              the truth of the Word of God in all its purity, and that
  Reformed Church, he certainly does not appear to be            too, in contradistinction from every other alleged
  battling against this type of mission enthusiasm. Yet          interpretation.
  for the Reformed churches it is exactly at this point              This, then, is the only proper test, criterion, even
  that we ought to fight the battle. Our mission methods         as it is the only proper test of all preaching.
  and message, as well as our mission zeal, must be                  It is, in the first place, an  objective test.  What-
  solidly  Refovmed.  And to me there is nothing more            ever other standard may be set up, it will be certain
  detrimental than this superficial, sickly, emotional           to be a  human;and  for that reason, a purely subjective
  mission zeal that characterizes the general run of             test.    It is not a question of what we, mere men,  -
  evangelism in our day. Detrimental it is, not only for         and sinful men, besides, - think of mission work: what
  the work of missions itself; but worse than this, it           constitutes its success, how "successful" it ought to
  corrupts with its sickly and sentimental Arminianism           be, how that success is to be achieved, whether our
  the church itself that must be obedient to the mission         message and methods are the best that can be designed
  mandate of Christ. Hence, it is indeed highly necessary        in order to achieve mission success. Whatever we, of
  for the church always to be busy in earnest self-              ourselves, think of these questions is certain to be
criticism with respect t o its mission work.            How      wrong. Who are we, for example, to say that our aim
  otherwise in an age of Arminianism gone wild can the           should be to convert and save as many as possible and
  church's zeal be sanctified?- And how otherwise can            to say that we must tell everyone, "God loves you,"
  the church's mission labors be properly conducted?             and "Christ died for you," when Christ Himself tells
 Mark you well, I do not deny that the church must be            us that His commission as the Author of all missions


270                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


is otherwise: "For I came down from heaven, not to               gather His elect church through the lie, but through
do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And          the truth of the Word of God. Those who proclaim the
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all        lie may be very insistent that they are zealously
which he hath given me I shouldlosenothing, but should           serving Christ in their evangelism and their missions;
raise it  up  again at the last day. And this is the will of     but if their word does not, according to the test of
him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son,            Scripture and our Reformed confessions, stand in the
and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I           service of the Word of God in Christ, they are false
will raise him up at the last day." John  6:38-40.               prophets.     And we have the authority of Christ's own
       Let me add at this point immediately that the             Word for it.    On the other hand, the very fact that this
proper, the Reformed, use of this test  isnot to by-pass         is divinely authoritative ought to be of great comfort
the confessions as though they did not even exist, and           and assurance to the church. For it means that as our
simply to jump to Scriptures. This is not the Reformed           proclamation goes forth in harmony with the test of
method of testing. Nor is it the proper method to go to          the Scriptures, it certainly goes forth successfully,
Scripture first and then adjust the meaning of our               that is, successfully in the true sense, namely, that
confessions to our supposed interpretation of Scripture,         Christ will use that proclamation of His Word unto the
in order then to apply the test to our mission work.             salvation of His people. And if we speak of motivation
Our confessions are the  embodiment  of our true, Re-            in the sense of incentive, could there be any higher,
formed interpretation of Scripture. Hence, the test              any greater incentive than this, the incentive of guar-
must be:  Scviptuve   according   to the confessions.            anteed, divinely guaranteed success? As Reformed
       Need I add that this is exactly the test to which         people we have nothing to be ashamed of in our mission
every minister or missionary, as well as every elder             work, provided we are faithful to the truth in our
and deacon, solemnly promises to submit in the                   preaching.      The power and the effect of the pure
Formula of Subscription?                                         preaching of the Word is not in  ouv proclamation. It
       Then, too, let it be emphasized that this test applies    is not a matter of moral suasion, as though the mere
no less to the missions of the church. than to the               external call of the gospel could accomplish anything.
regular ministry of the church. The idea frequently              We need have no fears that the gospel, according to
seems to be abroad that somehow we can afford to be              the Reformed presentation, will not be palatable to
less strictly Reformed on the mission field than at              those to whom it is proclaimed: it is never palatable
home, that on the mission field we can cooperate with            to the natural man.      But the power and the efficacy
those who are not Reformed, that the sharp edges of the          of that Word preached is of God. And if only we may
Reformed truth can be filed down somewhat, that we               have the confidence, based upon the test of Scripture,
can perhaps be a little Arminian and cooperate in a              that the message we bring is the Word of God Himself,
united venture with those who are less than Reformed,            we may rest in the assurance that God's Word never
that perhaps the differences between the Reformed faith          returns unto Him void: it accomplishes all that where-
and the position of others must not ever be brought              unto He sends it.
out, lest the objects of the church's mission become                This, then, is the crucial test.
confused and disillusioned even because of the many                 The all-important factor in our obedience to the
divisions among Christian churches. This very idea               mission mandate is whether we are willing, by the
probably arises out of a desire to be "successful" on            grace of God, to stand in the service of the Word of
the mission field.       But nothing could be farther from       Christ, to stand in the service of His church-gathering
the truth. On the mission field and at home, as surely           work, and therefore to proclaim His Word in all its
as the Reformed faith is the truth of Scripture, we              purity.
must be Reformed, and that too, openly, not covertly.               This remains the fundamental issue in the "Dekker
       In the second place, this standard is  authoritative.     Case." Is Dekker's message of a universal, redemp-
It is a  suve test just because it is the divine test. On        tive love indeed the Gospel?
the one hand, that means that only when, and in as far              And the test is not: mission gains. These, or the
as, our mission methods and message measure up to                lack of them, may never tempt us to adjust the message.
this test, only then can they be said to be usable by               The test is: Scripture and the Reformed confes-
Christ, to be subject to Him and His work, to serve              sions.
His cause of missions.          Christ certainly does not           By this test, the verdict is: tried and found wanting.



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                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 271




                                          7+kp  :7h  s&&a

                                              NEO-EVANGELICALISM


                                                   Rev. R. C.  Havbach

   Many men in the church who would be known as                the tide of apostasy, the socialism and leftism of the
sound, historic, orthodox Protestants, who therefore           false ecumenical movement, or the coming one-world
would avoid any such designations as "Modernist" or            church of the Antichrist. Neo-evangelicalism com-
"liberal", but nevertheless detest the label "Funda-           promises with the Babel-builders.
mentalist," and regard the term "conservative" as too             The father of neo-evangelicalism, and inventor of
openly implying the compromisers they are, call them-          the term itself, is recognized in Dr. Harold John
selves neo-evangelicals. They prefer mightily not to           Ockenga, pastor of the Park Street Congregational
be recognized as F u n d am e n t a 1 i s t, as separatist,    Church at Park and Tremont Streets, Boston. He tells
as holding the strict practice of coming out from              us that the strategy of neo-evangelicalism differs from
Babylon and being s ep a r ate from Belial.           They     that of Fundamentalism, which is that of  separatfon,
prefer an inclusive, middle  - of  - the  - road approach      in that it adopts the tactic of infiltration. This is the
which will allow an in  - and  - out contact with any          tactic of permeation, the aim being to capture from
company which is appealing, especially that of the             within.      The concept "infiltration", to us, has a bad
modernist camp. A Fundamentalist, to the  neo-evan-            connotation, sounding too much like the strategy of
gelical mind, has no `*depth of sympathy and under-            Unitarianism, which is to infiltrate the Protestant
standing" and so renders himself unfit for witnessing          denominations, "like breaking a hole in the Chinese
with cultured grace to the liberal strata in the church.       wall," or like "grafting new thought. . . on the older
The same charge has been made against the prophets             churches . . . By indirection a large part of the finest
of God who were never sympathetic to false prophets            and subtlest work is accomplished... The purpose of its
or false doctrine, nor t o anything not according to           very existence is.. . undoubtedly capturing strongholds
Christ. But the neo-evangelical does not take a clear-         that we could never carry by direct attack...The
cut, antithetical stand `on the fundamentals and the           modernists of Protestantism.. . are .working from within
essentials of the faith over against everything contrary       the fold...we want more of them and we want them
to sound doctrine. He manifests a rather soft, weak,           where they are." "What could Unitarianism hope to
pacifist attitude toward the' enemies of the historic,         achieve ?      To permeate other churches with liberal
Reformed, Christian faith. He puts on a strong front;          tendencies.. .to leaven the lump of.. .Christianity." They
uses some strong terms, but will not maintain a con-           "work from the inside...doing it successfully, and the
sistently traditional orthodox position, since he must         gradual permeation of the orthodox denominations with
proceed out of expediency and opportunism. He shuns            liberal ideas disseminated by trusted leaders of their
his Fundamentalist brother as a "too independent               own appears to them the best procedure." Within the
Christian who has failed to progress with God." The            body of the Christian church they gradually "sow the
same remark would certainly apply with as much justi-          seeds of liberalism and wait until the time was ripe
fication  (?) to the prophets Micaiah and Elijah, or to        for more aggressive agitation."         (From Unitarian
anyone else of their succession. But shun or withdraw          writings quoted in "The Leaven of the  Sadducees.").
from the modernist enemies of the gospel the  neo-             For the church to adopt this subversive tactic of the
evangelical does not.                                          enemy is to suppose that a piece of decayed meat may
                                                               be successfully treated with a cure-process or a
   The movement of Neo-evangelicalism maintains                preservative.      It is to suppose that health is just as
certain publications, such as the magazine, "Chris-            contagious as disease.       One wonders whether  neo-
tianity Today" and the former Fundamentalist paper,            evangelicalism appropriated this "tactic" from Unitar-
the "Sunday School Times." The magazine "Eternity"             ianism, for the former opens its doors to the latter.
turned neo-evangelical, and "Christian Life" belongs           At the 150th anniversary of Park Street Church on
in that category.        A prominent organization of the       February 28, 1959, there were included among the
movement is the National. Association of  Evangelicals,        speakers beside Ockenga, Rev. Dana McLean Greely,
which has never taken a stand on anything like the             president of the American Unitarian Association, and
truth found in the Belgic Confession, Articles 27, 28          Erwin D.  Canham, editor of the Christian Science
and 29 on the true and the false church, for the NAE           Monitor.       When a man ignorantly swallows a deadly
will not work on the basis of the concept of the purity        poison, he certainly wants the right antidote. But what
of the church.     It proceeds rather on the inclusivist       man in his right mind would care to stomach a mix-
idea.    The movement, then, has no protection against         ture of cyanide and its antidote?


272                                                THESTANDARDBEARER

       Neo-evangelicalism does not, as Fundamentalism,          we as Protestant Reformed have never been guilty of
make an "attack upon error," but rather proclaims               compromise; and our theological standards reveal, we
"the great historic doctrines of Christianity." The             believe, the purest manifestation of the body of Christ.
implication is that Fundamentalism is largely negative,         But the compromise of the New Evangelical does not
while neo-evangelicalism is more positive. The same             stem from any eschatological position, but from a
line of reasoning would make the Reformed position,             concession to ecclesiastical liberalism and the modern
generally, and the position of the Protestant Reformed          world.    Another failure of Fundamentalism is that al-
Churches, particularly, negativistic because  theymain-         though it has constantly fought Modernism, it has never
tain The Rejection of Errors in the Canons of Dort.             exposed Arminianism, which, unless uprooted, invari-
But the Ten Commandments are both negative and                  ably leads to Modernism. Arminianism is incipient
positive.      The Sermon on the Mount is both negative         Modernism.          There is simply no effective antidote
and positive.        The Reformed Confessions and the           against the plague of Modernism without taking steps
Reformation theology are both negative and positive.            to eradicate the deadly germ of Arminianism. But
In the Gospel there is no dichotomy between the nega-           worse than Fundamentalism, neo-evangelicalism has
tive and the positive sides of the truth. Both sides are        failed. It is an ecumenical neutralism, less fundamen-
integral parts of the Christian Faith.                          tal, and permeated with pious platitudes, pragmatic
       Says Ockenga, "The New Evangelical is willing to         religion, and Arminianistic theology.
face the intellectual problems and meet them in the                One of the great spokesmen for the new evangelical-
framework of modern learning." Now Christians  ,are             ism is the  ecumenical  evangelist Billy Graham. They
to fight the battle of the faith on a certain battle-ground,    and he kick against the goads (Acts  95). They kick
but that ground is not "in the framework of modern              against such sharp arrows of the Almighty as found in
learning." .The Christian position is not to look for a         II Cor.  6:14-19.        They struggle like a dove in a snare
common ground where the Christian and the  non-                 to avoid the force of such barbs. For example, Billy
Christian may meet. There is no common ground be-               Graham claims that such texts do not apply to him on
tween the Christian position and the non-Christian              the gound that he is an evangelist! He reasons, it is
position. The area of so-called "common grace" may              the calling of an evangelist to separate from sin, but
not be viewed as such a ground and meeting place.               not from sinners; to reprove and rebuke as an evangel-
Such a "ground" is far from firm.         For the Word of       ist, but  _ not to reprove as an apostle, a prophet, an
God affords the man who takes a position inimical to            elder, or a watchman on the walls of Zion.  Be feels  it.
Christianity no place of refuge anywhere except in              his calling to lead those who ought to come into the
Christ. If he will not stand with us on the Rock, Christ        church, not to expel those who ought to be removed
Jesus, he cannot find refuge in any supposed neutral            from the church. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse of the
or common ground. Much worse, however, than seek-               Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, after taking
ing a common ground with the enemy, is that of stand-           up with neo-evangelicalism, similarly misinterpreted
ing on the enemy's ground. The only safe position is            this passage, referring it exclusively to the idols of
on the ground of Scripture truth, the doctrine of God,          the Corinthian temples.              According to this casuistry,
and that as exemplified in the Reformed Confessions.            the Bible loses its force, not applying to any man or
Otherwise the church soon ceases being the church and           any age following`the period in which it was written.
conforms to the world, and spies from the true church              While Fuller Theological Seminary is a center of
infiltrating the false church soon become turncoats.            this neutralism, Dallas Theological Seminary has be-
       A further criticism neo-evangelicalism makes of          come infected with it, and so have  Wheaton  College,
Fundamentalism is that the latter has failed because            Taylor University, Bryan University, and Moody Bible
it is really not fundamental; it is rather peripheral,          Institute.      Organizations taken with it are the Youth
and taken too much with subsidiary elements of the
faith.       This is true. Fundamentalists, despite their
vaunted name, have really never been as fundamental
as true adherents to the Reformed Faith. For they,
except for very few exceptions, have always omitted
the most basic fundamentals' of the faith, namely,  the              Consisfories!
fundamental principle of Scripture and the Christian
Faith  - the absolute sovereignty of God, the eternal
counsel of God, the doctrine of predestination, election                      The  R.  F. P. A. Board suggests that you start out
and reprobation, and the Five Points of Calvinism, with-                      newly married couples in your congregation right:
out which essentials the fundamentals are sterile.
Fundamentalists are also wrong in supposing that the                          g'ive  each couple a year's subscription to our
Neo-evangelical stand arises from an eschatology other                        Standaid  Bearer.
than that of Premillennialism. The eschatologies of                               Write to our Business Manager:
post- or amillennialism are thought to have opened the
door to neo-evangelicalism.        This implies that, our                                 James  Dykstro,  Bus. Mgr.
amillennialism exposes us to compromise.            By our                                1326 W. Butler Ave., SE,
amillennialism we open the door to compromise and to                                      Grand Rapids,  Mich.  49507
many other errors I It is not mere boast, but fact that


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 273

      For Christ movement, Intervarsity Christian Fellow-          is the Christianity easiest to defend. Hence I never
      ship -and the China Inland Mission. They `reject Fun-        call myself a `Fundamentalist.' There is, indeed, no
      damentalism as "dead," *`narrow-minded," and "big-           inherent objection to the term; and if the disjunction is
      oted." Now, say they, we think in terms of  `<unity."        between `Fundamentalism' and `Modernism,' then I am
      They warn against "an extreme ultra-fundamentalism           willing to call myself a Fundamentalist of the most
      that God has long since by-passed and proved that His        pronounced type. But after all, what I prefer to call
      hand is not on it" (Billy Graham, NAE convention,            myself is not a `Fundamentalist' but a `Calvinist' --
      Buffalo, N.Y., 1957). A more Christian attitude toward       that is, an adherent of the Reformed Faith. As such I
      Fundamentalism is found expressed by Dr. J. Gresham          regard myself as standing in the great central current
      Machen.    "Nevertheless, thoroughly consistent Chris-       of the church's life..." With this we agree, which in-
      tianity, to my mind, is found only in the Reformed or        dicates that fundamentalists are not the only ones in
      Calvinistic Faith; and consistent `Christianity, I think,    the world actively contending for the faith today.




                                       &kkwddep  7&lc  7th  ya&


I                                        THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES


                                                        Rev. H. Vekdman


      According To The Confessions                                 Roman Catholic Church views Tradition as of equal
         The French or Gallican Confession of Faith has the        authority with the written Word of God. In fact, that
     following on this subject. In Chapter IV we read: "We         Church has proclaimed the infallibility of the pope,
      know these books to be canonical, and the sure rule of       and this means that the pope is, in the final analysis,
      our faith, not so much by the common accord and              the only one who determines the only rule for faith and
      consent of the Church, as by the testimony and inward        life.     Who will or can quote from Tradition, if not the
      illumination of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to         pope? If, indeed, he can! And the pope, because he is
      distinguish them from other ecclesiastical books upon        inspired, is the only one who can interpret the Scrip-
      which, however useful, we can not found any articles of      tures.      Years ago, a person would be burned at the
      faith." And in Chapter V we read: "We believe that           stake because he had a Bible in his home. But, essen-
      the Word contained in these books has proceeded from         tially, times have not changed. Today, althoughlaymen
      God, and receives its authority from him alone, and          may read the Bible, none has the right to interpret it.
      not from men. And inasmuch as it is the rule of  all*'       It is, therefore, understandable that our Fathers should
      truth, containing all that is necessary for the service      devote as many as six articles to thedoctrine involving
      of God and for our salvation, it is not lawful for men,      the written Word of God. In Art. III we read: "We con-
      nor even for angels to add to it, to take away from it,      fess that this Word of God was not sent nor delivered
      or to change it. Whence it follows that no authority,        by the will of man, but that  holy men  of  God  spake as
      whether of antiquity, or custom, or numbers, or human        they  weve moved by the Holy Ghost,        as the Apostle
      wisdom, or judgments, or proclamations, or edicts, or        Peter saith. And that afterwards God, from a special
      decrees, or councils, or visions, or miracles, should        care which he has for us and our salvation, commanded
      be opposed to these Holy Scriptures, but, on the con-        his servants, the Prophets and Apostles, to commit his
      trary, all things should be examined, regulated, and         revealed Word to writing; and he himself wrote with
      reformed according to them. And therefore weconfess          his own finger the two tables of the law. Therefore
      the three creeds, to wit: the Apostles', the Nicene,         we call such writings holy and divine Scriptures." In
      and the Athanasian, because they are in accordance           Art. V we read: "We receive all these books, and
      with the Word of God."                                       these only, as holy and canonical, for the regulation,
         Our Belgic Confession, or the Thirty-Seven Articles,      foundation, and confirmation of our faith; believing,
      also has something on this subject. In fact, our Belgic      without any doubt, all things contained in them, not
     Confession devotes as many as six articles to the             so much because the Church receives and approves
      Scriptures.    This, we understand, is because of the        them as such, but more especially because the Holy
      time when it was composed.          The question of the      Ghost witnesseth in our hearts that they are from God,
      Scriptures, whether the Bible is the only rule for doc-      whereof they carry the evidence in themselves. For
      trine and life, was a -burning issue in that day. The        the very blind are able to perceive that the things fore-


274                                                 -THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                 -

told in them are, fulfilling."       It is plain from this             veals when He inspires, but He does not always inspire
fifth article, as well as from the seventh article which               when He reveals. Inspiration is an operation of the
we will quote presently, that the Belgic Confession                    Holy Spirit within men, whereas revelation is an oper-
was formulated after the French or Gallican Confes-                    ation of God upon man. Inspiration means that God, by
sion.     Article VII reads as follows: "We believe that               His Holy Spirit, infallibly leads men to write His Word.
these Holy Scriptures fully contain the will of God, and               That we can distinguish between inspiration and reve-
that whatsoever man ought to believe unto salvation, is                lation is evident from the fact that there was revel.ation
sufficiently taught therein. For since the whole manner                long before inspiration. Inspiration began with Moses,
of worship which God requires of us is written in them                 who wrote the first five books of the Bible. This means
at large, it is unlawful for any one, though an Apostle,               that there was no inspired Word of the Lord until some
to teach otherwise than we are not taught in the Holy                  twenty-five hundred years after the fall of man. It is
Scriptures:     nay, though it weye an angel from heaven,              rather difficult for us to understand that there was no
as the Apostle Paul saith. For since it is forbidden to                Bible at all during the world's first twenty-five hundred
add unto  OY take away any thing from the  Wovd of God,                years of its existence. But there was revelation from
it doth thereby evidently appear that the doctrine                     the beginning of time. God's people were never with-
thereof is most. perfect and complete in all respects.                 out Divine revelation. The Lord revealed Himself to
Neither may we compare any writings of men, though                     man in various ways: dreams, visions, the angel of
ever so holy, with those divine Scriptures; nor ought                  Jehovah, etc.      It is evident from the Scriptures that
we to compare custom, or the great multitude, or an-                   this "Angel of Jehovah" was God Himself, the Second
tiquity, or succession of times  or persons, or councils,              Person of the Trinity.        This appears from the fact
decrees, or statutes, with the truth of God, for the truth             that often this "`Angel of Jehovah" is worshipped and
is above all: for all men are of themselves liars, and                 that He receives this worship and adoration.
more vain than vanity itself. Therefore we reject with                     Secondly, Divine inspiration is plenary. Plenary
all our hearts whatsoever doth not agree with this in-                 means "full, complete." Concerning this plenary in-
fallible rule, which the Apostles have taught us, saying,              spiration, Hodge writes as follows (Vol.  I, 165-166):
"Tyy  the  spirits  whether they  aye  of  God; likewise,  If          "The view presented above is known as the doctrine of
there   come  any unto you,  and  bring  not  this  doctrine,          plenary inspiration.      Plenary is opposed to partial.
receive  him not into  your house."       That our Fathers             The Church doctrine denies that inspiration is con-
in this article have the Romish Church in mind is                      fined to parts of the Bible; and affirms that it applies
plain from this article; and it is also very plain that                to all the books of the sacred canon. It denies that the
they set forth the doctrine that the written Word of                   sacred writers were merely partially inspired, it
God is complete  `and wholly sufficient unto our salva-                asserts that they were fully inspired as to all that they
tion.                                                                  teach, whether of doctrine or fact. This of course does
       And from the Westminster Confession of Faith we                 not imply that the sacred writers were infallibleexcept
quote the following. Art. III reads: "The books com-                   for the special purpose for which they were employed.
monly called  Apocrypha,  not being of divine inspira-                 They were not imbued with plenary knowledge. As to
tion, are no part of the Canon of the Scripture; and                   all matters of science, philosophy, and history, they
therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor                stood on the same level with their contemporaries.
to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than                     They were infallible only as teachers, and when acting
other human writings." And in Art. IV we read: "The                    as the spokesmen of God. Their inspiration no more
authority of the holy Scripture, for. which it ought to                made them astronomers than it made them agricultur-
be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testi-                  ists.    Isaiah was infallible in his predictions, although
mony of any man or church,  but,wholly  upon God (who                  he shared with his countrymen the views then prevalent
is truth itself), the Author thereof; and therefore it is             as to the mechanism of the universe. Paul could not
to be received, because it is the Word of God."                        err in anything he taught, although he could not recol-
       From all these articles of the Confessions, it is              lect how many persons he had baptized in Corinth.
evident that the Reformed Fathers have maintained the                  The sacred writers also, doubtless, differed as to in-
inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. In clear and un-                   sight into the truths which they taught. The Apostle
deniable language they have set forth that the Word of                 Peter intimates that the prophets searched diligently
God is the sole and only rule for all life and doctrine,               into the meaning of their own predictions. When David
and `that they are quite sufficient unto our salvation.                said God had put `all things' under the feet of man, he
Other books may be useful, much may be learned from                    probably little thought that `all things' meant the whole
Tradition and the decrees of councils, etc., but nothing               universe (Heb. 2:B). And Moses, when he recorded the
can possibly compare with the Word of God. All other                   promise that childless Abraham was to be the father
writings must continually be examined in the light of                  `of many nations', little thought that it meant the whole
the Bible; the Bible, however, is authoritative in itself.             world (Rom.  4:13).     Nor does the Scriptural doctrine
This is the language of the Fathers.                                   on this subject imply that the sacred writers were
                                                                       free from errors in conduct. Their infallibility did
Meaning  Of  Divine  Inspiration.                                      not arise from their holiness, nor did inspiration
       First, we can distinguish between inspiration and               render them. holy. Balaam was inspired, and Saul was
revelation.     All inspiration is necessarily revelation,             among the prophets.       David committed many crimes,
but all revelation is not inspiration. God always  re-                 although inspired to write psalms.         Peter erred in


                                                       THESTANDARDBEARER                                                  27.5


conduct at Antioch; but this does not prove that he                what belongs and does not belong to the Word of God?
erred in teaching. The influence which preserved him               How could we know the word of God in distinction from
from mistakes in teaching was not designed to preserve             that which is of man. Indeed, inspiration is plenary.
him from mistakes in conduct."                                     The sacred writers were fully inspired in all that they
   Divine inspiration is plenary. A beautiful example              spoke and wrote, officially, and as apostles. They
of plenary inspiration is Gal.  3:16, and we quote: "Now           were not always inspired. They were inspired only
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He                 when they acted as in office, and then, as in office, they
saith not, And to seeds, as of  m.any; but as of one, And          were always inspired. They were inspired, not only
to thy seed, which is Christ." Here, if you please, the            when they wrote the several epistles, but also when
apostle bases his argument upon a single letter, the               they preached to the Church of God. And that they
singular "seed" rather than the plural "seeds."                    were inspired surely means that they spoke, wrote and
Plenary inspiration is opposed to partial inspiration.             taught without error, not only as far as the content of
Some believe that only parts of the Bible are inspired,            their instruction was concerned, but also in the gram-
that the Word of God is in the Bible as a baby lies in a           matical sense of the word.
cradle. But, if this were true, how would we determine





                                                     GOG AND MAGOG


                                             Ezekiel 38, 39  - Revelation  20:8


                                                        Rev. G.  Lubbers


Identity  of  Gog and  Magog  (continued)                          teresting question: by which prophets, and where do we
   It  ,is our conviction that the nations spoken of in            read of this Gog and Magog, apart from what we read
Ezekiel  38:11-13 are the nations, who, during the time            here in Ezekiel 38, 39 and Revelation 20:8?
of the "thousand years" of the time when Satan is                      Literally we read in Ezekiel  38:17 as follows: "Thus
bound, are in the center of history.               They are the    saith the Lord God; art thou he of whom I have spoken
nations who are the people who are the "haves;" they               in old time by the hands of my servants the prophets
possess education, industry, business, science, and                of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years
art.       They are in the center of history. And in the           that I should bring thee against them?"
center of these nations God is gathering his church.                   Prof. Keil has the following note-worthy remark to
The church is really the focal-point of it. The  "camp             make. about this verse: "The statement that Gog is he
of the saints," that is, where the church walks and                of whom God had already spoken by the earlier proph-
rests in her pilgrim journey, is in the midst of these             ets, does not mean that those prophets had actually
nations.        However, Gog and Magog, are not these              mentioned Gog, but simply was the enemy of whose
hations.      They are the nations which are at the "four          rising up against the people of God the prophets of the
quarters of the earth," or who for the time of the                 former time had prophesied, as well as of his des-
"thousand years" are outside of this main-stream of                truction by a wrathful judgment of the Lord. . . . . The
the life of the nations. But in the last times they shall          design of this remark is not to accredit the prophecy
come up to make total, global war against the nations              by referring to the utterances of earlier prophets, but
which were in the main-stream of the world, and thus,              to show that the attack of the peoples gathered together
ultimately, against the church, to surround the "camp              by Gog, upon the land and the people of the Lord, is not
of the saints," the "beloved city" !                               an unexpectant event, or one at variance with the prom-
        Such is the identity of Gog and Magog !                    ise of the restoration of Israel as  akingdom of peace."
Gog and Magog Spoken of in Old Times By the Prophets.              Kiel's Commentary, Vol. II, page 168.
                                                                       We agree with the thrust of the observation of Dr.
   The prophet Ezekiel informs us that the Lord Him-               Keil.
self addresses this Gog and Magog as themany  nations,                 However, since it is here explicitly stated by the
who will be united in the end of time, as the enemy of             Lord that he had spoken of Gog's appearance and on-
Israel of whom He had spoken of old time by his serv-              slaught in history, the question remains still: by
ants, the prophets. This raises the important and  in-             which prophets and where?


276                                               THESTANDARDBEARER

       After giving this matter some thought and study it      LORD! Such is the ever recurring theme in the Psalms,
appears to this writer that, in the light of the nature of     as we read in Psalm  137:8,9: "0 daughter of Babylon,
prophecy in the Old Testament, the Lord ever spoke of          that art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that  re-
this in the prophecy. W.e hasten to add that He did not        wardeth thee, as thou hast served us. Happy shall he
necessarily "pin-point" the prophecy here-to-fore as           be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the
He does here. Rather we hold that Gog and Magog was            rock".
implicitly seen by the Lord in all that He prophesied             In the light of the foregoing such a passage as Joel
concerning the "latter days," more particularly con-           3:10-12 falls into the perspective of the prophetical
cerning the gathering of all the forces of hell in Gog         search-light as it beams across the ages to the latter
and Magog. If we bear in mind the truth that the Lord          days.      There we read: "Beat your plowshares into
knoweth all His works from eternity, declaring the end         swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the
from the beginning (Isaiah  46:lO) then we have no             weak say, I am strong.         Assemble yourselves and
trouble here. It means that when God put enmity be-            come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together
tween the seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the wo-          round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come
man, and prophesied, promised, and predicted that the          down, 0 LORD.         Let the heathen be awakened, and
Seed of the woman would triumph over the Serpent,              come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I
He had Gog and Magog in mind and was speaking of               sit to judge the heathen round about." Surely, this
this final overthrow of the powers of darkness and of          refers to the final battle of the Lord God Almighty with
the restoration of all things. The Lord does not say           all His foes and the final judgment, when the dragon,
everything, every detail; however, He never lies or            the beast, and the false prophet shall be cast into the
tells half-truths.     The truth of the matter is that in      fires of the abyss of hell. Here also the prophets al-
prophecy He tells all, the whole of things, the end from       ready spoke of this appearance of the nations, which in
the beginning, yet in such a waythat he needs to articu-       Ezekiel 38, 39 and Revelation  20:8 are called Gog and
late the details for us, so that what once was hazy and        Magog!      Possibly we could say with the writer to the
obscured to us is articulated in such a way that it comes      Hebrews "that the time would fail" to speak of what
to stand in bold relief.                                       we read in all the prophets which the Lord has in mind
       Perhaps we may venture to guess a few of the in-        in this single utterance here in Ezekiel  38:17. For
stances of the prophets of which the Lord is speaking          those who are interested to pursue this inquiry further
here in Ezekiel  38:17.                                        we suggest looking up and studying Isaiah 25:5, 10, ff.;
       We then call to mind what the Lord did at the time      26;21; Jeremiah  30:23,25.
of Noah, prior to the Flood. The "camp of the saints"              Prof. Keil quotes from August Kueper an observa-
was indeed surrounded at that time,          But the Lord      tion which corroborates what we have attempted to set
destroyed them all with the Flood. This was a picture          forth concerning this question of the Lord's prophesy-
of the end of the ages as appears from II Peter  3:1-5.        ing concerning Gog and Magog by the prophets. Writes
To be sure we see the pattern of things to come in             Kueper: "It is evident enough that there is no reference
what happened at the time of the Flood. Matt.  24:27,          here to prophecies concerning Gog and Magog, which
38; Luke  17:26,27; II Peter  2:5. What happened there         have been lost; but those general prophecies, which
in a limited sense by water shall happen in the final          are met with on every hand directed against the ene-
and absolute sense in the days of Gog and Magog!               mies of the church, are here referred to Gog." And
       Furthermore, we have but to think of the prophecy       Keil states that, before Kueper had written, J.F.
of  Enoch as recorded in his eschatological utterance          Starck had already said, "In my opinion, we are to
concerning the judgment upon the wicked as recorded            understand all those passages in the prophets which
in the book of Jude, saying, "Behold, the Lord came            treat of the enemies of the church and its persecutions
with ten thousand of his holy ones, to execute judgment        . . . . . . these afflictions were preludes and shadows of
upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works    the bloody persecution of  Gag."
of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of            There is an element of great comfort in the fact
all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken          that the Lord announces that Gog is the one spoken of.
against him." Jude  14,15.                                     It means that the strategy of the entire battle of the
       Nor should we overlook the prophetical meaning of       ages is the Lord's. He has the battle plans. He de-
such a Scripture passage as Psalm 2. Certainly Gog             clares from the decree!        With divine mockery and
and Magog in their lofty and proud pretension, to "cast        laughter He has Gog and Magog in derision. Psalm
off" their cords from us, fits into this picture. It is        2:4.      The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD as
the supreme and ultimate attempt of the heathen to             the water-courses: He turneth it whithersoever He
"take counsel together" against the LORD and against           will.     Proverbs  21:l. And so we need not fear. It is
His anointed Son. The heathen, indeed, rage!                   the Father's good-pleasure to give to us, His little
       Surely, the Lord had prophesied concerning these        flock, the kingdom. And when all these things shall
ever and anon. Wherefore the repeated refrain is in            come upon us, we are to lift up our heads in hope and
the prophets concerning the overthrow of the nations.          expectation, for then our final redemption is nigh.
Such is the genius of Israel's history in her everlast-        Luke  21:28. It is as Paul writes in Romans  8:37, "Nay
ing war with Amalek, a war of the Lord which Saul the          in all these things we are more than conquerors through
son of Kish could and would not wage, but which David,         him that loved us.      For I am persuaded, that neither
the man after God's heart fought in the  name  of the          death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor


                                                      THESTANDARDBEARER                                                       ?77

powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor                   Ephesians 6:12.
height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able                    Satan is loosed for a little while to deceive the
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ               nations at the four-quarters of the earth; he is back of
Jesus our Lord."                                                      the thoughts and intents of the nations. Of this the
The Evil Intent of Gog and Magog                                      Lord speaks in Ezekiel  38:10-13, where we read:
                                                                       "Thus saith the Lord God: it shall come to pass in that
   We now touch upon a subject of which also the Lord                 day, that things shall come into thy mind, and thou
speaks here repeatedly. He knows the hearts of men                    shalt devise an evil device: and thou shalt say, I will
and of kings ! He trieth the hearts and thoughts of man.              go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them
All things are naked and open before His eyes. He                     that are at rest, that dwell securely, all of them dwell-
knows the evil intents of these accumulated nations,                  ing without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
called Gog and Magog.                                                 to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn thy hand
   Both Revelation 20: and Ezekiel 38, 39 speak of this                against the waste places that are now inhabited, and
evil intent. It is really the intent of the gates of hell              against the people that are gathered out of the nations,
which would prevail against the church, marshalling                   that have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the
all these principalities of the heavenly usurpers of                  middle (navel) of the earth. Sheba, and Dedan, and the
powers against her.      For the battle of the church is              merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions there-
not, in the ultimate sense, against flesh and blood;                   of, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take the spoil?
"but against the principalities, against the powers,                   hast thou assembled thy company to take the prey: to
against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the                 carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and
spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places."                     goods, to take away great spoil?"




                                    74e  &&c4  AC  Waedtp
                                    ("0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Ps. 96:9a)



                                           THE CEREMONY OF BAPTISM

                                                           (continued)


                                                     Rev. G.  Vanden   Berg


   In concluding our discussion of the Form for the                    impressive, and gaudy show that is shallow and empty.
Administration of Holy Baptism, there are yet a few                    The latter may appeal to superstitious minds, as it
matters of practical interest concerning which  wemust                 evidently does in Roman Catholic spheres, but it has
still make a few comments. These matters deal with                     no appeal to the simplicity of faith in the children of
the actual ceremony of baptism, which in our churches                  God.
,is strikingly devoid of pomp and is characteristically                     In former years in the Reformed Churches the
simple. This is proper and we must not give in to the                  reading of the Baptism Form was followed by and the
clamor that is sometimes heard to make of this holy                    Baptism Ceremony was preceded by a short address
institution a "sensational show." Let us remember                      by the minister in which an attempt was made to put
that the simplicity of the ceremony greatly enhances                   some life into what seemingly was a boring and dead
its solemnity, and any added fringes would only serve                  ceremony.         Now there may be nothing wrong in the
to distract the attention of the congregation from that                minister speaking a few words on this occasion; but if
which is essential and meaningful in this rite. With                   the Form for Baptism is seriously attended to and
regard to baptism also we may say with our  Confes-                    understood, there will be no need for this addition.
sionl, "Therefore we reject all mixtures and damn-                     And the danger of such an innovation is apparent, for
able inventions, which men have added unto, and                        immediately it tends to distract from the essential
blended with the sacraments, as profanations of them:                  things in baptism and divert attention to the incidentals.
and affirm that we ought to rest satisfied with the or-                Concerning this practice Rev. H. Hoeksema wrote,2
dinance which Christ and his apostles have taught us."                 "The questions of baptism are followed certainly not
It is certainly to be preferred to have a simple, un-                  by a free address on the minister's part, as was often
impressive ceremony in which the truths of God's                       done in former years. Many ministers thought that the
Word are forcefully conveyed than to have anelaborate,                 Form for Baptism was rather dry, and that the people


 278                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER

 would fall asleep when this form was read. And so they            countenanced; and such baptisms cannot be recognized.
 thought that they would put a little pep into the form by         But perhaps the most serious objection of all is the
 adding their own emotional address. This, however, is             fact that such inventions are in direct conflict with the
 certainly not the purpose of the form or of any form              command of Christ which is found in Matthew  28:19,
 that is to be used by the church. Besides, the Baptism            "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them
 Form is beautiful in its contents, and cannot very well           in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
 be improved by any emotional speech by theminister."              Holy Ghost."
 To this might be added that we may indeed be grateful                Another matter of minor significance that is often
 that this practice has been abolished, and we ought to            contested in connection with the baptism of children is
 give diligence to see to it that it is not again reinstituted.    the question as to whether the minister should mention
        In connection with the ceremony itself, one of the         just the first name of the child or the full name. Rev.
 first questions that is asked is: "Who should hold the            H. Hoeksema claims that the former is proper for he
 child during the baptism"?         Now it is true that our        writes: "The first name of the child is supposed to be
 Church Order in Article 57 states that "the father                mentioned, and not the family name. The individual
 shall present his child for baptism," but it is stretch-          child is baptized, and certainly not the family, This is
 ing the point pretty far to say that this means the same          also evidently the purpose, as recorded in the Form
 as saying that the father must hold the child during the          for Baptism, because it simply uses the one singular
 ceremony of baptism. The Church Order is speaking                 `N`."2 With this position we cannot wholly agree. We
 of the request of the parents before the Consistory to            have no serious objection to mentioning only the first
 have the sacrament of baptism administered to their               name in baptism, but we fail to see that it is improper
 child; and then it is certainly proper that the father,           to use the full name. The reasoning that this would
 as the head of the family, makes this request. How-               imply baptism of the family we fail to see. We agree
 ever, as to holding the child while baptism is admin-             that it is the individual child that is baptized, and the
 istered, we may say that it does not matter essentially           identity of that child is not to be disassociated from
 whether this is done by the father, mother or someone             the family to which it belongs. Conceivably in a large
 else, although, for sake of the symbolism, it is pre-             church there could be a half-dozen babies baptized on
 ferred that this role is filled by the father of the child.       a given Sunday.       Of these six children two of them
 From the parents' point of view, the important thing              might bear the name "John." If the first name is men-
 here is the answering of the questions in connection              tioned, those members of the congregation who are
 with the baptismal vow and not the holding of the child.          sitting in the rear of the sanctuary would not know
 To lay stress on this matter is to inject superstitions           which baby is being baptized when the name "John" is
 into the baptism rite and this we must avoid. Beside,             mentioned.      But if the full name is mentioned, there is
 if it were mandatory that the father hold the child in            no question as to the identity of the child. The family
 baptism, what would be done in those cases where the              name is as much a part of the child's name as his or
 father is not a member of the church or where the                 her first  name. That the Form simply uses the singu-
 father has died?                                                  lar "N" (denoting the Latin  `Nomen' which means
        The question of immersion, sprinkling, or pouring          `Name') is of no special significance here. The  Name
 we have discussed previously and will not repeat here,            of the child is to be mentioned and the question then is,
 except to note that in the Romish Church it is deemed             what is the child's name? Is it just "John," or is his
 necessary that the sprinkling be done three times. The            proper name "John Smith," or perhaps more specific-
 sprinkling is repeated with the mentioning of each of the         ally yet "John Henry Smith". Our preference here is
 Persons of the Trinity in, the baptism formula.  Al-              to mpion the full name since by that name the specific
 though this practice is not to be condemned, it may be ,&&Id that receives baptism is identified.
 said against it that there is a danger by so  doingIh-at'            Our concluding remark concerning baptism has to do
 the impression is left that the Father, Son, and Holy             with the proper place in the order of worship for the
 Spirit are  separately active in baptism; and this is             administration of the sacrament. Ideally, since the
 wrong. Baptism, de-mting the whole work of salvation,             sacraments are inseparably related to the preaching
 is-Lhe2ork-of-the  Triune God  as'One.  With one  sprink-         of the Word, the sacrament of baptism should be ad-
- ling and so baptizing in the Name of the Triune God,             ministered after the preaching of the sermon. This is
 the impression is left that God as One effects our                the way it is with the administration of the Lord's
 salvation; and this is better.                                    Supper. But for practical reasons baptism isgenerally
        Important it is that the baptism be performed in the       placed  ,early in the service; and to this there are no
 Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Re-                 objections, provided it is understood that the Word al-
 formed Churches have always followed the rule to ac-              ways has prominence, and the sacraments are depend-
 knowledge all baptism as valid that is administered               ent upon it for their meaning.
 by an authorized person and according to the Trinitar-.
 ian formula. In the past this was not always done, and                                 ADULT BAPTISM
 the sacrament of baptism was corrupted. Especially                   In-our liturgy we have a brief form that is appended
 when the church became modern, many ministers began               to our Baptism Form and that is used for the baptism
 to baptize in the name of faith, hope, and love, or the           of adult persons.      Since most of the members of the
 sun, moon, and stars; and other ridiculous formulas               church are baptized when they are infants, this form
 were invented. This corruption, of course, cannot be              is not used very often; and undoubtedly it is not as


                                                ,THE  STANDARD BEARER                                                 279

familiar to us as the one we have been discussing.           Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28,
The Form itself is very brief. Apart from the prayers        Mark  16), adding this promise: `He that believeth and
and the questions asked of the one to be baptized, it        is baptized shall be saved.' According to which rule,
merely contains a description of the Scriptural basis        the Apostles, as appeareth from Acts 2, 10 and 16,
for the baptism of adults, showing that only those adults    baptized none who were of years of discretion, but
are to be baptized who "are come to years of discre-         such as made confession of their faith and repentance.
tion. . . . .and make confession both of their repentance    Therefore it is not lawful now to baptize any other
and faith in Christ."3                                       adult person, than such as have beentaughtthe myster-'
   Children of believers are  .baptized by virtue of the     ies of holy baptism, by the preaching of the gospel, and
covenant which God establishes with believers andtheir       are able to give an account of their faith by the confes-
seed. Adults (those who are believers and have reached       sion of the mouth."3
the years of discretion, but have not been baptized) are        A very interesting and perhaps somewhat difficult
to be baptized by virtue of their confession of faith.       question in some cases arises in this connection. The
They are admitted into the Christian church as "be-          question is, "When does a child become an adult?" It
lievers", not as "children." In the church  there,are        stands to reason that one cannot arbitrarily set an
only two kinds of members. There are "believers"             age limit, and from that point determine whether a
and their "children." One does not become a member           person is to receive infant baptism or adult baptism,
of the church when they make confession of faith. It is      since all children do not mature, physically or spirit-
not correct, as is often done, to speak of joining the       ually, at the same pace. This can create a  real*prac-
church when confession of faith is made.         Rather,     tical problem.      Let us hypothetically consider three
"baptized  members"`become  "believing members" at           individuals, all of the same age. The first of these is
this time; and when unbaptized adults make confession        able to give a very intelligent account of his faith and
of faith and are baptized, they are received into the        can be baptized as an adult at once. The second is one
church as "believing members." Thus, in the case of          who is not able to do so and is in need of further  cate-
adults, baptism and confession always go together. And       chetical  instruction before he is ready to be admitted
since the Form for Adult Baptism is rather brief, we         into the church as a believing member. The third is
will quote it in its entirety so that this point of truth    one who is brought into the church through his parents,
may be established confessionally in our minds and           recently converted and having received baptism as
hearts.                                                      adults.     In this last case the child would likely receive
   "However children of Christian parents (although          baptism as an infant. Each case is different and many
they understand not this mystery) must be baptized by        factors and circumstances enter in so that each case
virtue of the covenant; yet it is not lawful to baptize      becomes a matter for the Consistory to decide on its
those who are come to years of discretion, except they       own merits. No hard and fast rule can be established
first be sensible of their sins, and make confession         here; but the elders of the church, who are men endowed
both of their repentance and faith in Christ. For this       with the Spirit, are to examine each case and make a
cause did not only John the Baptist preach (according        determination of the matter according to their best
to the command of God) the baptism of repentance, and        judgment.
baptized, for the remission of sins, those who confessed
their sins (Mark 1 and Luke 3) but our Lord Jesus            (1) Belgic Confession, Article 35
Christ also commanded his disciples to teach all na-         (2)  Liturgies,  Page 8
tions, and then to baptize them, in the name of the          (3) Baptism for Adult Persons Form


                                   7h  V&e  01  OGuc~ide'ta

                                            THE  BELGIC  CONFESSION

                                                   ARTICLE XIII

                                GOD'S GOVERNMENT AND SIN (continued)

                                                Prof. H. C.  Foeksema


Scviptuve  on God's Government and Sin (continued)           ing and plotting of  -wicked men. Their purpose was to
    But. from the point of view of God's purpose and         destroy Joseph. But in scheming and plotting to carry
government, we find here a plain instance of the  truths     out their purpose, they actually work out God's counsel
that God accomplishes His purpose through the schem-         and accomplish God's purpose. This is plain when we


280                                                 THESTANDARDBEARER

view the outcome of this history, and find Joseph saying,       dreams will never be realized, they are all the time
Genesis  50:20: "But as for you, ye thought evil against        unwittingly working for the very realization of those
me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it         dreams and, above all, for the realization of God's
is this day, to save muchpeople alive." Mark you well,          purpose.
this history does not teach that God reaches His pur-              Or take that prime example of the devil's action
pose in spite of the efforts and schemes of wicked men.         against Job, which is all the more striking because it
This is true, of course, when you consider from a               involves a "conversation" between God and the devil.
subjective point of view the purpose and motive of the          No one would deny that the devil had a wicked purpose
wicked. The devil does not intend to accomplish God's           against Job, and that with respect to God the devil had
purpose.        And Joseph's brethren did not intend good to    an evil motive. But who would ever deny that the devil
Joseph; they meant it for evil, and at the time God was         in all his actions was strictly under God's sovereign
not in all their thoughts. But objectively speaking, God        control and government? The devil says to God, "But
does not operate in spite of anything the wicked do; and        put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and
the wicked never actually can or do accomplish any-             he will curse thee to thy face." And the Lord indeed
thing against the Most High. God is sovereign, and He           puts forth His hand, as Satan suggests; but He does so
accomplishes His purpose through the scheming and               through Satan.    For the Lord gives the matter over to
plotting of Joseph's wicked brothers. For it was God's          Satan's execution: "And the Lord said unto Satan, Be-
purpose that the covenant people must go to Egypt for           hold, all that .he hath is in thy power (` `hand"); only up-
various reasons. And it was God's purpose to keep them          on himself put not forth thine hand." Job  l:ll, 12. And
there, to provide for them there, to have them as bond-         the consequences of Satan's employment of this power
men in Egypt, to deliver them by a mighty hand, and to          are recorded in the remainder of the chapter: he brings
lead them to the land of promise. And in the whole of           one catastrophe upon another on Job, until finally Job
this history Joseph has a part to play, indeed; but the         has nothing left. This is repeated with respect to Job's
brothers of Joseph, and, in fact, several other indi-           person in chapter 2. There Satan says to the Lord:
viduals connected with the narrative, have a part to play       "Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for
in "setting the stage" for Joseph to play his part.             his life.    But put forth thine hand now, and touch his
       Now look at the history that led up to Joseph's being    bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face."
sold.      To accomplish His purpose God "brings in" the        And again, the Lord indeed puts forth His divine Hand
ways of various characters in this drama. God brings            and touches Job's bone and his flesh; but He does so by
in the ways of Jacob. If Jacob had known in advance the         giving Job over into Satan's sovereignly limited power:
outcome of some of his actions, he would never have             "And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine
performed them.          Among these are the folly of his       hand; but save his life." Job 2:4-6.
partiality to Joseph, the imprudence of sending Joseph             The example of Pharaoh at the time of Israel's
alone on this errand, the imprudence of letting Joseph          bondage and exodus is a classic one.                On the one
work with his hateful brethren. Certainly, if Jacob had         hand, there can be no question about the fact that
foreseen that this was going to lead to his losing of           Pharaoh sinned here and even hardened himself in his
Joseph, he would have followed an altogether different          sin. His obligation before God was to let the children
course.      But God also brings in the ways of the other       of Israel go.     With this demand God literally con-
individuals.      God brought it to pass that the brothers      fronted Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron. And this
were no more in the place where Joseph expected to              demand was repeated not only, but it was enforced in
find them, but at  Dothan.  Accident? Insignificant de-         all its divine authority through the plagues which God
tail? Apparently; but Dothan  was along the main route          sent upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Pharaoh, there-
from the East to Egypt, where the caravan would pass.           fore, was emphatically aware of his obligation before
God brought in the way of that unnamed individual who           Jehovah.      And he acted responsibly, that is, as a
informed Joseph where his brethren were. Neither                rational, moral creature.      He sinned. He did so even
that man, nor Joseph knew at the moment that this               according to his own admission. Moreover, he pro-
would lead to Joseph's downfall, and that it would be           gressively hardened himself in sin, until finally he
"much better" if Joseph returned home without finding           plunged himself headlong into his own destruction. All
his brothers. Accident'? Mere circumstance? No, this            his sin and all his hardening of himself was his own
was according to divine government. God saw to it that          wilful action. He was the conscious, thinking, willing
this unknown stranger knew where Joseph's brethren              subject of his own actions. God also dealt with him as
were, and that he "happened" to be there just when              such, so that when he is fully hardened in sin, God in
Joseph "happened" to be unable to find his brothers.            just retribution plunges him into destruction in the
God brought in the way of Reuben, that half-way ac-             Red Sea. Was Pharaoh, however, sovereign? Did God
complice with the wicked, who, while not agreeing with          stand on the sidelines, so to speak, unable to make a
his brothers, is not strong enough, and nevertheless            move until Pharaoh made one? Was God's government
saves Joseph from death, persuading the brothers to put         in this case dependent on and conditioned by the actions
Joseph in the pit. And God brought the caravan at just          of Pharaoh? Must we conceive of God and Pharaoh as ~
the right moment, causing the way of the caravan to             two chess players, with Pharaoh leading off and God's
coincide with the way of Judah, who was afraid to kill,         moves on the chess-board of history  lin?ited by and
but not afraid to sell. And the outcome of all this is that     occasioned and determined by Pharaoh's moves?
while the brothers are going to make sure that Joseph's         Scripture itself gives us the answer. And that answer
                                                                                                        F     .I
                                                                                                    a .-


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                281

is not merely that God  BEanned   all that transpired in     came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings
the history of Pharaoh and Egypt, but  .that God  acted.     of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan,
He executed His own. counsel. God is in the active           Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon
sense of the word the Lord of history! For before.           as we had hear d these things, our hearts did melt,
there is any mention of Pharaoh's hardening of his own       neither did there remain any more courage in any man,
heart, yea, before Moses  and. Aaron even appeared           because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in
before Pharaoh, the Lord says to Moses: "When thou           heaven above, and in earth beneath." But what did the
goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those       nations of the Canaanites do? They nevertheless  wil-
wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine            fully gathered together against Israel. They formed
hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let     strong alliances. They rallied mighty armies against
the people go." Hence, you read in Romans 9:17, 18:          God's people.     They sinned, and that too, in spite of
"For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, (Exodus  9:16),       better knowledge.     "There was not a city that made
Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that       peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the
I might shew my power in thee, and that my name              inhabitants of  Gibeon: all other they took in battle."
might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore        Joshua  11:9.    And what is the Word of God concerning
hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom           this sinful warfare of the Canaanites? Listen: "For
he will he hardeneth."                                       it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they
   We may at once take note in this connection of the        should come against Israel in battle, that he might
further explanation of the apostle in Romans  9:19-21.       destroy them utterly, and that they might have no
For this passage is enlightening with respect to the         favour, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord
frequent objection that the truth of God's sovereignty       commanded Moses." Joshua  11:20.
cancels out the responsibility of the sinner. Notice            Or consider the case of Eli's sons,  - "sons of
that it. is exactly this matter that is raised and pre-      Belial" Scripture calls them. How is their sin and its
sented in the form of a wicked objection in verse 19:        consequent judgment viewed by the Word of God? Let
"Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find            Scripture speak: "Now Eli was very old, and heard  all
fault? For who hath resisted his will?" It ought to be       that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with
observed that this objection is made exactly on the          the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle
premise of God's absolute sovereignty in hardening           of the congregation. And he said unto  them,,Why  do ye
whom He will.      On any other premise it makes no          such things? for I hear of your evil dealings  by'all this
sense and has no point. But how does the apostle meet        people.    Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I
this objection? Does he begin to make concessions and        hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress. If one
to speak of another "track" of man's responsibility.         man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but
Not at all; he simply maintains four-square the absolute     if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for
sovereignty of God and reproves the brazen creature          him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice
of the dust who dares to bringsuchan objection: "Nay,        of their father, because the  LQrd would slay them."
but,  0' man, who art thou that repliest against God?        I Samuel  2:22-25.   Gr confront in the light of Scripture
Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why        the incident of  Shimei's cursing of David, II Samuel
hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power            16:5-10:  ". .  ..behold. thence came out a man of the
over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel           family of the house of Saul, whose  name was Shimei,
unto honour, and another unto dishonour?"                    the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he
   Scripture abounds with literal examples of this           came. And  hecast stones at David, and at all the serv-
truth.                                                       ants of king David: and all the people and all the
   Think of the history of the children  of Israel in the    mighty men were on his right hand  andon his left. And
conquest of the land of Canaan. Who would deny that          thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out,
the nations of the Canaanites sinned heinously in their      thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial: The Lord hath
resistance against the nation of Israel? That warfare        returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul,
can never be explained naturalistically. It must never       in whose stead thou hast reigned; and the Lord hath
be presented as a mere warfare of one nation against         delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absaiom thy son:
another.     Israel represented the cause of Jehovah.        and, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because
They were  the,Lord's people. The land of Canaan was         thou art a bloody man.. Then said Abishai the son of
theirs by inheritance; it had been assigned to them by       Zeruiah unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse
the Lord.     Not only so, but the nations who fought        my lord the king? let me go over, I pray thee, and
against Israel were well-aware that they were fighting       take off his head. And the king said, What have I to do
against Jehovah's people. The fame of Jehovah and his        with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, be-
wonderful works in behalf of His people had preceded         cause the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who
Israel into the land of Canaan, and the terror of the        shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?"
Lord was upon the inhabitants of the land.. As Rahab            Enlightening in this regard is the incident involving
says to the spies, Joshua 2:9-11: "I know that the           Ahab, who certainly sinned when he hearkened to the
Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is        false prophets and went up to battle against the Syrians.
fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land     Especially significant is this passage because  itgraph-
faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord         ically portrays the "behind-the-scenes" drama in
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye           heaven that was involved in the divine government of


282                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

this event. It is recorded in I  Kings 22 in the prophecy     persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-
of Micaiah, who had already prophesied bad tidings to         gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said
the king of Israel and who was disbelieved by Ahab            on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and
before he ever uttered a word. Ahab was predisposed           stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him.
to listen to the false prophets of his own liking; and of     And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said,
Micaiah he had said to the God-fearing Jehoshaphat,           I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth
who had qualms of conscience about this whole affair:         of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade
"There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by           him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now there-
whom we may inquire of the Lord: but I hate  him; for         fore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the
he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil."           mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath
And when Micaiah had been adjured by Ahab to tell the         spoken evil concerning thee."
truth, and had done so, the king of Israel complains to
Jehoshaphat: "Did I not tell thee that he would propb-           Let me mention but one more example from the
esy no good concerning me, but evil?" But then                Old Testament, significant because it is found in a
Micaiah begins to explain what is really taking place         plaintive prayer: "0 Lord, why hast thou made us to
at this time: "And he said, Hear thou therefore the           err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy
word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne,       fear?     Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of
and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right       thine inheritance." Isaiah  63:17.
hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall                                                     (to be continued)





                                                    Rev. H.  Hank0


Togetherness in the Churches                                  opposed to marriages performed by any other than a
       To be against ecumenicism in our day is to run the     priest (insisting, in fact, that there was no true mar-.
risk of being branded as narrow and sectarian. Yet it         riage except where a priest officiated) even this seems
is a risk anyone interested in the truth and in God's         to be changing. In the Netherlands, a Roman Catholic
church ought to be willing to run. Indeed, it is all but      medical student married a Protestant girl. The wed-
a compliment in this day to be pronounced sectarian,          ding was performed by a Roman Catholic priest who
for it is an indication of a healthy protest against a'lot    conducted the ceremony and blessed the rings, and a
of ecumenical rot.                                            Dutch Reformed Church pastor who delivered a sermon
       There are various news items that have attracted       during the ceremony.
wide-spread attention which breathe this foul ecumenical         While the priest evidently insisted on performing
spirit. We call attention to several here.                    the actual ceremony, it was quite a concession to per-
       January 18-25 was The Week'of Prayer For Chris-        mit a Protestant to participate; and the obvious impli-
tian Unity. Among several denominations this was taken        cation was that it really did not matter whether the
as an occasion to experiment in living t o g e t h e r.       couple joined the Romish Church or remained in the
Churches of the Methodist, Protestant Episcopal, United       Reformed Church.
Presbyterian, Evangelical United Brethren, United                                       * * *
Church of Christ, and the Christian Churches (Dis-               In Scheelsburg, Pennsylvania there were four dif-
ciples of Christ) denominations encouraged individual         ferent congregations: a Lutheran Church, a Reformed
congregations within their denominations to exchange          Church, a Presbyterian Church, and aMethodist  Church.
pulpits to mark the beginning of this week of prayer.         The town was very small, about 300 people. The con-
The arrangements were made on the local level so              gregations were also small and none' of them had-a
that ministers could participate as they chose; and           minister. The Methodist Church did not even have a
many of them did.                                             building. since their church burned in 1945. And so
       These churches are the same ones that are presently    they all decided to merge into one congregation. Be-
engaged in merger discussions under the Blake-Pike            fore the final merger was actually adopted, they met
proposals for church union.                                   together for a year with a full-time minister. They
       One wonders what kind of sermons were preached         merged as a United Church of Christ. Many dignitaries
on all these different pulpits on that particular Sunday.     from the various denominations were present, all pro-
Were there any sermons in which the Word of God was           nouncing their blessing upon the venture.
preached? It is doubtful.                                        The strange part of it was that the only real disputes
                            * * *                             lay in liturgy; there seems to have been no major
       Although Roman Catholics -have always been strictly    trouble over doctrine. But these liturgical differences


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     283

were resolved by the new pastor. He borrowed prayers                draft to the Joint Committee for their consideration
from the service books of all four churches and even                in the completion of their assignment.
composed a few new ones himself. The Lutherans                      This proposal will come before the Presbyterian
agreed to use common bread instead of unleavened                 General Assembly in April and the Reformed Church's
wafers at the communion service, while the Presby-               General Synod in June. If the proposals are adopted,
terians agreed to take communion at the altar rail              merger could be attained by 1970.
instead of in the pew. Methodists and Presbyterians                 Both churches have Calvinistic roots, although the
both accepted the Lutheran phrasing of the Apostles'             Reformed Church has its roots in the Calvinism of the
Creed; and in the use of the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive             Netherlands, while the Presbyterian Church has its
us our debts" is used in the services while "Forgive             roots primarily in the Calvinistic Church of Scotland.
us our trespasses" is used in the Sunday School.                 Yet, over the years, both churches have become in-
   This fine spirit of cooperation was reported nation-          creasingly liberal, and the result is that today both
ally in the newspapers and hailed as a wonderful solu-           denominations are waging battles against modernism
tion to the problem of small churches in small towns             within their ranks.
which cannot survive alone.                                         There is some opposition to the merger, and it
   No doubt a fine solution it is if these liturgical            comes from two different groups. One group in each
differences are really the only ones that separate the           denomination, the more conservative element, opposes
churches to begin with.                                          the union on the grounds that the merger would advance
                           * * *                                 the liberal cause and make it more difficult to fight
   The World Council of Churches (Made up of better              modernistic inroads.      Christianity  Today  says, "Sep-
than 200 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and Old                 aratist elements in both denominations may protest,
Catholic Churches) has formed a committee to study               but their influence is not regarded as substantial."
principles and methods of cooperation with the Roman             (It is grossly unfair to call these elements separatist,
Catholic Church. Naturally the Vatican is deeply in-             for they are the ones who are trying to maintain a
terested in this and has already expressed approval              semblance of the historical Calvinistic tradition within
and appointed six committee members. There will be               the denomination.) From the other direction comes
eight committee members from the WCC. The com-                   opposition from those who are in favor of merger, but
mittee will not have the power to make any decisions;            who want to make the merger much broader to include
but they will study various areas of cooperation, in-            other denominations, particularly the United Presby-
cluding philanthropy, social and international problems,         terian Church. But so far the committee and the broad-
theological studies, ecumenical relationships, etc. They         er ecclesiastical assemblies have resisted the pres-
will also discuss mutual problems such as mixed mar-             sures to include in the discussions these other denom-
riages, religious freedom, missions, etc.                        inations.
   This is a significant development, although not too              If the merger would be accomplished a rather large
surprising. The apostate WCC is the largest and most             denomination would be the result. The Southern  Pres-
widely respected representative of Protestantism; and           `byterians have churches in sixteen states stretching
the Roman Catholic Church has more power in the                  from Maryland to New Mexico, but only in the South.
world than any other church organization. What a tre-            They number some 950,000 members. The Reformed
mendous influence for evil could an organization made            Church has congregations in 26 states but all in the
up of these two groups be.                                       north and Canada, except for Florida. Their member-
                           *  *  *                               ship numbers 240,000.
   The news also reports a merger of a somewhat dif-
ferent kind. Different because the possible merger is            Television and Crime
between two groups that are historically Calvinistic.               Television programs have not improved since the
   The Presbyterian Church U.S. (Southern) and the               days when they were an oddity in our homes. The
Reformed Church of America seem to be nearing for-               content of the programs, in fact, is getting so bad that
mal merger. A joint committee that has been studying             a committee of the United States Senate is investigating
the matter is proposing to the two denominations that            television and its effects upon juvenile delinquency.
they be given authority to draw up the plan for union.           The chairman of this committee, Senator Thomas Dodd
Their proposals, as they appear in the  Pyesbytevian             of Connecticut, expresses alarm at the fact that twenty-
Journal read:                                                    five million children under twelve watch television
                                                                 every day and spend more time before the TV set than
   1. Instruct  the Joint Committee to begin drafting a          they do in either school or church.
      plan of union for possible presentation to the General        Lawrence Sullivan reviews what the committee has
      Assembly and the General Synod no later than 1968.         thus far found in an article in  Christian  Economics.
   2. Authorize the Joint Committee to call on persons
      from various areas in both communions to assist            We quote some parts of Sullivan's article.
      in preparing the first draft of sections of a plan of             "In addition there were five fights with fists, funds,
      union.                                                         knives, and rope, and three assaults by guns, fists, and
   3. Authorize the committee to circulate to our pres-              rocks.    There were also four threats by guns."
      byteries and classes the preliminary draft of sec-                This particular show "was first televised early in
      tions of the plan, requesting that the presbyteries            the evening on Christmas, 1963, at  7:30 P.M. It was
      and classes send their suggestions concerning the              seen by an estimated ten million children."


           284                                                    THE  SiANDARD  BEARER

                     At the National Training School for Boys, Washing-        lion people, about 64% of the population. There was a
                  ton,  D.C., 23% of the inmates related their crimes to       2.6% increase in church membership over the foregoing
                  prior TV habits; and at the Ashland Youth Center,            year, and this is hailed as significant inasmuch as it is
                  Kentucky, 26% mentioned TV violence as a contributing        slightly higher than the population growth of 1.5%.
                  motivation. In both of these juvenile detention centers      Protestants numbered  66,854,200;  Roman Catholics,
                  together, 95% of the inmates acknowledged they for-
                  merly had spent three to five hours daily watching TV        44,874,371;   J e w s ,   5,585,OOO;   E a s t e r n   O r t h o d o x ,
                  thrillers.                                                   3,094,140.          Following are the top ten Protestant de-
                     Dr. Albert Bandura, professor of psychology in            nominations:
                  Stanford University, conducted TV exposure experi-            1. Southern Baptist Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,393,039
                  ments with a group of three to five-year-olds in a            2. The Methodist Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,304,184
                  carefully controlled laboratory.                              3. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A, Inc..  5,500,OOO
                     "Eighty per cent of the children exposed to adult          4. Protestant Episcopal Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,336,728
                  violence on film proceeded to duplicate that violence         5. United Presbyterian Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,279,240
                  against the doll, hammering it with the mallet, kicking       6. Lutheran Church of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,227,157
                  and punching it, and calling it names."
\.                                                                              7. National Baptist Convention of America.  2,668,799
      \           If even worldly people are becoming increasingly              8. Lutheran Church -Missouri Synod . . . . . . . . 2,591,762
           frightened by the evil influences of these programs on               9. American Lutheran Church.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,468,407
           TV, how much more ought not covenant parents who                    10. Churches of Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,250,OOO
           have the responsibility of the education of the covenant                 The utter vanity of it all is evident from the fact
           seed be alarmed by these ghastly statistics and take                that as church membership increases, so does apostasy
           warning about the evil influences of television on their            within the churches, crime and delinquency within so-
           children.                                                           ciety, breakdown of law and order throughout the coun-
                                                                               try, and disintegration of morals. The trouble is that
           Church Mem bevship                                                  the churches are often leading the way with their
                  Every year a Yearbook of American Churches is                modernism, their participation in racial demonstra-
           published, and we usually give a brief summary in                   tions, their open advocation of the abolishing of moral
           these columns.                                                      law.      Church membership increases only to increase
                  In 1964 church membership was listed at 121 mil-             also evil influences upon the country.





                                                 THE W.C.C.  - AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD


                                                                   Rev. G. Van  Baven


                  One of the principal goals  ,of the W.C.C. is the at-        represent denominations of churches, so too its pro-
           tempt to establish one world church organization. It                fessed aim must be to seek that "kingdom of God."
           indeed professes that it is not the "Church," but a                 It could not do otherwise  - and still claim to maintain
           council  of churches which does not "legislate for the              Scripture.         But the very real question is: what is the
           churches." Nevertheless, the aim of one of its "Com-                kingdom which the W.C.C. seeks? Is it the "kingdom"
           missions" is: "to proclaim the essential oneness of                 of which Scripture repeatedly speaks, or is it a king-
           the Church of Christ and to keep prominently before                 dom of its own devising? If the former is true, then
           the World Council and the churches the obligation to                we ought to encourage the W.C.C. in its endeavor. If,
           manifest that unity and its urgency for world mission               the  latter is the case, then the Christian has no part or
           and evangelism." (Constitution of W.C.C.). That aim                 parcel with this organization. With this question in
           to "manifest that unity," as we saw, resembles re-                  mind, I want to consider some of the statements made
           markably the attempt  of the last days to establish the             by proponents of the W.C.C., and by the W.C.C. itself,  i
           united church of the antichrist. And, of course, with               to find what its idea of the "kingdom of God" is.
           that "one church" we have no part.                                  The Scriptural  Kingdom of God
                  But another question arises in, connection with the
           purpose or goal of the  W.C.Celi; What is its attitude                   The reader is doubtless aware what the kingdom of
           toward the "kingdom  ofl. God?!' It is the Scriptural               God is. Very briefly may I state that it is that which
           injunction to "seek first the -kingdom of God and its               must be sought first (Matt.  6:33), it is heavenly (Matt.
           righteousness. .  ." Even as the W.C.C. claims to                   5:3), it is realized  finallywhenChrist  returns (Rev. 21).


                                                      THE  STANDARd  BEARER                                                        285

 It is that which principally is already established with-        the members of the W.C.C., and its proponents, seek
 in the hearts of Christ's church, but is not that which          an earthly kingdom with earthly goals.             There are
 will be fully realized on this earth. It is not a kingdom        statements .suggesting  that unity of mankind and peace
 established among men generally, for mankind rejects             on earth are the goals the "church" must seek:
~ the kingdom of heaven.
     At  the same time, we ought to be aware that there                   . . .If. . .great changes among men come only as a
 is a kingdom to be established at the  .last days which              result of .profound  changes in their ways of imagining
 is an imitation of that true kingdom of God. It is the               their life and destiny, it may be that when the evils of
 kingdom of the antichrist which is sensual anddevilish.              division and the insufficiencies of a purely material
                                                                      order have had their full effect, a hunger for unity and
 It is a kingdom which will establish a measure of                    brotherhood may really take possession of the human
 peace and prosperity among men. It will be the cul-                  mind. Christians must prepare for such a clay, for-
 mination of the dreams and aspirations of man through-               warding now their own reunion and seeing in it their
 out the ages. It will be the realization of the desires of           dedication to the ultimate unity of all mankind.1
 Babel. One finds an account of this kingdom in Rev.                     Bishop Brent was chairman of the Committee on
 13. Read carefully the first eight verses of this chap-              International Affairs. In presenting its report he made
 ter describing the beast which arose from the sea.                   a significant. . .and often-quoted statement:        "The
 Rev.  17:11-.I4 further explains this beast: "And the                Christian Church if it be so minded can, in the name
 beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and               of Christ, rule out war and rule in peace within a
 is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten               generation.2
 horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have                    Many see in the W.C.C. the hope of final establish-
 received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as                 ment of international government, where all mankind
 kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind,              will live peaceably with all. The W.C.C. is to lead the
 and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.          way, to provide the moral direction toward world gov-
 These shall make war with the Lamb. . .  ."                      ernment, -which government, as far as I can see, will
     This latter kingdom is not always so easily recog-           be nothing less than the government of antichrist. One
 nizable  .     It will go under the name of Christian, and       writes:
 its aims will appear so "good" in that peace and
 prosperity will be established. Many will be deceived                   And, God willing, working through people like us
 concerning the true nature of this kingdom.                          and churches like ours it will lead the nations of the
     Yet to distinguish these two kingdoms ought not to               world toward a truly international order which in God's
 be very difficult in the light of the Word. Very plainly,            good time will actually become the human family where
 the former is not to be sought on this earth, -for                   we will "live peaceably with all."3
 flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of God. And            The Goal of the W. C. C.
 the seeking of one glorious kingdom of men on this
 earth can only culminate in that horrible (for the true              It is not necessarily the case, of course, that the
 church) kingdom of antichrist.                                   above supporters accurately represent the official
                                                                  position of the W.C.C. bne can not accuse the organ-
 Seeking the Kingdom                                              ization of believing what some of its membership
     As far as the final establishment of the Kingdom of          teach. Yet, I think the organization, W.C.C., does in-
 God is concerned, there has been much disagreement               deed as an organization also hold to this "one world"
 within the church. There are the three views of pre-,            concept.     The constitution of the W.C.C., as far as I
 a-, and post-millennialism.         Each is meant to be an       have been able to determine, does not make any state-
 interpretation of the time and manner of Christ's re-            ment concerning their position on world government.
 turn and His establishment of the Kingdom.           Though      But reports of their decisions in the last two world as-
 each of these three views likely has proponents among            semblies show rather conclusively what the majority
 the membership in the W.C.C.,  I would conclude that             of the membership wants.            These same reports do
 the latter (post-millennialism), in its most modernistic         show also, conclusively to my mind, that no faithful
 sense, is the generally accepted view.           Even as the     Christian can join in the attempts of this organization.
 Jews of Jesus' day looked for the establishment of an                First, it appears from the reports that reference
 earthly kingdom at Jerusalem its capital, so many,               to the  "eschatological  hope," that is, the future return
 apparently the majority, within the W.C.C. seek to es-           of Christ and the new heavens and new earth, has been
 tablish an earthly kingdom which supposedly will be              deliberately omitted from the' pronouncements of this
 built about the principles set forth by Christ while He          organization.       I say, this has been  deliberately   done;
 was on the earth.          There is a very definite attempt      that itself ought to be a warning to the Christian.
 within that organization to be in the forefront of at-               At  ,the second assembly, Evanston, Ill., a closing
 tempts to unite all men under one government. And                statement was  not  finally adopted, but was forwarded
 the sad part is that there is apparently no difference           to the member churches for study. Concerning this
 between what the W.C.C. seeks, and that beast of Rev.            statement, the reporter of this meeting stated:
 13:1-8.       If such is true, and I sincerely believe it is,           A third criticism fell on the tendency to identify
 then it must follow that no faithful Christian can re-               the Christian hope with the second coming of our Lord
 main in such an organization.                                        at the end of history.      Many delegates wet-c wholly
     First, I want to show that many (though not all) of              unconvinced of the worth of basing our hope on this.4


      286                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER

             Notice, delegates  ci-iticize  even the  "tendency  to                      But it must be said to new nations as to older ones
      identify the Christian hope with the second coming. . . ."                 that the evolution of an international order will require
      The same thing happened at the third world assembly                        of all a  measure of surrender of autonomy and sover-
      of the W.C.C. at New Delhi:                                                eignty for the sake of the world community.8
                In the discussion  of the draft Message (addressed               In discussing the above report, some wanted the
             to the member churches of the Council) several sug-             statement even. stronger.
             gestions of revision, chiefly of editorial character,
             were offered, which the Chairman said the Committee                        The Rev. H.N. Riber (Lutheran, U.S.A.) desired
             would consider. A German Lutheran delegate wanted                   (this) to be strengthened because Christians should be
             to see a stronger emphasis on the eschatological hope,              ahead of public opinion in requiring the nations to
             especially for the comfort of Christians living in the              surrender sovereignty in preparation for world  gov-
             most difficult situations, but Dr. Bliss hesitated to in-           ernment.9
             clude anything "which might seem to imply that Chris-
             tians are not passionately concerned about the present              I quote one more statement from New Delhi:
             life."5                                                                    (Report of the Committee on International Affairs):
             But the positive decisions of the W.C.C. are even                   It must be recognized that in the world of our day the
      more revealing. At Evanston the Assembly declared:                         interdependence of nations is a reality. The ideal that
                                                                                 the Christian seeks along with all those interested in
                1. All power carries responsibility and all nations              the promotion of human welfare, is a community of
             are trustees of power which should be used for the                  nations wherein each nation can develop its own life
             common good.                                                        only in the context of an active and just international
                2. All nations are subject to moral law, and should              association.10
             strive to abide by the accepted principles of internation-
             al law to develop this law and to enforce it through                With that, I conclude. I ask you, what is the W.C.C.
             common actions.                                                 seeking?         Is it not exactly the healing of the wound of
                3. All nations should honor their pledged word and           the beast (Rev. 13) and the establishment of one world
             internaiional  agreements into which they have entered.         order where antichrist can reign supreme? True: in
                4. No nation in an international, dispute has the            that kingdom there will be a "promotion of human
             right to be sole judge in its own cause or to resort to         welfare," but the kingdom of Heaven will bedenounced,
             war to advance its policies, but should seek to settle          and the citizens of that kingdom will be persecuted.
             disputes by direct negotiation or by submitting them to
             conciliation, arbitration or judicial settlement.               How can any faithful child of God join in this attempt
                5. All nations have a moral obligation to insure             toward "world government" which is exactly opposed
_I           universal security and to this end should support               to the Kingdom of God?
             measures designed to deny victory to a declared                                                *  *  *
             aggressor.
                6. All nations should recognize and safeguard the                1. The Atlantic Monthly,,  Barbara Ward, "The Quest
             inherent dignity, worth and essential rights of the                        for Christian Unity," Aug. 1962,  p. 121
             human' person, without distinction as to race, sex,                 2. Paul Griswold  Macy,         If It  Be  of God,    Bethany
                                                                                        Press, p. 53
             language or religion.                                               3. Harold A. Bosley,
                7. Each nation should recognize the rights of every                                            What Did the World Council
             other nation, which observes such standards, to live by                    Say  to You?, Abingdon Press, p. 83
                                                                                 4. 
             and proclaim its own political and social beliefs, pro-                    ibid.,  p. 117
             vided that it does not seek by coercion, threat, infiltra-          5. The New Delhi Report,  edited by W.A. Visser  `t
             tion or deception to impose these on other nations.                        Hooft,  Association Press, p. 41
                8. All nations should recognize an obligation to                 6. Harold A. Bosley,  op. cit.,  pp. 78-79
             share their scientific and technical skills with peoples            7. ibid., p. 80
             in less developed regions, and to help the victims of               8. New Delhi Report,  p.107
             disaster in  other lands.                                           9. ibid., p. 115
                                                                                10. 
                9. All nations should strive to develop cordial re-                     ibid., p. 274
             lations with their neighbors, encourage friendly and
             commercial dealings, and join in creative international             The Protestant Reformed Christian School of South
             efforts for human welfare.6                                     Holland is in need of 2 teachers for grades 1, 2, and 3,
             In connection with the above, the reporter stated:              and grades 4, 5, and 6. Send all correspondence to:
                                                                                                   G. A. Van  Baren
                I think I am fair in reporting that the vast majority                              R. 1, Box 240 A
             of the delegates to the Second Assembly of the World                                  Chicago Heights, Illinois
             Council felt that we are moving away from the idea of
             separate and sovereign states toward some sort of
             more powerful United Nations or world federation, or,
             possibly, world government. . . .7                                  Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches
                                                                             will meet, D.V., on Wednesday, April7,1965, at 9 A.M.,
             This tendency toward "world government" was                     at the Protestant Reformed Church of Holland, Michi-
      even more, apparent at the last World Assembly of the                  gan.       Consistories, please take note of this in the ap-
      W.C.C.            In a statement on "service" the W.C.C.               pointment of your delegates.
      d e c l a r e d :   -.                                                                                   M.  Schipper,  S.C.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  287





                                              Pyof. H. C.. Hoeksema

"The Letters of Paul (An Expanded Paraphrase)"                 "God's Promises," De Vere  Ramsay, Wm. B.  Eerd-
--F. F. Bruce, 323 pp., Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing             mans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids,  Mich.; 48 pp.
Co., Grand Rapids,  Mich. Price, $4.95.
                                                                  This is a book of selected Bible stories for young
   As the title indicates, the purpose of this volume is       children, suited for pre-schoolers.        The  format  is
to re-phrase the Epistles of Paul in such a way that           attractive, the illustrations are well done and appro-
the meaning is clarified. As the author  ,himself states       priate, and the author's style is suited to the small
in the introduction, in this particular paraphrase the         child.
purpose is not "to set side by side the various synonyms          Each story shows that God keeps His promise.
by which a Greek word may be rendered, or to bring             Admittedly, this is a beautiful theme. But the treat-
out the finer nuances of Greek moods and tenses; it            ment of this truth throughout the book is shallow, and
is designed rather to make the course of Paul's                it misses the point of what God promised. The ap-
argument as clear as possible."                                proach of the book can hardly be called Reformed, but
   In this reviewer's opinion, paraphrasing of any             is rather Arminian and universalistic.          Thus, for
writing is at best a risky venture; and the paraphrasing       example, when Jesus blessed the little children, the
of Scripture, even in translation, is surely more risky.       author says : "He prayed for them. He loved them....
The chief requisite, it seems to me, is accuracy. If a         everyone  of  them.  `I
paraphrase lacks accuracy, it loses its character of               Questionable, too, are statements like the following:
pavaphvase,  and it becomes instead something new and          "This made God  sad!.....So   Moses helped God." (In
different.    In the latter case, of course, it does not       connection with Pharaoh's oppression of the Tsraelites.)
clarify the text; but it rather corrupts it. I have not        Or, in the treatment of one of Jesus' miracles: "That
read this entire paraphrase, but I have checked up on          one lunch  seemed  to grow and was enough to feed all
various passages. And it is in respect to this prime           those five thousand hungry people." (emphasis mine)
requisite of  accuracy   that I find this paraphrase of            It is very well possible to inculcate error even into
Paul's epistles wanting.     I will give one example,          little children by means of stories, and it is not unlikely
which involves a rather crucial passage too. In the            that this kind of error, inculcated early in life, is
English Revised Version (which accompanies this                some. of the most difficult to root out in later life. Let
paraphrase) Romans  9:11-13 reads: "for the children           us beware, when we search for Bible stories to read to
being not yet born, neither having done anything good          our young children, that we do not give them stones
or bad, that the purpose of God according to election          for bread. To be used with extreme discretion.
might' stand, not of works,' but of him that calleth, it
was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Even as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau I          "The Pilot Series in Literature --Book Three," Ger-
hated." Dr. Bruce renders this as follows: "Before             trude  Haan and Beth Merizon, Wm. B. Eerdmans
her children were born, before they had done anything          Publishing Co., Grand Rapids,  Mich. 573 pp.
either good or bad -- in order that God's purpose might
be established in accordance with His sovereign choice,            This book is the third of a series of junior high
not on the ground of their deeds but by the will of Him        school readers. A wide variety of literature is pre-
who called one rather than the other - she received the        sented under headings such as "Crossing Boundaries,
divine communication:  `The elder wiil serve the young-        Times of Crisis, Human Interest, Lives We Remember,
er.' And accordingly we have the declaration of God            Classics."
many generations later: `I chose Jacob; I passed over              It is not so easy to make a proper selection of
Esau.' "                                                       literature. for junior high school pupils, especially not
   There are more such inaccurate renderings. Hence,           for the  teaching  of literature from a Christian point of
I do not value' the paraphrase highly. In fact, I prefer       view. I believe that the authors succeeded in selecting
the text of the English Revised Version by far.                some of the best literature for ninth grade reading,
                                                               in poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. The teaching of
    There is another part of this book, however, which         literature, of course, depends not only on the literature
I can recommend, although such recommendation does             to be read. The comments and questions at the end of
not imply agreement in every detail. I refer to the            each selection will help the student to evaluate his
historical introduction preceding each epistle. As Dr.         reading from the point of view of its religious or moral
Bruce mentions, this historical material is based on           significance, its literary excellence, and its general
the book of Acts. From other works by this author, I           i n t e r e s t .
have come to the conclusion that Dr. Bruce is at home              With proper teacher-guidance, this book could well
when it comes to the book of Acts.                             be used in a literature class in our schools, or for
    Limited recommendation.                                    interesting reading for junior high children at home.


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 288                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



                                     ?j?eua  y%ac*t  t9m  &ihdec4&
                                     ("All the saints salute thee . . ." Phil. 431)
March 1, 1965
        Holland's congregation experienced an evening of                                                *  *  *
unbounded joy Feb. 18. The occasion was the dedica-                              In "A Letter from our pastor" in Feb. 21st bulletir
tion of their new church. The dedicationprogram, also                       Rev. H. Hoeksema  .wrote in part: "I still -have pain,
 attended by many of our people from the area, was one                      but can easily stand it. Last week when I  suffered.pair
of deep gratitude to their faithful Covenant God. From                      I thought of Jesus, how He suffered for me. . . . . .  I
the opening devotions, led by Elder S.  DeVries,  to the                    He suffered under the wrath of God, under which  WE
closing doxology, it was a development of the theme                         will never have to suffer.             We suffer in His love,
expressed in the opening song, "My grief is turned to                       Scripture tells us that the suffering  of this  preseni
gladness, to thee my thanks I raise".                                       time is not worthy to be compared to the glory  thai
        There were three speakers: Rev. M.  Schipper   .and                 shall be revealed in  us: . . . . . And, we should  nevel
Rev. J. Kortering, native sons of the church, and Rev.                      forget either that all things work together  for, good to
G. Lanting, their pastor. Rev. Lanting remembered                           them that love God, who are called according to His
the loss of their first church, which also had been                         purpose. . . .  ."
dedicated to the Protestant Reformed preaching of                                                       * * *
God's Word, and their meeting in cold and gloomy                                 Upon the request of Kalamazoo's consistory a new
store buildings for over eleven years, all the while                        radio station has been added to the list of outlets serv-
basking in the favor of God Who continually led them                        ing the Reformed Witness Hour: WKPR at Kalamazoo,
in the way of the truth. The  .speakers all comforted                       Mich.      After the first broadcast Rev. Harbach wrote a
 and encouraged the little flock to a re-dedicadon of                       letter to the Radio Committee of First Church, ex-
their desire to maintain the truth of God's Sovereignty                     cerpts of which follow: "The members of our church
with all their resources - the new building and the ac-                     are well pleased with the fact that the RWH  radic
`tivities therein.                                                          broadcast has begun locally over WKPR.  Wehave been
        Music was furnished by Dan Van I<ampen and Jerry                    doing some advertising. Ads have been run on the re-
Vander Kolk on their cornets,. accompanied by Jerry's                       ligious page of the local. newspaper for three Saturdays.
sister, Ruth;  Mr. and Mrs. Ed Cammenga gave a vocal                        At present we  are advertising over the radio ever)
duet entitled, "All of the way, Lord." Miss La Vern                         other day by means of a one-minute announcement
Kortering played the organ prelude and accompanied                          with appropriate organ-music background. We  alsc
the congregational singing.        After the program the                    announce this on our bulletins and try to pass them or
ladies demonstrated their new kitchen facilities by                         to others. May the Lord bless the radio work  more
serving refreshments to the entire gathering. Con-                          and more."
gratulations, Holland!                                                                                  * * *
                             ***'                                                The new Clerk of Redlands' Church is Mr.  E.
        Rev. and Mrs. C. Hanko are extremely grateful to                    Gritters, 934 College  Ave.,. Redlands,  Calif. 92373.
God for the manifestation of the communion of saints                                                    * * *
 as revealed in the trying weeks just gone by. They                            The Feb. 9th meeting of Holland's Ladies Aid
wish to use this means to express sincere appreciation                      Society was held at the home of Mrs. N. Yonker in
for the close bond of  ChTistian fellowship manifested                      Muskegon.      Mrs: Yonker has been a shut-in for many
especially at this time.  !Rev. Hanko writes, "Words                        months due to a hip fracture. Her recuperation has
will never express what your daily prayers, notes and                       reached the point now, that she can get about with the
letters of encouragement have meant to us all. . . . . .                    aid df a walker.
we want the churches to know that their letters meant                                                   * * *
so much to us from day to day. One never knows what                              The Mary-Martha Society of Southeast Church joy-
the bond of communion of saints means, nor the mutual                       fully announced the fact that the amount needed to
love in Christ Jesus until the way grows dark and                           complet& their Carpet Fund has been reached. Via
lonely, until the load often seems to crush. But one                        bulletin notice they thanked the congregation for their
also never knows how grace abounds in such a time,                          generous response to the appeal for help in this project.
without experiencing it, for the Lord does daily far                                                    * * *
above all that we can ask or think.' Mrs; Hanko is now                           Because the Reformed Witness Hour is not broad-
beginning to take a few steps with the aid of bars; she                     cast in the Chicago area Rev. Heys receives copies of
is  regaining"`some use of her right arm and hand, and                      the weekly tapes for his own enjoyment. And because
also speaks a few words. Only a month ago the doctor                        of interest shown by members of his church he is of-
told. us that she would never walk, never use the right                     fering opportunity to hear these sermons in group
arm and never speak again. Today God shows that He                          session on Sunday afternoons.
will .have His own way with us."                                                 . . . . . see you in church.                     J.M.F.


