                                                                            he



                                                                                       earer
     -.





)                    .A  REFORMED  SEMI-MONI'HI,Y  lW?,.GAZ$NE                                                                   -




                                     A TRIBUTE TO THE REVEREND H.  HOEKSEMA

           Esteemed and Beloved Brother:                                down this work and wait for the reward of His grace.
              We, the  Standard   Beavev  Staff, wish herewith to We have, therefore, appointed Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
           express our sincere appreciation for all your labors to serve as Editor-In-Chief. And we commend you
           in behalf of the  Standard  BeaZrev,  and particularly for unto God and to His Word of grace. May He be near
           your untiring and faithful labors as Editor-In-Chief.        you in. these moments of the twilight of your earthly
              Forty volumes testify of  .forty years of abundant and/ life. May His Spirit assure you that your labor is not
           faithful labors on your part in the interest of  develop-    in vain in the Lord, and that by His grace there is a
           ing and propagating the truth which we hold so dear.         crown of life laid away for you.
           And we are thankful unto our covenant God for all that          With Christian greetings,
           which He has given us in you and for sparing you these                              Fraternally,
           many years.                                                                              The  Sz'andavd   Beaver  Staff
              The time has now come, however, that you must lay                                     per J.A. Heys, Secretary





                                                                                        Volume XLI/ Number 18/ July 1, 1965


410                                                                                                                                    THE  STAN?/IRD BEARER
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   .
                                               . .                                                                          ~
                                                                                                                                                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                    .,                                                                                                                                                                                                      .
                                                                                             1
                                                      C O N T E N T S                                                                                          .'     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August-..
                                                                             0           :                           -4                                                 Published by the Reformed. Free. Publishing Association  :
Meditation--                                                 I
  " Faithful Until Death                                                -h.
                                                       . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ., . . . . . . . . il0                          Editok-  Prof. H. C:Hoeksema
             Rev. M. Schipper                                      '                                                                                      .           Communications relative to contents should. be addressed  to.
Editorials L                                                                                                                                                          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema; 1218 Griggs St., S.E., Grand Rapids:
       Staff                                                                                                                                                          Michigan 49507. Contributions will be limited to 300 words
                 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ?12                  and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy deadlines
             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                     are the first and fifteenth of the month.
       Seminary Graduation . . . . ..`..`............`..`..................... 4 1 3
             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                     All church news items should be addressed  toMr.  J. M..Faber,
       Living From The Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414                                                     1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                     Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included must
       The Calling Of The Minister As Pastor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417                                                                          be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below;
             R. D. Decker                                                                                                                                             All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
All Around Us  -                                                                                                                                                              Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
       Report Of The Synod Of 1965 .~.~~..~~~~~~~. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `...i . .._ 419                                                                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
       Rev. H. Hanko                                                                                                                                                    .Renewal:  Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
Contending For The Faith --                                                                                                                                           received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
       The Doctrine-Of Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421                                                   scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
             Rev. H. Veldman                                                                                                                                                        Subscription price: $5.00 per year
In His Fear -                                                                                                                                                             Second Class Postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
       Black But Comely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .`. . . . . . . . . . 423
             Rev. J. A. Heys
The Lord Gave The Word -.                                                                                                                                            CANDIDATE FOR THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD
       Reprobation And Mission  ,Preaching . . . . . . . x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425                                                                                    AND SACRAMENTS
             Rev. C. Hanko
From Holy Writ -                                                                                                                                                     The Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches,
       The Gospel Of Christ Preached On Mars Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427                                                                              having examined Seminarian Robert Decker, 1004
              Rev. G. Lubbers
A Cloud Of Witnesses -                                                                                                                                          Temple S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan, declares Mr.
       Called Of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429                        Decker to be a Candidate for the Ministry of the Word
              Rev. B. Woudenberg                                                                                                                                and Sacraments in the Protestant Reformed Churches
Book Review --                                                                                                                                                  and eligible to receive a call on or after July 7, 1965,
       The Secret of Christian Family Living . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431                                                                  one month after the completion of his praepartior
              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                      ;                                                                                       examination.
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
              Mr. John Faber                                                                                                                                                    Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg, Stated Clerk
                                                                                                                                                                                Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches





                                                                                       -.

                                                                                                                           FAlTl-iFUL UNTO DEATH


                                                                                                                                         Rev. M.  Schippev


                                                                   `Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
                                                                                                                                                                                  Revelation  2:lOb


        An exhortation addressed to the Church of Smyrna!                                                                                                      church.        The Lord calls them a synagogue of Satan!
        Smyrna, one of the seven churches of Asia Minor                                                                                                        This prince of darkness, this slanderer, was their
to whom the Seer of Patmos was directed to send                                                                                                                chief, who inspired theminall  theydid. As the opponent
epistles, one of the seven that existed historically at                                                                                                        of Christ, and the great adversary of God's church in
that time in that region.                                                     But more importantly, she                                                        the world, he moved these Jews to slander and re-
served as a type of the church throughout this dispen-                                                                                                         proach the flock of Christ. The lie he moved them to
sation. Of all the seven, Smyrna, along with the Church                                                                                                        speak was that they, the Jews, were the only people of
at Philadelphia, was most outstanding. She suffered no                                                                                                         God, while the Christians were impostors, a dangerous
rebuke of the Lord, as was the case with the others.                                                                                                           sect.      And whereas the faithful church had always suf-
She receives all praise and encouragement!                                                                                                                     fered, the Lord predicts. that their persecution would
         Smyrna- was the type of the church in suffering and                                                                                                   be intensified, though it would be brief.
tribulation! Mostly of those which say they are Jews,                                                                                                                In the face of this tribulation, the church is exhorted
and are not, was this persecution brought upon the                                                                                                             in the text to be faithful, faithful unto death!


                                                            .:
                                                         THE  STdDARD   BEAiiER                                                   411
                                           .       -               ~....~

    Indeed, the church  is. delivered in -principle. Her              consorts can never be satisfied until they have put an
Saviour has come to save her. To her He speaks the                    end to all the work of Christ. And so the Lord fore-
Word of salvation in the gospel. And He applies that                  warns of the things the church must expect, which she
salvation to her heart. Nevertheless, the church is                   must yet suffer. The Devil will have many cast into
still, in the world of tribulation. She is not yet per-               prison. Many of the faithful will be put to death!
fectly delivered. She has a period of testing to endure!                     Under these conditions the church is required to
    Hence, to her the exhortation is most necessary.                  be faithful, faithful unto death!
Be thou faithful unto death !                                                Under Satan's oppression, whose purpose is to
    The necessary requirement!                                        destroy you, if he does not succeed in drawing you
    Be faithful !                                                     away from the truth.
    That means, to live the life of faith! Not merely                        Under God's testing! For back of all the tribula-
does this mean to be true: like we say: the dog was                   tion and suffering stands God; And He will test us in
faithful to his master; or, the man was  faithful`to  his             the fire as silver is tried!
boss; or, the wife. was faithful to her husband. No, it                      Will the church be able to endure such testing?
means much more than that. It means to live out of                    Will she survive in such a furnace of tribulation?
faith. It means to walk by faith. And that, too, accord-                     The answer to these questions is negative if you
ing to the covenant relation!          That  .is, that relation       consider the church standing by herself, and in her
which God in Christ has laid between Himself and His                  own strength.
people  !- To live the life which that relation requires, is                 But so the church of Christ may never be considered!
to be faithful. It means to love the Lord our God with                       She is the body of Jesus Christ, of which He is the
all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, and to               Head !
do that always, and in every circumstance and depart-                        She is of the party of the living God!
ment of life !                                                               And He is the faithful One!
    Unto death!                                                              He is that in Himself! He needs no creature to
    That is; unto physical death! Unto the death of our               realize His faithfulness. He is in Himself a Covenant
body! Until we enter the,sphere of the dead! Unto the                 God.      As Father, He is faithful Father. As Son, He is
end of life's pathway here below!                                     faithful Son. As Spirit, He is faithful  S$irit!
    For Christ's sake !                                                      He is the Rock! He cannot deny Himself. Never
    0, yes, all men must suffer physical death! This is               does the Father deny the Son or the Holy Spirit. Never
quite natural.         It is the result of sin  andthe curse.         does the Son deny the Father or the Holy Spirit. And
But Jesus is speaking here of death in an altogether                  never does the Holy Spirit deny the Father or the Son.
particular sense! It is not only: Be faithful until we                Just because of this, He is the fountain of His covenant
die; but it is: Be so faithful to Him that you are pre-               life with and for His people! His covenant in Himself
pared to die for His sake if that is necessary. Be so                 is the source of His covenant with His people. His
faithful, that your faithfulness will bring death upon                relation to His people is a relation that stems from
you !                                                                 His own covenant life of friendship and faithfulness!
    How necessary this requirement is when considered                        Because He cannot deny Himself, He cannot deny
in the light of the condition of the Church of Smyrna,                His people !       He loves them with an eternal love, a
which is the type of the church as you may find her at                love in which He knew them and chose them. In this
any time in the midst of the world! In general her                    love He is the unchangeable One. His love is as stead-
condition is described as being in tribulation. She is                fast, yea, more steadfast than the mountains. The
pressed on every side. The attempt is made to give                    mountains may be removed. But His love remains  un-
her no room in the world. Not only is she partaker                    moveably steadfast. Nothing can destroy that love, or
with the world in all the common afflictions of life,                 separate His people from it.
but added to her suffering is the trouble she endures                        God is faithful to His people even unto the death of
because she is identified with Christ. She is slandered               His Son! He would have His people enter into glory,
by the synagogue of Satan. The faith of Christ is ridi-               the glory of His everlasting covenant! But there was
culed in His church.           The very blood by which the            no other way to accomplish this than through the death
church is purchased is trampled under foot. Her jus-                  of His Son, Who Himself bore our sins in His own body
tification in His blood is denied. And because the church             to the tree of the cross.             0, yes, truly, God was in
is faithful, being unwilling to compromise with evil,                 Christ, faithful unto death, for us!
she is poor.         Socially and economically she is ostra-                 Living source of our faithfulness, He is!
cized by the world. Under the influence of evil men                          Not just our example to follow! Not simply a model
she is denied many of the common privileges. Her                      according to which we are to act! Not just an incentive
membership could do no business. They weredeprived                    to  encourage  us to be faithful! For how should, or
of their property. They could not provide for the com-                could  we; as we are by nature be encouraged to faith-
mon necessities of life. This church probably experi-                 fulness? How impossible that of ourselves we should
enced a foretaste of the power of Antichrist. Because                 ever be faithful, and reciprocate His love!
they refused to receive the mark of the beast, they                          Indeed, He is the living Source! His love is first!
could neither buy nor sell. In particular, more  .tribu-              First it is in principle ! And always first as the foun-
lation was coming. The trouble would worsen. Social                   tain is always there before' the water can come from
and economic boycott cannot be the end. Satan, and his                it. He is first in giving to His Son the Spirit of faith-


  , 4 1 2   _-'                                                  THESTANDARD BEARER
          .-.:

    fulness.             He is first in connecting us to this Fountain         Notice that it is given as well as promised! You do
   : of faithfulness in His Son!                                            not merit. It is given of free and sovereign grace!
                  Therefore, be faithful, because you are of His               By Christ, the First and the Last!
   `,party!            Be a steadfast manifestation of the relation in         Hence, He will be the end, the victorious Last. The
     which we stand to Him! Be.faithful  even if the honor of               Alpha and Omega !
     His Name requires your suffering and death!                               The Resurrected One !
                  And the crown of life I will give to thee!                   Which was dead, and is alive. He was dead, and is
                  Wonderful promise !                                       alive with a new and victorious life. He was the vic-
                  The Crown!                                                torious One over all the power of death. Hence, the
    _.            Not the crown of royalty, the crown intended for          Church whose Lord He-is, has nothing to fear, not even
     princes, does the Lord have in mind. Though we shall                   death itself.
     reign with Christ, and sit upon thrones. To the faith-                    For the faithful ! To those who overcome !
     ful in the Church of Laodicea the Lord promises to                        Wonderful paradox!
     them who overcome that He will grant them to sit with                     First faithful unto death  - then crowned with life!
     Him in His throne, even as He overcame, and is set                        This is the order! The promise assures you that
     down with His -Father in His throne! And in Matthew                    the end of faithfulness is the .crown of life!
     19:28, we read: "Verily I say unto you, that ye which                     The paradox is solved when your eye is on Him
     have followed -me, in the regeneration when the Son of                 Who promised !
 Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall                       He went through death!         He broke the bands of
     sit, upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of                 death and the grave! The mighty Samson, Who could
_.  I s r a e l . "       0, indeed, we shall sit with Royalty upon         not be bound by death's shackles ! Who triumphantly
     thrones ! But this is not the idea of the promise in our               tore them apart. as slender threads !
     text!                                                                     Hence, there is a way out! Death cannot hold you
      _ Rather, it  isthe wreath-of victor-y!                               its prey! Though the evil one may succeed in killing
                  Symbol of triumph!                                        the body, he cannot kill the soul! Nor can he keep the
                  As  -the runner in the race presses to the goal to re-    body in its grave. Death is conquered. It is overcome!
     ceive the garland, the wreath of victory, to be placed                    Therefore, fear not!
     about his neck. So the faithful unto death shall receive                  But be faithful even unto death!
     the crown of life !                                                       And through the way of faithfulness you shall re-
                  The crown that consists in eternal life !                 ceive the crown of life that fadeth not away!
                  Life as a wreath of victory!                                 Eternal life, the victor's crown!


                                                                 ~ddZaet%db

                                                                  STAFF NOTES

                                                                Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema

            ..Some of the proceedings of  ourannual  staff--meZing          temporary theology by the Rev. David Engelsma. For
     are of interest to our readers, and I shall briefly report             the rest, the present rubrics will be continued, and
     them-.here. ~-                                                         all the present contributing editors have been re-
   --- This year's staff meeting was conspicuous by the                     appointed.
     absence of our beloved editor-in-chief. Yes, the in-                      Here are a few more notes:
     evitable change has officially come. We have all seen                     l/ Beginning with the October 1 issue all regular
     it coming for some time, and dreaded it. And I dare                    copy must be in the hands of the editor one month in
     say that because of the intimacies of working with and                 advance.      Thus, for example, copy for October 1 must
     assisting my father, I- have more clearly seen this day                be in by September 1, etc. This is advance notice to
     coming, and dreaded it more. I am saddened by it, and                  all contributing editors, who now have the summer
     from that point of view take up my laborsas-ed-itor-in-                months to get ahead. The only exceptions to this will
     chief with a very heavy heart: I would far rather that                 be "Church News" and "All Around Us," which we
     it were not necessary. But such is not the will of God;                like to keep as current as possible.
     and. His will is good. I publicly hereby thank the Staff
     for their expression of confidence, and, under God's                      2/ Special contributions (limited to 300 words and
     blessing, humbly pledge my best  .efforts. I am cheered                matters of general interest) are always welcomed by
    by-the  -@respect  of the cooperation of a staff of capable             the Standard  Beaver , must be sent to the  editor-in-
     -and-faithful co-editors.                                              chief, and must be in one-half month before date of
                  An addition to our  Standard   Beaver  to which we        placement. Thus, contributions for October 1 must be
     may look forward when the new volume begins next                       in by September 15.
     October, D.V., will be a series of articles on  con-                      In this connection, the Staff also decided that reports


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   413


of league meetings should hereafter be sent in the form           3/ We hope to publish a larger number of book re-
of brief news items to the News Editor, Mr. J.M.               views than in the recent past, written not only by the
Faber. The general interest of our readers with respect        editor-in-chief but also by various contributing editors.
to such meetings lies chiefly in the speech or lecture            Finally, the Staff also decided to give special cov-
delivered; and if such a speech is of general interest         erage to our Seminary graduation in this issue. For
and significance, this interest can be met by a com-           this reason some of the regular rubrics and the regu-
plete transcript of such a speech, furnished by the            lar editorial material do not appear in this number.
speaker concerned.      As a general policy, the  Stundavd        We solicit the prayers of our many loyal readers
Beaver   welcomes material of this nature, but reserves        and supporters, as well as all efforts to improve and
the right of decision as to placement, of course.              enlarge the outreach of our magazine.


                                            SEMINARY GRADUATION

                                                Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema





                                                     Robert D. Decker

    One of the high points of the 1965 Synod of the               I believe this may be said of the occasion under
Protestant Reformed Churches was reached on Tues-              discussion.
day evening, June 8, when Seminarian Robert Decker,               From a certain point of view it might undoubtedly
having been examined and declared a candidate for the          be said that the rather elaborate celebration was out of
ministry  of the Word and Sacraments, graduated.  A            proportion to the insignificant event. A goodly audience
goodly audience assembled in the auditorium of our             assembled, and an entire evening's program was pre-
First Church, Grand Rapids, in order to celebrate the          pared; and we had only one candidate graduating, and
occasion.     And it was the rather commonly expressed         that too, from a very small school.        Besides, there
opinion of our people who attended that the Lord gave          had been a two-year lapse since the previous gradu-
us a  `Lgood" evening. The Theological School Com-             ation.
mittee prepared an appropriate program for the oc-                However,  .when we consider that this candidate has
casion. Vocal music was furnished by the Hope Heralds          received a well-rounded theological education (and I
and by Mr. Arnold Dykstra. Addresses were given by             want to emphasize that our students do indeed receive
Candidate Decker and by the Rector; and in order that          a complete theological education), that in a school like
all our people may share somewhat in the occasion,             ours he enjoyed the benefit of much personal attention
these addresses are being printed in our  Standard             in the course of his training, and that, above all, our
Beaver.      The Rev. H. Veldman, Vice President of the        candidate received a  thoroughly Reformed  training,
Theological School Committee and chairman for the              the equal of which cannot be found elsewhere,  - when
evening, presented to the candidate his diploma.               we consider all this, then I say that the  .Lord  ,has
    Thus, the Lord has again manifested His blessing           signally blessed us and has given our churches abun-
upon our school and our churches. Our school has               dant reason for gratitude and for hope.
produced another graduate; our churches have another              May an occasion of this kind prove to be an `incen-
candidate for the ministry; and, hopefully, another of our     tive and inspiration to our churches.            May it also .
congregations will in the near future have a pastor.           serve as an incentive to more of  .our young men to
    I remarked above that this was one of the high points      prepare for the Protestant Reformed ministry.  j.
of our 1965 Synod. There is more than one reason for              Congratulations to     Candidate Decker! May the
this.                                                          Lord soon give him a place in one of our congregations,
    It is sometimes said that precious things come in          bless him with a fruitful ministry, and, above all, keep
small packages.                                                him ever faithful to the truth of the gospel.


414                                                    T,HE   ,STANDARD  BEARER

                                .-                                 .                                   _.._





                                                 ' LIVING FROM  THE PAST'
          :.                                                                                                                 `:     ..
           .._                                                                                                                _.
                                                      Pvof. HO C. Hoeksema                        I
                                 I



Mr. Chairman, Fathers and `Brethren of the Synod,                       Elijah, when one might well be-led to ask the question,
Graduate Decker,                                                        ` `Hath .God cast away His people ?"            .
Brethren and Sisters in the Lord:'                                        ' Nor is it any different in the new  di,spensation.
       This is a  happ,y occasion for the graduate, for, our            Make a comparison' between the -church of apostolic
churches, and for, our school and its faculty: for the                  times and the church of the DarkAges,  and the contrast
graduate, because it means that he has successfully                     is immediately obvious.         Or compare the glorious
completed his years of preparation and may  now,look                    period of the Reformation of the sixteenth century
forward to a place in the Lord's vineyard; for our                      with the dismal period of dead orthodoxy and rational-
churches, because we now have another candidate to                      ism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. More-
take his place in the ranks of our ministers; and for                   over, what is true of the church quite in  generai has
our school and its faculty, because there is a kind of                  frequently been true of one generation in comparison
special "professorial" delight in seeing a young man                    with another, of one period in comparison with another,
finish his training and attain the status of candidate                  within, a particular church or denomination.
for the ministry of the Word and Sacraments.                               The question is: wherein does this variation from
       Yet this occasion is not one untinged by a certain               period to period and from generation to generation
sadness which I personally, and we all, cannot help                     consist?, What is implied in it?
feeling.          For this is the first graduation of our Theo-            It certainly does not mean that in a certain genera-
logical School at which the entire original faculty of                  tion or period all the individual members of the church
our school is missing. That sadness and its reasons                     are spiritual seed, or that even, the majority of them
are not merely a matter of loving sentiment and es-                     are. This is never the case historically. It was not
teem, but a matter of very serious moment- for our                      even true of that outstanding and strong generation of
school and our churches. This, among other factors,                     .Joshua's  time. Even at that time therewere apparently
suggested to me my subject for this occasion:                           strange gods among the children of Israel, according
                       Living From The Past                             to Joshua's farewell address. And thus it has always
                       I. A Historical Necessity                        been among God's  people  in their generations. No
                      II. An Urgent Calling                             generation is wholly pure. In no period are all spirit-
                     III. An Only Possibility                           ual seed.    No reformation is ever wholly pure and
                                                                        without its strange fire on the altar. But in the case
A His tovical  Necessity.                                               of a generation or period that is particularly noted for
       It is a general phenomenon of the history of God's               being God-fearing and strong you will find that the
cause in the midst of the world that it runs from gen-                  spiritual element is  dominating.  It is in control., This
eration to generation. Moreover, it is also a general                   is partly because the spiritual element is comparatively
phenomenon of that history that as it runs from gener-                  strong in numbers, as, for example, in Joshua's time,
ation to generation, it is characterized by alternating                 after Israel had passed through the fiery trial of God's
periods of strength and weakness, of faithfulness and                   judgments in the wilderness and thousands upon thou-
apostasy.            There are certain  genevations of  God's           sands of carnal Israelites had been purged away. This
people which as generations are God-fearing. There                      is partly due to the historical circumstance which you
is knowledge of the Lord among them. The truth of the                   often find at such a time, that such a generation (as,
Word of God is maintained strictly and faithfully. There                again, in Joshua's time) are eyewitnesses of the great
is a `consistent walking in the way of Jehovah and in His               works of the Lord.       And it is partly due to another
fear and according to His precepts.  There~.are  other                  historical circumstance that frequently marks such
generations which as  generations are characterized by                  periods and such generations, namely, that God gives
spiritual ignorance, by indifference toward the truth,                  to certain generations men of influence.  Hegives  them
by apostasy, and by worldlimindedness.                                  His servants, influential men who fear Him. Thus it
       These are general phenomena which characterize                   was also in that ancient generation to which I have
the history of God's people in the midst of the world.                  several times referred: the Lord gave them a Joshua,
       Thus it was in the old dispensation with Israel.                 an Eleazar, a Caleb, and God-fearing elders and chief
Compare, for example, the period of Joshua and his                      men among the tribes.
generation with the immediately following era of the                       But the time comes when such God-fearing genera-
Judges.           The former was a spiritually strong,  God-            tions pass away and pass from the scene of history.
fearing generation; in the latter -you can at times                        Thus it was in Israel's history at the time of Joshua.
hardly recognize God's people. Or compare, if you                       Joshua himself died..      And his was the best epitaph
will, the period of David-Solomon with the immediately                  that could be written of a man; and it is given him by
following generation of Jeroboam, when a large part of                  the Word of God: he was the "servant of the Lord."
Israel vowed that they had no part with David's house,                  Eleazar, the third son of Aaron, high priest, divider
or with the somewhat later generation of the time of                    of the land along with Joshua, a man of high station


                                                  TtiE  STANDARD'EiEARER
                                             .                                                      ,.     .

and influence among the children of Israel, also died.         An  W-gent Calling
And the elders, who were not merely older men; but
who were princes, chief men, and judges among the                  From the phenomena mentioned there follows a
tribes,  - they all died sooner or later.                      very urgent calling for the church and the people of
   Thus it is in our own history and in our own                God. That calling is to  live?  from the past.
churches.      The generation, --the God-fearing genera-           Let me explain both negatively and positively what
tion, -that were eyewitnesses  .of the Lord's work in          is implied in this.
our own history at the time of our origin as churches              There are three possibilities confronting the church
is fast `disappearing from the scene. Rev. Ophoff is           in this connection.
gone.    The Lord has removed Rev. Hoeksema from                   The first is to live in  separation  from the past,  to
active service through the infirmities of sickness and         -divorce ourselves from the `past. I can best illustrate
old age. Many others of that generation have passed            this by calling your attention to a very sad example of
away.    The -generation that were but young men and           apostasy in Old Testament history.               I refer to the
children in 1924 has to a large extent taken the place         example of `the. generation following' Joshua. You read
of that eyewitness generation.      And, in fact, a third      .in Scripture that Israel served the Lord all the days of
generation, a generation that were only children and           Joshua and all the days  .of the elders that outlived
teen-agers in the history of 1953 is already arising  ,in      Joshua.       That is; the nation as a whole (not meaning,
order to take its place in the churches. Our graduate          remember,. every individual) served the Lord and
tonight represents that third generation already!              walked in the ways of Jehovah. Thus you find it in
   In close connection with all this stands a third            Joshua  24:31: "And Israel served the Lord all the
phenomenon, namely: the phenomenon of the progres-             days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that
sive realization of God's work of the realization of           overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works
His promise and His covenant and kingdom.                      of the Lord, that he had done for Israel." But the
   Centrally and principally, of course, all the work of       very next generation departed already! This is indeed
God is finished. It has ,been  finished in and through         hinted at in the text just -quoted. And it is confirmed
Jesus Christ our  .Lord.       That was not the case in        in Judges  2:10, at the conclusion of a passage parallel
Joshua's time. The Gospel in Joshua ends in death.             to that in Joshua: "And also all that generation were
That is the close' of the book of Joshua: death! The           gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another
ruler died.       The bones of Joseph are buried. The          generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor
priest died. And they are all buried in the typical land       yet the works which he had done for Israel." The
of rest. The covenant was not realized. Salvation had          situation, therefore, was that there was only a remnant
not been accomplished.      Everything was typical. The        according to the' election of grace, both in Joshua's
work of God in the establishment and realization of            generation and the generation following. That is always
His covenant, according to the promise, was not finished.      true.        And there was present a large element of the
But in-Christ `Jesus our Lord all is finished. The gospel      carnal seed. That carnal element had been purged out
is finished. Salvation is finished. In the old dispensa-       in the wilderness.       But it was always present. And it
tion they waited for the better Mediator to come. And          gradually increased and gained in strength and finally
Christ is the answer to that waiting; He is the fulfill-       gained the upper hand, the dominion, in Israel. Hence,
ment.    And therefore the close of the gospel of Jesus        there was a period of sad apostasy.
Christ is not death, but life through death!  And, all the         But there was a historical reason. That next gen-
work of God has been centrally and principally finished        eration, according to Scripture, knew not the Lord,
in the coming and death and resurrection andexaltation         -neither the works that the Lord had done for Israel!
.of our Lord  Jesus`Christ.  The church in the new dis-        This is very significant. It simply means that that
pensation, therefore, possesses the full revelation- of        generation did not live from the past! They lived in
the gospel, the whole of the truth of salvation, in the        separation from the past. They were divorced from
Scriptures.                                                    the past. You see, there is a relation here of cause
   Nevertheless the full and complete and final his-           and effect. That generation did not know the Lord's
torical realization of what has been centrally and             works for Israel; and not knowing the Lord's works
principally accomplished in Christ Jesus remains to            for Israel, they did not know the Lord; and not knowing
be accomplished.       The church, the body of Christ,         the Lord, they did not serve the Lord. They became
must be gathered.        The truth of the gospel must be       apostate!
preserved and developed in all its riches.           And it        There is a second possibility which in a way is the
must be transmitted. All of this  isdone  progressively,       -very  opposite of the one just mentioned. That is to
from generation to generation. There is continuity in          live  in  the past. And it is as wrong and as fatal as the
the work of God. God does not work sporadically. He            first possibility.
does not begin  anew~His  work of grace in each genera-            This involves being rather well acquainted with the
tion all by itself. He does not work here in one gen-          past.    We know all about the Lord's work in the past.
eration and there in an entirely separate generation.          In fact, we revel in it, and we boast in it. And  we.are
There is nothing aphoristic about the -work of God.            filled with a certain nostalgia. We long to bring back
The Lord our God accomplishes His work progressively           the memories of the past, and we long for "the good
and with continuity from generation to generation. IThis       old  days;" But in the meantime we blandly and blindly
is simply a-fact of history. It  is- an axiom with respect     and' blissfully ignore the present and the peculiar
to God's work.


4 1 6                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


problems and calling of the present that are all about           not simply  come  to-us from the past. It is certainly
us and pressing in upon us.                                      not  the,work  of men, mere men. The Lord has wrought
   That attitude is a very, very serious mistake. It is          for us. We are what we are just exactly because of the
a mistake for  ,the very obvious and simple reason that          Lord's work through all the ages of the past down to
it is  unrealistic!  It is not really possible to live in the    the present moment. If that is not true, and if we do
past.      We are not in the past but in the present. The        not understand this and are. not keenly aware, of it,
"good old days" are gone, and they can never be                  then we may better quit as churches! I mean that in
brought back.       1924, for example, cannot  ,be brought       all seriousness! If our heritage is not the heritage of
back and re-lived. The past is gone, though not for-             the truth in its clearest glory, and if in our Protestant
gotten.     However, it is possible to do in our thoughts        Reformed Churches there is not represented the
and in our imagination what is in reality impossible.            mighty works of the Lord for Israel, then by all means
We can  attempt  unrealistically to live that past all           we should give up and quit, -- lest  haply we should be
over again. And this has very bad results. The result            found fighting against God, beloved! Thirdly, this
is the tendency to rest on our laurels, to boast vainly          knowledge and discernment of the works of the Lord
of that past, to claim that. we are in the present Re-           involves this, that we know and understand that the
formed and that we are Protestant Reformed simply by             seriousness and urgency of our position and calling
virtue of that past. And that is certainly not true. Our         arises precisely from the fact that the Lord has
past alone does not guarantee that we are Reformed;              wrought for us. That makes our position deadly seri-
the question is what we ourselves are in the present!            ous, and it makes our calling as important and urgent
But in that attitude of nostalgia we reminisce concern-          as any calling can possibly be!
ing that past, and we long for that past, and we fight              In the third place, to live from the past implies that
all the battles of the past over again. And the result           we can and do understand our present position in the
is what is called dead orthodoxy, confessionalism,               light of our past. We must have a very strong and clear
doctrinal and spiritual stagnation, and polemicism.              sense of history. This is true, in the first place, cer-
The result is also that you finally lose that past itself,       tainly because of the lessons to be learned and the ex-
and eventually a generationarises that out of sheer re-          perience to be gained and the warnings to be taken
vulsion rejects that past and repudiates it. There               from history. In a certain sense it is true that history
was a good deal of that attitude in the period of the            repeats itself. As the Dutch saying has it (in transla-
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, not long after             tion): "In the past lies the present; in the `now' the
the Reformation.       And in our own Reformed history           `what-shall-be."' But, in the second place, there is
there was a very sad instance of that attitude that              a much more fundamental aspect to this matter. We
resulted in polemicism and confessionalism and dead              cannot possibly understand our present position from
orthodoxy in the Netherlands in the generations that             the point of view of its contents, we cannot  .understand
arose after the Synod of Dordrecht.                              our heritage, except in the light of the past. That was
   In distinction from the two possible attitudes al-            true already in Israel's case in the generation follow-
ready mentioned, there is the urgent calling to live             ing Joshua. That new generation could not understand
from the past.                                                   their position except in the light of Joshua's times.
   What is implied in this?                                      They could not answer the questions, who they were,
   In the first place, it implies that we are thoroughly         why they we:-e in the land of Canaan, and what was
acquainted with the past. We must know our historical            their purpose and their calling in the land of Canaan,
roots.      We must never forget the past. We must have          except in the light of all the works of the Lord for
long memories in the good sense of  theword. We must             Israel in the time of the conquest and before that. The
not forget 1953, and we must not forget 1924, and we             same is true of the church in any age; and the same is
must not forget 1886, and we must not forget 1857, and           true of our own churches. We cannot understand our
we must not forget 1834, and we must not forget                  heritage, we cannot understand our confessions, our
Dordrecht, and we must not forget the Reformation,               polity, our liturgy, our theology, except in the light of
and we must not forget all of the past of the history of         the past. We cannot understand who we are, and why
God's church in the midst of the world, back all the             we are here, and why we are what we are, and what
way to the Scriptures and to sacred history. This is             our calling and purpose is, except in the light of the
crucial.      For in the sound sense of the word we are          past. We cannot understand our present position and
indeed children of the past!                                     calling as Protestant Reformed Churches, except in
   In the second place, it is crucialnot only that we are        the light of the Reformation of the sixteenth century;
thoroughly acquainted with the past, but also that we            we cannot understand it, except in the light of Calvin
know and discern in that past the works of the Lord fov          and Geneva; we cannot understand it, except in the
His church. This means, first of all, that we are cog-           light of Dordrecht, in the light of the Afscheiding,
nizant of the fact that the Lord gave us a heritage, a           in the light of the Doleantie. We certainly cannot un-
very precious heritage: the heritage of the truth in             derstand it, except in the light of the reformation of
its clearest glory, the truth, very briefly put, that            1924, and, again, the reformation of 1953. The truth
GOD IS GOD!          Secondly, it means that we are very         is that we of 1965 simply are not an isolated genera-
keenly aware that this is the Lord's work, His work              tion.    And if we nevertheless attempt to live in such
for Israel, the church.       This is the significant thing      historical isolation, we become what may be termed
about our past in the last analysis. Our heritage did            a lost generation!


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   417


   In the fourth place, living from the past implies                How is that possible?
that we live  in  the  .present and that we fulfill our             Fundamentally, beloved, there is but one answer to         .'
present calling on the  .basis of and in the light of the        that question: grace, pure, sovereign grace! You
past.       The present is different than the past. We do        cannot stand; and I cannot stand., We cannot possibly
not live in 1834 or in 1886 or in 1924, but in the year of       remain faithful in our own strength. We are absolutely
our Lord 1965.         And each generation as it takes its       dependent upon God's grace. Let us remember that.
place upon the scene of history has its own problems,            If we ever attempt to stand in our own strength, we
its own situation, its own conflicts, and its own peculiar       will surely fall!
calling.      Each generation, therefore, has its peculiar          But remember, too, that God's grace operates
calling to receive and to maintain and to defend and to          through means, through God's own ordained means.
develop the truth of the glorious heritage which the                This implies that living from the past is possible
Lord has given His church, but has thecalling to do so,          only in the way of faithful instruction from generation
not in isolation, nor as beginning anew, but as standing         to generation. How does it happen that a generation
on the shoulders of the preceding generation, and that           can arise that knows not the Lord and His wonderful
too, in the awareness of the fact that it represents             works? Only through a failure to instruct! We must
the church of all ages, which has the promise of the             instruct through the preaching of the Word. For through
Holy Spirit, Who has dwelt in the church. and guided             the Word purely preached the Lord and His works for
the church into all the truth to the present moment.             His people are revealed. That truth of the Word, there-
   Such is the calling to live from the past.                    fore, as we have received it in the line of generations
   Urgent is that calling.                                       must be maintained by the church in the generation
   From a positive point of view, the urgency of that            that fears the Lord. And thattruthmust be transmitted
calling speaks for itself. Its urgency is inherent in            to the generation to come, so that they in turn are
the very nature of the calling. In the deepest sense of          equipped to live from the past. We must instruct in
the word, this urgency arises from the fact that our             our Seminary, whose very purpose is the maintenance
calling to live from the past is divine: it is of God!           and continuance of the ministry of the Word in our
   But there is another aspect to this urgency. The              midst.      We must instruct in our catechism classes, in
carnal seed is always present in the church; and that            our day schools, in our publications.
carnal seed always develops and increases and strives               Along with that instruction goes the exercise of
to gain dominion in the church. Besides, the lie always          discipline.      We must exercise discipline positively by
makes its appearance wherever the truth. is revealed.            exhorting one another, lest we fall asleep! And we must
That lie is old, almost as old as the truth. And it al-          exercise discipline negatively by expelling the evil
ways appears as essentially the same lie, though in              and the evildoer from our midst.
new forms, new and more deceptive forms.                Still       In conclusion, therefore, let us watch and pray.
more: especially our age is characterized increasing-            Let us understand our calling and accomplish it, --
ly by a refusal to live from the past and by a repudia-          lest it ever be said of our generations to come, "They
tion of the past. This is true in the church at large;           knew not the Reformed truth, neither the work that
and it is true in the Reformed community. A genera-              the Lord did for them!"
tion arises that knows not the Lord and His work, that              May the Lord give us grace to be faithful  to,our
calls in question almost every important truth of our            calling.       May He give that grace to our candidate as
heritage, that considers our heritage in theconfessions          presently he labors in the ministry; and may He give
out-dated, that removes the "old landmarks", that is             that grace to all of us.
"ecumenicity-mad".
    Urgent indeed, therefore, is our calling to live, not        *  Rectoral  Address by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema at the
in separation from the past, nor in the past, but  from          graduation exercises of the Theological School of the
the past!                                                        Protestant Reformed Churches, June 8, 1965.


                                  THE CALLING OF THE MINISTER AS PASTOR


                                                 (Graduation Speech)

                                                        R. D.  Decker

   As is obvious from the title, the topic assigned me           preaching and his calling in pastoral labor with  indi-
deals with the minister's calling as Pastor. Not is              viduals in the congregation) are not related. They are.
the question, what is the minister's calling in the  of-         In fact, they may not be separated. This is true  be-
ficial proclamation of the Word. Rather the question             cause they are but two aspects of the one office of the
concerns the task of the minister in regard to the               minister. Nevertheless, we may distinguish between
pastoral labor. We do not meanbythe above comments               the two. The former (official preaching) belongs  par-
to say that these two (i.e. the minister's calling in the        titularly to the prophetic aspect of the minister's


.     -J18                                                        TH`E.  STANDARD  ,BEARER
                         _.                                             ._                                   .

      calling; the latter (pastoral  .labor) belongs to the                      calls  also  equips.       In the consciousness that he is
      priestly aspect of his work. The oneconcerns-the con-                      called ;-by-Christ and is thus the mouthpiece of Jesus
      gregation as a whole; the other the congregation `in-                      Christ the pastor has the boldness of faith to perform
      dividually.                                                                his labors.
              To the above general observation- we would  -add" a                    The object, of the labor of the Pastor is the congre-
      second.       The topic is, indeed, important and timely.                  gation.        Not. must this congregation be considered a
      To put the  .subject  of our concern-in the proper Scrip-                  mere group of individuals, but as the flock of God.
      tural perspective is very important especially in our                      <I  P e t .   5:2)
      day. Much is being said and written about the minis-                           That "flock of God" is a precious flock. Most
      ter's calling as pastor; The trouble is that much of                       precious it is `because the flock has been redeemed
      what- is being said fails to set forth the minister's                      with the blood of God's own Son. Loved from eternity,
      true calling. The minister is supposed to' be some                         elected from eternity, and saved by the  blood,of  Jesus
      sort of' psychologist, a counselor. While it is our in-                    is the flock of God. Therefore it is God's precious
      tention to maintain that the minister is not a psycholo-                   treasure; always the object of His love and favor.
      gist we do not mean  ,to  ,condemn  the science of psy-                        The particular congregation of the pastor is only a
      chology;                                                                   part of that one flock of God. So too the individual
              There are a number of questions which must be                      member of the congregation is only' a part of the one
      asked and answered in order to come to a proper un-                        flock. That means that the minister in all his pastoral
      derstanding of the question involved. Consider the                         labor with the individuals of his congregation may
      following: Who is the subject of  pastoral.labor? Who                      never consider them `except in the light of their being
      is the object of pastoral labor? And what is the min-                      a part of the body of Christ, the flock of God.
      i s t e r 's   o n l y   c a l l i n g   as<pastor?                            The calling then of the pastor? Negatively, he does
              Of course, the subject of pastoral labor is the                    not labor with a view to the individual salvation and
      minister. That means that Christ is  the,  subject of                      comfort of the one member.             The aim of his labor
      pastoral labor. The minister only functions as  office-                    must be to cause that one member tolive in the fellow-
      bearer in the church.              He is called by Christ to his           ship of the body of Christ as it is manifest in the con-
      task.       By virtue of his being called by Christ to the                 gregation of which he is a member.
      office of minister he labors as pastor. He is a servant                        When the minister deals with an individual in the
      of Christ. Christ is according to Scripture the chief                      congregation he is dealing with one of Christ's sheep.
      shepherd, of the church  `(I Pet.  5:4). Therefore Christ                  Thus no matter what the particular need or circum-
      is through the minister the subject, the One Who does                      stance may be, the pastor has only one calling, viz.
      the pastoral labor.                                                        "feed the flock of God" (I Pet.  5:2). Whether laboring
              That means especially two things. First, it means                  with  .the sick, the bereaved, the dying ones, or those in
      that the position occupied by the minister does not lie                    doubt the minister must only feed the flock. His only
      in his own person. To put it positively, the minister's                    word to them can be: "Thus saith the Lord."
      position in his office lies in Jesus Christ. The minis-                        This is true  because he is dealing with individual
      ter comes in the name of Christ in all of his labor.                       members of the flock of God. He does that as servant
      Moreover, he is clothed with the authority of Christ,                      of the Chief Shepherd. Fundamentally all of the needs
      never with his own. This is extremely important to                         of the members of that one flock are the same. They
      see.       Important because the only possibility of the                   stand in need of the Bread of Life.
      minister to function as shepherd in the church lies in
      his being called to his office by Christ Himself.                              The minister's calling as Pastor, therefore, is not
              Second, that Christ is the chief subject of all                    to give medical advice to the sick, or psychological
      pastoral labor means that He qualifies the called one                      counseling to the mentally ill, but only and always to
      unto his task. Not only does the minister come with                        give the object of his labor the Word of God. This is
      the badge of Christ's authority in his labor; but also,                    his calling. His task is to show the sheep their only
      he comes in the strength of Christ. In all of his weak-                    comfort in life and death so that they are led to con-
      ness, failings, and disappointments the minister may                       fess, "I am not my own, but belong to my faithful
      rely upon the sure promise of Scripture that He Who                        Savior Jesus Christ in life and in death".




              "Christ will make His people holy, and put His                         "A  mystery  is not a  contradiction.  A mystery is a
      Spirit within them to change their hearts, and to work                     fact which we cannot explain. A contradiction is no
      upon their spirits. But this is not a condition required                   fact.        It is  a statement involving one or more  false-
      in order to partake of Christ. Christ Himself gives                        hoods; it is a proposition which neutralizes and  ex-
      Himself; and He  -then bestows these things when He is                     plodes itself."
      given."                                                                                                           -Rev. Geo. S. Bishop
                                                     -  Tobias Crisp, 1642


                                                   `THE.STANDARD  BEARER                                                    419


                 .               .`
                                    $t&.`
                                                  ~&                         a;.                *,:       ;

                                        REPORT OF THE SYNOD  OF 1965                             "
                                                    I

                                                         R e v .   H .   Hank0  `,_

   Another Synod of our Protestant Reformed Churches                Rev. M. Schipper.
`has. become -history.     Beginning its meetings with a                Finally, Synod decided to- meet in the mid-west
prayer service on June 1 in which Rev. H. Veldman                   next year and designated  Doon  as the calling Church.
preached a beautiful and fitting sermon on Luke 12:32:              I personally am `happy with this decision, for the West
"Fear not, little flock; for  ,it is your Father's good             has. long wanted a Synod to meet here; and I am sure
pleasure to give you the kingdom," Synod continued                  that it will, do our' Western Churches a great deal, of
its meetings through Friday morning of-the following                good to be host for a Synod. It has been fifteen years
week.     It was a long and. busy Synod; this is especially         since Synod met. in the midwest; in 1950 Synod was in
evident from the fact that Synod began meeting two                  Hull.     Since that time many important changes have
mornings at 8:00 to finish its work; and from the fact              come about in our churches -particularly the split of
that almost 400 articles will appear in the Acts, indi-             1953; and our churches here in the midwest  can benefit
cating that many decisions were taken.                              from a meeting in this area once again.
   Before we report specifically on matters decided                     To turn now to specific matters which came before
upon by this Synod, there are several general obser-                Synod, it is possible to give only a brief review of im-
vations which are worth making.                                     portant decisions. But becausethese decisions were in-
   In the first place, this was the first Synod in many             deed important, we urge our people to obtain a printed
years at which Rev. H. Hoeksema was' not present.                   copy of the Acts when they will appear, most likely
The Synod was deeply aware of the fact that the Lord                later in the summer or in the early fall.
had called Rev. H. Hoeksema from his active labors                      To turn, first of all, to matters of the Theological
in the churches, and daily brought the needs  of-him                School, we note the following:
who occupied such an important and cherished place in                   Student Robert -Decker successfully passed his
our churches before the throne of grace.                            synodical examinations and was- declared candidate for
   Secondly, it is worthy of note that all the delegates            the ministry of the Word of God and  .the sacraments in
coming to Synod were present throughout the sessions.               our Churches. We are thankful to God for this fruit of
There were no alternates who had to come in because                 our seminary and are sure that the Lord will provide
the delegates could not finish the work with Synod. This            a place for him in our churches; so we can look forward
was a commendable feature of Synod inasmuch as the                  to our minister shortage being relieved somewhat.
same men, being present throughout, could work with                     It was observed by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema at the
all Synod's business without interruption.         It is, in        graduation exercises that this was the first graduate
this connection, worthy of special note, I think, that the          from our seminary who graduated in a time when the
elder delegates took a more active part in the discus-              entire original faculty of the school was gone. Rev.
sions than in any previous Synod which lives in my                  Ophoff has been taken to his eternal reward; Rev.
recollection. Their important contributions were very               Hoeksema can labor no longer in the school; Rev.  ,Vos
helpful to Synod in its deliberations, and it speaks well           also, although still preaching,  `was forced to give up
of the leadership in our various congregations.                     his work because of failing health. A new generation
   Thirdly, in many respects, this was a forward look-              has risen, and we do well as Churches to remember
ing Synod. There were no pr ests or specific problems               with thanksgiving, the blessings of God that we have
and troubles in the congrega `ons which came before                 received. from a generation that has laid aside its            -
Synod.     The result was that  `ynod  occupied its time            labors in ourmidst.
                               %
with matters which affect the ,uture of our churches.                   It was these events which also prompted Synod to
Synod had time and opportunity to study and ponder the              decide to call a new professor, for our school must go
future course of our churches, and used its time well               on; it is the center and life blood of our churches.
in this respect.      The major items of business were                  It is not amiss in this connection to make mention
matters concerning our Theological School and mis-                  of the heavy load of labor `that Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
sions.     Thus it was not only a pleasant Synod, but it            bore throughout the past year. Although he received
was also a Synod which, we may believe, points our                  assistance from Revs. Veldman and Schipper, much of
Churches ahead into the future.                                     the `work fell upon him.
   Fourthly, the delegates labored together in a spirit
of unity. They stood shoulder to shoulder in the cause                  Two-  decisions affecting the future of our school
our God has given to us to represent. The harmony                   deserve special notice. The one was that the Theolog-
and  .spirit of the communion of saints was evident                ical School Committee was instructed to begin studies
throughout, but was due, in no small part, to the ex-               of the possibility of erecting a special building for
cellent leadership provided for Synod in its president,             seminary training. The other was to expand the work


420                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


of the seminary.         Synod decided to advertise our                We could mention also in this connection (although
seminary more extensively through the broader dis-             this has nothing to do directly with Synod's labors) that
tribution of the seminary catalogue and through the             as far as we know, all our churches shall presently be
preparation and distribution of a brochure describing          meeting once again in church buildings of their own.
the character and work of the seminary. The idea is             Lynden, Holland, and Hope have beautiful new edifices
to advertise our theological school as a school where          which were recently built. Loveland, we understand,
the historic Reformed and Calvinistic truth is still           met for the first time in their new church Sunday, June
maintained; and thus to attract students from outside           13.     Kalamazoo looks forward to meeting in a church
our churches who are interested in obtaining such an           building which they recently purchased - if they are not
education.                                                     doing so already. Hull is back in their old building.
       However, there is still the continued need for stu-      South Holland, we understand, is contemplating starting
dents also from out of our own congregations to study           on a new building sometime this year since their present
in our school. We have noted above that a generation           facilities are completely inadequate. Only Forbes con-
is passing away. This presses upon us the urgency of            gregation is still meeting in a school building. But
additional students to prepare for the ministry in our         even they have recently purchased a parsonage, and
churches.      And once again, this need is commended to        are looking about for a church edifice.
our Consistories, congregations, and covenant parents.                 Also with respect to Catechism materials, Synod
       Secondly, we turn to matters of missions.                was looking ahead.. A committee was set up for the
       Most important perhaps was the long discussion           distribution of Catechism books.        Our readers are
Synod held and the many decisions made concerning a             aware of the fact that new books have been written
mission policy.      It is impossible to do justice to this     and approved by Synod for use in our congregations.
report presented by the mission committee and dis-              But Synod also appointed another committee to study
cussed and decided. upon by the Synod, in this article.         the possibility of preparing additional catechism ma-
We can only urge our people to obtain a copy of the             terial for other classes.     This includes material for
Acts and read these decisions for themselves.                   the study of the confessions, and additional catechism
       The work on the island of Jamaica also occupied         books for different age levels.
considerable time.        Rev. J. Heys and Mr. H. Zwak                 There were two matters of an "ecumenical" nature
reported in detail on their recent work on the island,         which appeared before Synod. One had to do with con-
and Synod discussed the work at length. The report             tacts with the Reformed Ecumenical Synod. Our Synod
brought back by these brethren is worthy of being              decided to leave all the channels open to seek contact
printed in our Church papers, for we cannot do justice         with this organization if at all possible.      The Com-
to it here. Nevertheless, we can say that Rev. Heys            mittee on Foreign Correspondence was entrusted with
and Mr. Zwak brought back a good report of the churches        this work.
there.     They told of the joy of the people on the island            Synod also received an invitation to attend the
when they received the alms our churches had sent.              Plenary Congress of the International Council of
They told of the hungering of the people for the Bread         Christian Churches which is  .meeting this summer in
of Life. They reported of the labors of the ministers          Geneva, Switzerland.        This invitation Synod declined
there:     Revs. Frame, Elliott and Ruddock; and of the        especially on the grounds that there were many de-
difficulties of their work.                                    nominations belonging to this organization which stood
       There is truly a field of labor here which the Lord     outside the stream of Reformed and Calvinistic thought.
has given to us; and Synod was not unmindful of the                    I think it not out of place to make public mention
importance of our calling. The trouble is that, once            also of the fine work of the Synodical Treasurer and
again, Synod was hampered by the shortage of ministers.         Stated Clerk. The Synodical treasurer, Mr. Charles
Nevertheless, Synod did much to ensure the work con-            Pastoor, has once again done an excellent job of caring
tinuing there; and the Mission Committee will do all in        for the financial work of the Churches.           And our
its power to bring these saints on that island the truth        Synodical Stated Clerk, Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg, has been
which we confess and which they also are learning to           his usual busy and efficient self preparing the agenda
love.                                                          for Synod, helping Synod in its work, andnow preparing
       In passing it may also be noted that Synod decided       all Synod's decisions for publication in our Acts. Both
to discontinue two foreign radio broadcasts (Radio             these men do invaluable work for our churches, and
Hoyer in the West Indies and Trans-world Radio in              their labors ought not to be overlooked.
Monte Carlo) to concentrate our efforts on Home                        We have, as churches, abundant reason to be grate-
Missions.                                                      ful to God, for we have many indications and tokens of
       There were also various other matters which  areof      His favor and love upon us. This Synod also was testi-
no little importance.                                          mony of this fact. It is our hope and prayer that the
       For one thing, it appears as if at last our churches     Lord of His Church will bless what Synod has done and
shall receive the archives that were taken from us in          bless our churches in the way of His truth. May He
1953.      This has not yet been actually accomplished;         Who loves us, give us ever greater devotion and con-
but the way seems open so that they will be returned to         secration to His cause that we may go forward as
us presently. This will evidently bring an end to all           Churches in these perilous times and labor for the
the litigation that has occupied the time and energy of         cause of His kingdom which He sograciouslyhas called
our churches the last twelve years.                             us to represent.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  421




                                    &WC&~  704  7th ?a&

                                           THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION


                                                    Rev. H. Veldman


        The late Professor L. Berkhof, writing on the doc-     great majority of the Scholastics denying this; and
trine of creation in history, writes the following in his      others such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns  Scotus,  Durandus,
Reformed Dogmatics,  page 126-127: "While Greek                Biel, and others affirming it;         Yet the doctrine of
philosophy sought the explanation of the world in a dual-      creation with or in time carried the day. Erigena and
ism, which involves the eternity of matter, or in a            Eckhart were exceptional in teaching that the world or-
process of emanation, which makes the world the out-           iginated by emanation. Seemingly the days of creation
ward manifestation of God, the Christian Church from           were regarded as ordinary days, though Anselm sug-
the very beginning taught the doctrine of creation  ex         gested that it might be necessary to conceive of them
nihilo  and as -a free act of God. This doctrine was ac-       as different from our present days. The Reformers
cepted with singular unanimity from the start. It is           held firmly to the doctrine of creation out of nothing
found in Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement          by a free act of God in or with time; and regarded the
of Alexandria, Origen, and others. Theophilus was the          days of creation as six literal days. This view is also
first Church Father to stress the fact that the days of        generally maintained in the Post-Reformation literature
creation were literal days. This seems to have been            of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, though a
the view in the Church. Clement and Origen thought of          few theologians (as Maresius) occasionally speak of
creation as having been accomplished in a single  indi-        continuous cvea km.         In the eighteenth century, how-
visible  moment,  and conceived of its description as the      ever, under the dominating influence of Pantheism and
work of several days merely as a literary device to            Materialism, science launched an attack on the Church's
describe the origin of things in the order of their            doctrine of creation. It substituted the idea of evolution
worth or of their logical connection, The idea of an           or development for that of absolute origination by a
eternal creation, as taught by Origen, was commonly            divine fiat.    The world was often represented as a
rejected. At the same time some of the Church Fathers          necessary manifestation of the Absolute.         Its origin
expressed the idea that God was always Creator, though         was pushed back thousands and even millions of years
the created universe began in time. During the  trini-         into an unknown past.        And soon theologians were en-
tarian controversy some of them emphasized the fact            gaged in various attempts to harmonize the doctrine of
that, in distinction from the generation of the Son,           creation with the teachings of science and philosophy.
which was a  necessary act of the Father, the creation         Some suggested that the first chapters of Genesis
of the world was a free act of the triune God. Augustine       should be interpreted allegorically or mythically;
dealt with the work of creation more in detail than others     others, that a long period elapsed between the primary
did.      He argues that creation was eternally in the will    creation of Gen.  1:1,2 and the secondary creation of
of God, and therefore brought no change  inHim. There          the following verses; and still others, that the days of
was no time before creation, since the world was               creation were in fact long periods of time."
brought into being  with  time rather than in time. The
question what God did in the many ages before creation            We have quoted this lengthy paragraph from Prof.
is based on a misconception of eternity. While the             Berkhof's  Reformed Dogmatics,  because we think it of
Church in general still seems to have held that the            importance to note that the late professor, in his setting
world was created in six ordinary days, Augustine              forth of the history of the doctrine of creation, estab-
suggested a somewhat different view. He strongly de-           lishes the truth that the Church has maintained from
fended the doctrine of cveatio ex  n&ilo, but distin-          the very beginning of the New Dispensation the Scrip-
guished two moments of creation: the production of             tural account of creation as set forth in the book of
matter and spirits out of nothing, and the organization        Genesis.    It is surely worthy of note that the doctrine
of the material universe. He found it difficult to say         of creation as out of nothing was accepted with singular
what kind of days the days of Genesis were, but was            unanimity from the start. We will have opportunity,
evidently inclined to think that God created all things        the Lord willing, to quote from the Church Fathers in
in  a moment of time,  and that the thought of days was        substantiation of this.       And it is also worthy of note
simply introduced to aid the finite intelligence. The          that the Reformers regarded the days of creation as
Scholastics debated a great deal about the possibility         six literal days. In fact, it was under the dominating
of eternal creation; some, as Alexander of Hales,              influence of Pantheism and Materialism that science
Bonaventura, Albertus  Magnus, Henry of Ghent, and the         launched an attack upon the Church's doctrine of

                                                                                    . .


422                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


creation.      Then the idea of evolution was substituted      the Supreme Being.
for the Church's doctrine of creation. And. soon the-              "The doctrine of the unity of God, as the eternal,
ologians were engaged in various attempts to harmonize         almighty, omnipresent, just, and holy creator and up-
the doctrine of creation with the teachings of science         holder of all things, the Christian Church inherited
and philosophy. It was suggested that the first chapters       from Judaism, and vindicated against the absurd poly-
of Genesis must be interpreted allegorically or myth-          theism of the pagans, and particularly against the
ically, or that a long period of time elapsed between          dualism of the Gnostics, which supposed matter co-
the primary creation of Gen.  1:1,2 and the secondary          eternal with God, and attributed the creation of the
creation in the following verses, or that the days of          world' to the intermediate Demiurge.       This dualism
creation were in fact long  per'iods  of time. And we          was only another form of polytheism, which excludes
know that these same distortions of the Word of God            absoluteness,. and with it all proper idea of God.
are being generally taught today, also in so-called               "As to creation:  .Irenaeus  and Tertullian most
orthodox circles.                                              firmly rejected- the hylozoic and demiurgic views of
        Writing on God and the Creation, Philip  Schaff, in    paganism and Gnosticism, and taught, according to the
his  History,  of the  Christian   Church,  in Volume II,      book of Genesis, that God made the world, including
pages 538-540, writes as follows (he is writing here           matter, not, of course, out of any material, but out of
of the period A.D. 100-311):        "Almost all the creeds     nothing, or, to express it positively, out of his free,
of the first centuries, especially the Apostles' and the       almighty will, by his word. This free will of God, a
Nicene, begin with confession of faithinGod,  the Father       will of love, is the supreme, absolutely unconditioned,
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of the visible            and all-conditioning cause and final reason of all ex-
and the invisible. With the defence of this fundamental        istence, precluding every idea of physical force or of
doctrine laid down in the very first chapter of the            emanation.    Every creature, since it proceeds from
Bible, Irenaeus opens his refutation of the Gnostic            the good and holy God, is in itself, as to its essence,
~heresies.      He would not have believed the Lord him-       good. Evil, therefore, is not an original and substan-
self, if he had announced any other God than the Crea-         tial entity, but a corruption of nature, and  hence,can
tor.       He repudiates everything like an a  priovi con-     be destroyed by the power of redemption. Without a
struction of the idea of God, and bases his knowledge          correct doctrine of creation there can be no true doc-
wholly on revelation and Christian experience.                 trine of redemption, as all the Gnostic systems show."
        "We begin with the general idea of God, which lies        In treating the Scriptural doctrine of creation, as
at the bottom of all religion. This is refined, spiritu-       it develops and is taught in the Church through the
alized, and invigorated by the manifestation in Christ.        ages, let us call upon the early  ChurchFathers.  First,
We perceive the advance particularly in Tertullian's           we will quote Irenaeus, A.D. 120-202. Irenaeus intro-
view  .of the irresistible leaning of the human soul           duces us to the Church in its Western outposts.  Poly-
towards God, and towards the only true God. `God               carp, minister of the church of Smyrna, had sent a
will never be hidden,' says he, `God will never fail           certain Pothinus into Celtic Gaul  at an early date as
mankind; he will always be recognized, always per-             its evangelist.    He had fixed his see at Lyons, when
ceived, and seen, when man wishes. God has made all            Irenaeus joined him as a presbyter, having been his
that we are, and all in which we are, a witness of him-        fellow-pupil under Polycarp. There arose the terrible
self.      Thus he proves himself God, and the one God,        persecution which made the martyrs of Lyons and
by his being known to all; since another must first be         Vienne so memorable. It was during this persecution
proved. The sense of God is the original dowry of the          that Irenaeus was sent to Rome with letters of remon-
soul; the same, and no other, in Egypt, in Syria, and          strance against the rising pestilence of heresy; and he
in Pontus; for the God of the Jews all souls call their        was,probably  the author of the account of the sufferings
God.' But nature also testifies of God. It is the work         of the martyrs.     Returning to Lyons, Irenaeus found
of his hand, and in itself good; not as the Gnostics           that the venerable Pothinus had closed his holy career
taught, a product of matter, or of the devil, and in-          by a martyr's death, and naturally Irenaeus became
trinsically bad. Except as he reveals himself, God is,         his successor. When the emissaries of heresyfollowed
according to Irenaeus, absolutely hidden and incompre-         him, and began to disseminate their licentious practices
hensible.      But in creation and redemption he has com-      and foolish doctrines by the aid of "silly women," the
municated himself, and can, therefore, not remain en-          great work of his life began. He condescended to study
tirely concealed from any man.                                 these diseases like. a wise physician.  ' The works he
       "Of the various arguments for the existence of God,     has left us are monuments of his fidelity to Christ,
we find in this period the beginnings of the cosmological      and to the. charges of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude,
and physico-theological methods. In the mode of con-           whose solemn warnings now proved- to be prophecies.
ceiving the divine nature we observe this difference;          It is no wonder that the great apostle, "night and day
while the Alexandrians try to avoid all anthropomorphic        with tears," had forewarned the churches of the
and anthropopathic notions, and insist on the immater-         `!grievous wolves" which were to make havoc of the
iality and spirituality of God almost to abstraction,          fold. So, concerning this Irenaeus, whose brief history
Tertullian ascribes to him even corporeality; though           we have set forth here, as held before us in the writings
probably, as he considers the non-existent alone ab-           of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, we wish to show what he
solutely incorporeal, he intends by corporeality only to       taught concerning -the. doctrine of creation. But this
denote the substantiality and concrete personality of          must wait until our following article.


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   423


                                                     3w&$43+  1,:  ,,  .:`,
                             :           +                                  -                .._"

                    7.      `
                            ..-'              '
                      _.            .              `,.BLACK,  BlJT .$OMiLY  -.                              .:       .I

                                                        Rev. J. A. Heys              .

 Having been `approached from many quarters and                    and race, is not to be explained by material consider-
believing that our people, who have given freely and               ations and natural reactions. We were on an Island
generously to the fund raised for the brethren and                 -whose population is. only two percent white; and we did
sisters in Jamaica, are entitled to a few words con-               not frequent the places where white tourists spend
cerning our recent visit and  labours there, a few lines           their  .time `and money, but went up into the hills and
in regard to the visit and  labour will.now be given.              deep recesses of the mountains and inner part of the
   We, Mr.  .Harry Zwak and the undersigned, left                  Island where few white men come; and those who do,
Chicago at 10 o'clock A.M., April 20, and arrived                  come, not to labor and represent the cause of Christ,
safely at Montego Bay six hours later.               It was, at    but for curiosity or of necessity. Though for many an
least for Mr. Zwak going from snow flurries to semi-               hour we were the only white people within miles and we,
tropical climate in three quick "jumps", for his journey           no doubt, were extremely conspicuous among those
began at Grand Rapids, where flurries had been falling,            definitely not of our race and color, we felt perfectly
and  we'met  together at O'Hare Field to begin to labor            at home, because those with whom we dealt had the
together for twenty-eight days of constant fellowship.             same Spirit within them and have the same Lord and
Our journey to Jamaica was not without its significant             Father.         Of this we were convinced time and time
happenings,. which, when related to the Islington con-             again.
gregation, brought us closer to these brethren and                    It might be well to state here that the Jamaicans
-sisters in the Lord who are of another race and color.            with whom we dealt are a spiritual, though emotional,
The flight to Miami was without incident, but from                 people.        How strange and yet wonderful for us it was
Miami to Montego Bay we encountered an extremely                   to come into stores and hear sacred songs sung with-
violent storm over' Cuba; and our plane, after being               out reserve and shame. How refreshing to wake up in
tossed around like a leaf in the wind, suddenly made a             the night --for due to poverty and lack of ability to
flat drop of over five hundred feet in one sudden rush             buy and maintain automobiles, there is a steady stream
toward Cuban soil. We experienced the difference be-               of humanity walking the roads to get to their destina-
tween having fear and living in His fear. And when, on             tion, either home from a distant place or unto such a
Sunday, we related this experience with the explanation            place  - and to hear a rich baritone voice lifted in a
that it was, looking back but not desiring such an ex-             song of praise!          How different from our material,
perience itself again, a wonderful experience with                 worldly-minded life when one cannot tell a believer
blessed implications for us in that we understood as               from an unbeliever on the street. 0, indeed, we heard
never before the words of Moses to Israel, "Under-                 the songs of the world and saw unbelief and wickedness
neath are the everlasting arms," Numbers  33:27, the               as well. We saw and heard much of which we cannot
congregation as led by Rev. Elliott responded by                   approve.         But .we found among those with whom we
singing "Safe in the Arms of Jesus." Indeed, the                   dealt a desire to be instructed, and that means a great
world and the unbeliever may say that we struck an                 deal.         How many are there not who have been taught
unusually large and deep air pocket and then reached               the truth from infancy, have all the resources and op-
at the lower altitude the "thicker" air; but we prefer             portunities of being instructed, and turn up their
in His fear to say that underneath the plane and its               noses, despise speeches and lectures on spiritual
wings were the everlasting arms of the God of our                  matters, reject the faith that they have been taught and
salvation, Who had work `for us to do in Jamaica and               run after men and doctrines of men! More tolerable
"added unto us all these  things"which  we needed for              will it be in the day of judgment for those who never
that work. Here already we felt at once that color and             heard so rich a truth and now express desire to be
race mean nothing in the Church of Jesus Christ and                taught that truth, than those who were taught and cast
that concern for our wellbeing and thankfulness unto               from them' the truth t ey were privileged to hear. One
God for our safe journey are not to be-explained by                must not go on a mifsion field expecting to find  con-
such physical matters as race and `olor but by the                 verts sitting there waiting to tell you how fully and
words of Paul in Ephesians 4:4-6, " t
                                         Th re is one body,        richly-they believe the truth that you wish to bring to
and one Spirit, even as ye are calledin one hope ,of your          them.         But one certainly does expect in the church to
calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and             find its sons and daughters cherishing the truth handed
Father of all, Who is above all, and through all, and in           down and contending for the faith once delivered to the
you all." The -reaction likewise at Lucea, Rev. Frame's            saints.
congregation, where we spent our last Sunday and the                  But to return to our visit, we plunged into the work
greater share of our time on the Island, when parting              at once and drove on Wednesday to Lucea and worshipped
tears were shed unashamedly for us of different color              there that evening in a Wednesday evening prayer serv-


424                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


ice.      Undersigned preached to the congregation from       these at 4 P.M. and 7 P.M. But the reception of the
the Word of God as found in Isaiah  49:16 and assured         Word and the disappointment of the churches where
the congregation assembled that somewhere in those            we could not preach because of torrential rains upon
walls that are eternally before the God of our salva-         tin-roofed churches and because time failed for us to
tion and  engraven  in the palms of His hands were the        be at all of them, particularly of Rev. Elliott's group,
brethren and sisters on the Island of Jamaica, and that       we understood, and even that was encouraging unto us.
one day we would all be together, not as separate races           Space does not permit a detailed report of all our
but united as the various members of the one body of           activities or of all our experiences. We could speak
Christ.       The next two days were spent visiting the       of a Sea Baptism of a young man preceded by a service
churches of Rev. Frame on the western end of the              in the church, witnessed by the whole congregation
Island.      Being scheduled to preach twice in Islington     that came down for the immersion and then followed
which is on the eastern end of the Island -which, by          by another service that same morning at which we
the way, is about one hundred and fifty miles long and        were privileged to preach on Acts  2:39, "For the
about forty miles wide -we spent Friday afternoon             promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all
and Saturday travelling to Islington and looking up           that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God
Rev. Elliott.                                                 shall call." This service was held on Hope Hill high
        As is the case in America, where the Protestant        above the Sea and reached by a twenty-five minute
Reformed Churches are a handful by comparison and             walk through dense, tropical country and up a steep
on the whole little known, so the Protestant Reformed         hill behind a guide who had to be sent down to show us
Churches in Jamaica are not known even in a little            the way, and who had to lead us back to our car.
town such as Islington; and it took some diligent                 We can report of the distribution of the alms which
searching and questioning, as well as visiting of other       were collected in our churches, of the visits to Sunday
churches, before we finally found Rev. Elliott.               Schools and hearing of the children reciting their verses
        Sunday we witnessed a Jamaican Communion service      and singing their songs. And bearing in mind the great
and were impressed by the solemnity of it and by the          poverty among these people, we would suggest that our
method followed. The bread is not broken in advance           Sunday Schools and others remember these children in
as is done in our churches to a greater and lesser            the Fall with collections or the like that these Jamaican
degree, but pieces were broken off by Rev. Elliott            children likewise may receive their box of candy and
from a loaf of Jamaican bread as he passed through            orange, even as our children do, at Christmas time.
the congregation, reciting as he went from the one                But the caption which we placed at the head of
communicant to the other the words of Paul which are          these lines we firmly believe. These Jamaicans are
quoted in our Form, "The Lord Jesus the same night in         black.      There is no use trying to hide that fact, and it
which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had            cannot be hidden. Nor must we want to do so. They
given thanks, He brake it and said, Take eat; this is         are of the descendants of Ham, and that cannot be
My body which is broken for you, this do in remem-            denied either.       But Solomon  as  moved by the Holy
brance of Me."         The cup of blessing was a cup of       Spirit says, "I am black, but comely." And, as we
grape juice, and the congregation held the bread and          told the congregations at Port Maria and at Galloway,
the "wine" until all were served and then ate and drank       Noah does not say, "Cursed be Ham and all his
in communion with each other. Again, the color of the         descendants." He said, "Cursed be Canaan," and this
communicants did not in the least make this solemn            curse became plain in that these Canaanites prepared
sacrament seem strange for us to celebrate with               the whole land of Canaan with its wells and farms, its
them, nor even did we notice the color distinction            cities and vineyards for Shem's descendants as they
during that Communion Service or during any of the            came under the leadership of Moses and Joshua from
preaching and labor.                                          Egypt to Canaan. What is more, there is the Ethiopian
       The part of our labors that was unpleasant was the     eunuch who certainly was not cursed but blessed with
days when we were sent from office to office and place        salvation and the preaching of Philip. There is men-
to place in Kingston and Spanish Town, where the of-          tion of Rahab, the Canaanitess, and the widow of
fices of the Government of Jamaica are to be found.           Zarephath to whom Elijah was sent. Ethiopia is men-
This is no reflection upon the Government, and we             tioned again in Psalm  87:4 as the place from whence
find plenty of red tape in our own land. But Jamaica          God calls and gathers His people.
has been independent now for only three years, and it            Though black may be the skin, do not conclude that
takes time for these Jamaicans to work themselves             Christ is not within. That we  wishto  say emphatically!
into all the wheels of the machinery of the governing         And even so, when the skin is white, it is no sign of
of their Island, and even to find all the records and         pleasure in God's sight!         Along the beaches, in the
archives.        We do believe, however, that our efforts     areas of the wealthy and godless white tourists we
will prove to be successful and that this phase of our        saw immorality and unbelief. And it was refreshing
work was rewarding as far as the end result is con-           to flee to the hills and to the poor of this other race
cerned; and it deals with government recognition of           to find high morals and worthy examples. Particularly
these Jamaican ministers and the import of used               were we impressed with the profound respect that
clothing free of duty.                                        the children have for their parents and elders. All
       Our third week was an extremely busy one, with         this may soon change, for the tourists threaten to
two services a day from Tuesday through Friday and            spoil the entire beautiful island and to corrupt the  in-


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   425


     habitants.      But let no man say that Christianity is       any good thing., Noah did not give to Ham anything that
     limited to the white or that the "Dutch" have a corner        he hid not give to Shem and Japheth. He gave all three
     on the truth and all others are simply outside the            of his sons a totally depraved and corrupt nature: It
     Kingdom.                                                      is Christ Who saves, and then He saves always in the
         Let it be borne in mind and never forgotten that          `same way and by the same means. His blood is able
     the white man is saved by grace- and not by his color         to make the vilest sinner clean. His Spirit is able to
     or works. And the black races will also be saved,  ac;        make those of the black races whiter than snow. And
     cording to the decree of sovereign election from before       no man, regardless of his race and color can do that!
     the foundation of the world, by grace and by the same
     Christ, by the same and not by a different blood, by             Black, filthy and corrupt INSIDE we are by nature,
     the same Spirit of Truth and with the same life which         but comely and beautiful by the blood and Spirit of
     is from above.       In our flesh dwelleth no good thing,     Christ.     In His fear do not limit the sphere'where the
     any more than there dwells in the flesh of other races        Spirit is willing and able to work.


                                   74e  P&d  @43  7ke  Wad. .  a
                                                                                      (Psalm  68:ll)


~                                      REPROBATION AND MISSION PREACHING

                                                          Rev. C. Hanko

         In the March issue of the Reformed Journal, Dr.           emphasize and Ye-emphasize to the point of being
     Harry R. Boer writes about "The Doctrine Of Repro-            repetitious, that unbelief is the fault of man alone and
     bation And The Preaching Of The Gospel." He is                in no sense of God.            He quotes Canons  I:15,  11:6,
     chiefly concerned about the doctrine of reprobation and       III-IV:9,  15. He adds that this is clear and unequivocal
     the preaching of the gospel from the missionary point         language, that the cause or guilt of unbelief as well as of
     of view; more specifically, as he adds, "from that of         all other sins is in no wise in God, but in man himself.
     a missionary charged with the training of pastors for         But he meets in those same Canons, on the other hand,
     the emergent Church in Nigeria."                              the doctrine of reprobation.         If these statements of
         He begins his article by stressing that "one of the       man's responsibility stood alone and were not qualified
     marks, qualities or properties which Reformed theol-          by other declarations, he would have no problem.
     ogy ascribes to the Scriptures is that they are               "But they do not  stmd alone. The guilt of man in his
     perspicuous.     The simple and uneducated believer can       his tovical existence has, according to the Canons, the
     accept the messages of Scripture by a response of             backpound   of  an  eternal and unchangeable  decree  of
     faith.    And he states that there is no place where it is    God. "      This is expressed in our Canons, as Boer
     so necessary that the message of the gospel be                admits, just as emphatically as the guilt of man for
     perspicuous as on the mission field. This need for            his unbelief and all his other sins. And Boer quotes
     perspicuity is even more true in his personal work as         Canons  1:6, 15 to prove it. There you have the am-
     teacher of theology in Nigeria, since the majority of         biguity. Or does Boer mean "contradiction"?
     students in the Theological College of Northern Ni-              Obviously our fathers deliberately placed both of
     geria do not come out of a Reformed mission back-             these seemingly ambiguous, or contradictory state-
     ground and are therefore not bound to Reformed credal         ments of doctrine in our Canons in refuting the errors
     commitments.                                                  of the Arminians. This was not a slip of the tongue,
         Now his objection is "that the subject proper of          nor an oversight, but was done deliberately. Although
     reprobation in Reformed theology is not perspicuous           the fathers knew that they were speaking of the deep
     but ambiguous, and as such invites being neither taught       things of God, which far surpass our meager under-
     nor preached."       What he means to say is that the         standing, they did not hesitate to declare this to be the
     subject of reprobation as taught in the Reformed              truth of Scripture. They saw no ambiguity nor con-
     Churches is contrary to Scripture, for Scripture is           tradiction here. But they maintained that God's sover-
     perspicuous, while the doctrine of reprobation is not;        eignty and man's responsibility are both taught in
     the whole counsel of God as revealed in Scripture is          Scripture. They even declared that  (1:6),
     simple, easily grasped; but reprobation is difficult,            "Herein is especially displayed the profound, the
     ambiguous. This doctrine is a mere tradition carried          merciful and at the same time the righteous discrim-
     by the church from generation to generation, but it           ination between men, equally involved in ruin; or that
     should not be forced on those who are not conditioned         decree of election and reprobation, revealed in the
     to this credal deposit of the Church.                         word of God, which though men of perverse, impure
         To show that the doctrine of reprobationis shrouded       and unstable minds wrest to their own destruction,
     with ambiguity, Boer refers us to the Canons. He              yet to the holy and pious  souls affords unspeakable
     points out, on the one hand, that "The Canons state,          consolation. I' Instead of contradiction or ambiguity,


426                                                THE  iTANDARD   B&iRiR


they, saw perfect harmony between God's sovereign               sions. In-fact, he must be teaching prospective-minis-
decree and man's guilt of sin. For they declare in              ters with that ambiguity before his -mind. And he does
1:15,                                                           not- hesitate to write openly: about it in the- Reformed
       "What peculiarly tends to. illustrate and recommend      J o u r n a l ;                _
to- us the eternal and unmerited grace of election, is              This  amazes me, because this is contrary to the
the express testimony of sacred Scripture, that not all,        very -Church  .Order under which Dr. Boer labors as
but some only are elected, while others are  passed.by          professor in Nigeria.  Article  53 (at-least of the older
in the eternal decree; whom God out of his sovereign,           editions), states,"The  .ministers of the Word of God
most just, irreprehensible and unchangeable good                and likewise the professors of theology (which  also
pleasure, hath decreed to leave in the common misery            behooves the other professors  .and. school teachers)
into which they have willfully plunged themselves, . . . .      shall subscribe to the three formulas of unity, namely,
to condemn and- perish them forever  not only qn account        the Belgic Confession of Faith, the Heidelberg Cate-
of  their unbelief, but also fov all their othev sins."         chism, and the Canons of Dordrecht,  1618-`19,  and the
       But Dr. Boer sees still more ambiguities in our          ministers of the Word who refuse to do so shall de
Canons in connection with the doctrine of election. For         facto be suspended from their office by the consistory
him the ambiguity deepens as he goes along. He asks             or  classis until they shall have given a full statement,
himself "how a reprobating God can also be an un-               and if they obstinately persist in refusing, they shall
feignedly calling God with respect to the very men who          be deposed from their office."
are objects of His reprobating decree." This question               The Christian Reformed Church has been occupied
arises in connection with Canons  III-IV:8 that speaks          with revising the Church Order, and therefore I do not
of the unfeigned call of the gospel. In fact, Boer finally      know whether they have changed this article, but I
sums it all up by saying, "The following ambiguities,           surmise that it still stands.            And that expresses
then, seem to inhere in the context in which the decree         strong language. Dr. Boer as professor of theology
of reprobation stands in the Canons of Dort:                    may not ignore that article of the Church Order, nor
       " 1. That man alone is responsible for his unbelief.     may his churches. To do so can only result in chaos.
           That lack of faith arises from the decree of             This is especially true, because Dr. Boer,  nodoubt,
           reprobation.                                         signed the Formula of Subscription when he was or-
       "2.  .That God is in no wise responsible for the un-     dained to his office. Thereby he declared:
           belief of man.                                           "We . .  : do hereby sincerely and in good conscience
           That the decree withholds the gift of faith and      before the Lord, declare by this, our subscription,
           the grace of conversion.                             that we heartily believe and are persuaded that all the
       "3. That God unfeignedly calls all men to faith.         articles and points of doctrine, contained in the Con-
           That in the reprobate the response of faith is       fession and Catechism of the Reformed Churches,
           impossible.                                          togethev with the explanation  of some  points  of the
       "4. That election and the promise of the gospel          aforesaid doctrine, made by the National -Synod  of
           must be preached.                                    Dovdvecht,  1618-"19, do fully  agree with the  Wovd  of
           That reprobation in its very nature appears not      God. "
           to be capable of being preached."                        How can the professor now say that the Canons, at
       In each case, Boer agrees with the first statement.      least on one point of doctrine, the doctrine of reproba-
And he does not want the doctrine of reprobation, be-           tion, is ambiguous, and therefore not the teaching of
cause to him it is ambiguous, contrary to the simple,           the Scriptures? And how can he carry out the promise
perspicuous truth of the Scriptures.                            that appears in the next paragraph of the Formula of
       One wonders whether the professor also finds the         S u b s c r i p t i o n ?
same ambiguity in the doctrine of God's providence as               "We promise therefore diligently to teach and
taught in Scripture and in our Confessions. He must             faithfully to defend the aforesaid doctrine, without
also teach to prospective ministers `-`the almighty and         either directly or indirectly contradicting the same, by
everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it                 our public preaching or writing."
were by his hand, he upholds and governs the heaven,                Dr. Boer does not teach the doctrine of reprobation
earth, and all creatures." Heid.  Cat,, Lord's Day 10.          as taught in our Canons, one can be sure of that. In
Since wicked men and even devils are included in this           fact, he would not defend the proposition that we must
providence .of God, so that they serve toward the coming        be able to say to every individual `"God loves you," if
of Christ's kingdom in spite of themselves, Dr. Boer            he did live up to that promise.            For according to
must be confronted with the problem of their respon-            his own article there is a conflict between the-unfeigned
sibility in all that they do.     Again he must' accept the     call to repentance and the doctrine of reprobation, as
sovereignty of God and the responsibility of. man, or           he sees it.
he denies the one for the sake of maintaining the other.            Now it is conceivable that Dr. Boer signed the
       But at present there is an equally serious question      Formula of Subscription in good faith, and that he
that bothers me. Dr. Boer is attacking the-confessions.         came to this new view on the Canons in a more recent
Since he finds that the Canons are ambiguous on  t&             study of Scripture.          But even so the Formula of Sub-
doctrine of reprobation, while. the Scriptures are              scription allows for that possibility.. And Boer should
simple, concise- and clear, there must  be.a conflict in        adhere to what he further declared in signing that
Boer's mind between the, Scriptures and the  Confes-            Formula. We read:


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 427

     "`We declare; moreover, that we not only reject all           that`very fact, suspended from our office."
  errors that militate against this doctrine and particu-              God is a God of law and order, and before God also
  larly those  .whichl  were `condemned by the  above-men-         ministers and professors must be faithful to the vows
  tioned synod, but that we are disposed to refute and             they make. Especially one who prepares others for
  contradict  ~-these, and to exert ourselves .in keetiing  the    the ministrv'should set a good example  byfollowing  the
  Church':free  from such errors.       And if hereafte;  any      proper church political procedure  -in case he  di;fers
  difficulties or different sentiments respecting the afore-       with `the Confessions or with the official stand `of the
  said doctrines should arise- in our minds,  we.promise           church.
  that  we  will  neither `publicly  nov'  privately  pyop&e,          The fathers did  not`have  the problem that confronts
  teach, OY defend the same, &thev by preaching &-wv{t-            Boer and others. Nor did the apostle Paul. Nor did
  i@y,  until we have first revealed such sentiments to            any of the other apostles. Nor did Jesus. Nor did the
  the  -consistory,  classis  and synod, that the same may         prophets. And that simply because they did not consider
  be there examined, being ready always cheerfully to              the sum and substance of all gospel preaching to be
  submit to the judgment of the consistory,  classis and           contained in the declaration of mere man, "God loves
  synod, under the  ,penalty  in case of refusal to be, by         you, and Christ died for you."





                               THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST PREACHED ON MARS HILL

                                                         Acts  17:16-34

                                                        Rev. G.  Lubbers

  The Mighty Pretense Of The Wisdom Of Men-                        made all things in heaven and on  e_arth,  was not in all
     All paganism is summed up by Paul in Romans                   of their thoughts.
  1:21-23 to be a manifestation from heaven of the wrath               Since neither the Epicureans nor the Stoics be-
  of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of            lieved in "God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven
  men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. . . . .  ."          and earth"  (Apostolicurn)  and did not know Genesis
  because that, when they knew God, they glorified him             1:l "in the beginning God created the heavens and the
  not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in            earth, ' ' they looked for the  beginning  and the end in
  their imaginations, and their foolish heart was dark-            the "things made" themselves! Each did this in their
  ened.      Professing themselves to be wise they became          own way. They agreed in this that both were estranged'
~ fools, and changed the glory of the  uncorruptible God           from the life of God. Denying the doctrine of creation
  into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to             they had no basis for relation of God and man; they
  birds, and to fourfooted beasts, and to creeping things."        had no I-thou relationship of God to man, nor of the
     It is the abomination: idolatry!                              I-THOU relationship of man to God. And since they
     It is the manifestation of the wrath of God upon the          ended in the creature and began in the creature, with-
  sinner.                                                          out seeing the creature for what he is, they changed
      Small wonder that Paul's "spirit was stirred in              each creature into a "god" and spoke of Zeus (Jupiter)
  him" when he saw the city of Athens full of idols. It            as the "Most excellent of The Immortals"  (kudist'
  was the zeal of the Lord's house which stirred him,              athamtoon)  as does Cleanthes in his Hymn to Zeus.
  as we have stated in our former essay!                           Cleanthes was a Stoic poet, you must know. But his
     It should be understood that all philosophy in general        "god" is still amongst the "immortals," be they the
  busies itself  with, such questions as: whence are all           ` `gods' ' or man in the immortality of his "soul." He
  things in the Cosmos, and whither are they going. In             is simply the "most excellent" in a series of beings
  close connection with these questions are such ques-             which are great, in which class man too is to be
  tions as: what is good and what is. evil? Whence is              found.-  They have no transcendent God; not even Zeus
  the  ` `soul" of man and whence is his "body?" What              is such. They know not the Creator-creature relation-
  is the highest aim and purpose of all things? Of man's           s hip, at all !
  existence?                                                           Nor do they have a sovereign God who rules over
      With these questions also the Epicureans and the             all things and who upholds all things. as it were by
  Stoics busied themselves. It was a rather laborious              His own hand.         Yes, Zeus may be addressed by
  and fruitless task. For they were estranged from the             Cleanthes as the "leader of nature's law, ruling all
  life of God, without God and without hope in the world.          things by law (of nature)" but that is a far cry from
  (Eph.  2:12) They were "lost" in their thoughts, their           the Christian's confession in God, the Father, who
  speculations, their questionings and searchings, in              created all things and rules all things. The article of
  their opposition to God, although they live in the mighty        faith concerning providence is not an article in which
  pretense of being in search for "wisdom". God, who               the Christian and the pagan share. Man may speak of


428                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


"nature" and  ,` `nature's god" and find a certain order       nature know no mercy. Hence, the "too superstitious"
and blind necessity in all things, but that is not the con-    attitude of the pagans which Paul points out to the
fession in God, the Father. At best it is pure blind           Epicureans and the Stoics.
determinism without having a determining God, who                  So morbid is their fear that they even have an altar
gives all things a terminus  in His counsel.                   erected to the "UNKNOWN GOD." They had written
       Implicit in all paganism is the denial of the mir-      that superscription on that altar.       And it should be
aculous; creation, and recreation. All paganism must           quite evident that Paul is here not teaching or sug-
needs deny the Scripturally revealed  historical  fact  of     gesting that the Pagan was in real spiritual quest after
the resurrection.       It may speak of the "immortal          the living God. They were not  seeking  God. Paul only
soul" of man, and dream and speculate.about  the soul's        cites this as evidence that the Athenians' multiplicity
liberation from the prison of the body through physical        of "gods" shows that none of these are truly gods, for
death, but it cannot possibly grant the "mystery" of           else they would not have still built an altar to another.
the resurrection, which belongs to the Mystery of god-         Paul points to the "Achilles' heel" in their idolatry.
liness which is great. (I Timothy  3:16)                       It is here that he points to the deep spiritual-psycho-
       At the same time we may state without fear of           logical bankruptcy of idolatrous man. This one altar
contradiction that all paganism is an attempt to "hide         points up the bankruptcy of all the other "gods," and
from God." If the "soul" of man is "good" and his              even this "unknown god" does not avail them aught.
body is "evil," then, of course, we may say that the           Notice well that Paul is here not merely engaging him-
real part of man is the soul, and death is not a penalty       self in some clever witticism, but is giving, by impli-
for sin, but it is the liberation from prison for the          cation, a profound, basic and soul-searching psycho-
soul; it is the liberation of the celestial in man to soar     analysis of the basic problem of all their religiosity.
to its own celestial heights of a beautiful isle of some-      With this one observation he points out the "Achilles'
where, while the meaningless body's return to the dust         heel" of the vaunted invulnerableness of the religion
may be hastened by cremationof it! Howbeit, thus there         of these Epicureans and Stoics !
is not judgment of God upon the world, no wrath of God             Paul is not engaging in a philosophical discussion
to be removed from the world; only the evil must be            of "comparative religions," that he may come to the
conquered by the good, and that good is residing in            `Lconclusion" that the Christian Religion excels that
man's soul, his  Ratio.                                        of paganism on certain points as to doctrine and
       Such is the basic position of both Epicureanism         ethics, being careful not to expose "Athens" as being
and Stoicism !                                                 entirely corrupt and worse than useless, but he is
       Both are a proud pretense concerning their knowl-       preaching! He is preaching Christ here on Mars Hill:
edge and search for wisdom!                                    Jesus and the resurrection! And all the world must
       And when Paul converses with them in the Agora          stand "under sin," and all the world must stand guilty
of Athens and teaches "Jesus" and the "resurrection,"          before God, and every mouth must be stopped. (Romans
they may mockingly and disdainfully call him a "dab-           3:19)       The entire world must  become  `"geneetai,  "
bler" in wisdom, but they will soon find out that the          guilty before God.      Also here in Athens on Mars Hill!
"times of this ignorance is past" and that they are            Here the glories of the Graeco-Roman world stand in
unmasked for what they really are: proud pretenders !          the condemnation; the Greek moralist too is guilty;
He will feel in their souls that the "foolishness of God       thus he stands in his own conscience. The altar to the
is wiser than men" and that "the weakness of God is            UNKNOWN GOD attests to this fact.             Thus Paul
stronger than men." They are called to repentance!             preaches.
       And, in spite of themselves, they will desire to           Have we not pointed out that Paul here too knows  1
hear more about this teaching. Yes, it will all be very        himself a debtor to the Greek as well as to the barbar-
polite: we would know what these things mean? May              ian?
we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest,            Well, then, all the philosophic constructions with
is?                                                            which the Greek attempts to bolster his idolatrous
       And this mighty pretense of the wisdom of men will      world with his "wisdom" must be shown to have this
be weighed in the balances, and found wanting!                 one "Achilles' heel."         And here too Paul will be
                                                               caused to triumph in Christ, making the savour of His
The Achilles' Heel In Athens' Idolatry (Acts  1723)            knowledge known in every place, to the one the savour
       Paul begins his sermon here on Mars Hill by stating     of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life
a  fact.  It is the undeniable fact that these Athenians       unto life.     For Paul is not as many, which corrupt the
had as many "gods" as there are creatures. It is the           word of God; but of sincerity, but as of God, in the
logic of Paganism and idolatry.         Zeus may be the        presence of God he speaks in Christ!          And in this
"most excellent of the immortals," but he is not the           preaching he does not find a spiritual-ethical good
only "god," the only  rfdaimon."  For their religion           point  of contact  with these pagans.    There is none.
was not childlike trust in a heavenly Father, but it was       There is only a point of "apprehension" for those who
most superstitious; it was a morbid fear; the "gods"           are "grasped" by the Spirit of grace, and plucked out
only smiled on those who were good, and caused its             of this evil world.       And these were but few here in
two-edged fire and lightning, thunder and wind to des-         Athens !
troy those who were evil.         And who can escape the          Still Paul appeals here to the "conscience" of
power of the "gods," the laws of nature ! The laws of          these men, an evil conscience, a non-sanctified  con-


                                                 THESTANDARDBEARER                                                   429


science! Thus we read in II Corinthians  4:1,2,  "There-     no cheap trafficking of the Gospel as done by ancient
fore seeing we have received this ministry, as we            and modern "gospel-hucksters," but a commending to
have received mercy, we faint not! But have renounced        the consciences of these haughty Epicureans and Stoics !
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in  crafti-     These are weighed in their own consciences and found
ness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by       wanting.       All their  `jgods" are  ,found wanting! The
manifestation of  the  truth  commending ourselves to        altar to the "UNI<NOWN GOD" attests to this fact.
every man's conscience in the sight of God." Here is         And, the imaginary impregnable fortress topples, as
no mere sparring for advantageous position in debate,        did Dagon of old when he fell prostrate to the ground!


                                      # &bm! 01 WW&aea

                                                 CALLED OF GOD

                                                 Rev. B.  Woudenbevg

                         And the L ovd came and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel,
                         Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Sfieak; fov thy servant heaveth.
                                                                                  I Samuel 3:lO

    The, one great joy which Eli had in life was in the      to perform the services of the tabernacle until he was
child Samuel who ministered before him.                      over 25 years of age, and then only from time to time.
    Eli was an old man, and he had lived a very hard         Samuel, however, came to the tabernacle already as a
life.     He was high priest before the Lord at Shiloh;      little boy and he remained in its service all of his life.
but in the Israel of his day that was hardly cause for       In addition to this, he was also a Nazarite. This meant
any great respect or honor. It was toward the end of         that he took upon himself the threefold vow of the
the period of the judges and the disintegration of           Nazarite, not to drink strong drink, not to cut his hair,
spiritual life in Israel had gone very far. Sadly Eli        and not to touch dead bodies. These were signs of
had looked on year after year as very few any more in        absolute dedication to God through refraining from all
Israel came to the tabernacle with any regularity, and       of the contamination or influence of a wicked world.
many of those who did come came more in a spirit of          But again in this Samuel was unique. In most cases
frivolity than of serious dedication and worship. It         the vows of a Nazarite were temporary taken for a
was hard for a man as dedicated as Eli was to look upon      set length of time determined by the one who was taking
such degeneracy alone and without knowing what could         them; but for Samuel, as for Samson and John the
be done about it. But the hardest blow came when his         Baptist, these vows were for life, observed even by
own sons grew to years of discretion and began to fill       his mother before his birth. As Hannah had prom-
the priestly functions of the tabernacle. For these          ised, he was dedicated to the service of God through-
young men, rather than following in the spirit of their      out his life.      Still these were only external things.
elderly father, were children of their day and they used     Most wonderfully in Samuel, there was a heart which
the services of the tabernacle as occasion for their         loved God in absolute dedication. God gave him the
own carnal satisfaction and sin. They made the office        inward principle of new life to go along with the ex-
of the priesthood a mockery and an offense to the name       ternal function which he filled. It was this that had
of the Lord. But Eli was now an old man. Hophni and          filled Eli with joy from the very first day that Samuel
Phinehas were his natural successors in office, and he       had been left in his care. His interests were not in
did not know who he could possibly call in to replace        the things of the world about him.       Samuel loved the
them.       Besides, they were his sons.      Pained and     service of God and it consumed all of his interest.
grieving, Eli did nothing.                                   He had none of that spirit of rebellion and self-seeking
    But in Samuel he found something different. He           which Eli had witnessed so often in his own children.
had been brought to the tabernacle by Hannah while           Samuel recognized that be was there to do service, and
still but a small child hardly out of infancy; but from      he responded quickly and with obedience to whatever
the very start there had been something in Samuel that       Eli would ask of him. Here was a unique spirit which
was different, different from the age in which they          no one had taught him; it was given to Samuel of God.
lived, and different from his own sons Hophni and Phi-          Through the years Samuel grew from a child into
nehas.      Samuel was a Levite, a son of the tribe of       a youth; but his attitude and dedication remained the
Levi.      It was, therefore, his rightful place to serve    same.       He belonged to the Lord, and to the tabernacle
within the tabernacle, for the tribe of Levi had been        of the Lord he gave his life. He was to Eli a constant
set aside from the days of Moses to perform the special      source of comfort and joy.        It was a strange sort of
services of the tabernacle.      But with Samuel it was      companionship, an old man and a young child; but it was
different. According to the law, no Levite was required      real for they shared together the love of their God.


430                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


       Through all of these years though, there was es-        voice of God and it said, "Samuel, Samuel."
pecially `one thing which marred the life of the taber-            The response of the child was immediate. Trained
nacle, that was the way. in which Eli's sons conducted         as he was for service under Eli, he could imagine
themselves. It was not long before  Samuel.also  began         nothing other than that Eli was calling him to look after
to realize the shame which. they brought upon Eli and          some immediate need-. Quickly he ran to the room of
the tabernacle; but Eli continued to lack the courage          the. elderly high priest and said, "Here am I; for thou
to do anything about it. Just how serious this situation       calledst me." To old Eli the matter seemed plain, the
was became apparent when a prophet of God appeared             child had merely had a dream. Without special con-
at the tabernacle to warn Eli that because of the sins         cern, he answered the child, "I called thee not; lie
of his children a curse would rest upon his family, and        down again." Soon both had returned to sleep.
the office of high priest would be taken from them.                It was not long,' however, before the whole matter
Still Eli did nothing.                                         repeated itself again.     Samuel hearing the voice once
       But the Lord would not be ignored. It was not long      more ran to Eli and said,- "Here am I; for thou didst
before He sent yet another revelation which was to             call me"; and the- old man replying answered back,
prove to be one of the most significant events in Israel       "I called not, my son; lie down again."
for many years.                                                    Finally, though, when it happened yet again for a
       We are told that "the word of the LORD was pre-         third time, the old high priest began to think. Had it
cious in those days; there was no open vision." This           been anyone else but Samuel, Eli might have been more
did not mean, of course, that there was no knowledge           irritated than anything else. But Samuel was not one
of God and of His Gospel. The books of Moses were              to be playing fools' jokes. He was as honest as anyone
written and surely maintained as a precious possession         that Eli had ever met; and he was intelligent enough
in the nation of Israel. The reference here is to direct       not to be easily misled. In addition, for a long time
revelation from God, to new and different revelation in        the old high priest had felt that there was something
addition to that received through Moses.                       special ,about this lad, that God had brought him to the
       We are told first that the word of God was "pre-        tabernacle for some very special purpose. Could it be
cious" or "rare" in Israel.        It has reference to the     that now the Lord was ready to speak to this youth,
period of the judges, and during that period prophetic         hardly more than a child, in the way that He had spoken
utterances from the Lord were indeed rare. It was              to Moses and the fathers before him? Eli could not
not that they were completely lacking; there were oc-          dismiss the thought from his mind as impossible. Rather
casional prophets that appeared upon the scene also            he addressed the waiting child and said, "Go, lie down;
during that period.       There had been the prophetess        and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say,
Deborah, besides a number of minor figures such as             Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."
the prophets referred to in Judges  6:8 and  lo:11 and             Quietly and obediently the child turned from Eli
the one which had spoken to Eli just shortly before            once more to return to his room. But now there was
this.       But these prophets had appeared on the scene       no more sleep, not even for the old high priest. We
only briefly to utter very limited and specific utter-         can well imagine with what strained ears he lay and
ances from God, and then they were heard of no more.           tried to see if he could hear that voice returning him-
What had been missing from Israel for many years               self.    But no, the visions of the Lord were not such as
was a prophet who could communicate with the Lord              could be intercepted by ears for which they were not
i      n
       "open vision".     Such had been Noah, Abraham,         intended. Nevertheless, the old man continued to lie
Jacob, and Moses and others. These men had met with            there thinking, wondering if the voice would come again,
the Lord in open vision and had spoken with Him face           wondering if Samuel would return to-tell him about it,
to face. Through Moses particularly the nation of Israel       wondering what it was that the Lord might wish to tell
had received direct guidance from the Lord in  -all of         that child.    Painfully Eli remembered the concern of
their needs.       But now over four hundred years had         the last prophet who had visited the tabernacle, and
passed since these visions had ceased. The children            he trembled to think that this might be the concern of
of Israel were conscious of this lack. It often seemed         the Lord still.
as though the Lord had hid His face from His people by             And so it was.        Samuel had hardly laid himself
refusing to speak to them as He hadin  the past.               down again before that voice was there calling, "Samuel,
       But now the time had come for this to be changed.       Samuel' ' ; and just as Eli had said, he answered, "Speak,
       It began late in a rather ordinary night at Shiloh.     LORD, for thy servant heareth." Then the voice con-
Eli and Samuel as usual had gone to sleep, each in one         tinued and said, "Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at
of the rooms which surrounded the court of the taber-          which both the ears of every one that heareth shall  ~
nacle.      The seven golden candlesticks, which usually       tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things
flickered out toward morning for lack of fuel, were            which I have spoken concerning his house: when I
still burning brightly in the Holy Place. Eli slept the        begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him
light and uneasy sleep of an old man while Samuel              that I will judge' his house for ever for the iniquity
slept the healthier sleep of a child. But when through         which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves
the darkness a voice sounded; it was the child who             vile, and he restrained them not.         And therefore I
heard it and not the old man. It was addressed to him;         have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the-iniquity of
and, although he did not yet realize it, no other ears         Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor of-
but his own were able to distinguish. it. It was the           fering for ever."


                                                     THE:STANDARD  BEARER                                                                   431
                                             ..-

     Here was an  amazing:thing  for a child so young to                               A N N O U N C E M E N T
  experience;       Not only had God spoken* to him, but God     Classis  East of the Prot. Ref. Churches will meet
  had .-spoken to him -a prophecy of condemnation against        Wednesday,' July 7, 1965, D.V., at 9 A.M. at the South-
  the  .one person who was  .closer*:`to him than  .anyone       west  Prot.. Ref. Church. Consistories will please take
  else.. It was no joy to him,  it.was  a trial. He knew that    note of this in the appointment of delegates.                    `.  ~.
  in the morning Eli would be there asking, and then what                                             M. Schippek, Stated Clerk
  would he say? Could he tell this man he loved so much
  what God had said or not?
     When morning came, Samuel sought to avoid Eli by
  going  .straight  to `open the gate of the court; but Eli                                      NOTICE              -`:
  was:soon behind him asking;' "What is the thing that           ,kdams  St. Prot. Ref. Chr.  .School  needs janitor services
  the LORD hath said unto thee? I pray thee hide it not          for the `65-`66 school season. This position can be
  from me:. God do so to thee, and more also, if thou            filled with part or full time help. If interested,
  hide any thing from me of all the things that he said          further information  can'be  had by calling J. Wigger,
  unto thee." For Samuel there was no remaining choice.          Ch 5-4784.
  It was God's word and it had to be spoken. Word for
  word he told the old man what God had said until the
  old man whispered back, "It is the LORD: let him do                                  ANNO~~NCI~MENT
  what seemeth him good." To Samuel already had come             The  Standard  Beaver  will appear only once per month
  the burden of a prophet.                                       during June, July, and August.





                                                    Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema

  "The Secret of Christian Family Living,"  by  Ralnh            one of mental and emotional problems: the suiritual
  Heynen; Baker Book House, Grand Rapids,  Mich. 162             does not receive its proper place and emphasis in
  pages, $2.95;.                                                 relation to the mental and emotional.                      5) It seems to
     The author of this book is hospital pastor at Pine          me that a more directly Scriptural and covenantal
' Rest Christian Hospital; and it is from his vantage            approach, especially in the light, for example, of a
  point of this position, in which he has often come into        book like Proverbs, would improve the book. With
  direct contact with problems of family living, that he         these restrictions, I recommend it to our readers.
  also writes this book.
     As the author himself notes in the preface, "The
  Chapters of this book first appeared as articles in                "Be it observed to the honor of truth . . . that if
  The Bannev. . . ." This also accounts for the brevity
  of the chapters, each of which is approximately two            truth be spoken, it will hold good, and, whoever may be
  and one-half pages.         There are fifty-nine of these      disobliged by it and angry at it, yet it will keep its
  chapters, arranged under the following`main headings:          ground.     Great is the truth, and will prevail; what is
  l)"The Family As A Unit;" 2) "Parents And Their                true will always be true; we may abide by it, and need
  Children;" 3)"Teen-agers  In The Home;" 4) "Keeping            not fear being disproved and put to shame."
  The Home In Balance;" 5)  "BridgingThe Generations."                                                                        -M. Henry
     It is impossible to give a complete review of the
  wide-ranging contents of this book here. The book is
  a -book for practical Christian living, deals with the
  many facets of home and family life, and, in general,               Consisfories!
  offers a Christian common sense approach to many of
  the problems which arise on the family horizon.
     With much of the practical advice one can agree.
     My main criticisms of the book are: 1) It attempts                      The R. F. P. A. Board suggests that you start out
  to cover too broad a field in too short a space. 2) The                    newly married couples in your congregation right:
  book would profit, in  my.opinion, if some of the prac-                    give each couple a year's subscription to our
  tical advice were more directly connected with Scrip-                      Standard Bearer.
  tural. and Reformed principles. Principle and practice
  are closely  ,related;  and without a firm foundation in                       Write to our Business Manager:
  principle, sound Christian practice can hardly succeed.                                James Dykstra, Bus. Mgr.
  3) The approach of the book, in my opinion, is too much                                1326 W. Butler Ave., SE,
  a "problem" approach;- a more positive approach would                                  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.  49507
  be desirable. 4) The approach of the book is too much


 432                                                         THESTANDARDBEARER                                             .
                                                                                                      . .
                                         ?&vu62 +m .tW &!&C&2
                                         rAl1 the saints salute thee. . ." Phil 4:21)

                                                   June 15, 1965              Newhouse, a charter member of the church, led in
        The Reformed Witness Hour again features Rev.                         closing prayer.                 ****
J.A. Heys, of --South Holland, Ill., who continues his
series  of-Radio  Addresses on "The Lord's Prayer."                                Hol!Iand's special congregational meeting, held May
-The topics this month are: July 4  - "A Sanctified                           17, concerning the landscaping of their church property,
Will"; July 11 -"`Bread for Today",;, July 18  - "Paid                        resulted in a general call in the next bulletin to the
in Full"; July 25  - " `Till Seventy Times Seven."                            men to bring "shovels, wheel-barrows, rakes and
Copies of these messages of instruction in the holy art                       picks" to assist with the work in the evenings of that
of prayer may be obtained by writing to the Reformed                          week.      Evidently an affirmative vote carried with it a
Witness Hour, P.O. Box 1230, Grand Rapids 1,  Mich.                           volunteering of time to carry out the decision.
                           * * * *                                                                            * * *  x
        The 1965 Synod of our churches has adjourned,                              Oak Lawn's congregation was invited by the Young
having finished its work, which included the examina-                         People's Society to a Memorial Day Outing at  TinIey
tion of Seminarian Robert Decker and declaring him                            Creek Forest Preserve. This outing was to be the old
eligible for a call in one of our churches. Even this                         style picnic where each family brings its own lunch,
will not alleviate our acute minister shortage: for                           and a softball game lasts `till dusk.
Synod also decided to call another Seminary Professor.                                                        * * *  m
Rev. H. Hanko received that call, with Rev. G. Van                                 Tornado scares are becoming so commonplace in
Baren  as alternate. Young men, we need aspirants to                          Michigan that many churches have decided to depend
the ministry! Do you not aspire to the highest of all                         on the official weather reports to determine whether
callings ?                                                                    church services will be held. Hudsonville has been
                           * *  *' *                                          added to that list, -and has decided to cancel services
        Rev. H. Veldman conducted the Pre-Synodical Prayer                    when a tornado forecast is in effect.
 Service to an audience which was a little larger than                                                        *  * * *
heretofore, but still did not strain the seating capacity                          Memorial Day was also the date of Redlands' Sunday
of First Church's auditorium, -not by half. Maybe                             School Picnic. It was scheduled to be held in Pinetum
next time !                                                                   Park, with reserved tables for two meals, noon and
                           * * * *                                            evening.      Contests and games were the order of the
        Commencement Exercises of our Seminary were                           day, with free ice cream for all. The entire congre-
held in First Church on Tuesday evening, June 8, with                         gation came out for this day `of Christian fellowship.
the lone graduate, Robert Decker, receiving his diploma,                                         .            8 * *  *
                                                                                                      `S .
 - a diploma which represented many long hours of in-                              Members of Hope's Mr. and Mrs. Society donated
tense study, and, by the same token, a passport into                          their time on a Saturday towards the purchase of a
many more years of the same; for the Word of God is                           new piano for their new church. This was done by
 of unfathomable depth and riches; the bottom of which                        sponsoring a car-wash at the  Standale  shopping center.
no minister can reach in his lifetime. Truly, it is but                       "Time is money," goes the old saying; but "Time is
 a  commencement!  Candidate Robert Decker, "we, the                          money - is a new piano" was the Mr. and Mrs. Society%
people" congratulate you ! This happy occasion brought                        saying.
 out a  sizeable audience, relatives and friends of the                                                       * * *  *
 graduate, and many others who are vitally interested                              Sunday, June 6, Southeast's pastor. had the pleasure
 in the future of our churches. Musical numbers in-                           of sitting in the pew with `his family while the pulpit
 cluded singing by the Hope Heralds, and a solo by Mr.                        was supplied by two of the  Synodical  delegates, Rev.
 Arnold Dykstra.                                                              J.  Kortering, of Hull, and Rev;` H.  ,Hanko, of  Doon.
                           *  *  *  *                                         Rev. Schipper called it an "unique" pleasure, and
        Hope's congregation dedicated their new church                        well may it have been, seeing we do not have enough
 edifice Wednesday evening, June 9. Many visitors                             ministers to go around.
from the area churches helped fill the spacious audi-                                                         ****
 torium for this joyous occasion. The speakers were:                               Southeast's bulletin has a new look.  .The front
 Rev. D. Engelsma, a son of the church; Rev. H. Hanko,                        carries a picture of the church plus addresses of pas-
 their previous past minister; and Rev. J.A. Heys, Rev.                       tor and clerk, while the back has all the pertinent in-
 Hanko's predecessor. Musical numbers included solos                          formation regarding the activities of the congregation.  ~
 by John Dykstra and by little Lorraine Bomers; choral                                                        * * * *
 numbers by the Hope Heralds and by their choral society.                          And, finally, other commencement speakers: Rev.  ~
 The theme of the entire program was the conscious                            M. Schipper at Adams School; Rev. H. Veldman at  '
 dedication of a building to the service of God. Rev. H.                      Hope; and Rev. D. Engelsma at Loveland.
 Veldman led in opening devotions; and Mr. Richard                                 . . . . . .see you in church.                 J.M.F.  ~


