Y





                                          tandid

                                                       earer


     A   R E F 'O R M E D   S E M I - M O N T H L Y   M A G A Z I N E



     IN TfflS  ISSUE:


              Meditation  - Kibroth-hattaavah


              Editorial  - Right, But  Dead, Wrong


              The New Generation of 1924  - A Blueprint For Its Failure


              Predestination and Mission Preaching


              The Doctrine of Creation





                                                      Volume  XLI/  Number  19 /August 1, 1.965 0.


     434                                                                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER


I                                                                                                                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                     C O N T E N T S
     Meditation  -                                                                                                                       Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
        Kibroth-hattaavah:                                                                                                                   Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
            God's Answer To An Evil Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434
                Rev. M. Schipper                                                                                                                        Editov- Prof. H. C. Hoeksema a
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        Right, But Dead Wrong (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436                              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1218 Griggs St., S.E., Grand Rapids,
                Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                     Michigan 49507. Contributions will be limited to 300 words
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                                                                                                              439                        are the first and fifteenth of the month.
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        The New Generation of 1924 --                                                                                                    All church news items should be addressed  toMr. J. M. Faber,
        A Blueprint for its Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440                                    1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
                Rev. G. Van  Baren
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        The Doctrine of Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446                                           Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
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                Rev. G. Vanden  Berg                                                                                                                   Subscription price: $5.00 per year
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                 ,Rev.  H. Hanko
     The Lord Gave The Word  -
        Predestination And Mission Preaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452
                Rev. C. Hanko                                                                                                     Classis West will meet, the Lord willing, on Wed-
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        Scripture on God's Government and Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454                                          nesday, September 15, 1965, at 9:00 a.m., at the South
                Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                           Holland, Illinois Protestant Reformed Church. All
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                                                                                                                               consistory.                               Rev. G. Van Baren, S.C.





                                                      KIBROTH-HATTAAVAH: GOD'S ANSWER TO AN EVIL PRAYER

                                                                                                                     Rev. M. Schippev

                                                    `And theve went forth a wind from the Lovd> and bvought  quails from the
                                                    sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it weve a day's journey  on this side,
                                                   and as it  weye a day's  journey  on the  other  side,  hound  about the  camp,
                                                   and as it  weYe two cubits high upon the face  of  the  earth. And the people
                                                    stood up all that day, and all that  ,nigh$  and all the next day, and they
                                                   gathered the quails: he  that  gathered least gathered ten  homers: and they
                                                    spread them all abroad  fov  themselves  hound  about the  camp.  And while
                                                    the flesh was yet between  their teeth,  eye it was chewed, the  wrath  of  the
                                                   Lord  wcis kindled against the people, and the Lovd smote the people with a
                                                    very great  plague. And he called the name of that place Kibvoth-huttaavah:
                                                    because  there  they  buvied the people that lusted."
                                                                                                                                                     Num bevs 11:31-34

              The way to heaven is the way of faith!                                                                           that is the lesson we have to learn again and again
              Without faith it is impossible to please God not only,                                                           when as pilgrims we travel through the wilderness
     but without it one cannot live as a pilgrim of the'heav-                                                                  of this present time to the heavenly Canaan of rest!
     enly country.                          He who in this life refuses to live in                                                It was the Lord who had delivered Israel from the
     faith will never enter the pearly gates, but in unbelief                                                                  mighty hand of Pharaoh. And He taught them thereby,
     will fall by the way-side!                                                                                                and unmistakably clear it must have been evident to
              Such is the lesson which the children of Israel had                                                              them, that it was the Lord alone who delivers them
     to learn as they traveled from Egypt to Canaan. And                                                                       from the bondage of sin!


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  435


   And as they travel from Egypt to Canaan He im-                the language of our day we would say that it was en-
pressed upon them how that they were so deeply                   riched with all the necessary and nourishing vitamins.
dependent upon their Saviour. He must guide them by              But Israel is sick of and fed up on this daily diet of
pillars of cloud and by fire. He must feed them and              manna. Their claim is that they will soon die if they
give them drink. And He led them purposely through               are not given something else. They need meat, for
the dry and thirsty wilderness in which no waters be,            their souls are dried up. And therefore they ask: Who
so that they would place their faith only on Him.                will give us flesh to eat?          This was indeed an evil
Deuteronomy 8:3 tells us that He humbled them and                prayer !
suffered them to hunger, and fed them with manna                         Evil it was because it was an accusation against
which they knew not, in order that they might know               God, against God Who had so wonderfully delivered
that man lives, not by bread alone, but by every word            His people and supplied all their need. Never had He
that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. And that           allowed them to go wanting. Their bread and water
Word was Christ, the Bread of life and Water of life.            were always supplied. Their clothing and shoes waxed
In Him Israel must trust, and all would be well!                 not old. From Egypt to this place, He had kept them
   But alas!       Israel, according to the flesh, rebels        in health and strength.         But now their voices were
again and again in unbelief. They will not live by the           raised in accusation against Him. This is certainly
Word that. proceedeth out of God's mouth alone. They             implied in their cry: Who shall give us flesh to eat?
must have flesh to eat! For that they pray!                      The implied answer is: No one, not even God. He will
   And God heard and answered their evil prayer!                 let our souls dry up until there is no life in us. But
   How blessed when He hears the prayer,of faith!                that is not all !
   How terrible when He hears and answers the prayer                     Evil was this prayer also because it was a denial of
of unbelief!                                                     Christ Who was the manna. It was not only substance
   Kibroth-hattaavah!  God answered their evil prayer!           meant to sustain their physical, earthly life. It was
   But who were they that offered this evil prayer?              also a type, a type of the Bread of life, Christ Jesus.
For what did they actually pray? And why was it such             The Lord Jesus Himself makes this plain when He
an evil prayer?                                                  declared, according to the Gospel of John, "I am the
   We read in the context "and the mixt multitude that           bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilder-
was among them fell a lusting: and the children of               ness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
Israel also wept again, and said, who shall give us              down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not
flesh to eat?" Evidently many of those who left Egypt            die.        I am the living bread which came down from
with the Israelites were Egyptians or slaves of the              heaven." When Israel, therefore, disdained the manna,
Egyptians as the children of Israel had been. While              their action was a direct denial of and aversion to
there in Egypt they also had been under harsh oppres-            Christ. While God was teaching His people to live by
sion, or they constituted the lower class of Egyptians           the Bread which cometh down from above, they proudly
and therefore were also oppressed. At any rate, they             said: Away with this bread, we are sick of it! They
had joined themselves to Israel when the latter were             speak and act as practical atheists and unbelievers.
led to freedom.       Perhaps there were some who had            They will not look for the Antetype!
joined Israel for spiritual reasons, but it soon became              Their prayer was evil because they lusted after
evident that the majority had joined for purely carnal           earthly things ! The fish, onions, garlic and melons
reasons. And now, after about a year and two and one-            of Egypt are types of the things which are passing
half months of desert travel, they were getting sick of          away. They symbolize all that satisfies carnal desire
it. Naturally, like Israel, they too were demanded to            and earthly pleasure. Israel virtually said: We want
bear deprivations. And because they were carnal, at              nothing of heaven, but we want theearthand its fulness!
least the majority of them, they began to rebel.                 They implied that they hated the very idea of being a
   It did not take iong before their lusting for flesh           stranger and a pilgrim.          They express the carnal
took its toll on the children of Israel. Only a little           passion for the pleasures of sin!
while, and we see the people of Israel, and again the                    For our admonition these things are written, upon
majority of them, standing before the door of their              whom the ends of the agesare come. 0, my soul, haste
tents weeping. It is Israel; prompted by this carnal             not to utter such vanity! Seek thou the things which
element that prays: Who shall give us flesh to eat?              are above, and wait thou only upon God from Whom
Fresh in their minds were the fish, the cucumbers,               cometh every good and perfect gift!
melons, onions and garlic of Egypt. Though they had                      And God answered their evil prayer!
suffered the whips of the Pharaohs, they nevertheless                    How terrible it is when He gives according to an
had always had their appetites satisfied with delicacies.        evil desire!
   They pray for flesh! This in itself was not wrong.                    Literally, He fulfilled their lust! Their meat came
There is nothing wrong with having meat. It must be              to them in the form of quails. Miraculous, but awful
considered an essential part of a good diet. Nor could           answer to a carnal prayer! Millions of quails showered
it have been sinful in itself to have desired it.                down upon them. Three feet deep, and as far around the
   But their prayer was a prayer of lust! Their claim            camp as one could walk in one day, so many were the
is that they have nothing before them but this disdainful        quails !
manna; manna, which tasted like fresh oil, and was                       And 0, how greedily they gathered them! He that
therefore not only nourishing, but also palatable. In            gathered least gathered ten homers, sixty to a hundred


436                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


bushels.       The Lord was intent on giving them flesh,              mass funerals! From the glee that registered upon
not for one day, nor for twenty, but for a whole month,               their faces at the sight of abundance of meat, they are
until it would come out of their nostrils, and it became              brought to deepest sorrow. Nausea, indigestion, and
loathsome to them!        One would think that such abun-             death rained upon them as they fell under the curse
dance would have caused them to become suspicious,                    of the .Almighty!
that they would hesitate to indulge. But the Psalmist                    0, indeed, the Lord will not be mocked!. Whether it
(78:30) tells us: "They were not estranged from their                 be the world of wicked men, or the wicked in His church,
lust."      They conclude: This is the life! Let us eat,              all who despise Him, turning their necks upon the living
drink, and be merry!                                                  God, and repudiating the Manna from heaven, shall feel
       My reader, do you know people like that? Are you               His wrath!
perhaps one of them who never have enough? It seems                      The psalmist in Psalm 106:13-15, tells us also of
to me that if ever there was a time when the multitudes               this episode in the history of Israel, when he says:
fall a-lusting, it is in our day! I see thousands upon                "They soon forgot his works; they waited not for his
thousands of my countrymen lusting and grabbing after                 counsel: But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and
the things which are below. I see the capitalists milling             tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their
day and night to amass their thousands and their                      request: but sent leanness into their soul." Carnal
millions. I see the labor man and his unions throwing                 lust and leanness of soul, these two  alwaysgo  together.
stones and even bombs, and by force of strikes and                    When one is full of Christ, there is no room for carnal
boycotts he is striving to gain the riches of the rich.               passion, but when the soul of mandespises the heavenly
And most sorry of all, I see my fellow Christians                     Bread, which can be appropriated only by a true and
caught up in this spell of materialism and greediness.                living faith, there must of Divine necessity beleanness
They do not ask: Is it good for me? They do not live                  of soul in a dispensation of wrath.
any more out of the principle that the Lord will care                    Among this mixt multitude there were no doubt
for His own.        They do not seem eager today for the              children of God, who for a time were caught up in this
Bread of life, but for the bread that is perishing!                   maelstrom of carnal lust inspired by the flesh seekers.
       And 0, how the Lord is sending His quails today!               They no doubt repented, for God will lead His people
When I see so many quails, I become afraid. I'm                       into Canaan at last, but all that generation of lusters
afraid that the Lord is answering the prayers of evil                 went down on the sands of the desert. All of which is
lusters. When the Lord sends so many quails, beloved                  to teach us that entrance into Canaan shall never be by
reader, beware!                                                       our own merit, for the natural man savors not the
       The wrath of the Almighty accompanied the answer               things of the kingdom of heaven, they are foolishness
to that evil prayer! You see, God is not mocked!, The                 to him.       It is only by sovereign grace that we are
quails are given in His holy wrath! Israel is punished                made to taste the Bread of life, and thus to enjoy pleas-
with a horrible plague. We are not told what exactly                  ures forever more.         He who has once tasted this
was the nature of the plague, but the text makes it very              heavenly Manna, to him the things of this world become
plain that by eating many died! In Psalm 78:30, 31, we                strangely dim.
read: "But while their meat was yet in their mouths,                     But the mockers, the carnal flesh seekers, they
the wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest                 may have what their lean souls crave after in this life,
of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel." It                 but Divine wrath accompanies their pleasure, and in
meant that even the youngest and the strongest could                  the end they have eternal desolation, even though they
not endure the awful wrath of God !                                   belong in their generations to nominal Israel or the
       Instead of banqueting, as they supposed, there were            church of Christ in this world.





                                             RIGHT, BUT DEAD WRONG

                                                               (3)

                                                  Pvof. H. C. Hoeksema

       Dr. James Daane continually asserts, in his articles           he makes a good many pronouncements about the  the-
about the Dekker Case, that his chief concern is with                 ology itself that is involved in the Dekker Case as well
the question of "theological method." Perhaps this is                 as about theological method. Undoubtedly this is due
true.       In the meantime, however, he himself will                 to the fact that theological method and theology proper
certainly have to admit that he goes rather far afield                are intimately related. A wrong method will invariably
in attempting to make his point about method, and that                produce a wrong theology; by the same token, the right


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 437

 method will also produce a true theology.                        offer of salvation is an instance, not of saving, but of a
     Again I say: Daane is right, but dead wrong.                 qualitatively different non-saving, common grace."
     While he criticizes both the theology and the theo-          Daane criticizes the First Point severely on this count.
 logical method of others, he himself should be above             Says he, among other things: "This writer at least can
 reproach both as to method and theology. He is cer-              find no theological meaning - or even verbal meaning
 tainly right in emphasizing the need of a correct                -- in the assertion that in the offer of the saving grace
 method and approach. He is even right in some of his             of redemption in the preaching of thegospel, the repro-
 pronouncements about the theology of the First Point.            bate, who rejects it, receives anon-saving grace." And
 But his own method is dead wrong, and his own theo-              again, proceeding from the fact that the offer of salva-
 logical conclusions are dead wrong.                              tion and the preaching of the gospel have to do with
    This becomes increasingly evident in James Daane's            saving grace, he asks: "What does it mean that common
 second article on the Dekker Case, "A Road Forty                 grace comes through the proclaimed offer of salvation,
 Years Long" (Reformed  Joumzal, Nov., 1964).                     when the proclamation speaks of saving grace and does
                                                                  not so much as mention a non-saving grace? What
  One Love Of God Indeed!                                         meaning can one find in the words that the non-elect
     Daane introduces this second article by mentioning           hearer  thvough  the heaving of the proclamation of sav-
 what he calls the three chief reasons why Prof. Dekker's         ing  gyuce  receives non-saving grace?"
 position has raised questions and uncertainties in the              The second reason for this uneasiness is "the
 Christian Reformed community. These are: "First; he              almost intuitive recognition that there is but one divine
 asserts that there is but one love of God. Second, this          attribute of grace. This recognition can scarcely be
 love is said to be a redemptive love for all men, though         held meaningfully if one simultaneously holds that there
 it redeems only the elect. Third, the distinction be-            are two essentially different graces in God." In this
 tween `redemptive' and `redeeming' does not, it is               connection Daane presents Berkhof as contradicting
 thought, protect his position from the charge that it            himself by maintaining that there is only one kind of
 violates the doctrine of limited atonement." To the              grace in God and yet insisting upon an essential dif-
~ first two of these reasons Dr. Daane addresses him-             ference between common grace and special grace.
 self in "A Road Forty Years Long."                               Moreover, he maintains that  ` `Since any manifestation
    First of all, then, Daane treats the matter of                of the grace of God (whether in Christ or in rain and
 Dekker's insistence that there is but one love of God.           sunshine) is an expression of that one attribute or
 What the doctor writes on this may be summarized as              character of God," it is impermissible to speak of two
 follows:                                                         graces of God that are essentially or qualitatively
     1. There are those who regard Dekker's insistence            different. This is to render the term "grace" mean-
 on one love of God as being not Reformed and who                 ingless and to project a dualism into the being of God.
 oppose to Dekker's doctrine the doctrine of "one                    4. At this point Dr. Daane draws his conclusions
 saving, redemptive, electing love of God for the elect           concerning Prof. Dekker's insistence upon one love of
 and a second, qualitatively different, i.e., non-saving,         God. These are:
 non-redemptive, non-electing love for the non-elect."               a. That when Dekker insists that there is but one
 This is parallel to the "saving," "non-saving" ter-              love of God, he is in agreement withBerkhof's  teaching
 minology of the Synod of 1924 with regard to God's               that there B but one grace in God. But Dekker disagrees
 grace.      However, there is some hesitancy in this             with Berkhof and with the "semi-creedal" First Point
 regard for two reasons: 1) There is no creedal  sup-             on the matters mentioned above under "3". Daane,
 port for the idea of.two loves of God." 2) The late Prof.        incidentally, points out that the Christian Reformed
 Berkhof taught that there is but one divine attribute of         Church is unique in having created this "semi-creedal
 grace, though he was one of the fathers of 1924's                doctrinal formulation" of the First Point.
 doctrine of two graces of God.                                      b. Dekker agrees with Berkhof in another respect.
    2. The doctrine of common grace, especially of the            Berkhof taught that the one grace of God manifests
 First Point, has rested uneasily in the theologicalmind          itself in different gifts and operations: the one grace
 of the Christian Reformed churches. I shall pass by              effects salvation  and bestows merely natural blessings,
 Daane's wholly inaccurate presentation of Points II and          - the latter upon man in general. Dekker is said to
 III and his divorcing of them from Point I because this          regard the one redemptive love of God as working in
 question is not germane to the discussion at hand.               different ways and degrees, with results not always
 Daane presents the First Point as follows: "They of-             identical. Hence, says Daane, "The correspondence is
 ficially formulated and adopted a doctrine of two,               obvious. Berkhof here posits one grace of God, Dekker
 essentially and qualitatively different graces of God,           one love of God; .one admits that the one love, and the
 and gave this formulation at least semi-creedal force."          other that the one grace, can have results that differ
    3. ,There are, according to Daane, two reasons for            as much as salvation differs from non-salvation."
 the uneasiness mentioned above.                                     6. "If Dekker's insistence on one love of God for
    The first reason is that "Synod of 1924 adduced the           all men is open to the charge of Arminianism because
 well-meant offer of salvation that comes in thepreach-           this love does not have the same result and save all
 ing of the gospel, not only as a mere proof, but as an           men, Berkhof's insistence that the one grace of God
 instance  of common grace . . . . .Yet to this day no one has    manifests itself sometimes in salvation and sometimes
 been able to make clear to anyone that the well-meant            only in `merely natural blessings,' is open to the same


438                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER

charges. Indeed, Hoeksema raised this very objection             hate the reprobate? This is the question before all
against Berkhof."                                                other questions.        It is before any question whether
                            *  * * *                             Christ died for all. It is before any question (if indeed
       First of. all, let me mention the matters on which        that is a question!) about redemptive-redeeming or
Dr. Daane is right in this connection.                           redemptive-but-not-redeeming. And I submit that the
       1. He is right (and Dekker is also) when he insists       underlying reason for th e Christian Reformed un-
that there is but one love of God and one grace of God.          certainties and questions about Prof. Dekker's position
To teach anything contrary to this would be an attack            exactly concerns this fundamental question. In spite of
on the oneness and the simplicity.of God. Anyone with            the Three Points (and perhaps partly because of the
a grain of Reformed sensitivity will recognize this.             forty years of polemics about the Three Points), there
       2. Daane is also right when he points out the utter       are those who sense that to say that God loves all men
inconsistency, and, in fact, sheer nonsense of the First         is rank Arminianism and who now fear the complete
Point of 1924 when it cites the well-meant offer of              forfeiture of the precious Reformed heritage of God's
salvation as proof of and an instance of a qualitatively         sovereign, particular love.        And would to God they
different, non-saving, common grace.                             would acknowledge this and take action before it is too
       3. He is also right, for the most part, in his evalua-    late !
tion of the similarities between Berkhof's andDekker's                  In the second place, James Daane is dead wrong as
teachings, especially when he writes: "...one admits             tohis  analysis of the  First Point and his  analysis of its
that the `one love, and the other that the one grace, can        historical  intevpretution.   True, this is due in part to
have results that differ as much as salvation differs            the inconsistency of the First Point itself. For Synod
from non-salvation." I cannot resist adding at this              of 1924, in its desperate attempt to find proof for
juncture, however, that the utter folly of both positions        common grace (which supposedly operates to bestow
(and heresy,  too) would be more obvious if Daane would          merely natural, temporal blessings) fell into the  Ar-
have used the term "damnation" instead of  "non-                 minian error of general grace when it adduced the well-
salvation." Think of it'! God's grace and God's love             meant offer of the gospel as proof. Everyone knows
can both have such opposite results as salvation and             that when you speak of the preaching of the gospel and
damnation! How can a Reformed man get such heresy                of a supposed general and well-meant offer of the
through his pen?                                                 gospel, you are operating not in the sphere of a so-
       4. While this is perhaps incidental to the present        called common, non-saving grace but in the sphere of
discussion, Daane is at least semi-vight when he states          saving grace. This point Daane indeed sees clearly.
that the Christian Reformed Church gave a  semi-                 But one thing Daane does not seem to understand,
cveedal  force to the doctrinal formulations of the Three        namely, that, whether they would admit it or not, ever
Points. This has often been denied. In fact, not long            since 1924 the defenders of the First Point knew very
ago Dr. John I<romminga denied it in the Banner.  But            well that when they dealt with the matter of the well-
the fact remains that in 1924-`26 this semi-creedal              meant offer, they were no longer speaking of a so-
force was so strong that it had the force of a creed,            called common grace and of natural blessings, but of
namely, to exclude those who disagreed, so that those            saving grace and (well-meaningly offered) spiritual
who would not subscribe were deposed. Nor did the                blessings.        It was precisely this fact that made the
supposed interpretation of 1959 change this: the Three           First Point vulnerable to the charge of Arminianism.
Points remained binding, and the ex-Protestant Re-               This is plain, in the first place, from the proof which
formed (not "Protestant Reformed," as Daane puts it)             Synod of 1924 offered for this part of the First Point:
ministers were required to accept them. Incidentally,            Canons II, 5; Canons III, IV, 8 and 9; Ezekiel 18:23;
here is a good question: what is "semi-creedal" in               Ezekiel  33:ll; and Romans  2:4. All of these proofs
distinction from "creedal" and "non-creedal"?                    have to do with the gospel, with salvation, and with
       Nevertheless, Daane is dead wrong.  And he is, sad        spiritual blessings such as repentance, conversion, and
to say, dead wrong on the fundamentals.                          eternal life. This is plain, in the second place, from
       In the first place, he is dead wrong as to the funda-     many writings by defenders of the Three Points such
mental issue. Do not be misled on this score. Daane              as Berkhof, H. J. Kuiper, Heyns, Zwier, etc. The chief
states that the first of the chief reasons for the ques-         point of controversy was always the well-meant offer
tions and uncertainties raised by Dekker's position is           of salvation.       Thus, for example, Berkhof spoke (in
that he asserts that there is but one love of God. Super-        connection with Romans 2:4) of God's intention to lead
ficially considered, - and therefore it is somisleading,         the ungodly Jews to repentance, and taught resistible
-- this seems to be true, especially for those who dis-          grace when he added that the result did not answer to
agree with Dekker but want to protect the precious               the intention.        I<uipe r spoke of a "gospel for all
Three Points. They are in a bind between their fear of           sinners." Heyns taught the idea of two wills in God,
denying Point I and their fear of Dekker's rank Ar-              -- a will to save all and a will to save only the elect.
minianism. And some have sought refuge, it seems, in             All of the writings about the above-mentioned "proofs"
a "two graces" or "two loves" theory. But every Re-              of the First Point were not concerned with so-called
formed man knows that there is but onelove of God and            natural blessings of common grace; they were con-
one grace of God. The fundamental question is: who               cerned with a supposed will of God to save all
we the objects of the one love of God?  Does God love            men        and    with a gracious offer of  salvation  to
all men'? Or does God love His elect people only and             all       who     hear the preaching. Moreover, Daane
-


                                                  THESTANDARDBEARER                                                439


is      mistaken         when he writes about the Rev.          Finally, Daane is dead wrong as to  the matter  of
Herman Hoeksema's objection of Arminianism against           theological method about which he claims to be chiefly
Berkhof. It was not because Berkhof spoke of merely          concerned.     Dr. Daane seems to have a good under-
natural blessings for all men that he charged Berkhof        standing of the importance of one's method. For he
with Arminianism; but the charge of Arminianism was          writes: "A theological method is a way of thinking
registered against Berkhof in connection with the            theologically. The way one chooses, like the road one
latter's defense of the well-meant offer and his Arminian    selects to travel, determines the place where one
explanation of passages like Romans 2:4 and Ezekiel          arrives. Whenever one is not sure how he got where
33:ll.       In brief, Hoeksema charged Berkhof with         he is, there is value in looking back." To this I surely
Arminianism for the same reason that he called Dek-          say, "Amen!"       But I would add: 1. Look back, Dr.
ker's doctrine rank Arminianism. The only difference         Daane, (and others), and you will discover that you
between Berkhof and Dekker, between 1964 and 1924,           came from Kalamazoo, 1924. 2. Look back farther,
is- one of degree. In 1924 the Arminianism was more          and you will discover that you came from Gouda, 1610.
covert and confused; today it is more open and explicit.     3. Your way (method) is not that of Scripture and the
But the basic reason for the uneasiness about the First      Reformed confessions. 4. There is value in looking
Point down the "Road Forty Years Long" was its               back, provided you also turn back and retrace your
Arminianism.           Dekker, Daane, and Boer are merely    steps when you discover you are on the wrong road.
forty years farther down the same road.




                                            June 22, 1965
Editor of The Standard Bearer                                Amendment to the Taft-Hartley Act" (allowing ex-
1218 Griggs St. SE.                                          emption for religious objectors), but also to Congress-
                                                             woman Green to encourage her in what must be a lonely
Dear Mr. Editor:,                                            stand. Congressmen are there because their constit-
      Will you please place this as a contribution in the    uents voted for them. By and large they want to please
next issue of The Standard Bearer.                           their constituents to insure a re-election, but they are
      Just as the noose of trade unions tightens itself      not mind readers.         They are, however, letter and
around the American economy by forcing Congress to           telegram readers because this indicates what "the
repeal the "Right To Work" section of the  Taft-             folks back home" want them to do.
Hartley Bill (Section 14-b), there is a tiny indication         Here is an opportunity for our small, but distinctive
of possible relief from this tyranny for our Protestant      witness to be heard in the land. A thousand letters
Reformed wage earners and for other Christians across        and telegrams to our respective Congressmen and to
the country who have refused to yield to this yoke.          Congresswoman Green, urging their continued support
      This comes in the form of a proposed amendment         of this amendment, could result in a witness to the
to the Taft-Hartley Act which would exempt religious         country that there are Christians who oppose the un-
objectors from compulsory union membership in the            godly tactics of many unions. By divine counsel, it
United States. Congresswoman Green (D., Oregon) had          could not only result in the exemption of our men from
introduced this same bill earlier in the day as an           union membership, but also be a constant and thorny
amendment to the House of Representatives bill to            witness to union members and officials across the land
repeal the right to work law. When this was voted down       who would be forced to allow conscientiously objecting
by the House Labor Committee, she immediately set            Christians to work unmolested in heretofore closed
about to make her bill an amendment to the original          shops !
Taft-Hartley Bill, the dominant guide today in employer-        God works through means, even in the guiding of
u n i o n   r e l a t i o n s .                              our rulers.     One of these means could be the one
      We do not know what motivates the congresswoman        thousand letters our individuals, families, consistories,
to work this diligently on what is certainly an unpopular    class,es, and synod, could produce to make our witness
bill at this time. We can only recognize that the hearts     felt in Washington.
of our rulers are guided by Jehovah, and that He often                                               Charles H. Westra
uses diverse and mysterious means to benefit His
people.
      In the past our various ecclesiastical bodies, and
I'm certain many of our members, have expressed                              ATTENTION TEACHERS
themselves on the union question to their various            The Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School will
elected congressmen. At that time it seemed to be of         need several teachers to complete its staff for the
no avail, but perhaps it was very really "bread cast on      1965-66 school year. Please send inquiries to:
the waters."                                                                        Don Lotterman
      Now .is the time to- write again.! Not only to your                           1926 Porter St., S.W.
own congressmen, urging their support on the "Green                                 Wyoming, Michigan 49509


440                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER





                        THE NEW GENERATION OF 1924 - A BLUEPRINT FOR ITS FAILURE*

                                                       Rev. G. Van  Baven

       The subject may seem somewhat strange -- it did to          tonight is a BLUEPRINT FOR FAILURE, so that should
me first too. It was only the first part of the theme             we follow what I suggest in this speech, we are headed
that was assigned to me: THE NEW GENERATION OF                    for certain failure. The subject suggests a reason for
1924. The Men's Society of Oak Lawn had requested                  concern, and that is easily understood too. A new
another subject; but since I had been invited to speak             generation has arisen since 1924. In fact, almost two
on this subject on April 30 in Grand Rapids for the Mr.            generations have been born since then. How is this
and Mrs. Societies, I suggested that possibly I could              generation behaving itself? Are we living in conformity
stop on the way down there and could speak here on the             with those principles which were fought for in 1924?
same subject. I added the last part: A BLUEPRINT                   You know that is a very serious question. You had
FOR ITS FAILURE, because I thought it might be                     read for you this evening Judges 2.          Notice in the
interesting to take somewhat of a different approach.              history of Israel how they in their second and third
       The subject requested of me did somewhat mystify           generations always departed. When they were brought
me.       In a way I think the theme is very plain: THE            into the land of Canaan, while Joshua was yet living,
NEW GENERATION OF 1924. Yet it could be rather                    they served the Lord; but then the new generation
ambiguous.           1924?    What was so special about that       arose which feared not the Lord, which turned their
date?       Obviously the Board, requesting this subject,          eyes to the idol and worshipped every image of the
had in mind the church events of 1924 --particularly               land.      And that has always been history too. It is
the formulation of the three points of common grace                simply a fact that to a certain degree the second and
which led ultimately to the establishment of the Prot-             the third generation depart from the principles that
estant Reformed Churches.             At least that is what I     were fought for and laid down by the first generation.
take to be the meaning of the theme.                               And that is true to a certain degree also with us.
       THE NEW GENERATION again could have various                    In 1924 there was a grievous struggle - something
meanings. I have taken as its meaning this: it refers             that affected the lives and being of our parents, or
to us -- to those of us particularly who were not born            possibly our grandparents. But today our attitude and
yet in 1924, or who were very young and consequently              position over against 1924 has somewhat mellowed. I
unaware then of the events which transpired. We are               want to call your attention therefore to this subject:
the new generation that were born and raised by those             THE NEW GENERATION OF 1924-A BLUEPRINT
who went through the struggle of 1924.                             FOR ITS FAILURE.
       I am taking a different approach to the subject                I want to speak about ten things. I do not mean to
tonight. I want to approach it in a negative way. And              imply that these are the only possible ten. We can add
I want to treat it, not by using the normal three points,         many other points to those which I will enumerate, but
but ten points. You are aware, of course, that any good           ten I have used as a good complete figure.
Protestant Reformed speech or sermon usually has                      In connection with the theme, I would suggest that if
three points.         That is a convenient way of dividing        we, as the new (or second and third) generation of
material, though I don't know whether there is any                 1924 are tofail as churches, then, first of all, we ought
special reason why this should be done. (I have heard             to forget about the history of 1924: the events which
the explanation that, being good Calvinists, we must              led to that particular struggle and the results of that
emphasize always the Trinity - also in our speeches                struggle. We ought to forget this. It has been some
or sermons: three Persons, three points.)                         forty years since that happened, has it not? Forty
       Tonight I am going to have ten points instead of the        years in the lifetime of one individual is a rather long
usual three. Also, though usually a good sermon or                 time.      We live in a different age today, an age of
speech is positive and treats a subject from some                  super-sonic planes; an age of advancement in science
positive aspect, tonight I want to be negative. I am               and communications. This age is so utterly different
intending to treat the subject in such a way that what I          from forty years ago that those who lived then, and
say is not what I would advocate. What I have to say              have passed away, would feel utterly out of place
                                                                   today.      We have our own problems today: morality,
        *This article is a transcription of a speech delivered    morals, and others. Those are things which we con-
        by the Rev. Van Baren  on April 29 under the sponsor-
        ship of the Oak Lawn Men's Society and at Grand Rapids    front.       There are the struggles of our day in the
        on April 30 before the Mr. and Mrs. League. By staff      churches of our land (and other lands) against poverty,
        decision it is published here because of its general       against racial discrimination, to enforce voting rights
        interest.    The transcription was made by Rev. G.         and privileges for every citizen of the land. We have
        Vanden  Berg from a recording, and it was edited by        those  troubles to confront.     The church faces the
        the speaker.  - H.C.H.                                     question of the use of nuclear arms --whether or not


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                441


these may be used under certain circumstances. Those          significance of the three points of common grace. It
are problems we face. So we should forget about 1924          is one thing, of course, to know that there are those
and its history.     One can not forget it entirely, of       three points. It is one thing to point out the proof be-
course. History is history; one can not erase it. And         cause of which we deny them. But it is another thing
that history so happens to be part of the history of our      to live according to our denial of those three points. I
own churches.       It is understandable then that this       would suggest that even though we would take into
history would be mentioned by us and by our children          account the history of the three points, and even though
occasionally. But I would suggest that if we are to fail      we should know what they are and what is wrong with
as distinctive Protestant Reformed Churches, then we          them; if we do not live day by day practically according
had better forget about that history: consider it ancient,    to our denial of those three points, we are exactly on
a matter of personality struggles, possibly some in-          that road to failure. This is what I mean. The three
justices but, nevertheless, ancient history which took        points, in a very general way, maintain that God is
place a long time ago. It is then none of our concern         gracious to the wicked. Although the wicked are totally
nor the concern of our children. I believe that is the        depraved, nevertheless the grace of God still so works
first step toward failure as Protestant Reformed              in their hearts that they are able todo certain elements
Churches. Ignore `24.                                         of good.       We deny that as a doctrine, and refuse to
   From there we can take a second step. We can               have anything to do with the instruction of such a
become more specific: not only ignore the history of          doctrine. I nevertheless suggest that, as a blueprint
1924, but also ignore those three points -- that is,          for failure, we ignore the practical implication of that
if we want to fail.       You know that much has been         denial.
made of those three points of common grace in                        We can say that our denial of the doctrine involves
the past.    But they are not mentioned so much. any          the truth that the wicked can do no good. Yet in our
more today.      It is true that today in the Christian       daily walk and life we can confront the world as though,
Reformed Church there is a little more revival of             after all, it is good in certain respects. After all, it
discussion on the subject in connection with the Dekker       presents its entertainment on television, does it not?
controversy, and yet possibly the majority, or at least       You can watch its movies on television at home (though
the large minority, in the Christian Reformed Church          our churches do not allow theatre attendance). You
do not even know any more what those three points             see and enjoy the "good" that the world produces - and
are. And they are theiv three points, not ours. If they       you can comment to one another about the "good"
do know about those three points of commongrace, this         story you saw.        Or we might dress like the world.
is often made a joking matter. I recall quite distinctly      Pretend that the world knows how to dress and that the
in fact, that when I was in Calvin College, we had one        least thing that the world initiates must be imitated by
professor that enjoyed "riding" us concerning common          us.      Then you assume that the world knows how to
grace. It was a matter of joke between him, the class,        dress. There is an element of "goodness" as far as
and us - some P.R.`s who were in his class. When we           their taste is concerned in natural things - and we go
finished tests on which the class received very poor          along with their taste. That is denying our denial of
grades, he would come to class with a grin on his face        common grace. Or there is our speech. The world
and say that he had to add ten points of "common              speaks, and we hear them speak. And so often times
grace " to every score in order that most of the students     we too can take its speech upon our lips - which sug-
might pass, except that he could not give those to the        gests that we assume that the speech of the world can
P.R.`s since they did not believe in common grace.            be ` `good" and worthy of our imitation. Now that is a
You see, it was a matter of joke, a humorous situation        long step toward failure as far as we, Protestant
that made everyone in class smile a bit, including the        Reformed Churches, are concerned.           We deny the
P.R.`s.                                                       doctrine  of common grace, but often follow it in
   I want to suggest that we too as churches, if we are       practice: the world can yet do certain good.
to fail in our calling, forget those three points of 1924.           Now I want to broaden out. Not only is there the
They are not ours. They belong to the Christian Re-           question of common grace and its denial, but if we are
formed Church. Forget about what they teach. How              to fail, we must minimize the importance and signif-
many, for instance, here, can enumerate right now the         icance of the church and its confessions. That is a
first point, the second, and the third? Do you think you      very important step too. The church is a nice place in
can? If you can not, that is a good start - a good start      which to have membership papers. One must belong
toward failure. Can you give proof texts for those three      somewhere.       And it is nice to have a church to run to
points of common grace, and against them? What texts          when one has sorrow and grief. There is a certain
were used by that synod of 1924 to support its adopted        amount of comfort found there. At the same time, if
doctrine? What texts are used by our churches to              we are to fail, we must minimize the significance of
refute the idea of the three points? Do you know what         that church.       Let church attendance decline. It is
they are? If we are to fail as churches, as distinctive       popular in our age to attend church but once on Sunday
Protestant Reformed Churches, I'd suggest that this is        -- and even less. Ignore the necessity of the preaching
the best way to go about it. Forget about the three           of the Word. And when you hear the preaching of the
points and the proof to counteract or deny them.              Word, pretend that it is merely the opinion of man, and
   In the third place, (and maybe that is more impor-         not Christ Who speaks through the ministry of the
tant yet ifwe are to fail) we should ignore the practical     Word.


442                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


       Also, then, minimize the confessions of the church.      that can be done. We must continue to remember the ~
We have the three: the Heidelberg Catechism, the                church, of course. Come to church on Sunday. (You
Canons of Dort, and the Netherlands or Belgic Con-              must do this in the Protestant Reformed Churches or
fession. We hear the truths of the Catechism expounded          the consistory might get after you.) But as far as
every Sunday.        But what about those other two: the        extra-curricular activities, church activities, are con-
Canons of Dort and the Netherlands Confession? We               cerned, ignore them: special meetings, programs, etc.
have already to a certain extent forgotten what they            Pretend that they are not so important. And societies !
are, have we not? Can you sit down right now, without           Pretend that you have so many other meetings, maybe
looking in the back of the Psalter, and explain exactly         bowling or some other sports, that you have not any
what is contained in those other two confessions? The           additional time to attend societies.          In that way
Canons? The Netherlands Confession? What do they                minimize the activities that go on in the church, and
refute? What doctrines do they set forth? If we are to          emphasize such activities that rather satisfies your own
fail, we ought to remind ourselves that these Confes-           flesh. I say that this is another important step toward
sions were adopted (as they were) some four hundred             failure.    The same is true regarding our financial
years ago. They were suitable for a church that lived           support of the church. Years ago our parents had to
four hundred years ago, but they are a little out-of-date       sacrifice for the church - but we do not do that very
today. (If you keep up with the controversies going on          much any more today. Of course, they did not have
in the Christian Reformed Church, you know that this            cars to pay for, mortgages to pay off, and vacations to
subject has reached a very critical point there. Or-            save for. At the same time, I suggest that if we are
dained ministers are publicly there denying what the            going to fail, then we must consider the church some-
confessions plainly teach.) If we are to fail, that is          what of a luxury.      In the Old Testament, it is true,
precisely the way we must go. Simply set up our own             there was this ten percent deal: tithing, even of Israelites
standards and ignore what the church has done in the            who were far poorer than any of us may ever have been.
past.                                                           But tithing was in the Old Testament -beforeliberty was
       Five.    To fail we must not insist upon any more        given to the church through Jesus Christ. Today, if we
distinctiveness. You know how we have done that in the          are going to fail, we should consider the church not as
past. Our churches have always been pointed out as              that which we must support faithfully and first of all,
those who were distinctive. Who maintain the truth of           but as a luxury. After we payfor our cars, our homes,
the sovereignty of God, and that too, over against all          all of our furniture, our amusements, then, if there is
other heresy? The Protestant Reformed. Who main-                anything left over, we will see to it that the church also
tained the truth of the sovereign, free grace of God -          has somewhat of that. Then not only we, but also our
denying that there were any other forms of grace? The           children, grow up with this idea that the church is not
Protestant Reformed. Who emphasized.in  the preaching           so important and significant after all. Our own imagined
in the past the ideas of election and reprobation so            necessities may be placed before the needs of the
strongly? The Protestant Reformed. We are always                church.
set out as those who were separate and distinct from               Seven. I suggest that if we are to fail, we ought to
all others. And it is not always very pleasant and nice         neglect careful, systematic study of God's Word. That
for one in this day to be distinctive or set apart from         is a very important step. We already hear the Word of
everyone else. We too, if we are to fail, must try to           God in the- preaching twice every Sunday. We hear the
rid ourselves of such distinctiveness. You know how             Word maybe two hours every Sabbath; if we are mem-
that can be done. We should only emphasize the CYOSS,           bers in societies, we do have a discussion of God's
and point out that there are so many others who also            Word there; and our children have it in catechism and
preach the crucified Christ, the cross -- and stop there.       in school. But why set aside time as a family at home
Then -we are taking a big step toward getting everyone,         to study that Word? Why do that when all the other
including ourselves, together. If we forget about all           time is spent on it already? Why discuss, as.a family,
these, sometimes called "minor variations:" election            the principles of that Word? We must pretend that as
and reprobation, limited atonement, a denial of common          a family we should be concerned with our daily cares;
grace, and emphasize only that one point that we all            see to it that our children are provided with their daily
speak of a crucified Christ, then before long we will           necessities; and help entertain them. Play with them
not be pointed out as distinctive anymore. It will not          when they are small, and do things with them when
be long and none will point the finger at us and accuse         they are older. But forget about this sitting down-and
us of emphasizing certain doctrines at the expense of           studying and discussing God's Word together. And
human responsibility and other doctrines. And our               connected with that, do not -try to learn Scripture. If
children can grow up without that matter of doctrine            we are going to fail, we must not learn Scripture.
disturbing their conscience when they might want to go          Someone says, "You believe in election, don't you?"
out with, and marry, those of another faith. After all,         You answer, "Yes;" and they respond, `Why?" Then
we all preach Christ crucified; we are all basically            just tell them, "I believe it, but I can't point out right
one; we all have fellowship and communion together.             now where in Scripture that this is taught." Do not
If we are to fail, that is another big step in the right        learn any proof texts for election or reprobation, for
direction.                                                      the sovereignty of God, for justification by faith - so
       Six. I would suggest that to fail we should give only    that if anyone aslcs you the reason of the hope that is
nominal support to the church of Christ. You know how           in you, you can stand there with your tongue tied. This


                                                      THESTANDARD BEARER                                                 443

is surely a good way to fail. Jehovah Witnesses, and               right.      This is what I am going to do -- and I do not
sects similar to them, can quote you Scripture. They               care what anyone else says." Very soon we will be
can give you Scriptural proof for their false doctrines            as those Israelites of old: everyone will be doing what
(though they surely distort Scripture), but we can not do          is right in his own eyes. Then we have a church in name
that. To fail, we must continue along that way.                    but not in reality.
    Eight. I suggest that if we are going to fail, we talk only       Finally, ten. 1. would suggest that we do not see to
about what we consider important subjects with our                 the proper instruction of our children in the home.
families and friends. Remember, not too many years                 Pretend that we have no responsibility, outside of
ago when you were small and your parents (or maybe                 sending them to school and to catechism, for instructing
grandparents) would sit around and talk about asermon              them further.       We pay good money to educate them.
for a long time?         They could read articles in the           We provide a minister to teach them catechism. Then,
Stunduvd  Beaver  (and they read it from cover to cover)           when they are at home, we should not take upon our-
and discuss them as though these were really some-                 selves the responsibility to further teach them in what
thing important. And maybe they spent hours and hours              we believe to be the truth of God's Word. Then when
at that. It was rather boring, wasn't it? For us as chil-          they grow up, they will surely have that idea in mind
dren anyway.       We had to listen for hours to that as           too that the Word and Truth of God are not of such
though there were not anything more important in the               vital importance, since obviously they are not a part of
world than discussing such things. I would say that if             the fabric of the home.        That is our blueprint for
we are to fail, we should pretend that there are more              failure.
important things to talk about today. Inour families, in              That is all negative. I wanted it to be that way, so
our visitations one with another, we can talk about the            that you can think about the negative and in your own
world situation, maybe. It is rather serious, is it not?           mind set forth that which is positive. When we con-
What is the latest from Viet-Nam? What is the presi-               sider this blueprint for failure, we must immediately
dent doing in the so-called escalation of war there?               note that to a very large extent we have already walked
We can spend hours today talking about something like              along this path. Oh, we can say that we have the flesh
that. That is important, isn't it? Or we can discuss               - .and we do. We can say that we have such a small
the president himself; whether we like him or do not               beginning - and we do.       But we can not excuse our-
like him; whether we approve his ~policies that he is              selves. The fact is that we must see that within us too
initiating.    And when we get tired of talking about.the          is that desire to walk in the broad way which leads to
president and the world situation, we can talk about the           destruction rather than seeking that straight and
events in our own nation: for instance, what is going              narrow way which leads to life.
on in Selma, Alabama with its racial strifes; and if we               You would wonder, wouldn't you, how there could
tire of that, we can talk about the weather or even the            ever be any more church of Jesus Christ in the midst
latest gossip that we have heard. But to fail as a second          of the earth when you see in self the seeds of failure
and third generation, we must simply regard those                  on every hand? And yet there is hope, hope for the
matters which are spiritual to be of little significance -         church. The hope for tbe church is solely the grace of
not worthy of special discussion once we leave the                 God through Jesus Christ. If the Wordof God as applied
doors of the church; not worthy of discussion when we              by His Spirit does anything to the child of God, it does
meet together in our homes. I say that is a very, very             this: it casts him down to the dust so that he cries out
significant step towards failure.                                  in deepest agony with the publican of old: "0 Lord,, be
    Nine.      I would suggest that we neglect or ignore           merciful to me, Ithe sinner - to me, who also transgress
authority: the authority of the government, and'also the           Thy laws in so many ways every day." There is hope
authority of the church. You know the attitude of our              because by that same grace of God He preserves and
day. If the law is not satisfactory to you, if it seems            keeps His `Church, so that though they be sinners with
to be contrary to what your conscience tells you it                sins as scarlet; yet, they are preserved and directed,
ought to be, then you may go out and break it. Just go             purged through the blood of the Lamb, and kept even
out and break the law. That is what has been going on              from their own sinful flesh until finally God brings His
in this country. There is an ignoring of law with the              Church to glory. When-we see the very sinfulness of
idea that because these might be bad or partially bad,             our own flesh, then we as children of God, too, by that
therefore, they can be deliberately disregarded. Min-              same grace, pray fervently that our Lord Jesus Christ
isters of the Word, or those who call themselves such,             may, return on the clouds of heaven to take us to that
have taken their positions in the forefront of those who           place of perfection and glory where there will be no
seek to break such laws which they believe in their                more temptation, no more sinfulness of the flesh, and
conscience to be wrong; they set themselves up to be a             the evil of this present world will be gone. There will
law unto themselves. More and more that is coming to               be found the perfect and complete Church, enjoying
be the situation in the churches too. The church has               the wondrous glory of God through our Lord Jesus
no more authority. It can speak. It can present some               Christ, time without end.
nice themes to which we might be willing to listen if
they are agreeable to us, but we pretend that the                  Oh, Truest of the true! When others fail,
authority of the church is not so real or important that               Thy years remain the same; be it my lot
we have to listen. We too, if we are to fail, must be              To share Thy faithful friendship! Dearest Lord,
ready to set up our own standards and say, "This is                    Mid human changes, oh, forget me not!       -Selected


444                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER





                            THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST PREACHED ON MARS HILL

                                                       Acts  17:16-34

                                                      Rev. G.  Lubbers

The Only Point of  Depavkuve:  God, the  Ckeatov!                ignorantly worship Him I declare unto you! For they
       Paul addresses himself to the matter at hand. He          were not worshippers of God, but of idols!
had pointed out the Achilles heel of Athenian idolatry,             What then?
in pointing out the underlying admission of their poverty           You can see in the ruins of idolatry a certain "what" !
in worshipping an "UNKNOWN GOD", as evidenced by                 It is, that God is the "Thesis", and that the "antithesis"
their superscription. However, now he will do more.              of idolatry can only exist because of this "Thesis".
He will proclaim to these Stoics and Epicurians "what"           We can see in the "what" of idolatry's worship that
they ignorantly worship.       He will remove their igno-        it is dependent upon something which it denies. The-
rance. The "times of ignorance" are past!                        German expresses this well and calls it ` `Ab-gotterei".
       When Paul is finished preaching he will be free           It is a  "Fyom  - God activity"! It is an  away-from-
from the blood of these men, having preached to them             God worship! It is really never a true worship toward
(be it in a nutshell!) the full counsel of God, caZZing          its object which is ever mere creature!          For this
them to repentance! It is the seriousness of Gospel              reason we believe that the reading which has "ho -
preaching that the entire world will be judged according         touto" is correct and not the "ton--  touton";  the
to the preached Gospel, as writes Paul elsewhere "God            latter is a reading which an "old alteration" already
who will judge the secrets of men according to my                in the days of Clement, and is, incidentally, followed by
Gospel throughchrist Jesus." (Romans 2:16) Although              the  KJV which used the  Textus Receptus. However,
Paul touches on many a "dogmatic" point in this ser-             Paul was not preaching Him whom these Greeks served,
mon, he is not developing a systematic "theology",               but rather "what" they worshipped in order to lead
but rather is bringing this entire truth of God, Creation,       their minds to "Him" whom they ought to worship and
Providence as this has meaning for and impact upon               seek in Jesus Christ. He will lead their thoughts from
the conscience of these hearers. They come to stand              idolatry to the worship of the true and living God. If
in the c&is; they come to stand in the either - or!              they do not repent and turn to the true God it is not
Either they will be pricked in their heart and say "Men          because it was not preached to them! Then it is a
and brethren what must we do?" or they will dismiss              savor of death unto death unto them; Paul in that case
Paul in unbelief, yet stand condemned, and that, too,            too is triumphant with a great victory!
doubly without excuse in the day of judgment!                       Paul does not argue that God is; he preaches God
       There is a very fine touch in the Greek text which        without attempting to prove.      The latter is neither
we must not overlook in what Paul says concerning                necessary nor possible.       But he does point to the
the subject which he preached.        Paul does not say,         evidence of God all about us.. He takes his point of
according to the better reading of the text, "Whom ye            departure in what Moses writes in Genesis 1:l. "In
ignorantly worship Him  I proclaim unto you," but he             the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
says "What ye ignorantly worship that I proclaim unto            In the beginning God was ! He did not become. He is
you." This touch we should not overlook. There are               the eternal and self-subsistent God. And He is the
expositors who hold that Paul here very subtly avoided           Creator, who brought forth all things by His counsel
preaching "another god", so as not to come under the             and providence. That is the starting point of all things.
wrath of the authorities of Athens and of the Roman              That is the starting point in all mission preaching, for
Emperor. With this we disagree. Paul preached very               all preaching must go back to how things were "from
definitely another GOD than what these Athenians                 the beginning",    before the Fall of man! Thus did
worshipped, even in their "UNKNOWN GOD".  Wemust                 Jesus speak to the Pharisees in the streets of Jeru-
look in another direction for the correct interpretation.        salem.     Matthew 19:8.    Men often have a mistaken
That Paul says "what" and not "Him" shows that in                notion about how one must preach, and what one must
the mind of Paul these Stoics and Epicurians never               preach on the "mission field". One does not preach
really rose higher than "what" (ho) and never could              one iota different truth in the midst of the heathen than
rise to the person of the "UNKNOWN GOD." They                    he does in the church. There is but one "truth"! It is
did not even have in mind a  personal,   transcendent            all in that sentence in Genesis 1:l "In the beginning
GOD! They had changed the glory of the incorruptible             God created the heavens and the earth". Thus did Paul
God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man,           here on Mars Hill; only he did it in a masterfully
birds, four-footed beasts and creeping things. (Romans           pedagogical way. Yet, he builds here upon the founda-
1:23). Paul could not possibly have said: him whom ye            tion besides which there is none other. Paganism is


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   445

foundationless! Both Stoicism and Epicureanism have           be in God, the Creator.         It is, too, the basis of all
lost their moorings  !-                                       morality and religion!
    Hence, Paul says emphatically: What  you ignorantly
worship                                                       The Self-sufficient God  Vewus Temples  Mude With
             that I, who seem to you as a setter forth of
some strange doctrines, proclaim unto you. Iproclaim          Hands
to you the only truth, the only wisdom, the only view of         Athens abounded with temples made with hands.
all things and of history! And, in so doing, he is not a      These temples stood on a very little spot in God's
Christian "philosopher" who reasons from some "Cal-           universe, "the world (cosmos) and all things in the same,
vinistic Principles", but he is a messenger from God          the heavens and the earth." He is Lord, ruler of all
who saith: thus saith the Lord in His Word, and thus          things.     How could the Lord of heaven and earth be
the Lord spoke through Moses to the church in the Old         enclosed in such a temple. His glory is transcendent
Testament dispensation. And now this is Moses' Word           to all creaturehood in heaven and on earth. The heaven
fulfilled in Christ, preached here by the latter's ambas -    of heavens cannot contain Him, confessed Solomon at
sador on Mars Hill. It is the Gospel of Christ which          the time of the dedication of the temple. (II Chronicles
is the power of God unto salvation in those who believe,      2:6;  6:18.)      God can only dwell in a spiritual house
but foolishness to those who are perishing while it is        built of living stones, His saints in the light. Yet, even
preached to them, being not believed. The wrath of            so he is immense and deep, unlimited by even such a
God abides upon them.                                         spiritual dwelling-place.      Yes, many temples cannot
    Such is the only point of departure!                      contain him. It is ever built by the hands of men.
    He who is not led back to the "beginning" of Gen-            Yet, foolish, lost, puny man imagines that he must
esis 1:l will never be led to the Cross and Resurrec-         build a house for God. He must be of service to God.
tion of Jesus Christ!                                         God must be in man's therapeutic care. The verb in
    With this we have also touched upon the matter of         the Greek is one from which is derived our term:
the so-called "Natural Theology". If Paulhadpreached          therapy.        We agree with the excellent comment of
` `Him' ' whom they ignorantly worshipped then the            Lenski in his Commentary on Acts, where he writes
proponents of the teaching that the heathen know God          "The verb  thevapeuetai  is exactly proper to express
by means of creation would have some basis for their          the thought intended, rendering someone a service that
contention. But now Paul cuts off all knowledge of God        he needs, as the sick man must have the service of a
by saying "what" ye served I proclaim to you to bring         physician. The service of worship: adoration, praise,
you to "Him" whom the Christian serves. Yes, and              prayer, petition, is a totally different thing - by it we
this too removes the basis for a "commonness" of              profit, not God, nor does it supply a need in God."
worship of pagan and Christian. We do not believe that        From this we see that it is extremely important that
here is an iota of evidence for the teaching of "Common       we have good "Theology", taken from the Word of
Grace" which would unite Jerusalem and Athens. One            God. All the rest is an abomination to the Lord. Of
must be "plucked out" of the evil world of Athens and         course, Dagon must be defended from ill by its devotees !
be translated into the Kingdom of God to be a worship-        But our God is not in need of our help and care. He is
per in the heavenly Jerusalem. Lest one be taken out          not a mere sick patient, a despicable weakling.
of the "antithesis" of Athens against the "Thesis" of            On the contrary, He is the all-sufficient God, who
Jerusalem he will surely perish with Athens in his            gives life and breath, and all things. He gives "`life,"
sins !                                                        our existence; He gives "breath" in our nostrils; yea,.
    Let it not be forgotten that our Reformed fathers         he gives ` `all things"; there is nothing excluded.
in the Belgic Confession do not confess that the world           With one grand stroke the death-blow is rendered to
knows God by the book of nature, and that the Christian       all the vaunted pretenses of the temples of men. Paul
knows God by the book of the Bible ! Perish the thought !     does not use the sword of the Spirit to cut away some
Rather they confess in Article II, "We know him (God)         trifling misuse of paganism. He gives the mortal blow
by two means." Notice this "we". This is the church           to the very essence of it, showing it up to be what it is.
which speaks here. "We know Him by creation, pres-            And thus it must have registered in the consciences of
ervation and government of the universe, which is             these Stoics and Epicureans. Theirs is much ado over
before our eyes as a most elegant book, wherein all           a worship which is a denial of the all-sufficiency of the
creatures, great and small, are as so many characters         Creator and Sustainer of the universe!
leading us to contemplate the invisible things of God,
namely, his power and divinity, as the apostle Paul                           RESOL  UTION OF SYMPATHY
saith, Romans 1:20. Secondly, he makes himself more           On June 21, 1965, it pleased our heavenly Father to
clearly and fully known to us by his holy and divine          take home our aged Father,
Word, that is to say, as far as is necessary for us to
know in this life, to his glory and our salvation".                              MR. GERRIT BERGSMA
We, the church, know God by these two books.                  at the age of 91 years.
    Paul is here preaching these "two books" and                 He was a charter member of the First Protestant
blends their testimony together in a revealing, pedagog-      Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
ical way!                                                                             The family: Mrs. Henry Keegstra
    The order of these two books according to Paul's                                               Mrs. Joseph Alberts
address is correct; the "starting point" must needs                                                 Dr. Stuart Bergsma


446                                              THESTANDARDBEARER





                                          THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION

                                                   Rev.  H.  Veldtian

       We concluded our preceding article with a very         creator of the world as the God of the old covenant;
brief resume of the history of Irenaeus, whom we wish         but in seeking to show the highest honor to Christianity
to quote in connection with the history of the doctrine       by separating its God from the God of Judaism, they
of creation.      To this very brief resume we wish to        thereby uprooted Christianity from the very soil in
add the following quotation from the same book, the           which it had been planted as a historic religion. (2)
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I, page 310: "The Episcopate        Dualism in Christology: the divine eon, sent from on
of Irenaeus was distinguished by labours, `in season          high to redeem the spiritual that is in the material,
and out of season,' for the evangelization of Southern        was Christ, but a sharp distinction was drawn between
Gaul; and he seems to have sent missionaries into             this supermundane Christ and the historical Jesus.
other regions of what we now call France. In spite of         With the latter the eon either merely contracted a
Paganism and heresy, he rendered Lyons a Christian            temporary union (joined him in baptism, but forsook
city; and Marcus seems to have retreated before his           him before death); or the Jewish Jesus was only the
terrible castigation, taking himself off to regions beyond    manifestation of the heavenly redeemer, who was obliged
the Pyrenees.. But the pacific name he bears, was             to assume a body in order to become visible; or,
rendered yet more illustrious by his interposition to         lastly, the entire visible apparition of the redeemer,
compose the Easter Controversy, then threatening to           his birth, life and death, was in semblance only. (3)
impair, if not to destroy, the unity of the Church. The       Dualism in anthropology: men were distinguished as
beautiful cqncovdat rbetween  East and West, in which         spiritual men, in whom the divine portion to be redeemed
Polycarp and Anicetus had left the question, was not          lived bound to the material portion; and as material
disturbed by Victor, Bishop of Rome, whose turbulent          men, who, having deteriorated into matter, were not an
catholic spirit would not accept the compromise of his        object of redemption. There were besides, in certain
predecessor.      Irenaeus remonstrates with him in a         cases., the men "of soul," who were destined to a
catholic spirit, and overrules his impetuous temper.          certain degree of blessedness, and for whose under-
At the Council of Nice, the rule for the observance of        standing the verities of salvation had to be clothed in
Easter was finally settled by the whole Church; and the       their historic. dress.    (4) Dualism in soteriology:
forbearing example of this great triumph, for a short         redemption was separation of spirit from matter: a.
time only, closing his life, like a true shepherd, with       beginning even at present; hence there was either
thousands of his flock, in the massacre (A.D. 202)            mortification and contempt of the material, by way of
stimulated by the wolfish Emperor Severus."                   asceticism, or else libertinism. b. The process be-
       Irenaeus opposed the. heresy of Gnosticism. The        came complete in the future: hence there was a re-
word, Gnosticism, is derived from the Greek word,             jection of the primitive Christian hopes as to a`future
gnosis,  which means knowledge. Of course, Gnosticism         life: especially the' belief in the resurrection of the
was not true knowledge; only Christianity is true             body."
knowledge.      The gnostics  were those who claimed to         Irenaeus opposed these heretics. Writing against
have the true knowledge of the Scriptures, who claimed        their conception of the creation of the world, he writes
to have been inducted into the mysteries of the Word of       (Vol. I, page 370), and we quote: "But these (heretics),
Godi,, who claimed to possess the discerning grace and        while striving to explain passages of Scripture and
power of the Spirit of God, to whom had been revealed         parables, bring forward another more important, and
the mysteries of the truth and of the kingdom of God.         indeed impious question, to this effect, `Whether there
       Gnosticism advocated the heresy of dualism. Of         be really another god above that God who was the
interest is the following presentation in the New             Creator of the world?' They are not in the way of
Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia, page 499: "Then         solving the questions (which they propose); for how
the radical Gnostic tendency that gave special offense        could they find means of doing so? But they append an
to the orthodox mode of thinking was its dualism which        important question to one of less consequence, and thus
was strongly opposed to orthodox Christianity, based          insert (in their speculations) a difficulty incapable of
on monism. This dualism was plain in every way, and           solution. For in order that they may know `knowledge'
may be treated under the following heads: (1) Dualism         itself (yet not learning this fact, that the Lord, when
in theology and cosmology: for the Gnostics separated         thirty years old, came to the baptism of truth), they do
the supreme God and the creator of the world. So, too,        impiously despise that God who was the Creator, and
in the elaborated forms of gnosis, the supreme God            who sent Him for the salvation of men. And that they
was considered as the God of the new covenant, the            may be deemed capable of informing us whence is the


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                               447


substance of matter, while they believe not that God,         and the earth, the sea and all that is therein, but he
according to His pleasure, in the exercise of His own         does accept that m-an developed from a monkey. What,
will and power, formed all things (so `that those things      I ask you, is more rational? That an almighty God
which now are should have an existence) out of what           created all things, the heavens and the earth and all
did not previously exist, they have collected (a multi-       that is therein? Or, that man, with a moral-rational
tude of) vain discourses. They thus truly reveal their        mind and will, descended from an irrational monkey?
infidelity; they do not believe in that which ,really         We know the answer. Indeed, the world believes in the
exists, and they have fallen away into (the belief of)        doctrine of evolution and denies the Scriptural account
that which has, in fact, no existence."                       of creation, not because the theory of evolutionis more
   And then Irenaeus continues: "For, when they tell          rational, but only because they hate the living God and
us that all moist substance proceeded from the tears          refuse to bow before Him. And the reason why the
of Achamoth, all lucid substance from her smile, all          world refuses to acknowledge the living God as Creator
solid substance from her sadness, all mobile substance        of all things is obvious. To acknowledge the living God
from her terror, and that thus they have sublime knowl-       as the Creator of the universe surely implies that they
edge on account of which they are superior to others,         must serve Him and love Him with all their hearts
--how can these things fail to be regarded as worthy          and minds and souls and strength. Thirdly, notice,
of contempt, and truly ridiculous? Theydonot believe          too, how carnal is the conception of the Gnostics. They
that God (being powerful, and rich in all resources)          speak of the tears of Achamoth, of all lucid substance
created matter itself, inasmuch as they know not how          as proceeding from her smile, all solid substance from
much a spiritual and divine essence can accomplish.           her sadness, all mobile substance from her terror.
But they do believe that their Mother, whom they style        What does all this emphasize? How truly the truth of
a female from a female, produced from her passions            Scripture is verified by these heretics! The second
aforesaid the so vast material substance of creation.         commandment forbids all image worship. This com-
They inquire, too, whence the substance of creation           mandment forbids us to make any graven image of
was supplied to the Creator; but they do not inquire          anything that is in heaven, or on the earth, or in the
whence (were supplied) to their Mother (whom they             waters under the earth. The implication of this second
call the Enthymesis and impulse of the Aeon that went         commandment is that, once we have forsaken the living
astray) so great an amount of tears, or perspiration,         God and worship other gods before Him, we always
or sadness, or that which ,produced the remainder of          made a graven image of our god(s). The point is that
matter.                                                       we either serve the living God or' a creature. There
   "For, to attribute the substance of created things         is no other possibility. And when we serve a creature,
to the power and will of Him who is God of all, is            we are able to make a graven image of him. We cannot
worthy both of credit and acceptance. It is also agree-       make a graven image of the living God. Is not this
able (to reason), and there may be well said regarding        truth of the Word of God verified by Gnostic heretics?
such a belief, that `the things which are impossible          They speak of the tears, the smile, the sadness, the
with men are possible with God.' While men, indeed,           terror of Achamoth. It is obvious that they.conceive  of
cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of          their god as a creature. They refuse to ascribe to the
matter already existing, yet God is in this point pre-        living God the power to make matter, but they do not
eminently superior to men, that He Himself called into        hesitate to ascribe this power to their god. `Such is the
being the substance of His creation, when previously it       vain imagination of man when once he has forsaken the
had no existence. But the assertion that matter was           living God and chosen himself other gods, gods which
produced from the Enthymesis of an Aeon going astray,         they have chosen according to and after their own
and that -the Aeon (referred to) was far separated            imagination.    The conception of the evolutionist is
from her .Enthymesis, and that, again, her passion and        always carnal, materialistic, sensuous, from below.
feeling, apart from herself, became matter - is incred-       However, as Irenaeus remarks, and this in the fourth
ible, infatuated, impossible, and untenable."                 place, to attribute the substance of created things to
   In connection with the above quotation, we wish to         the power and will of Him who is God of all, is worthy
make the following remarks. First, in this writing            both of credit and acceptance. It is indeed true, as the
Irenaeus declares that God, creating the world, made          Scriptures declare, that what is impossible with men
all things out of nothing. He declares emphatically           is possible with God. It is indeed, true that, while men
that the Lord did not make things out of already exist-       cannot make anything out of nothing, but only out of
ing matter. The Lord created all things, and He made          matter already existing, yet God is in this point pre-
all things out of nothing. Secondly, in holy and righteous    eminently superior to men, and that He Himself called
irony the consecrated Church Father writes that the           into being the substance of His creation, when pre-
heretics do not believe that God, being powerful; and         viously it had no existence. This is surely rational,
rich in all resources, created matter itself, inasmuch        adapted to the human mind. And that it is adapted to
as they know not how much a spiritual and divine              the human mind is because man was created in the
essence can accomplish, but they do believe that their        image of God, so created as to be able to understand
Mother produced from her passions aforesaid the so            that the Creator is surely above the creature, the
vast material substance of creation.        Doesn't this      Infinite above that which is finite, that the living God
remind us of the present day evolutionist? He refuses         is the sole Creator of the universe and all things
to believe that an almighty Creator created the heavens       therein contained.


448                                                     THESTANDARDBEARER


                                       74e  &ed  Aif  Wed*
                                       ("0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Ps. 96:9a)

                                                THE LORD'S SUPPER FORM

                                                       Rev. G.  Vanden   Berg

PYepamtovy Self-Examination
        To the worship of the church belongs suchimportant              sacrament itself is celebrated, more direct emphasis
things as the preaching of the gospel, the singing of the               can be placed on that part of the Form which speaks of
psalms, the offering of prayers and the return of a                     the end or purpose for which Christ hath ordained and
portion of God's bountiful gifts, contributed with cheer-               instituted the same.
ful hearts to support the cause of God in the midst of                       The first part of the true examination of ourselves
the world. Without any question, each and every one of                  consists of the following which we quote from the
these aspects of public worship has some necessary                      Communion Form:
contribution to make toward the spiritual well-being of                      "First.       That everyone consider by himself, his
the worshipper.                                                         sins and the curse due to him for them, to the end that
        Not to be overlooked or minimized in this connection            he may abhor and humble himself before God: con-
is the very significant role of the administration of the               sidering that the wrath of God against sin is so great,
sacraments, particularly that of the Lord's Supper, in                  that (rather than it should go unpunished) He hath
the worship of the church. The church stands on the                     punished the same in His beloved Son Jesus Christ,
zenith of her worship when she is spiritually active at                 with the bitter and shameful death of the cross."
the table of the Lord.          It is here that the covenant                 The knowledge of sin which is the subject of our
fellowship between God and His people, based on the                     concern here is strictly  experiential.        It is not a
meritorious work of Christ and effected through the                     knowledge  about sin and the enormity of it that must of
mystical operation of the Holy Spirit, is consummated                   necessity be discovered in this soul searching process
in the highest sense of the word short of eternity.                     but it is the conscious awareness of sin in all of our
        The blessings of Holy Communion are not automati-               experiences that is the matter of ponderous concern
cally and mechanically diffused to each and everyone                    here. The question here is not whether or not we are
who is physically present at the Table. On the con-                     aware that the reality of sin exists in the world of our
trary, these heavenly gifts are earmarked for those                     experience but rather whether in all our experiences
alone who are present in the spiritual sense of the word                in the world we recognize sin in ourselves.
and to arrive at that consciousness involves a manda-                        This is strictly a personal  matter.The Form states,
tory process of self-preparation and self-examination.                  "that everyone consider by himself". This is important
We speak here of "self-preparation", not in the sense                   and in the process of self-examination it is very
that we must fix ourselves up to be receptive vessels                   necessary that this exact prescription be followed, for
of heavenly treasures for this we are unable to do, but                 without it the very purpose of this examination is
we use this term as synonymous with "self-examina-                      defeated and its goal can never be obtained. A severe
tion' ' . By it we wish to denote that activity of self by              warning may be sounded in this connection. It is quite
which we discover in ourselves the unmistakable evi-                    natural and therefore also common-place to find those
dences of the working of Divine grace and by this we                    who can always discover in others an untold number of
are assured of a place and a blessing in the communion                  sins and so to produce an endless list of reasons why
of God.                                                                 this or that brother ought not to be at the table of the
       Of this self-examination our Form for the Admin-                 Lord. In themselves they see no evil and even fail to
istration of the Lord's Supper speaks at the very out-                  recognize the fact that they are sinning in the very act
set.       Because of the importance of this examination                of judging their neighbor and failing to walk with that
with a view to the proper celebration of the sacrament                  neighbor in the love of Christ in order that he may be
and also because of  the. very real danger (or very                     corrected and brought to repentance.         But there is
dangerous reality) that proper attention is not given to                nothing salutary in considering the sins of others and
this matter, we will discuss the three parts of the self-               gloating over them. This can lead only to a self-com-
examination rather detailedly. Isn't it quite true that                 placent pharisaism which is in reality the multipli-
often the Communion Form is read in the service just                    cation of sin upon sin. The instruction is not, "Let
preceding the celebration of the sacrament as a sort                    everyone look at the sins of others" but it is pointedly
of habitual or traditional thing with the result that very              "Let everyone consider by himself, his sins..." Each
little, if any seviom consideration is given to matters                 one individually is to bring his own heart and soul and
at hand. Some churches seek to avoid this by reading                    walk of life under scrutiny before his own mind and
the preparatory part of the Communion Form on Pre-                      consciousness.
paratory Sunday and this practice, we believe, has                           We note further that in this self-examination with
merit.       It then becomes an aid in the Preparatory                  respect to the matter of sin, the aim is not to deter-
Service in concentrating the attention of the congrega-                 mine whether or not sin is present. We are not to ask
tion on its preparatory responsibilities and when the                   ourselves whether we have sin. This is presupposed,


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                               ;449     I


 and rightly so, to be thecase. The fact of sin is readily     desired pattern of external behavior is prescribed for
 admitted for it is the child of God that is here subjected    us. We then look at ourselves with a sense of (sinful)
 to self-examination and his confession is that of the         pride and boast in the claim that we do not steal, mur-
 Psalmist in Psalm 51:3-5:                                     der, lie or participate in those immoralities that are
         "For I acknowledge my transgressions; and my sin      publicly displayed and practiced in the world about us.
 is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only, have I            We go to church on Sunday and keep the Sabbath and to
 sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou            as much as suggest that we would worship an idol of
 mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear        wood or of stone would be offensive and insulting.
 when Thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;          Although we might admit that if you probe a bit deeper,
 and in sin did my mother conceive me."                        you would find some imperfection and we dare not deny
    But here again we are confronted with a practical          that there is room for improvement in all of us, yet,
 problem.       The problem involves the making of this        we are not such bad sinners for we respect the law of
 confession a matter of experience rather than a truth         God and externally at least honor it. And we might
 that is merely acknowledged with our lips. Oh, to be          then conclude that the curse that is due to us because
 sure, we are ready to acknowledge the reality of sin in       of our failures is not too serious because it can easily
 a very broad and general way. We do not hesitate to           be off-set by our many accomplishments that must
 maintain the dogmatical truth concerning man's total          please God.
 depravity and since the whole world lies in sin and we            If such is our view of the matter, we have not begun
 are also part of that world, we are forced by logical         to understand  sin.
 argumentation to concede that sin is also in us. And              Sin is a horrible monster. It is a terrible, devastat-
 if a particular sin of ours is brought to light, we even      ing power that perverts our body and soul so that it
 attempt to justify that sin, instead of confessing it, by     places us in a moral, rational relationship of opposition
 arguing that we are aware that everyone commits sin.          to God and to all that is good because God is good. It
 The reasoning seems to be that my sin cannot be con-          makes us will and desire what God hates and it. causes
 demned and does not need to be confessed because              us to hate what God loves.         It is like a venomous
 everyone else is guilty of sin too even if their sin is       poison that infests our whole nature and corrupts our
 not exposed.       On the basis of the rightful claim that    heart so that all the issues of our life as they proceed
 everybody sins, we attempt to draw the erroneous con-         from that heart are only evil continually. It directs us
 clusion that we do not need to concern ourselves with         through all i the. motions and activities of our nature
 our individual sins since, in light of the overall picture    away from God into death.
 of sin, these are not so serious after all.                       If we then consider that God has created us in His
    Such reasoning is not only faulty but it is contrary       own image and likeness and endowed us with the one
 to all that Scripture teaches us. But the significant         indivisible calling to love Him and to be devoted to
 point in this connection is that this attitude belittles      Him with all that we have and with all that we are;
 sin.       It minimizes it and reducing it to a minimum       and that this dedication of love and service is the
 quantity it becomes impossible for us to seriously            essence of life; we must realize that the horribleness
 probe our heart "to the end that we may abhor and             of sin is that it deprives us of all this and gives us the
 humble ourselves before God." And this is just the            very opposite.. . .death! Under the cruel bondage of that
 thing that self examination requires.          We must be     power of sin we lie and into the pit of death we have
 brought not to a general admission of the reality of          fallen. Sin is our master and him we willingly serve
 sin but to a heartfelt confession of sin in us. Such a        according to the nature' inherited from our first parents.
 confession results when, by the grace of God, we are              "Let everyone consider by himself, his sins and the
 brought to see sin for what it actually is.                   curse due to him for them...."
    Sin is not the same as making amistake. It is not a            Doing this we cannot and will not pride ourselves
 miscalculation which results in a faulty conclusion           in some outward deeds that may gain the praise of
 being reached because of some error in our mental             men, but we will see ourselves as miserable, wretched
 processes.       Sin is not simply a misjudgment or the       sinners who are burdened with such an enormous load
 neglect of some duty as the result of forgetfulness on        of sin that we can never. begin to as much as move it.
 the part of, our busy and oft overworked minds. Oh,           We will see our unfaithfulness, our unworthiness, our
 certainly,     sin involves mistakes, miscalculations,        perversity and our corruption and realize how justly
 errors, misjudgments and neglect but the point is that        we are deserving of nothing but God's holy wrath and
i the real character of sin is not seen when we look at        judgment.      And then sin will become a very disturbing
' sin in this superficial way. The vile essence of sin         thing in our experience, and this is exactly what must
 remains hidden when we look at it this way and we are         take place within us, for in this way God prepares us
/ quite easily led then to think that our sin is not so        to realize the wonder and glory of His redemptive
! bad because, although we all make mistakes, the majority     work which He has accomplished in Christ Jesus, our
, of our judgments and calculations appears to be quite        Lord. That consciousness is necessary if we are to
' correct.                                                     celebrate the Supper of the Lord to our comfort and,
         Sin concerns the law of God because Scripture         therefore, the first step in the preparatory  self-
 points out that "Sin is the transgression of the law."        examination aims to bring us to the conscious realiza-
 But here, again we must be on our guard lest we look at       tion of the need of the grace of God that bringeth
 that law of God as a mere code in which a certain              salvation.


 450                                                THE STANDARD BEARER





                                                       Rev. H. Hanko

Assemblies,  Mhgevs, Etc.                                       consequences imposed upon him by society under
        Late Spring and early Summer is the time for the        existing law."
meetings of ecclesiastical assemblies.          In order to         It is tragic when this country becomes more and
bring our readers up to date on thelatest developments          more a country of lawlessness and anarchy; but it is
of the last few months, we give some brief surveys of           far more tragic when the church leads the way and
major decisions of the more important ecclesiastical            encourages her members to break the law under a
organizations.                                                  general policy that resembles "The end justifies the
        It has been reported in these columns as well as in     means."
Rev. Van Baren's rubric, that the Reformed Church in                -To send to the various Classes a change in the
America and the Presbyterian Church U.S. (Southern)             Church Order which would permit the ordination of
have been working steadily towards union. In, their             women.
assembly meetings this year, both denominations have                --To condemn the use of capital punishment in
voted to authorize their joint committee of 24members           various states which still use it.
which has been working on this merger to draft a                    --To encourage the people of the denomination to
definite merger plan to be presented to the respective          ,support  the public schools. The traditional opposition
denominations by  1968.                                         of the Reformed Church of America to the Christian
        There remains. some opposition in both denomina-        Schools evidently continues.
tions . In the Presbyterian Church U.S. the opposition              --To express agreement with the' recent Supreme
stems mostly from those who prefer to enter into                Court decisions which banned Scripture reading, prayer
merger negotiations with the United Presbyterian.               and devotions in the public schools.
Church. (Cf; below) But this year's assembly of the.                These last two decisions, taken together, put the
Southern Presbyterians turned down their proposals.             Reformed Church pn record as favoring atheism as
The opposition in the Reformed Church of America                legitimate instruction for their children.
comes from members who are afraid that sooner or                    All in all, these decisions do not speak well of the
later the Southern Presbyterians will seek merger               Reformed Church and show an increasingly strong
with the United Presbyterian Church, and who are                tendency to drift away from the Scriptures and from
afraid (with some justification) that theywill be dragged       the church's calling to preach the gospel.
into a merger with a denomination with which they                                       ****
have no desire to affiliate.                                        The National Council of Churches continues its
        But the opposition is not strong enough to block the    reprehensible-policy of meddling in social and political
swiftly running currents of merger; and it appears as           affairs, all the while claiming to speak for the church.
if this merger between these two denominations will be          Some recent pronouncements indicate this.
afactbefore the end of the decade.                                  - This organization passed a resolution opposing
        Both the Reformed Church in America and the             an amendment to the Constitution of our country which
Presbyterian Church U.S. decided to remain in the               would leave to the various States the right to constitute
National Council of Churches. Repeatedly there have             their legislatures as they wish.
come overtures to withdraw from this organization.                  - It established a committee to consider coopera-
These overtures represent a group that is strongly              tion with the Roman Catholic Church and seated a
opposed to affiliation with the NCC on the grounds that         Roman Catholic observer at its Board meeting. (The
it is an un-Christian organization. But their efforts           World Council of Churches has recently entered into
to get their denominations out have always been un-             such an agreement with the Vatican.)
successful.                                                         -- It urges the government to reconsider its military
                            *  * * *                            policy in Viet Nam and urged negotiations to end the
        In some other interesting actions, the Reformed         fighting.
Church of America decided:                                          - It gave preliminary approval to a policy statement
        --To approve of civil disobedience among their          which asks for a planned world economy and more
members under specific conditions. Their decision               participation of the government in matters of economic
reads in part: "There may come a time in spite of               production, employment and distribution of goods.
efforts to correct it when a law prevails that keeps                -- It adopted a policy of support of government con-
people from receiving justice and thus conflicts with           trolled schools and called for more cooperation between
the purposes of God revealed in the gospel. At. such a          public and church schools.
time . . . a Christian . . . may engage alone or with               - It passed a resolution asking the government to be
others in an act of civil disobedience . . . if . . .`his       busier in feeding the world's hungry.
actions are taken first in the spirit of a faithful servant       -It expressed concern over  the government's in-
of his faithful Lord, and in sight and knowledge of             volvement in the Dominican Republic.
authorities, and with a full willingness to accept the              --It interprets its role in the church as being that


                                                      THESTANDARD BEARER                                                       451


of a sort of mediator between church and government                    (2) War. The church is called . . . to commend to
so that the government can speak through it to the                                                                   -
                                                                    the nation as practical politics the SearcIiTor cooper-
churches, and the churches can speak through it to the              ation and peace. This requires the establishment of
government.                                                         fresh relations across every line of conflict and the
   All of these decisions only point to the fact that               risk of national security to reduce areas of strife and
presently the false church and the government shall                 broaden international understanding. When the church
join hands in a common (and anti-Christian)  cause.                 allows some one national sovereignty or some one "way
Almost in desperation, the NCC seeks out new areas                  of life" to be identified with the cause of God it denies
                                                                    Christ the Lord and betrays its calling. - -          -
into which it can enter. It has set itself up as a sort                (3)  Poverty.     The reconciliation of man through
of final judge on all matters economic, political, social,          Jesus Christ makes it plain that enslaving poverty in a
and ecclesiastical. It is supposed to be the authority              world of abundance is an intolerable violation of God's
to which all must listen. No wonder that there are still            good creation . . . . The church cannot condone poverty,
conservative members in various denominations who                   whether it is the product of unjust social structures,
are deeply alarmed by membership in this organization.              exploitation of the defenseless, lack of national re-
The sad part of it is that they are totally unsuccessful            sources, absence of technological understanding, or
in getting their denominations to pull out.                         rapid expansion of populations . . . . It encourages
                          * * * *                                   those forces in human society that raise men's hopes
                                                                    for better conditions and provide them with opportunity
   We have mentioned in former articles the proposal                for a decent living.      A church that is indifferent to
that was coming before the United PresbyterianChurch                poverty, or denies responsibility in economic affairs,
in the U.S.A. to adopt a new confession. It seemed                  or is open to one social class only, or expects gratitude
inevitable that the proposal would pass the first hurdle            for its beneficence makes a mockery of reconciliation
this year, and it did. Preliminary approval was given.              and can offer no acceptable worship of God.
   The idea is to incorporate all the confessions of                That a proposal such as this should even come up
the Presbyterian Church (These include the early                 iu a church of Calvinistic background is almost incon-
Christological Confessions adopted in the 4th and 5th            ceivable.     That it is given overwhelming approval
Centuries and the Westminster Confessions) along with            sharply underlines the wretched condition into which
the new confession into a "Book of Confessions." The             the church has fallen.
new confession is to be called the "Confession of                   An interesting footnote is that Rev. Carl MC Intire
1967" since 1967 is the earliest date in which the new           and other members of the Bible Presbyterian Church
confession can be given final approval.                          picketed the Assembly Meeting at which this confession
   Ostensibly, the idea behind this new confession is            was given preliminary approval. This was certainly a
the desire to bring the confessions of the church up to          very foolish thing to do whether one agrees or not.
date in order that they may speak to our modern times.
Obviously however, the real purpose is to dispose of
the historical creeds o f the church which bind the                                 WEDDING ANNNE&SARY
church to the true doctrines of Scripture and put into           On June 16, 1965 our parents
effect some sort of wishy-washy program of social
action which has nothing to do with the calling of the                        MR. AND MRS. GEORGE SPRUYT
church.                                                          celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary.
   In this "New Confession" there is scarcely any                   We, their children, thank our Heavenly Father for
mention of doctrine.       The historical truths of the          their Christian influence in our lives. We pray He may
Westminster Confessions such as the infallible inspira-          continue to bless and keep them.
tion of Scripture, the virgin birth, the fall, sin, vicar-                                       Mr. and Mrs. M. Campbell
ious atonement, predestination, regeneration, conver-                                               Mr. and Mrs. J. Jansma
sion, justification, etc., are not mentioned, and insome                                        Mr. and Mrs. D. Groeneweg
cases are denied. Rather the confession deals with                                                          14 grandchildren
what it calls the reconciliation of the world to God. And                                             1 great-granddaughter
it interprets this reconciliation as a calling of the
church to involve itself in social issues. The three
areas which are of gravest concern are war, racial                             RESOL  UTIOti  OF SYMPATHY
relations, and poverty. The following brief quotations           The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society of The First Protestant
are taken from Christianity  Today.                              Reformed Church in Grand Rapids extend to Mr. and
      (1) Race. God's reconciliation of the human race           Mrs. Howard Pastoor their sincere Christian sympathy
   creates one universal family and breaks down every            in the death of
   form of discrimination based on alleged racial and
   ethnic difference.    The church as the community of                                 MR. HARVEY WESTRA
   reconciliation is called to bring all men to accept one
   another as persons and to share life on eve?y level,          father of Mrs. Pastoor. May our gracious covenant
   in work and play, in courtship, marriage, and family,         God comfort their sorrowing hearts and cause them to
   in church and state. Congregations, individuals, or           experience the blessed assurance that He doeth all
   groups of Christians who exclude,.dominate, or patronize      things for His glory and the salvation of His people.
   their fellowmen, however subtly, resist the Spirit of                                       Mr. G. Bouwkamp, President
   God and repudiate the faith which they profess.                                            Mrs. Len Dykstra, Secretary


452'                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



                                    7h  Aa!  gaue  74e  Wmd  .  ,  ,
                                                                                         (Psalm 68:ll)

                                       PREDESTINATION AND MISSION PREACHING

                                                            Rev. C.  Hank0

        In the April issue of the  Reformed   Joumuzl,  Dr.          really not so fond of teaching a decree of reprobation
Harry R. Boer continues his discussion on Predestin-                 after all. And yet that is contrary to fact. For he also
ation and Mission Preaching under the heading, "Rep-                 spoke of this same  decree as a  wonderful decree, and
robation in Modern Reformed Theologians." Boer                       he staunchly defended it, condemning in no uncertain
does not believe in predestination in the Reformed                   terms those who rejected it. If the expression is read
sense of the word, but regards especially the doctrine               in its context it does not sound derogatory, as it does
of reprobation as pure rationalism, based on infer-                  when it is mentioned just in passing, as Boer does.
ences which are contrary to the teaching of Scripture                Let me quote the passage in which the expression
that unbelief is the sole fault of man.               He finds it    appears:
impossible to defend and teach this doctrine in his
theological college and on the mission field, even though                     But whether they (those who oppose predestination,
it is the official doctrine of his church. He writes:                   C.H.) will allow it or not, predestination is manifest
                                                                        in Adam's posterity. It is not owing to nature that they
           How can I justify to students entrusted to my                all lost salvation by the fault of one parent. Why should
        teaching care by the younger Churches the theological           they refuse to admit with regard to one man that which
        method followed by modern Reformed theologians in               against their will they admit with regard to the whole
        supporting the doctrine of reprobation? I teach as a            human race? Why should they in  cavilling lose their
        basic ingredient in the education of my students that           labour?  Scripture proclaims that all were, in the per-
        the sole source of our knowledge of God and of his              son of one, made liable to eternaldeath. As this cannot
        salvation is God's revelation as vouchsafed to us in            be ascribed to nature, it is plain that it is owing to the
        His Word. When the critic seeks to blunt the sover-             wonderful counsel of God. It is very absurd in these
        eignty of the grace of God by calling into question the         worthy defenders of the justice of God to strain at a
        responsibility of man, I confront him with: What is             gnat and swallow a camel. I again ask how is it that
        your Scripture for this derogation of human responsi-           the fall of Adam involves so many nations with their
        bility? I stand here foursquare with Calvin's position          infant children in eternal death without remedy, unless
        that when Scripture is silent the theologian must be            that it so seemed meet to God?             Here the most
        silent.    But how can one silence the detractor of the         loquacious tongues must be dumb.          The decree, I
        role of man in responding to the grace of God when I            admit, is dreadful (decretum horribile); and yet it is
        myself justify a thorough-going rationalistic validation        impossible to deny that God foreknew  what the end of
        of a teaching which some of our keenest theologians             man was to be before he made him, and foreknew,
        admit has only the most tenuous basis in Scripture,             because he had so ordained by his decree. Should any
        and which the most eminent theologians in our recent            one here inveigh against the prescience of God, he does
        tradition validate in the first and most important              it rashly and unadvisedly. Institutes, vol. 2, pg. 568.
        instance by categories of intellectual or historical
        logic?                                                          Over against those who argue that God would not be
                                                                     just in including all men in the condemnation of Adam,
        Obviously what the Principal of the Theological              Calvin writes  (idem, page 564):
College of Northern Nigeria is telling us is that he
cannot teach the doctrine of reprobation because it is                        I admit that by the will of God all the sons of Adam
not found in Scripture. He states that he stands four-                   fell into that state of wretchedness in which they are
square with Calvin's position that when Scripture is                     now involved; and this is just what I said at the first,
silent the theologian must be silent. And he wishes to                   that we must always return to the mere pleasure of the
apply this to the doctrine of reprobation.                               divine will, the cause of which is hidden in himself.
                                                                         But it does not forthwith follow that God lies open to -
        Yet Boer fully realizes that he is, nevertheless, in             this charge (of being unjust. C.H.) For we will answer
conflict with Calvin, because Calvin, as Boer admits,                   with Paul in these words, "Nay but, 0 man, who art
did not  .maintain  that Scripture was silent on the                     thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed
doctrine of reprobation. Calvin maintained this doc-                     say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
trine and even vehemently defended it against those who                  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same
denied and opposed it. Boer writes, "Calvin called the                   lump to make one vessel to honour, and another unto
decree of reprobation a decretum horribile (a horrible                   dishonor?" (Rom. 9:20, 21.)
decree) but he taught it because he believed it to be                   And in answer to those who would maintain that
squarely based on Scripture."                                        this decree of reprobation criminates God and excuses
        One wonders why the professor had to mention the             the sinner, or, as Boer would say, contradicts the fact
fact that Calvin spoke of a decretum horribile. The                  that unbelief is the sole fault of man, Calvin declares
reader is liable to draw the conclusion that Calvin was              ( Inst. vol. 2, page  567),


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     453


         All must admit what Solomon says, "The Lord hath        all of them is that they make inferences and draw
   made all things for himself; yea, even the wicked for         conclusions.       They believe and defend the decree of
   the day of evil," (Prov. 16:4). Now, since the arrange-       reprobation, but they admit that there is little mention
   ment of all things is in the hand of God, since to him        in Scripture of reprobation as an eternal decree, they
   belongs the disposal of life and death, he arranges all
   things by his sovereign counsel, in such a way that           offer no Scriptural proof for their contention, and
   individuals are born, who are doomed from the womb            they maintain the doctrine simply on the basis of
   to certain death, and are to glorify him by their             inference and conclusions. Now he does not object to
   destruction.                                                  inferences and conclusions,         without which theology
                                                                 cannot operate. But he does object when there is little
   Neither does Calvin see the conflict that Boer sees           or no basis for these inferences in Scripture. As he
between a sovereign decree of reprobation and the call           states,
to faith and repentance. He writes on page 575,
         We have already seen how plainly and audibly Paul                  The use of inference comes to stand in quite a
   preaches the doctrine of free election: is he, therefore,        different light, however, when over and above  thewhole
   cold in admonishing and exhorting? Let those good                and persistent teaching of Scripture and the confession
   zealots compare his vehemence with theirs, and they              of the Canons, that unbelief is the sole fault of man, an
   will find that they are ice, while he is all fervour. And        eternal decree is posited, for which no substantial
   surely every doubt on this subject should be removed             scriptural evidence is adduced, which makes unbelief
   by the principles which he lays down, that God hath not          flow forth from the decree, and which makes God
   called us touncleanness; that every one should possess           responsible for withholding from men the gift of faith
   his vessel in honour; that we are the workmanship of             and the grace of conversion.
   God, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
   God hath before ordained that we should walkin them."            Boer's problem actually lies deeper than that. His
   ( I Thess. 4:4, 7; Eph. 2:lO. ) In one word, those who        question is, how can you harmonize the preaching to
   have any tolerable acquaintance with the writings of          all men promiscuously of "God loves you and Christ
   Paul will understand, without a long demonstration, how       died for you," with a sovereign decree of reprobation?
   well he reconciles the two things which those men pre-        And those two can never be harmonized, because the
   tend to be contradictory to each other. Christ commands
   us to believe in him, and yet there is nothing false or      former is contrary to  the Scriptures, while the latter
   contrary to this command in the statement which he            is the teaching of the Scriptures.
   afterwards makes: "No man can come unto me except                But to show that there is not such a vast difference
   it were given him of my Father," (John  6:65) Let             between Calvin and the modern theologians I will make
   preaching then have its free course, that it may lead         just one quotation from one prominent theologian, of
   men to faith, and dispose them to persevere with             whom Boer says that he is a "profound, devout man,
   uninterrupted progress.     Nor, at the same time, let       whose theology somehow does not seem to age," Dr.
   there be any obstacle to the knowledge of predestina-         Herman Bavinck, taken from his Dogmatiek, vol. 2,
   tion, so that those who obey may not plume themselves        page 371.
   on anything of their own, but glory only in the Lord. It
   is not without cause our Saviour says, "Who hath ears                    The difference between Augustine and Pelagius,
   to hear, let him hear," (Matthew 13:9) Therefore                 Calvin and Castellio, Gomarus and Arminius is not that
   while we exhort and preach, those who have ears will-            the latter were so much more tender and kind, more
   ingly obey: in those, again, who havenoears is fulfilled         sympathetic and understanding, But the difference is
   what is written: "Hear ye indeed, but understand not,"           this, that the former accepted Scripture and its doctrine
   (Isaiah 6:9)                                                     in its entirety; that they were and always wanted to be
                                                                    theistic in their doctrine; that they acknowledged the
   Let Boer confront himself with the  same question                will and hand of God in these perturbing facts of life;
he places to his students: "what is your Scripture for              that they dared to look at reality in all its dreadful-
this derogation of" divine reprobation as taught in                 ness. . . . Calvinism . . . tears the blindfold from the
Scripture and defended by Calvin? And if Dr. Boer                    eyes, will not live in a dream world, accepts the ser-
desires more Scriptural references to the decree of                  iousness of life in all its fulness, maintains the rights
reprobation than Calvin offers, we can furnish him with              of the Lord of lords, and bows in humility and worship
                                                                    before the incomprehensible, sovereign will of God
many more.                                                           Almighty.      And thus proves to be much more sym-
   But in order to show that he is not so far wrong in              pathetic than Pelagianism. How deeply Calvin felt this
opposing Calvin and our Canons, the professor tells us               seriousness is evident from the fact that he spoke of
that there is a "vast difference between early Reformed              a decretum horribile. Entirely unjustly has this word
theology in its teachings of reprobation, such as found              been turned against him. It does not testify against
in Calvin and the Canons of  Dart, and that found in a               Calvin, but is to his credit., The decree as, taught by
number of prominent Reformed theologians of the past                 Calvin is not horrible, but the reality is terrible,
eighty years."       He says that "we hear altogether                which is the revelation of that decree of God, which is
different language in modern Reformed theologians of                 thus taught by Scripture and history, which for every
                                                                     one who thinks into it, whether he follows Pelagius or
unquestioned eminence." And then he refers to Her-                   Augustine, remains the same, and which can never be
man Bavinck, Dr. A.  Kuyper,  Prof. L. Berkhof, Charles              nullified by any misrepresentation. . . . Calvinism
Hodge, Loraine Boettner, and the Dutch theologian K.                 causes us to rest in IHim Who occupies the inacces-
Dijk.     He realizes that they all maintain and defend              sible light, whose judgments are unsearchable, and
the decree of reprobation. But liis main objection to                whose ways are past finding out.


454                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


                                     7e  V&  q  amy&
                                              THE  BELGIC CONFESSION

                                                      A R T I C L E   X I I I

                                  GOD'S GOVERNMENT AND SIN (Continued)

                                                  Pvof. H. C. Hoeksema

Scripture on GodIs Govevnrnent   and Sin (concluded)               In the first place, it is evident from all the Scrip-
       To one more item of' proof I must call your atten-       ture passages cited that ~every dualistic conception of
tion.      This is the opening of the book with its seven       the relation between God's government of the world
seals, Revelation 5, by the Lamb. This book is nothing          and sinful beings and their actions is to be rejected.
less than the living decree of God; and the opening of          There is no power of sin and darkness that has inde-
the book is the realization of that decree,,which  is com-     pendent existence and the ability to will and move
mitted unto the Lamb, the exalted Christ, to Whom has           and accomplish anything independently of. the will and
been given all power in heaven and on earth. As He              operation of God the Lord. This error of dualism,
opens the seals of that book one by one, the counsel of        pagan in its origin, was already rejected in Article
the Lord with respect to all the events of this dispensa-       XII of our Confession.
tion is realized. And included in all those events of              In the second place, however, the Confession em-
this dispensation, "the things whichmust be hereafter,"        phasizes that God is neither the author of, nor can be
(Rev. 4:1), are all the ragings of the heathen and of          charged with, the sins which are committed. The guilt,
the antichristian world-power against the cause of             the blame, of sin, whether we speak of the origin of
Christ in the midst of the world as they must serve             sin at the time of the fall or whether we speak of any
the purpose of the realization of the eternal kingdom           other sinful deeds of devils or men, is in no wise to
of our Lord Jesus Christ.          Thus, as we have it in      be laid to God's charge. We may well remember, by
Revelation 6, not only the white horse, but the red and        the way, that the accusation of this heresy is and can
the black and the pale all come forth when the Lamb            be made only against those who reject the dualistic
opens the seals of that book. All the events of this            conception.      All dualism gets rid of this problem, if
dispensation are but the realization of God's counsel           such it may be called, by destroying the problem, by
as it is realized by God's own government of the world         getting rid of God's sovereignty, by placing sinful
that has been committed to Him who sitteth at the right        creatures and their actions outside the scope of God's
hand of God.                                                    sovereign government.
       I<nowing this, we know that all things work together        In the third place, to be rejected are those con-
for good to them that love God, to them who are the             ceptions which, out of a wholesome fear of in any wise
called according to His purpose.                               presenting God as the author of sin, nevertheless fall
                                                               unintentionally into a degree of dualism.
Conclusions Within "These Limits"                                  In this connection we come face to face with the
       There is none who will not freely concede that in       difficulties involved in this entire subject; and we are
this entire matter of God's government and sin we are          forcibly reminded of what our Confession says con-
confronted by the mystery. That mystery is really              cerning what surpasses human understanding. Try as
the mystery that is always present when we speak of            we may, we nevertheless cannot "get to the bottom"
God and of God's works. He is the incomprehensible              of this subject. It is this fact which probably accounts
God, Who is really God. We cannot fathom Him; nor              for various formulations, or attempts at formulation,
can we fathom His wonderful works. Our Confession               of the relation between God's government and sin
calls special attention to this, cautioning us not to          which, though they are well-meaning and though to a
inquire curiously into what God does which surpasses            greater or lesser degree approximate the truth, never-
human understanding. Our human understanding is of             theless are not wholly adequate and satisfactory.
far too limited capacity to fathom the incomprehensible            Such a formulation is implied in the term "permis-
God and His works. Our attitude, therefore, must be             sion," at least the moment that this permission is
that of humility and adoration of the righteous judg-           conceived of as wholly passive and as consisting in a
ments of God which are hid from us. And in this atti-          wholly negative refusal to intervene. In this sense
tude we are bound, objectively, to that which Christ           our confessions never use the term. Another such
Himself has revealed to us in His Word.                        term, in my estimation, is the term "cooperation."
       What, therefore, may we say concerning God's            This is a term that was devised to express something
government and sin within these prescribed limits?             of the implications of God's government of His moral
       Let us attempt to answer this question negatively,      creatures. The trouble is, as a simple analysis of the
first of all.                                                  term reveals immediately, that such language fails to


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                                                 - THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   455

express anything of the Sovereign-creature relation-          nevertheless we should keep in mind that it is not
ship, and tends rather to deny that relation. Can it          more than an approximation of the truth and that this
indeed be said, as the term "cooperate" implies, that              "overruling" is never to be dualistically conceived.
God and the moral creature "work together?" And is            That which God "overrules" has actually no power to
this an adequate formulation especially of the respec-             accomplish anything independently of and ultimately
tive parts of God and the moral creature in regard to         overagainst the Lord of heaven and earth. God is not
sinful deeds ?    True enough, an explanation can be          merely greater and stronger and higher than the powers
made of the use of such a term in a Reformed sense;           of darkness. He is God, the Lord. He does not and He
but the very necessity of the explanation points. up the      does not have to compete against the devil and the un-
inadequacy of the term. Personally, I always feel the         godly.       And in that sense it cannot be said that He
same way about the formulation "First Cause. . . .                 over-rules;  He simply Yules.
second cause."      I will not enter into a lengthy dis-              This brings us to the positive side of the question.
cussion of this formulation, however, at this time.                   And then we may note the following:
   Often, however, we slip unthinkingly into some kind                1. Scripture itself very clearly posits the truth of
of dualistic presentation and conception of God's gov-             God's absolutely sovereign government of sin, the
ernment. This is certainly the case when we think of          devil(s), and ungodly men and the truth of the creature's
God as accomplishing His purpose in spite of the con-         moral responsibility for his own `sinful deeds, never
trary attempt and operation of the devil or of sinful              suggesting that there is the slightest inconsistency or
men. It is certainly correct to say that the Lord works            contradiction involved, but also never hesitating to
in spite of the intention of the devil and of wicked men.     maintain both.         Sometimes, in fact, the Scriptures
Always, of course, it is the purpose of the devil to          present both truths, as it were, in one breath. Think
defeat God's purpose and to prevent its realization.               of the well-known words of Acts 2: "Him, being de-
In fact, it is. precisely at this point of purpose and in-    livered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
tent that the sharp difference between the work of God's           of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have cru-
government as being a perfectly holy work of Him in                cified and slain." Scripture hesitates not at all to
Whom there is no darkness at all and the work of              maintain, on the one hand, that the most heinous sin
devils and wicked men comes into the clearest focus:               of the ages took place according to the determinate
God is not the author of sin, but devils and wicked men            counsel and foreknowledge of God and that the Lord
are the authors of their own sin. Let us understand                of heaven and earth "delivered" our Lord Jesus Christ
this clearly. When Herod  and Pontius Pilate and the               to the death of the cross; and, on the other hand, it
chief priests and scribes, together with the blood-           maintains the wickedness of the hands that crucified
thirsty multitude, conspire to bring our Lord Jesus                and slew our Lord. Moreover, Scripture never "both-
Christ to the bitter and shameful death of the cross,              ers" to explain these things and is not concerned with
it certainly is not their intention to execute God's          the multitudinous problems that we can conjure up in
counsel and to carry out His purpose of reconciling                connection with these truths. I am inclined to think
the world unto Himself through the blood of atonement.        that at least one reason for this is that our problems
On their part, they intend to express their fierce                 about these matters are not real, true-to-life prob-
hatred against the Lord and against His Anointed.                  lems . No one can escape the truth of God's absolute
And through them the devil himself wickedly intends                sovereignty; and even the very vocal protestations
to slay the Great Seed of the woman. But God's counsel             against and denials of that sovereignty do not change
stands, and He performs all His good pleasure. And                 the sovereign God and do not change the fact that we
from this point of view, it may certainly be said that             after all know that He is the sovereign Lord of heaven
the Almighty executes His counsel and realizes His                 and earth. At the same time, no one can escape the
purpose in spite of all the wicked intentions of the               awareness of his own moral responsibility for his sins,
powers of darkness.                                                nor with intellectual honesty charge God with being the
   The moment, however, that we maintain this same                 author of sin, all his protestations to the contrary
idea in the objective sense, and say that God accom-               notwithstanding. That simply is not reality; it is not
plishes His work and purpose in spite of the attempt               life! The objector against reprobation in Romans 9 is
and operation of the devil and the ungodly to the con-             not suffering from an honest intellectual difficulty
trary, we have fallen into dualistic channels of thought.          when he raises the question, "Why doth he yet find
While the subjective purpose and also the actions of               fault, for who hath resisted his will?" That objection
all the powers of darkness stand diametrically opposed             is one of wicked rebellion. The same is true of the
to God and His purpose and His work, according to ob-              objection that the truth of God's all-comprehensive
jective reality there are no powers and no works that              government makes' God the author of sin. The root of
can and do oppose God in the sense that God must over-             that objection, in so far as it is used as an objection,
come them and accomplish His purpose and work in                   is not a true concern for God's holiness, but a hatred
spite of them.                                                     of His sovereignty.
   In the same sense we often speak not only of God
ruling things, but of His overruling. Again, though                Jesus, I turn to Thee! oh let me hide
such terminology is employed with every good inten-                   Within Thy breast;
tion, and though there is a certain approximation of               Refuge and shelter, peace and grace provide,
the truth of God's incomprehensible government in it,                 And needed rest.                             -Selected


                                       %?ew  +ytt  &2  &i&ah62
                                       ("All the saints salute thee . . ." Phil. 4~21)

                                                    July 15, 1965                  The Reformed Witness Hour radio sermons for
   First Church of Grand Rapids has placed the follow-                        August finish the series on "The Lord's Prayer" as
ing on trio, from which one will be elected July 1.9:                         presented by Rev. J. A. Heys, of South Holland, Ill.
Revs. M. Schipper, H. Veldman and G. Van Baren.                               The topics are as follows: Aug. 1 - "Fear of the Fiery
   Seminarian Robert Decker is in receipt of his first                        Trial"; Aug. 8 - "Freedom of Religion"; Aug. 15 -
call and it was from our church in the far northwest,                         "A Firm Foundation"; Aug. 22 -- "Leaving With Con-
Lynden, Wash.                                                                 fidence". Copies of the sermons may be obtained by
   Rev. H. Hanko, of Doon, Iowa, has received and                             writing to The Reformed Witness Hour, Box 1230,
accepted the  Synodical  call to professorship in our                         Grand Rapids, Mich. 49501.
seminary. He will occupy the Chair of New Testament,                                                       * *  * *
taking the place of Rev. H. Hoeksema, who resigned                                 Rev. H. Hoeksema's health is failing rapidly. He is
his position due to illness.                                                  now entirely unable to communicate due to throat and
                          8 * * *                                             tongue paralysis. It is the hope of his devoted congre-
   Report   of  Classis  East,  July 7, 1965,  at Southwest                   gation that this faithful servant of God may have an
Chuvch.    Rev. G. Lubbers presided over the opening                          abundant entrance into the glory awaiting the saints.
devotions, and declared the  Classis instituted after the                                                  * * * *
credentials had been accepted. All the churches were                               Synod joyfully noted the fact that two more of our
represented by two delegates each.                                            churches have become self-supporting, no longer need-
   Rev. M. Schipper then presided while Rev. Lubbers                          ing synodical subsidy. The churches: Hull, Iowa, and
recorded the minutes.           The minutes of the April                      Redlands, Calif.
Classis were read and approved. The Stated Clerk                                                           * * *  *
and the Classical Committee tendered their reports.                                Edgerton  sponsored an Independence Day picnic for
   A finance committee, consisting of J. Oomkes and                           the churches in Northwest Iowa.           Rev. J. Kortering,
B. Windemuller, was appointed to report on the ex-                            of Hull, was scheduled to speak on, "Persecution in
pense of this meeting.                                                        Democratic America." The offering received was for
   First Church asked for classical appointments. The                         The Reformed Action Society, and the canteenproceeds
committee, H. Veldman, G. Lubbers, and H. Ophoff,                             were slated for Edgerton's P.R. Christian School.
prepared the schedule which was adopted as follows:                                                        * *  * *
July 18 -eve., G. Lanting; July 25 -eve., R. C. Har-                               Sunday evening, June 20, the Grand Rapids area
bath; Aug. 1 -morn. and, eve., H. Veldman, Aug. 8 -                           churches' services were canceled because of a tornado
morn., M. Schipper, eve., G. Vos; Aug. 15 -morn.,                             warning.      The evening Communion service of First
G. Lanting; Aug. 22 - eve., G. Lubbers; Aug. 29 - eve.,                       Church was celebrated the next week, including the post-
H. Veldman; Sept. 5 eve., M. Schipper; Sept 12 -eve.,                         communion applicatory  sermon. The atmospheric con-
G. Vos; Sept. 19 -none; Sept. 26 -morn., G. Lanting,                          ditions which produce tornados, so common in Iowa and
eve., G. Lubbers; Oct. 3 - eve., G. Lanting; Oct. 10 -                        Illinois, have crossed the big lake, and "tornado alerts"
eve., R. C. Harbach.                                                          are becoming commonplace in Michigan. It is indeed
   Holland's consistory sent in an overture to change                         good that we may recognize these storms as "The
the rule re the time of the meeting of classis. This                          Voice of the Lord" of Psalm 29, knowing also that
was put into the hands of a committee consisting of                           these voices will increase until that Great Day of the
Revs. G. Vos, H. Veldman, and Elder D. Dykstra, to                            Lord.
report to the next classis.                                                                                * *  *  *
   Mr. D. Engelsma was appointed to thank the ladies                               Adams St. School has adopted a financial setup which
of Southwest Church for their catering.                                       intends to abolish yearly deficit drives and special
   Prof. H. C. Hoeksema was granted advisory vote.                            collections. The plan provides for the receipt of the
   Classis decided to meet next time Oct. 6, 1965 in                          people's pledges on a weekly basis, using a double
Hope Church.                                                                  envelope in conjunction with the church's budget enve-
   The Questions of Article 41 of the Church Order                            lope. Southeast Church and First Church began using
were asked and answered satisfactorily.                                       the new envelopes July 4.
   After a few closing remarks by the chairman,                                                            * * *  *
Classis sang Psalter 313, and the Rev. G. Vos closed                               "Quiet Thought" ffound in Southeast's bulletin: "The
the meeting with thanks to God.                                               church is like a bank - the more you put into it, the
                                 M. Schipper, Stated Clerk                    more interest you have in it".
                          *  *  * *                                                . . . .see you in church.                       J.M.F.


