                                                                                                                         h "
                                                                                                                                e

                                                                                                tandard
.-



                                                                                                                                     earer
                                                                                   .:                                                                               ._
                   A  REF~RMED.SEMI-MONTHT,Y   M A G A Z I N E
                                                       ,..
              r



           IN  THIS  ISSUE:                                                 ,                         H
                                                                                                   -`_

                                          In Mekoriam (see special section, page 3)


                                         Beginning:  Significant.Doctrines  in the  Theolagy of Karl Barth


                                    Our Reasonable Service


                                         Depravity and Mission Preaching





                                                                                                                         . .
      ,  >  >  .r  _,.,.   :,v.;    ,               -.\  .-  i:  ..::   ii.  ;  .  ! .`~~:&z+~~   y-."  -..  ._ ,i  .           .yOlUme  XLII/ Number 1 /-October 1, 1.965
                                                                                                          i,      1.


2                                                                                                                      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
     Editorials -
          Editorial Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    2       ;            THESTANDARDBEARER
          Our New Seminary Professor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
                 Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                            Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
     Meditation  -
          The Eternal God Our Refuge1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                           Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
                 Rev. M. Schipper
     From Our Nestor  -                                                                                                                                            Editor-  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema  a
          To Bring To Remembrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                 Rev. G. Vos                                                                                                                     Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
     Heeding The Doctrine  -                                                                                                                     Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
          Significant Doctrines in the Theology of Karl Barth . . . . . . .                                                                10    Rapids,  Mich.       49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
                 Rev. D. J. Engelsma                                                                                                             words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
     Trying The Spirits -                                                                                                                        lines are the'first and fifteenth of the month.
          Unitarianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
                 Rev. R. C. Harbach                                                                                                              All church news items should be addressed toMr. J. M. Faber,
     In His Fear -                                                                                                                                         1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
          The Beginning of Wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
                 Rev. J. A. Heys                                                                                                                 Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee includedmust
     From Holy Writ -                                                                                                                            be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below;
          Our Reasonable Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
                 Rev. G. Lubbers                                                                                                                 All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
     News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8                                   Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
                 Mr. John Faber                                                                                                                                     Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
     The Lord Gave The Word  -'
           Depravity and Mission Preaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19                                             Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
                 Rev. C. Hanko                                                                                                                   received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
     All Around Us --                                                                                                                            scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
          Man's Animal Ancestry                                                                                                                                    Subscription price: $5.00 per year
           Church and State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
                  Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                                         Second Class Postage paid  at  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan
     The Voice Of Our Fathers --
           God's Government  and Sin (Continued) . . . . . . . ,. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                            22
                  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
     Book Reviews  -
           De Verborgenheid der Godzaligheid
           Rondom Israel . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
                  Rev. H. Veldman





                                                        EDITORIALS-

                                                                                               Editorial Notes . . .
                                                                                                                                                                  Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema

        The reader will note that there is a change of                                                                                            we chose one taken by Rev. B. Woudenberg several
format in this issue of the  Standard   Beaver.  We are                                                                                           years ago and furnished through  the courtesy of Prof.
presenting a special section in memory of our beloved                                                                                             Hanko.
past Editor whom the Lord has taken to glory. For                                                                                                        Due to the publishing of the memorial section, some
this memorial section Rev. M. Schipper prepared his                                                                                               of the  usual departments do not appear in this issue.
comforting funeral message in meditation form; and                                                                                                       The attention of our readers is also called to the
the Rev. G.  Vos,  the  nestor among our ministers,                                                                                               first article in a new department, "Heeding The Doc-
kindly consented to write a special article in his own,                                                                                           trine."       We welcome Rev. Engelsma to the ranks of
inimitable way.                                 From several photographs available                                                                our contributors.

                                                                                                                                                                               (Editorials continued on page 23)


 REVEREND
 H E R M A N
HOEKSEMA


1886  - 1965




                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        5     '


           MEDITATION-
                                                   .,
                                                 ;:I"-:,:
                   The  E+erna,  ooJg;  Ref"ge!



                                                   Rev.  M.  Schippev

                   "The Eternal God is thy refuge, and  undevlzeath   aye the  everlasting   arms."
                                                                                 Deutevonom y  33:27a

   Reverend Herman Hoeksema has departed from us,              gation at heart, and gave consolation to them that
and is gone into glory! Just a few more months, and            needed it!
he would have reached the age of the strong.  Seventy-            He was a very dear friend and brother in Christ!
nine years he sojourned among us, and the Lord took            Whom we knew personally for over fifty years, and
him out of all the suffering of this present time into         most intimately for the last thirty-five. Who was al-
the presence of Him whom he loved and served. He               ways ready to help with advice and comfort when that
was born in the Netherlands on March 13, 1886, and in          was most needed!
the early morning hours of September .2, 1965 he folded           He was, last but not least, a beloved father! Who
up his feet into the bed and gave up the ghost. He is          loved his family, his dear wife who preceded him in
therefore now no longer with us.                               death by almost two years; and his children for whom
   And what shall we say at his passing?                       he provided of the very best, often under difficult and
   Shall we presume to express eulogies, and utter             trying circumstances !
paeans of praise concerning him?                                  Perhaps you, my reader, if you knew him, could
   Indeed, he was a great man! Even those who opposed          also add to the list we have enumerated !
him would freely attest to that! And if eulogies are in           Indeed, our departed leader was graced with many
order, then surely they could be uttered with respect          talents and exceptional gifts.          And the churches to
to him!                                                        which he gave such faithful leadership have suffered
   He was first and foremost a theologian,  pav excel-         a great loss !
lence!  He stood on the shoulders of his forebears,                But to all this eulogy and praise, he would, if he
and went beyond them! He contributed to the Reformed           were able, be the first strenuously to object; and against
theological climate expositions of doctrine that sur-          it he would violently protest! For you see, he was also
passed those of his predecessors!                              a very humble man! But even this statement, though
   He was also a great teacher and preacher! We re-            not specially cast in the form of eulogy, would have
member him especially in his prime, when he could              been seriously objected to by him. He would inform
hold you spell-bound in his audience. He could set             you in no uncertain terms that he was by nature proud
forth the truths of God's Word so clearlythat you could        and haughty. He would insist that he was thoroughly
see them, and never forget them!                               corrupt, that there was no good in him! But that was
   He was a prodigious worker! Who at one time could           exactly his greatness, that he understood by experience
prepare for and deliver as many as three and four              the awful depravity of the human nature, and that even
sermons on a Sunday; and at the same time he pre-              after grace comes, there is but a very small beginning
pared instruction for his students and taught in our           of new obedience. He found his hope only in the sov-
seminary.    At the same time he was editor of  The            ereign and redemptive mercy of his God! Man nothing,
Standard   Beaver,  filling most of its pages for many         and God everything! That was the tenor of the Gospel
years, while he also prepared and published many               he preached, and the Gospel he lived!
books, brochures, and pamphlets.        All this he did           Much rather, yea, very much rather would he that
while often he was in the midst of ecclesiastical strife       our attention be called to his God !
which demanded his attention and called for his leader-           If there was one thing which we have learned from
ship!                                                          him and to which he gave expression in all his preach-
   He was an invincible debater! Who understood and            ing and teaching, it was his beautiful conception of
used extreme logic, which sent fear into the hearts of         God which he formed out of the Holy Scriptures. How
those opponents who knew him!                                  often, we recall, the expression he made:            God is
   He was a fighter in the good sense of the word! Who         God !     And how bitterly he opposed every attempt to
fought against every semblance of corruption incipient         make an idol of Him! Like Elijah of old, who on Mount
in or threatening the church. And who did this all the         Carmel cried into the ears of the people: Jehovah or
years of his ministry!                                         Baal!      Choose whom ye will serve !          So he would
   He was the faithful pastor of what at one time was          thunder from his pulpit: It is either  - or; never: both
one of the largest Reformed Churches in our country,           -- and! It is God or the idol! How often, when in the
a congregation of over 500 families and 1300 souls.            midst of doctrinal controversy, he would call attention
Who, though he was not always able to care for the             to the fact that every departure from the truth is to
pastoral needs of his flock because of his many other`        make an idol of God!
pressing duties, nevertheless always had his  congre-             And so, at this time we would draw our attention


6                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


away from the deceased, to the God of his and our             unless He came down to show Himself to us ! He
salvation! In this great God the bereaved family will         creates a creature, and after the fall of man recreates
have to find all the comfort they need in this time of        a creature that is capable of receiving that revelation.
sorrow.      The -congregation he served in particular,       And He condescends to give us that revelation! The
and our churches in general, which shall be required          sum total of His glory is the multiple display of His
to go on without him, will also have to look to this God      attributes! This glory is seen in creation, the works of
for all their comfort and guidance! There are those           His hands ! Therefore the heavens declare the glory of
who have predicted that our churches would pass out           God and the firmament His handiwork! And Paul tells
of existence when their great leader would disappear          us that this revelation is even to the extent of the per-
from the scene.        But those who spoke thus have never    ception of His eternal power and Godhead, so that men
known his and our God!                                        are without excuse! More particularly, however, these
     We would call your attention to our God on the           virtues and His glory are revealed in the work of re-
basis of the text as it appears above this meditation!        demption! Therefore the angels sing, "Glory to God
     The words of this text are found at the conclusion       in the highest," when they behold the Babe of Bethle-
of the series of blessings Moses pronounced over the          hem! And therefore the shepherds and the  wisemen
tribes of Israel just before his death. You may recall        rejoice in the birth of the King of the Jews !
how Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes, also pro-            The central revelation of this glorious God is in
nounced blessings on his sons before he folded up his         His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is come in the
feet into his bed and yielded up the ghost. And now           flesh! Of Him the Scripture repeatedly asserts that all
Moses, the servant of the Lord, was about to depart           the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily! There-
this life; but before he does so, he pronounces bless-        fore He could say to Philip: He that hath seen me, hath
ings on these generations of the sons of Jacob! And he        seen the Father! As I have said to my congregation
concludes that all these pronouncements will be real-         often: All that we shall ever see of God shall be seen
ized only because: "There is none like unto the God of        in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord! And so it is!
Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heavens in thy help, and           This God is Israel's God!
in his excellency on the sky." And he continues in our           He is not the God of all men! Contrary to the
text to say: "The eternal God is thy refuge, and under-       modern conception, according to which God is the
neath are the everlasting arms."                              Father of all men. And so they speak of the father-
                   * * * * * * * * * *                        hood of God and the brotherhood of men. This view is
     Glorious God !                                           opposed by all of Scripture!
     Full of infinite perfections !                              Nor is it true that God wants to be the Father of all
     Moses mentions only one of His attributes here:          men, so that on God's part He has a strong desire to
His eternity! That already refers to God as the Wholly        be the Father of all, but it depends upon man whether
Other! The word translated "eternal" in the original          or not he will accept Him as Father. For also this
looks at God's eternity from a peculiar point of view.        view is opposed by all of Scripture!
The word literally refers to that which is before, be-           Nor is it true that His grace and love are intended
fore in antiquity. Here it most probably means: that          for all men! A view which is creeping into even Re-
which has no beginning. The idea then is, that every-         formed circles today! Let it be said without any equiv-
thing in creation has a beginning, but God is before          ocation: God's grace and love are always only par-
this ! He has no beginning. He is before the beginning.       ticular --never common! That is the truth of the Word
In the beginning God was, He did not become! And              of God throughout !
when we read in the text of "everlasting arms," this             The truth is He is the Covenant God of Israel! And
also refers to His eternity, only here it emphasizes:         we hasten to add: of Israel whom He hath chosen. For
no end! Thus the idea of eternity in the text is: with-       also here, all is not Israel that  iscalled  Israel. Nor is
out beginning and without end! Moses, in the Psalm            he a Jew which is one outwardly, whose circumcision
we read in your hearing (Psalm  90:1,2) declares this         is only in his flesh; but he is a Jew, a true Israelite,
same truth: "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place          whose circumcision is of the heart. God is, according
in all generations. Before the mountains were brought         to Scripture, the God of His chosen people in Christ!
forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the            With them He has established an everlasting Covenant.
world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art         Concerning this great doctrine respecting the Covenant
God."                                                         we are most thankful to God for the new light and
     But we know from all the Scriptures that God is full     development given to us through our now departed
of infinite perfections! This is not the time or the oc-      brother.    He, more than any other of the theologians
casion to enumerate and define all these virtues of           of the past, has developed and presented most suc-
our God. Let it suffice only to mention some of them:         cinctly in his writings, particularly in his dogmatics
His Immutability, Independence, Omnipresence, and             which will soon come off the press. God, the in Him-
Omniscience. His righteousness, holiness, love, grace,        self Covenant God because He is triune, has willed to
and power! And let it be understood that the sum total        form in and through Christ Jesus a people with whom
of all these virtues make up, so  tospeak, the one, true,     -He establishes and keeps an eternal Covenant of
triune, blessed God!                                          grace!
     The radiation of these virtues is His glory!                Of this God, Israel is most ill-deserving! Moses
     This exalted and glorious God we could not know          describes them in another portion of Deuteronomy

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


(9:3-S) repeatedly as a stiff-necked people. They were               during Israel's sojourn in that land!              Those cities
a people who rebelled against Jehovah all the way from              where sinners could flee for refuge, and where they
Egypt to the borders of Canaan. Always they refused                 would be safe from avenging justice!
to enter Canaan, the land that flowed with milk and                      In Christ Jesus, the God of our salvation, we are
honey, a type of heaven and rest! Israel is a people                 safe for evermore! He is our hiding place! His arms
that is estranged from the womb! There is nothing in                 wrought our salvation. Under the avenging wrath of a
that people that could move God to choose them! Surely               holy God, we were snatched up by His powerful arms
God could never have chosen you and me because He                    and delivered from that wrath, while all the vials of
foresaw some good in us that moved Him in His choice.                that wrath He bore by Himself and in our stead! With
Depraved and undone we are by nature; as Isaiah des-                 His everlasting arms under us, we are safe!
cribes us, so we are: "From the sole of the foot even                                      **********
unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds,                   Comforting truth!
and bruises, and putrifying sores." (Isa.  1:6a).                        For the church of all ages!
   Yet this people hath Jehovah formed for Himself;                      For the church in the day of Moses and Israel! All
they shall show forth His praise. (Isa.  43:21). If God              the blessings Moses pronounced would be of no avail
delighted Himself in that people, it can only be be-                 without the truth of our text! But Jeshurun must know
cause His grace to them is purely sovereign and free.                that the eternal God is his refuge, and always under-
He chose them in order that they might become con-                   neath are those everlasting arms !
formable unto His image. This judgment God's people                      All through the history of the church in the New
will always make of themselves as they by grace see                  Dispensation!        Each -time the church sought an arm of
themselves in the light of His Holy Word and Law!                    flesh to help, she was put to shame! But when her
                    **********                                       eyes were on the God of her salvation, she weathered
   This great and glorious God is a safe retreat!                    all the storms, and was perfectly safe!
   He is our asylum, a refuge, our hiding place !                        Also for us !
   As we mentioned before, Moses uses the same                           The bereaved family! This God was your father's
word in Psalm  90:1, "Lord, thou hast been our dwell-                God ! And I would exhort you to put your eye of faith
ing place in all generations." But God is not only an                upon Him !
abiding place, He is also a refuge! This would imply                     For all our churches in general! Our future, as
that God's people are always threatened with danger,                 well as our past, does not rest on a man. Thankful as
and to them God is a place of refuge. Also implied is                we are for all God has given us in our great leader
the fact that He was that in the past, that He is now,               now deceased, we believe God will raise up other lead-
and always will be!                                                  ers to go before us.        But our confidence is not in any
   Underneath are the everlasting arms!                              man whose breath is in his nostrils only so long as
   Not only hands in the palms of which we are  en-                  God does. not snuff it out. In Jehovah alone, our Cove-
graven by the steel point of His eternal counsel, as                 nant God, in and through Christ Jesus are we sheltered
described by Isaiah  (49:16);  but arms of everlasting               safely, and His arms of strength omnipotent will hold
strength!    0, those arms of love that reach down to                us fast! I would exhort you to fix your eye upon Him!
lift up and embrace! Like the mother reaches down                    And when the wicked mock, and sneeringly ask what
with her arms to snatch her darling babe from threaten-              will you do now that your leader is dead? Tell them of
ing danger and to draw that child in loving embrace to               your God Who has saved you, and will yet save you unto
her bosom, so our God is described in our text. An-                  the uttermost!
thropomorphically, of course, the Scripture describes                    And for First Church in particular! For over forty
God to us in His watchful, loving care of His beloved                years you have had this God presented to you in all the
people !                                                             preaching of your now departed pastor. Believe this
   In Him the Israel of God is perfectly safe!                       Word of God! Never forget it!
   He is the  antitype  of those cities of refuge which                  Indeed, always underneath are the everlasting arms !
were placed strategically throughout the land of Canaan                  Amen, and Amen!

                   RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATHY
   The Board of the Association for Christian Education                                RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATHY
   herewith expresses its sincere sympathy to the principal             Whereas it has pleased the Lord to take unto Himself
   of our school, Mrs. H. C. Hoeksema, in the loss of her               our faithful and beloved pastor,
   father-in-law                                                                     REVEREND HERMAN HOEKSEMA
                     REV. H. HOEKSEMA                          I        the Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed Church,
   "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain                 although deeply feeling his passing away, gratefully
   thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."              turns to God in thanks for giving us the gift of his
   Psalm 55:22.                                                         labors in the Word and doctrine among us these many
                             The Board of the Association               years. "For of him and through him, and to him are
                                   for Christian Education              all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."
                              J. Vander Woude, Secretary                                                         R o m a n s   11:36
                                                                                                            Cornelius Jonker, Sec'y


 8                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



                     FROM OUR  NESTOR-

                                ,To Bring To Remembrance

                                                                                   Rev. G. Vos

      It's improper, so they tell me, to begin an essay,             And I saw him again, for the second time.
article or meditation with the pronoun of the first per-             It was in the old Van  Raalte church. The text:
son singular "I".      So be it. And therefore I sneaked         Jehoshaphat's league with Ahab of II Chronicles 18.
in this opening paragraph.                                           It was during my fourteen days' stay at. Hope
      I saw him !                                                College.       And again it was decisive in  my,young  life.
      I must have been about twenty-two years old, just          I broke with Hope and the Reformed Churches and went
two years from the Netherlands.                                  to Calvin and Dennis Avenue Christian Ref. Church.
      My friends told me: "Tonight we are going to hear              Here comes a hiatus in my life. For family  re-
a man whom you MUST meet and listen to!" You see,                ' lations I had to break my course at Calvin and move
this man's reputation had already at that early date             to Mt. Clemens to help my father and mother who
preceeded him.       I had a large circle of friends in that     came to this country during my stay at Calvin, and
Reformed church, and we very often talked about the              mistakenly had settled far from a Chr. Ref. Church.
fact that we heard so little of the Biblical doctrine of         So I stayed with them for eighteen months; but when
predestination. Our minister was a regular Methodist,            we were able, I. returned with them to our Jerusalem
and we were often at odds with him. Indeed so much               (Grand Rapids).
that he had told me personally not to mention election               And I heard and saw him again. During this hiatus
and reprobation anymore in the presence of the other             he had accepted the call to Eastern Ave. Chr. Ref.
young people in our catechism classes and young people's         Church.        I give you one guess as to what I did. You
society meetings.                                                are right: I took my papers from Dennis Avenue Chr.
      But now, so said my friends, you are going to hear a       Ref. Church and attended Eastern Avenue.
man who loves the doctrine of predestination.                        And the storm had already arisen.
      And yes, I`saw him!                                            And what a storm! I followed it from step to step.
      How could I ever forget that evening? From my                 I could not believe my eyes or my ears. Men
early youth in the Netherlands I was raised on that              whose sermons I adored, such as Volbeda and Rink
doctrine `of election and reprobation. And never did I           I<uiper  turned against him.
hear it proclaimed.          In those days  the. older youths       In those days I was a taxicab driver. I drove him
would also attend Men's Society, and there we had to             around during week days and nights, as also on Sun-
wage a battle against the Arminian heresy.                       days on his classical appointments. Yes, I had learned
      AndIsawhim!                                                to know him intimately. We often spoke together. They
      He spoke for the Christian School Society at the           were golden hours. During those days Verhil, he, and
occasion of the graduation of our children. And his              I had a meeting with but one purpose: seek a medium
text was, Deut.  6:6,7. Look it up, if you so please.            through which he could divulge the beauteous truth.
      I was young, barely twenty-two years old. You              And from that meeting grew our beloved R .F.P.A.
hear the phrase rather often. But in my mouth this                  The storm became a tempest. Dark and threaten-
phrase is not conventional, but simple truth: I had              ing clouds gathered about the heads of the THREE. In
never before in my life heard something so beautiful.            those I wept, fool that I was. I neglected my business,
I said to my companions afterwards: He speaks like               and attended all the sessions of  classis  and synod. I
the prophets of the Old Testament!                               saw it all.
      After that speech I. went up front and shook hands            Here were men who loved what is calledHEART  OF
with him. I later asked him, but he did not remember             THE CHURCH! Yes, my beloved reader,. yes; the doc-
it. So many people came and talked to him afterwards.            trine of predestination was called THE HEART OF
      A strange coincidence: She, who three years later          THE CHURCH. In some books that are still among  US
became my wife, also came forward that evening to                it is stated in the Latin tongue: Cov ecclesia.
shake hands with him. But I did not know her, nor see               My dear heart! I. could go on and on, but I'm afraid
her then.                                                        you would grow weary of my prattlings. And so I will
      The hearing of that speech changed my entire life.         hurry on.
I wrote to Hope College and entered there the following
fall.    For several years I had the burning desire to              In those days I saw him again! Churchill would call
become a minister of the glorious Word, but never                it HIS FINEST HOYR !
dared to talk about it to anyone. But that speech en-               It was in Kalamazoo. Whenever I ride past that
gendered courage and conviction.                                 church my heart melts within me. To that church is


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      9


attached the shame of the churches that threw us out                Schism? No, dear brother, a cast-away!
in mid-winter.                                                      The three brethren were cast off on the basis of
   But I saw him!                                            Articles 79 and 80 of the  Dovdtsche  Kevkenovde.   On a
   I had prodded him on and on, and kept on asking           par with murderers !
him: why don't you speak!!!?                                        En het  schveit  ten  hemel! (And it cries to heaven!)
   But he smiled and kept silent. But at the right                  No, they do not want him in their midst, but they
moment he rose up and spoke. It is not trite now when        embrace the man who teaches future missionaries that
I say: you could hear a pin drop. It was benauwd still.      God loves all men and that Christ died for all men.
   And he received the privilege to speak after supper.      What is this? It is rank methodism and Arminianism.
The word went out and many published it, and the             Everyone knows that.
church was full. I smile when I write this.                         But I must hasten. I wrote my  VALE!  And I never
   The church full? If the local fire department had         thought that I would write again for our beloved
known it they would have cleared the church. We were         `Stand&d  Beaver.
packed in like the proverbial sardines in a can.                    I saw him.
   And I saw him and heard him.                                     Yes, but now I saw him weep.
   He spoke for two hours, and I bless the name of                  Yes, I saw him weep three times.
Professor Clarence Bouma who handed him a drink of                  The first time in the midst of the most terrible
water at the halfway point of his address.                   warfare we ever had. That warfare was between us
   But 0 that speech! Would that it were written in          and the brethren with whom "we took sweet counsel
the rock with a pencil of steel.     But be you still, my    together, and walked unto the house of God in company."
heart. God has written that speech in His annals which              In the midst of that warfare he wept in sight of all  /
are both true and enduring.                                  the people, crying out in the agony of his soul: "They
   If synod would have voted at the conclusion of that       have corrupted my church!"
speech, we would never have had a Protestant Re-                    The second time I saw him weep was when his wife
formed Church in the world.                                  called me in Hudsonville and said: "Come, Gerrit, and
   But corruption set in during the night, and in the        comfort my husband, for he is weeping."
morning of the next day the lie prevailed. And the die              Why he wept?
was cast.       The THREE POINTS were born! The in-                 He wept bitter tears of lamentation because of the
famous Three Points which place a hedge around the           reading of the crossbill before the Court of men. And
reprobate and which cast out God's servants and hand-        I said to him: "Rejoice and be exceeding glad for so
maidens !                                                    persecuted they the prophets that were before you."
   After that speech?      That speech which outlined               And the third time I saw him weep was in my house
God's adorable virtue of lovingkindness for His people       at midnight, later, much later. And he said: "Gerrit,
that are foreknown in His indescribable love and grace       I weep because of the brethren that left us."
and mercy? That speech which clearly proved from                    Beloved readers, I think that God has caught those
the Holy Scriptures that God hates and judges the            tears in His bottles. They are precious in His sight.
wicked every day? He was cast off.                                  And then I saw him again. I can hardly write about
   But I saw him and heard him that night, and my            it.
heart rejoiced in the truth, and right there I dedicated            It was in Pine Rest. He saw me and stretched out
my whole life to the TRUTH! And I determined to              his hand towards me and gurgled my name. It was a
preach that truth to God's beloved people to life's          gurgle.       No more.     The golden-tongued man could
last breath.                                                 speak no more.
   Yes, I know that you know the succeeding history.                I saw him once more. It was at his funeral. But it
But this is to bring to remembrance.                         was not he anymore. No, it was not he whom I knew
   The school was organized, and there we sat: eleven        and loved. It was his earthly remains which we would
of us. With our three professors.                            soon bring to the earth again, yes, again.
   And I saw him again.                                             And I saw him once more, but I cannot prove that.
   I openly confess, dear hearts, that he showed me                 It was while I was praying at the graveyard. Then I
the whole system of the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures.     saw him in heaven, and his eye was on Him Whom he
His lectures on Dogmatics made the Scriptures live.          loved and served during a long and very stormy life.
I said to him on many occasions: if I hear you at any        His mouth was again opened, and he sang the sweet
time in your lectures and sermons, I can preach ten          melodies of heaven.
sermons.                                                            And my heart was at rest.
   Yes, they threw him out of their communion.                      Yes, I know that you will ask: But did you not see
   At Christmas morning we travelled through the             during all those fifty years any evil at all in him?
snow to that blessed field house in Franklin Park. We               My answer is very simple: he was a poor sinner,
had lost our church, our parsonage, our name and our         and every day he told God so.              I often. heard him
church confession, as well as the communion of God's         struggle in his long prayers on the pulpit.
people, and we were cast out as the offscouring of the              And there is a great silence with God about the
world.    But even today they write: "and thus it came       sins of His beloved people. Oh, read Psalm 103 and
to a schism and the start of the Protestant Reformed         be at rest. He forgives all thy transgressions. And
Church." DE WACHTER, Sept. 14, 1965, page 13.                remembers them no more.


 10                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


       Somebody said to me: This is the end of an era.           a band of young and devoted men who love to preach
And I agreed.                                                    the truth he loved, preached, taught, and suffered for.
       But it is also the beginning of a new era,                   But what is more: We have God !
       We have among us his son; and with him is a                  Amen.
worthy companion, Prof. Herman Hanko. And we have

                RESOL UTION OF SYMPA TRY                                        RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATM'
                                                                   The Consistory and  Congregation of the Oak Lawn
The Consistory of the  Redlands Hope Protestant Re-                Protestant  Reformed Church expresses heartfelt sym-
formed Church wishes to express its sympathy to the                pathy with Mr. J. W. Regnerus andMr.  L. R. Regnerus
family and relatives of Rev. Herman Hoeksema. May                  and their families, in the loss of their beloved mother
the Lord sustain you in the loss of one so dear to you             and grand-mother:
and beloved to all of us these many years.                                           DORA  REGNERUS
       "And they that be wise shall shine as the  bright-
.ness of the firmament; and they that turn many to                 whom it pleased our Heavenly Father to take from this
righteousness as the stars for ever and ever." Daniel              earthly vale of tears on the 14th of September,  1965
12:3.                                                              `A.D., at the age of 82 years.    "Blessed are the dead
                                                                   which die in the Lord from henceforth." Revelation
                                  Edwin B. Glitters, Clerk         14:13a. Oak Lawn, Illinois.



              HEEDING  THE  DOCTRINE-  "Take heed . . . unto the doctrine . . . .  " I Tim.  4:16

             Significan) Doctrines in the theology of Karl Barth

                                                     Rev. D.  J. Engelsma

INTRODUCTION                                                     prayer, "Deliver us from sectarianism" (cf.  Chvis-
       We must concern ourselves, in this and subsequent         tianity Today,  Aug. 27, 1965) and when we read G.C.
articles, with "contemporary theology." The divisions            Berkouwer's weak and unsatisfactory presentation of
within Protestantism since the 16th century make                 the issues that divide Rome and the genuine sons of
this subject not only vital and fascinating but also             the Reformation(Berkouwer,  The Second Vatican Coun-
overwhelmingly extensive. At the outset, some limita-            cil and the New Catholicism),  it becomes apparent that
tion of the subject is in order, even though this limit-         we shall be forced to restate, once more with all
ing will be rather arbitrary. One ought not bite off             practical urgency, the Reformation truths, over against
more than he can chew.                                           Rome.
       Since we neither should nor can view, analyze, and           Still, mighty winds are now blowing throughout the
criticize present-day theologies from some neutral,              camp of the Reformed Churches. Apart from the over-
presuppositionless vantage point, above all theologies,          tures of Rome and the resultant gymnastics of Prot-
but rather are wholeheartedly committed to the Re-               estants-eager-to-be-wooed, radical changes of the
formed faith, particularly, to the Word of God re-               historic, Reformed faith, the faith expressed in the
vealed and confessed in the Protestant Reformed                  Reformed creeds, are being effected. No piecemeal
Churches, we intend to concentrate on those theologi-            revamping of this or that point of doctrine but a re-
cal teachings which bear most directly upon our                  working of the entire structure of Reformed theology
theological position.                                            confronts us. No doctrine escapes this Ye-formation;
       Admittedly, along with the world, the theological         scripture; creation, predestination, the atonement, all
world is shrinking so  .that it becomes impossible for           are recast.    And the authors of the on-going changes
us to develop the truth and carry on controversy, ex-            herald these new developments as the- flowering of
clusively within the framework of the Reformed com-              genuinely Reformed seeds.           These men insist that
munity. Once more, Rome herself abandons the re-                 they themselves are legitimate offspring of Luther and
lationship to Protestantism of implacable enmity (the            Calvin; they claim that their theology is, essenrially,
relationship marked by the  anathema sit,  "let him be           the fruition of the Reformation plant. These claims,
anathema," of Trent) and challenges Protestantism                at once emphatic and striking, are buttressed by heavy
either to state the fundamental principles that separate         quotations of and constant appeal to the writings of
Protestantism from Rome or to manifest, in union with            the Reformers, especially,. Luther and Calvin. One
Rome, the oneness of the Church. When we note that               who takes his stance, therefore, in the line of the Ref-
the stated clerk of the Reformed Church in America               ormation that runs through Calvin, must first scru-
(grandmother!), as a "participating observer" of a               tinize the theological development within the Reformed
"formal ecumenical encounter" between United Pres-               community, before he scans the state of affairs of con-
byterians and Roman Catholics, prays the ominous                 temporary theology among the Lutherans or Roman


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER


Catholics. And this is our intention.                          practise  indifferently Anglican, Lutheran or Reformed
   We have no business, of course, to render an a              dogmatics, but only Reformed dogmatics.           For us,
pyiovi verdict of condemnation, merely because the             therefore, Church dogmatics is necessarily Reformed
"new Reformed theology" differs, perhaps, even dras-           dogmatics. By this we mean the dogmatics of the par-
tically, from the old. No Reformed man denies that             ticular Church which was purified and reconstituted
the Holy Spirit in the Church works the development            by the work of Calvin and the confession which sealed
of doctrine. And if, as its proponents maintain, this          his testimony. We mean the dogmatics of the Church
theology is true development, we must expect it to             which hears the Word of God in this determination
differ from the embryonic form of the truth, just as           imposed upon it and  recognised  and confessed by it to
an oak differs from an acorn. Even though the theo-            be the best."(2.)
logians of the new order, from time to time, and at                Concerning ourselves with Barth, however, will
crucial moments, forthrightly dissent from Luther              not be a provincial activity. The auditorium in which
and Calvin, trim the Reformers' doctrines, and attempt         the lectern of Base1 stands is the whole theological
refutations of them, we may not allow ourselves to be          world.      Rome, as well as Protestantism pays  sur-
prejudiced against the theologians or their work. We           prising~ attention to Karl Barth. Pope Pius XII de-
are not traditionalists, nor are we eager to expose            scribed Barth as "the greatest theologian since St.
ourselves to the charge.                                       Thomas Aquinas." And Hans  Kung, highly acclaimed
   We must, instead, plunge into the doctrines them-           Roman Catholic theologian, boasts of displaying on his
selves in order to understand them as completely as            desk the  Dogmatics  of Barth rather than the Summa  of
possible.    What do they assert? What do they deny?           Thomas.
What are their implications? What presuppositions                  Two things remain to be said, by way of introduc-
control them?' What connection holds between this doc-         tion.     We will not be committed to anything as auspi-
trine and that? The crucial test follows. The doctrines        cious as a thorough-going critique of the  theology  of
in question are compared with Scripture and, accord-           Barth.      The heading deliberately reads, "Significant
ing to their conformity with Scripture or divergence           Doctrines   in the Theology of Karl Barth." At least
from it, are either confirmed in their claim to be             two such analyses are available to the English reader,
authentic, Reformed truth or are uncovered as spuri-           C.Van Til's  The New  Modernism   (3.) and  G.C.Berk-
ous.    Then, we may also proceed to measure them              ouwer's The TV&mph of Grace in the Theology of Karl
against the standard of the Reformed confessions and,          Barth.      Secondly, our attitude towards doctrine and
finally, to weigh them in the balances of the writings         doctrines does and must root more deeply than in in-
of the Reformers in order to determine whether or              tellectual curiosity. Throughout this study we too shall
not they are, as is said, in the "spirit," if not the          be motivated by the conviction that "because. . .it is
letter, of Luther and Calvin. Perhaps, at the end of           essential for the ministry of the Church that it con-
the process, we will have the boldness to undertake            cerns itself about the purity of its doctrine. .  .there-
the dangerous business of tracing the effects of these         fore. . .the question of the Church's ministry is de-
`theological endeavors upon the life of concrete Churches.     cided in dogmatics.     Bad dogmatics-bad theology-bad
   We begin with Karl Barth.  I<arl Barth is a living,         preaching.       And, conversely: good dogmatics-good
German theologian, now, in his eighties, in semi-re-           theology-good preaching" (CD,  1,2,p.767).
tirement at  Base&  Switzerland. The publication of his
Commentary on Romans, in 1919, catapulted him into             FOOTNOTES
a world-wide prominence which he has not been spared               (1.) Barth's characteristic staunchness, as he puts
up to this day. A professor at the University of Bonn,         it, his "readiness to fight," is evident in this refusal,
Germany during the rise of Hitler to power, Barth, in          especially, when one contrasts it with the statement,
distinction from many of his fellow pastors and pro-           in 1934, of a  sizeable  group of respected, evangelical
fessors, severely criticized the state's domination of         theologians in Germany: "We are full of thanks to God
the church.      When he refused to use the Nazi salute        that He, as Lord of history, has given us Adolf Hitler,
in his classes or to take the oathof loyalty to Hitler(l.),    our leader and savior from our difficult lot. We ac-
Barth was driven out of Germany to Switzerland, where          knowledge that we, with body and soul, are bound and
he has remained ever since.                                    dedicated to the German state and to its  Fuhvev.   This
   If Barth is not the most widely knownand  influential       bondage and duty contains for us, as evangelicalchris-
theologian in the world today, he comes very close.            tians, its deepest and most holy significance in its
Certainly, he has pre-eminence among those theologi-           obedience to the command of God." (quoted in  Berk-
ans who claim, with more or less semblance of truth,           ouwer's The Providence of God, p.162)
to represent the "orthodoxy" of the Reformers. That               (2.) K. Barth,  Ckzuvch   Dogmatics,I,2,p.831.   This is
which makes Barth of special interest to us is his             the authorized English translation, under the editor-
position in the Reformed Church, a position he asserts,        ship of G.W. Bromiley and T.F. Torrance, of Barth's
emphatically.     At the same time, he insists that Re-        magnus opus,  the  Kivchliche Dogmatik.  The publisher
formed Churches and Reformed theologians must listen           is T.&T. Clark, Edinburgh. Hereafter, all references
anew to John Calvin.        He began to make this latter       to Barth's  Dogmatics  will be made to this authorized
claim at a time when Calvin was held in general dis-           English translation, as CD.
repute and was so successful that he has been credited            (3.) Concerning this book, Barth has said that he
with the rediscovery of Calvin. He states: "We cannot          cannot recognize himself in  The New  Modernism.


12                                           THE STANDARD BEARER




                       TRYING THE  SPIRITS-

                                      UNITARIANISM
                                                  Rev. R.  C.  Havbach

      Originally, Unitarianism was not a movement in-         more than Islamism or Judaism. It is more akin to
dependent of the Christian churches, nor strictly, a          atheism than to any of the above. It has no place for
schismatic group, but an intra-church movement  apos-         prayer, claiming that casting one's care on the Lord is
tatizing from Christ, His church and the confessions.         failure to bear one's own responsibility. Progress in-
Its purpose was not to form another denomination, but         tellectually in religious ideals and one soon reaches
to  gain  control of the churches in the ecclesiastical       the point where prayer is abandoned as childishness.
association.    The Calvinist members, rather, had to         Prayer is uncivilized. It is a waste, for God is not a
relinquish their church properties and withdraw. Hun-         personal being. The sooner we realize that we live in
dreds of thousands of dollars in buildings, furnishings       an impersonal universe, the sooner we may carve a
and funds fell to the Unitarians as a result of litiga-       civilization out of the wilderness. There is no sover-
tion. The peculiar church-political situation contribu-       eign Friend behind, above and directing the world to-
ted to the great loss the Calvinist party suffered. The       ward a predestined goal. Then there can be no re-
churches resided in parishes. Fund and Wagnalls de-           demption, for that has the goal of immortality and
fine a parish: "in New England, originally a district         glorification of man, soul and body. There is no im-
(usually a town) under the control of one church and          mortality. To even broach such a subject is to commit
taxed for its support; hence the people in such a dis-        the world's worst social  faux pas.
trict, either as controlling the temporalities of the            Unitarianism has been dubbed "honest modernism"
church (society), or the district as the field for the        because while modernism, dishonest in using orthodox
Christian work of the church." The town contributed           terminology with altogether different meaning, anddis-
to the support of the church, and so had a hand in the        honest in being crypto-Unitarian, it (Unitarianism) has
choice of pastors. The church was answerable to the           never pretended to the biblical faith. Passing up an
parish (town), being under its control for material           infallible Bible does not make the bottom drop out of
support, and so in most instances was outnumbered by          the universe. For the word of god may also be found
the parish.     A parish could elect a minister without       in Plato, Holmes, Emerson, or Sears-Roebuck. Still
the consent of the church.       This was upheld by the       if it were strictly honest, it would take a position as
worldly court. The church was adjudged as having no           unhypocritical as blank atheism.       For Unitarianism
legal rights apart from the parish. Properties were           denies everything atheism does: the doctrine of the
awarded to the minority in the church which went along        trinity, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the per-
with the decisions of the parish. Thus the olive tree         sonality of the Holy Spirit, and especially the truth of
of the true church was replaced with the cactus of            man's total moral depravity. It never sings, "I am
heterodoxy.                                                   evil, born in sin, Thou desirest truth within, Thou
      In order to win Protestant young people to their        alone my Saviour art, Teach Thy wisdom to my heart:
liberal philosophy, Unitarians made a practice of             make me pure, Thy grace bestow, Wash me whiter
securing property near the universities, with churches        than the snow." It never admits, "Jesus paid it all, all
or offices close by so that propaganda for the cause of       to Him I owe," nor will it pray, "Cover my  defence-
modernism might be most effectively executed. What            less head with the shadow of Thy wing." The Unitarian
university does not feel the influence of Unitarianism?       will not admit to having a  "defenceless  head." It may
Appeal is made to students to cut loose from the              be bloodied, but is always unbowed. Man is inherently
historic Protestant faith for the more intellectual           sublime;    He is principally good. He need  only let the
humanism.       Students are called to exchange their         good will which flows from his fellowman flood his
childhood  sola  Swiptuva   for a mature  bonae  litevae.     own soul. Jesus on the cross praying, "Father, for-
The devil tempted our first parents to eat of the for-        give them, for they know not what they do" is legend
bidden tree.     Now he tempts college students with          which via hero worship reveals: (1) what man is capable
grafts into the deleterious cactus. When any turn from        of doing, and (2) the pent up goodness just bursting to
historic Christianity, Unitarians regard it as a "break-      blossom from his bosom. This is the old, moth-eaten,
ing a hole through the Chinese wall." In breaking             fly-specked, skid-row "theology" in Fifth Avenue at-
down the hated Christian faith, it regards as helpful         tire. It is the old Pelagianism gone stark, raving mad.
allies the Masonic lodges, the granges, Odd-Fellows,             Unitarianism is no mere step-sister to atheism.
the labor unions, and sects such as the spiritists,           The dress of humanism cannot disguise the twin-sister
Universalists, Reformed Jews, Christian Scientists and        relationship. The idea of religion is somehow important
Hicksite Quakers.                                             to this movement, but not the idea of God. Theism is
      Unitarianism cannot be recognized as Christian any      bound to end in zero. Humanism alone will finally add


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    13


up. Ethical liberalism will stand even if it could be       state.    The sin against the Holy Spirit is made the
proved that no God exists. God is simply the good which     "refusal to co-operate with the principle of self-im-
lurks in humanity. The holy communion, if ever ob-          provement." The liberal method used to be "survival
served, is a memorial for our dear departed dead. The       of the -fittest," now it is "survival of the most co-
rejection of Jesus is worthy of emulation. The com-         operative."       The Apostolical, Nicene and Athanasian
munion elements may be placed on a table, while "He         creeds are discarded for the universal brotherhood of
Was Rejected of Men" from Handel's "Messiah" is             man and the universal fatherhood of God. Preaching
rendered, and then the audience is dismissed without        of the word is displaced by "quiet talks" on  socjo-
any partaking.    Jesus, of his day, was the paragon of     logical topics.     The sacraments are given up for the
ethicists who came to give us a religion, not his re-       service of the cause of "world peace." The church is
ligion, but to teach every man to develop his own ideas     used as a secret society to secularize the whole of
and work out a religion for himself. Progression is         humanity.      The church has been made a "back-door
attained when one's religion graduates to a point be-       nightclub."
yond the need for Christ, the Church or God himself.
The underlying principle of Unitarianism is that a              If we were to attempt a compilation of Unitarian
man must be free to stand for anything or for nothing.      tenets, it might look something like this: 1) Christ is
                                                            not truly a divine person, nor as Socinus taught, a
Heaven is for the birds, and the sparrows at that.          mere man exalted to the throne of the whole created
Sun-worship is far more respectable than the worship        universe, but a paragon of human perfection. 2) Scrip-
of Jesus or of a personal God (Theosophy!), and fur-        ture is not a divine revelation, but an exclusively hu-
nishes "God" enough for any man. Hell is the vicious        man book.
continuance of a Protestant Inquisition. The doctrine                      3) The Sabbath day is to be used in resting
                                                            from secular business, but is not "set apart from our
of a last judgment is a superstition more hateful than      common lives to religion." 4) The soul is probably a
witch-burning, its adherents worse than  Ku  Kluxers.,      personality distinction separate from the body. 5) There
   More than this, more than the few articles of Fun-
damentalism, Unitarianism hates the Reformed Faith          are no such spirit beings as devil, angels or demons.
and the Five Points of Calvinism. It prefers natural-       6)  The Scripture does not teach the doctrine of the
ism, humanism and incipient atheism. Unitarianism's         eternal punishment of the wicked. 7) Also rejected are:
method is the insinuating of the lie "into the back door    the miraculous conception of Christ, the doctrine of
of the mind unawares when the front entrance has            the atonement as a satisfaction to divine justice, the
been barricaded." The policy is, in distinctly Chris-       doctrine of imputation of Adam's sin and of Christ's
tian circles, never to be suspect of Unitarianism,          righteousness.       The doctrine of predestination is a
which would discredit the cause and bring opposition,       product of the age of dragons.
but rather to inoculate, to permeate with the leaven of         The Unitarian movement is not a Christian move-
liberalism.    Liberalism is cowardly atheism. So con-      ment . It may be an ethical or philosophical society.
ceal your radicalism. Give the auditors heresy in such      But it is not Christian.      It makes this plain when it
a way that even the saints cannot detect it. This is        honestly admits that it does not hold to "the Christian-
admittedly bad ethics, but in war all's fair. Ultimately    ity of the apostolic church nor to any ecclesiastically
all denominations must be merged in one worldchurch,        controlled scheme of salvation, but rather to the teach-
then to enervate any vestiges of Christianity of their      ings concerning human relations in the religion of
power and content, so that the amalgamated church           Jesus." Jesus himself was merely "a normal man. . .
may be free of all divisions and become thoroughly          endowed with powers differing in degree but not in
humanized. They call this process "spiritualization."       kind from those of other men." (The Presbyterian
Nazis and Communists employing the same tactics             Guardian, Vol. 27, No. 35, p. 5). It has no creed. It
call it "liberation."                                       is a free-thinker's society established for the purpose
   This new "liberation" replaces living. membership        of developing human character in the name of "charity"
in Christ's church with active service in the socialist     and "liberality."


                         IN HIS  FEAR-

                             The Beginning of Wisdom

                                                  Rev.  J. A. Heys

   All over our land last month schools have opened         being "cooped up" so long, through high schools,
their doors to receive students and teachers in the         colleges and universities a set period of time has  be-
`interest of formal education. From elementary schools      gun for turning or returning to books and instruction.
that wrestle with children who have never assembled         One has only to travel a little and to see the sprawling
with others of their age to receive training, and resent    university campuses, the high school layouts, the


14                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


broad expanse of rooms in the elementary schools in          nounces  the death sentence  - and one of them was
our land to realize what a vast undertaking this really      simply eating forbidden fruit. And you are a fool,
is. What a tremendous amount of  factwill be reported,       utterly bereft of even the beginning of wisdom, if you
digested and remembered during the next nine months!         tolerate this wickedness, and if you allow others to
Parents of kindergarten and first grade pupils will at       teach it to your children. God is not mocked, and he
the end of this nine-month period be amazed to see what      who has the beginning of wisdom knows that and be-
a mass of knowledge, what an abundance of facts their        lieves it.
children have acquired and what skills, such as read-           We may state only in passing, for we shall in a
ing, writing and even reasoning their children have          later installment of this subject treat the matter more
achieved !                                                   fully, there is a vast difference between knowledge and
      The question, however, is not, How much.knowledge      wisdom.       I<nowledge is essential to wisdom but is
have they obtained'? This is important, and essential        distinct from it. Knowledge, then, in general, we may
in fact.      We must know, and the more we know the         say is the mental possession of fact.       And the more
better it is.     But the important matter is wisdom.        facts a person knows, the greater is his knowledge.
Listen to that wise king of old of whom it was stated,       Wisdom, very briefly, is the ability to use these facts
"Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I            aright. Or, if you will, wisdom is the ability to choose,
will give thee riches, and wealth and honor, such as         out of the known facts, the best means along the best
none of the kings have had that have been before thee,       way to attain to the highest good.
neither shall there any after thee have the like."              And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
(I Chronicles  1:12) He states in Proverbs  4:5, "Get           The fear of the Lord, as the beginning of wisdom,
wisdom, get understanding: forget it not." And again         is the Old Testament equivalent for the New Testa-
in verse 7, "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore        ment faculty of faith.     We are not one given to pile
get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understand-         fact upon fact and to list dry fact. But let it be pointed
ing."                                                        out that Young's Concordance lists  only two  verses in
      But will our children get wisdom?                      the whole Old Testament where the word faith appears.
      The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.       They are Deuteronomy  32:20, "And he said, I will hide
How many of the millions of children who will attend         my face from them, I will see what their end shall be:
school this year will get wisdom? How many will be           for they are a very froward generation, children in
trained in the fear of the Lord? How many will have          whom is no faith", and Habakkuk  2:4, "Behold, his
even the beginning of wisdom? Sad to say but so very         soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the
true, millions of children shall be taught by men and        just shall live by his faith." Even then, in each in-
women who have not themselves the very beginning of          stance the word is faithfulness or fidelity rather than
wisdom, because they have not the fear of the Lord.          faith in the sense of belief. As far. as the last passage
Wisdom is such a rare item, because the fear of the          quoted is concerned, Paul as directed by the Holy
Lord is so exclusive a matter. Although protests will        Spirit did interpret this faith as belief, whenin  Romans
go up from shore to shore; it must be said: better is        1:17 he uses the word faith that comes from the Greek
it that most of the schools in the land remain closed        verb to believe. The relation between faithfulness and
and formal education in these institutions be brought        faith in the sense of believing, we canleave  for another
to a complete stop.       For, instead of promoting the      time.    Let it simply be stated now that the word faith
fear of the Lord and training in that which actually is      as appearing in the two passages quoted comes from
wisdom, they militate against the very beginning of          the verb which means to be steadfast.
wisdom and train the children of the land to be fools !         Then, too, the passages in the Old Testament, even
      All that glitters is not gold. All that goes by the    though this Old Testament contains thirty nine books to
name of Christian is not Christian. All that passes          the New Testament's twenty seven, and contains nine
for wisdom is not wisdom. The fear of the Lord is            hundred and twenty nine chapters to the New Testa-
the beginning of wisdom; and it is the fool who denies       ment's two hundred and sixty chapters, and six hundred
this.    Men reveal their folly exactly in denying this      and ten thousand, five hundred, seventy seven words to
Word of God that the beginning of all wisdom is His          the New Testament's one hundred and eighty thousand,
fear.       Men reveal that they do not have the very        seven hundred and fifty one words (all this in the Eng-
beginning of wisdom in that they challenge and deny          lish. translation), the word believe appears four times
His Word. And, therefore, you and I may not send our         as many times in the New Testament as in the Old
children to be taught in every elementary school, in         Testament. In the Old Testament, however, the word
every high school, in every college and in every uni-        fear, and in the combination of the fear of the Lovd far
versity!      Call that bigotry, if you will. Advocate       outnumbers the word and its use as the  fear of  God
tolerance of the lie, if in your folly you must. But         in the New Testament.
you are never going to change the Word of God, even             But as we began to say, the fear of the Lord in the
though you oppose it.     Philosophize about freedom of      Old Testament is the equivalent of the expression faith
speech and freedom of religion, but be sure of one           in God in the New Testament. This appears in many
truth: You are never going to change God's mind and          uses of the word and expression, and in many striking
make Him agree with you. There is speech that He             ways. To mind comes first of all the words of Solo-
forbids. There are theories and philosophies which He        mon in Ecclesiastes  12:13, "Let us hear the conclu-
condemns. There are practices upon which He  pro-            sion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His


                                                T H E S T A N D A R D B E A R E R                                                                                           15


commandments: for this is the whole duty of man."                     Christ only made possible) rather than to present the
Can we avoid the truth that what is meant here is that                truth that man IN ALL THINGS SPIRITUAL AS WELL
our whole duty is to believe God and to keep His com-                 AS MATERIAL depends entirely and always upon God.
mandments? The hymn is certainly true in that re-                      All this is nothing less than unbelief. All this is noth-
spect, "Trust and obey, for there is no other way."                   ing less than a lack of the fear of the Lord. We re-
And trust is the principal element in faith.                          peat, the sinner is bold! The unbeliever is conceited!
   There are other passages too numerous to mention.                  And he is a fool. He does not fear God, and therefore
But a few more will reveal the truth of this matter.                  goes his own headstrong way; but he is as big a fool
Abraham explains his lie about Sarah being his sister,                as the man who dares to run down the railroad track
according to Genesis  20:11, with the words, "Because                 towards the rushing freight train with all its power
I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place;               and momentum.                               Some day, he, as Pharoah to his re-
and they will seek to slay me for my wife's sake."                    gret in the Red Sea, will know Who this God is. He
By the way, we may note here also the proper rela-                    will call for the mountains to fall upon him, the hills
tionship between that fear and obedience of  Ecclesi-                 to cover him.                              And then in hell he will acknowledge
astes  12:13 and understand how the "trust and obey"                  his folly in hopeless despair.
of the hymn must be maintained. Abraham found that                                 Joseph obeyed God because he feared Him. He
there was no faith in God in Gerar, and therefore he                  states to his brothers, according to Genesis  42:18,
did not expect the inhabitants to keep God's com-                      "This do, and live, for I fear God." The other side
mandments.     We will not obey if we do not trust. We                of the picture is found again in Psalm  36:1, "The
will not keep God's commandments unless wefear Him,                   transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that
that is, fear Him in the sense of believe in Him. The                 there is no fear of God before his eyes." Trans-
devils know that there is one God, and they tremble in                gression and the lack of the fear of the Lord go hand
fear, according to James  2:19, but they do not keep                  in hand. He who lacks the one has the other. The man
His commandments or even try to do so. On the other                   who has transgression lacks the fear of the Lord. And
hand, Pharaoh, who did not believe in God, was not                    the man who has the fear of the Lord does not trans-
afraid of Him, did not have the fear of the Lord and                  gress His law.
dared to defy Him. He dared to ask the question of                                 And the reason why faith is called the fear of the
Moses, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice                 Lord is not because faith was imperfect in the Old
to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I                 Testament times and has finally grown to the point
let Israel go". Exodus  5:2. Though God sent ten ter-                 where it may now be called belief and trust. There
rible plagues upon Pharaoh and his country, he still                  is no such thing as imperfect faith.                                              For faith is the
did not believe in God, and therefore he still did not                gift of God, and all His works are perfect. Jesus
obey His command. If one has the fear of the Lord,                    speaks of having little faith. We speak of that faith
which is faith in Him, he will obey Him with love.                    being weak or strong, but faith is never imperfect.
   But to return to Abraham and his conviction that                   And surely the faith of the Old Testament saints was
the fear of the Lord was not in Gerar, if one does not                not a sickly faculty that could only be filled with ter-
fear God even in the sense of standing in terror be-                  ror before God and had not yet come to its own. We
fore Him, that one will not hesitate to do anything that              will not take the time to show the folly of this and wili
will "safely" bring advantage to his flesh. We say                    only ask you to read Hebrews 11 where the deeds of
safely, because not fearing God, he may fear his                      the so-called "heroes of faith" are displayed before
fellowmen or some idol. The heathen nations round                     our eyes.                          If that fear of the Lord, called faith here
about Israel dared to attack God's children, because                  in Hebrews 11, is an imperfect faith, then let us have
they did not fear God and instead put their trust in                  more of that imperfect faith in' the New Testament
their own gods. The Philistines dared to bring Sam-                   church.                    We can use the faith of Abel,  Enoch, Noah,
son out to make sport for them and praised their gods                 Abraham through David, Samuel and the prophets. Let
for the "victory" which they had given over Samson                    this chapter teach us what a wonderful gift that fear of
and his God. In that respect the devils seem to have                  the Lord is. And let it also work within us a desire to
more wisdom than the multitudes which they have de-                   have our children possess this fear and to obtain the
ceived.    The unbeliever is very, very bold. He dares                wisdom, of which that fear is the beginning.
to defy God, to disobey Him, to ignore and insult Him,                             Your children?
to ascribe His works  - and so teach them to your                                  Are they being trained in His fear?
children -to the creature or to mere chance and ac-                                Do you send them to school to become wise or to
cident.    He dares to ascribe God's glory to man; to                 become fools?
present God with the weaknesses and frailties that                .yv,y" , y-l .y.";* `TV*, .;~----7-;~~~ i'":- --- 7 i -.------ ,p"x --~ "-,Y -. -----.3
                                                                  : >I.::`:,.,'
characterize man; to place God at the feet of man in-                    .~.~~~~~tz~~"~~~~~`O~~&ebe~~~~~ ,~~.~~~~~~ee~~~Y~~s  `                                                   1
                                                                  ;$;#+y .y-`ii-yy; ~~*~' .y:; .: `T (II `, `,;.-+ (`- .. _.` `:: " ,:-,                              ,-  `-  ` I
stead of man at the feet of God; to picture God as de-            ~~.~~~~~~~~~~~~=~~~~~~=~~  y-~-`-~C$@qepcj,e~  $lil i jk,. held, : J2 .V.,
pendent upon man (and how true this is even in the                Qy~~f  0~t~b~~95~~~~~~~~~~~,~.~~  &y&q ,~=~p,~:.~~~~~h. yLqop$  :
church-world that ascribes to Arminiansm and  Pela-               ~:~~iwf~~~~~~~~~~?~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~C  .to ,another,djaconate  i
gianism with an offer of salvation and invitationwhere-           $yheh-  ~~~~"ts"~~~~ubl~~:~~~~Ie,d~~~`,~hat'  SW; `o&s&ding  need  1
                                                                          ;`.`,P.-  ,.  ,:
by man can snub God, and God is dependent upon the                :, "&`&$&~, ~,~=~~~~;i~~~~~,~~~~~h,?~-  ' `~~~~~~~~~~  +h;3 diaconate  i
                                                                  is** X...' r: `~;`y>-~..p~." `..C<, ~.a*evc y ( I ,-<`*, ` :,~-":*ic i (., *, /I : ._ .-.    - .-  ,)'
sinner's will to finish the work which they must claim            y; ~:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-~~~~~~  ~~~~~~~s~s~~~,~~~~~  5.13h amat ter ?' '1
Christ only began, and to apply the salvation which               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~t~~~  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ : :;:2.;. : :,: -, ), .; i -._:i
                                                                  i2*&,si *. /( a.2 
                                                                           &.ii_rii.i5 *  e'
                                                                                              I)  *:i
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                                                                                                         .L-~~.* i'az"Ll ---t~~~=-::.~-~,`.l.a p L ". It;.- .-..L_;...


16                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



                         FROM HOLY WRIT-
                        OUR REASONABLE SERVICE
                                                   Rev. G.  Lubbers

                                                   Romans  12:1, 2

THE SACRIFICE: OriR BODIES - continued                        much sin in his members; daily he does what he would
      It is therefore in the duty of strict exegesis to       not, even though he has a delight in the law of God
maintain that all the sacrifice of the wicked is an           after the inward man. Now it belongs to our reason-
abomination to the Lord. Only Christ had the perfect          able service that we are sorry for our sins, sorry
ear and heart, He had the body prepared for Him, so           that we have provoked God, and that we more and more
that He fulfilled what was written in the volume of the       hate and flee from them. Fact is that the German text
book. He said: "Behold, I come to do thy will, 0 my           of the Catechism in Question  89 speaks of the "longer
God!"      And unto this the saints are exhorted. They        the more" (je  lengev je  mehv)  and this means a step-
are thus to present their bodies. The term  present  in       ping up of the tempo of hatred for sin and fleeing
the Greek is the technical term for offering a sacri-         from it, and that too with the more earnestness and
fice. The wicked may do many things with their natural        intensity.     Let it not be forgotten by us ! On the other
light in the body, but they cannot present themselves         hand conversion also has a positive side. It means
to God.      They can only present their members as           that we have true joy in God through Christ, and that
servants of unrighteousness unto sin.         Rom.  6:13.     with love and delight live according to the law of God
Never do they present themselves to God as those who          in all good works !
have been made alive and brought forth out of death.              It is our belief that Paul teaches both these ele-
They do not do this in  t.heir learning, their business,      ments of conversion, of continual conversion here in
their art and culture, their verse and poetry. Fact is,       Romans  12:2. Without .both  of these elements it is not
that all the worldly institutions stand in the service of     possible to please God and to be well-pleasing to God,
sin. It is man without God in the world. They are not         and to present our bodies, as above circumscribed, a
the brethren who are tenderly yet earnestly and seri-         well-pleasing and holy sacrifice to God.
ously exhorted by the tender mercies of God !                     Let us attempt to see this.
OUR NEED OF CONTINUAL TRANSFORMATION                              Pa.ul says that we are not to be conformed to this
                                                              world.      This is an exhortation and not the mere state-
      It is a very holy and delicate task to present our      ment of a fact of existence or of a  status  quo to which
bodies to the Lord as a holy, well-pleasing sacrifice.        we have already arrived. And we ought to observe that
Only the reborn child of God has the necessary requi-         the exhortation tells us what we must not do. The form
sites for this service at the altar.      And this task of    of the negative in the Greek text indicates that the
standing at God's altar in our entire life calls for a        apostle does not mean to say that we must not begin to
continual and an ever increasing transformation by the        be conformed to this world, but rather that we must
renewal of the mind.                                          no  longer be conformed to this world.         We must stop
      We are not amiss if we call this transformation         being thus conformed.        Besides, the tense of the verb
the positive side of the believer's conversion. There         indicates that we must continually stop,  never cease
is also a negative side to conversion. You will recall,       our no longer being conformed to this world. This in-
dear reader, that the Heidelberg Catechism in Ques-           dicates a life-long battle -up till the moment of our
tions 88-91 speaks of this conversion in its twofold          death when we shall have perfectly died unto sin.
aspect, to wit, the mortification of the old and the          Moreover, we ought to consider also that the  phrase-
quickening of the new man.                                    Ob3Y "not be conformed" is very significant in the
      Perhaps just a word of illucidation will not be con-    Greek text.       The term or verb employed indicates
sidered redundant in regard to the matter of "con-            that this world has a basic "scheme", a pattern of
version" in general, so that we may the more point-           life.     It is anti-God and anti-Christ and also anti the
edly see this question of our spiritual transformation        fellowman.      Its pattern of life is that of the profane; it
of which Paul here speaks and unto which he admon-            is never in accord with the altar of consecration to
ishes. It ought to be understood clearly by every Bible       God.       This must be rigidly maintained all along the
believer that God's people are not saved by means of          line in the light of all Scripture.          This pattern is
conversion, but rather that they are saved by grace           graphically and clearly set forth in Rom.  3:10-18.
through faith.     Conversion proceeds from faith even        Now it requires no battle to conform to this world.
as the effect follows from the cause, and water flows         Conformists have no battle. They simply need to float
from a fountain. Faith is the root from which all con-        down the mid-stream of this life of the world. For our
version follows. Wherefore it also follows that con-          flesh finds a ready ally in this world. However, this
version is, in the Scriptures, ever the entire life of        must stop! It must stop resolutely. The unclean and
sanctification and thankfulness.      The Christian has       the harlots cannot come near to God to present their

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


sacrifice.      God is holy and therefore we are to be holy        we live in our body. (see above) Here is no room for
in all our conversation! Such is the negative side of              the Anabaptistic recluse who shuns to live the  full-
conversion which is necessary to present our bodies                orbed life of the Christian to be some first-fruits of
to the Lord.                                                       God's creation. We must live this life in our body in
    However, there is also the positive side of conver-            all of creation!         The arena is as wide as the world.
sion!                                                              However, there is a theory of "common grace", which
    Paul expresses this in the words "but be ye trans-             ought not to be glorified with too much attention; it too
formed by the renewing of your minds". Rom.  12:2                  can have no place here, for it cannot be placed on the
    Here too we must keep in mind that Paul exhorts                altar of God! There are not two spheres for the  chris-
and that he does not simply state `a fact, whether ac-             tian. The Christian claims the total creation of God to
tual or potential. The Greek text does not simply in-              which totality his body is here adapted, his seeing eye,
dicate the need of an activity of faith and conversion             his hearing ear, his touching hand, his tasting tongue
once and for all, but refers to an activity which must             and his nose with which he smells. It is all  pro  yege,
constantly be carried on progressively. We under-                  that is, for the King. And in all of this by the renewing
score once more that this is an activity of  faith,  a             of our mind  ("nous")  the Christian presents his body
faith by which we are ingrafted into Christ and by which           a living sacrifice, and thus brings the entire creation
we receive all -his benefits. Keeping this in mind we              upon the altar. This is the real motive for Christian
shall understand that the term in the Greekfor "trans-             instruction in the home and school. The Lord must
formed" is that from which our English term "meta-                 smell the sacrifice upon the altar of consecration as
morphosis" is derived.         This metamorphosis is the           a sweet savor! With less He is not well-pleased. And
law `of life, of all life. The child is "metamorphosed"            that  requires':a constant life of conversion, of not being
that is, transformed from the embryonic state to that              conformed to the world, but being transformed by the
of the child, and from that of the child to adolescence,           renewing of our minds.
and from adolescence to `the matured man. The larva                THEAPPROVINGOF,THEGOODWILL   OFGOD
pupates and through the process. of metamorphosis
becomes the beautiful  and' matured butterfly. Thus                    The "will of God" in this passage refers to the
also according to the law of the Spirit of life in Christ          will of God's command as laid down in His law to His
Jesus the believer through conversion becomes such,                people,          It is the perfect law of liberty and not the
more and more, that he presents his body a living                  being "under law". Compare James  1:25 and Rom.
sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service!                 6:14, 15. This law too is as wide as creation and as
                                                                   wide as our "body", and concerns all that which is  '
    Do not overlook the  manneT  of this spiritual meta-           placed on the altar of God. It is God's stipulations
morphosis in conversion.        It is "by the renewing of          concerning the' altar and concerning our lives at the
our mind"! This renewal is given us in all its poten-              altar.
tiality in regeneration. However here Paul speaks of                   This law is spiritual, holy and good!
a ` `renewing' ' of the mind.      The term in the Greek               In climactic effect Paul writes concerning this law
text is "anakainoosis" and is translated  Yenewing.                of God: the good, the  well-pleasing  and the  perfect.
Our minds must be renewed. This is the work of the                 That the law is "good" means that it is good as God is
Spirit, to be sure; However, this renewing is our ac-              good.      God alone is good. He is the only and Highest
tivity as the fruit  of, the Spirit's, operation who works         Good. He is holy and there is no evil in him. Besides,
in us this renewing. The mind must ever be constantly              this law can only be good for us, our salvation. It is
renewed.      This mind is not the same as our mere in-           well-pleasing because it expresses God's inner delight
tellect, however. Scripture does not employ merely                 in it.     We hear here echoes of Psalm 19. There we
the verbiage and concepts of the Greek pyschology, or              read "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the
that of Scholastic theology of the days before the Ref-            soul; the commandments of the Lord are pure enlight-
ormation in the Sixteenth Century. The term in the                 ening the eyes."           The law is "perfect" because it
Greek is  "nous". And our  "nous" or mind in Scrip-               brings out the ultimate potential of all that is in the
ture includes not only the intellect, but also  rhe will          image of God in man. Its fruition will be the perfect
with all its emotions. It  .refers to the entire man as           sacrifice in heaven which will not pollute nor even  be-
he consciously lives the new life of regeneration.                smirk the throne !
Shall there be metamorphosis, or transformation, then                  Thus is conversion seen in positively approving the
there must be this making new again in the conscious-             will of God in every dimension, in every faculty, in all
ness of the believer by the Word and Spirit. This re-             of creation. Surely unto this we can only come by the
newal proceeds from the heart whence are the issues                "mercies" of God.             These mercies are the deep
of life, and with which heart we believe unto salvation.          bowels of God from which our salvation comes, and
Then there is true joy in God through Christ. This                which assures our ultimate perfection, and holiness,
transformation is the sign of the well-being of faith!            when our  metumovphoosis   shall be completed in the
Here we observe the going from strength to strength,              glorified body, when our ear shall have been perfectly
out of faith unto faith.                                          pricked to be attentive upon His will. Now we have
   This renewal of the  "nous" with which we have a               the struggle, but then we shall rest from our labors
delight in the law of God after the inward (new) man              in doing the will of God, bringing the perpetual sacri-
must be applied in every dimension of life in which               fice about the great white Throne !


18                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


                        NEWS FROM OUR  CHURCHES-
                                                   ("All the saints salute thee . . ." Phil. 4:21)
                                          Sept. 15, 1965          ental spot on the map and has been home on furlough
      The Consistory of Randolph, Wis. has named a trio           since that time.
consisting of the Revs. R.C. Harbach, J.  I<ortering,                                                 * *  +
and G. Lanting. The congregational meeting for the                     The Young People's Society of Southeast Church in
purpose of calling one from this trio has been scheduled          Grand Rapids has opened the season with its first
for Sept. 13.                                                     meeting scheduled for Sept. 19. The bulletin notice
                           * * *                                  reminded the young people that this early start was
      The Reformed Witness Hour has prepared a series             occasioned by the need of extra time due to their as-
of sermons on the Prophet Elijah by the Rev. G. Vanden            signment of preparing for the 1966 Convention!
Berg of Oak Lawn, Ill.         The dates and topics are:                                              * * *
"Sept. 26 - "Standing Before God"; Oct. 3  - "Wonder-                  The plans for the Reformation Day Rally to be held
ful Preservation"; Oct. 10  - "Who Is God?"; Oct. 17  -           in Grand Rapids' Civic Auditorium are going forward
"Elijah's Resignation". Again the Radio Committee                 steadily. Mr. Roland Petersen, director of our Radio
offers printed copies of their messages.        Write to          Choir, has accepted the challenge to organize and train
The Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 1230, Grand                   a large choir in the  few, weeks remaining before that
Rapids, 1 Mich.                                                   event.      His bulletin notices in the area churches call-
                           * *  *                                 ing for singers to make up this choir met with heart-
      Thursday evening, Sept. 9, was another milestone in         warming success. One hundred twenty men and women
the history of our churches. At that time Rev. Herman             responded and joined their voices in their first re-
Hanko was installed into the office of Professor of               hearsal at First Church Sunday afternoon, Sept. 12. If
Theology.        The Rector of the Seminary, Prof. H.C.           all our people are as enthusiastic as these 120, this
Hoeksema, preached the sermon and Rev. G. Lubbers,                Rally will be assured of success.             The aim of the
vice-president of the Theological School Comm., read              Mission Committee is to fill the 5,000 seats of this
the Form for Installation. The Rector's sermon was                huge auditorium, that the true children of the Ref-
an exposition of the. words, "And he gave some. . . . .           ormation may be reminded of that great heritage which
pastors and' teachers. . . . . for the edifying of the            we are in danger of losing. The Committee's slogan
body of Christ" found in Eph.  4:11,12. The speaker's             seems to be, "Bring your family, and invite your
theme was "Christ's Gift of Pastors and Teachers";                neighbors".
and he developed his theme under the three points:                                                    * * *
"The Pastors and Teachers Given"; "The Fact That                       Loveland's congregation unanimously voted to furnish
They are Gifts of Christ"; "The Purpose of These                  room in their new church basement for their own Prot.
Gifts".      Among other points to ponder the Rector              Ref. Christian School.
stated that Seminary Professors quite really  shepherd-                                               * * *
ize the whole denomination because, "as the faculty --                 Our Theological School opened its doors Tuesday,
so the seminary; as the seminary  - so the pastors and            Sept. 14 at 9 A.M. Thetwoprofessors gave the assign-
teachers; as the pastors and teachers - so the churches.          ments for the beginning of the semester. The Revs. G.
Corrupt the seminary, you corrupt the denomination;               Vos and M.  Schipper  were at hand to represent the
and, conversely, maintain the Truth in the seminary:              Theological School Committee.
so will the churches remain strong in doctrine." The                                                  0 * *
Rector further admonished the new professor that he                    Kalamazoo's congregation are now in occupancy of
must vindicate the sound doctrine of the Scriptures,              their new church on the corner of Glen St. and Stassen
drawing the lines according to the foundation laid by             Ave.      Rev. Harbach had this observation and prayer in
the Apostles. May our entire membership esteem our                the bulletin of Sept. 5: "AS we for the first time begin
new Professor for the sake of his office and appreciate           our worship in this new building, let us do so with the
him as a gift of Christ to His Church "for the edifying           prayer that the King of Glory will come, dwell with us
of the body of Christ."                                           and bless us with His crown and covenant. May this
                           * *  *                                 be a place where we shall imbibe the whole counsel of
      The "war" in Viet Nam seems so very far from                God, His truth and love, in the communion of saints."
us, and so it is, geographically speaking; but that great         Rev. Harbach and congregation: in the communion of
distance shrinks quite rapidly when one reads in the              saints the whole denomination rejoices with you, and
church bulletin excerpts from a letter from a youth of            wishes you God's richest blessing in your new place!
the congregation written from Viet Nam! Ken Haak,                                                     * * *
of Oak Lawn, wrote that he receives some of our P.R.                   First Church's Diaconate scheduled a special col-
literature and passes it on to his Chaplain after he has          lection Sept. 12 to receive the congregation's gifts for
read it.     Oak Lawn's Church Extension Committee's              a special thank offering for the Standard  Bearer  in
latest pamphlet, "The Answer of Hope" also found its              memory of their beloved and departed pastor, Rev. H.
way to the far side of the Pacific Ocean and was a great          Hoeksema.
source of comfort to Ken.  Navyman Dale  .Bartelds,  of                                               *  * *
First Church in Grand Rapids, has sailed to that  Ori-                 . . . . see you in church.                      J.M.F.


                                               T H E S T A N D A R D B E A R E R                                             19




                    THE LORD GAVE THE WORD . . .
                                                       (Psalm  68:ll)

                   Depravity and Mission Preaching
                                                                                                       --
                                                                                            Rev.  C.  Hank0


   The question quite naturally is raised: Is it possible                There are many other words describing sin in
to preach human depravity from the pulpit, and, more                Scripture.      Sin is "a passing over the boundary", a
specifically, on the mission field? Is it the proper                transgression of God's law, a wandering away from the
approach to tell the unconverted sinner who is brought              living God to follow vain idols. Or sin is described as
under the preaching of the Word that he is dead in                  open rebellion, a perversion or distortion of the nature,
trespasses and sins, incapable of any good, and prone               deception, unrest, toil, vanity, emptiness, and ruin.
to all evil? Still more, is it proper to declare to the             Therefore Scripture compares us to sheep which have
unconverted that God does not offer salvation for man               gone astray, every one in his own wilful way wander-
to accept, and that it is impossible for anyone to believe          ing off to destruction. Or again, the sinner is des-
the gospel except by the regenerating and saving grace              cribed  ,as a leper, cast out of God, given over to the
of God?                                                             ravages of death in soul and body. For he who sins is
   One might even want to argue that this doctrine of               made sin's slave, according to the apostle Paul. And
total depravity and moral inability should be kept in               from another aspect, sin is described as spiritual
reserve until the unconverted sinner  is,able  to digest            separation from the living God, death. No more than
the more solid foods of doctrine. Possibly it might be              a dead corpse can arise and eat, no more can a dead
suggested that the sinner be allowed the impression                 sinner arouse himself to accept a proffered salvation.
that he can accept the salvation, which is freely of-               But God is mighty to cleanse the leper and to raise the
fered to him, and then after conversion he may be                   dead by the Word of His power, even as Jesus re-
brought into a clearer insight into the truth of his                vealed that power while He was with us in the flesh.
depravity.                                                          Therefore He told Nicodemus, "Except a man be born
   Yet Scripture requires of the sincere minister of                again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John  3:3.)
the gospel that he proclaim "the whole counsel of                        Obviously this description of sin and the sinner
God." In fact, it is the truth that makes one free, and             applies to every single member of the human race.
not the error. It is the pure, unadulterated milk of the            Human considerations, mere sentiment, or outward
Word that is food for our souls, andnot the philosophies            appearance cannot change that estimation which God
of men.       For it is God Who saves us by the work of             gives of us. There are various degrees of sinfulness
His Spirit in our hearts, and not man, who at best is               and guilt; but that does not change the fact that there
but an instrument' through whom God works. And God                  is none righteous, no, not one.          There is none that
has given the pure preaching of the Word as the sole                doeth good, not a single one. Every mouth must be
means of grace used by the Holy Spirit to work and                  stopped and all the world must be declared guilty
strengthen faith in those who are saved. Therefore                  before God. (R om. 3:10-19.)  There may be an out-
the Word of God, and that Word alone, in all its purity             ward appearance of virtue, that even makes quite an
is the power of God unto salvation to those who be-                 impression upon us; yet Scripture is very definite in
lieve.     But besides all that, Scripture itself leads the         declaring that the imagination of man's heart is only
way in proclaiming the truth of man's depravity, and                evil continually.     When God lays bare the inner re-
therefore anyone who preaches Scripture as the Word                 cesses of the heart and mind, even the secret springs
of God must necessarily also preach depravity, whether              of life, God declares that "every desire and purpose"
from the pulpit or on the mission field.                            which arises in man's mind is corrupted, twisted,
   Scripture `does not hesitate to call sin SIN. The                perverted, because the heart is evil, perverse, corrupt.
Bible uses many different words to describe sin in all              And that condition prevails even from our "youth,"
its wicked corruption. The most common word that                    since we are conceived and born in sin.
appears both in the Old and the New Testament means                      Now this was told to Noah before the flood. And
"to miss the mark." The idea is not that the sinner                 Noah, the preacher of righteousness (II Peter  2:5),
aims at the target but often misses or falls short. The             was called to proclaim just that to the wicked world of
idea is rather that we are so perverse that we deliber-.            his day. Many years before him  Enoch had spoken of
ately aim our lives in the opposite direction. The sin-             the impending judgment of God upon ungodly men for
ner always deliberately misses the mark. For God                    all their ungodly deeds and hard speeches. (Jude 14,
demands that we love Him with our whole being, and                  15.)    And now Noah was called to proclaim that the
we are prone by nature only to hate; every imagination              time was at hand that God would execute His righteous
of man's heart is evil from his youth. (Gen.  3:21.)                judgment upon that first world.


20                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


      After the flood the situation was actually no differ-           of God that is revealed from heaven upon the ungodli-
ent.      Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob declared by word and              ness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the
deed that they could have no fellowship with the wicked               truth in unrighteousness.          God gives them over to
idolaters of Canaan, because they served Jehovah Who                  vain idols and to all the abominations that are always
alone is God. Moses stood before Pharaoh to demand                    associated with idolatry. And also Romans  3:10-18,
in the name: of his God that Pharaoh let His people go                and Ephesians 2:1-3, as well as other passages, too
that they might serve. Him. The Psalms and the book                   numerous to mention, describe the depravity of man
of Proverbs speak repeatedly of the sin and guilt of the              in all its corruption.
wicked, testifying that God is angry with the wicked
every day. The prophets never ceased from condemn-                       This belongs to the preaching of the gospel! How
ing the sins, of carnal Israel and prophesying of God's               could it be otherwise? The Holy Spirit does not ap-
certain judgment.           God made Naaman the Syrian a              proach a sinner with the formula, "God loves you,
leper and sent him to  Elishah, who scorned the Syri-                 Christ died for you," but proclaims the gospel of
an's high position, refused his gifts, and simply told                Jesus Christ. He uses the Scriptures to speak of sin,
him to wash in the river Jordan, that Naaman might                    righteousness, and judgment.          He calls sinners to
realize that salvation is the sovereign gift of God to                repentance. He convicts of sin, so  thatthe prodigal son
His people in Christ Jesus. Jonah preached the judg-                  "comes to himself," realizing that he craves the husks
ment of God against the sins of Nineveh, upon which                   that the swine eat. The Holy Spirit causes him to arise
many repented.                                                        and go to his Father, only to discover that Father's
      These are but a few isolated examples that could                love has never faltered, but draws His own unto His
readily be multiplied; And also the New Testament                     bosom. (Luke 15)
concurs in every respect with the Old in proclaiming                     That is entirely in harmony with the gospel call of
the depravity of man. Jesus states that "Out of the                   our Lord, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,  for-               heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Although many
nications, false witness, blasphemies." (Matth.  15:19.)              hear the proclamationof the gospel, only those who are
And He did not hesitate to tell the Pharisees, "Ye are                convicted of sin and guilt will "labor and be heavy
of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father               laden."    They, in turn, will  .know that this voice is
ye will do." (John  8:44.)                                            calling them, and they will come to Jesus in sorrow
      Paul in his epistles speaks the same language.                  and repentance to find rest for their souls.
These are sometimes referred to as missionary                            But then, how about these other passages of Scrip-
epistles, because they are addressed to newly es-                     ture that seemingly teach a desire and willingness of
tablished churches.            But this is the more reason to         God to save every individual, if he will but accept
read carefully Romans 1, which speaks of the wrath                    Christ? To that we turn our attention next time.



                     ALL AROUND  US-
                                                                      Man's Animal Ancestry
                                 Pvof. H. Hanko

                                                                      Church and State

MAN'S ANIMAL ANCESTRY                                                        The Bible also calls it creating when God exercises
      An alarming article appeared some time ago in                      his creative power upon already existing materials and
Christianity Today  written by Rev. Leonard Verduin,                     uses them as the raw materials for further creative
minister emeritus in the Christian Reformed Church.                      performance.     The creation of man according to the
                                                                         Bible was an act performed upon already existing
This article; entitled "Man, a Created Being: What of                     stuff, called "the dust of the ground." Man's creation
an Animal Ancestry?" was evidently also alarming to                      therefore was not ex nihilo.
the editors of this paper, for they took  the,unusual and
unprecedented step of commenting directly upon the                       Apart from the fact that it is highly doubtful whether
article  -  and: much of the comment was critical.                    one is correct in speaking of "creation  out  of  nothing"
      We cannot offer a complete review of the article,               (at least Scripture never uses the expression), the
but give instead a few quotations to illustrate how far               author surely speaks truly here. But then, after a dis-
the theory of evolutionism has penetrated-the thinking                cussion of the meaning of immanence, the way is paved
of theological leaders even in the Reformed Churches.                 for evolutionism by these remarks:
      After discussing the idea of creation "out of nothing",
the author goes on to say:                                                   It would seem, moreover, that the creative act of
                                                                         God seen from the vantage point of his immanence has
           But. . .one can speak of creation in more senses              the dimension of the drawn-out, the processive, the
        than one, that not all that can rightly be called creating       gradual, the progressive, the time-consuming.
        is covered by the formula "to make something out of                  It would seem, finally, that the creative act seen in
        nothing."                                                        the light of God's transcendence is immediatecreation,

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


   whereas the creative act seen in the light of God's                    start "from scratch" but utilizes the already existing,
   immanence is mediate creation.                                         takes the most likely raw materials, touches this with
      A glance at the Genesis account shows very clearly                  his creative finger, thereby raising it to a new level
   that the inspired writer had no desire whatsoever to                   of existence.
   keep the idea of process and of progress out of the                          This would imply that the "dust" that constituted
   narrative. He manifestly did not think that the idea of                the raw materials in man's coming into being was not
   process was foreign to the creationism he was pro-                     on the chemical nor even on the vegetable level. This
   moting. . . . If the figure is permissible, the writer                 rather was the raw material, the end result of God's
   of Genesis thought of the creating hand not simply as                  immediately preceding creative act. Which is to say
   a hand that snaps a finger and, lo, there it is, but                   that he started on the sixth "day" with the givens of
   quite as much as a hand that molds and makes, with                     the fifth. . . .
   the prodigal disregard for the passing of time that                          By this formula man is genuinely continuous with
   marks the hand of him who fashions a work of art.                      the lower animal world and with the still lower that
                                                                          preceded the animal world; he is genuinely continuous
   From here the author turns to a discussion of the                      with the whole organic order and with the inorganic.
orthodox rejection of evolutionism in bygone years                        By this formula he is also genuinely discontinuous,
and gives a brief history of pantheistic thought, of                      different, unique-- the result of the creative touch of
modernism and fundamentalism. But then he shows                           the Almighty.
clearly his disregard for the narrative of Scripture
and for its infallible inspiration. He writes:                           This is not the end of the article. The author goes
                                                                     on to discuss a few other aspects of his problem and
      We have noted that God was creatingmediatelywhen               concludes with a warning that the geological evidence
   he made man and did so with recourse to already ex-               to support "missing links" in the evolutionary change
   isting stuff. The Bible says that this stuff was "dust"           which leads to man is negligible. He concludes with
   -for we read: "The Lord God formed man of the dust                saying:
   of the ground," and there is added, "and breathed into
   his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a liv-                       Men went into the earth to prove process. They
   ing soul."                                                             have proved much of process, much of continuity; but
      But what was this "dust"?                                           the records of their diggings prove just as plainly that
      It is hardly in keeping with the lofty tenor of the                 there has been plenty of discontinuity. In fact, the evi-
   Genesis account to conjure up the picture of Deity                     dence of "gaps" is as eloquent as that of continuity.
   stooping down to scoop up a shovelful of pulverized                    First-class scientists are saying that the hiatus is at
   earth, adding the necessary liquid to bind it together,                least as apparent as the link.
   then kneading it into shape, with groins, ridges, eye                        For all the field work tells us, man popped onto the
   sockets, and a protuberance with nostrils in it into                   scene all of a sudden - precisely as Genesis has it. . . .
   which the Almighty then blew a  *puff  of air, so con-
   cluding the experiment. This is out of keeping with the               But the entire argument finally comes down to this:
   primitive dignity of the Genesis story.                           from a total perversion of the Scriptural doctrine of
      How did the word "dust" get into the story? We                 the image, the author concludes the theory of evolu-
   submit that it was by way of a Hebrew fondness for                tionism as applicable to man also, And in doing so,
   circular representation. One finds among the Hebrew               the Word of God must again be abused.
   poets of the Bible an often recurring fondness for be-
   ginning at a point and then returning to it after a               CHURCH AND STATE
   circuit has been made. . . .
      Can it be that it was this beautiful device of the                 From the time that Constantine the Great made
   circle that led the not prosaic writer of Genesis to              Christianity a legal religion in the Roman Empire and
   say that God took of the dust of the earth as he went             threw the weight of the State's power behind the Church
   about to create man? This poetic soul had contem-                 in the early part of the fourth century, the knotty
   plated the solemn fact that  man's  last chapter is               problem of the relation between Church and State has
   written in the dust--did he perhaps, to satisfy his               troubled the people of God. There were times when
   love of the circular, take the poetic license to say that         the question was purely academic  - something nice to
   man's first chapter is likewise written in the dust?              talk about and debate, but not of pressing importance.
   Did not he, or a colleague of his, introduce God as               There were other times when the problem was urgent
   saying, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re-
   turn" (Gen.  3:19b)?                                              and demanded some solution to preserve the Church
                                                                     itself.      Such a time as the latter was the time of the
   With this "prodigal disregard" for the meaning of                 Reformation.             Such a time was also the time of the
creation and the significance of the Scriptural narra-               Synod of Dordrecht and the years of the Secession
tive, the author has paved the way for saying that the               which began in 1834.
creation of man is a process so that man was formed                      In the early days of the settlement of this country,
by God from lower forms of life. Turning to the fact                 the colonies usually established state churches. For
that man was created in the image of God, Verduin                    example, in Virginia the Anglican Faith was the "state"
finds this image to consist (at least in part) in the fact           religion; in Massachusetts it was Congregationalism.
that man, even as God, creates --but in creating,                    All this gradually was changed with the Revolutionary
never does this from scratch, but always uses the                    War, and the time after the war was a period of build-
work of his predecessors. So:                                        ing the wall of separation. The First Amendment to
      If this is implied in "after his likeness" --as we             the Constitution was the final word.
   are convinced it is -then the Lord God also does not                  However, in recent years cracks have been showing


22                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


up in the wall. The question of the relation between             government.      It is the left arm of the government to
Church and State is once again being discussed in                help eradicate social ills which plague our  times. It
connection with such matters as federal aid to educa-            has entered into a partnership with the government to
tion, devotions in the public schools, etc. Many felt            pursue the goals of a "great society".
that the old wall was crumbling and this is probably                There is something frightening about all this.
true.                                                               Obviously, what was long suspected is indeed true.
      Now something new has turned up.          Time  has re-    The goals of the Church which ought to be busy seeking
cently reported on a facet of the problem which is not           the kingdom of heaven are now identical with the goals
generally known. We quote a paragraph from a recent              of the secular state. Both labor together in a common
issue:                                                           cause. And the cause is evil. The Episcopalian bishop
          In Mississippi, a  $7,000,000  Government-financed     of Chicago put it this way: It is the duty of American
      program for retraining unemployed poor, mostly Ne-         Christianity to do something relevant about social
      groes, is being run through an agency organized by a       problems.      "From there it is only another short step
      Roman Catholic diocese. In New Mexico, the $1,261,000      into deliberate partnership in the war on poverty and
      appropriated to retrain migrant workers was granted        in educational projects."
      .by the Federal Government to an organization set up          Nor can we escape the nagging question of what all
      by the state Council of Churches. In city after U.S.
      city this summer, churches played a major role in          this does to Christian charity.. The Church, called to
      launching Project Head Start, the preschool training       dispense the mercy of her faithful High Priest Jesus
      program for underprivileged children. In all, more         Christ, has tried to join Christ with Ceasar and lost
      than 100 federal programs are providing vast amounts       every vestige of mercy that there is.
      of Government money to church related agencies - and          Yet one can hardly blame the government. The
      uncounted millions of dollars more will be heading         Church has forsaken her wedding vows by which she
      their way as a result of Lyndon Johnson's education        was betrothed to Christ. Instead she has begun flirting
      and medicare  legislation.                                 with the secular government and all but begged to be
      There has been some opposition to this strange turn        wedded to it. Handing out advice of every conceivable
of events; but the opposition is surprisingly mild,              sort and in every possible situation to the government,
scattered and weak. Most seem eager to get on with               the Church has flirted with other lovers. No wonder
the thing without asking too many questions about what           that the government is sorely tempted to make use of
problems of' the relation between Church and State are           the church to serve its own ends. This is now being
raised.                                                          done. This is only the beginning. Prostituted in the
      The point is that millions of dollars  whichare  spent     service of the state, the Church shall at last lose all
each year by the government in social welfare pro-               when the man of sin appears, who is not only a uni-
grams are now being channeled through the Church.                versal political ruler, but also sits in the temple of
The Church has become a sort of welfare agency of the            God.



THE VOICE OF OUR  FATUERS-
                                                                         THE  BELGIC CONFESSION
                                                                                      Article XIII

                                    God's Government and Sin
                                                       (Continued)

                                                     Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


CONCL USIONS WITHIN "THESE LIMITS"                               So also that government of God does not make of the
      2. The government of God with respect to themoral          moral creature a non-moral creature.         It does not
creature includes in its compass that creature precisely         intervene between a man's will and his actions, but
as a  moral  creature, even as the divine government             always so governs him that a man's own nature comes
always deals with all creatures according to their               to manifestation in his deeds. The sinner can never
nature.      God's government does not deal with a rock          say before God, "I did not really want to sin, but God
as though it were a tree; and it does not deal with a            forced me to sin against my will." He must always
tree as though it were a monkey; and it does not deal            admit that he sins according to the inmost desire of
with an animal as though it were a moral creature.               his own will.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     23


   3. This implies that even the very heart and mind          itself is not blessed, but is our great guilt. But neither
and will of the moral, rational creature are included         are we, as redeemed children of God, filled with a sad
in the compass of God's government, yet in such an            longing for a paradise lost, but must rather boast in
inscrutably holy way that while God remains absolutely        the manifold wisdom of God, Who even through the
sovereign over the entire existence and operations of         deep way of sin and death and the curse executes His
the moral, rational creature, yet that creature is            counsel to the salvation of His church.
morally responsible and knows that he is morally re-             "Hence, we may never separate in our minds the
sponsible, but also knows that God is sovereign and           providence of God from the facts of sin and grace.
will ultimately have to acknowledge that sovereignty.         There is no operation of God's providence next to and
   I will conclude this part of our discussion with the       apart from that of grace and the curse, love and wrath,
following quotation from Rev. H. Hoeksema's "An-              election and reprobation. The government of God is
thropology," mimeographed edition, pp. 10.5, ff.:             exactly of such a nature that it guides the organic
   ". . . . .God's work has never been spoiled. Known         whole of creation unto the final glory of the new heavens
unto God are all His works from the beginning. Al-            and the new earth, to the glory of God's eternal cove-
ways He follows a straight course to the end He has in        nant and to His eternal tabernacle which shall be with
view.    Never was `He forced by any power outside of         men, while through the same government of the Most
Himself to deviate from that course. He rules alone,          High the reprobate element falls away and becomes
sovereignly and absolutely,  - rules also through the         ripe for eternal desolation.    For it is God's positive
means of Satan and ungodly men. There is, indeed,             purpose to unite all things in Christ as the new head
conflict between the purpose and intention of the un-         of all creation, to preserve and perfect His covenant
godly and the holy will of God, but never between the         and His everlasting kingdom. Unto this end all things
counsel of God and the operations of the creature.            in heaven and on earth are directed; and the Most High
The ship of creation, leaving the coast of the Beveshitk      so governs all things that they must infallibly lead
(the `in the beginning' of Genesis  l:l, H.C.H.), sailing     unto that end. `All things under God's providence co-
over the ocean of time, follows a straight course to          operate unto that end.      All things in heaven and on
the harbor the Almighty destined her to reach. There          earth and in hell, angels and devils, righteous and
are to Him no contrary  .winds, for all winds are His.        wicked, the curse, death, and all the sufferings of
For this reason we may never separate the fall from           this present time, sin and grace, fruitful and barren
the providential government of God. Not only must we          years, rain and drought, war and peace, sickness
never hesitate to say that the fall of man took place         and pestilence, -- all things work together to the glori-
according to the determinate counsel of the Most High,        fication of all things when the tabernacle of God will
in order to serve Him as a means to an end; but we            be with men.       Of course, the devils and the ungodly
must also understand that it occurred entirely by His         cooperate unto that end in a different way from that
own providential power and government. Never  Was             of the angels and righteous. Hence, the former gather
the counsel of God frustrated. And the work of grace          unto themselves treasures of wrath, while they never-
is no repair work. Only under God's providence was            theless cooperate in the execution of God's counsel;
Satan empowered to use the serpent as an instrument,          and the latter receive the eternal reward of grace.
could he enter paradise, could he temptthe  woman, lead       There is no dualism: all work together unto the reali-
her, and through her Adam, to the fall, and could man         zation of the counsel of the Lord. God's government
and the whole creation fall under sin and the curse.          is motivated by electing and redeeming and glorifying
This does not mean that we chime in with the morbid           grace, on the one hand, and by reprobating wrath, on
exclamation, `0 blessed fall into sin!' For .the fall         the other."



             EDITORIALS  (continued)-

                     Our New Seminary Professor
                                                                        Prof. H.  C. Hoeksema

   Although we did not like to think of it, all of us have    No communion of  churches can long exist without its
for several years seen the time coming when our or-           own seminary.      And no seminary, of course, can exist
iginal leaders would no longer be with us and instruct        without a faculty. Moreover, a seminary such as ours,
us. And though our seminary is small and sometimes            with a faculty of two instructors, is especially stricken
is perhaps rather distant from our thoughts, thecoming        when one of those instructors is taken away. And yet
of that time was especially serious for that institution.     exactly that has happened to our school twice in the
No matter how small, our Theological School occupies          last few years.     First the Lord removed Prof. Ophoff
an indispensable place in the life of our denomination.       from his labors and, shortly thereafter, took him to


                                                                                   -___
24                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


Himself. My father was never one to influence any-              shortage of ministers, had the foresight and the insight
one's decision on a call; but I well remember that in          without any hesitation to call another professor was a
1959,  when I had the call to replace Prof. Ophoff in           source of special joy and encouragement to me. Al-
our school, he said to me, "It would be nice if we              ready then the Lord was providing. And that  Rev.' H.
could work together yet for a few years."                      Hanko, after only a brief stay in the congregation of
                                                                Doon, was led to accept the call to  ,become  Professor
                                                                of Theology was also the Lord's provision. I am happy
                                                               that he has come: for I esteem him as a friend and
                                                               brother not only, but as a capable and faithful servant
                                                               of the Lord.            Moreover, all our churches should be
                                                               glad and thankful to the Lord because He has so soon
                                                                and so well provided  for  the needs of our seminary.
                                                               I take great pleasure in introducing to our readers our
                                                               new Professor of Theology, who will give instruction
                                                               to our future ministers especially in the New Testament
                                                               branches and, in Church History.
                                                                          A few weeks ago he and I stood together at my
                                                               father's coffin in the funeral chapel, and suddenly the
                                                               full impact of reality struck us both. I said to him, --
                                                                and I said it with weeping: "Now you and.1 have to stand
                                                               in the seminary in the place of Ophoff and my Dad."
                        Prof. Hanko .                           But we are encouraged because we have a goodly
                                                               heritage and because we have the promise of the in-
      Well, it was only a few years. Last December the         dwelling of the Spirit of truth. The reader will for-
Lord took him also from his labors in our school; and          give, I am sure,. the personal note in this; I injected
now he has joined his former colleague, Prof. Ophoff,          it, not to be sentimental, but to try to impress our
in glory.                                                      people with the seriousness of our position as faculty
      But the Lord has also provided for our seminary!         members in our seminary and thereby to impress
      It was only for one semester that the teaching staff     upon our people that we urgently need and covet your
was crippled. That our Synod, in spite of our severe           prayers.


               BOOK  REVIEWS-                                 De Verborgenheid der Godzaligheid
                                                              Random Israel
                     Rev. H.  Veldman


"De Verborgenheid der Godzaligheid," by Ds. E. Th.             "Rondom Israel," by Dr. H. Bergema; J. H. Kok N.V.,
van  den. Born  e.a.; J. H. Kok N.V.; Netherlands.             Netherlands; price: f1.95.

 This book contains  5 Pentecost "sermons" by four                        This is a mission booklet of 53 pages, and the title,
different writers, including Prof. B. Holwerda and Prof.       translated in English, would read:              "Round About
C. Veenhof. Four of these sermons are based on Acts            Israel.?'               ."
2 and one on II Tim.  4:10, 11. The title of the book,                    ,This is an interesting brochure. The author at-
translated into English, would read: "The Mystery of           tempts to penetrate. behind the political and economical
Godliness." This little booklet is a Pentecost booklet.        contrasts to the psychological and religious background,
It reads easily.  -The style is clear and easy to read,        which fundamentally governs the entire struggle in the
provided that one can read Holland. The material ap-           Middle East between Israel and its surrounding coun-
pears to view the heart of Pentecost in the universality       tries. The occasion for this booklet was a visit by him
of salvation, as embracing all peoples. To this mean-          to Israel and Jordan when he was returning from In-
ing of  P.entecost we, of course, have no objection. But       donesia to the Netherlands in 1956. We repeat: it is a
we would rather emphasize the heart of Pentecost as            mission booklet, written to stimulate interest for
being the feast of the fulfillment of the promise of sal-      mission work among the Jews. One wonders whether
vation in Christ Jesus, in distinction from the Old            he is of the opinion that- God has reserved a special
`restament when the same salvation was possessed by            place for Jews as Jews, as held  bythe premillenarians.
the Church of God in connection with symbols and               The book is well written. We recommend also this
shadows.      I recommend this booklet to our readers.         booklet to our readers  -who are able to read Holland.
The price is $3.95 in Holland money.                           The price is $1.95 in Holland money.

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