                                 tandard

                                            earer


A   R E F O R M E D   S E M I - M O N T H L Y   M A G A Z I N E




;lu  THlS ISSUE:

      Meditation: Calm In The Storm


      Editorials: An Attack Upon The Very Foundation
                    THE BANNER Misses The Point
      Beginning: Vatican Council-Third Session

      Unidn  Of  Evangelicals


      Progress With Blake and Pike-


                                        Volume  XLII/ Number 3  / November 1, 1965


50                                                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

I

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Meditation -
        Calm in the Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
              Rev. M. Schipper                                                                                                             E,ditov-- Prof. H. C. Hoeksema i
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        The Banner Misses The, Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53                         Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                                                          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                        Rapids, Mich.       49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
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              Prof. H. Hanko                                            '                                                                        .LEAGUE   MEETING
Examining Ecumenicalism  -
        Vatican Council  - Third Session (1) . ..*.................. 69                                                       The Eastern Ladies League will hold its Fall meeting,
              Rev. G. Van Baren                                                                                               D.V., on Thursday evening, Nov. 11, 1965 at Southwest
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News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*............ 72                                         Prof. Herman Hanko will speak on the topic "Racial
              Mr. J. Faber                                                                                                    Rioting and the Signs of the Times".
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                                               MEDITATIhL


                                                            Cqlm                                        In                ;The                    Storm

                                                                                                      by Rev.' M. &iipper

                                                     rlFo~   theve  st6od by-me  ihis night the angel  of  God,  whose'I   am,  a&l.
                                               whom  I  serve, Saying, Fear  n& Paul;  thou  must be  brought  before
                                               C a e s a r . "                                                                              A c t s   27:23,   24a

                                                                                                                                                  -_-       _
        Paul was on his way to Rome!                                                                                     tine being Sidon. They passed the island of Cyprus,
        He had been taken captive and tried before Felix                                                                 coming to a coastal town called  Lycia  in Asia Minor,
     and Agrippa, at which trial before the latter he had ap-                                                            where they were to change ships.. All the while Paul
pealed unto Caesar.                                  So to Caesar he must go! He                                         was given great liberty aboard ship!
therefore was given in trust to a centurion who was                                                                         Having boarded a different ship which was headed
charged to bring Paul and a band of prisoners to Rome.                                                                   for Alexandria in Egypt, and because of the wind, they
The boat on which he was placed was to sail for Asia                                                                     came to Crete, and the port called Fair Havens. It ap-
Minor, the last point of contact with the land of -Pales-                                                                pears that much time was spent here, both in lading, the


                                                          THESTAND, ARDBEARER                                                                 51


ship, and `waiting for better weather conditions. Fair                 one, yea, no one is going to tell him what to do and how
Havens was not a commodious harbor for winter quar-                    to live!
ters, and winter was coming on. Paul sensed that with                         The spiritual. man, on the other hand, lives out of
winter approaching it would be dangerous to sail further.              an entirely different principle, and is of wholly other
He therefore advised the centurion not to go on but to                 convictions ! He deposes and dethrones self. When he
stay here until weather conditions warranted further                   analyzes himself in the light of God's Holy Word and
sailing.      The captain of the ship, however, was of a               Law, he learns that he is nothing, yea, less than nothing!
different mind, and prevailed upon the centurion to set                Or, to put it in the words of the prophet Isaiah: "All
sail.                                                                  flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the
    No sooner had they gotten out of the harbor when                   flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
strong contrary winds carried the ship helplessly out                  fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:
to sea. Every attempt was made to keep the ship from                   surely, the people is grass." And again, "Behold, the
sinking.      The cargo they hoisted overboard. All the                nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as
sails were taken down, except the short main sail which                the small dust of the balance." Isaiah  40:6,7,15. Such
was to keep the ship headed with the wind. But with all                is the estimated value the spiritual man, regenerated
this effort, it appeared the ship was to be broken to                  by grace, places upon himself!
pieces with the waves, or to founder in the sea. All                          He is not only convinced that he is not his own, nor
the passengers except one despaired of ever seeing                    will he serve himself! Again, we remark that his con-
land and home again1                                                   victions are quite different than those of the natural
    Now just when all seemed hopeless, and the time                    man. The latter serves only himself, and would have
most opportune had arrived, Paul stood up and began                    all things serve him. He lives for himself, and strives
to speak. Mildly he rebuked the ship's master for not                  to make all things work for his own honor- and glory.
having listened when he warned not to sail from Crete.                 The evidences of this we see daily all about us. Every
Then he spoke to all a word of comfort and good cheer,                 man seeks himself. Let another stand in his way, and
telling them that no man's life would be lost, for the                 he will steal, murder, and commit adultery to bring
Lord had reassured him that he must go to Rome, and                    the thing he desires for himself into his service. The
that all those in the ship would be spared.                            spiritual man serves another. He is not his own. He
    Listen to him speak: "And now I exhort you to be of                seeks not himself.                He belongs to another, and that
good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life               other he must serve!
among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this                        That is what Paul negatively and positively implies
night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,                  when he declares: "Whose I am, and whom I serve."
saying, Fear not Paul; thou must be brought before                     These convictions are the very essence of true religion.
Caesar: and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail                 True religion is the spiritual consciousness of being
with thee."                                                            possessed by the only true God; and thus, all we can do
    Like a light-house beacon on the tempestuous sea                   is worship!
our text looms  !      Not only is this so because it gave                    Whose I am!
new hope to the troubled seamen, but because it speaks                        That- expresses the universal truth that men belong
of a calm assurance of safety and reliance on a faithful               to God by virtue of their being the creatures of His
God!                                                                   hand. As the 100th Psalm says, according to a probably
   Indeed, here was calm in the storm!                                 correct reading, "It is He that hath made us, and we
   A calm that was based upon true convictions!                        are His." But the apostle is going a good deal deeper
   Expressed negatively, Paul's conviction was that                    than any such thoughts, which he, no doubt, shared in
he was not his own! That is the very first conviction common with the heathen men around him, when he
the child of God comes to when he is made aware of                     declares in a special fashion, God had claimed him for
his sinful and hopeless condition as he is by nature,                  His.        "I am Thine," is the deepest thought of this
and when he has been delivered from sin and death by                   man's mind and the deepest feeling of his heart. And
the grace of Christ Jesus!                                             that is godliness in its purest form, --the conscious-
   The natural man has convictions that are quite the                  ness of belonging to God! This saying of Paul must be
opposite of this! Actually he thinks that  he- is his own.             interpreted in the light of another of his sayings: "Ye
He believes he is "the master of my fate," and "I am                   are  -not your own, ye are bought with a price. There-
the captain of my soul." And sohe lives out his life on                fore, glorify God in your bodies and spirits which are
the earth.      He believes and actually lives out of the              His." I Cor.  6:19. He traces God's possession of him,
principle that with body and soul he is his own. No                    not to that fact of creation, but to the one transcendent



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52                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


act of the divine love, which gave itself to us, and so        and necessary, doesn't it? You mayeasilyoffend a man
acquired us for itself. The divine ownership of us is          by saying to him: "Won't you be a Christiantoo?" But
only realized when we are consciously His, because of          it is hard to offend if you simply say that you are a
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!                                 Christian!
      And if you and.1 are His, then that involves that we         Only remember that the avowal must be backed up
have deposed from his throne the rebel  Self,  that            by a life, as Paul's was backed upon board that vessel.
ancient  anarch that disturbs and ruins us ! They who          Do you think that these Roman soldiers, and the other
belong to God cease to live to themselves. There are           prisoners, would not have smiled contemptuously at
two centers of human life, and only two! The one is            Paul, if this  had- been the first time that they had any
God, the other is my wretched Self. They who have              reason to suppose that he was at all different from
themselves for their centers are like comets with a            them? I am sure theywouldhave said: "The God whose
wide elliptical course, which carries them away out            you are and whom you serve? Why, you are just the
into the cold abysses of darkness. But they who have           same as if you worshipped Jupiter like the rest of US!"
God for their sun are like the planets, those "sons of         And that is what the world has a right to say if our walk
the morning", which make music as they roll and as             and our confession do not match.
they flash back His light!                                         And so there is calm in the storm!
      Whom I serve !                                               Calm in the storm?         Why, apparently there was
      Employed is the word which means the service of          much room for the very opposite. It was most natural
a worshipper, or of a priest -- not that of a slave. Paul's    to fear. Even the child of God will have moments of
purpose was to represent how, as his whole inward nature       distress and fright. Paul undoubtedly also experienced
bowed in submission to, and under the influenceof God,         this. If this were not the case, how would you explain
to whom he belonged, so his whole outward life was a           the appearance of that angel? And the address of the
life of devotion. He was serving Him there in the ship,        angel ? "Fear not, Paul!"
amidst the storm. His calmness was service; his con-               There would be no need for this exhortation where
fidence was service; the cheery words that he was              no fear was! 0, indeed, there are moments of fear!
speaking were service. God's priests are not far from          The Christian is not a stoic, a cynic, who sets his face
the altar, and never are without something to offer.           like flint and feels no pain, and experiences no misery,
      Sincere confession!                                      or fear. Nor is it so that in the storms of life he has
      Confession may be made by one's walk as well as          no doubts. Very well, the apostle too may have been
by his words. But both are so closely related that it is       troubled with the question how he was now to reach
difficult to conceive of the possibility of  theone without    Rome and appear before Caesar. How will the promise
the other. Shipboard is a place where people find out          of God now be realized that he must witness  in,the
one another very quickly. And such circumstances as            court of Caesar in the face of  sucha  storm as this?
Paul had been in for the last fortnight, tossing up and            But the Lord thinks constantly of His own! His
down in the sea, with "Death" looking over the bul-            watchful eye is always upon them!          He also knows
warks of the crazy ship every moment, were certain to          their hearts and fears, and comes at the exact moment
have brought out the inmost secrets of his spiritual life.     to dispel them. That is what Paul experienced aboard
Paul durst not have said: "the God whose I am, and             ship.      One who can speak. as Paul did in the face of
whom I serve", if he had not known that he had been            great danger, need not trouble himself about thedanger
living day by day a consistent and godly life amongst          at all!
them.      Long before Paul spoke, his shipmates had
taken notice of his walk.                                         He to whom it is given of grace to say, "I am not
                                                               my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour," will also
      Confession of the mouth has no value unless there
is sincere faith in the heart. Excessive verbiage with-        believe that it is the Saviour's business to look after
                                                               His own property. He is not going to hold His posses-
out sincerity of heart is worse than profanity. A man          sion with such a slack hand as that they shall slip be-
who continually boasts of his religion and who lives           tween His fingers'and be lost in the storm! God keeps
not near to his God is a hypocrite. Paul experienced           His treasures, and the surer we are that He is able to
a great calm even before he gave expression to it.             keep them unto that day, the calmer we will be in all
And this should be the peculiarity of every Christian          our trouble!
who is faced with difficulty and who is cast upon the
storms of life!                                                    And when the crash comes, as it surely will for all
      How many are the times when such a confession is         of us, we may rest assured that we will come safely to
most necessary!         You who work in the shops where        the shore! We do not know to which of two groups Paul
you are required to eat your noon meal out of a bucket,        belonged: whether he could swim, or whether he had
how many of you dare to fold your hands and close your         to hold on to some bit of wreckage to get safely to the
eyes before you eat and offer a brief prayer for God's         land.      But whichever it was, it was neither by his
blessing? How many of you who daily are surrounded             swimming nor by the spar to which he clung that he
with those who flippantly curse and swear, dare to             landed safe on shore. It was the God to whom he be-
open your mouths in protest against them? In another           longed. When the Owner counts His subjects and pos-
place this apostle says: "That if thou shalt confess with      sessions on the quiet shore as. the morning breaks,
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine           there will not be one who is lost in the surges, or
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou             whose name will be unanswered to when the  muster-
shalt be saved." That makes confession very important          roll of the crew is called!


                                                              I





                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          53



         EDITORIALS-


                              The Banner Misses The Point

                                                     by Prof. H.  C. Hoeksema


    It was to be expected that the religious press would               The point is that  The Banner  is guilty of a serious
take note of the death of our beloved Reverend Herman              distortion of history when it states that "Things came
Hoeksema and that in connection with our bereavement               to a head when Rev. Hoeksema and others insisted that
there would be not only expressions of condolence but              the teaching of common grace is unscriptural,  Armin-
also evaluations expressed. It surely is not my inten-             ian, and not to be tolerated in the body of Reformed
tion to take note of or to reply to all such expressions.          theology." The truth is,  - and the records will bear
But since one such expression comes from a quarter                 this out, - that "things came to a head" when, after
historically close to  us, The Banner  of the Christian            the Jansen case, and at the instigation of supporters of
Reformed Church, and since, further, it goes beyond a              Jansen, common grace was elevated to the status of
mere expression of condolence, and since, moreover,                church dogma in the Three Points of 1924 as an oc-
it also addresses a word to our Protestant Reformed                casion to seek the ouster of Rev. Hoeksema and those
Churches, I feel impelled to reply.                                others.        The truth is that the Synod of 1924 having re-
    Ignoring what seems to be at least a hint of innuen-           fused to discipline or to advise discipline, and, in fact,
do in his remarks about the "mantle of charity" being              having given Rev. Hoeksema the testimony that he was
thrown "over what some may have deplored and re-                   "Reformed in the fundamentals," Classis  Grand Rapids
sented in him," let it be noted, first of all, that the            East proceeded with hierarchical and unjust discipline.
editor of  The Bannev  writes many complimentary                       The point is that Rev.`Herman  Hoeksema always, in
words about Herman Hoeksema, the  man. He was a                    all his preaching and teaching and writing, came with
crusader, a man with a mission, a man of a brilliant               Scripture and the confessions in hand. That cliche
mind and a facile pen, a man of a strong constitution,             about Rev. Hoeksema's view failing to do justice to the
a dynamic leader, a theologian of no mean ability, a               whole of Scripture and being more in keeping with
rather prolific author, a man of exceptional scholar-              human logic, is a tired old horse that has been ridden
ship, a fearless editor, and a man with an astounding              ever since 1924. All that Herman Hoeksema has ever
capacity for work.       All these we recognized in him            written gives the lie to that cliche. His  soon-to-be-
also.    But he and we always insisted that these were             published dogmatics will reveal plainly that he cherished
God-given talents for which God alone was to be ac-                the exposition of Scripture as nothing else.
knowledged, not the man Herman Hoeksema.                               And why, --why, if the strength of Hoeksema's posi-
   In the second place,  The Banner  approaches a little           tion was mere, weak, human logic; why, if the Chris-
closer to the point, but nevertheless misses it, when it           tian Reformed Church was right in 1924 and thereafter;
refers to Rev. Hoeksema's insistence on the truth that             why, if it is proper to spare no effort to convince
God is GOD, to his tireless guarding of divine sover-              "erring brethren;" why, if you are genuinely interested
eignty, of predestination, and of the antithesis, to his           in reconciliation; -why, pray, do you twice emphasize,
lifelong emphasis on divine sovereignty and his con-               Editor Vander Ploeg, that it seemed the better part of
viction that we  .must be antithetical in our thinking,            wisdom not to engage in continued controversy with him
and to his warnings against the error of Arminianism.              while he was still alive? And another question presses
Surely, the loss of such an one is proper occasion for             itself to the fore: `why have the Christian Reformed
condolences in the church.        Nevertheless, for  The           Churches repeatedly refused, both officially and un-
Bannev  and for the Christian Reformed Church, this is             officially, to discuss the issues that separate us? That
also aside from the point.                                         this is the case is not to be denied1
   Well, what is the point?                                            In conclusion, let me remind  The Bannev:
   The point is that, by the grace of God, Herman                      1. That a mere prayer for reconciliation is not
Hoeksema was a faithful servant of Jesus Christ, with-             sufficient.       Such prayer must arise out of a genuine
out compromise faithful to Scripture and to our Re-                concern for reconciliation; and such genuine concern
formed confessions.                                                must be evinced in honest efforts toward reconcilia-
   The point is that to its shame, and also to its own             tion.
continued detriment, the Christian Reformed Church                     2. That reconciliation is not. the same as compro-
cast out that faithful servant of Jesus Christ as a                mise.      A "reconciliation" that is based on the idea
heretic and a schismatic, and that in that light  The              that "what we have in common is so much greater than
Banner's  posthumous "honor to whom honor is due"                  that which is keeping us apart" is not reconciliation at
is but faint praise, - in fact, no praise at all.                  all, but compromise.


54                                               THE STANDARD BEARER


      3. That the issues which separate the Protestant              back to the root of these' evils: the Three Points of
Reformed Churches from the Christian Reformed Church                1924.
are not minor but strike at the very heart of the  Re-                 4. That genuine efforts at reconciliation must  hon-
formed faith.      It is certainly true that the Christian          estly look at the causes of the breach and remove them.
Reformed Churches do well to take to heart Rev. Hoek-               For such reconciliation the Protestant R e f o r m e d
sema's (and our) warnings against Arminianism and                   Churches have always been, and are today, ready. For
opposition against the evil practices and teachings that            we love the Reformed faith, and we stand opposed to
are inherent in common grace.         But then let them go          any departure therefrom!





                  A n   A t t a c k   U p o n   T h e   V e r y   F o u n d a t i o n

                                                      by  Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema


      There is currently appearing in  Christianity Today           Graham does not really teach the new birth and its
a series of essays on "Fundamentals of the Faith." In               necessity, but he denies it.
that series, there appeared an essay recently by Billy                 It is not my intention to review Graham's entire
Graham entitled "The New Birth." (See  Christianity                 essay.       The doctor is obviously not much of a  dog-
Today, September 10, 1965)                                          matician: for instead of limiting himself to an exposi-
      This ought to be of interest to Reformed people be-           tion of the new birth in this comparatively brief essay,
cause it offers an opportunity to compare Graham's                  he virtually covers the entire subject of the "order of
doctrinal position with that of the Reformed faith, and             salvation" from regeneration to perseverance. But let
that too, with respect to a very fundamental aspect of              that be; I would not even criticize this if Graham's
the truth, the new  birth,   or regeneration. Dr. Billy             presentation were the true one.
Graham has a large following and many supporters                       Nor is it even my intention to criticize in detail
also among supposedly Reformed people. There are                    everything that Graham writes here about the new birth
many ministers, leaders, church members, and even                   as such.
consistories and congregations who lend their support                  -1 wish to make but one point.
to his crusades and those of Leighton Ford. In some                    That point is that Billy Graham, in spite of the fact
cases, people of Reformed persuasion travel by the                  that because he quotes Scripture so often he seems to
bus-load and for miles to attend his meetings. Re-                  leave the impression of being a Biblical teacher, denies
formed periodicals openly lend their support to Graham's            the Biblical truth of regeneration and the absolute
work.     In fact, one can most easiiy arouse a storm of            necessity of the new birth by making the new birth
protest and questions by criticizing Graham's work and              something that is in final analysis dependent on man.
the support of him by Reformed people.                                 On page 4 of his essay we find the following:
      One of the tests that ought to be applied to deter-                     Jesus Christ demanded: "Ye must be born again"
mine whether he should have'the support of Reformed                    (Jn. 3:7). He would never have given such a challenge,
people is: does  Billy Graham  proclaim  the truth  of  the            had it not been a possibility. Yes, man can be changed,
gospel, according to the  Scviptuves and according to                  radically and permanently, from the inside  out. There
ow Reformed confessions? If he does, he is worthy of                   is the possibility of a completely new man.
support. If he does not, thenReformedpeople  ought not                        It is interesting that Jesus made this statement to
                                                                       Nicodemus, an upright and devout religious leader, who
only to withdraw their support; but they should oppose                must have been stunned by it. If Christ had said this
him and his "preaching" militantly.        . .  -'                     to Zacchaeus. . . . .or to the woman at the well. :. .or
      This test I propose to apply to Graham's "gospel"              to the thief on the cross. . . .or to the woman taken in
as set  forthin his essay on the new birth, or regenera-               adultery, it would have been easier. to understand. We
tion.                                                                  know .that those persons needed changing. But Jesus
      I will certainly' agree with Graham and with C?z"Jis-            said this to- ones of the great religious leaders of His.
tianity Today  that the new birth is one of the "funda-                time.      Nicodemus fasted two days a week, spent two
mentals of the faith," that is, it belongs to the very               hours daily in prayer at the temple, tithed all his in-
foundation of the faith of the gospel. But I must insist              come, taught as a professor of theology at the seminary.
                                                                       Most churches would'have been glad to have him; but
that Dr. Graham's essay does not constitute an exposi-                 Jesus said: "It is not enough. You must be born again."
tion of and a defense of this "fundamental" of the faith,              This implies that. all men need the new birth-, and it
but, on the contraryJan attack upon the very foundation.               also implies that all men can be bornagain.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      55


   Notice in the above quotation that Graham already            born.     By the same token, Graham does not actually
is beginning his teaching that the new birth is up to           believe the Biblical doctrine of the new birth. For
man:                                                            just as the natural man is not truly dead, so his great
   1. Jesus words of John  3:7 he calls a  challenge  to        need is after all not LIFE, but some kind of moral
Nicodemus.       There is nothing of the kind in the text.      reformation.      This is the only possible conclusion one
There is not even a "demand" here. Jesus simply                 can come to, and it is based on Graham's own state-
flatly states the absolute necessity of the new birth,          ments. He contradicts himself, of course. He asserts
without which, mark you well, a man cannot even see             that regeneration is more than reformation. And he
the kingdom of God.                                             asserts that man is dead. And he asserts that man
   2. Graham speaks of a "possibility" of a completely          needs "LIFE." In the meantime, however,  man  can
new man. He means, of course, a  possibility  for men,          undergo the change of the rebirth, and  man  can yield
as is plain from the fact that he connects this possibility     himself to God, and  man  can come to Christ by faith,
with the "challenge."                                           -- all BEFORE the new birth.
   3. He not only speaks of the necessity of the new               3. This Pelagian conception of man and of regener-
birth for all men (something with which, in the abstract,       ation as something short of the radical change of the
we could agree), but he speaks of a possibility of the          heart from death unto life becomes more explicit in
new birth for all men. This -he states literally in the         the next paragraph of the above quotation. Man is like
last sentence quoted above. Where does he get it? Not           a caterpillar1 Yes, but that caterpillar that emerges
from the text, which only speaks of the  absolute neces-        from a cocoon as a beautiful butterfly is not  dead!  As
sity of regeneration for Nicodemus and for any man in           Graham puts it, he goes to  sleep1  Man is "distressed,
order to see the kingdom of God.                                discouraged, unhappy, hounded by conscience. . . . .  ."
   Take note, next, of the following quotation:                 Here Graham piles up descriptive terms, and I could
                                                                probably add a dozen more. But is he dead? Is he by
        Thus the Bible teaches that man can undergo a
    radical spiritual and moral change that is brought          nature incapable of doing any good and prone to all
    about by God Himself. The word that Jesus used, and         evil? Not in Graham's conception1 For this sinner is
   which is translated "again," actually means "from            never so dead that he cannot "come to Christ by faith
    above."      The context of the third chapter of John       and emerge a new man."
   teaches that the new birth is something that God does           Graham writes that "this sounds incredible, even
   for man when man is willing to yield to God. As we           impossible." I say, with Scripture and the Reformed
   have already seen, the Bible teaches that man is dead        confessions, that this is indeed incredible and impos-
    in trespasses and sins, and his great need is LIFE.         sible,  - unless, of course, one pours a different mean-
        One day a caterpillar climbs up. into a tree where      ing into the terms  death  and  life.  Graham adds that
    nature throws a fiber robe about him.         He goes to    "this is precisely what the Bible teaches." I say that
    sleep and in a few weeks he emerges a beautiful butter-     Graham cannot point to a single passage of Scripture
   fly. So man - distressed, discouraged, unhappy, hound-       which offers this idea of the new birth and of the natural
   ed by conscience, driven by passJon, ruled by selfish-       man.
   ness, belligerent, quarrelsome, confused, depressed,            I could quote several more paragraphs from Billy
   miserable, taking alcohol and barbiturates, looking for      GrahRm's  essay which present the new birth and sal-
    escapisms -can come to Christ by faith and emerge
    a new man. This sounds incredible, even impossible,         vation as a matter of man's decision and willingness.
    and yet it is precisely what the Bible teaches.             But let the above be sufficient.
                                                                   Now let us place along side of Graham's teaching
   Notice in this quotation that Dr. Graham comes out           the teaching of our Reformed confessions.
very bluntly with his Arminian and Pelagian conception             First I quote Question and Answer 8 of the Heidel-
of salvation:                                                   berg Catechism:
    1. He teaches that the new birth is something that                   Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable
God does /for man when man is willing to yield to God.             of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?
This means nothing else but that man is the deciding                     Indeed, we are; except we are regenerated by the
factor in regeneration. God's work of regeneration is              Spirit of God.
dependent on man's willingness to yield to him. Graham
tells us  that "the context of the third chapter of John           Next, I quote Canons III, IV, 3:
teaches" `this.      Again, this sounds Biblical. Fact is,
however, that Graham does not prove this statement;                      Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and by
and I make bold to say that he cannot prove it either              nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good,
                                                                   prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto, and
from  John:3 or from  .any other portion of Scripture.             without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, they
   2. In his very next statement Graham  seems  to                 are neither able nor willing to return to God, to reform
teach total depravity in plain Biblical terms. For he              the depravity of their nature, nor to dispose them-
writes:  ".! . . .the Bible teaches that man is dead in            selves to reformation.
trespasses and sins, and his great need is LIFE."
Remember, however, that Graham does not actually                   Further, take note of the Reformed teaching con-
believe that the natural man is dead: for this "dead"           cerning the exercise of "free will," Canons III, IV, 10:
man of Graham's theology can nevertheless have the                       "But that others who are called by the gospel, obey
willingness to yield to God and the decision to be  re-            the call, and are converted, is not to be ascribed to


56                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


      the proper exercise of free will, whereby one dis-                                 is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in con-
      tinguishes himself above others, equally furnished                                 sequence of this influence, becomes itself active.
      with grace sufficient for faith and conversion, as the                             Wherefore also, man is himself rightly said to believe
      proud heresy of Pelagius maintains; but it must be                                 and repent, by virtue of that grace received.
      wholly ascribed to God, who as he has chosen his own
      from eternity in Christ, so he confers upon them faith                              The conclusion is very plain.
      and repentance, rescues them from the power of dark-                                Graham's gospel is not the gospel of the Scriptures,
      ness, and translates them into the kingdom of his own                           no matter how frequently he likes to say, "The Bible
      Son, that they may show forth the praises of him, who                           says. . .  ." On the contrary, his message is that of an
      hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous                             Arminian, "do-it-yourself'" religion.
      light; and may glory not in themselves, but in the Lord,                            I write this as a word of warning to Reformed
      according to the testimony of the apostles in various                           people, first of all.                            When you support Billy Graham,
      places.                                                                         you are supporting one who by our Reformed confes-
      Or, note how the Reformed conception  stands dia-                               sions and by Scripture stands condemned as a false
                                                                                      teacher1 If you value your Reformed heritage, you will
metrically opposed to that of Billy Graham in Article
12 of the same chapter of the Canons:                                                 never do this.
                                                                                          Secondly, I write this as a word of warning to Re-
         And this is the regeneration so highly celebrated                            formed ministers and elders. When you support Billy
      in Scripture, and denominated a new creation: a res-                            Graham, you violate the Formula of Subscription, the
      urrection from the dead, a making alive, which God
      works in us without our aid.                   (literally: which God            vow of your office. In that Formula you promise:
      works in us without us. H.C.H.) But this is in no wise                              1/ Diligently to teach and faithfully to defend the
      effected merely by the external preaching of the gospel,                        doctrine of our Reformed confessions, without either
      by moral suasion, or such a mode of operation, that                             directly or indirectly contradicting the same by public
      after God has performed his part, it still remains in                           preaching or writing.
      the power of man to$be regenerated or not, to be con-                               2/ Not only that you reject all errors that militate
      verted or to continue unconverted; but it is evidently a                        against this doctrine, and particularly those which
      supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same                               were condemned by the above mentioned Synod (Canons
      time most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and in-                          of Dordrecht), 
      effable; not inferior in efficacy to creation, or the                                                         but that we  aye disposed to refute and
      resurrection from the dead, as the Scripture inspired                           contradict  these, and to exert ourselves in keeping the
      by the author of this work declares; so that all in whose                       Church free  from  such  em-om.
      heart God works in this marvelous manner, are cer-                                 For Reformed churches to lend their support to the
          <-
      tainlv. infalliblv. and  effectuallv  regenerated. and do                       teaching and preaching of Billy Graham is nothing short
      actually believe-.- - Whereupon -the will thus renewed,                         of ecclesiastical suicide I


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                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     57




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


                                   Significant Doctrines in tbe

                                       Theology of Karl  Barth

                                                 by Rev. D.  J.  Engelsma

BARTH'S DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE                                   word  of  God as  into  the  cvitevion of  dogmatics" (CD,
       Reformed theologians usually begin their Dogmatics       I,l,p.46, the italics are Barth's, as always unless
with "The Doctrine of Holy Scripture." This should              otherwise indicated). This is soundly Reformed method.
always be the case. In treating the doctrine of Scrip-          He considers himself, in this opening  Doctrine  of the
ture before taking up the doctrines of God, man, and            Wovd  of God, to be evolving the "authority and norma-
the rest, one follows the example of Calvin in his              tivity of Holy Writ"  (ibid.,p.47), the doctrine "which
Institutes  and of de Bres in  The Belgic Confession.           Old-Protestant theology, in its  defence against Cathol-
Such a beginning reflects the Reformed principle that           icism and also, soon after, against the  inr0ad.s of
Scripture, and Scripture only, is the source of all doc-        Modernism, dealt with under the title  De  scviptuva
trine.      In his treatment of the doctrine of Scripture,      sawa" (ibid.).
the Reformed theologian asserts that all his dogmatic
labor, including that on the doctrine of Scripture, has            Seemingly, Barth is also in agreement with the
its source, ground, and standard alone in the Bible.            historic, Reformed estimation of the Bible. The Bible
       How one conceives of Scripture is vital for the whole    is of tremendous importance for the Church, in fact, it
of his doctrinal thinking.      If Scripture is not the sole    is absolutely necessary:  ". .  .this bit of past happen-
source and criterion for the Church's doctrine but              ing (namely, the Bible-DE) composed of definite texts
merely a source and criterion alongside another, say,           is her (the Church's-DE) directions for work, her
tradition, as is the case in the Roman Catholic Church,         marching orders, with which not only her preaching
the result will be such doctrines as the assumption of          but she herself stands or falls, which, therefore, can-
Mary and the infallibility of the pope. However, even           not under any circumstances, even hypothetically, be
within the framework of the Reformation's insistence            thought away or under any circumstances. . . be thought
that Scripture alone is authoritative for doctrine and          of as replaced by others, unless we mean to think away
life, there is room (whether there really is such room,         proclamation (preaching-DE) and the Church herself"
"before the face of God," is another matter!) for wide          (ibid.p.114).      He takes both Roman Catholicism and
divergence of theological opinion as to what Scripture          modern Protestantism to task for making the Church
is.       The questions that confront theologians at this       relatively independent of Scripture, "i.e. . . .  .therela-
point come down to one root question, "What is the              tive devaluation of the said canon"  (ibid.,  p.118).
content of Scripture's designation of itself as `The            Against Rome, he claims that Scripture is an authority
Word of God?' " In the course of answering this ques-           objective to and above the Church. The Church does
tion, the theologian must express himself on the in-            not make the Bible the canon but "the Bible constitutes
spiration of Scripture and the intimately relatedmatter         itself the canon. It is the canon because it has imposed
of the Bible's infallibility/fallibility. What answer the       itself as such upon the Church and invariably does so"
theologian gives will affect  .the whole of his theology;       (ibid.,p.l20). Also, Scripture is inspired. The meaning
the doctrine of Scripture is basic to all of dogmatics.         of the classic passage on inspiration, II Timothy  3:16,
       We will have taken a giant stride, therefore, in the     is that "all, that is, the whole Scripture is --literally:
direction of determining whether the  "new Reformed             `of the Spirit of God,' i.e., given and filled and ruled
theology" is genuine progress along the path of purity,         by the Spirit of God, and actively outbreathing and
as it claims, or whether it is deviation, all the more          spreading abroad and making known the Spirit of God""
dangerous since heralded as "Reformed," simply by               (CD,I,2,p.504).      This inspiration must be understood
putting its "Doctrine of Holy Scripture" to the test of         as plenary (full, complete) inspiration.     "It would be
Scripture.                                                      arbitrary to relate. . .inspiration only to such parts. ~ D
       Barth begins his massive  Dogmatics  with two            as perhaps appear important to us, or not to their words
volumes  on  The  Do&vine of the  Word of God  in which         as such but only to the views and thoughts which evoke
he treats also the doctrine of Scripture. In this  ""pro-       them"  (CD,I,2,p.518). And ""inspiration. .  .must  bere-
legomena to dogmatics," Barth ""inquire(s)  i&o  &he            garded quite definitely. 0  .as verbal inspiration'" (CD,


58                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


1,2,p.518).  T h e "final word" is simply this: "Holy                not be viewed as a somewhat stringent doctrine that,
Scripture too is the  Word  of  God" (CD,I,l,p.122).(1)              having gone too far, now needs to be modified; it is
      This is purest, Reformed language.           Indeed, not       heresy! This charge is all the more grave since Barth
only does this seem to square with the doctrine of                   is not one to bandy the term "heresy" about, reserv-
Scripture embodied in  The  Belgic  Confession  but even             ing it only for desperate assaults on the faith.
to be an advance over it, inasmuch- as the confession                    What  .may'not be missed is the fact that, although
does not, in so many words, specify "plenary" or                     admitting the diametrical opposition of his doctrine
"verbal" inspiration.         It is important to note this           to the historic and prevalent doctrine of the Reformed
carefully, since, in actual fact,. Barth does not  mean,             Church, Barth does not for a moment concede that he
with this language, what the Reformed faith has al-                  stands, regarding this doctrine, outside the pale of the
ways meant -with it. Into the containers of these phrases            Reformed faith. Not at all! On the contrary, he ealls
and words, "the Bible is the Word of God," "inspira-                 the Reformed Church back to her origins. She has not
tion," "plenary inspiration," and "verbal inspiration,"              remained true to the `genuinely Reformed faith on this
Barth pours wholly new content. Nor -does he attempt                 point.    What Barth advocates regarding the doctrine of
to hide this. In distinction from the procedure of many              Scripture is not some new, foreign idea, borrowed,
heretics who tried to slip new meanings into the Church's            perhaps, from modern Protestantism, but an authen-
old terms when no one was looking and, then, clamored                tically Reformed thought, even though neglected and
to high heaven that the Church had always really meant               combatted these many years by Reformed Churches
what the heretics were teaching, -Barth readily con-                 faithless to their own principles. His doctrine merits
fesses that his doctrine of Scripture differs radically              the appellation, "genuinely Reformed truth,"especially
from the teaching of the Reformed Church, from the                   on two grounds: 1) It is the teaching of Scripture. 2) It
17th century on. Bluntly, he contends that, almost im-               was the doctrine held, in embryo, by the great Re-
mediately, the Reformed Churches fell away from the                  formers. (3)
doctrine- of Scripture held by Luther and Calvin into                   Undoubtedly, this is also why Barth refuses to give
the doctrinal position of "high orthodoxy," (2) the view             up the old Reformed terminology, such as "verbal in-
of Scripture, namely, that supposes "that the Bible must             spiration," although intending with that terminology a
offer  us  a-  divina et'infallibilis  historia   (divine and in-    ` `wholly other" meaning. He does not desire to gull
fallible history-DE); that it must not contain human                 anyone. Rather, as far as he is concerned, that ter-
error in any of  .its verses"  (CD,I,2,p.525);  "High                minology belongs to him and his true expression of
orthodoxy's" doctrine of `Scripture, of which Barth will             the doctrine. of Scripture, not to the "high orthodox"
have no part and from which, according to him, the Re-               and their false doctrine.
formed Churches must be delivered, maintains that                       The claim of the "new Reformed theology" to-be the
"Should there be found even the minutest error in the                defender of sacred Scripture and the faithful represen-
Bible, then it is no longer wholly the Word of God, .and             tative of the Reformation, as well as its scathing and,
the. inviolability of its authority is destroyed. The                ostensibly, scriptural criticism of the historic, Re-
same is true if even the tiniest fraction of it derives              formed position, makes it a challenge which they who
from human knowledge, reflection and perception.                     love and confess the Reformed faith may not ignore.
`All Scripture is given by' God. .  .' is what it says in            If Barth is right, about Scripture now, Reformed men
2  Tim.  3:16. Therefore we cannot find in it even the               cannot -banish the doctrine -of an infallible Bible too
                                                                                                       _
smallest word which is not given by God and therefore                q u i c k l y .
infallible truth. If it were otherwise, neither for theology            If Barth is wrong, he poses a most serious threat
nor for faith would there be anycertainty, any certainty             to the Reformed faith, first, because he assails,  head-
of grace and of the forgiveness of sins, any certainty               on, that doctrine basic to all other doctrines and,
of the existence and divine  sonship  of Jesus Christ"               secondly, because he assails this-doctrine from "with-
(CD,I,2,pp.524,525). This doctrine is "almost terrify-               in the gates, "' in the name of the Reformation. And
ing pedantry" (ibid.). Indeed, "we have to resist and                there is every reason to believe that his view of the
reject (it). .  .as false  doct?cine" (ibid.,  italics  mirie-       doctrine of Holy Scripture  has. had and continues to
DE). That doctrine which maintains an infallible Bible               have much influence, whether tacitly or confessedly, in
is false  -doctrine, asserting "things which cannot be               the sphere of Reformed Churches.
maintained in face of a serious reading  and.exposition              FOOTNOTES
of what the Bible  ,says about itself, and in face of-an
honest appreciation of the facts of its origin and tradi-                (1) A  popular presentation  of Barth's view of Scrip-
tion" (CD,  1,2,p.526)..  As is always the case with false                     ture has it that Barth states that "The Bible is
doctrine, this doctrine has- a deleterious effect wher-                        not the Word of God but the Word of God is in the
ever it is maintained.         It is "a kind of theological                    Bible." Apart from the fundamental accuracy or
bogeyman. .  .which has prevented whole generations                            inaccuracy of this popular -presentation, Barth is
                                                                               not averse to identifying the Bible and the Word
and innumerable individual theologians and believers                           of God.
from seeing the true, spiritual biblical and Reforma-                    (2) In Barth's usage, "high orthodoxy" is not aphrase
tion meaning of the statement" (namely, "The Bible- is                         of commendation. It is pretty much the same as
the Word of God"-DE.  CD,I,2,p.526).                                           "dead orthodoxy" connoting, perhaps, the super-
      There is no camouflage here. The historic, "or-                          ciliousness of the "orthodox."
thodox" doctrine of an infallible,  inerrant  Bible must                 (3) Both of these grounds, we intend to examine, later.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     59



  THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP- ("0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Ps. 96:9a)

                        THE LORD'S SUPPER FORM
                                                   by Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg

GRATITUDE                                                       how thankful we are with our mouths. Although we cer-
   The third part of the believer's self-examination,           tainly must also use our speech to tell the Lord's
which is requisite with a view to preparing one's self         praise with thanksgiving, the latter runs in a deeper
for participation at the Lord's Table, deals with the           vein than that of lip-service.
matter of gratitude. This is not some sort of appendix             Are we thankful?
or an isolated part of the self-examination but it is in-          That is the question to which an answer must be
separably related to the two parts we have thus far             found in our self-examination. We may not push it
considered.    The child of God who is spiritually aware        aside. It is of vital importance because without a true
of his deservedness of the wrath of God on account of           sense of real gratitude there is no place for us in the
his sin and who through faith is made the recipient of          communion of the body of Christ. And it is not a ques-
redemption by the blood of Christ is thankful. Thank-           tion of whether we say "thanks" but rather, are we. . .
fulness is not a work which we perform and on the               do we have. . .is thankfulness a real part of us?    -
basis of which God receives us at the table of His Son.            To answer this question necessitates seriousness
On `the contrary, thankfulness is the fruit of divine           and honesty. We must not tell the minister and elders
grace and, therefore, the evidence of it in our experi-         on family visitation that we are thankful for the preach-
ence gives comforting assurance that we are partakers           ing of the Word, the societies of the church, the  cate-
of the benefit, Even as it is not possible for those who        chetical instruction of our children and all the other
are outside of Christ and therefore strangers to His            spiritual benefits received in the church while we
redemptive work, to know the experience of true grati-          manifest disinterest in these very things and neglect
tude, so it is not possible for those who have received         the opportunities that the Lord gives us. We must not
the gifts of His grace to fail to realize an awareness          say that we appreciate Protestant Reformed Christian
of thanksgiving.                                                Day Schools and are grateful for the dedicated teachers
   Thus it is necessary that we examine ourselves               the Lord gives our schools while we give our children
also with respect to the matter of gratitude. In our            to be instructed by the world or by teachers whose views
Communion Form we are enjoined as follows:                     diametrically oppose the fundamentals of our faith.
   "That every one examine his own conscience,                  We must not say that we are thankful for the Standard -
whether he purposeth henceforth to show true thankful-          Bearer and Beacon Lights while at the same time we
ness to God in his whole life, and to walk uprightly be-       have to admit that we don't read either. Neither may
fore Him; as also, whether he hathlaid aside unfeigned-        we profess gratitude for the law of God and the pre-
ly all enmity, hatred, and envy, and dothfirmly resolve         cepts of the Gospel while our walk is manifestly con-
henceforward to walk in true love and peace with his            trary to them. Such a profession is obviously not the
neighbor."                                  _.                  evidence of Christian gratitude but is deserving of the
   To this we shall come back presently  butfirst of all       indictment of God's Word: "This people honoreth me
we do well to bear in mind that the m-atter of gratitude       with their lips but their heart is far from Me;"
is a special, spiritual something. It must not be con-
fused or identified with a certain verbal utterance that           We establish then the truth that gratitude is more a
is so meaninglessly spoken. We receive  a.certain  gift        living than a saying. It is more a matter of the heart
or favor and traditionally we say, "Thank you." But            than of the head. This, the paragraph we quoted earlier
all too often that "thank-you" could as well have been         from the Communion Form, emphasizes when it speaks
left unspoken for it lacked the depth of sincerity and         of an examination of the conscience, touching upon the
escaped our lips by no more than the force of habit.           matters of the whole of our life and particularly our
Does not this same thing characterize our prayers to           relation to `the neighbor. True gratitude is a singular
God.    We receive of Him each day the good things of          facet of-the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. Only
life and, to be sure, we say our prayers giving Him            when there is that purpose or determination of the
thanks for these things but how often is it a heartfelt        heart to walk in love according to all the command-
thanksgiving? Who will deny that these things are fre-         ments of God can we say we are really thankful. The
quently done merely as a custom?                               heart that is so motivated is one that  %od has regener-
   From this it may not be concluded that we advocate          ated and the fruit of that regeneration is manifest in
the abolishing of the prayers of thanksgiving. Not at          the putting off of the old man of sin and the putting on
all. The sole point we want to  -establish  here is that       of the new man in Christ.
we may not superficially conclude that-we are thankful             In a lucid manner-let us illustrate this practically.
Christians because in one form or another we tell God          Supp0s.e  we think of a man with. a family who is unem-


60                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


ployed  and therefore unable to provide the necessities       will even experience a joyous gratitude in that because
of life for his children. The deaconate of the church is      you know that "it is given unto you not only to believe
made aware of the circumstances and a couple of the           on him but also to suffer for His sake." (Philippians
deacons go to visit this man. Finding the situation to        1:29)
be a real case of need, they decide to leave a sum of            This, we believe, is the reason the Communion Form
money with this man.        He tells them, not once, but      speaks of showing true thankfulness to God in our whole
many times over how thankful he is for this benevolence.      life not only but also of walking uprightly before Him.
But is he? When the deacons leave he takes this money         These two are inseparably related.  *The  latter is the
and, instead of buying the essentials of food and cloth-      evidence of the former.        Showing true thankfulness to
ing for his children, he uses or rather wastes this           God can be done only by an upright walk. The unre-
money on non-essential things for himself. Certainly          generate do not know gratitude even though they render
there is no evidence of true gratitude here even though       pious prayers and audibly perform some kind of  lip-
the man said over and over, "Thank you, thank you!"           service.    It is only the child of God in Christ who is
      Now let us use another illustration and leave out       led by the Spirit to live in obedience to the Word of God
the material element. Suppose that one professes with         that consciously experiences the blessing of gratitude.
the mouth to possess the glorious and rich salvation             Very closely connected with this is the last part of
which God has wrought in Christ Jesus. Freely he              the paragraph quoted from the Communion Form which
professes that this salvation is God's gift of grace and      speaks of our walk in relation to our neighbor. Though
for this he is most abundantly thankful. However, he          this "upright walk" .is before God, it is lived in the
gives no evidence of that gratitude. He does not use          midst of this world and concerns our relationship to
the  p,owev of that salvation which he professes to have      one another. To be an upright walk means that it must
in a way that evidences real possession  of.it. Salva-        conform to the requirements of the law of God which
tion, wrought by God, is the clelivevancefrom  the power      are all essentially contained in the singular word,
of sin on the one hand and, more positively, it is the        "L O V E ". That love is mandatory for "he that loveth
walking in fellowship with God in the way of His holy         not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love
commandments.        Doing this is the way of showing         God whom he hath not seen?" (-I-John  4:20) The apostle
true gratitude for that wonderful gift of salvation.          John teaches us volumes of truth concerning the exer-
Saying thanks is excellent but that verbal profession         cise of that love in his First Epistle. He shows us that
must be accompanied with concrete deeds of gratitude          this love is not some kind of sentimental or emotional
or it remains empty and meaningless.                          nicety that people speak about today and by which social
      This is certainly the emphasis -in the part of our      relationships are supposed to improve but that it is the
Communion Form that speaks of self-examination on             emulation of God's essential virtue. God is love! And
the point of gratitude. It mentions, for example, "to         the love of God is revealed! It is manifest in the send-
show true thankfulness to God in his whole life", and,        ing of His Son into the world. In love God Himself
"to  waIk  in true love and peace with his neighbor".         seeks and saves that which is lost. Love is the Divine
Other things are also mentioned here as we may ob-            power that liberates the sinner from death's prison
serve from the complete quotation that appeared ear-          and hell's bondage.
lier in this article but we have emphasized by under-            When the .power of that love motivates our life, we,
scoring the two words "show" and "walk" because               in the words of the communion form, "lay aside un-
the heart of the matter may be expressed thus: "To            feignedly all enmity, hatred, and envy." That's the
show God in our entire walk as related to our neighbor        negative side, of course. Positively, we seek one an-
in the present world that we are truly thankful for His       other in Christ. We labor in love to save ! We strength-
grace that enables us to live a new life."                    en the weak, we admonish the erring. We give un-
      Although then gratitude is a subjective experience      solicited witness of the way of salvation in the midst
and we have to probe our conscience to find it, never-        of the world that lies in darkness. We call sinners to
theless, it cannot be present subjectively without there      repentance and we encourage the faithful tostand. This
also being objective evidence of it. To be sure, the ob-      is the character of love.       As Rev. H. Hoeksema once
jective evidence of Christian gratitude varies in  onein-     wrote: "Regard for the truth certainly does not shun
dividual child of God and another and we may hasten to        discussion. Love does not avoid the brethren."1 On the
add that it is very imperfect and practiced only in           contrary, love invites discussion for the truth's sake
small beginning even in the holiest of them. Neverthe-        and it seeks the brethren for salvation's sake.
less, it is there and we must find within ourselves the          "My little children, let us not love in word, neither
sincere desire and determination to do in every cir-          in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know
cumstance what God would have us do or we cannot              that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts
honestly say that we are thankful. Salvation means            before Him." (I John  3:18)
just that.     It is in principle the renunciation of our        In the experiential confidence of that love we have
own will in  toto  and the being brought into subjection      the assurance that our lives are characterized by true
to the will of God. It is to say and to do His will at all    gratitude to God for the grace given to and through
costs and .that means something in a world that stands        which alone we are able to keep His commandments.
violently opposed to the will of God and denounces in
wrath those that walk according to that will. In  such  a     (1) History of Prot. Ref. Churches, P. 70 by H.  Hoek-
world then you will have to endure tribulations but YOU           sema


                                               THE  STANDRRD  BEARER                                                    61


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

                   Depravity  and  Mission  Preaching

                                                    by Rev. C.  Hank0

   Those who defend a general, well-meant offer of            pear."        Here the term `worlds' cannot possibly be
`salvation to. all mankind also maintain that there is a      translated as `all men'.         The term cannot even be
certain ability in the unregenerated sinner to accept         limited to all rational creatures, including the angels.
the gospel.      An offer implies that one can accept or      But the text itself includes under the term "all things
reject it; an invitation can be honored or turned down.       which are seen."
And the ability, to accept or reject must necessarily                 We also meet the term `world' in1 John  2:15, "Love
lie with the person who receives the invitation. There-       not the world, ,neither the things that are in the world.
fore since the offer comes to every individual who            If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not
hears the gospel, it must follow that all men have the        in him." Who would want to read this passage as if it
ability to accept as well as to reject the gospel-invi-       meant, "Love not all men", including the people of
tation.                                                       God? Here the term obviously refers to this present
    Prof. Dekker and others appeal to the Three Points        evil world as it is subjected to the prince of darkness.
of 1924 to show that the Synod of the Christian  Re-          The text mentions "`the things that are in the world",
.formed  Churches in 1924 already spoke of a general,         warning us not to set our hearts on those things, be-
well-meant offer of salvation to all who hear the gospel.     cause they belong to the passing things of this age.
The contention is made that a general, well-meant of-         Moreover, this wicked world includes all the reprobate
fer of the. gospel implies a universal love of God for        wicked, who are characterized by the lusts of the
all mankind. God desires to save all men. Therefore           flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life. But
God shows His grace to all men by restraining sin,            the term does not and cannot refer to `all men'.
making the sinner capable of doing good, and placing                  And the same applies to the term `world' in John
him in a position where he can accept or reject the            3:16.     Here the world is the very opposite of the world
gospel-offer.      Consistency can allow for no other         of I John 2:15. There John spoke of the world of rep-
conclusion.                                                   robation that is consumed by the righteous judgment
    Just as in 1924 various passages of Scripture are         of God, just because it stands antithetically opposed to
quoted to sustain this conclusion.        In this present     the world of John  3:16.        Here in John  3:16 Jesus is
article I intend to examine a few of those passages.          speaking of the world of God's sovereign election. It
   The most familiar of all these passages is, of             is the world as it is chosen, redeemed and saved in
`course, John  3:16, "For God so loved the world, that        Christ.       Of that world Jesus Christ is the Head, just
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth       because He is the Firstborn among many brethren,
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."         the First-begotten from the dead, to be exalted as Head
Prof. Dekker refers to this text in particular when he         over all things in the new creation. Colossians 1:12-
repeatedly states in his writings, "For God so loved. . .      20.      Whosoever is given the grace to believe may also
all men."        (See The  Reformed   Joumzal,  February,      rest assured that he will not perish, but have eternal
1963). At present we are particularly interested in           life as part of that world which God loves. Eph.  2:8.
the term `world', which is taken to refer to `all men',
that is, to every individual man, woman, and child. It                Another passage often referred to by those who
is argued that God so loves all men that Christ died for      maintain that the gospel is offered to all men for mere
all, and as a result salvation is offered to all, and all      man to accept, is the passage found in I Timothy  2:4,
are able to accept it, if they are but willing.                "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto
    Now any serious student of the Scriptures knows            the knowledge of the truth."
that the term `world' in Scripture is never synonymous                It must be granted that if `all men' in this text
with `all men;' no, never refers simply to men. An             refers to every man, woman and child upon the face of
untruth can be repeated so often that it is not even           the earth, it also follows that Goddesires to save every
challenged any more. An error can become so com-               one without exception. But then God does not attain to
mon that it is accepted as the simple truth. Thus the          His desire. Yet how is that possible, since Job says of
term `world' has so often been made synonymous with            God, 6`But he is of one mind, and who can turn him?
`all men' that this has simply been taken for granted.         and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth." (Job
But honesty demands that we admit that this is not the         23~13.  See also Isaiah  46:10,  Danie14:35, Isaiah  46:lO).
case.                                                          Mere man cannot possibly prevent the sovereign power
    We meet the term `world', for example, in Hebrews          and will of God. For God is GOD.
 11:3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds                   But the expression `all men' in Scripture never
were framed by the word of God, so that the things             refers to every individual.        It always refers to all
which are seen were not made of things which do ap-            kinds of men, that is, to people from every rank,


62                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


class, race, or color.         That is even true when we use       heareth say, Come.         And let him that is athirst  come.
the expression in our conversations. I might say, for              And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life
example, that `all Chicago' came out to see the presi-             freely."
dent. No one would consider this  agross  exaggeration,                This passage is quoted very often as if it presented
even though every single individual did not make an                a general, well-meant offer of salvation to each and
appearance on the scene. No one would challenge my                 every individual under the strain of "whosoever will
statement by asking whether the invalids, the infants,             may come." The acceptance of the gospel, it is said,
or the prisoners were also there.              Every one would     depends entirely upon the human will. Anyone who is
understand that I was speaking of all kinds of people              willing can and will be saved, if only he is willing.
from every part of the great metropolis.                               Yet a sober look at the text must immediately show
      And the same thing is true of the passage in Timo-           us that Christ is addressing a very definite group or
thy.     In the first verse of this chapter, Paul exhorts          class of people here. And of that group He addresses
that prayers be made for all men. And immediately                  each one individually. He addresses the one who hears,
he adds, "for kings, and for all that are in authority."           the  -one who thirsts, the one who wills. In each case it
He wanted the early church to pray for people of all               is the same individual.
classes, not excluding  those cruel rulers who were                    Now no one can possibly say that every individual
heaping persecution upon them. And the apostle en-                 hears the gospel call. Although he may hear it with
courages them to pray for all men with the assurance               his ear, he certainly does not hear it in the sense that
that God will save His elect out of every rank, class,             it penetrates into the deepest recesses of his heart to
race, or color.                                                    draw him unto salvation.          The Psalmist confesses,
      A passage often quoted to show that man himself              "The hearing ear, the willing heart, Thou gavest unto
can and must accept the gospel invitation is taken from            me." (See Psalm  40:6). Jesus declares, "My sheep
Revelation  3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door, and                hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I              (John  10:27.)    And again He says, "No man can come
will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with            unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw
me." Frequently Christ is presented in pictures as                 him: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John
well as in  sermons as standing at the door of the                 6:44)
human heart, pleading, even begging to attain entrance                 When Jesus adds in Revelation  22:17, "And let him
into the heart that has the knob on the inside. Christ             that is  athirst  come", He again is speaking to that in-
cannot possibly enter unless sinful, rebellious man                dividual who by the grace of  -God  is  athirst  for the
opens the door  and lets him in. Concerning this in-               waters of life. The sinner thirsts and pants after sin
terpretation, B. A. Warburton writes in his book on                and corruption. God is not in all his thoughts. But the
"Calvinism" as follows:                                            regenerated sinner is characterized by that very fact,
         Men are asked to believe that Christ is represented       that he realizes his sin and misery, turns in anguish of
      here as knocking at the door of a sinner's heart, seek-      soul to God, longs for peace with God and mercy.
      ing admittance. Where, when and how did such a notion          That is the individual whom Jesus addresses by
      arise, for it has not the slightest vestige of support in    saying, "And whosoever will, let him take of the water
      the passage in question? Christ is speaking to a Church      of life freely." Whosoever he may be, though his sins
      which has professed His Name, a Church embracing,            be as scarlet and his guilt greater than he can bear,
      as a Church must, many individual members, but a
      Church which now, bloated with its wealth and self-          he finds mercy and compassion in drinking of the waters
      satisfied with its material prosperity, has turned its       of life as they flow to him from Christ, through the
      back upon the vital realities of the true faith, and so      Spirit in his heart, by the means of the Word.
      far as its corporate life is concerned, has become               That leaves the question whether this does not deny
      lukewarm. So far has it drifted away from the things         the responsibility of men. On the one hand, how can
  which are Christ's, that Christ, as He addresses it,             God demand of the sinner that he repent when he is not
      represents Himself as standing outside - outside the         even able of himself to repent from his sins? Our
      Church, and knocking at the door of the Church. There        Catechism in Lord's Day 4 asks a very similar ques-
      may be (there must be, C.H.) some one or other in that       tion.    It asks: "Doth not God do injustice to man, by
      Church dissatisfied with its condition, discontented
      with its present Christless, worldly state; some indi-       requiring from  him in his law, that which he cannot
      vidual member who wants a return to a more spiritual         perform? And there the answer is given, that applies
      position.    This one is not a dead sinner but a living      also here: Not at all, man was created good, but by his
      soul which mqurns  the declension which has taken            own  -wilful disobedience deprived himself and  all his
      place, and it is to this one Christ addresses His words.     posterity of his divine gifts.
      The common interpretation is one of the most glaring             On  the- other hand, the question may be raised, if
      inconsistencies of interpretation which can possibly be      we of ourselves cannot heed the call to faith. and re-
      imagined and yet on such a foundation men-would seek         pentance, why does God call us? To that it must be
      to build an assumed doctrine which assigns creature          answered, that God never deals with us as stocks and
      power and free. will to unrenewed man, and ability as
      a natural man to obtain salvation by his own efforts.        blocks, but always as rational, moral, responsible
                                                                   creatures. He works His grace in our -heart&by  giving
      I will refer to just one more passage in this con-           us ears to hear, eyes  to- see, hearts to understand. So
nection.      This is taken from Revelation  22:17, "And           that as His sheep we hear Him tailing  us and we come.
the Spirit and the` bride say, Come. And let him that              But this is all of grace.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       63



       A CLOUD OF WITNESSES

                                                 EBENEZER' ^

                                                   by  Rev. B.  Woudenbevg

                             Then Samuel took  a- stone, and set  -it- between.  Miipeh and Shen, and
           :.         called the name  of  it  Ebenezev,  saying, Hitherto  bath  the  Lovd  helped
                      us.

   The way of the Lord with His people has often been             nition to Jehovah and acknowledge  Him as their-God.
mysterious and very deep, defying the understanding               But even this was not altogether wonderful. The people
of the human mind. In Isaiah  55:8,9 God stated it this           were worshipping Jehovah again; but they were treating
way, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither              Him in much the way that they might treat any idol.
are your ways my ways, saith the LORD; For as the                 They worshipped him in form; but their hearts were
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways                 given over to carnal satisfaction. They thought that
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your                  they could `use God in the way they chose and for their
thoughts." This must have been quite evident to the               own  gain..    Nowhere was this more evident than in
believing children of Israel duing the times of Samson,           Eli's own sons. As priests, they led the worship of the
Eli, and Samuel, particularly in regard to the doings of          tabernacle; but they thought nothing at all of corrupting
God overagainst their heathen enemy, the Philistine&              it with all kinds of carnal sins. Finally matters came
It seemed for so very long that the Philistines were              to a climax when the children of Israel went out to
always coming out on top.                                         battle against the Philistines. In- itself, it was right
  It began already with Samson. -The  -day was evil               for them to rise up against the wicked enemy. But in
when he appeared and the people of Israel almost com-             doing so, they did not consult with the Lord through
pletely demoralized. The Philistines entered and over-            prayer seeking instructions. They only took up the
ran the land while Israel had not the strength or the             ark of the covenant in utter disregard of the law and
will to resist.    Samson appeared and stood alone in             as though it were some magic charm, carried it off to
opposing and seeking occasion against the enemy. So               the battle. The result was that the Lord gave His own
he lived `and so he died. Although he personally des-             ark into captivity among the heathen; and old Eli died
troyed many, he never lived to see the day when Israel            in the sorrow of it.
was ready to rise up in the name of her God and over-                It was in this situation that Samuel finally began his
throw the enemy. Nevertheless, through the ministry               own independent work as a prophet and a judge in Israel.
of Samson, there was a change that took place. It was             The ark was returned from the land of the Philistines
slight, subtle and almost indiscernible, but it was there         within a year; but it never got beyond the home of
and very real. When Samson first went out against the             Abinadab. There it remained  -alone,  inaccessible to the
Philistines, the children of Israel had opposed him.              people, a sort of captivity  ,still. Without it  the,taber-
They were not particularly interested in the service of           nacle at Shiloh had lost its meaning and was closed. All
Jehovah, they didn't want trouble, they desired only to           that remained for the young man Samuel to do was to
get along -with the Philistines, they were willing to turn        travel from city- to city teaching, admonishing, in-
Samson over to the Philistines if they could. But                 structing the people as  ~best he could. But the  Philis-
gradually as they had watched Samson in his work,                 tines still dominated the land. They ran roughshod
they began to recognize the greatness of their  %od,              over the. people  .of Israel from one end of the land to
they became conscious of their separate identity `as              the other. The hand of the Lord was upon the people
the people'.of God, they were even ready to receive               for all of the sin which they had done.
Samson as a judge. For some twenty years he served                   Nevertheless, the working of grace through the
in this capacity; and when he died, even though it was            ministry of the judges was underneath. Samuel spoke
still fighting alone, we may assume the people mourned.           to the people, and they were beginning to listen and
   It was during this same period that Eli served as              understand. Their trouble was not due to the failure of
judge along with his priestly duties. It was disappoint-          Jehovah; it was not due to the power of the'philistines;
ing labor for him also. He was often very much alone              it was due to their own sinfulness and iniquity. They
in the tabernacle at Shiloh, and he  received,little  ap-         had sinned in serving the idols of the heathen instead
preciation  fork his labors. Nevertheless, perhaps be-            of Jehovah; they had sinned in serving Jehovah with the
cause his labors extended beyond those of  Samson,                lips and not with the heart; they hadsinned in treating
Eli did observe a marked change in the attitude of the            Jehovah as an idol who could be dealt with according
people toward Jehovah. Whereas at first they had been             to their own whim and choosing; they had sinned in
satisfied to ignore Him and follow the gods of the                their failure to recognize their own guilt and turn in
heathen, gradually they began to return to give  recog-          ,repentance.  Slowly but surely the children of Israel be-


64                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


gan to understand that all of their suffering was no           trouble was brewing for them among the Israelites.
more than they deserved.          They had sinned against      Things were on edge.
Jehovah; and because He loved them with an unwaver-                Thus it was that as soon as they heard of Israel's
ing love, He would not allow their sin to go unchecked         gathering at Mizpeh, the Philistines concluded that it
and unpunished as He often did with the heathen. Each          was with the purpose of organizing an army to over-
time He stretched forth His hand upon them until they          throw them. Not to be caught unawares, the  Philis-
felt the burden of their transgression. It was the way         tines gathered an army of their own and immediately
of the Lord with His people. Because they were sinful          set forth to march against Israel at Mizpeh. They had
and hard of heart, it was true already then as Isaiah          misjudged Israel badly.        Actually warlike intentions
later expressed it, "Zion shall be redeemed with               were, as yet, farthest from the minds of those at
judgment, and her converts with righteousness." (Isa.          Mizpeh.      There was hardly a sword among them if any
1:21)                                                          at all. No one was armed for battle. Thus when the
        So it was that after twenty years of faithful labor    message was brought that the Philistines were ap-
Samuel was able to discern a new spirit among the              proaching all arrayed for battle, a cold chill swept
people.      No longer was it a spirit of pride and of ar-     through the camp in a matter of moments. But this
rogance; it was a spirit of lamantation and of weeping         was the very wonder of Israel. It had always been.
-- of weeping for Jehovah. Once again Israel was be-           They did not need swords and spears, helmets and
ginning to see that its salvation was only in Jehovah.         shield to gain a victory. Their strengthwas in a source
        For this Samuel was waiting and ready. Quickly he      far greater, and now the people knew where to find it.
answered -the lamentations of the people wherever he           They turned to Samuel and cried, "Cease not to cry
met them, saying, "If ye do return unto the LORD with          unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out
all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and            of the hand of the Philistines." In what little time re-
Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts              mained, Samuel quickly prepared a lamb, and as the
unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver         smoke of its sacrifice arose up to heaven, he lifted
you out of the hand of the Philistines." And the people        his hand in a prayer for deliverance.
listened.      They put away all that remained of idolatry         It was a natural event which took place that day --
in their land. Some put  the'm away willingly in sorrow        the storm that gathered over Mizpeh. The sky must
for their sins. Others put them away out of regard for         have been days, and maybe even weeks, in preparing
the wishes of their neighbors. Some had to be forced,          for it, from what we now know of meteorology. It was
no doubt, for there were always many unbelievers               no more supernatural than any other event  - but no
even in Israel's best days. But the land was cleansed,         less either.       There is a higher hand that directs all
nevertheless.      In fact, Samuel was able to gather the      things; and it so directed the sky that day that at the
people together in a spiritual convocation such as had         moment that Samuel raised his hands in prayer it
not been seen in Israel since the days of Joshua.              broke forth in a mighty, terrible storm directly over
        It was at Mizpeh that the people gathered. Samuel      the army of the Philistines.        Bolts of lightning ran
had promised them that he would pray for them there,           across the ground breaking apart their ranks; torrents
and for this they came together. In former years such          of rain beat directly in their faces making it impossible
a promise would have meant little to them; but now they        to proceed; great roaring peals of thunder pounded
saw it as their only hope. There in a beautiful cere-          their eardrums from above, striking terror into their
mony, they drew water and poured it out before the             hearts.      Without the raising of a sword, the mighty
Lord.       This is the first time we meet this ceremony       army of Philistia crumbled and turned to retreat in
in Scripture, and perhaps Jeremiah explains its mean-          defeat. All that remained for Israel was to pursue and
ing better than any when he wrote in Lamentations              gather the plunder.
2:18,19, "0 wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run            A new and joyfully different gathering  .met soon
down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest;         thereafter.        It was at the very point near Mizpeh
let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arise, cry out in        where the Philistines had been turned in defeat.
the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out            There Samuel raised a great stone in memorial and
thine heart like water before the face of the Lord:            named it Ebenezer, saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord
lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young         helped us." It was a beautiful saying full of signifi-
children, that faint for hunger in the top of every            cance.      Many might have been inclined to say, "At
street."       It was, along with the fast which they held     last," or "This once has the Lord helped us," for this
that day, a ceremony of repentance for their many              was the first great victory for Israel in many a year.
sins.       Together, they cried out, "We have sinned          But Samuel, and the people with him, recognized that
against the LORD," and in humility they listened as            the grace of God had been working much longer than
Samuel instructed them in the law.                             this.      That was implied in the word "hitherto". It
      Meanwhile, though, the Philistines were not sleep-       marked the end of a long series of events. God had
ing.      They had not missed the fact that a new spirit       given them victory over the Philistines, but only after
was spreading through Israel, The people were not as           He had turned their hearts in repentance back to Him
proud and haughty as formerly, but neither were they           again. The latter was a victory over their enemy in
as afraid. The people of  IsraeE  were not as interested       the world. The former was a victory over the enemy
in their heathen idolatry, and they looked at them more        of sin in their own flesh, and that was the greatest
and more as enemies. The Philistines could feel that           victory of all.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   65


FROM HOLY WRIT-

              Stephen's Apology Before The ,Sanhedrin

                                                    by Rev. G. Lubbers

THE SHINING FACE  OF STEPHEN Acts  6:15                        on the streets and in the synagogues of Jerusalem,
   There stands Stephen before the entire Sanhedrin.           from out of heaven. For here in this court-room will
All the eyes of all the members of this Jewish court           clash the mountain in Arabia, which leads to bondage
are fixed upon him. The text says "they gazed upon             (Sinai) and the heavenly mount Sion, Jerusalem above,
him all. . . . .and they saw", that is, while they gazed       whither Jesus, the Mediator, has ascended!          (Heb.
on him they saw something very significant on the face         12:24; Galatians  4:21 f.f.)
of this man who had been forcefully hauled into their             For the children of Sarah are free!
court.     They saw his face as it were the face of an            The children of the desolate are more than of her
angel !                                                        who hath the husband! (Galatians 4:27; Isaiah 54:l)
    As the writer relates this scene he only records
what the impression was of those who saw him. He does          ARE THESE THINGS THUS? Acts  7:l
not tell us anything more of the nature of this strange           In the mouth of this Jewish Sanhedrin this question
and wonderful countenance of Stephen; he does not tell         was meant to be a pretended, formal question of a
us how this face had received this wonderful appear-           court which would introduce formal inquiry into the
ante . However, we cannot escape the conclusion that           justice or injustice of the charge before them. For
this face reflected the glory of the risen Christ, the         the charge and accusation is of the worse degree. It
glory of the heavenly, already in the earthly. For the         is a charge of wilful, uninterrupted blasphemy with
Spirit of God and of glory rested upon him, to be sure.        which Stephen here stands cited. He had not ceased to
(I Peter 4:14) Do we not read that the opponents in the        speak words against this holy place of the temple and
synagogue of the Hellenists could not resist the wisdom        against the law, as given by Moses and all the prophets !
and the Spirit by which he spake? (Acts 6:lO)      And was        Stephen stands here  contemned  as being a heretic
he not one of the seven who were "full of the Holy             who is worthy of death. He speaks contemptuously of
Ghost and of wisdom".?            (Acts  6:5) There must be    all that is held holy by God, so it is alleged. This was
some connection between Stephen's spiritual relation-          all implied in his preaching Jesus of Nazareth, Who
ship to the risen and glorified Lord of glory, and the         was preached as having been delivered for the offenses
angelic appearance of his countenance ! And that was           of the sins of God's people and having been raised for
the glory this Jewish counsel beheld. Was this  San-           their justification. This meant that the temple had been
hedrin not led by Annas, Caiaphas, the Sadducean high-         broken down, and had been rebuilt by Jesus in three
priests and the rest? And had theynot  had before them         days, and that now the ceremonial laws had been super-
another man, the Christ of God, whom they had con-             ceded by a better covenant, based upon better promises.
demned as worthy of death because he said he was the           It meant the fulfilment of the Abrahamic promises "in
Son of God? (Matthew  26:63) Well, here stands a man           thee shall all nations be blessed." (Galatians  3:8,
before them who reminds them of the words of this              Genesis  12:3)
Jesus Who said, "From now on ye shall see the Son of              This question was possibly not meant by the  high-
man seated at the right hand of power, and coming in           priest Caiaphas in this pregnant sense.  Itwas  possibly
the clouds of heaven." (Matthew  26:64)                        meant on the low level of a mere formality. This man
   Were not the very heavens "opened" here as a                was to be processed by the court. His doom is pre-
completed state and fact, `and would not Stephen. see          judged by this high-priest without a doubt. But God
the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Are          has a higher and more important cause and purpose.
these "wolves" not now reminded here of the "LAMB"             Stephen must stand here before this Sanhedrin  - a
whom they had slain, from the countenance  of-Stephen,         testimony unto them!
and presently from his' lips ?                                    Stephen need not become -anxious and distracted as
   It is a glorious hour for Stephen.                          he stands here suddenly before -this counsel. He will
   For this wicked Jewish court this is  -something            presently address them, refute them, condemn them with
dreadful to gaze upon.    For this Sanhedrin has a cov-        the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. For it is not
ering over their heart so that they cannot, believingly        Stephen who speaks, but the Spirit of our heavenly
see the more excellent glory of grace.          They do not    Father is speaking through him, by his lips. And the
understand that the glory of the law which killeth, hath       Scriptures will be opened; the true meaning of Israel's
no glory by reason of the greater glory of God. (II Cor-       place as a nation will be set in bold relief; it will be-
inthians 3:10,11)                        .                     come evident that now truly. the "Romans shall come
   On the face of Stephen is reflected the "sign" of the       and take `away both their place and nation." Their
Son of Man, Whom Daniel sees in thenight  visions upon         place and nation was taken away at Calvary! Their
his bed, and Who came in the fulness of time and as-           house is left desolate as a Jewish nation. For God
cended on high, and who now continues this work here           does not dwell in temples made with hands !


i  "                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

     0, awesome question: Are these things thus?               This is the majestic triumph of whichPaulspeaks  when
     Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets.          he says, "Now thanks be to God, which always causes
  Here is where' the Lord was crucified. It is the city        us to triumph in Christ, andmakethmanifest the savour
  which is spiritually Sodom and Egypt, both wicked and        of his knowledge in every place. For we are unto God
  enslaved.    But to them were the oracles of God en-         a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved and
  trusted.     And they shall hear these Scriptures of         in them that perish: to the one we are a savour of
  which they have been custodians, and which Scriptures,       death unto death: and to the other the savour of life
  though read by them every Sabbath, are neither under-        unto life.    And who is sufficient unto these things?
  stood nor believed!                                          For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of
     Yes, these things are thus, though in sense at once       God: but as of sincerity, as of God, in the sight of
  far more exalted and glorious than this petrified priest-    God speak we in Christ."
  hood in Jerusalem and the accusers understand!                  Such is the very bone and marrow of Stephen's
     Shall Stephen deny the meaning of the blood of the        apology.
  Lamb of God which is the fulfilment of the promise?             It is truly the controversy of the living God with
  Shall he gloss over the cruel and unbelieving opposi-        Israel to whom the oracles of God were intrusted.
  tion of the reprobate Israel at every step and juncture         Was not that the preeminence of the Jew? (Romans
  of the history of God's Covenant?                            3:2)
     He will confess Christ before men, and be confessed          But now there is the great confrontation. It is the
  by Him before the Father in heaven!                          .confrontation  of all Jewish legalism and particularism
                                                               with the Gospel of the Promise to Abraham as uttered
  THE CHIEF POINTS OF STEPHEN'S APOLOGY                        by the Lord of glory and with the universality of the
                                                               Gospel to all nations, tongues, tribes and people.
     Perhaps it is important that I first say just a word         The question is not who has the "Law" (Old  Testa-
  about the term "apology" as I employ it here, and as         .ment Scriptures) but rather who interprets the Scroll
  it is a fit term to express the answer of Stephen  (?) to    of the Book correctly; who gives the sense of the
  the Sanhedrin.         The term comes from the Greek         Spirit of prophecy and of fulfillment, Stephen or these
  language.    It literally means: to speak away from.         Hellenistic Jews, Saul of Tarsus included! And in this
  That means that the speaker is on the defensive, one         Apology we are given an excellent  `<case study", inci-
  might suggest? I would rather say that good "apology"        dentally, of good and sound Hermeneutics, (science of
  is very offensive in nature. It is positive defense of       interpretation) solid and irrefutable exegesis, valid
  the truth of the Gospel, of God, His truth, His judg-        and legitimate conclusions. Besides, we have here the
  ments, His salvation, His love, and His glory. It is         true viewpoint of any preacher who addresses the
  never used in Scripture in the sense in which in our         church of God in the world at any time, as elect and
  English parlance it generally comes to mean "an ad-          reprobate, believers and disobedient, the chaff and the
  mission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an            wheat, as they are organically connected in the church
  expression of regret." (Webster)                             of God in the world! Here is key-power of the highest
     In our present writing it means nothing more and          order, opening the kingdom to believers, and closing
  nothing less than a "formal justification." Inthe Bible      it against unbelievers !
  the term is translated "answer" in I Corinthians  9:3,          This controversy of the Lord as executed in the
  II Timothy  4:16, and I Peter  3:15. It is translated        trial and apology of Stephen touches on the following
  "clearing of one's self" in II Corinthians  7:ll. Fi-        points.
  nally, it is translated "defense" in Acts  22:1, Philip-        1. The giving of the promise by the "God of glory"
  pians  1:7, 17. In each of these cases it is ever taken      to Abraham as it is for all nations, sketching this
  in the positive sense, and never in the sense of ex-         history  up'. till the time of the law-giving through
  pression of admission of error and regret.                   Moses. (Acts 7:2-16)
     Here we have true "apologetics" !                            2. The time of the fulfillment of the promise by
     It is the apology of the `Lord Himself who has a          delivering Israel out of Egypt through Moses, and the
  "controversy" with sinners.                                  giving of the law and the building of the tabernacle ac-
     We may well write above this "apology" of Stephen         cording to the pattern shown Moses on the Mount.
  the words of the prophet Micah "Hear ye, o mountains,        (Acts  7:17-40)
  the LORD'S controversy, and ye strong foundations of            3. The history of apostasy of Israel from Moses
  the earth; for the LORD hath a c-o-n-t-r-o-v-e-r-s-y         till the Babylonian captivity; the sin of idolatry and
  with his people, and he will plead with Israel." (Micah      departure from the worship of the temple and its sub-
  6:2) For the Lord is here speaking by the Spirit of the      sequent destruction. (Acts  7:43)
  risen and glorified Christ; and it is truly "controversy"       4. The true temple of God, the type shown Moses
  of the highest order, full of themajestyof Christ. Here      on the mount, in its fulfillment  inthe spiritual temple
  is truly an ambassador  of.God  who says: be ye recon-       of God's church. (Acts  7:49)
  ciled to God, as if God were speaking through him. It           5. The Sanhedrin and all fleshly Israel placed in
  is here not a cheap hawking of the Gospel, but a pointing    the. class of those who always resisted the .Holy Ghost,
  out of the tragedy of unbelief in Israel's history, and      being disobedient and unbelieving to the promise of
  an identification of these unbelievers with the unbelief     God to Abraham, as this promise is gradually unfolded
  of the reprobate Israel, to their eternal condemnation.      in the temple-worship, the shadows and types.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          67




                         ALL AROUND  US-

                                  Prof. H.  Hank0                    Union of Evangelicals

                                                                      Progress With Blake and Pike




UNION OF EVANGELICALS                                           (and principal) interest. Surely, if doctrinal obstacles
   The tides of ecumenicity run strongly and seemingly          can be removed, the rest is bound to follow of itself,
irresistibly.       Most of it is evil, and the Church of       for the form of the church and questions of the Chris-
Christ can have no part of it.                                  tian life flow forth from doctrine.
   But what about the faithful people of God who are               In connection then with this second category, the
still waging a battle for the truth within many separate        author comes to the overriding question of Calvinism
denominations?         Is it not their calling also to come     vs. Arminianism. This is indeed an important ques-
together into one ecclesiastical household?           Ought     tion. How often has it not troubled us that those who
they not make every effort to join in the cause of              seem to be fighting for the truth in denominations
Christ?                                                         where liberalism and modernism run rampant never-
   There are several options. There is the RES -the             theless vitiate their witness with Arminianism?
Reformed Ecumenical Synod which is not an organic                  The author writes about this problem as follows:
union of denominations, but a grouping of several de-                  On the other hand we must not minimize the very
nominations who all belong to the Reformed faith.                   real doctrinal obstacles to unity within evangelical
Our Synod has gone on record as favoring some contact               Protestantism.    Most important - and perhaps most
with this organization. There is the ICCC -- the Inter-             representative - is the conflict between the Arminian
national Council of Christian Churches which, headed                and the Calvinistic views on the plan of salvation. This
by Dr. Carl McIntyre, is also a loosely knit organiza-              difference is not imagined - it is not superficial - it is
tion of all churches who still maintain "the evangelical            not irrelevant. Any merger movement which tries to
                                                                    bypass the issue of the relation of freedom to sover-
faith' ' . To this organization our Synod was invited this          eignty in theology is not really being helpful. This
year.      Synod declined chiefly on the basis of the fact          issue (and others like it) belongs to the heart of things.
that there are all kinds of "Holiness" Churches and                    It was the iron in Calvinism which made St. Bar-
"Pentecostal" groups which belong; that therefore                   tholomew's Day one to remember in French history;
this organization stands outside the stream of Re-                  which brought Scotland her freedom; and which popu-
formed tradition.                                                   lated New England with Pilgrims.         And it was the
   But this has not yet touched upon the problem of                 passion of Arminianism --from Wesley to the New
organic church union; i.e., merger with others into one             World frontier-which often brought the flame of re-
denomination. Are we in favor of this ?                             vival when the iron had turned to dead wood.
                                                                       Surely there cannot be a hopeless incompatibility
   For the believer, the answer ought to be and un-                 between interpretations of the Gospel that each have
doubtedly is a resounding "yes". Our Church Order,                  been blessed with such clear evidences of the Lord's
e.g., speaks of not rejecting churches "whose usages                approval -- no matter how irreconcilable they may seem
differ from ours merely in non-essentials". This unity              to us. If it is true that by their fruits ye shall know
is certainly the content of the prayers of God's people.            them,  both are of God. Surely the truth which is in
   But there are .problems.                                         Christ Jesus must somehow include both the iron of
   The editor of the  Presbyterian  Joumal   recently               Calvin and the flame of Arminius. Without  compro-
turned his attention to this question and to these prob-           .mising conviction in any way perhaps it is the task of
                                                                   this generation to search out the possibilities of bring-
lems.      He did this in an article entitled "Things That          ing these seeming opposites together. For many of 
Separate Evangelicals". There is no space in these                                                                          US
                                                                   they already come close. I remember the sage advice
columns to discuss this rather important article in                 of my homiletics professor who told his classes:
detail. Nor is this presently necessary. But one sec-               "Gentlemen, believe like a Presbyterian and preach
tion of it particularly attracts our attention.         The         like a Methodist!" Perhaps in the emphasis there is
author finds, generally speaking, three categories of               a clue.
issues which separate  evangelicals.  These are: 1) The            As you can see, this solution brings Calvinists and
Church -- questions relating to its form, its order; its        Arminians into a union in which each maintains his own
authority.       2) The Gospel -- questions relating to pri-    position, complements the other and lives  inecclesias-
mary doctrine and beliefs.         3) The Christian Life --     tical fellowship in this manner.
questions relating to the fruits of the Spirit, to the             We shall have to go on record as emphatically dis-
separated life, to discipline, etc.                             approving of this sort of union.           It would be a dis-
   It is this second category  which~  is of immediate          astrous marriage.


68                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


      The reasons are obvious.                                 into the largest denomination in this country outside of
      In the first place, the two (Arminianism andcalvin-      Roman Catholicism the United Presbyterians, the
ism) can never  complement  each other. They are dia-          Episcopalians and the members of the United Church
metrically opposed to each other.        And this is true      of Christ.
because Calvinism is based on Scripture and  Armin-               Although there has not been much news lately about
ianism is a denial of Scripture.        It is not merely a    progress in merger talks, the original planners of this
question of "by their fruits ye shall know them". It is       merger consistently come into the news.
rather a question of which is in harmony with God's               Concerning Eugene Carson Blake, the PYesbytevian
revelation.     The answer to this question is beyond         Journal reported on a speech he recently made in which
doubt.     There is here then a fatal flaw, for the true      he made, among others, the following points: 1) the
union of the saints  - union which is going to be suc-        Presbyterian Churches should be prepared to accept
cessful can take place only on the basis of Scripture.        bishops as a condition of merger. This was because
There cannot be room for compromise here any more             churches without bishops are in the minority. Hence,
than anywhere else. Our basic objection against all           although Blake did not say this, the merger would be
ecumenicism has always been that the truth is sacri-          another step away from historical Protestantism and
ficed on the altar of unity. Churches join by compro-         another step closer to Roman Catholicism. 2) There
mise of the truth. We cannot now do what we criticize         are many other churches which have parts of the truth,
others for doing.                                             and merger between them would be mutually enriching.
      Secondly (and this point cannot be divorced from        He said nothing about mutual destruction through con-
what I have just said), the church has historically con-      tinuous absorption of the lie. 3) The new "Confession
demned Arminianism as a heresy so terrible that there         of Faith of 1967" (the confession which the Presby-
cannot be room for it within the  churchof Christ. This       terian Church is preparing to adopt, which would do
was done especially at Dordrecht in 1618-1619. It may         away with the historic creeds of the Church) is not in-
be objected that this condemnation of Arminianism was         tended, Blake says, to down-grade Scripture.,          The
done by only one branch of the church -- that branch in       point is that there is question as to how Scripture must
the Netherlands which produced the Reformed Churches;         be interpreted; and it is well to get rid of the idea prev-
and that therefore this has nothing to do with say,           alent in some Reformed Churches that Scripture is
Presbyterianism.      But even this is not true. At  Dord-    of absolutely equal authority in every part of it over
recht were met delegates from all the Calvinistic             all of faith and life.
Churches of the Reformation. These concurred in the               The other party in these merger proposals has re-
decisions of Dordrecht and also signed the Canons which       cently been under fire within his own denomination.
this Synod adopted in condemnation of Arminianism.            Bishop Pike had charges brought against him by four-
                                                              teen (although one later retracted his charges) of his
      We cannot and may not now go back and undo what         colleagues from Arizona. They charged him  withdeny-
they did. We cannot and may not ignore the Spirit of          ing the divinity of Christ, the incarnation, the resur-
Truth which led the Church to this development of the         rection of Christ from the dead, and the truth of the
truth and condemnation of the lie in a bygone era.            trinity. That he indeed denies these most fundamental
This would be a sin of the first magnitude, and it would      truths has long been evident. It has been generally
destroy our firm connections with the church of all           known for years that he considered these Scriptural
ages and cut us loose to drift hopelessly on the eccles-      doctrines to be only myths and that their historic
iastical seas. The result would be (and this is, after        teachings have blocked modern man's search for faith.
all, the logical conclusion of Arminianism) that we               These ministers protesting his heresy asked that
would be wrecked on the shoals of liberalism and mod-         the church require of Pike that he publicly repudiate
ernism after all.                                             these views or stand trial for heresy. And, if neces-
      To change the metaphor, we destroy the foundations      sary, that he be put out of the bishopric.
upon which we are supposed to build.                              But it .didn't work. The Episcopal House of Bishops,
      Union is indeed to be strongly desired with all         meeting in Glacier National Park, was in no mood for
God's people. But it must be union of those who love          a heresy trial.     Pike was his own attorney for the de-
the truth of Scripture and who stand together in the          fense; and when he stated  -that he would publicly de-
battle for the faith. For this goal we must strive and        fend his orthodoxy, the House of Bishops worked out a
pray.                                                         compromise in which they expressed satisfaction with
  The union of the body of Christ is not a crazy patch-       the sincerity of Pike's faith and admitted the right of
work of disagreeing entities stitched together in false       ministers to put old truths in new formulations. Of
union.     It is a unity of the organism of the body of       Pike they demanded nothing more than that he express
Christ of which Christ is the Head.                           his loyalty to the church and promise not to be too
PROGRESS WITH-BLAKE AND PlUE                                  blunt in what-he wrote and spoke.
                                                                 One can scarcely imagine what an evil merger this
      We have at various times reported in this column        will be when these two men are at its head.
of the huge church merger proposed jointly by Eugene             And, indeed, this is proof positive that it is no
Carson Blake, Stated Clerk of the United Presbyterian         longer possible to exercise discipline within thechurch
Church and Bishop James Pike of the Episcopal                 even when the most outrageous heresies are being
Church. This merger, if effected, would bringtogether         taught.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           69


EXAMINING  ECUMENICALISM-

                         V a t i c a n   C o u n c i l   -  T h i r d   S e s s i o n   ( 1 )

                                                    by Rev. G. Van  Baven

   One of the intents of this rubric is to review the           this speech. First, the Roman pontiff made plain that
continuing sessions of the Second Vatican Council being         he considered the decisions on the relationship be-
held in Rome. The reader may recall that about one              tween pope and bishops to be of extremely great im-
and a half years ago the present writer presented six           portance.     The first Vatican Council (1869-1870) had
articles on the first two sessions of this Council. A           established the dogma of papal infallibility in matters
re-reading of those articles may be helpful for a better        of morals and doctrine. That council was hastily ad-
understanding of what has been going on at the Council.         journed because of the threats of war then raging.  It
The third session is already ancient history: it met            was unable to define further the relationship of the
from September 14 through November 21 of last year.             bishops to this "infallible" pope. One goal for the
Fact is, when this article appears in print, the fourth         second Vatican Council was to remedy  this.deficiency.
and probably last session will be in progress -- it begins      Now the present pope gave his views:
meeting on September 14.         In this, and subsequent                The Council has many other important subjects to
articles, I hope to review the third session, and then,             treat of, but this one (bishop-pope relationship) seems
hopefully, continue with events of the fourth session.              to us to be the weightiest and most delicate. The
   Many Protestants have envied the Roman church                    Council's deliberations on this subject will certainly
for its ability to publicize the actions of its Council             be what distinguishes this solemn and historic synod
over the whole world.       Hardly a day goes by, during            in the memory of future ages.
the sessions, that press releases do not appear in every                It must undertake a number of difficult theological
local paper. Every religious magazine both Protestant,              discussions, it must determine the nature and mission
                                                                    of the pastors of the church, it must discuss, and with
Roman Catholic, and others contain detailed reports                 the favor of the Holy Spirit, decide the constitutional
of the Council. One editor wrote:                                   prerogatives of the episcopate, it must delineate the
                                                                    relations between the episcopate and the Holy See. . . .2
       The Vatican Council takes first prize as the most
    universally publicized religious event since the flood.         The pope made plain, though, that the Council could
    No religious occasion'in recent centuries has been so       in no way rescind the decision of the first Vatican
    widely, completely and quickly reported as have been        Council on papal infallibility:
    the first two sessions of the Roman Catholic Church's
    23rd Ecumenical Council.      The coverage which the                The present ecumenical council is certainly going
    council has received from every medium of communi-              to confirm the doctrine of the previous one regarding
    cation, the daily blow-by-blow accounts of council              the prerogatives of the Roman Pontiff. But it will also
    proceedings, the secular press's publishing of long             have as its principal objective the task of describing
    extracts from the council's deliberations and deci-             and honoring the prerogatives of the episcopate. . . .
    sions, the plethora of human-interest stories-all of                As successors of Peter and, therefore, possessors
    these have been the envy of Protestant communications           of full power over the entire church, we have the duty
    experts. 1                                                      of heading the body of the episcopate, although.we are
                                                                    surely unworthy of this dignity. Nevertheless, our posi-
   These articles, though in a very limited way, will               tion is in no way among the first to respect that sacred
further publicize this event taking place in the Romish             authority. If our apostolic duty obliges us to impose
Church.                                                             restrictions, to define terminology, to prescribe modes
   On September 14, 1964, over 2,000 Roman Catholic                 of action, to regulate the methods which concern the
                                                                    exercise of episcopal authority, you realize that this
prelates, mostly bishops, gathered for the third time               is done for the good of the entire church. . . .
in St. Peter's basilica in Rome. Many schemata re-                      No one should regard as a device formulated by
mained on the agendum of the council. Many hopes and                pride such centralization which will surely be always
fears were expressed by both Roman Catholic and                     tempered and balanced by an alert and timely delega-
Protestant.       There were especially questions asked             tion both of authority and of facilities for local pas-
concerning the possibility -of bringing closer together             tors. . . .
Protestant and Roman Catholic.                                          Oh, how deeply we admire, how staunchly we sup-
                                                                    port the rights and duties proper to the sacred hier-
                                                                    archy, which is the very instrument, born of the
POPE PAUL'S OPENING SPEECH                   -.                     charity of Christ, and fashioned by Him to complete,
   At the opening meeting of the third session, accord-             to communicate, and to safeguard the integral and
ing to custom, Pope Paul VI gave the opening speech.                fruitful transmission of the treasures of faith. . . .
                                                                        The hierarchy is the mother of the community of
Because of his position and power, the speech serves                the faithful. . . .
somewhat as a guide for the Council. It sets the pace,                  Placed at the head of this sacred institution, how
as it were, for the whole of- the Romish church. There              could we fail to devote to it our solicitude, our trust,
are therefore several points which are noteworthy in                our support? How could we fail to defend it?2


7            0                                          THE STANDARD BEARkR


     But also a second significant element was noted in            detail later. The first decree is the "Constitution on
the pontiff's speech. He showed great "ecumenical"                 the Church." It is this decree whichappears to modify
concern.          He made it a point not to antagonize Prot-       the relationship between pope and bishops. It also is
estants.          Not only did he refrain from calling them        concerned with the greatly debated stand over against
"schismatics" as had been done by earlier popes, he                the Jew. And it treats  inone of its chapters the subject
went beyond calling them "separated brethren." He                  of Mary. The second decree is on "Ecumenism." The
speaks of them as "Christian communities" and even                 third discusses the "Eastern Churches."
as "churches."                                                        .As this third session was drawing to its close, many
        We shall therefore strive, in loyalty to the unity of      observe&  were convinced that great and favorable
     Christ's church, to understand better and to welcome          changes were about to take place in the Romish church.
     all that is genuine and admissible in the different           Then the Pope, suddenly and apparently unexpectedly,
     Christian denominations that are distinct from us, and
     at the same time we beg of them to try to understand          autocratically intervened in the actions of the Council
     the Catholic faith and life better and, when we invite        --in opposition to the will of the great majority. His
     them to enter into the fullness of truth and charity          action deeply disturbed both Protestant observer as
     which, as an unmerited blessing but a formidable              well as Roman Catholic participants.                    Time  reported
     responsibility, Christ has charged us to preserve, we         it thus:
     beg of them not to take it in bad part, but as being
     prompted by respect and brotherly love. . . .                          Paul VI last week coldly and dramatically reaf-
        Oh, churches that are so far and yet so close to us.           firmed that it is the Pope, and not the bishops of the
     Churches for whom our heart is filled with longing.               Vatican Council, who really runs the Roman Catholic
     Churches, the nostalgia of our           sleepless nights.        Church. Just as the third session of the council was
     Churches of our tears and of our desire to do you honor           ending, Pope Paul -siding with conservative cardinals
     by our embrace in the sincere love of Christ, oh may              of the Roman Curia--took a major decision out of the
     you hear, sounding from this keystone of unity, the               hands of the progressive majority of prelates. There-
     tomb of Peter, apostle and martyr, and from this                  by,  he. raised doubts whether he essentially favors the
     Ecumenical Council of brotherhood and peace, the                  aggichumento begun by John XXIII and whether he in-
     loving cry we send you. . . -2                                    tends to give anything more than lip service to col-
                                                                       legiality-- the doctrine, approved by the bishops, that
SUMMARY OF THE THIRD SESSION                                           they, as descendants of the Apostles, share ruling
                                                                       authority over the church with the Pope.
     There  were  many strange things which took place                      The bishops' sudden awakening to realities came
on the third session. There was again a marked di-                     two days before the session's end, when they were
vision between what might be called the "liberals" and                 scheduled to vote on a revised declaration on religious
"conservatives" in the church. The "liberals" by far                   liberty that strongly defended the right of' all men to
outnumbered the "conservatives," yet these latter                      worship God as conscience dictates. Just before the
managed often to frustrate the desire of the majority.                 balloting, Eugene Cardinal Tisserant, chairman of the
                                                                       twelve council ,presidents, announced that "manyfathers
I hope to call your attention to this in subsequent                    have objected that there has not been sufficient time
articles.                                                              to consider the declaration. It seems proper therefore
     One schema was not yet finally voted upon - despite               to the presidency that this question should not be de-
the will of the majority to do so. It dealt with the                   cided now. We will not proceed to a vote."3
matter of religious liberty  - the "right" of man to
worship according to the convictions of his conscience.               A petition was presented to the pope, signed by a
This is a rather touchy subject-particularly for                   majority of bishops, but was turned down by the pope.
bishops from predominantly Roman Catholic countries.               At the same time, on his own authority, he made 19
For historically the Romish church appears willing to              changes in the final draft of a schema on Christian
agree to a "religious liberty" only in suchlands where             unity, and also announced that he would proclaim Mary
it is in the minority. And when it appeared that a final           as "mother of the, Church" - a title that -the bishops
vote was ready to be taken, the "conservatives" man-               had deliberately avoided.             So the third session ended
aged to postpone the final vote until- the next session of         with grave doubts expressed by many.
the Council.
     Three decrees were promulgated, that is, approved             1. Christian  Century,. February 19, -1964, page 227
by majority `vote of the council and officially endorsed           2. Vital ;Speeches,  October 1, 1964, page 739ff.
by the-Pope. I expect, D.V., to examine,these in greater           3. Time:  November 27, 1964, 66
                                                                                                            page


                      RESOLUTION   OF  SYMF'ATHY
       The Men's Society of the Edgerton  Protestant Reformed                                RESOLUTION   OF  SYMPATHY
       Church wishes to express. its sincere sympathy to the               The Ladies Society of Hudsonville Church wishes to
       sons and grandsons of                                               express its sympathy to Rev. G. Vos, in the passing
                     MR.  ARTHUR   BLEYENBERG,   SR.                       of his sister,
      who was taken home by our Lord on Oct. 3,196s  at the                                      MRS.   RENA   LUYK
       age of 93.                                                          May the Lord graciously comfort and sustain the sor-
            May the God of grace comfort the hearts of the                 rowing ones.
       bereaved.                                                                                           Ha&y Zwak, Vice-Pres.
                                    Rev. B. Woudenberg, Pres.                                          tis.  G.  Vander   Kooy,   Sec'y.
                       -"           Mr. Gerald Kuiper, Sec'y.
                                                                      -


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                         72


               AnnHal Secretary's Report
                     To The R.F.P.A.                                             Annual Financial Report
Dear Brethren:
        Reporting for the Board of the R.F.P.A. in this, the    Balance on hand September 1, 1964                               $  1,336.81
forty-first year of  the-  Standard   Beaver,   our thoughts
are in harmony with the words that appeared on the              Receipts
cover `of the first issue, October 1, 1965: "Thanks Be          Subscriptions                      $3,674.10
to God." For'itis  of a certainty, the Lord has strength-       Membership                            166.00
ened and -blessed us in our witness to His Word                 Gifts .                             4,824.30
these twelve months.                                            Advertising                           164.00
        The I  & E Committee, one of our three standing         Bound Volumes                        525.00.
committees, was busy in its continuing efforts to en-                   T&i                        $9,353.40                    $  9,353.40
large the place that our paper has in the field of Re-                         Total receipts                                   $10,,690.21
formed publications. They are now busy working with
the Mission Board and local consistories in  an. attempt        Disbursements
to reach persons outside our churches who may be                Wobbema Printing                   $8,368.68
aroused to an interest in the truth as we are privileged        Miscellaneous                         176.50
to know it.                                                     Holland Bookbinding                   350.00
        Our Finance Committee, always aware of the need         Mr. Dykstra (gift)                    300.00
of a continual strong support from our people, requests              - T o t a l                   $9,195.73                    !$  9,195.73
that you remember the Standard  Beavevwith a generous                     Balance on  hand---September  1, 1965  $  1,494.48
gift whenever you are asked, be it through a church
offering or at the time of your subscription renewal.           Gifts
        The Book Committee has been busy mostly with            Randolph                                        $ 57.20
the binding and sending out of the- bound volumes.              Hope                                               346.80
There  hasp been some increase also in requests for             South Holland                                      281.83
individual copies. Of volume 40, 75 copies have been.           First                                            1,112.31
sent out.        The committee  ,also filled an order for a     Hull                                               131.73
complete set of volumes.                                        Hudsonville                                        385.32
        Presently the total number of copies printed for        Southwest                                          156.07
each issue stands  `at 1139, compared with 1120  a'year         Redlands                                           247.73
ago. 939 are sent as paid subscriptions and compli-             Doon                                                 9 7 . 5 9
mentary copies; 60 are for the Mission Board, of                Southeast                                          174.33
which 25 go to Jamaica; 110 are reserved for stock              Oaklawn                                              64.74
and bound volumes; and 50 are kept as a mailing mar-            Holland                                              9 2 . 9 6
gin.                                                            Edgerton                                            26.95
        For the year we had a total of 72 new subscriptions     Kalamazoo                                            3 8 . 0 5
and 46 cancellations, a net gain of 26, compared to an          Loveland                                             39.61
increase of 23 last year.                                       Lynden                                               29.23
        The board expresses its sincere appreciation to Mr.     I s a b e l                                          23.55
James Dykstra, who has again faithfully performed the           Pella                                                25.00
business affairs of our publication.                            Mary -- Martha (Redlands)                            25.00
        We had four requests for permission  .to reprint        Hope Men's Society                                   25.00
some articles of the  ,%!a&&   Beaver.  Of the four,            Eastern Ladies' League                               95.25
two were from outside the sphere of our churches;               First Jr. Mr.  & Mrs.                                48.99
   The board, in memory of Rev. H. Hoeksema, gives              Hope Ladies' Aid                                    50.00              _
thanks to God for all the -years he has labored in behalf       First Men's Society                                  75.00
of  the,  Standard  Bear&. We believe that the Lord has         South Holland Ladies' Society                       50.00
blessed and directed his labors to the end that the             Randolph Ladies' Society                             10.00
truth of Scripture has been more clearly revealed.         -    F i r s t   L a d i e s ' A i d                      50.00
   The Treasurer's Report of the Permanent Com-                 P; R. Men's League                               4 0 . 0 0
mittee for the Publication of- Reformed Literature,             Western Ladies' League                               44.65
shows their balance on hand September 1, 1965, as               40th Anniversary Collection                        312.91
$5,980.46.                                                      R.F.P.A. Collection                                  15.50
   May everyone of  us- pledge his best efforts and             First Priscilla Society                             55.00
support toward the continuance of our magazine. Also            Hope Mr. and Mrs.                                   50.00
may we seek the Lord's blessing in this labor; for              Individuals                                      5 4 6 . 0 0
without His blessing our labors are in vain.                            Total                                   $4,824.30
                                - G. Bouwkamp, Secretary                                                        D. Knoper, Treasurer


                                                                              ~__-
72                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


                    1
                             NEWS  FROM OUR CHURCHES-                    ~,AL/ the saints salute thee . . T Phil. 4~1)

                                              October 15, 1965     parsonage in the center of the town of Forbes. On
      Rev. J. Kortering has declined the call from Ran-            Thursday afternoon the movers set the building on its
dolph, Wis.              Lynden, Wash. has called the Rev. B.      foundation; Friday evening saw the organ and books
Woudenberg, of Doon, Iowa.
             j-.                                                   moved from their former meeting place - a schoolhouse
                                 ***                               in the country -- to their new location; Saturday the men
      Sunday, Oct. 3, Rev. M. Schipper,  of Southeast Church,      built the front steps and the ladies gave the church a
officiated  ,at the installation of Rev. G. Van  Baren  in         thorough cleaning; thus everything was ready for the
First Church, Grand Rapids. The sermon was an ex-                  services on Sunday. This needed church property was
position of 2:Tim. 4:2, by which the speaker charged the           provided by the Lord at a cost of about  !$2,500.00  To
new  ministe?  to "Preach the Gospel." The theme de-               meet this cost the church will seek assistance from
veloped the truth that this charge is unique, constant,            our other churches.               Classis  West has already ap-
and serious. Rev. Van  Baren  preached his inaugural               proved the request; and when the consistories receive
sermon that evening based on 1 Cor.  9:16 under the                it, the  .little congregation urges that liberality be
theme, "The Necessity of Preaching the Gospel." The                shown, that their needs may be provided. Thus the last
following Wednesday evening Rev. Van  Baren and his                of our congregations has obtained its own  churchproper-
family were given a congregational welcome with a short            ty, which is a cause of rejoicing, not only for Forbes,
program in the auditorium and a social gathering in                but throughout. our churches.  (This  contribution was
the church parlors. At this writing Rev. Van  Baren                sent in  6y  MY.  Mile  Dewald, their clerk.)
has plunged into the work of catechisms, family visi-                         I                      * * *
tation, pastoral  calls on the sick and preaching. It is               We dope to have the description and a picture of
the prayer of First Church that the Lord may be pleased            Forbes' `new church in our next issue if it is received
to prosper their new minister in their midst.                      in time. I
                                 * *  *                                                              * *  *
      Rev. G. Lanting, of Holland,  Mich. was recently                 Rev. /C. Hanko, of Redlands, Calif. was delegated to
scheduled to lecture on two occasions. At the Annual               Classis  `West, which met in South Holland, Ill. He
Standard Bearer Meeting he spoke on, "A Personal                   made a hurried trip to Grand Rapids to see his children
Calling" in which he pointed out that the dissemination            and grandchildren for a very short visit. His itinerary:
of the truth found in our magazine was a personal                  Arrived `in South Holland at 4 A.M., attended  Classis,
challenge to each member of our society, and of the                drove to Grand Rapids and back to Chicago; flew to
entire membership of our denomination. Rev. Lanting                California, and back home at 10 P.M.  the same day!  It
spoke at the Office Bearer's Conference, held Oct. 5,              sounds impossible, but with the speed of Jet aircraft
answering two questions, "May the diaconate of one                 and the time differential taken into account, it can be
church offer assistance to another diaconate when an               done1           j
outstanding need exists  ?" and, "Must that diaconate                                                * * *
who offers assistance have the approval of their                       Rev.  :D. Engelsma's catechism classes are some-
elders ?" To both questions the speaker gave affirma-              what separated by distance. Tuesdays and Wednesday
tive answers, giving reasons founded on the Scriptures             afternoons he holds classes in Loveland, and Wednes-
and our Church Order.                                              day evenings he has two in Denver. His Adult Bible
                                 *  *  *                           Classes  ~follow  the catechisms in both places: Love-
      The Reformed Witness Hour presents Rev. J.  Kor-             land's  class now treating the 16th chapter of the Book
tering, of Hull, Iowa, on their program Nov. 7 and 14,             of Acts, and Denver's studying the 17thchapter thereof.
and Rev. B. Woudenberg, of  Doon, Iowa, the next four                                                * * *
Sundays. The topics for November are: Nov. 7 -- "The                   Both  `Classis East and  Classis  West have recessed
Days of Prophecy" (Acts  2:27,28);  Nov. 14  - "The                to a later time,  Classis  East to Nov. 3 and  Classis
Righteous Scarcely Saved" (I Pet.  4:17,18); Nov.  21-             West to January.            In both cases there was too much
"The Christian Stranger" (I Pet.  1:1,.2); Nov. 28  -              material: to be treated on the floor of  classis, and it
"The Christian's Hope" (I Pet. 1:3-5). Free copies                 was referred to committee for study and recommen-
of these sermons can be obtained by writing to The                 dation. Rev. G. Vos, of Hudsonville, was the only min-
Reformed Witness Hour, P.O. Box 1230, Grand Rapids                 ister unable to attend his  classis -due to a virus in-
1, Mich.                                                           fection which kept him indoors. Reports of  classis
                                 *  *  *                           meetings; will be made public when their work is
      Sunday, Oct. 3 will be a date of special remembrance         finished. i
to the congregation of Forbes, N.D. It was on that date                                              *  *  *
that the congregation gathered for the first time in their             Know: this fivs t: "That no prophecy of the Scripture
newly acquired church building. Joy and thanksgiving               is of private interpretation. For the prophecy came
overwhelmed the flock.             During the previous week the    not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God
building was moved from the neighboring vicinity of                spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." (2 Pet.
Ashley, N.D., some 25 miles distant. The men of the                1:21.)
congregation erected the foundation on a lot next to the              . . . . see you in church.                 .         J.M.F.


