                                    he

                             tandad

                                           earer


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




IN THIS  ISS-UE:

       Meditation: Expecting the New


       Editorials: The Nature of the Atonement: Limited or General?


       Vainglorious Man in the Space Age

       The Formula of Subscription Under  Attack

       Barth's Doctrine of Scripture.


                                          Volume  XLII/  Numbev  7/  Janwlvy  1, 1966


       146                                                                                                         THE  STAND&D  BEARER



                                                     CONT,ENTS                                                                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
       M e d i t a t i o n   -
              Expecting the New! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146                        Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
                    Rev. M.  Schipper
       Editorials  -                                                                                                                              Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
             The Nature of the Atonement:                                                                                                                         Editor-.   Prof.  Hi C. Hoeksema  a
                  Limited or General7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
                    Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                      Communications relative to contents should `be addressed to
 -           Vainglorious Man in the Space Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151                                                    Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace,  S.E.;Grand
      .--~  - Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                            Rapids,  Mich.          49506.      Contributions will be `limited to 300
       Heeding the Doctrine -                                                                                                                 words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
             Barth's Doctrine of Scripture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151                                          lines are the first and fifteenth of the month.
                    Rev. D. J.  Eng%isma                                                                                                      All church news items should beaddressed toMr. J. M. Faber,
       A Cloud of Witnesses -                                                                                                                         1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
             The Anointing of Saul ..,................................... .154
                    Rev. B. Woudenberg                                                          -.                                            Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included must
       The Lord Gave the Word -                                                                                                               be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below;
             Vicarious Atonement and Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156                                                     All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
                    Rev. C. Hanko                                                                                           -                           Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
       Trying the Spirits -                                                                                                                                         Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
_.~          Baha'ism . . . . . . . . . . l... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    158
                    Rev. R. C. Harbach                                                                                                            Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
       The Church at Worship -                                                                                                                received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
                                                                                   -._
             The Purpose of the Lord's Supper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..i. 160                                                      scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
                    Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg                                                                                                                        Subscription price: $5.00 per year
       Contending for the Faith -                                                                                                                  Second Class P_ostage  paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
             The Doctrine of Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
                    Rev. H. Veldman
       All Around Us -                                                                                                                                                                                              --
             The Formula of Subscription Under Attack
             A Letter From Moscow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
                    Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                                                                  NOTICE
       Book Reviews -                                                                                                                          The Classical Committee of  Classis  West has decided
             The Lord Protector
             Faith on Trial                                                                                                                    t o   d e l a y   t h e   c o n t i n u e d   s e s s i o n   o f   Classis   W e s t ,
             The Resurrection of Jesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                            167          previously scheduled to reconvene on January  12,1966.
       News From Our Churches -                                                                                                                The new date of meeting will be announced later.
                    Mr. J. M. Faber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168                                                         Rev. D. J. Engelsma,  Stared Clerk,


       --


                                     MEDITATION-
                                                                                                                                                                    --.
                                                        -
                                                                                             Expecting The `New!

                                                                                                                           tFy Rev. M. Schippev


                                                         `fNevevtheles.s we, according to his  promise,  look  fobv new heavens  and a
                                                         new  earth,  wherein dwelleth  righteousness."
                                                                                                                                         -                                      I I   Peter  3:13


              E x p e c t i n g   t h e   n e w !   -  .~  -                                                                                         To  b.e sure, their hope is a  utopia of earthly beauty
              Peculiar characteristic of our agel                                                                   -                          and material prosperity! And there is nothing that says
              Everyone looks for something new, new ideas, new                                                                                 they won't have  it!  The possibilities and resources
       things, a new era, something new and better for all1                                                                                    are unlimited I
       Yes, the world is looking for the sun rise of a new                                                                                           The nations are looking for a new era of Iasting
-  day1 Even  a new society-l                                                                                                                  peace1 The business world is looking, always looking


                                                    THES!&lNDARDBEA.RER                                                   147

      for something new and different! This year has hardly         shall be renewed1 As the gold-smith casts various
      begun and the auto industry is working already on next        metals into the refining fire, so God will recreate,
      year's models ! In the. field of, science and invention       regenerate all things in heaven and earth. Nothing that
      new gadgets are being developed which will change the         is of the earth earthy shall pass through that fire so
      housewife from kitchen slave to royal mistress, which         as to come out of it, inorder that that which is heavenly
      will throw out the dirty furnace and harness the sun's        may remain!
      rays to light and heat our domiciles, that will give              All this, however, cannot take place until God's
      quicker and more lasting relief-by improving medi-            purpose with them is fully realized! Then, its organic
      cines and hospital technics ! That will take us out of        development shall have been consummated! All things
      our earthly doldrums, and make us to soar through             earthly have a definite design. That design is God's
      space I    A new society must be established, wherein         purpose that all things earthly shall serve the heavenly.
      there is no more poverty, sickness, or material want1         Organically the world and all things must so develop
      All the slums must be. torn down, and replaced with           that they ultimately come to a head. Science and art,
      new and modern facilities !                                   all the marvelous genius of man, all the power of the
         Even the nominal church of our day is looking  for         antichristian world must come to manifestation. When
      that which is new I In fact, her vision is so broad that      all things are burned up, the highest possible earthly
      it swallows up all the other spheres of development!          development will have been realized. No more inven-
         But pity .them I                                           tions could possibly have been made. No other works
         Of this they all are willingly ignorant that the           of man could ever have been produced. So the number
      heavens and the earth, which now are, are kept in             666, which is the number of man without God, will be
      store, reserved unto fire! `As it was in the days of          fulfilled.    And God shall usher in the perfect seven by
      Noah; so it is in our day; they ignore the promise of         burning up the completed six. Sin and grace shall have
      Christ's coming. They live out of the principle that          served God's purpose. Light and darkness develop to-
      all things continue, even themselves!                         gether with the earthly organism. Thxingdom  of Christ
         Nevertheless we I                                          and the antichrist grow side by side in the world. HOW-
         We, the children of God, also look for something           ever, when both have developed to the point that God's
      new !                                                         purpose is reached, the power of .antichrist  will be des-
         A new heavens and a new earth1                             troyed; all the proud accomplishments of sinful man
         Where righteousness shall dwell 1-                         shall be burned up. Then all those works which are
         According to His promise!                                  lauded by this wicked world, and even praised by those
                                * * *                               who see in them a fruit of grace which is said to be
         New heaven!                                                common, shall all be wiped out. Nothing of man shall
         New earth!                                                 pass through the final liquid fire!
       We expect!                                                      -All things shall become new1
         The old will pass away1 The heavens shall pass                 Out of the old shall the new come forth! From the         -
      away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with         fiery molten mass, much like the unshaped chaos from
      fervent heat, the- earth also and the works that are          which the present world came forth, shall the new
      therein shall be burned up. (II Peter  3:lO). All the         appear !
      hosts of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens               Of that new we can only stammer! Its beauty is
      shall be rolled together as a scroll. (Isaiah  34:4).         indescribable!      Only in Scripture's light can we say
      The glory of the sun will be extinguished, and its            that there will be no trace of corruption in the new.
      present brilliancy shall have an end! The silvery moon        No thorns or thistles! None shall ever say: I am sick!
      shall cease to flood the night, and the twinkling splendor    No enemies or angels of darkness will be in it!
      of the star-studded firmament shall be wiped out I They           It will be a heavenly world! Not a return to the
      shall be all set afire and dissolved in a great crashing1     glory of the first and earthly Paradise, which is lost
      All things shall be shaken, in heaven and.on earth, in        and .never  returns ! Which was but an image, an earthly
      order that that which is immoveable may remain!
-_                                                                  image of the heavenly Paradise; the splendor-of which
         The earth also and all its works shall be burned upl       surpasses the glory of the former as the greatness of
      All the products of men, every invention of man, his          the last Adam surpasses that of the first. In Him shall
      art, his science, his commerce, his industry, the labor       all things in the new find their union, and through Him
      of the slave and the proud achievements of kings, the         in the Most High. -For it was the Father's good pleas-
      most insignificant to the greatest and most honorable!        ure that in Christ all the fulness should dwell!
      Nothing shall remain of them after they pass through              Yes, all things will then be heavenly! Heavenly `-
      the fire and melting heat 1 Even the very elements            relations, heavenly life, and joys shall characterize
      shall be burned up, the very material from which the          the new I The true church of Christ shall walk there!
      present creation is made, out of which it was organi-         With  heavemy  bodies, clothed in heavenly garments,
      cally formed and composed, these shall be set on fire         clean and  white1 The covenant of God shall  E-with
      and melt away- with fervent. heat I                           men1 No more shall they-see in a darkened glass, but
         Tremendous transformation-l                                then face to facei Then shall they enjoy the inherit-
         Not annihilation, but recreation and renovation1           ance that fadeth not away!
         Though they are burned in that universal conflagra-            Wherein dwelleth righteousness!
      tion, nothing of the earth shall--be annihilated. All             Unrighteousness, and all sin shall be done away1


148                                           THESTANDARDBEARER

Righteousness shall. cover the earth as the waters           we become estranged to the world, and look for new
cover the bottom of the seas. None shall enter there         heavens and a new earth where sin shall be no more!
who is not clothed in garments of righteousness, the            These are they who expect the new!
righteousness of their Redeemer! All will be in per-            For in them is created a new hope! Which looks not
fect harmony with the will of God, with God Himself;         at the things of sight and sense, but at the invisible,
and that, too, according to His judgment. That right;        the spiritual, the heavenly, which the new world will
eousness dwells there, means that it is not-transitory,      bring to them! They, like Abraham, father of all the
but permanent! Righteousness dwells where it prevails        faithful, look for the city which has foundations whose
and is practised!  And the attending blessedness of this     builder and maker is God!
righteousness is perfect peace!                                                           *  * *
                           * * *                                 According to His promise!
   We look for it!                                               Our hope does not rest on a vain imagination!
   The apostle and the elect strangers to whom he is            Nor does it rest on mere tradition or institutions
writing!                                                     of men!
   And we with them, who have obtained precious faith           But the infallible, unchangeable promise of God in
through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus        the Scripture 1
Christ, to whom grace and peace have been multiplied            God has promised in His Word that we shall have
through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.          new heavens and earth wherein righteousness shall
(Chapter 1:1, 2). We, who by divine power have been          dwell I "For, behold, I create new heavens,-and a new
given all things that pertain to life and godliness,         earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to          come to mind." Isaiah 65:17. "For as the new heavens
glory and virtue, who have been given exceeding great        and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain
and precious promises by which they might become             before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the cor-      name remain." Isaiah 66:2?. "For thus saith the Lord
ruption that is in the world through lust. (Chapter 1:       of hosts: yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake
3, 4).      The elect strangers, chosen of God in Christ     the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry
from the foundation of the world in the counsel of His       land." Haggai 2:6. "Immediately after the tribulation
good pleasure. Chosen to be strangers in the world           of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
that is passing away. Strangers, therefore, because of       shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
their election! Who manifest themselves as aliens and        heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken."
foreigners in a strange land! Beloved of God, who are        Matthew 24:29. "And I saw a new heaven and a new
loved by Him with an eternal, unchangeable love, a           earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were
love that in its initial manifestation had to be one-        passed away, and there was no more sea." Revelation
sided, because we did not love Him. This love He             21:l.
showed us in the sending of His Son to suffer, die and          These and more are the unfailing promises of God!
to rise again, that we might become the righteousness           For the fulfillment of them we look!
of God in Him, and be made conformable unto His                 We live, therefore, not as the fools wlo live as though
image. That love was His eternal desire to make us           the day of Christ will never come, to whom He also
perfect even as He is perfect! And because His love          will come as a thief in the night, and they shall perish
was one-sided, and He loved us when we were yet              in the final catastrophe!
enemies, He was longsuffering over us, not willing that         Nay, rather, we live as wise!
any of us should perish! Therefore also He withholds            Our lamps are brightly burning!
the destruction of the world until all His people come          We are watching and sober!
to repentance. Not one of them may be lost I And being          The Bridegroom cometh! And when He shall appear,
renewed by His grace, and having His love shed abroad        He will make all things new!
in our hearts, we come to repentance, confess our               For that our faith looks, and our hope stretches out!
sins, and desire to walk in a new and godly life. His           Where righteousness shall dwell!
love returns to Him through our hearts! Therefore also,         Where God shall be all and in all!


                                    0 Lord, if only my will may remain right and firm
                                toward Thee, do with me whatsoever it shall please
                                Thee. For it cannot be anything but good, whatsoever
                                Thou shalt do with me. If it be Thy will I should be in
                                darkness, be Thou blessed; and, if it be Thy will I
                                should be in light, be Thou again blessed. If Thou
                                vouchsafe to comfort me, be Thou blessed; and, if
                                Thou wilt have me afflicted, be Thou equally blessed.
                                0 Lord! for thy sake I will cheerfully suffer whatever
                                shall come on me with Thy permission.
                                                                                --Selected


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  149


     EDITORIALS-

                      THE NATURE -OF THE ATONEMENT:
                                              Limited' or General?

                    Satisfaction  the Key  .According to the Canons (Continued)

                                                    by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

   In my previous editorial I called attention to the            are at present interested in the element of satisfaction.
fact tha; in the very first article of the Second Head           .Suffice it to point out here that the article does not say
of Doctrine our Canons lay down the principle of atone-          that Christ died for the whole world or made satis-
ment through satisfaction.                                       faction for the whole world, even if it be granted that
   There are several more articles which make ref-               here "the whole world" is used in the sense of all
erence to this idea of satisfaction in Canons II. In             men;       But as far as satisfaction is concerned, the
these articles there are various other elements belong-          article emphasizes: 1) That the death of the Son of
ing to the nature of the atonement which are set forth;          God constitutes that satisfaction for sin. 2) That this
and they are set forth, too, in connection with this key         satisfying death of the Son of God was a sacrifice, that
idea of satisfaction. To these other elements we shall           is, a voluntary offering. 3) That it is "only and most
give our attention later., For the present we are inter-         perfect." This last expression  againis very important.
ested in these articles only in so far as they present           It means that the satisfaction made was complete. It
the truth of satisfaction.                                       very really satisfied divine justice. It actually ac-
   Article 2 is the first of these. It reads as follows:         complished what it was intended to accomplish. Hence,
                                                                 to that satisfaction nothing can be added, nor can any-
       Since therefore we are unable to make that satis-         thing be taken away. It is once for all. Divine justice
   faction  in our own persons, or to deliver ourselves          has been satisfied; the divine wrath has been borne.
   from the wrath of God, he hath been pleased in his            All those covered by that death are very really and
   infinite mercy to give his only begotten Son, for our         objectively redeemed and have escaped the punishment
   surety, who was made sin, and became a curse for
   us and in our stead, that he might make satisfaction to       of sin.
   divine justice on our behalf.                                     Article 4 does not speak literally of satisfaction,
                                                                 but of the infinite value and dignity of Christ's satisfy-
   As far as the doctrine of satisfaction is concerned,          ing death, a subject which was introduced already in
this article emphasizes: 1) That we are unable to make           Article 3. Nevertheless, it points to the very essence
that satisfaction ourselves. This aspect is not further          of the idea of satisfaction when it emphasizes that that
explained.    But you will remember that the Heidelberg          death "was attended with a sense of the wrath and
Catechism expounds this at length, as was pointed out            curse of God due to us for sin."
in a previous editorial. 2) That the provision of such               Also Article 8 of Canons II does not mention the
satisfaction is an act of God, and that too, an act that         term  satisfaction.  When read, however, in the context
proceeds from God's good pleasure ("he hath been                 of the Second Head, it sheds important light upon the
pleased...."), and an act of infinite mercy. 3) That the         idea of satisfaction.    In the first place, it speaks of
provision of satisfaction is in the gift of God's only           effectual redemption.     That redemption is effectual
begotten Son. 4) That the only begotten Son made satis-          simply means that it truly redeems.          And that our
faction as ,our "surety" and by being made,sin  and be-          Canons employ the term effectual redemption does not
coming a curse for us. 5) That satisfaction is con-              at all imply that there is also an ineffectual redemp-
cerned with divine justice and the wrath-of God, which           tion, or atonement, as  Prof, Dekker teaches. By this
is the expression of divine justice against sin.                 terminology the Canons simply emphasize the truth
   The rather well-known and somewhat controversial              over against the false theory of the Arminians. The
Article 3 reads as follows:                                      Arminians taught a redemption that did not actually re-
                                                                 deem all for whom it was made. In other words, it
      The death of the Son of God is the only and most           was ineffectual. And it is over against this theory of
   perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin; and is of         an ineffectual redemption that our fathers spoke of
   infinite worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate    effectual redemption and of the quickening and saving
   the sins of the whole world.                                  efficacy of the death of the Son of God. We do the same
   We will not at this point busy ourselves with a               thing when we speak of total depravity. That we use
discussion of that last expression in the article. We            the term total does not imply that there is also partial


150.                                               THE STANDARD BEARER

depravity or even that a partial depravity of man would             eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the
be conceivable. But there are false theories that pre-              Father; that he should confer upon them faith, which
sent human depravity .as being only p,artial.  And over             together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy
against these false theories we speak of depravity as               Spirit, he purchased for' them hy his death; should
total in order. to emphasize that such is the very nature           purge them. from all sin, both original and actual,
of human depravity. .' Thus also we.speak of effectual              whether c~ommitted- before or `after believing; and
                                                                    -having faithfully preserved them even to the end,
redemption.      As I have emphasized before, an inef-              should at last bring them free from every spot and
fectual redemption or atonement is a contradiction in               blemish to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence
terms: it is no redemption whatsoever. But I especially             f o r e v e r .
want to, emphasize here that this mention of effectual              There -are, of course, other important elements of
redemption is possible only because the very nature of           the atonement in this article; and we shall therefore
the atonement consists of satisfaction of divine justice.        refer to it again. I only quote it here in connection
In the second place, we should notice that this article          with the element of satisfaction.
speaks of faith and all the other saving gifts of the Holy          There is also an article in the Rejection of Errors
Spirit as having been purchased  fov the elect by Chvist's       of the Second Head of Doctrine which mentions Christ's
death. Here again the emphasis is upon the fact that             satisfaction, namely, Article III. In this article the
there was an objective accomplishment in the death of            Synod rejects the errors of those:
Christ, there was an actual event, a transaction. Faith
and all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit were                 Who teach: That Christ by his satisfaction merited
                                                                    neither salvation itself for anyone, nor faith, whereby
purchased.      Our purging from all sin, both original             this satisfaction of Christ unto salvation is effectually
and actual, whether sins committed before or after                  appropriated; but' that he merited for the Father only
believing, was objectively accomplished. Our preser-                the authdrity or the perfect will to deal again with
vation to the end was obtained. All this is due to the              man, and to prescribe new conditions as he might
fact that the very nature of the .atonement  is the. satis-         desire, obedience to which, however, depended on the
faction of divine justice. Before satisfactionwas made,             free will of man, so that it therefore might have come
we were indebted. When satisfaction was made, the                   to pass that either none or all should fulfill these
debt was paid. The result is that before God those -for             conditions. For these adjudge too contemptuously of
whom satisfaction was made, those for whom Christ                   the death of Christ, do in no wise acknowledge the most
                                                                    important fruit or benefit thereby gained, and bring
died, are from that point on no more indebted. If all               again out of hell the Pelagian error.
men are included in that death of Christ, then all men
are no more indebted. If only the elect are includedlin             In this connection we are not interested particularly
the death of Christ, then only the elect are no more             in the Arminian error which is condemned here, but
indebted.      But whichever is the case, one thing is           rather in what the fathers say about satisfaction in the
certain: he who would speak of the atonement must be             course of their  .polemic  against the Arminians. The
willing to speak of                                              article teaches us especially two things as to the
                        satisfaction and to accept all the
Scriptural consequences of that key element in the               Reformed view of satisfaction. 1) By His satisfaction
nature of the atonement. Take it away, and you destroy           Christ merited  salvation itself and the faith whereby
the entire beautiful truth of the atonement. With these          this satisfaction is appropriated.           2) The objective
remarks in mind, I ask you to read Article 8:                    accomplishment of satisfaction is to be distinguished
                                                                 from the appropriation of that satisfaction by faith
        For this was the sovereign counsel, and most gra-        whereby the benefits of that satisfaction become our
   cious will andpurpose of-God  the Father, that the quick-     conscious possession.
   ening and saving efficacy of the most precious death             From all the above it is abundantly plain that
   of his Son should extend to all the elect, for bestowing
   upon them alone the gift of justifying faith, thereby         according to our Canons and all our confessions satis-
   to bring them infallibly to salvation: that is, it was the    faction is a key element in the Reformed concept of
   will of God, that Christ by the blood of the cross,           Christ's atoning death.
   whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should ef-                We must now turn to Scripture itself, `to relate this
   fectually redeem out of every people, tribe, nation, and      teaching of our Reformed confessions to the language
   language, all those, and those only, who were from            of Holy.Writ. This we shall beginto do next time, D.V.


        Gift  Idea?.                                                                      WRITE TO: James Dykstra, Bus. Mgr.
                                                                                                     1326 W. Butler Ave., SE,
                                               Gift  Subscripth                                      Grand Rapids,  Mich. 49507
  $5 per year  '  '  l l


                                                   THESTAND~DBEARER.                                                              151


                  Vainglkbus -Man in the Space Age

                                                    by  Pvof. H. C.  Hoekkemi
         .                                           :
    In these `days of Gemini 6'and Gemini 7, newspapers,           engine.which would have doomed his mighty machine to
radio, and television are filled with detailed accounts            failure and destruction?
of the wonderful accomplishments of. our country's                        But, in a deeper vein, does not' all this boasting
space scientists and astronauts. This is in itself not             remind you, of a past day, when a, mighty. Nebuchad-
so bad, for undoubtedly these accomplishments are                  nezzar boasted, "Is not this great Babylon that I have
interesting and newsworthy.                                        built 1" or. of another day, when men in the plain of
    But along with all the news accounts and piay-by-              Shinar vaunted themselves against God and said, "Go
play descriptions of these events there comes a con-               to, let us build us a city and a rower,  whose top may
stant barrage of editorial propaganda. And the keynote             reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name.... ?"
of all that propaganda is the pride, or vainglory, of              Or does it not remind you of the coming day when "all
life.         Man has conquered space.        Man's scientific     the world shall wonder after the beast,?"
achievements have reached new heights.               Man has              Let us keep our be&rings.
achieved a historic rendezvous in space. Man this, and                    God is not in all the thoughts of those vainglorious
man that.          Man...man...MANI This is all one hears          men who speak great swelling words of vanity. If this
and reads until, figuratively speaking, one could almost           were not evident from anything else, itwould be evident
vomit !             *.                                             from the fact that they desecrated the sabbath by
    My purpose in calling attention to this is not to              attempting to launch their Titan on the Lord's day.
belittle the event as such, nor to debunk scientific               `And was it not a bit of poetic justice that they failed
achievement.              Undoubtedly this rendezvous in space     on that day too? -Personally, I cannot help thinking
was somewhat of an accomplishment when viewed from                 that.
the viewpoint of puny little man. _ It is probably an                     Let us not lose our perspective.
instance of one of the greater accomplishments,                           With all his mighty achievements vainglorious man
scientifically speaking, that have arisen out of man's             is unable to save his wretched soul, much less to
"remnants of natural light."                                       rescue his world from the vicious cycle of "Vanity of
    But let us, as children of God, keep our perspective.          vanities, all is vanity and vexation of spirit." In other
    In the first place, has man actually conquered                 words, his vainglory is indeed  &in, empty.
space? Or is it much rather true that he has merely                       And is this not Scripture's judgment? "For all that
succeeded in exploring its fringes and in making a few             is in the world. . . ..(including) the pride of life, is not of
temporary forays into the great reaches of the heavens.            the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth
And is not his very necessary return to the earth in               away,`and  the lust thereof."
itself proof that he has not conquered after all, but is
conquered?          In the second place, does man so soon                 Children of God, be not enamored by the vainglory
forget his failings even in this realm. Was it not only            of manl-                                   -  _
a few days ago that a mere -little plug prevented him                     And "love not the world, neither the things that are
from leaving Pad 19 at Cape Kennedy? And did he not                in the world." For: "If any man love the world, the
also discover an insignificant plastic dust cover in an            love of the Father is not in him."


              HEEDING THE DOCTRINE-
                                                                                                                             -

                                   Barth's Doctrine of Sctiipture                                             ~.

                                                     by  Rev. D. J.  Engelsma
                                                                     .
    Barth's thorough-going criticism of the doctrine of            God only conditionally. "They are God's Word; by __
an infallible Bible proceeds from his conception of the            from time to. time  becoming  God's Word" (CD,I,l,p.
Word of God: The Word of God has three important                   133). "The Bible is God's Word so far as God lets it
forms. They are Church proclamation, Scripture, and                be His Word, so far as God speaks through it" (ibid.,
revelation.        Of these three forms of the Word of God,        p.123).       Revelation alone is -the Word of God without.
Church proclamation and Scripture are the Word of                  any conditions. -For revelation is Jesus Christ Him-


152                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

self. "Revelation. . .does not differ from the Person       implication of every view of Scripture which posits
of Jesus Christ, and again does not differ from the         errors  in the sacred record. In so far as there are
reconciliation that took place in Him:, To.`.say revela;    errors -(and. we have insisted in a previous article that
tion is to say, `The Word became flesh' " (ibid.,p.134).    to allow errors in any part of Scripture is to concede
That Jesus Christ in, the flesh is the Word of God          errors everywhere), the words of Scripture are not
really means that the Bible cannot be the Word of           God's Word but man's.         God cannot lie (Titus 1:2);
God. Barth may continue to say, and even vociferously       God cannot contradict Himself; God cannot slip up on
to insist that Scripture is the Word of God but he does     historical and chronological details.        Errors point
so having made crystal clear that, in reality, it is ndt    directly to the authorship of men; Therefore, with the
the Word of God. Scripture witnesses to'the Word of         rise of the view `of Scripture' that teaches a' fallible
God, that is, to Jesus `Christ.- But Christ and Christ      Bible; the authority' of the'Bible falls' with the heaviest
only is the Word of God. The word of the Bible and          of all possible thuds: Men's words are not authorita-
God's Word are two different things, even though,           tive. Man is a liar at worst and ignorant at best. By
from time to time, God may be pleased to make the           his view of Scripture, Barth not only surrenders the
word of the .Bible "become" His Word. They are two          Reformation principle of the sole authority of Scrip-
different things because the word of the Bible is the       ture but really makes. it impossible to ascribe any
word of men.                                                authority to Scripture whatsoever.        `His doctrine of
   This must be our fundamental criticism of Barth's        Scripture does less justice to the authority of the Bible
doctrine of Scripture.       He does not go astray, to a    than did Rome's, at the time of the Reformation. For
greater or lesser degree in his explanation of the truth    Rome, although placing the authority of Scripture under
that the Bible is the Word of God; he maintains the         that of tradition and the Church, at least maintained
opposite, namely, that the Bible is the word of men.        that the books "both of the Old and of the New Testa-
He plays off Jesus Christ against the Bible so that the     ment" had "one God" as "the author" and went on to
former is and the latter is not the Word of God: "in        say that these books were "dictated either by Christ's
revelation we are concerned with Jesus Christ. . . , we     own word of mouth, or by the Holy Ghost."2
are, therefore, concerned with the singular Word                Since Trent, Rome has changed also. She too is
spoken, and this time really directly, by God Himself.      willing to concede errors in Scripture. The document
But in the Bible we are invariably concerned with           on Divine Revelation recently adopted at the Vatican
human attempts to repeat and reproduce, in .human           Council not only reaffirms that tradition as well as
thoughts and expressions, this Word of God in definite      Scripture is a source of Divine Revelation but also
human situations, e.g., in respect of the complications     deliberately allows for historical errors in the Bible.
of, Israel's political position midway between Egypt and    The document carefully states that "those truths which
Babylon, or of the errors and confessions inthe Chris-      God revealed for the sake of man's salvation are to be
tian Church at Corinth between A.D. 50-60. In the one       regarded in the sacred books as true and unerring."3
case Dews dixit (God said - D.E.), in the other Paulus      Here, we have the familiar distinction between a
dixit (Paul said - D.E.).       These are two different     "central" part of Scripture ("those truths. . .revealed
things" (ibid.,p.127). They are two different things in-    fov  the sake  of man's  salvation"),  which is infallible,
deed. The one is the Word of God and the other is the       and a "`peripheral"- part, which may be regarded as
word of man. In light of this distinction between the       fallible.    One Roman Catholic writer calls this dis-
Word of God -and the Bible, Barth's remark on the           tinction "very useful." "Thus," he says, "the point
believer's conscious attitude over against the Bible        of historical inaccuracies is `bypassed while the es-
becomes understandable: "we have to subordinate our-        sential inerrancy of the Bible is maintained."
selves to the word.of  the prophets and apostles; not as        Concerning Rome's concession of errors in Scrip-
one subordinates oneself to God. . ." (CD,I,2,p.717).       ture, one can only ask, "Why not?" She has no need
.That Barth goes on to say that we ought to subordinate     of an inerrant Scripture; she has the infallible pope.
ourselves to Scripture as to "messengers which He           To weaken the authority of Scripture is not a funda-
Himself has constituted and empowered" does not undo        mental loss to Rome. For the churches of the Refor-
the damage. There is now one kind of subordination          mation, it is different;, To lose the authority of Scrip-
rendered to God and another kind rendered to Scripture.     ture is to lose all. We cannot say less about Barth's
This is so because Scripture is not the Word of God.        doctrine of Scripture than that it aims a blow at the
If Scripture were the Word of God, our subordination        cornerstone of the, Reformation, a blow that would topple
to it would not differ from our subordination to words      the entire I structure of the faith of the Reformation.
God might speak directly from heaven. This is, in           Personally, in all his bitter affliction, and theologically,
fact, our contention.1 But it is not Barth's because        in all his preaching, teaching, and writing, -Luther
Barth considers the Bible to be words of men.               stood rock-firm on the truth expressed pungently in
   We may carry this criticism through, even though         this statement of his: "The supreme pontiff is a man,
it is premature. Scripture is full of errors, according     able to err. But God is true, who is not able to err."4
to Barth, for the simple reason that its. words are         Luther here .opposes God's infailible Word; the Bible,
man's words. And they are man's words, not in the           against the human and, therefore, fallible words of the
sense that God used humans to write His word, which         pope. The historian sums up well, "The sole and in-
no one denies, but in the sense that men, not God, are      fallible authority ofthe Word of God was the primary
the authors of those words. This is the inescapable         and fundamental principle of the Reformation."5


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           153

        There is a sense in which Barth would grant the              spoken, we would not say of that statement that it is
     validity of this criticism. That is, he freely acknowl-         the Word of God when and where it pleases God or that,
     edges that the Bible does not claim authority for itself.       from time to time, it becomes the Word of God. No, it
     "Why and in what respect," he asks, "does the Biblical          would be the Word of God. So it is with the Bible. Be-
     witness possess authority? In that it claimsno author-          cause it is Jesus' own Word, it is the Word of God,
     ity whatsoever for itself, that its witness amounts to          albeit written. We do not mean that it is the incarnate
     letting the Something else (namely, Jesus Christ -D.E.)         Word, the personal  Word, nor must Barth charge us
     be the authority, itself and by `its own agency" (CD,I,l,       with such folly. But it is Barth's preconceived idea,
     p.126). Here, he continues to play Jesus Christ, the,           which he takes with him to the Bible and does not
     Word of God, off against the Bible, which is not the            elicit from the Bible, that a book which is the Word of
     Word of God but a witness.                                      God, which is revelation poses a threatening challenge
        Against this playing off of Christ against the Bible,        to the Lord Jesus. Ultimately, it is his presupposition
     we must register our strong protest. We do not, of              that we may apply the title, "Word of God," to Jesus
     course, protest against regarding the Bible as the wit-         Christ only. Thus, he begs the question, the question
     ness to Jesus. Jesus Himself emphasizes this in John            whether the Bible is the Word of God. Therefore, he
     5:39: "Search the scriptures. . .they are they which            plays the one off against the other and supposes that
\    testify of me." The whole of the Bible, every book,             this enhances Jesus Christ. But the Bible must tell
     chapter, and verse, but each in its context and in its          us whether it is the- Word of God and whether calling
     connection with the whole of Scripture, witnesses of            it the Word of God infringes on the prerogatives of
     Jesus Christ. We affirm what Luther said somewhere,             Jesus. The opposite is true. "The Bible, the Word of
     that if anyone reads a passage of Scripture and misses          God" does not threaten Jesus. As little as one honors
     Jesus in that passage, he has simply missed the Scrip-          Jesus by denying that His spoken Word is fully the
     ture altogether.      We like, however, to emphasize            Word of God, so little does one honor Jesus when he
     more strongly than did Luther that Scripture witnesses          denies that the Scriptures are fully the Word of God.
     to Jesus as the Revelation of the glory of the Triune           Jesus' own words are never a threat to Jesus; man's
     God. That the whole of Scripture is gospel and that the         words, however, are.
     gospel is the revelation of Christ is the point of Ques-
     tions 18 and 19 of the Heidelberg Catechism.
        But our protest denies that the witness cannot it-              FOOTNOTES
     self be the Word of God, except with all Barth's condi-               In contrast  with Barth's assertion is this statement
     tions and qualifications. The Bible is the witness to                 of Calvin: "the full authority which they (the Scrip-
     Jesus, to be sure, but it is Jesus' own witness to Him-               tures -D.E.) ought to possess with the faithful is,
     self and, as such, the Word of God, needing only one                  not  recognised,  unless they are believed to have
     qualification, namely, the Word of God  w&ten.  In                    come from heaven, as directly as if God has been
     proof of the fact that the Bible is Jesus' own witness                heard giving utterance to them" (Institutes,  I,VII,l).
     to Himself, we adduce I Peter  1:ll: "the Spirit of                   Canons and  Decrees of the Council of  Tyent,  Fourth
                                                                           Session, "Decree Concerning the Canonical Scrip-
     C h r i s t . . .in (the prophets). . .testified  beforehand          tures")
     ("testified beforehand" being basically the same word                 Quoted' in the  Denver Catholic Register  of Thurs-
     that occurs in John  5:39- D.E.) the sufferings of                    day, November 4, 1965, p.2, Sec. 2. The pertinent
     Christ. . ." The prophets, that is, the Old Testament,                statement on tradition is this: "The Church does
     did one thing.      They witnessed to Christ. But their               not draw its certitude about all things that are in
     prophecy was  Chvist's own  witness to Himself. In                    revelation from Sacred Scripture alone." At the
     order to guard ourselves from the charge Barth would                  time of this writing, the entire document is not yet
     assuredly hurl at us, that we make the Bible into a                   available.
     second Jesus, we must be quite specific. If Jesus                     My translation of a quotation in D'Aubigne's History
                                                                           of the  Reformation,   I,p.317.  The Latin  reads:"Homo
     stood before us, at this moment, and said, "I am the                  est  summus  pontifex,  falli  potest.   Set  veritus est
     Good Shepherd," would that phrase not be rightfully                   Deus, qui falli non  potest."
     called, "the Word of God?" Because it was the Word                    ibid., p.204


                            God is a Being, whose will acknowledges no cause, neither is it for us
                           to prescribe rules to His sovereign pleasure, or call Him to account
                           for what He does. He has neither superior nor equal, and His will is
                            the rule of all things. He did not therefore will such and such things
                            because they were in themselves right, and He was bound to will them;
                            but they are therefore equitable and right because He wills'them. The
                            will of man, indeed, may be influenced and moved, but God's will never
                            can. To assert the contrary is to undeify Him.
                                                                                           -Martin Luther


154                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



        A CLOUD, OF jVITNESSES-


                           TheAnointing  .of Sad

                                               by Rev. B.  Woudenbevg


                       And it was so, that when he had  tvmed  his back to go from Samuel,
                     God gave him another  heavt: and all those signs came to pass that day.
                        And when they came  thither to the hill, behold, a company  of  prophets
                     met  him, and the  Spirit  of  God  came  upon him, and he  prophesied   among
                     them . . . .
                         Thevefove  it became a  proverb, is Saul also  among  the  prophets?
                                                                            I Samuel  10:9, 10, 12

   One might be inclined to wonder why it was that            was not one, like his servant, to really expect that
God brought Saul to Samuel prior to his public pres-          Samuel could or would help them to locate the lost
entation to the children of Israel at Mizpeh. It surely       asses. But the experience of challenging the prophet
was not so that Samuel might know whom to present to          was bound to be interesting and a diversion for the
the people. When the time came for Israel to receive          night before they returned to his father's home. The
its king at Mizpeh, it was not upon the weight of Sam-        meeting took place as soon as Saul and his servant
uel's authority that he was presented. Rather the long        entered the city, having ascertained from some young
but indisputable use of the lot was made to select            girls that the prophet, or seer as they called him, was
exactly the man which God had chosen; and it was, of          present in the city. There, just within the city, they
course, this same Saul who had stood before Samuel            found themselves approached by a man, a stranger to
a short time before. But Samuelcould well have waited         Saul, who came up to them almost with a look of recog-
for the casting of the lot to meet Saul. No, the reason       nition on his face. Saul had time only to ask in complete
for this meeting was with Saul.                               politeness, "Tell me, I pray thee, where the seer's
   Saul, the son of Kish, was a man of this world. He         house is," and with that he, a man accustomed himself
was an Israelite all right. Genetically he was, born of       to dominate, suddenly found his life taken over by a
the seed of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin.               person of even stronger character than he.          This
Politically and socially he was; his loyalty and concern      stranger -answered Saul, "I am the seer: go up before
were very `strong with the nation of Israel and its           me unto the high place; for ye shall eat with me today,
people. It was just that he, like so many of the young        and to morrow I will let thee go, and will tell thee all
men of his generation, had no real feeling at all for         that is in thine heart.      And as for thine asses that
the religion of Israel. It was not so much that he was        were lost three days ago, set not thy mind on them;
opposed to the worship of Jehovah; if the occasion            for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of
demanded, he would even go along with the formalities         Israel7     Is it not on thee, and on all thy Father's
of worship. But it meant nothing to him, he was in-           h o u s e ? "
different to its importance and meaning, he felt quite            Samuel had indeed recognized Saul. It was not that
capable of getting along in his life without God. And         he had ever seen him before; it was rather because
this was really the kind of man that Israel wanted for        God had been `speaking to him. Through. the years,
a king. They wanted to be like the other nations with         Samuel had come to dwell on terms of very close com-
a man of this world to rule over them. Thus it was            munion with God.       He spoke to God freely, and God
that God separated out Saul to be their monarch.              answered him always concerning all of the problems
   Nevertheless, before God placed Saul upon the              which he met.       For some time now, they had been
throne, he wanted him to understand from whom it              speaking together about the future- king of Israel. It
was that he was receiving his office. Had God waited          was just the day before this that God had come to
until the casting of lots at Mizpeh, Saul would have been     Samuel and said, "To morrow about' this time I will
the first to ascribe his selection as king to his good        send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou
fortune, or luck, as we would say. Thus it was that           shalt anoint him to be captain over my people, Israel,
before the gathering at Mizpeh, God through His all-          that he may save my people out of the hand of the
comprehensive providence directed the feet of Saul            Phil&tines:  for I have,looked upon my people, because
until he stood before Samuel at Ramah.                        their cry is come unto me." Samuel had indeed known
   Saul's reason for coming to see Samuel in the first        that Saul was coming. In fact, when Saul first entered
place was, perhaps, more curiosity than anything. He          the city as Samuel was making his way toward the


                                                     THE STANDA$D,BEARER                                                  155

      evening sacrifice of the city, God in secret communion        should be allowed to remain among all of these de-
      had whispered to him, "Behold the man whom I spake            votedly religious people. But soon it became apparent
      to thee of! this same shall reign over my people."            that this feast was appointed in special recognition
      That was why Samuel had approached him and spoken             for him. To him and'his servant were given the seats
      a s h e d i d .                                               of special honor; and when the food appeared, the cook
          Saul was utterly amazed at what Samuel had to say         gave to him the thigh of the sacrificial animal while
      to him. He had expected nothing at all from the prophet,      Samuel said,- "Behold .that which is reserved! set it
      except perhaps some cleverly evasive answers. And             before thee, and eat: for unto this time hath it been
      now, not only did the prophet tell him immediately that       kep t for thee since I said, I have invited the people."
      his father's asses were found, and that without even          Beyond that; nothing more was said as to the specific
      being asked but he went on to lead Saul's mind into           reason for this honor; but as yet this was not necessary
      areas he had never before allowed any one else to             for Saul. He was more than satisfied with what honor
      enter.    Samuel first commanded them to come with            he received.
      him to the evening sacrifice of the city. This was not           That night, after their supper, Samuel took Saul up
      the kind of activity at which Saul was usually to be          unto the roof of the house alone. For a long time they
      found, but he could endure that. It was the other that        sat and talked together. The words of Samuel were
      bothered him. Samuel told him that afterward he would         gentle and kind but very definite. Again and again, in
      take him aside and "tell thee all that is in thine heart."    this way and that, he pointed out to Saul the distinctive
      This bothered Saul because in actual fact he had been         place of Israel as a nation devoted to the worship of
      preoccupied with an over-bearing dream that would not         Jehovah. This was unfamiliar talk for Saul; but he did
      leave him.         He knew that the people of Israel were     his best to follow the old prophet and to make it appear
      looking for a king, and for some time now he-had been         as if he understood perfectly what Samuel was trying
      filled with the burning desire to be just that. He had        to say. He especially appreciated the veiled but per-
      been very careful to keep this dream to himself be-           fectly apparent implication that his future was of pri-
     - cause it had seemed so impossible and hadn't had the         mary importance for the whole of the nation of Israel.
      least of an idea how he could implement it. And now              It was late before they retired and early the next
      suddenly Samuel told him that he was going to talk to         morning again when Samuel aroused him. But to Saul
      him about this dream and he intimated clearly enough          it mattered not; his mind was much too preoccupied
      that he knew exactly what it was. It made Saul, a man         to care for sleep. According to Samuel's instructions,
      usually so composed, flush with shame to think that           he sent his servant ahead while the two of them fol-
      someone else should know about his extraordinary am-          lowed more slowly. It was just outside of the city, at
      bition; but at the same time his heart began to beat          a quiet bend in the road, that Samuel took out a vial
      wildly with intoxicated excitement at the mere sug-           and anointed `his head with oil. As ignorant as he was
      gestion that his fondest dream might soon be realized.        of religious ceremony, he somehow realized that this
          Unable to trust himself in this heat of excitement        was the appointment from God for him to be king.
      to say more, Saul parried the remark of Samuel with              It was a different man that left Samuel that morning
      the seemingly modest but untrue answer, "Am not I             to proceed on his way, at least from a certain point of
      a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel?         view. No longer was Saul the cynical, religiously in-
      and my family least of all the families of the tribe of       different man he had been. Through the night Saul had
      Benjamin? wherefore than speakest thou so to me?"             come to the conviction that there must be something to
      This was the proper and polite thing to say. Saul's           this matter of religion after all. He didn't know much
      family was far from the least in Benjamin, and Saul           about it, although he intended to find out more. It surely
      did not really think that being a Benjaminite should          had not tempered his ambition or made him repentant
I     interfere with being king, but his, senses had not left       for his pride. If Samuel had said anything about that,
      him completely, and he knew better than to sound too          and he very likely had, it did not register with Saul.
      presumptuous.                                                 He was only convinced that a God who foretold so much
I         Of the sacrificial ceremony that night, Saul re-          good for him, must be worthwhile having, and that
      membered very little. It was an unusual thing for him         Samuel was a wonderful man.
      just to be in attendance.at a religious function such as         Saul's journey home was like a dream. Samuel
      that, but his thoughts were far too preoccupied even          had told him exactly what would happen, and it did.
      for him to feel out of place. Frantically he was trying       First he met two men who told him that his father's
      to get hold of his thoughts and come to terms with the        asses had been found and that Kish worried now about
      sudden surge of hope that perhaps this prophet did know       Saul. This was not too remarkable except that Samuel
~     what he was talking about, and in the end he, Saul would      had foretold it, and for Saul that made it an amazing
      actually come to be king.                                     thing. Next he was met by three men going to Bethel
         It was at the feast after the sacrifice that Saul          to sacrifice to God. They were strangers; but when
      gradually seemed to. come back to reality, and it was         they saw Saul, they gave to him two loaves, part of
     wonderful.      Once the sacrifice. was over, Samuel took      their sacrificial offering. It was-a mark of recognition
      Saul and his servant and led them back to his own             that thrilled Saul to the depth of his being. Finally, -he
      h o u s e .
                There a great fe,ast.had  been spread, and soon     was met by a company of prophets, making music,
      about thirty leaders among the people appeared. At            singing and dancing as they went upon their way, Saul
      first, it seemed strange to Saul that he and his servant      could contain himself no longer. As often as he had


156                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

scorned religion before, he now thought it the most                   Saul.    It appeared to them one of those impossible,
wonderful thing in all the world. Soon he was in with                 almost unbelievable things. They had known Saul in
the prophets, singing and dancing in praise to Jehovah,               his former days too well. It seemed to be the ultimate
Israel's God.                                                         incongruity of life, the final improbability fulfilled
       By this time he was close to his own home, and                 until it became a proverb in the land, "Is Saul also
many who met this company of prophets recognized                      among the prophets?"


           THE LORD GAVE THE  WoRb                   (Psalm 68:ll)




                  Vicarious Atonement and Missions

                                                     by Rev. C.  Hank0


    For whom did Christ die?                                             In answer to that question, I wish to point out, first,
    The most common answer is: For all men.                           that Christ died  vicariously.
    One frequently hears it said over the radio, from                    The word "vicarious" means "substitutionary".
the pulpit, and in the mission field that Christ died for             Man needs a substitute to save him from his sin. And
all men individually, so that salvation is "full and free"            God has prepared the perfect substitute in Christ. For
for every one who makes a commitment to Christ. It                    God gave His only begotten Son.
depends only on man's willingness to accept the prof-                    This is already evident from the sacrifices that
fered salvation merited for him on the cross. Even                    were brought in the old dispensation. Immediately
the general, well-meant offer of salvation as officially              after the fall, God gave to Adam and Eve the skins of
adopted by the Christian Reformed Churches in 1924                    animals to replace their miserably devised fig-leaves
implies. that somehow the salvation merited on the                    as a covering for their nakedness. God showed them
cross is now offered to all men for their acceptance.                 that blood had to be shed, that atonement had to be
It need not surprise anyone that Prof. Dekker and those               made, that a substitute had to be provided, and that
in agreement with him appeal to the Three Points of                   God would provide the substitute to cover their sins.
1924 to maintain that mission preaching is aproclama-                 Therefore the believers of the old dispensation always
tion to every man, women and child, "God loves you,                   approached God through the sacrifice that burned upon
Christ died for you."                                                 the altar. In faith they looked for the promised Christ.
    The assertion is often made that it is impossible                 This altar with its bloody sacrifice became the very
to preach the gospel to the unconverted unless we can                 center of Israel's shadow worship. The temple was
proclaim to them the glad tidings that Christ died for                later built around this altar. God had opened the way
them. In fact, this must be proclaimed even though we                 to a living fellowship with Him through the blood of
are compelled to make certain mental reservations.                    atonement.     Therefore the repentant sinner brought
Even Prof. Dekker feels compelled to make this state-                 his sacrifice to the temple, laid his~,hand'upon the head
ment with tongue in cheek, it seems, since he wants to                of the victim to show that the .guilt of his sins had to be
make the reservation that the atonement of thecross  is               borne away. The scapegoat was sent out to perish in
not efficacious for all. He maintains that the death of               the wilderness` as a token of the bearing away of the
Christ is sufficient to save all men. He also teaches                 iniquity of God's people. The blood of the sacrifice
that the atonement of Christ's death is availabIe to all              was sprinkled before the Lord in the Most Holy Place.
men.       He even declares that God desires to save all              Always the eye of faith was directed to that one and
men through the death of His Son. But he makes one                    only sacrifice that must be brought by God Himself.
reservation.      The cross is not .efficient  for all, that          And therefore when John the Baptist as the last of the
is, it does not actually save all men. No, it does not                old testament prophets reached the climax of his min-
actually save. (See the Reformed Journal, December,                   istry, he pointed out the Christ by saying to the people,
-1962).                                                               "Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of
    Let us ask what Scripture teaches concerning the                  the world."
atonement of the cross. One often is compelled to be-                    This same idea is expressed repeatedly in the new
moan th great dearth of Scriptural references in the                  testament. Christ died in the place of His people. He
current iscussions on this subject. And yetthe Scrip-                 died instead of them. He suffered on Calvary in behalf
tures m st be our criterion, and Scripture alone. The                 of  those given to Him by the Father. He died for sin,
question is, does Scripture teach a particular or a                   that sin might be condemned in the flesh. The wrath
univers%1 atonement? Did Christ die for all men, or                   of God against our sin was reckoned to Him. For God
did He die for the elect, and for the elect only?                     eternally appoints Christ as The Anointed One, the


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    157

great High Priest, Whose task it is to bring the sacri-      holy God cannot condone sin, not allow it to be un-
fice for sin. It is for that very purpose that the Son of    punished. In His righteous judgment He declares that
man came into the world, to give His life as a ransom        the soul thatsins must die. Therefore the only way of
for many. He became flesh of our flesh, bone of our          escape from everlasting condemnation is restitution.
bone, like unto the brethren, in order to atone for their    Satisfaction must be made.         God's justice must be
sins. He deliberately set His face toward Jerusalem,         satisfied.      Perfect obedience, must atone for our dis-
went to the cross, and suffered torments of hell under       obedience.      The burden of God's wrath must be borne
the righteous judgment of God as the sacrifice for           in complete submission of love. And this we can never
sinners slain.                                               do. Nor can any other creatu.re,  angel or sacrificial
   We are taught in 2 Cor. 5:21, "For he hath made           lamb make such satisfaction for us.           Only Christ,
him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might         God's perfect substitute .can redeem and deliver us
be made the righteousness of God in him." Christ             from our sins.
became the very embodiment of sin. He bore our sins             This also is taught us throughout Scripture. We
and stood under the consuming wrath of God until the         turn first to Hebrews 2:17: "Wherefore in all things
flames had completely burned out. And that for the           it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that
purpose, which is also realized in us, that we might be      he might be a merciful and faithful highpriest in things
made the righteousness of God in him.                        pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
   This same idea is presented in Galatians 1:4, "Who        the people."
gave himself for our sins, that hemight deliver us from          We should notice, that Christ was made "like unto
this present evil world, according to the will of God and    His brethren." He took upon Himself the likeness of
our Father." Here we are told that Christ gave Him-          sinful flesh, and became like us in all things, only sin
self for the very purpose that He might deliver us           excluded. And yet Hebrews wants to emphasize that
from this present evil world. Did He fail in attaining       He became like unto His  bvethyen.  He became like
that purpose as far as some men are concerned? Or            unto those who are given to Him by the Father from
is that purpose always attained? It must be that this        eternity, for whom He lays down His life on the cross.
purpose is also attained in all for whom it is intended,     The reason why this is emphasized is because also
because the text adds that this deliverance is accord-       here Christ is referred to as the High Priest, Who
ing to the will of God our Father. God's counsel stands      brings the sacrifice for sin. He is the High Priest,
and He does all His good pleasure. For whose sins            not for all men, but for the brethren. Scripture is
did Christ give Himself? For the elect's.                    very clear on that point. He brings the sacrifice as
   Paul teaches the same truth in Galatians  3:13,           a divine Substitute for those whom He represents be-
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,          fore the Father. He is the Head of the Body, and that
being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed         Body is the Church, the elect.
is every one that hangeth on a tree." This refers to             And therefore this passage also points out that
the cross where Christ became a curse. And He be-            Christ came to "make reconciliation for the sins of
came a curse for us, in our stead, and in our behalf.        the people." He became the covering for their sins.
He has redeemed us. That is simply an accomplished           He stood under the consuming wrath of God's judgment
fact that was realized almost two thousand years ago1        in our stead to bear the full wrath of God until it had
   Therefore Hebrews  7:26,27 shows us, "For such            been completely borne away. Therefore He is also our
an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, un-         `covering'. as He intercedes for us in the sanctuary.
defiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than         God sees us in Christ, redeemed, saved, worthy of. eter-
the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high            nal salvation, clothed inchrist's righteousness. There-
priests, to offer up sacrifices . . . for this he did        fore Christ also prays for us in heaven, "Father I will
once, when he offered up himself."                           that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me
   Here Christ is described as the High Priest or-           where I am." (John 17:24). And He is also heard.. God
dained of God to bring the sacrifice for sin. He is the      bestows on Christ the blessings of salvation eternally
representative Head of those for whom He must atone.         appointed for us, in order that we may be drawn to
But is He the representative Head of the whole world         Christ, and that we may be with Him forever in His
as it perished in Adam? Or is He the representative          glory.
Head of His people? Obviously the latter. (See Eph.              For whom did Christ die? The text tells us: For
1:22,23; Col.  1:18.)    As representative Head of His       .His people.
people He brought the sacrifice for sin once. And it             For whom does Christ now intercede in heaven?
is our eternal comfort and assurance that He did that        For that same people.
once for all.                                                    "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that
   Vicarious atonement means that Christ is the sub-         He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for
stitute for His people. It means that atonement is al-       our sins." Particular love, particular atonement, and
ways particular.                                             therefore we also have particular assurance of that
   But I wish to point out that this is the implication      accomplished work for the elect.
of atonement. The very idea of atonement makes it                Important in this connection is also that beautiful
particular.                                                  section of Paul's epistle to the Romans, the fifth
   Sin requires satisfaction. For sin is transgression       chapter, of which I will quote only verses 10 and 11.
against the Most High Majesty of God. The righteous,         "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to


158                                          THE  STUDA-RD  BEARER

God by the- death `of his Son, much more, being recon-       in Christ .reconciling  the world unto Himself, not irni
ciled; we shall be- saved by. his life. And not only so,     puting our sins to us, but to Christ. 2 Cor. 5:19,20.
but we also joy in God through our Lord- Jesus Christ,       We are. reconciled.          The relationship of friendship
by whom we have now received the atonement" (rec-            is restored. Therefore God also comes by His Spirit
onciliation).                                                -into our hearts to restore us into that relationship of
   Three times the apostle refers to our yeconciliation.     friendship, as if- it had never been disrupted. In
Reconciliation means that the former relationship of         Christ He brings us into eternal, heavenly fellowship
friendship'is restored after estrangement. The idea is       w i t h   H i m s e l f .
that God has. established an eternal relationship of
friendship' with His people in Christ. Of this paradise          Therefore Scripture can also speak of the atoning
was a picture. That relationship of friendshipeas dis-       death as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28. I Tim.
rupted by our willful disobedience and fall. But God         2:5,6.
restores that bond of friendship by the atoning death            The atoning death of Christ is always efficacious
of His Son on the cross.                                     for the elect.
   `Paul speaks of this as an accomplished fact. When            By why right can anyone speak of `an atonement that
we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the             is not efficacious? The debt is paid. It can never be
death of His Son. Not: God desires to reconcile by           imputed again. God's people are completely and fully
the death of His Son; nor: God made reconciliation           saved.
available by the death of His Son; nor merely: the death         Let it be preached to the ends of the earth: Jesus
of the cross was sufficient to reconcile. But God was        actually, fully saves.




                 TRYING THE  SPIRITS-


                                               BAHA'ISM

                                                by Rev. R. C.  Havbach


1. ITS HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS                                only their infallible, but also omniscient, sinless and
   The origin of this cult will naturally seem quite         divine prophets to interpret the book and the Baha'i
distant and foreign to the Reformed reader, since it         faith.    But be warned that these would-be, divinely
is a cult stemming from a Persian schismatic Moslem          deluded (Ezek. 14:9) prophets unhesitatingly insisted
sect.     Nevertheless its rather communistic purpose        on blasphemously assuming the very incommunicable
and reason for existence will prove of absorbing in-         attributes and names of God. The forerunner of the
terest to us.      A brief sketch of its history may not     sect was Mirza Ali Muhammad, a young man, about
seem to have much to do with its aim, but, since this        twenty-five in 1844, who called himself Bab (Arabic),
is an eastevti cult, its history will' serve to orient us    "Gate." He claimed to be a descendant and successor
in our investigation through very strange territory.         of Muhammad. This put him in the ascending line from
   Baha'ism separated from Mohammedanism in that             Moses to Buddha to Zoroaster to Jesus to what Baha'is
prayer is offered, not five, but three times a day (David    think an even greater prophet, Muhammad, thence to
prayed seven times a day! Ps. 119:164), and that facing      "His-Holiness-My-Lord-the-Supreme" Bab. In 1850,
not Mecca in Arabia, .but Akka in Palestine about ten        the Bab was executed by an Armenian firing squad.
miles north of Mt. Carmel. In this miserable prison          The body now lies buried on Mt. Carmel.
city of the Turks the founder of the Baha'i faith en-            Next in this Ishmaelitish line was-Mirza Yaha, who
dured great suffering. Further divergence from Is-           was rather quickly elbowed out of .the picture by his
lamism is also seen in the prohibition of polygamy,          .half brother Beha, the founder of Baha'ism, and the
divorce, advocation of discontinuance of the woman's         one from whom the religion derived its name. He was
veil, and woman's equality. Baha'ism also prohibits          better known as Mirza Husayn Ali, but preferred to be
gambling, lotteries and partaking of alcoholic liquors.      called Baha?u'llah (Glory of God). He also was pleased
   The infallible book of this cult is, naturally, the       to bear the nickname "the Blessed Perfection" (al-
Koran.     That book and the new Baha'ism, not to be         though I doubt that his wife ever called him that) and
outdone by the Old or the New Testament, have not            especially in Persia was known as "God Almighty."


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  159

This Baha'i "Father Divine" affirmed "There is no           Jeremiah warned us of these wild dreamers. Jer.
God but me,"1 yet he was succeeded by his son Abbas         29:8,9). Christianity is inherently weak and inadequate.
Effendi, the interpreter of this mongrel Moslemism.         (That cuts right across Matt. 24:35 and 16:18.) "Chris-
The latter was. called `Abdul Baha (Servant of Baha)        tian love arouses pity for a starving man but remains
`and Ghusni Azam (the Most Mighty Branch). He, on           helpless in the face of famine in India or slum conditions
.his visit to this country in' 1912, spread his religion    in Alabama. To the poor.are. offered charity and hope
by addressing groups of Socialists, Mormons, Jews,          but not a social' revolution. . .Social justice is a prob-
Modernists, Agnostics, Esperantists, Peace fronts,          lem left unsolved- by Christianity. 1 .`! (ibid., 61-2).
New Thought clubs. and Women's Suffrage societies,          The latter is a plain lie, as the Book of Proverbs
addicts all. of the Antichri&one-world  `philosophy. He     alone proves. As for India, it would not have famine
died in 1921, and, was succeeded by his eldest grand-       if its pantheistic philosophy did not make it a crime
son, Shoghi Effendi, the .First Guardian of the Baha'i      to eat cow meat or monkey stew. The woes of Indians,
Faith. Then Shoghi died in 1957.                            Hindus, Negroes and others `are due to their hateful
                                                            departure from and rejection. of the good, old, pure
2. ITS PHILOSOPHICAL TENETS                                 Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!
   It must be maintained that this sytem of thought is         From this and from what is about to follow it ought
not much of a religion, but more a political and eco-       to be as plain as day that the principles of Baha'ism
nomic philosophy thoroughly based onpragmatism, em-         are identical with those of the Communists. A Canadi-
bracing Platonism, pantheism and also agnosticism as        an Communist paper, Novthevn. Neighboys,  boasts of
emphatically as did Huxley and Spencer (ibid., 245).        "the people's peace fight," of the "victories scored
It comes packaged in a frivolous garb, but hardly has       by the USSR's drive for lasting peace", of "the
a god, claiming as it does that God is unknowable.          brotherhood of man," "social righteousness," of work-
Agnosticism, has no worship since it does not know          ing only "for the good of society," of a "multi-nation
what to  wokship.    Consistent with this aspect of the     free of race hatred or national prejudice," the "in-
Baha bubble,  it has no theology, no creed, no ministry,    crease of public wealth above private possessions,"
no liturgy, no preaching and no tithes or offerings. It     and. then reference is made to the enemies of all this
pretends to love God, but does not explain how the un-      Godless socialism as "the enemies of peace." Now
knowable can be loved, as it does not believe in either     compare these quotations with what you have just read
argument or controversy, only "peace." Prayer is en-        and with what you are about to read.
joined (to an unknown God]), but it is never in the name
of Christ. They pray to the Father, but they dishonor       3. ITS ONE- WORLD AIMS
the Father (Jn. 5:23)! Free will is tenaciously held.          In this connection Baha'ism produces propaganda
"There is nothing to keep men from forsaking religion       we might call theistic socialism or pious communism.
if they wish to do so. . . `God Himself does not compel     It proudly traces its beginning to 1844, the era of
the soul. . .The exercise of the free human will is         emancipation of slaves, the socialist and co-operative
necessary' " (ibid.,  161). So total depravity of man is    movements, as well as the "spiritual Renaissance" of
denied..    Man is inherently good.     Man is evolving     this new humanitarianism. As a syncretistic system
toward a universal brotherhood.        Creation, Heaven     it is incomparable.     Like Theosophy, and one of its
and Hell have no basis in reality, being only spiritual     branches, Freemasonry, Baha'ism accepts all the
symbols. The universe was not created by divine fiat        religions of the world, deeming them fundamentally
but is an emanation from the essence of God. The            alike, and finding in them a basic unity. All the re-
history of man reaches back millions of years and           ligions mark out "different stages in the constant
relates man's evolutionary origin, not to the grace         evolution of one religion" (ibid., 107).
and elegance of primordial perfection, but to an em-           The aim is to bring humanity to a universal faith
bryonic beginning. The Resurrection "has nothing to         in one common God, and to complete international
do with the gross (sic) physical body. That body, once      unity.    The chief concern of the Baha'i faith "is the
dead, is done with. It becomes decomposed and will          creation of a world government..,. .based  on justice. . .
never be recomposed into the same body" (ibid., 271).       Justice. . .is the collective' moral expression of the
The Return ,of Christ does not mean' the personal,          community" (ibid., 70, 107). One remark here: What
visible, bodily second coming of the Lord fromHeaven,       would justice be in the Amazon head-hunters' com-
but the appearance of another person, born of another       munity? Baha'is assume to call on America to lead
mother, having the Spirit of God.       This requires a     the world in international agreement to the complete
bringing forth of Matt. 24:23. Its attitude toward the      unity of mankind. To this end there must be a universal
Bible as the infallibly, plenarily inspired, absolutely     educational system, auniversal language (as Esperanto),
authoritative Word of God is expressed thus: "A re-         a universal currency, a supranational civil service
ligious system which draws its authority from a Book        with an International Postal Union (already in exist-
without provision for succession and an instrument to       ence), a world trade union, and a world court to ad-
bring. about change when required, is bound to become       minister "justice" ins a world commonwealth under a
bigoted, intolerant, divided and corrupt."2 But see Isa.    federalized world government, realizing. a planetary
8:20 and Gal. 1:6-9. The Baha'i opinion of Christianity     welfare economy. In this utopia there is no room for
is that it is outdated and has been surpassed by the        country, color, class, creed, nor for racial, religious
more advanced teaching of the Baha'i prophets. (But         or social prejudice. It is believed this alone will still


160                                              Q!HE STANDARD BEARER

the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife, and that             the trustees of mankind, and will entirely handle the
thus racial, animosity will be eradicated (ibid., 132).             resources of all the member nations. International
Would then Baha'is themselves be over their  pre-                   law will regulate life, supply the needs, and "adjust
judide against "the bigoted Puritan" (ibid.,  175)?                 the relationships" of all races and people (ibid., 133)
For lasting peace there must be a final religious,                  under universal socialism. This is one-worldismmore
social, political and -economical integration of human-             vehemently contended for than ever did Henry A.  Wal-
ity.       Faith in God, even faith in selfis deemed not            lace or Wendell Wilkie. There is no more avid build-
enough. "We must also have faith in society," i.e., in              ing of the end-time Tower of Babel and the coming
man (ibid., 179). It follows thenthat "the least possible           kingdom of Antichrist. This is more than a monstrous
government interference" is now an idea that finally                dream;         From Rev. 17:13 we know that this shall be
"has been rejected. Government control has come to                  realized.        From Rev. 17:17 we know why it shall be
stay" (ibid., 24).       Nationalism must end. National             realized  I      From Rev. 18:8 we know how it all shall
patriotism and national sovereignty are the root causes             surely end 1
of international anarchy, and the arch-enemies of
world prosperity and peace. Recourse must be had to                 1 Baha Ullah and the New Era, 295.
a world legislature, the members of which will act as               2 This Earth One Country, 112.



         THE CHURCH A7  WORSHIP-                   ("0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Ps. 96:9a)




              The Purpose of  the  Lord's Supper

                                                  by Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg

        To what end or purpose did the Lord institute His           designed to direct us to the consciousness of the puv-
Supper in the church?                                               pose of the sacrament.                 We must be sure that the
        It is with. this question that the next main section        purpose mentioned here coincides with that which lives
of the Communion Form is concerned. We must not                     in our hearts.
only be subjectively prepared to celebrate the Lord's                    The Communion Form enjoins us to "consider, to
Supper in the proper way, so that we may be received                what end the Lord hath instituted His Supper, namely,
of God in mercy and be made partakers of all His                    that we do it in remembrance of Him." Ideally speak-
benefits, but we must also understand objectively what              ing this should not be necessary. If we lived in the
we are doing. If this is not the case with us, the cele-            awareness of our spiritual fulness we would not have
bration of the sacrament becomes nothing more than                  to be told to remember Christ and His death. But
a dead formalism.                                                   idealisms are not reality. Sin is very much present
        Knowingly or unknowingly there is purpose ormoti-           with us, and we are so preoccupied with the things of
vation in everything we do. Because we do not always                self and the present world that the thoughts of what
analyze our deeds and discover for ourselves thedeep-               Christ has done for us become rather remote. We
est reason for the things we say and do, we are not al-             need a constant spiritual awakening and this must come
ways conscious of the purpose of things, but it is                  to us, not once in three months when the Lord's
nevertheless there. Moreover, we may add that this                  Supper is to be celebrated, but continuously through
motivation of our deeds is of just two kinds: good or               the preaching of the Word. The aim of.the  celebration
bad.       Either we aim to glorify and honor God in the            of the Lord's Supper then must not be construed in
things we say and do and thereby do good, or we have                such a way that it serves to arouse in us a conscious-
an ulterior motive which is sin. We either think and                ness of those things that we are otherwise oblivious of
act in disobedience to God which is sin, or we live                 but,. it serves, in assisting the,preaching' of the Word,
from the principle of obedience which is the evidence               to focus our attention upon Christ, Who dwells in our
of faith. An ethical sphere of neutrality is non-existent.          hearts richly by His, Spirit and grace.
And so it is also with respect to the Lord's Supper.                     The remembrance of HIM is the exclusive objective
There has to be a reason or purpose in our celebrating              of the celebration of the sacrament. Fruits, results
this sacrament and that purpose is either good or bad.               and effects of this celebration. must not be confused
There is not another alternative. In a sense then it               with  purpose.           It may indeed be said that we com-
may be said that this part of the Communion Form                    memorate the Lord's death in order that through this
also belongs with the self-examination, since it is                 means of grace we may be spiritually nourished and


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                161

     edified in faith, but this ,is not the purpose. The pur-       (2) Christ assumed our flesh and blood. .Here we
pose is Christ exclusively, and only when that purpose           must remember that this was necessary becau,se, as
     is sought in sincerity can those other desired effects      our Heidelberg Catechism explains, the only mediator
be reaped in reality.                                            that can possibly deliver us from the misery of sin and
       Although then the remembrance of Christ in the            death is one who is "very, righteous .man and very
     celebration of the sacrament is objectively the aim         really God". And. if we desire to engage in some dog-
that. permits the intrusion of none other, this also             matic `probing we have a wonderful. opportunity here
must, subjectively be the desire and ,purpose of the             to search out the Scriptures and the Confessions with
hearts of those:  that participate in this commemora-            a view to discovering the true .teaching  concerning the
     tion. We must not celebrate the Lord's Supper simply        natures of Christ  <and their relation to each other.
     in compliance with a certain ecclesiastical regulation      But the significant point from which we may elicit
     or to conform to a certain accepted tradition amongst       unspeakable consolation' is the fact. that in assuming
members of the church. We must experience in our-                our flesh and blood, He became like us in all things,
     selves the honest desire to probe the depths of the         sin excepted. We have a High Priest that can be touched
passion of our Lord and to do this through the means             with the feelings of our infirmities. We have the sin-
which He has instituted for that purpose. There must             less Jesus Who is and can be our representative before
be a genuine hunger and thirst for the knowledge of              God for He is one with us.
     God. and this cannot be a spasmotic  thing but is a con-       (3) The third point of our consideration is the fact
     tinuous experience that finds a real satisfaction in the    that "He bore for us the wrath of God from the be-
     observance of the Lord's Supper. The sacrament is           ginning of His incarnation, to the end of His life upon
     designed unto that end.       The child of God does not     earth." In parenthesis we are reminded here of the
     desire knowledge just for the sake of knowledge, but        fact that under this wrath which He bore "we should
he longs to know in order that he may possess and in             have perished everlastingly".        Since several other
possessing may experience the spiritual benefits of              points that follow also direct our attention to this suf-
that which he knows. He wants to remember the death              fering of Christ in the flesh, the emphasis here must
     of Christ, not simply as a historic fact, but because       be placed on the fact that He suffered Divine wrath for
     he seeks constant enrichment by spiritual possession        us and also that He suffered this all His life time. Our
     of the benefits of that death. In this attitude he ap-      Catechism mentions this in answer to the question:
     proaches the table of the Lord.                             "What do you understand by the words, `He suffered?' "
'       With this in mind we may consider the manner in          Consider this beautiful confession: "That He, all the
     which we are to remember the death of our Savior in         time He lived on earth, but especially at the end of
,the celebration of His Holy Supper. We shall follow             His life, sustained in body and soul, the wrath of God
     the communion form in enumerating the objective             against the sins of all mankind: that so by His passion,
     significance of this rem.embrance,  and although it is      as the only propitiatory sacrifice, He might redeem
     quite. possible to enter into a detailed discussion of      our body and soul from everlasting damnation, and
     each of the points enumerated,' we will refrain from        obtain for us the favor of God, righteousness and eter-
     doing so lest we intrude upon another rubric of our         nal life."
     paper. We suggest, however, that these points be the           (4)  Next, "that He hath fulfilled, for us, all obedi-
     subject of serious medit,ation  in the hearts of each of    ence to the divine law, and righteousness." Here we
     us; that they be discussed in our hom,es and in our         are to consider that His work of suffering was not
     social visitation. ,- Our age of worldly-mindedness is      simply a negative work but it was very positive. In
     not conducive to this sort of spirituality, we know,        the obtaining of the positive benefits of salvation,
     and the results are all too apparent. But us not be         Christ died - and this is emphasized once more here -
     conformed to this world but always remember and             fov U.S. He did not. need righteousness for Himself, for
     speak about the death of our Lord for without this we       He is the .eternally righteous One1 But we, who are
     cannot possibly be filled with its benefits..               unrighteous and disobedient, need one to obtain right-
      Herein are we to remember HIM:                             eousness for us in the way of perfect obedience. This
        (1) Christ was sent of the Father into the world.        Christ did by walking i.n love in the way of all the com-
     This statement touches on the reality of His incarna-       mandments of God. He performed the Father's will.
     tion, and directs us to the truth that Jesus Christ is      He di.d all His good pleasure. Of Him it was and could
     the fulfillment of all the promises of God contained in     be said: "This is my beloved Son,.in Whom I am well
     the Old Testament,        Of this we must be confidently    pleased." And while considering this point it is not at
     persuaded in our hearts, for unless we are able to see      all superfluous to give attention-to the fact that ,Christ
     HIM as the central realization of all God's works from      hath  fulfilled  all obedience to the divine law, and right-
     of old, the' remembrance of His death will be meaning-      eousness. Of this, too, we are confidently persuaded.
     less. Long may we then ponder this point of remem-          We do not speak of a Christ Who suffered- and died in
     brance, .for before us is opened the vast storehouse of     an attempt to accomplish salvation or of a Christ Who
     treasure contained in the Old Testament Scriptures.         made salvation possible for those who are willing to
     They, too, are the revelation of Jesus Christ and the       comply with the condition of acceptance, but the Christ
     focal point in them is that they reveal Him as the          of God has performed a perfect and complete work.
     promised Savior in Whom God will accomplish the             He obtained salvation!
     deliverance of Israel.                                         (5) The fifth point of our consideration directs us


 162                                          THE  STANDlvlti BEARER
                ._              _-
-to the manner in: which Christ did this. Our Form of         implications. of that suffering of Christ and limiting
Communion states: "Especially, when the- weight of            the scope of our observations to the historic revelation
our sins and the wrath of God pressed out of Him the          of that suffering, we must attempt at least to under-
bloody sweat in the garde.n,' where He was bound that         stand a little bit of what He endured. Have you ever
we might be. freed from: our sins." There is more             tried to live those hours with Him in the garden, be-
here but let us take just this much first. Oh, what a         fore the Sanhedrin and Pilate? If you have, the re-
glorious contemplation there is for us here when we           membrance of the L-ord's  Supper becomes meaningful.
take time in our busy (?) life to remember the suffer-        Then we begin to understand the meaning of His death.
ings of our Lord and Savior. Shamefully we must con-             There are still more -points of consideration men-
fess that also this is not done as faithfully as it-should    tioned here in our Communion Form but these will have
be. But without probing the depths of the theological         to wait until our next article.



          iONTENDING   FOR. THE FAITH--


                            The Doctrine of Creation

                                                 by Rev.  H. Veldman


 VARIOtiS  "INTERPRETATIONS"  of  SCRIPTURE'S                 theory. Some theologians have attempted to reconcile
ACCOUNT OF CREATION.                                          the narrative of creation with the discoveries of science
    There is, first of all, the ideal or allegorical in-      in the study of the earth by adopting the restitution
terpretation. This interpretation emphasizes the idea         theory.    This theory assumes that .a long period of
rather than the letter of the Scriptural narrative.           time elapsed between the primary creation mentioned
Genesis 1 is regarded as a poetic description of the          in Gen. 1:l and the secondary creation described in
creative work of God, representing this from different        Gen. 1:3-31. This long period was marked by several
points of  view. However, it must be very evident to          catastrophic changes, resulting in the destruction
the reader of Holy Writ that Genesis 1 surely gives us        supposedly described in the words "waste and void."
an historical narrative, that it is intended as a record      The second- verse should then read, "And the earth
of history and clearly set forth as such in the Scrip-        became waste and void." This destruction was fol-
tures;     Besides, if Genesis 1 be merely an ideal or        lowed by a restitution, when God changed the chaos
allegorical presentation, giving prominence to the idea       into a cosmos, a habitable world for man. This theory
rather than to the letter of the narrative, what, then,       might offer some explanation of the different strata of
do we have in Genesis l? What happened here at the            the earth, but it offers no explanation of the fossils in
dawn of history?      What idea, we pray, is really set       the rocks, unless it is assumed that there were also
forth here? What must we believe when we read                 successive creations of animals, followed by mass
Genesis l? ' If I cannot take hold of the literal inter-      destruction. But this is not in harmony with Scripture,
pretation of the Scriptures here, what' can and must I        inasmuch as the creation of the animals occurred
embrace?                                                      later, as recorded in Genesis  1:3-31. Besides, that
    Secondly, there is the mythical theory of modern          the earth was "waste and void" is not ascribed to
philosophy. This philosophy does not only reject the          catastrophic changes, `was not a condition /resulting
historical narrative of creation, but also the idea of        from destruction. Some would contend that the earth
creation, and regards Genesis 1 as a myth embodying           was "waste and void" because of the fall of the angels.
a religious lesson. The literal and historical inter-         Prior to thefall of the angels the world .was habitable,
pretation of Genesis 1 is set aside. Genesis 1 is to be       but the fall of the angels -resulted in the destruction
regarded as what the. Lord showed the first man in a          expressed in the words "waste and void." The angels,
vision as to how the worlds were created, and we must         then,. originally inhabited the world, and, when they
not regard this account :in Genesis 1 in the literal and      fell; the earth became "waste and-void." But this
historical sense. .The same-also applies to the creation      conception Surely finds no support in the accbunt of
                                                                                          ._
of the woman whereof we read in Genesis 2. This               Genesis 1.
view, we understand-, is also -contrary to the fact that         -A fourth theory is known as the' concordistic theory.
Genesis 1 certainly- comes to us as a historical nar-         This refers to the interpretation .of Genesis 1 .which
rative, and it is sur.ely  not -to be regarded as a myth.     would have us believe that the days of Genesis l-were
    Thirdly, we have what is known as the restitution         not days but long periods. We will not discuss this


                                                      THE STANDARD. BEARER                                                   163

conception ate this time, but will return to it-in due               dated: into the planetary bodies: this also applied to all
time.                                                                ,the heavenly bodies.-H.V.).     But these only carry the
                                                                     problem one step farther back, and fail to solve it.
`The Doctrine  of  Cyeakon and the  Theory   of  Evolution
                                         _-                          The. evolutionist must either resort to the theory that
   I Evolution  :or  .Evolutionism  is the view that the             matter is eternal, or accept the doctrine of creation.
whole world and all it contains was not .established                     b., The theory of  naturalistic  `evolution is not  in.
once for all, but that it is in a--state  of perpetu.almotion        harmony  with the navvative of creation.       If evolution'
                                                                     does not account' for-  theiorigin  of the. world, does it
and development.                                                     not at' least give' a rational account of the development
    Evolution is not the only theory which would explain             of things out of primordial matter, and thus explain
the origin of the world. Besides this theory, there are              the origin of  the- present species of plants and animals
also the dualistic and emanation.theories.  The dualistic            (including man), and also the various phenomena of
theory proceeds from the idea that there are two self-               life, -such as sentiency (possessing powers of sense or
existent principles, God and matter, which are distinct              -sense perception,-H.V.), intelligence, morality, and
from and co-eternal with each other. And the emana-                  religion'? Does it necessarily conflict with the narra-
tion theory would have us believe that the world is a                tive of creation?     Now it is perfectly evident that
                                                                     naturalistic evolution certainly. does conflict- with the
necessary emanation out of the divine being. Accord-                 Biblical account.    The Bible teaches that plants and
ing to it, God and the world -are essentially one, the               animals and man appeared on the scene at the creative
latter being the phenomenalmanifestationof the former.               fiat of the Almighty; but according to the evolutionary
The idea of emanation is, of course, characteristic of               hypothesis they evolved out of the inorganic world by a
all pantheistic theories. According to this theory, we               process of natural development. The Bible represents
understand, there is no God. If theworld  be the emana-              God as creating plants and animals after their kind,
tion of God, there is no God, and this for the simple                -and yielding seed after  theiqkind,  that is, so that they
reason that all we have is world. Then the world is                  would reproduce their own kind; but the theory of
God and God is the world. Then, one of two things must               evolution points to natural forces, resident in nature,
                                                                     leading to the development of one species  -out of an-
be true: the world is eternal and infinite, or God is                other.    According to the narrative of creation, the
finite and temporal. Then all we have is the world.                  vegetable and animal kingdoms and man were brought
And this, of course, is the end of all morality and                  forth in a single week; but the hypothesis of evolution
consciousness of sin, the end of all prayer. It-is the               regards them as the product of a gradual development
end of all sin and consciousness of sin for the simple               in the course of millions of years: Scripture pictures
reason that there is no one against whom we can sin,                 man as standing on the highest plane at the beginning
and it is surely the end of all  pr.ayer for the  same               of his career, and then descending to lower levels by
reason: there is none to whom we can pray.                           the deteriorating influence of sin; the theory of evolu-
                                                                     tion, on the other hand, represents original man as
    Now, however, we are principally concerned with                  only slightly different from the brute, and claims that
the theory of evolution. And we may say immediately                  the human race has risen, through its own inherent
that we do not intend to enter into a detailed discus-               powers, to ever higher levels of existence.
sion of evolution and the various phases of evolution,                   c. The  theory of naturalistic evolution is not well
as also including the Darwinian conception of natural-               established and fails to account  for the facts.  The con-
istic evolution, which would present to us a rational                flict referred to in the preceding would be a serious
account' of the development of all things. In his Re-                matter, if the theory of evolution were an established
formed Dogmatics, the late Prof. L. Berkhof gives us                 fact (and the undersigned would add to this: how could
                                                                     the theory of evolution possibly be an established fact?
the following resume of the doctrine of creation and                 Yet, it is worthy of note that we are able to point to the
the theory of evolution, pages  160- 163:                            fact that this theory is not an established fact.-H.V.).
                                                                     -Some think it is and confidently speak of the dogma of
         6. THE  DOC,TRINE  OF CREATION AND THE                      evolution.    Others, however, correctly remind us of
     THEORY -OF E.VOL UTIUN.             The  question. naturally    the fact that evolution is still only a hypothesis. Even
     arises in our day, How does the theory of evolution             so great a scientist as Ambrose Fleming says that
     affect the doctrine of creation?                                 "the close analysis of the ideas connected with the
         a. The theory of evolution cannot take the place of         term Evolution shows them to be insufficient as a
     the doctrine of creation. Some speak as the hypothesis          philosophic or -scientific solution of the problems of
     of evolution offered an explanation of the origin of the        reality and existence." The very uncertainty which
    world; but this is clearly a mistake, for it does no such        prevails in the camp of the evolutionists is proof
t h i n g .    Evolution is development, and all development         positive that evolution is only a hypothesis.. More-
    presupposes the prior existence of an entity or principle        over, it is frankly admitted today by many who still
    or force, out of which something develops. The non-              cling , to the principle of evolution, that they do not
   existent cannot,  develop  into existence. Matter and             understand its method of operation. It was thought at
    force could not have evolved, out of nothing. It.has              one time that  Darwin  had furnished the key to the
    been customary for evolutionists to fall back on the             whole problem, but that key is now rather generally
    nebular hypothesis,. in order `to explain the origin of          discarded.    The foundation pillars, on which the Dar-
    `the solar system, though in present science this is             winian structure was reared, such as the principle of
     supplanted by the planetesimal hypothesis (the nebular          use and disuse, the struggle for existence, natural
    hypothesis is the hypothesis that the solar system ex-            selection, and the transmission of acquired charac-
     isted originally in-the form of a nebula, which by cool-         teristics, `have been removed one after another. Such
     ing, condensing, and revolving, was formed into the              evolutionists as Wiessmann, De Vries, Mendel, and
     sun and into rings of matter which.later were consoli-           Bateson,  all contributed to the collapse of the  Dar-


     164                                                 THE-STANDARD BEARER
                                                                          `.

            winian edifice (and `we may add to this that Darwin
            himself frankly acknowledges that his theory does not
            explain tremendous problems, and that renowned sci-                                 IN MEMORIAM
            entists candidly admit that the reproductions of origi-
            nal men, such as are `found in our modern museums,           Our -consistory  wishes to express its sympathy with our
            are the biggest fraud perpetrated upon mankind-H.V.).        fellow elder, Kenneth Lanning in the loss of his brother
            Nordenskioeld, in his  History  of  Biology,  speaks of                             JOHN LANNING
            the "dissolution of Darwinism," and  O'Toole  says,
            "Darwinism is dead, and no grief of  mourners`can            The Consistory of the Protestant Reformed.Church  of
            resuscitate the corpse."       Morton speaks of "the         Hudsonville,
            bankruptcy of evolution," and Price of the "phantom                                   Rev.. Gerrit Vos, pastor emiritus
            of organic  evoluticn." Darwinisin; then, has admittedly                                         Donald Dykstra, Clerk
            failed to explain the origin of species, and evolution-
            ists have not been  .able to offer a better explanation.
            The Mendelian law accounts for variations, but not for                              IN MEMORIAM
            the origin of new species. It really points away from        We herewith express our sympathy with our pastor
            the development of new species by a natural process.         emeritus the Reverend 
            Some' are of the opinion that the mutation theory of                                      Gerrit  Vos in the loss of his
            De Vries or Lloyd Morgan's theory of emergent evolu-         sister
            tion points the way, but neither one of these has                                      RENA VOS
            proved to be a successful explanation of the origin of
            species by natural  development,pure  and simple. It is      Consistory of the Protestant Reformed Church of
            not admitted that the mutants of De Vries.are  varietal      Hudsonville
            rather than specific, and cannot be regarded as the                                       Kenneth Lanning, Vice-Pres.
            beginnings of new species.                                                                       Donald Dykstra, Clerk
            The Lord willing, we  will  continue with this quota
     tion in  .our following article,




        ALL AROUND  US-


-                  The Formula of Subscription Under Attack

                                            A Letter From Moscow

                                                              by Prof. H. Hanko

     THE FORMULA OF SUBSCRIPTION UNDER ATTACK                            Subscription." In this Formula officebearers "sin-
        The one chief barrier to doctrinal apostasy in the               cerely and in good conscience before the Lord declare"
     churches is the presence of the confessions:Especially              that the confessions "do fully agree with the Word of
     the churches which trace their spiritual parentage back             God." They further "promise . . . diligently to teach
     to the .fathers  of the Reformation find protection from            and faithfully to defend the aforesaid doctrine, without
     heresy in the confessions which were formulated in the              either directly or indirectly contradicting the same"
     post-Reformation period. Ministers, theological pro-                in public preaching or writing. And they promise that,
     fessors, and officebearers intent on introducing into the           should they have any objections to the confessions,
     church heresy always have the.problem  of the confes-               "they will neither publicly nor privately propose, teach,
     sions with which to contend, for- the .truth is clearly             or defend the same, either by preaching or writing,
     defined in them.                                                    until we have first revealed such sentiments to the
        This  is. the more true since all officebearers                  consistory, classi's and synod, that the same may be
     (especially in the Reformed Churches, but true in                   there examined, being ready always cheerfully to submit
     others as well) must promise that they will uphold                  to. the  judgment of the consistory,  classis and synod,
     and defend these confessions which their churches have              under the penalty in case of refusal to be, by that very
     adopted. Some are only asked to make this promise                   fact, suspended from office."
     verbally before they are admitted into the ministry of                     This strong, language, binding the .minister tightly
     the Word; in the Reformed Churches ministers (and                   to faithful adherence to the creeds,. is a necessary
     all officebearers). are asked to sign the "Formula of               safeguard against heresy.


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    165

       It has however, become common today to ignore this           criticism and makes them infallible. But, he insists,
strong language and deliberately to flout it. Many                  this is not true. The creeds have errors in them. And
sign the "Formula of Subscription" with a smirk ,on                 they have errors in them because they were written by
their faces and with all kinds of reservations in their             imperfect men with.imperfect understanding of the truth.
hearts - which they do not. openly express. This is
horribly dishonest before God and before the church.                      When we emphasize that even the best works of man
But it is, nevertheless often done.                                    are not perfect, we cannot say even that it is "im-
       Obviously, a situation of this nature cannot go on.             probable" that the creeds do "fully agree,' with the
                                                                       Word of God.
So, if one is really intent on getting heresy in the                                   We are forced to say (are we not?) that
                                                                     it is impossible that they do. Is it really wrong for me
church one chooses sooner or later. to get rid of the                  to repeat it? Nothing less than the Word of God itself
creeds. And to get rid of the creeds, the first step is                could possibly "fully agree" with the Word of God.
clearly to get ,rid of the "Formula of Subscription".
       Such attempts are being made.                                   He then proceeds to show that the creeds are indeed
       One such attempt is to be found in a recent article          mistaken on some points and that, consequently, the
in the Reformed Jownal  written by Fred Baker, a lay-               "Formula of Subscription" does not have the right to
man in the Christian Reformed Church.                               make us declare that the creeds fully agree with the
       At the risk of doing injustice to his rather lengthy         Word of God. The examples he chooses are interesting.
and well-written article, we shall refer only toparts  of           The Heidelberg Catechism obviously does not agree
it.                                                                 with the Word of God fully because it does not speak
       He begins by discussing the need for the church to           of missions nor does it emphasize the importance of
engage in "self-criticism".               This, he says, is what    the. stewardship of time and money. The Belgic Con-
Luther did in 1517 when he nailed the theses on the                 fession falls under the same charge because it speaks
chapel door in Wittenburg.                He wants to hear these    of the fact that the books of Chronicles are "commonly
same hammer blows which sounded in that city within                 called  Paralipomenon" -- which, he insists, they are not
the walls of the Church.                                            called very commonly, although they are called this
                                                                    sometimes. He finds the Canons of Dordt so "wordy
              The secret of the Reformation was, and is,  self-     and obscure" in some parts that he cannot understand
       criticism, not other criticism.     This is the moral of     how many men "could in good conscience declare that
       my whole story.                                              they even understood them, much less declare before
       From  this he goes on to argue that self-criticism           God that these lines fully agree with His Word."
is possible and necessary because we are still im-                     And so the result of all this is that he chooses to
perfect people in an imperfect church. This, of course,             urge the church to dispense with the "Formula of
no one will deny. But then he goes on to to apply this              Subscription" altogether. It is better, he insists, that
particularly to the confessions. He insists that he is              the church ask her officebearers whether they will
not picking an argument with the creeds:                            accept the Scriptures as the infallible rule of faith and
                                                                    practice; and that officebearers be asked to promise
              I must pause to pay homage to  our. creeds and        only that they accept the creeds of the church for what
       traditions.     I am not attacking them as I seek to put     they are, the best we  have been able to devise to make
       them into perspective. I like them. I enjoy them. I
       have benefitted from them. I would even fight for them.      sure the Word of God is faithfully applied. This re-
       Just as I am with my own five children, I find myself        moves effectively all the binding power of the creeds.
       almost always on their side.       But I know they cannot       In answer to the second question: "Has it been good
       possibly be perfect, even though I would like to think       for the church to do so?", i.e., insist on this binding
       so.                                                          declaration o f faithfulness to the creeds, the author
       But the reservations which he has about the creeds           writes:
become an argument against the use of the *`Formula                       In effect, this seems to screen out from office the
of Subscription."             Particularly he objects to the           very  men the Church needs, men who are restless to
statement in the Formula which elicits from  all who                   test their beliefs against the Word of God. To the
sign it a declaration rhat. they "sincerely and in good                potential Martin Luthers it seems to say, We do not
conscience before the Lord . . . heartily believe  and                 want you unless you are complacent with weakness as
are persuaded that all the articles and points of doc-                 well as strength. We want you in the Church only, it
trine"in the confessions "do fully agree with the                      seems to say, if you are so set in your ways that you
Word of God." And I presume, from reading his                          believe, in good conscience before God, that further
article, that he would want to underscore the word                     reform is virtually impossible.
"fully."                                                               Hence, the church would be far better off if the
       In objecting to this, the author raises twoquestions:        binding character of the creeds were dispensed with.
"Does the Church have the right to require agreement                   Several points ought to be made.
with this declaration?" and, "Has it been good for the                 In the first place, the "Formula of Subscription"
Church to do so?"                                                   does  not demand that an officebearer commit himself
       His answer to both questions is "No."                        to the belief that the confessions exhaust the truth of
       The  reason for saying "no" to the first question is         Scripture. There is no one who ever claimed that all
primarily because it seems to him that this places the              the truths of God's Word were included in the con-
creeds on a par with the. Scriptures, raises them above             fessions. Even the authors of the creeds did not insist


166                                           THE ,STANDARD  BEARER,

on this. While together they do include all the major        Where the creeds are despised and the Formula ignored,
doctrines of God's Word, there are some which are not        there the life of the church is short.
included.      This is obvious. To find then a lack of a
particular truth such as that of stewardship is not to       LETTER FROM MOSCOW
lodge a legitimate complaint against the creeds.                A letter came into my possession which was ad-
   In the second place, no one ever claimed the creeds       dressed by The Union of Evangelical Christians Baptist,
to be infallible. They are not. They have, never been        Post' Office Box 520, Moscow, USSR. Although it was
maintained to be. This is not their intended purpose.        addressed to our churches in general, it was written
Their authority is not that of Scripture. It is a derived    with Christmas in mind and requires no specific action
authority which places them below Scripture andmakes         on the part of our Synod. I quote here the letter in full.
them authoritative only inasmuch as they agree with              To all the Christians of the world.
Scripture.                                                       Dear.  Brothers, Sisters, and Friends who share our
   In the third place, the creeds themselves do not                   faith in Jesus Christ.
block theological investigation nor hamper continued                The Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists sends
study of the truth. Indeed, they do quite the opposite.          you its warmest greetings for Christmas, the Chris-
They are invaluable instruments to incite the church             tians' dearest and most joyful feast, and for the coming
to further investigation of the truth. Only, they mark           New Year of 1966.
clearly the channels in which this investigation must               The birth  .of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem means the
proceed.      And they do this because they define truths        advent of God on earth, into our human family. But
already uncovered by the church upon which any further           Christ came on earth not only as a bright visitor, but
                                                                 also as a Ruler and His will must therefore be done by
development must be based. And if any one finds him-             all His followers, by all the Christians of the world.
self in disagreement with the creeds, the "Formula of               The first commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ
Subscription" itself provides the way to express that           was that of love. But thelove  to which Christ-summons
disagreement.       The Formula itself makes perfectly           us must be active. Christ Himself gave us an example
clear that the church admits that there is possibility of        of active love by healing the sickwhen He saw them, by
error in these man-made confessions.                             giving bread to the hungry who surrounded Him, by
   In the fourth place, the purpose of the creeds is to          saving the life of those who were in danger of death.
put into writing what the church confesses to be the             Even now we hear His voice saying: "I have given you
truth of the Word of God.         This purpose cannot be         this-exampIe  that you may do the same as I did unto
                                                                 you." (John  13:15).
obscured by pointing out that the Heidelberg Catechism              Dear Brothers and Sisters, we are all glad that
does not include some statement about stewardship;               Christians do many things for love, to fulfil the will of
that the Belgic Confession calls the books of Chronicles         our Saviour. We rejoice at the Christians'care for the
, `Paralipomenon;  " that the Canons are wordy and               sick, at their efforts to ease the sufferings of sick
obscure in some places. The Spirit of Truth which                people.    We rejoice at the Christians' care for the
Christ, promised to the church has worked mightily in            hungry, manifested in the great campaign of Christian
the church. The fruit of this work is the confessions.           churches under the slogan: "Bread for the world".
In them the church possesses a remarkable heritage of            But there is today a place on the globe to which
the truth entrusted to her care by the church of yester-         Christians do not yet devote sufficient attention. A
                                                                 place where men perish daily in the flames of war
year.       She loses this truth at her peril. She must          which threaten to spread over all mankind.            This
retain it to retain her name as the church of Jesus              place is Vietnam.
Christ.                                                             At the time when all the Christians of the world
   And finally, the binding character of the confessions         will glorify the Saviour who came to it and contemplate
must be maintained at all costs. This binding char-              in spirit the images of bright angels flying over the
acter of: Lhe confessions is guaranteed in the "For-            fields of Bethlehem, the black angel of death.will  hover
mula of Subscription".       There are those in the Re-          over Vietnam, killing children, youths and maidens,
formed churches in general and in the Christian Re-              old men and women. What discord1 What disharmony1
                                                                    Dear Brothers and Sisters, when we rejoice at
formed Church in particular who want freedom within             Christmas over the birth of our Saviour and Teacher
the church to dispute the truth of theconfessions. This          Christ, let us also weep with those who weep in  Viet-'
is not so strange, for already there are many indica-           nam, let us devoutly pray for peace for the people of
tions of the fact that the confessions are openly denied         Vietnam, for the end of war in Vietnam.
and the truths in them publicly repudiated and the                 We wish you all a merry Christmas and  we.pray
errors condemned by them boldly taught. And no one               that the New Year of 1966 may be a year without any
lifts a voice to remind these men of their solemn               wars in the world.
promise which they made before God.                                 With kindest regards and brotherly love on behalf of
                                                                the Union of Evangelical Christians - Baptists:
   The result is that heresy rushes in as a mighty                                                Yakov  Zhidkov, President
stream that soon overwhe&s  the church.                                                  Alexandeygarev,  General Secretary
   We do .well,  in this day of apostasy and confes-            Surrounded by those who constantly exhibit defects
sional decline to be reminded of the importance of our       of character and conduct, if we yield to a complaining
creeds. And we do well to remember that the "Formula         and impatient. spirit, we shall mar, our own peace with-
of Subscription" was drawn up just so that the heresies      out having the satisfaction of benefiting others.
which run rampant in today's church might be kept out.                                                            - Selected


                                                 THESTANDARD'BEARkR                                                             167



     BOOK  REVIEWS-                            The Lord Protector                         '

                                               Faith On Trial
                                                  -      -
                                               The Resurrection of Jesus

 THE LORD PROTECTOR, Robert S. Paul; Wm. B.                        might like, and although there might be statements
 Eerdmans Publishing  C.O.; 438 pages; paper, $2.95.               after which we might place a question-mark and desire
                                                                   a little further explanation, nevertheless there is much
    The subtitle "Religion and Politics In The Life Of             in this book that appeals to anyone who loves the truth
 Oliver Cromwell" reveals the chief content of this                according to our Reformed confessions. There is much
 book. It is not in the strictest sense of the word, a             clear language that would warm the heart of a Reformed
 biography of this leader of Protestantism in England.             reader.           I enjoyed particularly the chap@rs entitled
 Nor is it a history of the stirring times in which he             "Facing All The Facts, " "Beginning To Understand,"
 lived -- 17th Century England. It is rather a scholarly           and "The Final Perseverance of the Saints."
 study of the religious views of Cromwell in relation to              Anyone interested in meditations on the Psalms
 his position in English 17th Century politics. It deals           could profitably read this book in- a winter's evening.
 with Cromwell's battles to defeat the Englishmonarchy,               I have just one comment in regard to the workman-
 subdue Ireland *and Scotland, destroy Roman Catholic              ship of the book. The copy I received for review had
 authority and worship, and establish Puritan Protes-              several loose pages in the very beginning of-the book.
 tantism in England. It discusses the struggle with the            It is to be hoped that this flaw is not common to all
 Anglican sector of the population and with the problems           copies.                                               H.C.H.
 involved in establishing parliamentary rule in England.
 Yet it discusses all these things in order to analyze             THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS by James Orr. Pub-
 Cromwell's own religious beliefs as they related to               lished by Zondervan, 292 pages. $3.95.                 -_
 such questions as established religion, freedom of
 religion, and the erection of a thoroughly Protestant                In this book Dr. James Orr defends the historic
 commonwealth. This sympathetic treatment of Crom-                 position- of the Church of God in regard to the actual,
 well throws interesting light on the man, the struggles           bodily resurrection of our Lord J.esus Christ. He de-
 of Protestantism in the 17th Century, -- particularly in          clares .in his introductory remarks that in the past the
 England, although also on the continent, -and the                 Resurrection of Jesus Christ was regarded as an im-
 problem of the relation between Church and State.                 movable corner-stone of Christianity. Of late, however,
    It is written much like a doctoral thesis, filled with         this fundamental truth has been under ruthless attacks
 extensive and, on the whole, illuminating footnotes, and          by those who have no place ,in their thinking for the
 is highly recommended to students of history who are              miracle.
-interested in the political aspects of the Calvinistic               In this book the author subjects these attacks upon
 Reformation in England.                                           the resurrection of our Lord to a very careful scrutiny
    It is claimed that the book (while first published in          in the light of the Wordof God. He shows the ridiculous
 England) was published in this country because the                nature of these attempts of wicked modernism to under-
 religious and political beliefs of this time formed "the          mine this corner-stone of the Christian belief. One
 basis for the political democracies in" England and               does wonder, when reading this book, whether Dr. Orr
 America. BUti while Puritanism came into this country,            inclines to the--view that there are discrepancies in the
 especially New England, it is dubious whether there is            gospel narratives relating this fact, or whether he
 any connection between the views held by Cromwell                 mentions these "minor discrepancies" to bring into
 and the political fathers of this country.                        sharp focus the malicious-intent of the higher critic to
                                                       H. Hanko    deny this basic truth of the Word of God. Bearing this
                                                                   in mind, we can recommend this book to our readers.
 "Faith On Trial," D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Wm. B.                   It can be read also_by the laymen. And it can certainly
 Eerdmans Publ. Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 125                   be read to solidify one's faith in that cardinal truth of
 pages; $2.95.                                                     the Word of God: Jesus is not here, but is risen. Of
                                                                   course, the child of God does not need logical proof
    The author is preacher at Westminster Chapel,                  to believe in the resurrection of the Lord. But it-can
 L o n d o n .                                                     do no harm to allow the Scriptures to speak in re this"
 = This book is a series of brief sermons or medita-               matter. It is a book of 292 pages, and the author views
 tions on the well-known and well-beloved Psalm 73.                the Scriptural truth of our Lord's resurrection from
    Although the. form of `these meditations might not- several Scriptural aspects. The book is easily read, _.
 be such as we are -~accustomed  to, and although the              and it can serve our-edification.
 author is not in every instance as exegetical as we                                           -.                   H. Veldman
                                                                               -.


 168                                           THESTANDARDBEARER


                          NEWS FROM OUR  CHURCHES-

                                                               ("All the saints salute thee . . ," Phil. 4:21)

                                             Dec. 15, 1965
        Rev. D. Engelsma, of Loveland, declined the call      ship with the congregation he has served for almost 18
 from Hudsonville, Mich.                                      years.       According to the bulletin a "princely gift"
        Rev. R. C. Harbach, of Kalamazoo, has received a      accompanied the expression of love and "well wishing"
 call from Randolph, Wis., from a trio which included         of his people.           Rev. Vos' response to all this in the
 the Revs. Engelsma and Lanting.                              bulletin was, "God bless you all for evermorel"
                           * * *                                                                  * * *
        An Inspirational Christmas Mass meeting was               The January schedule for the Reformed Witness
 scheduled to be held in Hope Church Friday evening,          Hour radio broadcasts, featuring Rev. G. Vos, are as
 Dec.. 17. Rev. Van Baren, of First Church, was se-           follows: Jan. 2 "Judas, the Praise of Jehovah;" Jan.
 cured to give a message befitting the commemoration          9 -- "Divine Destruction" (Ex.  11:7b); Jan. 16  -
 of the Incarnation of the Lord of Glory, our Lord            "Salvation is of the Lord" (John  10:27-30); Jan. 23
 Jesus Christ.                                                -- "The Heavenly Gift" (Jer. 32:39); Jan. 30 -- "The
                            *  * *                            Judging King" (Matt. 25:40).
        The Men's Society of Oak Lawn invited the Rev. G.                                         * * *
 Lubbers to speak at a public meeting held Thursday               The Young People's Society of Loveland is studying
 evening, Dec. 9.       Rev. Lubbers spoke on his labors      "The History of the Protestant Reformed Churches".
 in Houston, Tex., while Missionary of our churches.          Each week a chapter of the book is discussed after
 A question and answer period was scheduled to be held        having been introduced by a member of the society.
 after the speech.                                            That history might be profitably studied by all our
                            *  *  *                           young people that they might be reminded of the reason
 _ The Men's Society of South Holland sponsored a             for our existence as a separate denomination.
.- lecture by Prof. H. Hanko Dec. 3. The subject of the                                           * * *
 lecture: "Civil Rights in the Light of Scripture".               The Young People's Society of Southeast Church is
                            *  *  *                           keeping alive the tradition of an annual potluck supper
        Rev. B. Woudenberg has taken up his duties in his     involving the entire congregation. Another such supper
 new church in Lynden, Wash., and has begun a new             was held Dec. 11.                The main object of such potluck
 venture which has all the earmarks of a worthwhile           supper is that of Christian fellowship as stated in the
 neighborhood mission prpgram.         His concern is for     bulletin, "this is a good time for our people to get
 the sickness prevailing in Christendom today, the            acquainted with each other."
 symptoms of which may be seen in a faith that is cold                                            * * *
 and comfortless, which gives neither courage nor                 As small as is Lynden's congregation, they never-
 strength. The Pastor claims that the words of Hosea          theless have one of their members, James Vander
 4:6, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:         Veen, in the Armed Forces, evidently in foreign ser-
 because `thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject         vice; for his address in the bulletin is under an A.P.O.
 thee", are applicable to the situation in modern day         out of San Francisco, Calif. The congregation is urged
 Christianity. Rev. Woudenberg's program provides for         to reveal their concern for him by writing to him
 a weekly study class to be held in their church Wed-         regularly.
 nesday evenings treating "some aspect of Christian                                               * * *
 doctrine as taught by the Word of God." Mimeographed             The congregation of Hull celebrated their 40th
 introductions will be handed out at the church and will      anniversary Dec. 10. Rev. C. Hanko and Rev. J. A.
 be mailed out within the community, and the Reverend         Heys, both former pastors of that church, were invited
 urges everyone to invite friends, relatives and neigh-       to attend the celebration and to take part in the program.
 bors to attend. Their new pastor expects the members         Rev. Heys came by train and conveyed his greetings
 of this class "to carry their Bibles to the meetings,        to his former charge, but Rev. Hanko travelled by
 use them, study them at home, and memorize those             plane and was grounded in Denver where he spent the
 passages marked with an asterisk in these Introduc-          week-end.          In Rev. Hanko's spot on the program a
 tions." It surely looks like our little church in Lynden     taped message of greeting was played. This tape had
 is' striving to give witness to the Glory of God by          been prepared before it was known that Rev. Hanko
 uncovering her light, which we too often hide under a        was expected to be there in person.                  The splendid
 bushel, to let it shine as a light on a hill that cannot     program included: Opening devotions by Rev. Kortering;
 be hid.                                                      church history by Mrs. T. Kooima; Piano - organ duet
                            *  *  *                           by Mrs. H. Van Maanen and Mrs. A. Kooiker; solo by
        Hudsonville's congregation met in social gathering    Jane Van Maanen; some numbers by the choral society,
 to bid their emeritus Minister and his wife the blessing     and by a group from the Ladies Society, and by two
 of God upon them, that they may "fare well" in his           Sunday School classes.                  Rev. R. Decker, of  Doon,
 retirement from the active ministry. Rev, and Mrs.           closed the joyous occasion with prayer and rhanks-
 Vos intend to live in Hudsonville and continue to wor-       giving. A social hour followed the evening's program.
                                                                 0  n see you in church.                                 J.IVI.F,


