                                             _
                                             he

                                        tandard.                                        `,

                                                   e a r e r


     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





I       IN THIS ISSUE:

                   Meditation: Jehovah-Nissi, Our Banner

                   Editorials:                        _
                          "All. Diliderke In- Obtierving...;"

                          The Nature of tbre Atonement: Limited or General?
                                  ,     "

                   Buchmapism

                  .Stephen's Apology Before the Sanhedrin



                                                           Volume 42 / Number 8 / January 15, 1966


 170                                                                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER

                                               C O N T E N T S
Meditation  -
    Jehovah-Nissi, Our Banner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                     1 7 0 '
           Rev. M. Schipper                                                                                                                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
Editorials -
    "All Diligence In Observing-..  ." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                         173                    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
           Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
    The Nature of the Atonement:
    Limited or General? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `, . . . . . . . . . . . . .                       174                                      E&t&-- Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
           Prof.' H. C. Hoeksema                                                                     .                .'                               Communications relative to contents  ghould  be addressed to
All Around Us  -                                                                                                                            .   .
                                                                                                            :                      ,-,                      Prof.  H.'  C...Hoeksema,  1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
    God Is Dead?                                                                                                                                            Rapids,  Mich.       49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
    Once Again - Christ's Resurrection
    Vatican II (Continued)                                                                                                                             words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
    A Needed Reprimand. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                          176               lines are the first and fifteenth of the month.
          `Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                                                   All church news items should be addressed toMr.  J. M. Faber,
 Trying The Spirits -                                                                                                                                .`.            1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
    Buchmanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .             178 `*
           Rev. R. C. Harbach                                                    .-..                                        ,.                        .Announcements  and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee includedmust
 A Cloud of Witnesses -                                                                                     -.                     .__,                     be `mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below;
    The Election of Saul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._....... .`.:...:.I . . . . . :...; 186.                                                       .`A11  matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
           Rev. B. Woudenberg                                                                                                                                        Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
 From Holy Writ -                                                                                                                                                              Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
    Stephen's Apology Before the Sanhedrin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
           Rev. G. Lubbers                                                                                                                                     Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
 In His Fear -                                                                                                                                              received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
    A Case of Heart Failure (2) . . . . . . . ..i.......................                                                             184                    scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
           Rev. J. A. Heys                                                                                                                                                    Subscription price: $5.00 per year
Heeding The Doctrine  -                                                                                          .                                                Seco@ ,cEass, Postage, paid at Grand Rapids,. Michigan
    Barth's Doctrine of Scripture (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..c . . . . . .                                              187               . .  `.
           Rev. D. J. Engelsma
The Lord Gave The Word  -
    Particular Atonement and Mission Preaching . . . . . . . . . . 189
           Rev. C. Hanko                              '
 Book Reviews  -
    Luther Is Grote Catechismus                                                                                                                                Surrounded by those who constantly exhibit defects
    By What Authority                                                                                                                                  of characters and conduct, if we yield to a complaining
    Philippenzen en Philemon                                                                                                                           and impatient spirit, we shall mar our own peace
    The Quest For Serenity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*...........                                            191
           Rev. H. Veldman  - Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                           without having the satisfaction of ,benefiting others.
News From Our Churches  -                                                                                                                                                                                           - Selected
          Mr. J. Faber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                 192

                                                                                                                                          _..                         .'



                        MEDITATION-


                                                           Jehovah#issi,, Our _ Ban,ner

                                                                                                                            by Rev. M.  Schipv
                                             y  1                                              :.                                   `, . .  `-
                         :                                       :             (..             ._                     .,,j'._               .,  ,;.  s_
                                                           `And Moses built an  altar, and called the  name of  it Jehovah-nissi:
                                                 FOY he said,  Because the Lord hath  SWOY?Z that the Lord will have  way
                                                 With Amalek from generation to generation."
                                                                                                                                                                                 Exodus' 1 ?:1;5, 16

    A great world war1                                                                                                                                 with us to the end of the world. Such is not the warfare
    The battle of the ages1                                                            _             ,`.                                    . . . .~ .of which the text .speaks 1
    Not the battle that is waged among the nations, and                                                                                                        Rather is it a spiritual battle!
fought with guns and tanks, with ships and planes, with                                                                                                        The antithetical battle of darkness versus the light,
bombs and death-dealing explosives 1 Though such war-                                                                                                  of evil versus the good, of sin against righteousness,
fare has marked the history of the world. Though war                                                                                                   of the world against the church, of Belial against
and rumors of warfare are always present  withus; and,                                                                                                 Christ, of Satan against God! A battle which began at
according to God's prophetic Word, will continue to be                                                                                                 the very dawn of history when man came under the


                                                  THESTANDARDBEARER                                                         7
                                                                                                                            171

spell of Satan, and fell from his high estate, rebelling     Israel the victory over `their opponent. Amalek was
against God. A battle which has continued. ever since,       discomfited and put to flight1                    `.
and is perhaps its hottest today. A battle-in which the         And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a
children of, God, the Church of Christ, are deeply           memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of
involved.      A battle which must be fought throughout      Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance. of
this calendar year, and all other years the Lord ordains     Amalek from under heaven. The Lord hath sworn that
shall follow. A battle which Jehovah Himself wages           the Lord will have war `with Amalek from generation
from generation to generation against Amaleki  Inwhich       to generation I
He privileges us to have a part!                                 Typical warfare 1
 In this battle, as in every other battle, there is a            Type it is of the .warfare,  that rages through out the
rallying banner I                                            ages I
   There is a. cause around. -which men rally, be it           The war between the world and the church!.            ..'
good or evil, righteous or wicked, a principle, an               The antithesis I
objective, that moves men .to fight together to gain. a         Not to be conceived  ,of as-a tug-of-war! The outcome
common victory. So in this battle of the ages there is       of which is in the balance! O.ne moment the victory
such a banner under which we fight!                          goes one way, and at another moment it swings to the
   Jehovah-nissil-                                           other  side1       Nor is it so that the church is a mighty
   That is, Jehovah is my banner!                            power that stands over against .the world, another
   M y   s t a n d a r d   i s   Jehovah1                    mighty power, in which combat the outcome is un-
                            * *  5,                          certain!        Nor is it so that though the church will
                                                             ultimately be victorious, she is to be conceived of as
 A continual  warfare1                                       suffering tremendous losses in her battle against the
  .From  generation to generation1                           mighty forces of the world! Such cannot be the meaning
   The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war           of the antithesis !
with Amalek!                                                    Rather, the church is of the thesis1
   The,Lord  against Amalek!.                '                  And God is the thesis1
   But who- is .Amalek? Was he of the generations of            He is light, and there is no darkness in Him what-
Esau?        Esau, we read in Genesis 36, had two sons:      ever! He is the truth, and cannot .lie.! He is righteous,
Eliphaz the son of Adah his wife, and Reuel the son of       and there is `no unrighteousness in Him1 He is holy,
Bashemath, another wife of Esau. And Eliphaz, Esau's         and there ,is no corruption in Him1 He is the sum total
son, had a concubine Timna by name, who bore-unto            of infinite perfections, and there is nothing in Him to
him Amalek. Thus Amalek was a grandson of Esau,              mar that perfection! He is fixed, established, set .in
Jacob's .brother.     Or, was Amalek one who lived much      the meridian of. His own light Being1 He. is the thesis !
earlier,  at. the time when Chedorlaomer .and his armies        And the church is of the thesis1 She is made to be
came to fight against the cities of the plain, chiefly       light in the world! Unto her is given all the graces of
Sodom and Gormorrah, in the days of Abraham and Lot?         Christ Jesus I And she is set by God in the very midst
Amalek, who is described by Balaam (Numbers 24:20)           of the world to let her light shine! A giorious  church
as the first of the nations? Or, are'we  to conceive of      which radiates the virtues of her Redeemer1
a combination of these two, as the adversary spoken of          The antithesis is what opposes the thesis1 While
in the text? It is not impossible that the latter possi-     God is the thesis, and His people are of the thesis, He
bility is the correct one. And if this is so, you, have a    also wills the antithesis, in order that He may hate it,
typical figure of the very nature of the Antichristian       and use it as a backgroundupon which to reveal His own
world-power of which Scripture often speaks, and which       glory! He is the God also of the antithesis1 He creates
shall be revealed in the days of the personal Antichrist.    light, but also. the darkness1 He makes peace, and
His kingdom, too, shall be a combination of the carnal       creates evil! He raises up Pharaoh in order to reveal
seed of the church (Esau).and the world!                     His power in him. He anoints Cyrus -to be His servant
 : At any rate, Amalek, according to. the context,           to bring His ransomed people back to their own land1
initiates an attack upon Israel .at Rephidim. No doubt       He .makes  Amalek, in order that He. may carry on a
the Lord had put a fear in the heart of .Amalek for the      warfare that, goes on from' generation to generation!
children of Israel.      Israel's deliverance under the      The antithesis must serve the Thesis !
mighty hand of Jehovah through the Red Sea had been             Yet the antithesis must offer opposition1 It opposes
quickly publicized throughout the land of Canaan,            the light, because -it is. darkness I It opposes the truth,
whither the children of Israel were to be brought. But       because it is of the lie !
before Israel had opportunity to invade Canaan, Amalek          And so, because the church is of the Thesis, she is
is moved to go out to meet Israel at Rephidim, near          in continual warfare so long as she is in the world1
Horeb.                                                       Never can light and darkness agree1 Always the church
   And you know the battle that ensued! Joshua was           speaks the truth in the midst of the lie1
appointed to captain the Lord's host and to fight            ! And `nowhere does this battle become so intense as
Amalek. When Moses' hands were raised, Israel pre-           within the church itself I In the visible church comes to
vailed; but when his hands were down, Amalek pre-            manifestation `a carnal seed1        That carnal element
vailed. And so Aaron and Hur held up Moses' hands            comes under the same influences as the spiritual seed.
to the going down of the sun. And the Lord gave to           Intellectually they understand the truth. They have the


172                                              `THE STANDARD BEARER

same  .catechetical -instruction, sit under the same                      Jehovah-nissil
preaching, witness and even participate in the same                       Our banner I
sacraments.. But they love not the truth with all their              `Literally; ::Jehovah  is my banner! Or, my banner is
hearts ! -They do. not love God and His Christ. They             Jehovah1 The altar of Moses was a visible symbol of
hate His .people,  and persecute them! They love the             the truth that Jehovah is He round Whom Israel rallied.
world, the things of the world, the philosophy of the            A memorial to remind Israel that He was Israel's God
world; and very easily they join forces with the world.          Who fought Israel's battles.            It was Jehovah, their
    Indeed, the church's main controversy is not with            Covenant God Who carried on the warfare with Amalek
the evils of the world, though she opposes all that is           from generation to generation1
evil in the world! But her main controversy is within,             Our rallying banner is the Truth!
against heretical doctrines and practices as evidenced                    The truth that God is God! Absolute Sovereign is
in the carnal element. Sometimes this controversy is             .He I       There is no God beside  Him1 The truth that
over apparently trivial matters! In the Arian contro-            Jehovah is the God. of our salvation! Our Covenant
versy it was -over a little letter (i) .which spelled the        God Who saves us from beginning to  endl Uncondition-
difference between accepting or rejecting the doctrine           ally, without our aid, He saves us through Christ
of the divinity of Christ. And so it was with all the            Jesus ! Though He privileges us to stand in the battle,
controversies since1         Always it is the question re-       and to share in the victory, the battle is His and the
specting the truth: Is God God, .or isn't He? Is He              victory is His ! Of God Who showeth mercy!
sovereign, or isn't He?          Is `the Bible His infallible             Scripture and the Confessions I
Word of revelation, or isn't it? Against these and many                   Scripture as interpreted in our Confessions1
more of Satan's lies the church is called to battle! And                  That is our banner!
the battle is' never finished! It goes on from generation                 The visible attestation of the truth! That is it with
to generation I                                                  which God fights against Amalek! With it He arms us
    Continual battle I                                           to fight against all the forces of evil! For us who are
    From generation to generation! Not only of the               Protestant Reformed people that banner is the Word of
generations of the people of God, but also of the gen-           God as expressed in the Three Forms of Unity and
erations of the wicked! As the one develops, so does             interpreted in the Declaration of Principles1 This is
the other!. Side by side they take their place throughout        the banner of Jehovah round which we rally today!
history; and in the end we shallsee the highest possible                  And rally we must!
development of both I         The powers of evil that shall               Many today rally round a different banner! Not the
finally assail the church, shall be the highest.possible         truth, but the lie! Not the banner of Jehovah, but of
development of man without God, the man of sin, whose            A m a l e k !
number is 666. And with him the Lord shall do battle                      Many today do not rally round any banner, and do
through His church, the great battle of Armageddon1              not fight, or so they imagine1 To them peace is sweeter,
                              *  *  *                            the peace of the cemetery1 Controversy to them is a
    A rallying banner I                                          bad word! But in reality, they are under the banner of
    For this: continual battle, the Lord has given a             Amalek! There are really only two banners, that of
rallying banner I                                                Amalek, or that of Jehovah1 In the spiritual battle you
    Symbol that unites the forces of light in a common           can only be under one banner or the other. If you are
cause!                                                           not under that of Jehovah, you are under that of Amalek I
    Visible symbol representing an invisible reality.                     By the grace of God we are under the banner of
Such is the significance of a banner1 Many banners               Jehovah 1
there are in the world that serve the same purpose.                       Not to gain, you understand, the victory! We do not
The American flag, with its thirteen stripes and fifty           fight for victory, we have it 1
stars, in red, white, and blue, is the symbol that unites                 But to taste the victory which we have through our
the peoples of our country in a common cause. Each               Lord Jesus Christ!              In Him we are more than con-
organization in the military. has its own banner or              querors, because in the battle we lose nothing, and our
ensignia.     The Roman soldier followed his standard            very .opponents are our servants that must assist us to
bearer into battle. In.,the battle the soldier keeps his         the crown 1 When Amalek shall have been completely
eye on the banner lest he stray frcm his command. So,            vanquished, the Church Triumphant shall be glorified1
all who belong together have a rallying point. And
standing together under their banner, they realize their                  Round that Banner let us rally throughout this year
purpose  1                                                       of our Lord 19661

                           Martin Luther once said: "I am much afraid the universities will prove to
                     be the great gates to hell, unless they diligently labor to explain the Holy
                     Scriptures and engrave them upon the hearts of youth. I advise no one to
                     place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institu-
                     tion in which men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must
                     become corrupt."


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    173



         EDITORIAL


                          "All  Diligence  In  Observing...."

                                                by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


   Every time that New Year's Day falls on Saturday             Year's Morning are, perhaps more than any other
there is a comparatively widespread tendency in our             holidays mentioned in Article 67, rather artificial
churches, - sometimes proceeding no farther than an             occasions. And the artificiality of New Year'sMorning
expression of dissatisfaction, but sometimes translated         worship is rather complicated by the common custom of
into action, - a tendency, namely, to disregard Article         installing new elders and deacons on that occasion.
67 of our Church Order and to cancel either the New             For that reason I also favor waiting with that installa-
Year's Eve service or the New Year's Morning service.           tion until the first Sunday of the New Year, when a
   That tendency occasions this editorial.                      sermon befitting the occasion can be preached.
   First of all, let me remove the impression that I               Nevertheless, the arguments as such have no weight
am unaware of the usual arguments that are brought              when the question of holding services on these occasions
up to support this tendency. My readers themselves              is under consideration. Why? Because under Article
have probably already marshalled them. I am also                67 the consistories simply have no choice in the matter.
quite aware of them. They run somewhat as follows.              The article does not read: "The churches shall observe,
When New Year's Day falls at the end of the week, if            if  they see fit...."    It does not even read: "The
we follow the usual custom, we will have worship                churches shall observe. . . ..Old and New Year's Day
services on Friday night (New Year's Eve), on Saturday          ovdinavily."  It reads: "The churches shall observe,
morning (New Year's Morning), and then again twiceon            in addition to the Sunday,. . . . .Old and New Year's Day."
Sunday. That means "church" four times in less than             Period1 Consistories, therefore, have no option in the
three full days. Consistories can probably add to that          matter.
the fact that for one reason or another, --legitimate or           In the second place, this is very definitely sealed
illegitimate, -these services are not as well attended          by Article 86 of our Church Order, which reads: "These
as they might be. And perhaps ministers can add to              articles, relating to the lawful order of the church,
that the argument that this is a killing pace: to prepare       have been so drafted and adopted by common consent,
and deliver four good sermons in the spaceof less than          that they (if the profit of the churches demand other-
three days, and that too, at a very busy time of the            wise) may and ought to be altered, augmented or
year.     Besides, it is probably argued, these church          diminished.      However, no particular congregation,
holidays are rather artificial in character and non-            classis (or synod), shall be at liberty to do so, but they
Biblical, so that there is no direct and positive               shall show all diligence in observing them, until it
Biblical ground for having divine worship on these              otherwise ordained by the general synod."
days.     Moreover, as a practical matter, we can just             That settles the matter: "...they shall show all
as well eliminate at least the Saturday morning service         diligence in observing them, until it be otherwise or-
and- celebrate the beginning of the New Year on Sunday          dained by the general synod."
morning, January 2.       Furthermore, those churches              That is, that settles the matter from a negative
which have no pastor of their own can probably add to           point of view, and technically. Under OUT Church Order,
this the fact that it is difficult to get supply for their      no consistory has the right to cancel these services.
pulpits and that it is difficult, if not impossible, to find    There can be no question about that,
reading sermons for special occasions of this nature,              One may argue that this is unreasonable, that it is
let alone the fact that it is not very pleasant, to say the     legalistic, that precedent has been set in this regard,
least, to have reading at a special service.                    that no consistory has ever been "called on the
   Thus the arguments run.                                      carpetit for disregarding this rule.       One may also
   And I make the point of this editorial in spite of           argue that there are several other articles in our
these arguments and in spite of the fact that I am well         present Church Order that are not observed, that, in
aware of them.                                                  fact, cannot be observed, that are dead letters. All of
   Why?                                                         these arguments do not change Articles 67 and 86; and
   First of all,. negatively, because these arguments           one violation does not justify another. These articles
have no weight whatsoever. Personally, I have a goodly          have been drafted by common consent, and all our
measure of sympathy for these arguments. I have always          churches are bound by them voluntarily.
felt that the occasions of New Year's Eve and New                  I can imagine someone saying: "Well, if that's the


174                   ,                         THE STANDARD BEARER

way you feel about it, why don't you make a `case' of            That danger is, in the second place, that we depart
it?"                                                          from good order.         Good order would be that if any
   That is not my point, especially not in the light of       consistory feels that there should be more latitude in
the fact that our churches have "winked at" this              Article 67, that consistory brings the matter to the
matter for some years.                                        Synod by way of overture. This is very simple. The
   Neither is my point that our Church Order should           insertion of the word "ordinarily" in Article 67 would
undergo a general revision. Personally, I do not feel         solve the problem. Or, if it is undesirable to change
that the time is ripe for such a general revision; and        the article itself, let an overture ask for a decision of
I do not care to copy the example of other Reformed           Synod to be' attached to Article 67 as a footnote, such
churches in that regard.                                      as we have under many of our articles.
   My point is that there is a certain danger in this            But by all means, let us observe good order in the
tendency.                                                     churches. And that means: maintain the ChurchOrder,
   That danger is, in the first place, that this kind of      and observe it, as long as it is not otherwise ordained
action tends to breed contempt for our Church Order.          by the general synod.
For, after all, if one article can be disregarded, why           To do less than that is independentism.
cannot another, more important, article also be  dis-            And independentism ends in anarchy: it is destructive
regarded at the whim of the local consistory?                 of true denominational unity.


        EDITORIAL-


                           The Nature of the Atonement:
                                          limited ,or General?

                                                by Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema

SCRIPTURE AND SATISFACTION                                    isfaction. This is according to all our Reformed con-
   We are busy discussing and describing the nature           fessions, and I have shown this to be true by abundant
of the atonement in connection with the question whether      reference to those confessions.
or not the atonement is in its very nature limited. Dr.          We now must face the question whether the Scriptures
Daane, in treating the issues of the Dekker Case, denies      also -teach this and whether, therefore, the teaching of
that the atonement is limited in its very nature and, on      our confessions is also the plain teaching of Holy Writ.
the contrary, claims that .the atonement is in its very          A very striking fact is that this term satisfaction
nature unlimited.                                .            which occurs so frequently in our confessions is not a
   However, although Dr. Daane wrote several articles         Scriptural term as such. It does not occur in Scripture.
on this subject, he failed to do what he most certainly       It is a dogmatic term which is employed by our confes-
should have done, that is, describe the nature of the         sions and by Reformed theologians in order to explain
atonement.      Surely, if a theologian wishes to maintain    and to give contents to the various Scriptural terms
the proposition that the atonement is in its very nature      used for the .atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
unlimited, then his very first duty is to describe that       Hence, one looks in vain for the term satisfaction in the
nature of the atonement. How otherwise canone deter-          B i b l e .
mine whether or not that atonement is unlimited7 But             This does not mean, however, that this term is not
this, as I said, Daane failed utterly to do.                  a.good one, nor that as far as its meaning is concerned
   According to our Reformed confessions and accord-          satisfaction is not a Scriptural concept. The contrary
ing to Scripture, the atonement is in its very nature         is true.       Every term which Scripture employs with
limited. This is the proposition I am busy maintaining        respect to Christ's atonement contains this idea of
and proving in this series of editorials. And in order        satisfaction.
to do so I am trying to demonstrate step by step what
the nature of the atonement is, so that I may finally            Before we investigate the various Scriptural terms
demonstrate that the atonement cannot be, because of          for the atonement, let us face the question: what is
its very nature, anything but limited, that is, for the       satisfaction?
elect alone.                                                     In answer to this question I wish to quote at length
   The most fundamental element in the atonement,  -          from an exposition of this concept by my late father in
such is the burden of our present discussion, - is sat-       his "The Triple Knowledge," Volume II, pp. 13, ff.


                                               THE STAND-D BEARER                                                            .175

   Satisfaction  is a term that expresses one  .of the        in His wrath, and inflicts the punishment of death upon
main themes of Holy Scripture.. The word. denotes the         us, He still demands: "love Mel" It is quite essential
same idea  .as. the Dutch "voldoening," or, better still,     to understand this clearly, in order that we may com-
"genoegdoening." It means `*to  do,enough," "to make          prehend somewhat the terrible reality of satisfaction.
sufficient," to comply with a certain demand, particu-        Our obligation is to love God Who is  GOD1 We must
larly with respect to a debt accumulated or an offense        love Him as He is, because He `is  good1 He is good
committed; And the truth that God will have His justice       when we love Him and He causes' us to taste His
satisfied is a theme that runs all through the Word of        blessed favor. But He is good, too, when -we fail to love
God from beginning to end. All through history God in-        Him and He causes us to taste His goodness by inflict-
structed His people in the truth of the necessity of          ing upon .us the punishment of death, by making us un-
satisfaction. . . . . . .                                     speakably miserable1 Hence, we must still love Him,
   What is this satisfactionof God's justice? In general,     even while He lays His heavy hand upon us! To love
satisfaction implies that a person has certain obligations    God was our obligation in Paradise, where man was
with respect to another, that he has failed to fulfill        surrounded by the favor of God.. To love God remained
these obligations, that he is in arrears, that he owes a      his obligation when God executed the death sentence
debt,  .and that now he makes  a. full  p,ayment of that      upon him, and he was driven out of paradise and from
debt, and so restores the proper relationship between         the fellowship of God. To love God is man's obligation
himself and him to whom he was obligated. Applied to          even in the eternal desolation of hell. Even there God
our relation to God, this means that we  have,an un-          says to man: "Love Me as I reveal  Myselfto thee here
changeable obligation to love Him. The obligation is a        in My righteousness and justice through the agonies
moral, ethical one. It never changes, for God does not        which I cause thee to suffer in outer darkness!" The
change. Always He s?ys to us: "Love Me with all thy           love-demand never ceases, never changes. The  love-
heart, and with all thy mind, and with all thy soul, and      debt remains forever!
with all thy strength." Never may we do anything that             To understand the implication of satisfaction for
is not motivated by the love of God. If we love Him we        sin we must bear in mind this unchangeableness of
are the objects of His favor. Themoment we fail in the        our love-debt to God.          Not the mere bearing of the
payment of this love-debt, we are no longer in His            punishment for sin, even inhell,  is satisfaction. Surely,
favor, but become the objects of His just wrath. This         the damned in hell fully suffer thepunishmentfor sin in
cannot be emphasized too strongly and repeated too            eternal death and desolation. Yet they never atone,
often. Nothing can take the place of this love of God to      they never make satisfaction for sin; their suffering
make us the objects of His favor. Nothing else than           never becomes a sacrifice that blots out sin and re-
this love of God with all our being is righteousness.         stores them to the favor of God. When capital punish-
All our imaginary piety, our Phariseeism, our  work-          ment is inflicted upon a murderer, we may often read
righteousness, our willingness "to do something for           in our daily papers that the murderer atoned for his
God," our humanitarianism, is of no avail to take the         crime. But this is not correct. Justice satisfied itself
place of this one obligation to love God. To love God         by inflicting the punishment of death on the murderer,
with our whole heart, to love. Him in all that we do, in      but the murderer did not atone for his crime. He did
the very thought of our mind, in every deed we perform,       not offer his life. He did not willingly seek the punish-
with every step we take on life's pathway, in every re-       ment that .he might atone. He probably sought the help
lationship of life, -- that is our sacred and unchangeable    of an attorney in order to escape the electric chair.
obligation before God. And nothing else can possibly          But his life was taken away from him by force, against
take its place.                                               his will. His death is no satisfaction. So God will surely
   In that obligation we have failed and do fail continu-     punish sin even with eternal desolation, and glorify Him-
ously. Hence, we are in arrears, we are in debt with          self in the damnation of the wicked. But the suffering
God! And let us not be deceived by this word debt so          of hell is no satisfaction, for even there God's demand
that, perhaps, we think of our relation to God in terms       remains unchanged: "Love Me  I"              And this  demand
of a financial obligation.     A man may owe a debt of        they cannot fulfill. Hence, the act of satisfaction is the
money and think little of it. Heis going to pay it some-      payment of the love-debt to God as He reveals Himself
time, at his convenience1 And as long as his creditor         to the sinner -in the depth and darkness and unspeakable
does not trouble him too much, there is little for him        misery of hell I If there were a. sinner that could per-.
to, worry about. But with our relation to God this is         form this act of love, that could pass through the woes
quite different. We owe a love-debt. And our creditor         of eternal desolation, through the darkness of the depth
is not someone who lives far away from us, and  oc:           of hell, and be motivated by the loveof  God, that sinner
casionally knocks at our door to demand payment, but          would satisfy the justice of God with respect to sin. Or,
he is the living God, the, Lord of heaven and earth, in       to express this truth-more vividly still, if there were a
Whom we `live and move and have our being1 He is the          man that would be so motivated by the love of God that
Lord of life and of death. In His favor there is light        he would seek that punishment, that for God's name's
and life and joy; in His displeasure there is darkness        sake and to fulfill His righteousness would desire to
and death and everlasting desolation. And He is not           descend into deepest hell, and realize that desire,  -
`far from us. He surrounds us. He encompasses our             that man would make full satisfaction for sin. Such is
whole being. And the moment we fail to love Him, that         the sinner's love-debt to God. He is obligated to say
moment He is terribly displeased, filled with holy and        to God: "For thy righteousness' sake let all the billows
just wrath against us.        He makes us feel His just       of Thy wrath pass over me, and even then I shall love
wrath. He punishes us with death. He makes us un-             Thee I" If he performs this act of love He makes full
speakably miserable. He does this, not in some future         s a t i s f a c t i o n . And in the way of this full satisfaction
state only, but now, at once, the moment we are in debt       he will be the object of the favor of  God1 And this sat-
and fail to love Him. His handis  heavy upon us, and by       isfaction is absolutely necessary. The Arminian, who,
His wrath `we pine and die. But let us not forget, that       because of his denial of limited atonement, cannot and
even so, even while He pursues us and encompasses us          does not maintain the truth of satisfaction, may claim


 176                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

         that God can accept something else instead of this per-                   to those who love Him, who fulfill the unchangeable
         fect sacrifice of atonement, a tear, aprayer, a temporal                  demand to love Him perfectly, while He .for His own
          affliction, an example, -but he misleads the sinner.                     name's sake curses and punishes with everlasting
         The modernist may make light of this truth and speak                      desolation those who fail to meet that demand.
          of it mockingly as "blood-theology," he only mocks at
         most dreadful realities. For God cannot deny Himself.                        3) Satisfaction implies debt, that is, that man has
-i.:     He will have His justice satisfied. Satisfaction for sin                  failed to live up to God's unchangeable demand of love,
          is the indispensable condition to be restored to the favor               has fallen in arrears with respect to that demand.
         of God.                                                                      4) Satisfaction implies the payment of that debt
         Summing up,  therefore, we may distinguish the fol-                       according to the demand of God's justice, that is, the
 lowing elements in the concept satisfaction:                                      free, voluntary bearing of the full punishment of sin in
         1) Satisfaction implies an unchangeable obligation                        loving obedience and for the sake of the righteousness
 on the  part of man to love God.                                                  of God.
         2) Satisfaction implies the rule of God's justice,                           And it is this satisfaction that is basic to every term
 that He blesses and gives life to the righteous, that is,                         which Scripture employs to describe the atonement.


                                                                                God Is Dead?

              ALL AROUND  US-                                                   Once ,Again-Christ's Resurrection

                                                                                Vatican II (Continued)

                                                                                A Needed Reprimand


                                                                   by J&f. H. Hank0

 GOD IS DEAD?
         There have always been men who with an ultimate                                       All America is called to freely accept and  will the
 arrogance pronounced the death sentence upon the                                       death of Cod.
 living God.               Nietsche  tried it; so did Voltaire.  But                           To refuse the death of Cod and cling to his primor-
 these men were generally outside the Church. Again                                     dial image (is to have bad faith).
 today men are doing the same. The difference.is that                                 All this amounts to a very haughty and blasphemous
 these "death sentences" are not coming from atheistic                             assertion that there is no God. Altizer means to say
 Russia, but from theologians within the church.                                   that true religion must, in order to survive in our
         The most outspoken advocate of this new movement                          times, deny God's existence and build a religion which
 is Thomas J. J. Altizer, professor of religionin Emory                            is based upon man. To speak of God is pointless in our
 University, a Methodist school. He has been so out-                               day; to believe in God is impossible when science has
 spoken with his view that he has shaken the church                                destroyed everything supernatural; to be saved does
 world badly.                                                                      not require faith in God but only faithin man. We must
         A few quotations from a recent speech of his will                         dispose of all the truth of Scripture and found religion
 demonstrate how open he is. (The quotations are taken                             only upon man and this world.
 from Christianity  Today.)                                                           All this hardly requires comment. Yet it is, I think,
                   We are now living in a time when the whole inherited            important to note that such blasphemy is the end of a
           body of our theological language is disanpearing  into the              rejection of God's revelation  - an inevitable end. When
           past and a new history is dawning in our midst before                   Scripture is abandoned as the written record of God's
           which theology is increasingly becoming speechless.                     revelation through Jesus .Christ (either in whole or in
                   (The Christian can no longer) find security in an
           absolute sovereign Cod who exercises a beneficent and                   part) the end has got to be the arrogant heresy of
        - providential government over the world.                                  Altizer.       And those who persist in tampering in any
                   Theology must resolutely confine the Christian                  respect with Scripture do well to take warning.
           name of Cod to the past, and wholly refrain from pro-                      One wonders sometimes how it is possible that the
           claiming his redemptive presence in our historical                      Lord withholds yet for a time His almighty hand of
           present.
                   Only the death of Cod can make possible the advent              judgment. Here is a man, less than a speck of dust,
           of a new humanity.                                                      standing before the face of the God of heaven and
                   Just as apocalyptic imagery centers upon the defeat             earth, living in God's world, sustained by God's
            of Satan or Antichrist, whose death alone ushers in the                hand, breathing God's air, surrounded by countless
           victory of the Kingdom of God, so contemporary
           thought and sensibility is rooted in an absolute nega-                  displays of God's majesty and glory, shaking his puny
           tion of Cod, a negation which already promises to                       fist in the face of the Most High and boastfully pro-
            dissolve even the memory of Cod.            __ _               _
           -...                                                                    nouncing Jehovah dead. It makes one shudder.


                                               THE S.TANDARD BEARER                                                  177

   But it is the fool. who says in his heart, "There is        Satan never wearies of trying to undermine the glorious
no God.`.'                                                     truth of the resurrection upon which the faith of the
ONCE AGAIN - CHRIST'S RESURRECTION                             Church rests. Over against all these silly attempts
                                                               of unbelief, the Church still shouts victoriously with
   Paul spoke in his glorious chapter on the .resur-           Paul: "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and
rection of the fact that Christ's resurrection is the          become the firstfruits of them that slept."
cornerstone of the. Christian faith: "If Christ be not
risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also      VATICAN II (Continue<)
vain. . . . And if Christ benot raised, your faith is vain,       Much has already been written on the Second Vatican
ye are yet in your sins." I Corinthians 15:14, 17.             Council;, and we may, no doubt, expect much more now
   Those .who deny the Christian faithmust of necessity        that the Council has finished its work. For our own
deny the resurrection. And those who deny the resur-           readers, Rev. Van Barer, will continue his excellent
rection must find some plausible explanation for the           series on the activities of the council in future issues
death of Christ on the cross and for the empty tomb in         of the Stundavd Beaver. We will not enter into any de-
Joseph's garden. The empty tomb is the one historical          tail therefore on a discussion of these decisions. We
fact which cannot be denied except by the foolishness          offer here only a brief summary of some of themore
of unbelief. It cannot be properly explained in any other      important decisions which were made towards the end
way than by the fact of the resurrectionof Jesus Christ        of the sessions - especially those which speak of the
from the dead.                                                 relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and
   Yet all this does not mean that many have not tried         other religions.
it. Since the le,aders of the Jews ordered the soldiers           Perhaps the most debated issue before the council
who had.guarded Christ's grave to spread the lie that          was the issue of Christian liberty. This decision was
the disciples had stolen the body to today there have          to define the relation between the Roman Catholic
been many attempts made to give some satisfactory              Church and other ,religions  in the light of the claim of
explanation for that empty grave. But all such explana-        the Church of Rome to be the only true Church. Rome
tions are fantastic inventions of unbelief more impos-         has always insisted that no one had a right to believe
sible to maintain than the resurrection itself. And they       any other faith but that which Rome herself taught; and
have been buried in history.                                   that it was the Church's obligation to enforce this
   Now another such attempt has been made to explain           religion at the point of. the sword `if necessary. The
the empty tomb while yet denying the resurrection.             result is that the Church of Rome possesses a long
Hugh J. Schonfield,  born of Orthodox Jewish parents,          history of intolerance and overt persecution.
has recently written a book published in England in               This issue was faced by the Council since it has
which he propounds what he calls a new theory. The             .become  ecclesiastically fashionable to promote free-
book has been widely hailed.                                   dom of religion.     The new decision softened the old
   In brief, he insists that Christ believed Himself to        stand somewhat, although not as much as some, wanted.
be the expected Messiah of history; and that He, with a        It declared that all men have the right to freedom of
thorough knowledge of the Old Testament prophecies,            conscience in matters of worship (Which was quite a
deliberately set out to fulfill these prophecies and care-     concession); but at the same time it also insisted that
fully plotted His own suffering and death. He chose            all men have the duty to embrace Catholicism once
Jerusalem as the scene of His death, arranged for              they recognize its truthful claims. In this same deci-
Judas to act as betrayer, plotted with Lazarus and             sion, the Council boldlyignored centuries of persecution
Joseph of Arimathea the whole drama of Calvary.                .and piously stated that the Church has always professed
Cunningly, He chose the day of His death just prior            the principle of liberty of conscience. The graves of
to the Sabbath so that He' would not have to be on the         a thousand martyrs mock this assertion.
cross too long; arranged. for the vinegar to be given .Him        Another declaration entitled "On Non-Christian
b.ecause the vinegar was a narcotic which, when taken,         Religions" condemned anti-Semitism and asserted that
induced a state of apparent death, arranged beforehand         the Jewish people as a whole cannot be accounted
the binding with linen graveclothes and spices not as          guilty for the crucifixion of Christ. Although many
preparations for burial, but as medicine for His wounds,       were disappointed that the decision did not include a
and planned to have His disciples aid Him in, His              statement acknowledging the Church's role in the past
reappearances to claim a resurrection.           However,      in anti-Semitism, this was enough to satisfy the Jews -
His plans went awry. Ear He did not anticipate the             and arouse the anger of the Arabs.
sword-thrust of the Roman soldier. The result was                 While the council made some decisions concerning
that, while He was still alive when taken from the             internal reform (particularly the. introduction of vernac-
cross, and while He even gained consciousness briefly          ular languages into the liturgy, and the increased role
after being .carried  away from Calvary, He died none-         of the bishops. in the rule of the Church) no essential
theless.. ,His disciples .took His body from the tomb          changes were .made  in Romish doctrine. The Church
in Joseph's garden and buried it elsewhere in utmost           remained fixed in its heretical dogmas which inspired
secrecy.                                                       and necessitated the Protestant Reformation.
   This attempt to explain the empty tomb is really               This omission, while expected, will no doubt be
`nothing new and not even as clever as other attempts          overlooked by today's protestant theologians who are
which have been made in the past. Yet it shows that            so eager to nestle closer to Rome. One went so far as


178                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

to say that were Martin Luther living today he would        the structure of the World Council of Churches, exam-
have been sufficiently satisfied with these decisions to    ines the whole question of ecumenicity, develops the
remain within `the Romish Church. Others speak of           calling'of the. Church to seek the unity of the body of
the favorable change in the "climate" of the Church,        Christ as this calling is found in Scripture, and pre-
of the obvious fact that the Church "has. become a          sents cogent reasons why fellowship with the World
people on the march- or at least a people which is          Council of Churches is impossible for those who wish
packing its bags for a pilgrimage" ,and that -we can        to preserve the truth of God's Word.
assuredly look for more changes in the future.                  The  reason.`why  the General Assembly of the
   But Rome remains Rome; and the need for main-            Orthodox Presbyterian Church addresses, itself to this
taining the principles of the ,Reformation  is as urgent    problem of the Gereformeerde Kerken is that the two
today as it was 450 years ago.                              denominations are sister Churches. The .implication
A   N E E D E D   REPRIMUD                                  is therefore very strongly made that should the Gere-
                                                            formeerde Kerken -nevertheless join the WCC, it will be
 " As has been reported previously in the Standard          impossible to continue these sisterly relationships since
Beuvev,  the Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands        the witness of the two Churches will no longer be
are considering the advisability of joining the World       identical. Thus the letter concludes with the words:
Council of Churches. There is considerable sentiment            The Reformed Churches are respectfully urged to
within that Church favoring this venture.                   reject membership in the World Council of Churches
   At the 32nd General Assembly of the Orthodox             and to maintain common witness with the Orthodox
Presbyterian Church a communication was adopted to          Presbyterian Church to the unity of the body of Christ."
send to the Gereformeerde Kerken in which the General           We cannot quote the letter here; but those pursuing
Assembly sharply criticizes this action.                    their ecumenical dreams could profitably read it and
   The letter, unanimously adopted by the assembly,         the Gereformeerde Kerken would do well to pay atten-
is a thorough piece of work: It discusses and analyzes      tion to it.



       TRYING THE SPIRiTS-


                                      BUCHMANISM

                                              by Rev. R.  C.  Havbach


   Hailed as a `modern liberal Pentecostal movement,        to Communism. According to publicity reports, one of
Buchmanism is strictly not an organization with an          the converts to this cult was Mae West.
official membership.     It is rather a "do-gooder"             Buchmanismi along with Christian Science, Christ-
movement calculated to so change individuals, societies     adelphianism, Mormonism, Modernism, Seventh Day
and -nations as `to convert mankind `into one universal     Adventism, Spiritism,. Russellism and Theosophy, is
peace. corps before the third `world war annihilates        another cult which denies the substitutionary atonement.
humanity. In England it is known as the Oxford Group        It does not do' this openly and directly, -but rather
movement. In Switzerland it is known as Moral Re-           employs the tactic of evasion. For its aim is to influence
Armament. It gets its nickname from Frank Nathan            those who believe this doctrine rather than to offend
Daniel. Buchman, of nominal Lutheran background. He         them.- Hence no doctrine is mentioned in the Buch-
was born in 1878 at Pennsburg, Pa. He died in Switzer-      manite meetings in order' not to upset anyone. But
land, -August .1961, at eighty-three. His father was a      there could be no debate with this movement unless it
brewer.    He was educated at Muhlenberg College,           would agree to face up to and express itself on the
Allentown, Pa. and at the Lutheran Seminary'in  Mt.         doctrine of the atonement.
Airy;. Philadelphia. He pastored  the Church of the Good        Actually it has no vicarious atonement,- but it does
Shepherd. in Overbrook, Philadelphia. At the Keswick        have vicarious sin-tasting. For one outstanding char-
(Victorious Life) conference in England he felt himself     acteristic  .practice   of. the cult is that of "sharing,"
"religiously reborn.!' For' a time, he worked at a          which consists in exchanging "religious experiences"
YMCA post at Penn.State College. He had also worked         (whoppers  - RCH) with one another. This is simplythe
with- Sherwood Eddy.     He was lecturer in Personal        enjoying of each other's sins, an "if you tell me what
Evangelism at Hartford Seminary. Through the years          you did, I'll tell you what I did" sort of thing. It is not
the Buchman fad developed a strong anti-Communist           surprising that this "experience-sharing" was called
trend. The man himself preferred Fascism (Socialism)        "sin-sharing." The'change of name did not change the


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   179

nature of the-practice. Buchmanites therefore do not          wicked." Saul's confession was, "I have played the
have, any remission of sins,. but -a reveling in sins.        fool; I have erred exceedingly." Judas' confession
Modern psychologists would say that they are sub-             was, "I have betrayed the innocent blood." All these
conscious exhibitionists led by the  1ibidinou.s drive.       wicked, reprobate men did as Judas, "when he saw
In this way; auricular .confession  is sneaked into the       that he was' condemned repented himself" (Mt. 27:3).
protestant. church, as well. as a morbid delight in           Note that "when." What a time for repentance.! As to
sexual sins. -Against all this we have, the Scripture,        conversion, there was that of Simon the. sorcerer, who,
"neither.  .be partaker of other men's sins" (I  Tim.         although he "believed", after a fashion, was neverthe-
5:22), which means,. "Be not sin-shavers!"                    less  r`in. the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of
   -Another characteristic is-its sickly mysticism evi-       iniquity" (Acts 8:13, 23). Then there is also Demas
dent  in. its so called "guidance." This consists in          ( II Tim.  4:lO). As to continuance, think of the tares
putting the brain out of gear; resting it in neutral every    (Mt. 13:30) and the many false prophets which continue
morning in complete silence,- sitting thus with the mind      to the day of judgment (7:22).
blank and the intellect and will put off as much.as              Bucfimanism       denies       all Christian doctrine,
possible in a state of suspended animation. Then with         especially, as we have seen, the atonement, prayer,
pencil and paper in hand, whatever "guidance" pops            the guidance of the Holy Spirit according to Scriptures
into the head may be written down to- be preserved- and       and so it also denies the church. The movement pre-
followed for the day. One simply waits for the "inner         tends to be a "First Century Christian Fellowship;"
voice" or the "inner light". One may readily imagine          But first century Christians did not fort-n  unorganized
how that on certain days the only "guidance"- the             groups; they organized churches. They did not meet to
scratch-pad may record is, "Eat your oatmeall" Who            hold "testimony meetings," or "sharing sessions," or
can place any confidence in this Ouija-board method of        to exchange ` `spiritual experiences ." They "continued
guidance? He who reduces himself to a robot with a            stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine  and fellowship,
mental vacuum opens himself to the delusions of the           and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (Acts
devil.      If an angel appeared before us while waiting-     2:42).  -  They "ordained them elders in every church"
(empty-headed?) for "guidance," and informed us that          (14:23), "in every city" (Titus  1:5). They had ruling
he had seen our name written down in the Lamb's Book          elders who administered the affairs of the churches
of Life, we could never believe it, for the devil himself     according. to Christian order.         They had teaching
is f`transformed  into an angel of light" (I Cor. 11:14)      elders who labored in the Word and Doctrine (I Tim.
to deceive  .us and to deter us from the practice of          5 : 17). Nor did the first century churches have hilarious
prayer and reading the Word of God. For there alone           house parties, stage plays profferingpeacepropaganda,
God has already spoken to His people. Guidance comes          and movie-films "to change the world." Nor did the
through .the Scriptures by the illuminating work of the       apostolic. church pretend to have a panacea for all
Holy Spirit. But the-experience of the mentally ill and       nations, as Baha'ism does in world-socialism, and as
the method of the Spiritists who seek impressions from        Buchmanism does in world-democracy. None of the
the spirit world are here closely approached. Not the         cults present even a cheap resemblance of the church.
"mind of the Lord," but the "depths of Satan" are             Buchmanism denies the  New. Testament ideal of the
liable to be uncovered.                                       church, and the church which has come down through
   It is admittedly not prayer, this reducing oneself         the ages.      For this reason it inescapably denies
to a tubula yasa,. a blank pad, in order to "tune in" on      history. That is why it is so anti-intellectual and anti-
God. Buchm'anites do not pray; they wait on God for           doctrinal.    It ignores all great creeds and confessions
"guidance." God gives this guidance in the form of a          of the church. It by-passes the-development of Christ-
strong impression which makes one "feel led" what to          ian doctrine. It `has no Christian experience based on
do. People who can subject themselves to this insidious       doctrine. It has personal experience untrammeled with
brain-washing or mind-voiding process will also be            doctrine. It is humanism concocted by an admixture of
satisfied with such pet platitudes, the` closest they come    :.ancient Pelagianism and modern pragmatism. That is,
to biblical exposition, as ., P, R, A, Y, which means         it believes it in the power of man to fight his way out
Powerful Radiograms Always Yours.           Or there is,      of the paper bag of "misfortune," and that the only
J, E, S, U, S, which means Just Exactly Suits Us              truth is the best way at the moment to accomplish that.
Sinners.      Or F, A, I, T, H, means Forsaking All I            But in all fairness, are we not to admit that Buch-
Take Him. In keeping with this, Buchman summed up             manism has its good points ?          It has, for example,
Christian experience in his Five C's: Conviction,             emphasized the need for "individual changed lives."
Contrition, Confession, Conversion, Continuance. These        Members of the movement claim to be "life-changers."
superficial designations may just as well represent the       Do we not have a recognized good here? But the
system of humanism, or may serve to indicate the              question is not one of change. We may readily grant
conviction of Saul, "I have-sinned" (I S. 15:24; 26:21),      that. The question is, What is the nature and signifi-
or of Pharaoh, "I have sinned" (Ex. 9:27), or of Judas,       cance of this change? Is it regeneration, or mere
"I have sinned" (Mt. 27:4). Contrition may remind us          reformation? Is it a new creation, or merely a new
of Esau who carefully sought the blessing with tears,         form of will-worship? Is it by the operation of God, or
but found no place of repentance (Heb. 12:17). Con-           the traditions of men? King Saul was a Buchmanite; he
fession is also forthcoming from Pharaoh who admitted,        became a changed man. He received another heart,
"The  .Lord is righteous, and I and my people are             but not a new heart. He became another man, but not a


180                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

new man. He was not rid of his .sins; he only changed            Are there not elements of truth in Buchmanism?
his sins. Despite so much talk of life-changing, it is        Undoubtedly; the devil does not spread before the world
Buchtnanite to deny the new birth. As one Gospel song         an out-and-out black lie.' He sprinkles the lie with
has it, there is talk of "Ye must be born again, again, "     glints of the truth. The Scripture itself recognizes
i.e., "a man ought to be born again every day." But           any elements of truth in the heathen religions. There
such expressions usually are never brought out, except        are remnants of the natural knowledge of natural things,
under point blank questioning. Then, as above, the new        and the natural knowledge of God in unregenerate men.
birth is `admitted with one hand only to be immediately       (Job  3253).     They still have glimmerings of natural
cast away with the other. Many people are at heart            light (Jn. 1:9; Rom. 2:14). Yet Scripture also makes it
Buchmanite.      They hate to accept the division of man-     clear that these false religions are the devil's cari-
kind into two classes --the saved and the lost. -These        catures of. the living original in Christianity (Gn. 3:4;
people may be indeed changed, but not saved. They             Jn. 8:44); and that any vestiges of the truth in men they
may be "revitalized" as they like to put it; but not          are incapable of using aright and hold them down in
born from above. There is noregeneration by  the. power       unrighteousness.
of the Holy Spirit, according to which He raises us up           Then do not the Buchmanites labor to reach the
from our spiritual death into eternal life, and translates    rich with "changed lives," to win not only the "down
us out of our natural darkness intoHismarvelous light,        and outs," but also the "up and outs"? It is true that
so that we believe the atoning work of Christ on the          this does seem to be the cult of the rich. It seems to
cross, shedding His blood in our place, and receive           appeal to the theatre and ball-room crowd. Its meetings
Him by a true faith. Then sin (although some sins may         are often `attended in evening attire, the women with
be exchanged for other; more respectable, sins) re-           ample exposure of bosom, back and arms, and the men
mains; the guilt of sin remains, and the soul still goes      in formal garb. It is likely that the meetings may also
l o s t .                                                     begin without prayer, and without Scripture reading.
       Isn't Buchmanism praiseworthy in its aversion to       Why not?        The movement does not pretend to be a
intellectually accepted doctrine to  the' neglect of          church. It is nothing more thananethical society. The
exemplary life? Not at all, since it sees no need for         various speakers may make not one reference to Scrip-
"dogmatic theology." The Reformed Confessions to              ture. Usually, mention is made of what the movement
them are non-essentials. The "love of God and love            has done for them, or of the excitement and adventure
of man are still the only essentials." Whether God            afforded in the group or the fellowship enjoyed with
may rightly be said to repent, whether Christ came to         kindred souls. Jesus Christ may be mentioned, but is
reconcile man to God, whether His death satisfied             not referred to as Lord, or as the Son of God, much
divine justice, whether God will receive us through           less as "God over all blessed for ever."
faith and repentance, is all non-essential. These things         There is nothing genuinely Christian about Buchman-
may be true or not true. What is most essential is            ism, for there is nothing distinctively Christian in it.
"the great and wonderful experience of conversion."           Found .to be thoroughly anti-theological, modernistic,
Here is conversion without Christ, without atonement,         religiously and politically liberal, it is the ancient
without remission and without repentance 1. Conversion        Pelagianism out of the pit of hell coated with socio-
is not to Christ, but to man.                                 logical veneer.


         A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-

                                     The'  Elcktion  of  Saul

                                                by Rev. B.  Woudenberg

                          And when Samuel had caused  all the  tribes  of  Israel to  come near,
                       the tribe of Benjamin was taken.
                           . . . the family  of  Ma&i was taken, and Saul the son  of  Kish was
                       take= and when they sought him, he could not be found.
                                                                                 I Samuel 10:20, 21

       At last the time had come for Samuel to gather         which dragged on from one thought-filled moment to
Israel together at Mizpeh and present to them their           another. And yet, as the time had drawn near, ithad
king. It had not been long after Samuel had called Saul       seemed short, altogether too short. Saul was afraid,
aside and anointed him with oil; but for Saul it had          he was virtually terrified.
seemed to be a long time, an almost interminable age             At first the prospects of being king had been wonder-


                                             THESTANDARDBEARER                                                     181

ful to imagine, very really a fulfillment of his fondest     for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?"
dream. Before a non-religious man, he suddenly came          Had Saul had such faith as that, matters might have gone
to the excited conviction that Jehovah was real and the      quite differently.    But that was not the kind of king
most wonderful being imaginable. In very fact, through       Israel as yet wanted, and therefore the man to be given
a special bestowal of the Spirit of God, he had come         to Israel was not of that kind either. In his fear, Saul
himself to sing and dance and prophesy along with the        stood all alone with nothing to support him but his
s,ons of the prophets. Suddenly his whole attitude to-       pride and ambition -poor comforters in a time of
ward God and religion was changed, transformed; it           need.
had to be, God had appointed him king. In one sense             When at last Samuel called the meeting at. Mizpeh,
though, Saul's discretion did not leave him; he knew         it was like a doomsday closing in upon Saul -- a dooms-
better than to broadcast the real reason for his con-        .day which he knew that really he did not have the capital
version, he kept it to himself that he was going to be       to meet. As all the people gathered together provisions
king.                                                        to make the, trip to Mizpeh, he had no choice but to go
   It was the uncle of -Saul, seemingly a man of some        with them. To fail to go would have been too much of
insight into people, who saw immediately that there          an indication that he knew more than others; and be-
was something very much out of character in the `way         sides,. he was far from ready to give up that which
that Saul was acting. He felt that there was sure to be      awaited  .him there. But he couldn't join in the jovial
something more behind Saul's conversion than just a          anticipation of the rest of the people. His stomach
religious experience; Saul just was not acting as a          was tied up in too many knots for that. He had all he
man should who had come to meet foursquare with the          could do to maintain a fairly calm expression on his
reality of Jehovah-with the existence of sin. and guilt      face.    Already he felt himself put apart, separated
and forgiveness. Carefully he tried to dig it out. The       from everyone else. There were thousands of people
next time he met Saul, he dropped the simple question,       there at Mizpeh laying aside their provisions and hurry-
"Whither went ye?"                                           ing over to where Samuel was calling the meeting. But
   Unsuspecting but carefully Saul answered him, "To         Saul was terribly alone among them. He just couldn't
seek the asses: and when we saw that they were no            get himself to go along with them but sat, huddled
where, we came to Samuel."                                   miserably amid the baggage. Saul was afraid - afraid
   The name Samuel immediately struck him as the             for the responsibility which he knew was soon to be
key for which he was looking and quickly he queried,         pressed upon him --but afraid at the same time that
"Tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you."           something might go wrong and he would not receive
   But Saul was not about to divulge his secret. He          the royal office after all.     No, Saul's ambition, his
only replied, "He told us plainly that the asses were        dream of many years was not by any means dead; for
found." Smugly he kept the matter of the kingship to         all his fear, he still wanted to be king more than any-
himself.                                                     thing else. It was just that there was within him still
   But time went on and it dealt harshly with Saul. At       a certain naive honesty which would not allow him to
first the prospects of being king had seemed all won-        forget that he was really incapable of the office. It
derful. Gradually, however, as he continued to reflect,      made him miserable indeed.
Saul began to realize that there was going to be much           The people of course knew nothing of the pathetic
more to the office of king than just the glory. There        figure they were leaving behind them with the baggage
would be responsibilities `. and duties to perform of        as they hurried over to where Samuel stood. All was
every imaginable kind, and what did he know about            eagerness and anticipation. They were going to have a
these things that would be required of him as king?          king.    They were going to be like the other nations.
What did he know about judging the troubles of people?       There was excitement. There was laughter. There
What did he know about leading.an army? What did he          was good natured banter as each tribe affirmed as
know about governing a'great  nation? Hardly a day went      though with conviction what they faintly hoped within
by but there dawned upon him some different responsi-        them-that the king would be from their number and
bility for which he was terribly unprepared. Day after       so they would receive the ascendancy over the others.
day he felt the cold chill of fear settling more heavily     But in the end it didn't really matter as long as their
upon his soul, and in the terror of it he stood alone.       nation could stand with the others having a man they
Saul indeed had undergone a certain conversion; but he       could count as king and to whom they could give their
had never come to understand, and believe in Jehovah         allegiance.
as the Savior and covenant God of his people. He had            It was a good natured crowd that slowly settled to
none of that faith which his successor of a later gener-     silence as Samuel beckoned his intention to speak. It
ation showed in a similar situation by going to the          didn't even bother them too greatly when he began with
tabernacle and praying, "And now, 0 LORD my God,             a reprimand saying, "Thus saith the LORD God of
thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my          Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered
father; and I am but a little child: I know not how to go    you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand
out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy       of all kingdoms, and of them that oppressed you: and ye
people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that          have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you
cannot be numbered nor counted .for multitude. Give          out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and
therefore thy servant an understanding heart to ~judge       ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us.
the people, that I may discern between good and bad:         Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by


                               _-
                              _.  -`-
182                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

your tribes, and by your thousands." It was really too          of Kish was chosen and when themembers of the family
bad that he had to be that way. How much. nicer it would        stepped forward to take their place before-Samuel, one
be if he could get into the spirit of the crowd and go          of them -was' missing; But the casting of the lot went on
along .with them cheerfully; But Samuel was getting to          regardless, and sure enough it fell to Saul, the one who
be an old man, and he didn't understand the younger             was missing. It was a stunning`blow to' the people and
generation. They were impatient and wanted a change,            their `eager anticipation. What were they to do now?
and they weren't about to wait for it. There was no             Where was their king? But' Samuel was there and in
use fighting it.         But Samuel was that way. He had        complete charge of the situation. Here was yet another
really said all of this before, and they could expect           ,reminder  that it was Jehovah who ruled the day and
that he would be sure to repeat it. But today they could        knew exactly its outcome; He prayed to-God and was
take it. What did it matter as long as they were getting        told that they should look for Saul among the baggage.
their king.                                                     There it was that they found him.
       The casting of the lots began slowly and with cere-          When at last the eyes of the people fell upon the one
mony. For most this was where the greatest excite-              who was chosen, he was all and more than they could
ment ,lay.      The first lot was for the tribe and it was      have desired. Strong and healthy, he was a handsome
the closest most of them could expect to come to the            man who stood head and shoulders above thecrowd  that
royal family. One by one they were eliminated until             gathered about them; To a crowd used to judging by
finally, to just about everyone's surprise, it fell to          superficial externals, this was all that reallymattered.
Benjamin, the smallest of all the tribes. To many the           He had the stature and bearing of a king. From them
selection was almost exciting just because it had been          went up a great' shout, "God save the king!".
so. unlikely; but to the few who were still familiar with           For a time yet that day Samuel sought to instruct
the prophecies of Moses and of Jacob, it must surely            the new king and the people in the responsibilities that
have been disturbing. No where in the promises was              now stood before them. But the people were not in a
there any indication that a royal blessing was to fall to       mood to listen, and his words were soon forgotten. As
Benjamin.        And these same persons knew also best           evening drew nigh, Samuel dismissed them and they
that, "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole dis-         returned toward their homes.         Some there were, of
posing thereof is of the LORD." (Prov. 16:33) It could          course, who were not happy. They were no doubt those
only mean that the man selected this day was not the            who had had their hearts set.upon  some other leader,
one whom God finally had ordained to rule and from               and they had no regard for the directions of God. But
whom the promised Messiah, Shiloh was to come. This             there were others too, men who tookitupon themselves
was indeed a foreboding of trouble. But'to most of the          to guard their new king and escort him home. With joy
people it made no difference. They didn't know; and             they brought him to Gibeah.
had they known, it wouldn't have seemed important.                  But Saul was not a natural. leader. For all of his
       From there on for a time interest waned as the           much dreaming, when the time came, he did not know
tribe of Benjamin was narrowed down according to                what he `should do to set up his throne and rule in
families. Here again was one of the advantages they             Israel. There were enemies to be fought; but he didn't
had in Benjamin; it was small and this process of               know how to gather and arm an army. There were
narrowing it down did not take as long as it would have         taxes which would have to be collected; but how was he
with another tribe. There was just a nice lull in ex-           to collect them.     There was a palace to be `built, a
citement long enough to give the people time `to visit          `court to be established, a government to be organized;
for. a while.          But before long the lot began to come    but these were all beyond him. All that Saul could
close to individual households and people, and the at-          think to do was to return to the home of his father and
tention of the people revived. And the final conclusion         continue with the activities he knew best. And so he
was as dramatic as anyone could hope for.' The family           did until at last the Spirit of God came upon him.

       `
        .        /~

         F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T -

                 Stephen's Apology Before. the Sanhedrin

                                                     by Rev. G.  Lubbers

THE JUDGES INDICTED BY STEPHEN ACT+ 7:51-53                     the right hand of God is "standing" here before the
       Stephen was evidently led by the Holy Ghost. It was      Sanhedrin. He stood here some months before in His
the Lord Jesus Himself who was speaking here through            humiliation when he had said "from henceforth ye
Stephen, as the former was standing on the right hand           shall see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of
of God as the Son of Man. He who "stands" here at               God and coming with the clouds of heaven." They


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   183

would see the fulfilment and unfolding of the counsel of        the Covenant! Here, too, Stephen is led by. the Spirit
God as revealed already to Daniel in the visions upon           to .utter the terrible indictment against Israel accord-
his bed.        (Daniel 7:13, Matthew 26:64) Such is the        ing to the flesh which was uttered byMoses already, as
drama here in this court-room; it is the confrontation          recorded in Leviticus 26:41, and by Jeremiah the prophet
of this "court'.' with the fundamental constitution of          upon unbelieving Judah in his day, when he writes "To
Israel, which they had ever knowingly set aside for their       whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may
own. In the place of judgment there was iniquity!               hear?       Behold their ear is uncircumcised, and they
   First of all, the members of this Sanhedrin and. all         cannot hearken: behold, the word of the Lord. is to
unbelievers in Israel. are judged by Stephen as to the          them a reproach; they have nodelight init." (Jeremiah
deepest condition of their depraved. hearts. Stephen            6:lO) And again we read in this same prophecy, "Be-
does not here simply wax angry so that he precipitated          hold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish
the wrath and fury of these Jews. He has come to the            all them that are circumcised with them that are un-
end of presenting the evidence of the Word of God con-          circumcised, Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the
cerning the, -meaning  of "Moses" and "this place" ac-          children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the
cording to the Scriptures and the testimony of the Holy         utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: all these
Ghost. He opened the Scriptures to them, which were             nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel
to them a closed book. He showed them the "key of               are uncircumcised in the heart." (Jeremiah 9:25,26)
knowledge"! And this key they willingly rejected.               `And this word the Spirit of God was binding upon the
   The reason?                                                  hearts of this Sanhedrin, convicting them of sin,
   They are, first of all, a "stiff-necked" people! This        righteousness and judgment at the very moment that
term is only used in the New Testament here by Stephen.         Stephen speaks to them! They are, as were their un-
The reason is that the term is the term which the Lord          believing fathers who were destroyed in Babylon,
uses throughout in the Old Testament to pinpoint the            spiritually Sodom and Egypt.
terrible unbelief of Israel over against all of His mighty         Such is the indictment of God here by the mouth of
deeds in the salvation of Israel out of, Egypt, leading         Stephen.
them like a flock through the great and terrible desert,           We have just stated that the Sanhedrin was "con-
feeding them with manna and giving them water from              victed" here of sin, righteousness and judgment through
the rock, Christ. And always Israel, and the mixed              the Holy Ghost. Unbelief is resisting the Holy Ghost.
multitude in their midst, murmured and rebelled. Why?           It is saying "no" to the Holy Ghost. The Remonstrants
Because the Lord was not caring for His people and              of 1610 erroneously conclude from this that "grace"
protecting them according to His sure promise? No,              is resistible, and that God is powerless where man
they are a stiff-necked people. They are exceedingly            resists. It ought to be evident on the very surface that
stubborn1       That is not simply the hasty conclusion of a    Stephen does not teach resistible "grace"; grace is
Moses, but it is the verdict of God, who looked down            the work of almighty God; but rather teaches that un-
from heaven. Basically this stubbornness, witch-craft,          belief  ever resists the clear testimony of the Holy
unbelief revealed itself in its full meaning and poten-         Ghost as this comes to them from the dealings of the
tiality under the old covenant of Sinai at the foot of the      God of glory as testified of in all the law and the
mountain at the very time when Moses is receiving the           prophets, the shadows and types, as they have their
oracles of God by the dispensation of angels. (Exodus           end, their telos, in the death and resurrection of
32:9; Galatians 3:19) Repeatedly it is statedthat Israel        Jesus Christ.
is such that they must "understand that the LORD thy               It may be well to say just a word about the-term in
God giveth thee not the good land to possess it for thy         the Greek here employed by Stephen. `The verb "resist"
righteousness; for thou art a stiff-necked people."             in the King James Version is the translation of the
(Deuteronomy  9:6, 13)                                          Greek "antipitete" which is a component verb form
   That all Israel was not destroyed is because God             from the preposition "anti" (against) and  "piptoo"
has mercy on whom he has mercy, and whom he wills               (to fall). Hence, it means to fall against, to cast one's
he hardens !                                                    self against.      It is quite likely an indirect quotation
   Surely this was language. which the members of the           from the Septuagint rendering of not simply one passage
Sanhedrin had often read1 It was the verdict of kod!            from the `Old Testament Scriptures, but rather from
Here Stephen applies this very word also to these               various passages. If this be true thenwe  may conclude
"stiff-necked" who are the culmination of all this un-          that it is a rather free rendering of such Hebrews
belief in having crucified the "Just One", the Lord of          verbs as are used in Numbers 27:14 and Isaiah 63:11,
glory!                                                          14. In the former passage we read "For ye rebelled
   Secondly, they are "uncircumcised of heart". The             against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the
wonder of grace which saves is not their portion. They          strife of the congregation, . . . . ." The term here in
do not belong to Christ, the Messiah, and, therefore,           the Hebrew and rendered "strife" in the KJV is really
they are not Abraham!s seed, and heirs according to             the word "Meribah". .This was the first, fundamental
the promise. They are indeed circumcisedin the flesh,           and basic contention of Israel with God; it set the pat-
but not in their heart; they are not born again, and,           tern of all further rebellion and therefore is cited both
therefore, are no different than Sodom and Egypt.               in Psalm 95 and Hebrews 3:8-10 as the classic example
(Revelation 11:8) Hence, they too will be destroyed as          and prototype of all Israel's unbelief.         This term
was Sodom and Egypt. They are not under the Blood of            "bemeribah" is translated in the Septuagint by the


184                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

infinitive used as a noun "en tooi antipiptein", that is,      Sanhedrin has become guilty of the sin of "betrayal"
"in the resistance". Evidently; that is the notion here        and of "murdering" the Just One. They hated Him
retained by the term here employed in Acts 7:51b. It           without a `cause. In them and their deed is culminated
is the contention of Meribah'and Massah', so often re-         all the unbelief of Israel.     Their house will be left
ferred to in' the Scriptures. Confer such passages as          desolate forever.
Exodus 17:7, Numbers 20:13,24; 27:14; Deuteronomy
32:51; 33:8; Psalm 81:7.                                       STEPHEN AMONG THE FAITHFUL PROPHETS IN HIS
       This was a basic resistance of unbelief. The proph-     DEATH ACTS 7:54-60
et ,Isaiah  speaks of this." sin as the sin of. Israel and        There is an enmity between the Seed of the woman
of Judah when he writes "But they rebelled, and vexed          and the seed of the Serpent which has been there since
his holySpirit,  therefore he was turned to be their ene-      God's first revelation of the Mediator in the Protevangel.
my, and he'fought against them?`. (Isaiah 63:lO) Always        Always there has been the dragon ready to devour the
unbelieving Israel vexed, put to grief the Holy Spirit by      child of the woman as soon as it was born:(Revelation
going contrary to the Word of God, and they ever con-          12:1-4) However, never was that enmity so strong as
tumaciously worked contrary to the testimony of the            when the' Son of God actually came on earth, and that,
Spirit in God's dispensation in Israel as all things           too, most emphatically between the Israel of the flesh
pointed toward ,Christ as the fulfilment of the `law for       and the Israel of God according to election of grace.
every one who believes, the Jew first `and also the            This we see here enacted in the court of the Sanhedrin,
Greek!                                                         where our Lord Himself once was crucified.
       Ever unbelief walked the hard way of kicking against       We read the following particulars as to the mani-
the pricks.                                                    festation of the hellish hatred of these unbelievers in
       They ever stumbled at the Stone of stumbling and the    Israel of old. The words of God by Stephen stung them
Rock of offense.                                               to the quick. Like a sharp sword they went into their
       Such was the indictment -of the prophets' against       very bones, so to speak.       They were "cut in their
Israel, and such is the indictment here in the presence        hearts". In these hearts no love of God had been shed
of the Sanhedrin by the Lord through Stephen!                  abroad by God's Spirit. Only hatred is in these hearts;
       And `this indictment is pinpointed here against this    and the flood-gates of hatred are opened and all their
Sanhedriq. The Sanhedrin is guilty of the transgression.       resistance against the Holy Ghost who spoke through
Possibly this' is the purpose .of the law, as given by         Stephen manifests itself- against the speaker. It was
Moses and relating to this place', the temple, namely,         really against God that they fumed. They grind their
that "it was added because of the transgressions, till         teeth against him.. They cry out with a loud voice their
the Seed should come.`-' (Galatians  3:19)         For the     hatred, and they stop their ears. There `is the sound of
transgression than which there `is none more heinous           blood. It is the blood of the Son of God which indicts
is that of being betrayers and murders of the "Just            them.     And they will stop the mouth of thisone.more
One".                                                          prophet who speaks of Him. The gates of hell would
       Stephen indicts all the fathers `of the Sanhedrin as    prevail. With one accord they rush upon him, cast him
being those who had killed all the prophets and per-           out' of the city and destroy him. They cease to be a
secuted them without exception. Such was the history           court.    They are' a mad mob! They defy the God of
of the prophets. And particularly those who before. an-        heaven and crucify anew the Son of God against them-
nounced the "coming of the Just One". But now some-            selves. They stone Stephen as being worthy of death -
thing far more horrible has taken place. This very             only because He spoke the Word of God.


               IN HIS  FEAR-

                               A ,Case of Heart Failure


                                                   by Rev. J. A. Heys

       Many are the figures used in Scripture to present       enters into an intimate and endless life of fellowship
to us the full and rich truth concerning the Church of         with Christ. The figure of a vine with its branches and
God. That `Church is likened to a flock of sheep beloved       its fruit also appears upon the pages of Holy Writ to
and protected by the Shepherd. She is presented as a           represent the inseparable and intimate connection be-
beautiful temple in which the living God dwells by His         tween Christ and His Church. But the most beautiful
Spirit.     We see her as the royal bride of Christ who        and richest of all these figures is that of the human


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   185

 body. "Now ye are the body of Christ and members in           our electronics cannot match, the brain that makes the
particular." I Corinthians 12:27. "So we being many,           computer and cannot be made by the electronic com-
 are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of           puter .     It did not just happen. It was designed. And
. another." Romans 125. "And hath put all things under         God's Church likewise does not just happen. It was
 His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to      from all eternity designed by God to be such a perfect
 the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that       body.       Men are not going to determine its size and
filleth all in all." Ephesians 1:22,23.                        whether it will actually have ten "fingers" and not eight
    In order to appreciate the fact that there is in the       or thirteen, two "lungs", two "kidneys", one "heart"
world a definite attempt to give that Church heart fail-       and the like.       Therefore, again, cut out the heart of
ure, we ought to consider what is implied in this truth        election, deny that God chose each and every member
that the Church is the body of which Christ is the glor-       and predetermined its place and the certainty of its
 ified Head. First of all is implied that there is in that     being gathered into that body, and you have killed the
 Church a definite number of members and that to add           Church and made a ridiculous conglomeration - at best
 one or to take one away would deface and mar the              - of members, that might result in feet and legs con-
 Church.      It would no longer be perfect. This same         nected to shoulders without the essential elements and
 truth is implied in the figure of a temple. It has a defi-    organs between. We say at best, because, if we hold to
 nite number of stones and cannot receive one more             the truth of total depravity in God's Word there would
 without marring its beauty, even as it will mar its           be no body at all. No one would step forward to as-
 beauty to remove one from out of the wall. A flock of         semble himself in that body. Jesus meant it when He
 sheep may be indefinite as far as number is concerned,        said that "Except a man be born again he cannot see
 and a vine may have an indefinite number of branches.         the kingdom of heaven." John 3:3. Not being able to
 But the body which God gave us - and which is a figure        see he would not travel to that kingdom to include him-
 of the Church of Christ -was designed with a definite         self       in its citizenry. He would have no interest in
 number of members.        A perfect body will have just       being a member in a body which he does not believe
 exactly so many, no more, and no less. For that               exists. And until God works and regenerates him, he
 reason it is that election is the very heart of that          has no interest at all in that Church and Kingdom. Since
 Church. Take election away, substitute man's philoso-         it is God Who acts first and regenerates, it is also God
 phy of Arminianism according to which our will de-            Who determines who is going to be regenerated. "No
 termines the number of members in the Church in the           man can come unto me, except the Father which hath
 day of Christ, and you have killed that Church as a body.     sent. me, draw him; and I will raise him up at the last
 You have given it heart failure! Themembershipof that         day," John 6:44. Take away that truth, tear out of the
 Church does not depend upon our choice in time but            Church that heart of sovereign election, and you have a
 God's predestinatmg grace in eternity. Take away              dead mass, dead in sins and trespasses without any in-
 election, and you will not even have a Church, to say         terest in coming to Christ, being utterly incapable of
 nothing about a body. What is a body without lungs?           seeing with its mind's eye that there actually is a
 What is a body without part of the brain? And will God        Kingdom of Heaven and an exalted King thereof.
 receive (from man??) a body, perfect in all detail,               Then also, all the members of a body have their
 complete with all its members, if the whole constituency      place and work, and, enjoying one life, work together
 and membership of that Church depends upon a corrupt          harmoniously to serve the head. Your heart and lungs
 sinner, who must accept or reject Christ, theHead?            serve every cell of your body. Your hands take care of
    Then too, a body is an organism consisting of many         the eye and gently remove the cinder that has gotten
 members and yet of a definite number of each variety.         under the eyelid.        Your digestive system  % likewise
 All is not eye. There are members besides the heart.          serves every cell and muscle, but the hand and mouth
 There is a diversity of kind and a definite number of         serve that digestive system. And so wecould go on and
 each kind. Here again the figure of the temple parallels      on. Did all this come about by chance? No believer is
 that of the Church as a body. Different types of mater-       foolish enough to say that through a process of trial
 ial go into a building according to the work they must        and error the members gradually adapted themselves
 perform and where they are located. The foundation is         to such work and for a time performed contrary actions.
 concrete, but the roof would not be made of such a            Let one organ get out of order for just a.short while,
 heavy material. And in the body there is such a won-          and the whole structure is threatened with death.
 derful variety of definite members, each placed where         Listen to the Word of God, "For Thou hast possessed
 it will serve the head best. The ear is where it will         my reins: Thou has covered me in my mother's womb
 catch the sound. The eye is inits elevated place to see       . . . . Thine eyes did see my substance yet being un-
 where the feet will go. The hands are placed on the           perfect; and in Thy book all my members were written,
 ends of arms of a certain length-from fingertip to            which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
 fingertip with the arms stretched straight out from the       was none of them." Psalm  139:13,16. God took great
 sides of the body will almost to the inch be equal to your    care in making ouv bodies and designed them in in-
 height -- so that they can serve every external part of       scrutable wisdom.        Does He do less for the Body of
 the body.     And did this all happen as a process of         Christ, the Church which He loved even unto death?"
 evolution? Nay, the living God designed it all for US.        Take away that heart of the Church, election, and you
 His wisdom is to be seen in the eye which no motion           have no living organism with all the parts adapted to
 picture camera can fully duplicate, the ear which all of      each other, designed with specific work to function


186                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

with the other parts and complete in every detail.             out the ages and gaining momentum again in this present
       As the Son of God gathers that Church - and He goes     day and age is simply mute testimony to the fact that
to seek and to save that which was lost, rather than as        Satan realizes the extreme importance of this doctrine.
Arminianism has it that the sheep seek Him and find            This, surely, is one truth of God that Satan cannot allow I
Him -- out of every nation tongue and tribe, do the vari-      you and me to believe. And if he can only wipe out
ous nations and tribes determine how many of. this kind        belief in it, he can destroy .that Church in your mind
and how many of that kind of member will form this             and heart and life. He is not afraid of a church designed
perfect Church? Or do we take the position that the            by man, whose size, membership, material, appearance,
Church will.not be perfect, that is, will not be exactly       or failure to appear, depends upon men. Such a temple
as God wanted it? Having planned with the grandiose            will never be "to the praise of the glory of God's
idea ,of a great and glorious Church, must He .in the day      grace". Ephesians 1:6. .A church that is the product
of days be satisfied with a mediocre building that must        of the depraved mind of man and that comes into being
be .adapted to the kind of material that was willing to        because of the will and desire of an unregenerated man
place itself at His disposal? Will Heweep in the day of        (who cannot see the kingdom of heaven) is .just exactly
Christ - as the Jews did - when He sees that this temple       what he wants. As long as there is none of God in it
is not nearly as beautiful and big as He had wanted it?        and' it is according to the wishes and likes of the man,
Well, cut out the heart of the Church, election, and you       whom he has deceived with the lie5 Satan is pleased to
will have a dead mass of charred and crumbled material.        have such a church in existence. That church exists
You will have the temple that fell in ruins in Adam and        for his satisfaction. It does not have in it the fear of
a rubble heap out of which there is nothing to salvage.        the Lord. It does not live from the principle and con-
You have - in your own .mind, for in reality you can           fess that ". .of Him and through Him and to Him are
never do that.- killed the Church! It lives because of         all things." It postulates that this church is of Him, if
that truth of sovereign, eternal and personal election         we let Him; is through Him if we will help Him by tak-
from before the foundation of the world. It is one thing       ing the all-important initial step, which God cannot  .or
to be afraid of heart failure. It is another thing to          for some strange reason will not force us to do (be-
cause it and to desire it.                                     cause He will not trample upon our sovereignty??) and
       We have not said anything new. We have not coined       stepping down from His own sovereignty lets us decide
the phrase that "Election,is  the heart. of the Church."       what His Church will be like, and whether indeed there
Men have known for years that the Church Fathers               shall be such a Church at all; and that is unto Him if
spoke that way in ages past. And students of theology          we will put the finishing touches on the work of Calvary.
can. know and do come in contact with this statement in        It will be then a Church of Him, if it is of us; a Church
their study'of both the history and the doctrine of the        through Him, if it is also thmugh,&;  and a Churchunto
Church. But there is someone else who not only knows           Him, if it is also unto OUY glory. That is where heart
that men, have spoken that way of the doctrine of election     failure brings the Church. Take away that heart of
and that in ages past men cherished that truth, con-           sovereign, eternal, personal election and you have a
sidered it to be a cardinal truth of Scripture and were        church that at best is the joint product of God's will
guided by it in all their theology, but one who also           and man's, of God's power and man's, and for God's
knows that it is absolute truth. There is that arch-           glory provided man wills to let it rob him of his glory.
adversary of the Church, Satan himself, who has always         And then. you have no church at all. Fallen, unregener-
wanted to kill the Church from the very beginning. No          ated man will answer God as Adam did and blame the
sooner did the Church appear through the regenerating          whole mess in which we are on God for having created
grace of God in Adam after the fall, and God Himself           the woman. We will want nothing to do with any of His
predicted a battle proceeding forth from enmity between        works. The cross will be foolishness to us. We have
the devil and the Church. Therefore Cain killed Abel;          no will for a Church which that God designs, no strength
they sought to kill Enoch, and God took him away from          to help Him build and gather it and object strenuously
them and beyond their grasp; Herod  sought to kill the         to a kingdom wherein He is all in all.
Christ-child and the Anti-Christ will seek to wipe that            Satan has his reason for attacking the heart of the
Church off the face of this earth.                             Church. He knows that heart failure means the death
  Many and varied are the ways in which Satan has              of the Church. As in paradise he still seeks to turn
through the ages sought to put an end to the Church of         man away from God, and-deceive man further in the lie
God. Many and subtle will be his ways in the few re-           that he can be like God to decide such important matters
maining years of this present world. But one of the            as the membership, size and constituency of the Church,
chief and most logical methods of killing that Church is       the body of Christ. In His fear we are on our guard
to cause her to have heart failure. Such a fierce and          against his'craftiness and deception. Listen to God, not
relentless attack upon the doctrine of election through-       to ,Satan.

                    0 Lord, if only`my will may remain right and firm towards Thee, do with me whatso-
              ever 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 "                                                       187


HEEDING  THE  DOCTRINE-
                          Barth's  Doctrine  of  Scripture
                                                            I4 I
                                                by Rev. D.  J. Engelsma
   Although there is a sense, carefully circumscribed          Essentially, this is the position of all who hold that
by Barth, in which Barth. maintains that the Bible             Scripture is made up of &vo parts, a "central-infall-
neither claims  .nor possesses authority  - it is "merely"     ible" part which bears on our salvation and a "periph-
the witness to Christ, who possesses all authority-            eral - fallible" part which is extraneous to the matter
he would vehemently deny the validity of the criticism         of our salvation.         But this position is hopeless. Its
we raised against his view of Scripture in the preceding       futility is exposed by the question, "Who or what is to
article. That the Bible is the words of men, even to           determine the passages which ,are central, important,
the extent of being their fallible words, does not mean,       and infallible and who or what is to determine the
according to Barth, that the Bible cannot be the Word of       passages which are peripheral, insignificant, and
God.    In fact, this error-prone book is the Word of          false?"         The only possible criterion is the mind of
God.    And being the Word of God, it has authority in         man, the mind of each reader.                One can scarcely
and over the Church of Jesus Christ. Its errors do not         conceive a more hopeless, chaotic way in the Church
destroy its authority.                                         than that one in which each man distinguishes for him-
   We must now attempt an understanding of Barth's             self the Word of God in she Bible from the words of
conception of the Bible as the Word of God.                    men, the gold from the dirt. This theory, in effect,
   As we have noted already, we may not, according             makes the mind of man the measure of the Word of
to Barth, simply identify Scripture and the Word of God.       God.
We may identify the Word of God only with Jesus Christ.                Barth knows the folly of this conception quite well
Only, Jesus ,Christ is the Word of God. Although Barth              and repudiates it outright.        He is not about to set
does not hesitate to say, "The Bible is the Word of            supercilious or even conscientious men to work chop-
God," he qualifies the statement in such a way as              ping the Scripture into fragments. When he says, "The
virtually to negate the force of the word is. Since, by        Word is in the Bible," he does not mean that Scripture
the assertion "The Bible is the Word of God," Barth            has  twokinds  of contents, "gold" and "dirt," which we
only means that the Bible is the Word of God "so far           must now distinguish. Says Barth, "we are completely
as God lets it be His Word, so far as God speaks                    absolved from differentiating in the Bible between the
through it" (CD,I,l,p,123)  and "where and when  ,it           divine and the human, the content and form, the spirit
pleases God" (ibid.,p.l31), the statement is misleading.            and the letter, and then cautiously choosing the former
   We have also briefly noticed the popular presentation            and scornfully rejecting the latter.. .We are absolved
of Barth's doctrine of Scripture. According -to this           from differentiating the Word of God in the Bible from
popular presentation, Barth denies that the Bible is the            other contents,  .infallible  portions and expressions from
Word of God but teaches that the Word is in the Bible.         the erroneous ones, the infallible from the fallible, and
This presentation is not wholly inaccurate. In fact,           from imagining that by means of such discoveries we
Barth says, again and again, that the Word of God is in             can create for ourselves encounters with the genuine
the Bible. Appealing to Luther's statement about the                Word of God in the Bible..." (CD,I,2&531). Of course,
Bible, "`It holdeth God's Word," Barth declares: "It                Barth warns against this picking and choosing because,
(the Bible- DE) only `holds,' encloses, limits and             for him, all the words of the Bible are fallible., Never-
surrounds it (the Word of God-DE)" (CD,I,2,p.492).                  theless, he sees the notion that we can and must dis-
Yet, to .say that Barth teaches that the Word of God is             tinguish in the Bible the Word of God from the word of
in the Bible is unsatisfactory. It fails to do justice to      man, the true from the false, and the fallible from the
Barth's view. For this explanation implies that the                 infallible to be an impossible notion, a wrong way.*
Bible is composed of two (basically different) kinds of             Since Barth means by the phrase, "The Word is in the
texts and passages, texts and passages that are divine              Bible," something different than do most who employ
and infallible and texts and passages that are human                it, I would rather not characterize Barth's doctrine of
and erroneous.. Then, the reader has the duty of culling            Scripture with. this statement.
out the divine and infallible passages. To say, "The                   Barth teaches that the Word of God sounds through
Word of. God is in the Bible," leaves the impression                the Bible. The Bible is.like a telephone through which
that the Word is in the Bible as gold is in the ground.             God speaks to men .or like an electric wire through
Thus, someone might suppose that Barth believes that                which the current of His divine Word flows. When God
the reader of the Bible has the same task as does the               actually speaks through that telephone, we may saythat
miner of gold--he must dig through and discard much                 the telephone is  the Word of God. Then, the Bible
worthless dirt in order to discover, here and there,                "becomes"  the Word of God.            We recall Barth's
the precious gold buried in that dirt.                              statement: "The Bible is the Word of God...so far as
   Many do regard the Bible precisely in this way.                  God speaks through it" (CD,I,l,p.123), Of course, when


188                                               THE STANDARD BEARER

God does  not  speak through this "telephone," it is             pleases. The Word of God which saves no longer can be
nothing but apiece of human workmanship. Barth him-              a free, wholly gracious decision and miracle of God.
self uses the example of the pool of Bethesda. ,The              The Bible, thus conceived, becomes an instrument of
Bible, the 66 books of canonical Scripture, is like the          `human power" (CD,I,2,p.525). Those who regard the
pool of Bethesda. As the pool became troubled from               Bible as an infallible book, as the Word of God in itself,
time to time so that it became a healing bath, so the            no longer need God, in His grace and Spirit. They have
Bible from time to time is spoken through by God so              the Bible and they control the Word of God. Once that
that it becomes God's Word (cf. John 5 and CD,I,l,               book is given them, they can seize their salvation from
p.125). God can and does from time to time use all the           it at will, as a little child seizes cookies from a cookie
fallible books, chapters, verses, and words of theBible          jar set too low. Formally, they may still contend that
as the vehicle to carry His own divine, infallible Word          their salvation is of grace, since God gave the Bible in
to men. "It then comes about that the Bible...is taken           the first place but, actually, their daily reception of
and used as an instrument in the hand of God, i.e., it           the necessary words of eternal life is a matter of their
. ..is therefore present as the Word of God" (CD,I,2,            own work. On the contrary, Barth's view of Scripture
p.530). We are not to be ashamed of Scripture's errors           makes  US totally dependent upon God at every moment,
because God is not ashamed of them; we are not to turn           also when we have the Bible in our hands. God must
away from the fallible Bible because God stilluses that          flash His saving Word through that book. Roughly, this
fallible word to transmit His divine Word; we are not            is Barth's argument. No wonder, then, that he takes his
to attempt a picking out of the infallible parts in order        polemic against the historic Reformed doctrine of
to acknowledge their authority because, first, all the           Scripture into the open.
parts of Scripture are fallible, and, secondly, God, by             We would let this fierce accusation fall on that
using all the parts to transmit His Word, renders all            segment of Protestantism which both defends the Bible
the fallible parts authoritative.                                and its infallibility and also maintains the free will of
   In this light, we must, says Barth, understand verbal         man, the ability of the natural man to read, understand,
inspiration.    *`Verbal inspiration does not mean the           and save himself from the Bible.          They, and Billy
infallibility of the biblical word in its linguistic,            Graham fits here , merely praise man's power and
historical and theological character as a human word"            ability when they seemingly exalt Scripture But Barth's
(ibid.,p.533). Verbal inspiration rather means that God,         attack does not devastate the historic Reformed doctrine
when it pleases Him, gives us His divine Word through            of an infallible    Bible. It does not because the Re-
the fallible words of this or that text, with its definite,      formed position includes the confession that no one,
particular words. He does not give us His divine Word            whether in his first reading of the Bible or throughout
alongside the human, fallible words of the texts but             his life of the study of Scripture, can ever receive or
really through them and in connection with them. This            believe what this infallible Word teaches without the
implies that we may not dispense with the written Word,          work of the Holy Spirit in his heart, a work of God's
expecting direct, mystical revelations from heaven. We           sovereign grace that precedes and bears the fruit of
are tied to the Bible for the Wordof God. But, going to          our belief of the Word.
the texts of Scripture, "we must dare to face the                   But before we go further in rebuttal, we must let
humanity of the biblical texts and therefore their               Karl Barth advance the pillars on which his doctrine
fallibility. .." (ibid.). There, at the door of the Biblical     stands.
texts, we must patiently wait for the moments when God
will open the door to send through His divine Word. To           FOOTNO XES:
change the figure, we are to sit expectantly about the              *In the April, 1962 issue of The Reformed Jownal,
lifeless pool, waiting for the angel to stir the water.          one of the most significant magazines published in the
   Is this doctrine of Scripture not obviously inperfect         Reformed community, a notable Christian Reformed
harmony with the basic principle of the Reformation,             theologian asked the question, "Can We Learn from
asks Barth. The Reformation was the defense and the              Karl Barth?" evidently, in all seriousness. I would
extolling of the sovereign grace of God. The Reforma-            reply, with the same seriousness, that the Christian
tion insisted that the whole of salvation is God's gift,         Reformed Church could have taken a lesson from Barth
His free grace, so that we, at every point, are dependent        on this matter of dividing the Bible into two parts, a
upon the Giver.      But the doctrine of Scripture that          fallible and an infallible, which we can and may dis-
posits an infallible, inerrant book that is the Word of          tinguish.    I intend to examine the recent debate and
God represents a falling away from the Reformation               Synodical decision concerning Scripture, within the
teaching of God's free grace. It is false doctrine. It is        Christian Reformed Church, later. Now, I merely note
the refusal of proud man to be dependent upon God, to            that in the discussion prior to Synod's decision, Dr.
wait humbly for God's gift. It embodies the desire of            Harry Boer, a member of the "party" contending for
man's desperately arrogant heart to have God and                 a fallible Bible, not only insisted that he could pick out
salvation under his control. "The mechanical doctrine            fallible portions but actually listed some errors he had
of verbal inspiration" is a means "by which man at               found. In The Reformed Joumzal of May, 1961, he sug-
the Renaissance claimed to control the Bible andso set           gests that the accounts of the "David-Saul relation-
up barriers against its control over him, which is its           ship" in I Samuel 16,17 cannot both be "infallibly true."
perquisite" (CD,I,l, p.125).         It put the Bible, as the    And he asserts that the "two accounts of the death of
saving Word, at man's disposal to do with what man               Judas...as facts cannot be squared..."


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  1 8 9


   THE LORD GAVE  THE'WORD . . .  i .  ps.  68:77

                   Particular atonement
                                                         and Mission Preaching
                                                        by.Rev. C.  Hank0
    It is commonly asserted that those' who insist on a           his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall,gently
particular atonement are, nevertheless, compelled to              lead those that are with young." Jesus is only confirm-
ignore this doctrine in their preaching, particularly in          ing this gospel message of Isaiah whenHedeclares  that
the mission field. Even if one is convinced that Christ           He is the Good Shepherd.
died only for the elect, he cannot say so when he is                  Christ's peculiar distinction is,`first,  that He knows
preaching to unbelievers or even to a mixed audience.             His sheep. Because He is the Son of `God He knows His
Actually in the mission field the preacher is compelled           sheep sovereignly, eternally. He knows them as those
to declare to all men promiscuously: "Christ died for             given to Him by the Father. Their names are written
you.`.'                                                           in the `book of life from before the foundation of the
    This `is what Dr. Daane literally writes in the Re-           world. The sheep do not choose Him, but He chooses
formed Journal of December, 1464.                                 His sheep. He wants them to know that.
                                                                      Second, Christ loves His sheep. That is the ear-
           He who preaches the gospel to the unconverted man      mark of the good shepherd, that he loves his sheep. A
    either makes this statement ("Christ died  for.you")   OY     hireling works for wages, is interested only in the
    appears to be making it. For if the Cross is the heart        personal gain he can acquire from them, but is not
    of the gospel, what is the minister of the gospel asking
    the unconverted to believe? And in the event the gospel       concerned `about the sheep. Therefore, when danger
    of the Cross is rejected, what is the unbeliever really       threatens, the hireling flees. But Jesus as the Good
    rejecting? What is he refusing to accept? What indeed         Shepherd meets the ravenous wolves that attack Him
    is that "good news" that must be preached to "every           from every side, and even deliberately gives Himself
    creature?"!                                                   into their hands, that He may lay down His life for His
    Let us begin with the last question, "What indeed is          sheep. Greater love hath no man than that, that he lays
the "good news" that must be preached to "every                   down his life for his sheep. This gospel message is con-
creature?"                                                        firmed by the apostle Paul in Romans 5:8-10.
    Rather than to suggest my own answer to this ques-                Third, the Lord cares for His sheep. A sheep has
tion, let us ask THE Preacher, the only Preacher and              to be fed. Many animals can forage for themselves,
Missionary, our Lord Himself, how He would answer                 but not a sheep. If left to itself it dies. It has to be
this.       And we have the answer in Jesus' own gospel           led to green pastures and to the quiet stream. More-
message addressed to a mixed audience of believers                over, a sheep must be watched. Of all the animals a
and unbelievers, in which He declares,                            sheep is most prone to wander. Therefore Scripture
    "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth             reminds us that we can see ourselves in the foolish-
his life for the sheep. . . . I am the good shepherd, and         ness of a sheep, for we all like sheep have gone astray.
know my sheep, and am known of mine. : As the Father              We have wandered off, each one in his own willful way.
knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down             A sheep readily gets itself lost so that it cannot possibly
my life for the sheep." (John lO:ll, 14,15).-                     find the way back. The shepherd is often compelled to
    My Sheep.                                                     go after his sheep into the desert or out on some dan-
    No one can deny that this is truemission preaching.           gerous precipice. Lastly, a sheep is utterly defence-
Nor can anyone escape the fact that Jesus. speaks em-             less against the prowling beast that craves its blood.
phatically of `Fmy sheep." It was no unusual experience           A bee has its sting, a lion its claw, a dog its teeth, but
in Jesus' time to see a shepherd with crook in hand               a sheep is completely helpless when attacked. ,The
watching his flock on some hillside or slowly leading it          Good Shepherd assures us that He feeds His flockin
to the sheepfold. Especially in those days the sheep              green pastures, watches over them in'tender care, and
were the peculiar property of the shepherd. His flock             protects them from every evil.
was practically all that he owned, his choice possession.          What more wonderful gospel message would anyone
He devoted his life to the constant care of his sheep,            want but this: Christ is the Good Shepherd Who came
even spending the night out in the open field to protect          to seek and to save His lost sheep? He did this even to
them from the wild beasts. Luke writes, "And.there                the extent that He laid down His life on the cross for
were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,          His own.
keeping watch over their flock by night." This same                   Daane asks: "If the Cross is the heart of the gospel,
figure was used by the prophet Isaiah when he spoke of            what is the minister of the gospel asking the unconvert-
the coming Savior with the promise, "He shall feed his            ed to believe? The answer is: Just that1 Christ is the
flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with             Good Shepherd Who lays down His life for His sheep.,


 190                                           THE~TL~NDARDBEA~~ER

    Again Daane asks: "In the event the gospel of the          Savior, drawing His own unto Himself. For He, and
 Cross is rejected, what is the unbeliever rejecting?          He alone, causes that gospel to be a power of.;God  unto
 The answer is: The Christ of the Scriptures. Him they         those who believe. He gathers, defends and preserves
 crucified.     And they did that, not because there was       His church by His Word and Spirit. -(Lord's Day 21,
 anything wrong or lacking in His preaching, but because       .Question 54):'                         :
 as the Lord Himself declares to them: "But ye believe            Jesus considers this His divine "must," the man-
 not because ye. are not of my sheep." John 10:26. We          date that He ,has received from the Father. And that
 should notice that it is n"ot the other way: Ye ar'e not      is what also gives Him confidence that this work will
 of my sheep because ye believe not. But, ye believe not       be carried out. If. it were the work of men, or if the
 because ye are not of my sheep.                               acceptance of the gospel depended in any way upon the
        Those  Other Sheep.                                    will of man, then the Lord could never be sure that His
    The objection may be raised that Jesus was'speaking        sheep-would be gathered and saved. But He confidently
 only to those who already believed, so that they already      adds,. "They shall hear My voice." `Again we are
 confessed Him as their `Lord, snd therefore He refers         impressed with the fact that He does not say: I want
 to them as "My sheep." Even if we should grant that,          them to hear My' voice. Nor does He say: I declare My
 we cannot overlook the fact that Jesus also speaks of         love ,to all men and assure them that I died for them in
 "other sheep."                                                the hope that they will hear My voice. He does not
   H e   t a u g h t :                                         consider the power of the gospel to lie in the mere
    "And other sheep  ,I have, which are not of this fold:     statement: I died for you. But `He affirms: They shall
 them also I must ,bring, and they shall hear my voice;        hear My voice. There is no doubt about it, because
 and there shall `be one fold and one shepherd."`~. 16.        His is the powerful voice of the Son of God, Who lays
    When Jesus speaks of `"this fold;`: ,He refers to the      down His life for His sheep and lives to give them
 entire church of the old dispensation which has already       eternal life. The fact that they hear His voice is the
 been gathered in.        As a shepherd brings his sheep       result of the work of His Spirit in their hearts. He
 within the enclosure of the sheepfold to give them shelter    calls the dead into life, even as He calls the things that
 and protection, so the Lord had already gathered His          were not as though they were. It is the new life of the
 church throughout the entire old dispensation. Through        Spirit that causes the sheep to hear His call. They flee
the. prophets and by His Spirit He had gathered His            from a hireling and from all false teachers, for their
elect in the line of continued generations of believers.       voices fill them with apprehension. But they are drawn
 We can readily trace that covenant line from Adam to          by the voice of Jesus. They know `they are sinners and
 Noah through Seth, and from Noah. to Abraham through          find in Him the only possible Savior. They respond to
Shem. God made Abraham the father of believers, and            His love because the love of God is spread abroad in
 therefore the covenant line continued in the spiritual        their hearts.
 seed of Isaac and Jacob,. and was carried particularly           Therefore Jesus is absolutely certain of the out-
 through Judah to David and Mary, the virgin of whom           come. ".There  will be one flock and one shepherd."
 the Christ was born. In spite of all the attempts of the      Elsewhere the.- Lord had said, `."A11 that the Father
 devil to prevent .Him, and in spite of all the efforts of     ,giveth me shall .come to me; and him that cometh to
 the evil generation of Jesus' own d,ay to interfere with      me I will' in  ,no wise cast out." (John  6:37). There
 His work, Christ did gather His children unto Himself         Jesus assures His sheep .of their certain coming, but
 as a "hen' gathers her' chicks." The church was               also of their certain acceptance.' What a glorious
 gathered; ' the carnal seed stood condemned. in their         gospel .for those who are. actually weary and heavy
 unbelief, so that Jerusalem would be left desolate.           laden. "You will certainly come.". Our Lord tells us
    But now in distinction from those. sheep of the old        that in His own Word. "You need not fear, for I will
 dispensation, Jesus speaks of "other sheep.", He saw          receive you, even as certainly as I drew you." And
the entire church of the new dispensation that must still      not one will be lacking. The `fall" in the text refers
 be gathered in. There is a ring of'confidence in His          to the sum total of those given to Christ by the Father.
 voice as He makes claim to those other sheep also.            He loses none.
 He does not say: Other sheep I would, like to have. Nor          Already Christ visualizes that multitude that no man
 does He say: Other, sheep I will have. -But He declares:      can number as it is ultimately gathered before. the
 Other sheep I have. For He has alr'eady received them         throne. It is one complete flock, consisting of the
 from the Father and, will lay down His life for them.         church of all ages. The entire family of God is brought
    The Lord adds: "Them also I. must bring." Here             into Father's House with its many mansions, where
 He plainly refers to the mission labors of the new dis-       each has his own appointed' place, and no place is
pensation.       With this in mind He commissions His          found empty.
 apostles, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the              It is this gospel which we are mandated to preach
 gospel' to every creature.       He that believeth and is     to every nation and to all creatures. It is the gospel of
 baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall      particular atonement and certain salvation.
 be damned." The Lord sees Pentecost with'the three             . There are a number of passages of Scripture that
 thousand that were added to the church. He sees the           seem to teach the very opposite of particular atone-
 spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth, gathering      ment. On the surface they would appear to contradict
 God's elect from every nation and people. He will send        this emphatic word of Jesus. Those we will consider,
 forth that gospel as the Lord of Glory, the living            the Lord willing, next time.


                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                  `.                                               191





                                                                             Luther Is  Grate  Catechismus~

                   BOOK REVIEWS-                                             By' %%`at Authodty

                                                                          P h i l i p p e n z e n   e n   P h i l e m o n
                                                                                                 ,'
                                                                     I       The Quest For  Sq-eni&J                         -.



                                                             `.

"Luther Is Grote Catechismus" by                    Conservative Baptist Theological Sem-                    As far as the author's commentary
Prof. Dr. P. Boendermaker.(Luther's                 inary in Denver, ,%olorado,  shows' how              on Philemon is concerned, he asks the
Werken II). Published by J. H. Kok,                 the early church encountered and                     question in his introductory remarks:
N.V. Kampen, Netherlands. 138 pages.                answered the questions surrounding                   "What is the purpose  of. this little
F 1, 75.                                            doctrinal  .authority. In the light of the           epistle?" And he asks: "to abolish
                                                    recent Roman Catholic Vatican councils               slavery??!:, He replies  that.the gospel
                                                    and the opinions of some that Roman                  came into the world for this purpose.
    This  littie booklet (paperback) is a           Catholicism and Protestantism' are'                  Is this true? Does not Philemon teach
translation into the Holland  -language             drawing closer together, this book can               that Onesimus, a slave who had deserted
of the Large Catechism of Martin                    be read with interest also by the lay-               his master and, having fled to Paul,
Luther, to be distinguished from                    men. Without endorsing all its content,              was converted during the apostle's
Luther's small catechism.  Inthis  book-            we may recommend this booklet to our                 imprisonment, was returned by Paul
let we- have a brief explanation of the             readers.                                             to his master? Does not the epistle
10 commandments, the 12 Articles of                                                  H. Veldman          emphasize that, although in Christ we
Faith, the Lord's Prayer, Baptism, the                                                                   are spiritually free, the gospel never-
Lord's Supper, and Confession. The                  "Philippenzen en Philemon," by Dr.                   theless does not abolish social relation-
booklet begins with an introduction by              H. M. Matter.            120 pages. Published        ships and institutions, such as masters
Dr. Boendermaker, in which the reader'              .by:  Uitgeversmaatschappij J. H. Kok,               and slaves? We feel that the author
is informed  why,Luther  introduced his             Kampen, Netherlands.                                 does `not make this clear in his inter-
larger as well as his smaller cat-                                                                       pretation  * of the book.          But, we do
echism.        We recommend this booklet               This -book of 120 pages is a com-                 recommend this book to such readers
to our readers. who are able to read                mentary on Philippians and Philemon                  as are able to read it.
the Holland language, although it must              in the Holland language. It is not a                              _..                   H. `Veldman
be borne in mind that this is Luther's              book for laymen. The author makes
Catechism, and that it therefore at                 use of several sources and is exegeti-               "The Quest For Serenity,". by  .G: H.
times strongly bears the mark and                   cal throughout, basing his `interpreta-              Marling.,.  Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
character of Luther's times and view-               tion upon the original text. At the end              Co. 91 pages. $1.25 paperback;
point. But the fact  that Luther corn2              of each verse he gives what he con-
posed it  `should  be reason enough for             siders to be the  prop'er  translation of                This book is a sort of spiritual
us to read it.                                      the text.                                            autobiography; the author himself de-
                             H .   V e l d m a n        We believe that this book, as far as             fines it as"`a personal testimony of
                                                    its content is concerned, is composed                faith and experience." He  .describes
"By What Authority" by Bruce `Shelley               mainly of textual criticism, .and we:are             his own. personal search for peace of
(The Standards of  ,Truth in the Early              of the opinion that he could have given             .heart.
Church),. Published by Wm. B. Eerd-                 more attention to the actual thought                     It is a `brief book which can be' read
mans Publishing Company.  I66 pages.                .structure of the apostle. However, we               in one sitting and "is almost completely
$ 1 . 9 5 .            ..                           would. recommend this book to those                  subjective in  ,character.        This can be
                                                    among us who can read the Holland                    shown by quoting a few chapter titles:
    Also in the area of theology; the               language and are able to follow the                 "Faith's `Deepening, Rest"; "Leaving
Christian theoiogian asks, Why should               author as  ,he works from the original               It All `Quietly  ToGod";  "Living  Rest-
I accept this doctrine or that moral                text.          We were disappointed with the        .fully `WithaGod"`!:  etc. <.
precept? By what authority do I em-                 author's failure, in his exposition of                  `There are many `nice thoughts and
brace this or that?. The Protestant                 P.hil!   1:6, to stress the Divine char-            . . helpful suggestions in the ,book,  and one
Churches recognize only the Bible as                acter of our salvation from the begin-               can enjoy a few hours reading in it.
authoritative.       The Romish Church              ning even unto the end. Interesting,                 Whether it will really help in the
recognizes' also Tradition as authori-              however, is his explanation of such a                search for peace and serenity of heart
tative, and this means ultimately the               key passage in Philippians as Phil.                  is left for the  reader\to judge. The
pow-        In this booklet of 166 pages            2:5-11. And the same applies also to                 danger of the book is its thoroughly
(paperback), Dr. Shelley, head of the               his treatment of the third chapter of                Arminian perspective.
Department of Church History at the                 this epistle.                                                                        Prof. H. Hanko


192                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


                                        `NEWS FROM  0U.R. CHURCHES-

                                          January 1, 1966,
       Rev. R. C. Harbach, of Kalamazoo, has declined the      drous are the ways of God - unfathomed and unweighed".
call to be Home Missionary of our churches.                                               * * *
       Rev. J. Kortering, of Hull,- has declined the call         Rev, R. Decker, Doon's  new pastor, has embarked
which came to him from Edgerton, Minn.                         on another phase of his ministry - that of Family Visi-
       Rev. Harbach has received a call from Randolph,         tation. May he and his flock continue "to regard the
Wis.; and Rev. Lanting is considering a call which he          practice of holding periodic supervisory visits with
received. from Edgerton. .Rev. Kortering is also con-          all their members in their homes gathered in family
sidering the call he received from Hudsonville.                groups. as one of our denominational strongholds".
       Isabel, S. Dak. has announced the following trio:                                  * * *
Revs. D. .Engelsma, ,J. Kortering, and M, Schipper.               The Mission Board has decided to conduct a series
                            *  *'  *                           of public lectures in Grand Rapids as afollow-up of the
       The congregation of Hull planned aMission Program       Reformation Day Rally. A committee of nine, with Rev.
Dec. 13 to see the colored slides made in connection           Schipper as chairman, has,been asked to promote this
with the work in Jamaica by Rev. Heys and Mr. Zwak.            project. Watch your bulletins for further .information
An offering was received for the Jamaican Mission              regarding this Mission.effort.
work.                                                                                     * * *
                            * * .*                                Oak Lawn's Ladies' Society invited all the adults,
       Seminarian Dale Kuiper underwent surgery for            plus the young people, to their annual Christmas
kidney stones Dec. 15, and his absence from the area           Banquet held Dec. 22. One who has always been a mem-
pulpits was felt immediately, causing many changes in          ber of a large church somewhat envies those in smaller
preaching schedules.                                           churches who can have such congregational social
                            * * *                              gatherings where they may enjoy one another's friend-
       Holland's Ladies' Society invited all the adultmem-     ship and fellowship in an informal setting.
bers of. the congregation to their annual Christmas                                       * * *
social. Bible discussion was followed by a short pro-             Quiet  Thought found in Southeast's bulletin: "Lost --
gram and refreshments.                                         many hours of meditative reading. Owner shoulddo  all
                            * * *                              in his power to get them back."
       Hope's consistory has decided to hold separate                                     * * *
Elders' meetings, in harmony with the 37th Article of             The Winter Office Bearers Conference was scheduled
the Church Order, having judged their consistory to be         for Tuesday evening, Jan. 3, in Southeast Church. Rev.
sufficiently large for this move.                              M. Schipper was the speaker, and his burden was to
                            * *  *                             answer the questions: "May a consistory discipline
       First Church and Hope church (and probably others)      and. erase a b.aptized  member'?", and, "Must the con-
have again- decided to have Installation of Office Bearers     sistory have the approval of Classis or Synod?" Those
on Sunday, Jan; 2, instead of New Year's Day. The pur-         quarterly conferences are scheduled for the evening be-
pose of this delay was to give opportunity to have special     fore Classis in order that the delegates may also attend.
sermons for each occasion. Rev: Van Baren's  sermon            Conferences such as these have proventobevery'bene-
was on Hebr.' 13:17,.  under the theme "Submission to          ficial to Elders and Deacons alike, for problems that
Soul-Watchers" with these three points of division:            must be faced in both offices are discussed for the edi-
The Soul-Watchers, Their Obligation to Watch,. and,            fication of the officers and for their congregations.
Proper Submission to Them.                                                                * *  *
                         ***                                      Did you make any New Year's Resolutions? Did
       South Holland's Dec. 12th bulletin issued a call for    they include a resolution to be more faithful: in society
help from their young people to sort and pack used             attendance, in preparation for Divine Worship Services,
clothing, donated to them,.for our people in Jamaica. `        or in the instruction of our children in the way of the
                            * * *                              Lord,`perhaps? But let us always keep in remembrance
       The remodeling of the parsonage in Redlands has         the three-fold Resolution we vowed when we made public
been completed and Mrs. Hanko, a year after her de-            confession .of our faith; then these annual resolutions
bilitating stroke, is again able to walk through the rooms.    will be but re-affirmations of that triple one which
without aid. She begins to enjoy doing little things about     governs our whole life.
the house. The head of the manse writes: "How won-                . . . . see you in church.                     J.M.F.


