                                    he



                                              eiwer


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




IN  THIS  ISSUE:

       Meditation: The Majority Report


       Editiwials: An Open letter to the REFORMED JOURNAL
                    Indeed, Remember Galileo!
                    The Nature of the Atonement: Limited or General?

       The Doctrine of Creation: Days or Periods

       Vatican Council: Third Session


                                         Volume XLII/ Number lo,/ February 15, 1966


218                                                                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

                                                                                                                                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                     C O N T E N T S
Meditation  -                                                                                                                                             Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
   The Minority Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218                        Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
          Rev. M. Schipper
Editorial  -                                                                                                                                                                Editor- Prof. I-l. C. Hoeksema B
   An Open Letter to The Reformed Journal and                                                                                                             Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
        Dr. James Daane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._._.......................                             220              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace,  SE.,  Grand
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                            Rapids,  Micb.      49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
   Indeed, Remember Galileo I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222                               words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
          Prof. H. C. Ho e k s e ma                                                                                                                       lines are the first and fifteenth of the month.
   The Nature of the Atonement:                                                                                                                           All church news items should be addressed toMr.  J. M. Faber,
        Limited or General  7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224                         1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
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From Holy Writ  -
    Our Brothers Burden and Our Own
        Galatians 63-5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
          Rev. G. Lubbers                                                                                                                                  ATTENTION-COMMITTEES OF SYNOD
The Lord Gave the Word  -                                                                                                                              All Standing Committees of Synod are herewith
    Particular Atonement and Missions . . . . . . . . . . . .._....................                                                      234
          Rev. G. Hank0                                                                                                                             reminded of the rule that their reports must be in to
Examining Ecumenicalism  -                                                                                                                          undersigned by April 15, 1966 for publication in the
    Vatican Council  - Third Session (5)                                                                                                            Synodical  Agendum.              Will the secretaries of these
        "The Decree on Ecumenism" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
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    Papal Infallibility, It's Complete Collapse                                                                                                        Thank you for your cooperation1
        Before a Factual Investigation
    Adventures of a Deserter                                                                                                                                                           Stated Clerk of Synod
    The Church in the Age of Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239                                                                                  G. Vanden Berg
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       MEDI7'ATION-

                                                                                 The Minority  Report

                                                                                                                              Rev. M. Schippev

                                                  `AndJoshua the son of Nun, and? Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which weYe of
                                                  them that searched the land,  Tent their clothes: and they spake unto all the
                                                  company of the childyen of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through
                                                  to  search  it, is an exceeding good land. If the  Lovd delight in us, then he
                                                 will  bving us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with  milk
                                                 and honey.                          Only rebel not ye against the  Lord, neither  feav ye the people
                                                  of the land; for they aYe bvead'fov us: their defence is departed from them,
                                                 and the Lovd is with us: few them not. But all the congregation  bade stone
                                                  them with stones. And the glory  of the Lovd appeaved in the tabernacle of
                                                  the  congregation  before all the childyen of Israel."                                                                     Num bevs 14: 6-l 0

       The minority report  I                                                                                                                       tion and sorrow because of Israel's sin of rebellion1
       Of Joshua and Caleb, the faithful two of the twelve                                                                                             And they lifted up their voices1
who were sent to spy out the promised land of Canaan!                                                                                                  The report of the minority!
Two who dared to challenge the report of the majority,                                                                                                 A good report1 Not only because it was factual1
and the threats of a milling, revolting congregation1                                                                                               That, too, it was, to be sure!
Who could not be silent when the Word of the Lord and                                                                                                  They, too, had been in the land! They had seen
His promises were cast aside in unbelief  I                                                                                                         all that the majority had observed1  They had not gone
       They rent their' clothes, a sign of deepest humilia-                                                                                         a different way than the rest. They had not turned


                                               THESTANDARDBEARER                                                       219

their eyes in a different direction when the object of         were living in the light of the Divine Presence. That's
vision was not pleasing to the eye of flesh. They              what faith does, you see. 0, they were blessed men, I
testify that surely it was a land that floweth with milk       tell you! And what a contrast they made to that fearful
and honey! They did not hide the fact that the cities          congregation!        A contrast one often finds among the
were walled and fortified! They make no attempt to             people of God! You have some of whom you can have
deny or to cover up the fact that the inhabitants of the       no doubt at all as to their being children of God. They
land were great and strong! The truth need not be              are fearless and joyful! They are full of confidence
covered up for fear that it will hurt the people. The          and courage! But you also have some who never rise
truthful will not hesitate to speak the facts even though      to the heights of divine revelation! They are always
it hurts I                                                     full of doubts and fears! Always they are overcast
    The difference between the minority and the majority       with clouds, either looking at themselves or their
was that the former had been with God in the land1             circumstances.        They never seem to be bright and
They saw exactly what the majority did, but with the           happy! This is truly lamentable! It ought not so to be!
eye of faith! And what they sawby faith, they reported!        There is something radically wrong with them! As we
    Surely it is an exceeding good land! The original          mentioned before, there were children of God in that
text may be literally translated: "It is a good land,          rebellious congregation. They were not all reprobates I
very, very!"                                                   There were those who were weak in faith, carnal and
    And not only so, but the minority report states            fearful! And the report of the minority is intended to
assuredly: "The Lord will bring us into this land and          soften this fear! This Caleb tried to do already before
give it to us." And they continued: "If the Lord delight       the majority had finished their report. Alreadythen he
in us, then He will bring us into this land." This is          had tried to show that faith should overcome all
not to be interpreted as if it were a matter of doubt          obstacles.        And now together they try to still the
that Israel would be the object of God's delight, or that      people I Faith, you see; is the parent of wise courage I
He would bring them into the land. The very opposite              But in the second place, their positive purpose was
is true! This is very plain from what Joshua and               to encourage obedience! Rebellion is disobedience and
Caleb will yet say in their report. But even apart             apostacy.        Israel's sin is not mere faint-hearted
from that, the "if" clause: "If the Lord delight in us,        shrinking I       For who of the bravest and the most
etc.," is not intended to cast doubt in the minds of the       obedient does not shrink when the hour of battle strikes ?
children of Israel, as if it could ever be questioned          The bravest of soldiers, while they wait for battle, will
that the Lord found delight in His people; or that His         tell you how much they would have liked to escape. No,
promise to bring His people into Canaan and rest could         Israel is not to be severely rebuked because they
ever fail to be realized. Rather, this presentation is         feared.        But their sin was wilful and deliberate re-
intended to impress upon its audience the truth that the       jection of Jehovah's rule ! They deliberately charged
Lord delights Himself in His faithful people, but He           God with tricking them to their death. They boldly
hates all who are rebellious and who turn against Him!         threw Jehovah and Moses away. And their rebellion
    And as far as the people of the land are concerned,        and apostacy was based on a certain distrust of the
Joshua and Caleb meant to say: "You need not fear              Lord's Word.         Not only did they disbel.ieve  that God
them, for they are bread for us." This expression is           would take them into the land, but they literally said:
found in other places in the Old Testament. It meant           We will not go with God into that land. Hence Joshua
that as with the mouth bread is eaten, so too the enemy        and Caleb exhorted them to obedience!
will speedily be consumed. Also the minority declare:                                       * * *
"their  defence is departed from them." The correct               And what was the effect of this minority report?
rendering of this passage is found in the margin of               A two-fold effect!
some Bibles, which is, "their shadow is gone away                 On the one hand, it incurred the wrathof  the people1
from them." This can mean one of two things. Either               This is what a minority report usually does., you
they have lost their shadow, hence they are nothing.           know! History is replete with examples of this. Think
Or, the shadow is the sign of protection, similar to the       of the time of Noah, before the  flood1 Of Noah we
pillar of cloud that constantly protected Israel in their      read that he was a preacher of righteousness1 But he
journeys.     We are inclined to this last idea, because it    was a lone figure! All alone he built the ark, while he
is in harmony with the context which refers directly           testified to his generation that the Lord was angry
to the pillar of cloud. (14:14). So that the reporters         with the children of men and He was of a mind to
meant to say: They have no protector as we have! That,         destroy them with a great flood! And what did the
too, belongs to the facts that must make up the report         people do about it? They simply turned their faces
of the faithful1                                               from him in disgust, and no doubt counted him as one
    Indeed, this was a good report1                            who was not complete in his senses. Think, too, of Daniel
                           * *  *                              and his three friends as. lone witnesses in the days of
    A good report I                                            the Babylonian captivity! What was the effect of their
    With a two-fold purpose!                                   report ?       You know, Daniel was cast into the den of
    In the first place, it was meant to allay all fear!        lions, while the three friends were cast into the midst
The minority were deeply conscious that the whole              of a burning fiery furnace. Jeremiah was a lone figure
congregation was wrapped in the dark shades of unbelief        in the court of the king, calling the king and his subjects
and fear. And that, too, while they, Joshua and Caleb          to obedience to the will of the Lord. And he was cast


220                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

into a dungeon, where, unless God came to his rescue,        in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the
he would have been left to rot! Paul stood alone before      children of Israel."
the council, giving testimony to the Word of God, for           Woe be unto the rebels when our God, Who is a
which he was imprisoned, and later, as traditionhas it,      consuming fire over against all the workers of iniquity,
he was -beheaded'for  his faith! Jesus, Who brought the      makes His appearance in His wrath! Of the fierceness
greatest of all minority reports, stood `alone before        of this wrath you may read in the verses that follow
the Jewish council, before Pontius Pilate and Herod,         our text I Let the wicked majority weep and howl for
and they took Him and. nailed Him to the accursed            the miseries that shall come upon them1
tree! Luther stood alone before the Diet of Worms with          Blessed are the faithful minority1
his testimony: Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, so          The favor of Jehovah their God is upon them that
help me God!       And they banished this leader of the      trust in His Name and His unchangeable promises,
Reformation from the church!                                 though they be a minority!
   Many, many, more are the examples that could                 It is evidently the Lord's intention here to prove
show that the truth is never popular I There is -no place    exactly that, that He hears the voice of His faithful
for it in this world, or in the human heart! Lies will       servants when they attest to His truth, and declare an
be received in every shape, but the truth almost never I     implicit faith in His abiding Word1
   Joshua and Caleb encountered what all true wit:              The Lord will see to it that the faithful minority
nesses must expect1 Verily there  were' thousands of         shall never be brought to shame I
voices raised against two who simply trusted in God             Not only, therefore, is the appearance of the glory
and spoke the truth!                                         of the Lord a precursor of the day of His wrath, but it
   It is most important to tell the truth, also today in     is also the sign of His favor upon His beloved, that is
this Babel of a majority of false`witnesses!                 always ready to deliver them from the most violent
   But we must expect the stones I                           adversaries  1
       "But al.1 the congregation bade stone them with
stones I" That is the effect of the minority report I           Be faithful then, all ye that must give testimony to
   However, there is no need for fear!                       the truth1 Though the faith of many shall wax cold, be
   Before the stones can fly, Jehovah will make His          thou strong in the faith! Though your numbers be few,
appearance!                                                  forget not that He that is with you is more than they
   That was the other effect of this report!                 that be with them!
   You see, it was a case of God's glory being at               And when you shall come into His heavenly taber-
stake1 He cannot allow His Name to be profaned! Nor          nacle, you will see Him in all the glory of His grace in
will He permit another to steal `His glory! Even if He       the face of Christ Jesus!
must, as He did, reveal His glory in His holy wrath!            World without end I
   And so we read: "And the glory of the Lord appeared          Amen and Amen1


   EDHORIAL-

               An Open Letter to the  Reformed  .JournaZ
                                      and Dr. James Daane

                                                 Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

Dear Reformed Jownal:                                               He (Herman Hoeksema) twice told this writer, who
   Rather ironically there appears in your department            has often publicly disagreed with his theology, that had
"As We See It" (Refovmed Journal, January, 1966) an              he seen in 1924 all the factors that were at work, "I
article entitled "Herman Hoeksema 1886-1965," which              probably would not have done what I did." He seemed
certainly betrays lack of twenty-twenty vision, and in           to recognize, what this writer thinks is true, that he
fact, which in more than one respect cannot be the               could have retained his theology and remained in the
                                                                 Christian Reformed Church had he played his role
product of sight whatsoever.                                     differently.
   Worse than that, however, the article is at least in
two respects contrary to factual honesty and Christian           Personally, I am not very interested in Dr. Daane's
journalistic ethics. For this reason I am addressing         evaluation, either favorable or unfavorable, of Herman
you in this "open letter" and admonishing you to make        Hoeksema; and I have more than one reason for this
apology and correction.                                      lack of interest. For one thing, I believe that we all
   My reference is, in the first place, to the following     stand far too close to the scene to make a true and a
passage from Dr. Daane's article:                            ripe evaluation. For another, Dr. Daane has always


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

revealed himself as lacking completely in any sym-           And those who were instrumental in casting him out
pathy toward, if not lacking completely inunderstanding      themselves testified, "Met de belijdenis kan het niet.."
of, Herman Hoeksema's theology.          I mean this. I      Personally, I could conceive of only one context in
sometimes very seriously doubt whether Daane under-          which he ever would have made this purported state-
stands Hoeksema's theology; for he has seldom, if            ment; and that is this, that if he had foreseen all the
ever, presented it correctly. But he has never re-           struggle and all the grief and the long hours of inter-
vealed any sympathy toward it.        And therefore one      minable labor and the thanklessness of many who
could hardly expect any kind of accurate and unbiased        received their instruction from him, he probably would
evaluation from Daane. For still another, personally         not have had the courage to go on. But as far as his
I am simply not interested.in  all these human evalua-       stand and his actions circa 1924 and thereafter were
tions . And I will not take the trouble to acknowledge       concerned, Herman Hoeksema never had any regrets.
them or reply to them. I knew Herman Hoeksema, I             And all that he ever said and wrote bears witness to
dare to say, more intimately than any living man. I          this.
knew him as a father and as a man, as a teacher and              Hence, I would characterize the above quotation
as a preacher, as a theologian and as a spiritual father,    from Daane's article as a "low blow." He should
as a friend and as a colleague. I knew him and I loved       apologiie and make correction.         Such journalistic
him. And I knew him in all the above respects as being       ethics reflect poorly upon the Reformed Jouvnal.
characterized by this: by the grace of God he loved                                     * * *
and was valiant for the truth of God according to                There is another statement in the same article of
Scripture and our Reformed confessions. That is my           James Daane which is factually dishonest. It should-
evaluation.     But I do not doubt but that you would say    also be corrected. The statement is this: "....and he
that I am biased because I am his son. So of what            lived long enough to know the painful years when his
value are these evaluations by men? Mine, I am sure,         churches crumbled and the cause to which he gave his
is of little consequence to you; and yours is of still       life lost its force."
less weight with me.                                             Now Daane certainly must not write untrue things
   But I am concerned about your unethical conduct           like this, and especially not under the heading "AS
as revealed in the above quotation, and that for the         We See It." For Daane. has never seen this, for the
following reasons:                                           simple reason that it never took place. And if Daane
   1. I consider it totally unethical to cite a dead man     nevertheless claims that he has seen this, he is
in an unfavorable light when he can no longer reply.         suffering from editorial hallucinations.       I will be
This purported statement was made at the latest, mind        charitable and grant that Dr. Daane is not being
you, in mid-1964. And now, after a man is dead, it is        deliberately dishonest.      But he is certainly playing
brought up.                                                  fast and loose with the truth when he so facilely writes
   2. I consider it highly unethical to make a partial       this.
purported quotation of this kind. Dr. Daane supplies             Daane is referring, of course, to "the painful years"
the context and the condition of this purportedly quoted     of 1953. And they were indeed painful to all of us. But
conclusion.      Even If the quotation itself is true, it    when you read this statement, you certainly get the
reminds me somewhat of a news conference in which            impression that the Protestant Reformed Churches fell
a quoted answer is paired with an altogether different       into ruins and that they are no longer in existence and
question from the original one.                              that the Protestant Reformed "cause" completely lost
   3. I consider it highly unethical to .quote from a        its vitality and its power to live and to act as a denom-
private, personal (to the best of my recollection, un-       ination of churches.
witnesse&)jconversation, especially when the purported           But certainly Dr. Daane knows better than this.
quotation is' contrary to every public utterance and          He knows, of course, that we lost considerably in
every written word which a person has ever made. I           numbers; his denomination has swallowed up those
could quote from many a personal conversation with the       numbers since 1953. He could figure out that we lost
deceased.       I could also quote from the deceased's       considerably in financial power, with the result `that
report to me of his conversation with Dr. Daane. I           our people are contributing, both locally and denomin:
could also quote the deceased's opinion of Daane from        afionally, more than formerly. And let me tell him in
private conversation, But I will not do so. It cannot        parentheses: they are doing so cheerfully, so that we
be verified.                                                 have more than we need1 Dr. Daane knows, too, that
   4. Finally, I make bold to say that the statement         we lost an element among our ministers and members
which Daane purportedly quotes was never made, not           who were not Protestant Reformed. I am sure that. I
in the context in which Daane claims to cite it. If          need not remind Daane that he himself gave them the
Daane is referring by Hoeksema's "playing of his role"       testimony that their "conditional theology" was not
to ecclesiastical politicking and strategy, then I reply:    consistent with the historic Protestant Reformed posi-
he was utterly naive when it came to "politics":in the       tion.      I am also fairly certain that Dr. Daane knows
church. If he is referring to Hoeksema's theological         that these "De Wolf churches" `after  1953. completely
stand, then I reply: that is surely one thing on which       crumbled as separate churches and capitulated to the
he would never change.        Hoeksema did not "play a       Christian Reformed Churches, who welcomed them
role," nor did he leave the church, nor did he have the      without changing the binding character of the Three
choice of remaining .ln the church. He was cast out 1        Points.


222 i                                        THE STANDARD BEARER

    But, lest Daane is not aware of it, - though I can-      fice, our own Christian elementary and junior high
not imagine that this is possible, - let me remind him:      schools, so that our children may be trained consis-
    1. That though we are small in membership and            tently with "the doctrine taught in this Christian
number of churches, we are a complete denomination           church." In the Grand Rapids area, moreover, where
with a complete ecclesiastical structure.        We have     we have the greatest numerical strength, we are also
even added three congregations to our number since the       in the planning stages for our own high school.
split.                                                          6. We have continued to publish the Standard Beaver.
    2. Though we suffered great financial loss through       In fact, in terms of subscriptions it is on the upgrade.
litigation and by reason of the fact that we were un-        Moreover, our magazine is self-sustaining financially,
righteously deprived of our synodical funds, yet the         being supported solely by subscriptions and gifts. In
Lord has provided abundantly also in this respect.           addition, our young people publish their own magazine,
Since the time of the split, at least six of our congre-     Beacon Lights.
gations have obtained new church properties; of these           7. Above all, the Lord has preserved us in the
six, there are two who have completely new buildings.        same Reformed truth that we have always maintained
In addition, a seventh is in the process of building a       and proclaimed.      Our people grow in grace. They
spacious and beautiful new structure to accommodate          reveal their zeal in many ways.            There is a vital
a growing flock. You see, neither our buildings nor          interest in the cause of the truth.
our congregations have crumbled.                                All this I write, not in order to boast: for we have
    3. Although we have no magnificent campus, our           nothing to boast in ourselves. But I write it in order to
churches have continued to operate a seminary, where         remind you, Dr. Daane, that our Protestant Reformed
our future ministers receive a complete theological          Churches did not crumble in 1953, have not crumbled
training for the ministry and a thoroughly Reformed          since, and are not by any means on the point of
course of instruction. Moreover, in recent years our         crumbling.
churches have demonstrated their vitality and devotion          In fact, I would strongly urge you to look to your
tangibly by calling two of our men to full-time duties       own ecclesiastical household.          When, among other
in the seminary in spite of a severe minister shortage.      things, it takes a Reformed denomination years to
    4. Our churches have continued to be obedient to         declare itself on a flagrant denial of the Reformed
their mission calling, both at home and beyond the           truth of limited atonement, I would say that there are
borders of our country. For a time we had a full-time        at least some indications. of crumbling and loss of
missionary in the field; at present we perform our           force.
mission labors without one. Besides, we have maintained         Once more, therefore, I admonish you to make
a strong radio witness over several stations.                correction in the pages of the Reformed Journal.
    5. In several localities our Protestant Reformed                            Yours for the truth,
people operate and support, sometimes at great sacri-                           H. C. Hoeksema



          EDITORIAL-


                    Indeed, Remember Galileo!

                                                 Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

   In the Reformed Jouvnal of December,. 1965 there             Before examining this advice of Dr. Smedes, let me
appears an article by Dr. Lewis B. Smedes entitled           attempt in a few points to summarize his article as it
"Can the Church -Be Trusted?" This article I would           leads up to this advice.
characterize as a poorly concealed and also poorly              1. The question which Smedes asks and to which
reasoned. argument in favor of the church's making           his advice is an answer is: Can the church be trusted?
room      in its thinking and its dogma for the views of     He explains this by means of several more detailed
those who hold to "theistic evolution" or "progressive       questions: "Are people able to trust the church?
creationism," which, according to Smedes, are the            . . ..Can people trust the church to be honest, frank, and
same.                                                        humble in the face of today's tough issues? Can people
   The thrust of this article is expressed by Smedes         who genuinely want the church to help them as they
himself as being, "Remember GalileoI" Writes he, in          wrestle with the modem world trust the church to be
the conclusion of his essay: "The best word for this         of real help? Do people know they can trust the church
situation is: Remember GalileoI"                             to be at their side as they walk through the jungle of


                                                                                                                           1

                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                223

modern problems? Or do they suspect the church of            challenge put by a delegate to the Synod, a challenge not
keeping a stock of ready-made, effortless answers,           to lose the confidence of those people who believe that
issued painlessly from the arsenal of a closed mind?"        the Gereformeerde Kerken blundered in 1926 when, as
And again he writes: "The question is whether people         it is put in the article, it demanded "that people believe
can trust the church to understand the problems. Can         the snake really talked" in Genesis 3. This delegate
the church be trusted to make an effort to understand        claimed that the church would not be trusted if the
modern Christians as they are thrust into a world            Gereformeerde Kerken did not confess that they blun-
exploding with questions and answers that cannot be          dered.    And so the article goes on to state that the
avoided. Can modevn Christians trust the church to be        question is not simply whether the decision of 1926 is
wise and honest in response to their needs and their         right or wrong, but whether the churtih  is credible,
problems?" I will not comment on this question and           can be believed, can be trusted.        The article also
its rather questionable formulation.      I will simply      recognizes that there are people who will not trust the
assert at this point that the church must always in its      church if it abandons the position of 1926, "people who
decisions and expressions conduct itself and express         have not solved the question for themselves in the way
itself in a manner that is worthy of trust,  whether or      the modern generation has." But again, the article is
not one group of people or another can and do trust it.      without doubt on the side of the "moderns" when it
   2. Smedes has in mind in this article particularly        characterizes the 1926 decisions as "an untenable
his own denomination, the Christian Reformed Church.         position."    And thus, Smedes contends that the real
For later in his article he makes specific reference to      question facing the Gereformeerde Kerken is: "In
"our church."                                                whose eyes ought it to be trustworthy?" In the Protes-
   3. By the people the writer refers to the members         tant church (and he apparently has in mind his own
of the church, those who sit in the pew. But he finds        churches and those of the Netherlands) and in the
among those people two different parties. Writes he:         Roman Catholic Church, V everywhere one finds the
"But we cannot lump them together any longer. Mem-           tension between "progressives" and "conservatives."
bers of the same denomination, who listen to the same        Thus, the church is faced by what Smedes calls an
sermon and are subject to the same discipline, may           "inescapable dilemma." Smedes states this dilemma
live their lives in totally different worlds. One man        as follows: "Always, the question settles down to the
has become a part of the thought andlife of this modern      church's attitude toward the burning issues and the
world. Another may be, in his own thinking and living,       accepted answers of the modern world. Will the church
part of a world that really belongs to another day. This     have the honesty and courage to face the real issues of
is not a matter of geography. It is a matter of the          a new day with an open mind? (Note this "open mind,"
mind and the spirit." Again, I will not make extensive       H.C.H.) Or will the church, seeking to be true to the
comment on this characterization of the two groups.          past (What does this mean? H.C.H.), speak against the
It is evident, however, that Smedes means to charac-         threats posed by the new ideas of the new day? Or
terize the second group as "behind the times." We            must it do both (But this is impossible, H.C.H.), each
should also note, moreover, that later in his article        in its time, each in its place? But when is the right
Smedes identifies these two groups more specifically:        time? And what is the right word?"
"For some people it is as clear that the earth is more                                 * * *
than several million years old as it is that the earth is
not flat. Some people are sure that during those years          Dr. Smedes's answer is: Remember Galileo1
some kind of evolution produced the earth and its               Galileo (of the sixteenth century) is credited with
fullness. They are not going to change their minds, be
              ~_     _                   __      _     _     the teaching that the earth goes around the sun, rather
sure of that.. They have solved this problem for them-       than the sun orbiting a square earth. His views were
selves.    Others among us are sure that any kind of         condemned at one time by the Roman Catholic Church.
evolution - whether it is called theistic evolution or       Galileo bowed to this decision for a time and recanted,
progressive creationism (there is no difference) - is a      as Smedes notes: `*They bowed for a while to the
flat denial of the Bible." And it is evidently Smedes'       church's authority, but their lowered heads concealed
contention that somehow the church must keep both of         a grin of disdain for the church's stupidity. The
these diametrically opposed groups, both of which are        church lost the trust of these people." Later it became
so sure of their positions, satisfied. "The church           generally acknowledged that Galileo's astronomical
must have the confidence of both people." But it is          theory was correct. This, then, is supposed to be an
also evident that Smedes is especially concerned about       example of the church's blunderingJn condemning the
the former group, "which has once and for all taken          views of a scientist, an example, too, of how the
citizenship papers in the modern world."                     church can lose its trustworthiness. And this example
   4. Dr. Smedes calls attention to a somewhat similar       Smedes applies to the contemporary problem of
problem which faces the Gereformeerde Kerken in the          "creationism versus evolutionism" which vexes the
Netherlands, the problem of whether to maintain or to        (Christian Reformed) church. "Remember  GalileoI"
repudiate the decisions in the Geelkerken Case of            is in effect a warning, then, that the church must not
1926. (Incidentally, the final decision on this matter       today quickly and confidently condemn these evolu-
has now been postponed by the Synod of Lunteren,             tionistic ideas. For "It may also make a future gen-
according to the last report which I readin the "R.E.S.      eration marvel at our stupidity."
News Exchange.") In this connection, he refers to a             What shall we say?


224                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

   There are many things. that could be said about            remind you: such Scriptural evidence could have been
many statements in this article, as well as about its         produced. For the Word of God spoke of "the circle
main thrust.                                                  of the earth" long before any Galileo appeared on the
   But several pertinent comments may be summed up            scene of history. Remember Galileo! Let the church
in this reply: "Indeed, remember Galileo!"                    and the scientists among its members not follow his
   Remember Galileo1 For (though his entire history           example, but let them subject all "evidence" to the
took place in the Roman Catholic Church, after the            Word of God.
Reformation, and therefore outside of the mainstream of
church history) Galileo is representative of those who           Yes, remember Galileo 1 Indeed 1 But let the'memory
are not honest with their church1 Not honest, you say?        of Galileo also be a reminder that it was the same
No! For though he recanted officially, he nevertheless        "science" of which he was a representative which had
clung to his views and maintained them while remaining        also taught for long years previously that the universe
in his church. This is -not honest. It is not open. It        was earth-centered and that the sun orbited about the
should be remembered as an example of ecclesiastical          earth. Let the memory of Galileo remind us that the
rebellion and dishonesty that is not to be followed           "findings" of science are changeable, that its theories
today, - especially not by an officebearer who signs          have changed often, that science is a very untrust-
the Formula of Subscription.                                  worthy guide for the church.
   Indeed, remember Galileo1 For he is an example                Remember Galileo, and be reminded that there is
of an entirely wrong approach to church questions and         but one trustworthy  guide for the church in all its
matters of doctrine.    He came with the findings of a        decisions: the Word of God that abideth forever1 Be
telescope. Now I do not condemn theuse  of a telescope        reminded that the controlling question is not whether
and of telescopic discoveries. Nor am I at all question-      the church can keep the confidence of two divergent
ing here whether scientific discoveries are correct           groups, creationists and evolutionists, but this: what is
or not.    I am simply pointing to the sound rule that        the truth, according to the ord of God?
when you would convince the church of any position,              Remember Galileo, and let no member of the church
you must not come with scientific evidence, but with          emulate his smug and concealed "grin of disdain."
the  Word of  the Scriptures. This is the only evidence          Indeed, remember Galileo  1
to which the church may listen, and all other "evi-              But above all, remember and be guided by the Word
dences" must be considered in its light. And let me           of God1



       EDITORIAL-

                       THE  .NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT:
                                         limited or General?

                                                Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

SCRIPTURE AND SA.TISFACTION                                   lated frequently in our Engli& Bible by the word "atone"
   We may now turn directly to Scripture for proof of         or "atonement."       The term itself (kaphar) actually
this satisfaction-idea which is so strongly emphasized        means as a noun "a covering" and as a verb "to
in our confessions.                                           cover." And the idea of this "covering" is not that it
   Turning to the Old Testament, first of all, we `may        covers up and hides `sin and guilt from the sight of
note that the typical sacrifices of the old dispensation,     God, - something which would be, of course, impossible.
such as the sin offering and the trespass offering, were      The idea is rather that of "coverage," much in the
expiatory. In other words, satisfaction for sin and for       sense in which we speak of coverage for damages and
sin's guilt characterized these sacrifices. Such sacri-       costs in a potential accident in donnection  with automo-
fices are said to bear the sins of the offender, to make      bile insurance.    The idea of satisfaction, therefore,
expiation for sin, to be a propitiation, to cover the sins    and of penal satisfaction, satisfaction of justice is on
of the people in the ,sight of God. Moreover, all such        the foreground in these sacrifices.        This was also
sacrifices involved the shedding of blood, in order that      graphically symbolized not only by the fact that the
they might typically represent the sheddfng.of Christ's       sinner himself was supposed to bring the sacrificial
blood. The result, or fruit, of these sacrifices was          victim to the altar as an acknowledgement of the fact
the forgiveness. of sins. The Hebrew term that occurs         that he had offended and was therefore .justly exposed
so often in connection with these sacrifices is trans-        to the wrath of God, but also by the fact that the offender


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  225

laid his hands on the head of the sacrificial victim to      familiar in every day life with the ransom demanded
express the idea of transfer of guilt and responsibility     by a kidnapper or by one who holds a hostage. In that
to the animal to he sacrificed. It is also in this con-      case, of course, there is not justice but injustice.
nection that we can understand the fact that this blood      Nevertheless, the illustration serves to clarify this
was sprinkled upon the altar in the holy place by the        idea of a ransom. It implies a demand. Unless that
priest, as well as the fact that on the great day of         demand is met and the price demanded is paid, the
atonement this expiatory blood was sprinkled on the          hostage or kidnap-victim will not be set free. If the
mercy seat in the holy of holies. Because this blood         price is paid, the victim is supposed to be freed. Thus
was the blood of atonement, because it implied that          also, when the price demanded by a slave-holder is
satisfaction of God's justice had been accomplished,         met, a slave may be ransomed out of his bondage.
the offerer was acceptable in the sight of God.              Basic to the idea of Christ's death as a ransom,
   Approximately the same idea of a propitiation, or         therefore, is this idea of the satisfaction of the demand
covering, is expressed in the New Testament by such          of God's justice.    Only thus is the slave of sin and
Greek terms as hilaskomai, and hilasmos, and hilas-          death purchased free out of the power of the devil.
tee&on.  The term occurs in Hebrews  2:17, where it          Again we may note in passing what devastating results
is translated by "to make reconciliation." There we          are obtained when, for example, in the passage from
read: "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be          I Timothy 2 the "all" is interpreted as every human
made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful     being. That can only mean rank universal&m.  For if
and faithful- high priest in things pertaining to God, to    satisfaction has been made for every human being,
make reconciliation for the sins of the people." And         then the justice of God requires that every human
in I John 2:2 the term is translated by "propitiation."      being shall be accounted righteous and innocent in the
There we read the well-known words, so often given           day of judgment, and shall, therefore, be saved.
the misinterpretation of a general atonement: "And              A related term (Greek: apolutvooseoos) occurs in
he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours        Romans 3:24, where it is rendered by "redemption."
only, but also for the sins of the whole world." We          Thus we read: "Being justified freely by his grace
may note, in parentheses, that if "the whole world"          through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." And
means "all men, head for head," this simply means            it is striking that the term here occurs. in connection
that as an objective fact the sins of all men have been      with the idea of judgment and justification. Evidently
covered by the atoning blood of Christ; and then these       the same idea of satisfaction is basic. This "redemp-
sins can never be held against them again. For               tion" denotes deliverance through the death of Christ
propitiation means that the damages of sin, the debt,        from the retributive wrath of God and from the merited
are completely covered by the blood of Christ. The           penalty of sin. In the same sense it is used in'Hebrews
satisfaction-idea is obviously on the foreground.            9:15: "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new
   Next, I call your attention to the term that is           testament, that by means of death, for the redemption
rendered by "ransom." This term (lutron in the               of the transgressions that were under the first testa-
Greek) is found, for example, in Matthew 20:28: "Even        ment, they which are called might receive the promise
as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but        of eternal inheritance." And the verb "to redeemi'
to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many."        (lutvooseetai),  occurs in Titus  2~14, where we read:
It is also found in I Timothy 25, 6 (where the Greek         "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us
is antilutron): "For there is one God, andone  mediator      from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who               people, zealous of good works."
gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due           In all these passages and terms, therefore, the
time." This term denotes the notion of a ransom, the         confessional dogma of satisfaction is clearly on the
payment of a price, in conformity with a certain de-         foreground.
mand, in order to purchase one free.          We are all                                            (to be continued)

                                                                            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                  ANNOUNCEMENT                               The Ladies' Society of the  Doon Prot. Ref. Church
                                                             expresses its sympathy to Mrs. John Van Den Top,
Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches             in the death of her mother,
convenes, for its regular, spring session, on Wednesday,
March 16, 1966, at 9:00 A.M. ThisClassis  will be held                      MRS. ALBERT VAN BEMMEL
in South Holland, Illinois, instead of Edgerton, Minn-       who passed away January 11, 1966 at the age of 63
esota, since the continued Classis will meet in South        years. May the bereaved family rest in the Word of
Holland the day before the regular Classis convenes.         God found in Isaiah 25:8: "He will swallow up death in
   Delegates who need lodging are to notify the clerk        victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from
of the South Holland con&tory.                               off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He
                     Rev. D. J. Engelsma, Stated Clerk       take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath
                                                             spoken it".
                                                                                      Rev. Robert Decker, President
                                                                                     Mrs. Clarence Klein, Secretary


226                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



       THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP-


                Remembrance of the Lord's Suffering

                                                 Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg

   The last time we considered various aspects of the         reality, but the purpose here is not to attempt to
suffering of Christ as set forth in our Communion             describe this suffering of Christ but only to leave in
Form.       The concluding part of the paragraph of this      our consciousness a deep sense of awareness that He
Form, to which we want to direct your attention this          endured hell's miseries for us. With that remembrance
time, reads as follows:                                       we must come to His Table.
       "and hath humbled Himself unto the deepest reproach       Concerning the view that Christ's descension into
and pains of hell, both in body and soul, on the tree of      hell refers to a personal self-manifestation of the
the cross, when He cried out with a loud voice, `My           Lord after His crucifixion in the place of desolation
God, my God1 why hast Thou forsaken me?' that we              and torment, we quote the following from the pen of
might be accepted of God and never be forsaken of             Rev. H. Hoeksema in refutation:
Him: and finally confirmed with His death and shedding           "Besides, the notion that the Saviour suffered the
of His blood, the new and eternal testament, that cov-        torments of hell after His crucifixion is contrary to
enant of grace and reconciliation when He said: `It is        the plain teaching of Scripture. Evident it is that the
finished.' "                                                  Lord, after He gave up the ghost, cannot have suffered
   There are three things mentioned here that demand          the torments of hell  in body and  soul,~  for His body
our attention. First, there is the fact of Jesus' descen-     rested in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea. Besides,
sion into hell. Secondly, there is the cross-word that        such a view would be in conflict with the word our
gives expression to the awful agony endured by the            Lord addressed to the malefactor from the cross:
Savior on the accursed tree. Finally, there is that           `Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.' And had
word spoken by Christ just before He commended His            He not announced in His next to the last  cross-
spirit to the Father, and in which He proclaims His           utterance: "It is finished'? Surely, this triumphant
complete and glorious victory.          Remembering the       outcry was uttered in the consciousness that the work
death of Christ involves a deep spiritual consciousness       of redemption, the sacrifice of reconciliation, had
of the implications of these three things.                    been completed and perfected, and that no more
   It is to be observed that our Communion Form here          suffering remained to be endured." (3)
does not speak of "an actual self-manifestation of               Still other interpretations of the descension of Christ
Christ after the crucifixion to all the departed spirits."    into hell have been offered, but with these we will not
(1) This view is maintained by some, and it is further        concern ourselves at present. Holding the interpreta-
claimed that this was the meaning of the early church         tion that this refers to Christ's endurance of "In-
of the expression found in the Apostle's Creed: "He           expressible    anguish, pains, terrors, and hellish
descended into hell". Whether or not this is actually         agonies" we quote the following comments by Rev.
so we are unable to say. More significant is the fact         Hoeksema:
that our Communion Form speaks of Christ "Humbling               "He endured them in all his sufferings, but especially
Himself unto the deepest reproach and pains of hell",         on the cross. And even on the cross there is a gradual
giving to this expression the same meaning that is            increase in His suffering of these hellish agonies.
found in our Heidelberg Catechism. In Lord's Day 16           This is evident from all that occurs on and about the
the descension of Christ into hell is explained to mean       cross. During the first half of the six-hour period of
that "My Lord Jesus Christ, by His inexpressible              the crucifixion, the sun still shed its light upon the
anguish, pains, terrors, and hellish agonies, in which        awful spectacle on Calvary, the enemies have the
He was plunged during all His sufferings, but especially      audacity to mock and jeer at the crucified One, and
on the cross, hath delivered me from the anguish and          the Lord Himself finds it possible to taken interest in
torments of hell." It is, therefore, not a singular           the things about Him, praying for His enemies, com-
phase of Jesus' suffering that we must keep in mind but       mitting His mother to care of the disciple whom He
rather we should remember "that He, all the time that         loved, and assuring the penitent malefactor of final
He lived on earth, but especially at the end of his life,     salvation. But during the last three hours, the cross
sustained in body and soul, the wrath of God against          is completely taken out of men's hands. Darkness,
the sins of all mankind." (2) He descended into hell in       that dreadful symbol of God's wrathful presence, de-
His incarnation, and all His life long He suffered its        scends on the scene; the enemies, amazed at the
agonies. Words are inadequate to express this awful           fearful omen, cease from mockery, and grow silent;


                                                THESTANDARDBEARER                                                    227

and for the space of three hours the crucified One is          an ecclesiastical tradition, for it will not be of benefit
completely wrapped up in His own suffering: not a              to you that way.     We are to "remember Him by it,"
word is heard from His lips. Then, almost at the end           and only in the measure that we are in a spiritual way
of these last three hours of His passion, He makes it          engaged in this remembrance will we arrive at a true
known that He has been descending into the depths,             and lasting appreciation for all the benefits that are
that He has, indeed, reached the very bottom of hell,          signified and sealed unto us in the Supper.
in the question of amazement: `My God, my God, why                All of this must be remembered in the light of the
hast thou forsaken me'?' " (4)                                 final word of Christ in which the new and eternal
   Thus we see too that this descension of Christ into         testament, that covenant of grace and reconciliation is
hell is most intimately connected with this agonizing          confirmed.
cry of the Saviour which He uttered at the zenith of              "It is finishedl"
His suffering. This cry, too, is variously interpreted.           We must be careful that we understand these words.
It is not the cry of rebellion, as a child might ask the       They do not mean the same as if Jesus was simply
"why" of certain parental action in an attempt to shirk        announcing his death.        "It" is not the same as the
an assigned responsibility. Neither may the reference          Lord's earthly life.     Neither must we construe this
to His forsakedness be interpreted in the physical or          cross-utterance to refer to all things in general, to the
local sense of the word.          It is not as though GOD'S    Old Testament prophecies or Scriptures or even to the
PRESENCE is absent at the cross. He is very much               Savior's  mediatorial work. After these words were
there, and the horrible darkness that gripped the land         spoken there are many things yet that must come to
only betokens His presence in judgment and wrath. God          pass and are now being fulfilled, but the end is not yet.
is satisfying His justice toward the sinner. He is laying      And the Scriptures likewise have not been "finished,"
upon His own Son our burden of sin, and imposing upon          for we have only to think of those prophecies that
the sin-bearer the just penalty. The cry is one of utter       speak of Christ's resurrection and exaltation to glory.
amazement as the Beloved of God tastes the bitterness          These were not yet finished when He "gave up the
of eternal wrath.       Astonished, amazed, perplexed,         ghost".      Later, when the Lord arose from the dead,
troubled in soul, the righteous sin-bearer cries out           He continues in His glorified human nature to function
from the depths of unfathomed misery. Yet the cry is           as our Mediator, preparing a place for us, making
not one of despair. Do not overlook the "Eloi, Eloi -          continual intercession for us and bestowing upon us
My God, My God." There is an unwavering confidence             the benefits of His redemptive work.
expressed in those words. It is the confidence of Christ          "It is finished," denotes that the act of redemption
that GOD IS and will forever remain His God. In                is fully accomplished. Sin is completely atoned. The
unwavering love He clings to Him as "My God" even              counsel of God concerning His plan of salvation is
as the billows of. His wrath pour over Him. Jesus is           realized in the death of His Son. Rev. Hoeksema ex-
the sin-bearer fulfilling the law of love, and in that         presses it beautifully when he writes:
love He will maintain an unbroken confidence in GOD,              "The measure of suffering, and obedience, is filled.
Whose will He is even now performing in the hour of            All that was to be borne of the wrath of God against the
deepest darkness.                                              sin of all the elect, had been endured even to the end.
   Meditate on this1                                           Nothing, emphatically nothing, remains to procure for
   Consider it over and over again, for it is to the end       us eternal righteousness and life." (5)
(purpose) that you may thus remember His suffering                And consider carefully this statement:
and death that the supper of the Lord has been institu-           "The Son of God had tasted all there is to be tasted
ted in His Church. Do not eat the bread and drink the          in the agony of death as the expression of God's just
wine merely by force of habit, or as blindly following         wrath."


                                         CALL TOASPIRANTS TO THEMINKSTRY

    All young men desiring to study for the ministry of        by a reputable physician.
the Word in the Protestant Reformed Churches, and                  3. You must be a graduate from High School, being
who have not already been pre-enrolled, are asked to           able to show that you have completed a one-year course
appear before the Theological School Committee on its          in History General and Church History; and that you
next meeting, which will be held, the Lord willing, Fri.,      have completed the following College courses:  Latin-
March 11, 1966 at 8 P.M. in the Southeast Protestant           two years, Greek-two years, German-two years,
Reformed Church, 1535 Cambridge Ave., S.E., Grand              Philosophy-one year, Psychology-one year, Logic-one
Rapids, Michigan.                                              semester.
   The qualifications requisite to enrollment are the              All correspondence relative to the above announce-
following:                                                     ment should-be sent to the undersigned:
    1. You must present a letter from your local                     Secretary of the Theological School Committee
cons&tory certifying that you are upright in walk and                Rev. M. Schipper,
pure in doctrine.                                                    1543 Cambridge Ave., S.E.
    2. You must present a certificate of health, signed              Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506


228                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

   You see now how utterly untenable is the position of          prupose or goal of a thing. It is used in Scripture with
Arminianism and Modernism, that leaves the work of               reference to "the end of all things". When the last
Christ uncertain, unfinished, indefinite and dependent           moment of history arrives and all things have been
upon man's contribution to make.it an effective salva-            accomplished according to the predetermined purpose
tion. You see too what a beautiful'comfort there is in           of God, we will say ,that the "end" has been reached.
the knowledge that Christ performed a complete and               So it is with the .work of God in Christ. The purpose of
finished work. There is no guess work in salvation,              Christ's coming in our flesh is fully accomplished.
for it is outlined in minutest detail in God's plan and          The plan of salvation is realized in Him. It is finished!
realized to perfection in Christ's death. The new and            The end is attained1
eternal covenant of grace is established and made                    In this confidence we may celebrate the Supper
perfect. It is finished indeed.                                  which He instituted, remembering Him thereby and
   A finished work. That is what we are to remember               rejoicing with unspeakable joy. Then we do `not `merely
in the Lord's Supper1         .                                  celebrate the historic fact of His suffering and death,
       How contrary that may seem to us from a natural           but we commemorate the glorious. accomplishments of
point of view. When a young man of thirty-three years            that suffering and death. We joy in the realization of
of age is suddenly taken away, we are inclined to say            the eternal covenant of grace, and we experience the
that there was so much yet for him to do. He was just            blessedness of His communion in that covenant.
beginning in life. In reality of course this is not so,
and we know that, too; but certainly this could not be            (1) Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. II, p. 46
said of Christ. He finished all that the Father gave              (2) Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 15
Him to do, and there was nothing more to be done.                 (3) Rev. H. Hoeksema, Death of the Son of God, p. 270
        The term "finished" is not one that denotes a tem-        (4) Ibid, p. 274, 275
poral end but it is the word that points to the ultimate          (5) Ibid, p. 275


         A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-


                            Saul's  :Victory at Jabesh-Gilead

                                                   Rev. B.  Woudenberg

                           Then came  the messengers  to Gibeah of Saul, and told the tidings in the
                       eazs of the peopze...
                          And the  Spivit of God  came   upon  SauZ when he  heard these things, and
                       his anger was kindled greatly.
                          And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them
                       throughout  aZZ the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying,
                       Whosoevevcomethnotforth  after Saul  and.aftev  Samuel,   So  shall  it  be done
                       unto his oxen. And the fear of the Lovd fell on the peopZe, and they came
                       out with one consent.  -
                                                                                      I Samuel  X-4, 6, 7

        There was something strange about the meeting of          He had- felt this coming now for some time. That was
Israel at Mizpeh where Saul was selected and appointed            why he had sat hidden among the baggage while the
to be king.       It somehow didn't end right. The people         casting of lots was going on. For all of his thinking,
had come to the meeting with eager anticipation; the              he had not even one idea as to how he should begin to
casting of the lot until Saul was chosen went smoothly            take over the rule of this great nation. When at last he
enough, the shout that went up, "God save the king,"              was found and summoned to stand before the admiring
was with enthusiasm; Samuel carefully and thoroughly              gaze of all the people, he had indeed enjoyed the ac-
admonished and instructed both Saul and the people as             claim, but he had only stood there shyly, not knowing
to what would be expected of them now. But that was               what to say. Perhaps, after Samuel had finished
all.       The people returned to their homes, and Saul           admonishing them, the people had waited anxiously for
returned to his. Nothing was really changed, and one              him to say something about future plans for himself and
could hardly know that now Israel had a king.                     for the nation; but Saul had had .nothing to say. It was
        In a large part, the fault for this was with Saul.        then that the people turned, somewhat discomfited,
Although for a long time he had been preoccupied with             almost embarrassed, to go to their homes. And Saul,
the dream of becoming king, once this dream was                   inwardly relieved, hurried to return to his, and to the
realized, he was at a loss as to what he should do.               work of the field. That was what? he understood best


                                            THESTANDARDBEARER                                                      229

in spite of all his dreams. Saul was not a leader at        own affairs. Their fellow Israelites may have sym-
heart.                                                      pathized with the people of Jabesh; but no one was
 But neither was the difficulty completely with him.        about to get himself involved in a messy battle of any
There were other elements too. After all, Saul was not      kind.
the only one who had been cherishing dreams of king-           The men .of Jabesh knew this, and felt dependent
ship in his heart. There were others too, many be-          upon their own wiles to save themselves. They could
longing to much larger and more important tribes,           submit unconditionally, they could resist until they
men of much wider and greater reputation than Saul          died of starvation, or they could try to negotiate a
had ever known. Many of them had come to Mizpeh             covenant, an agreement of friendship -with the Am-
determined to do all in their power to take over the        monites . (What they forgot, of course, was that they
control of the nation there. And, had not Samuel kept       could and should call upon Jehovah who was sure to
a firm hand over all of the proceedings, undoubtedly        save them.) To them it seemed the way of wisdom to
they would have tried.      But the opportunity had not     try the way of a covenant even though such covenants
availed itself, and Saul was selected the king. But we      were strictly forbidden by the law of God. (Ex, 23:32)
may be sure that the others were not happy at this.         They were in no mood to quibble over legalities. The
There was opportunity enough to complain in the mere        situation was desperate; and into the camp of Nahash
fact that Saul was a relatively unknown man in the          their emissaries were sent. Their suggestion was the
smallest of the tribes; and when he failed so completely    usual one in suchasituation, "Make a covenant with us,
to show any signs of leadership, they felt a free field     and we will serve thee." They would pay to Nahash a
before them. From the very start, they openly refused       yearly tribute until such a time that they felt themselves
to give any recognition to Saul as king; and it wasn't      strong enough to withstand them.         Then they would
long before the plots began to take shape as to how they    scrap their covenant and declare themselves free. It
might displace him from the throne.        These were       happened all the time.
ambitious and ruthless men, children of Belial, we are         To their surprise, perhaps, the  .emissaries  of
told.                                                       Jabesh found Nahash to be quite agreeable. He was
    The political situation in Israel might well have       willing to make a covenant with them and accept their
reached a crisis had not the matter of Jabesh-gilead        tribute. Only then he added one more thing, "On this
arose.                                                      condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may
    Jabesh, beyond the river in the land of Gilead, was     thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach
a city used to dealing with the enemies of Israel.          upon all Israel."
Separated as they were from the rest of the nation by          Here was the hatred of Ammon. Nahash didn't want
the Jordan, the land of Gilead was often considered an      tribute. He didn't primarily  ,want territories and cities.
easy mark by the heathen nations; and this only too         He wanted to disgrace the nation of Israel. Let the
often was so, for during the period of the judges the       men of Jabesh go about from that time, each with a
various sections of Israel drifted apart and no longer      limp eyelid hanging over an empty socket; it would be
felt responsible for each other's defense. Besides          a demonstration to all of how the children of Israel had
this, the people of Gilead and of Jabesh, as so many        forsaken their own brethren, of how Ammon had been
others in Israel, had long left behind their first and      left free to humiliate them. It gave to Nahash an inner
foremost line of defense -faith and trust in Jehovah        glee just to contemplate the thought of it.
their God.     It was this more than anything else that        Utterly aghast, the emissaries of Jabesh stood
left them quite defenseless before the inroads of their     conferring together.      What should they do`? Where
enemies.      Moreover, God turned them over into the       should they turn? How were they to answer? At last
hands of their enemies frequently in punZsb.ment  for       they turned to Nahas h and said, "Give us seven days'
their faithlessness and sin .                               respite, that we may send messengers unto all the
    This time it was the Ammonites. The Ammonites           coasts of Israel, and then, if there be no man to save
were the descendants of Lot, and thus related through       us, we will come out to thee." Nahash had no objections;
Abraham to Israel; Because of. this, Israel had always      in fact, this played right into his plans. He was fully
been commanded to show to them special consideration.       confident that no Israelite was going to -endanger his
But the Ammonites were a godless people, and they           life just to help these men of Jabesh., It would only add
hated the children of Israel with a passion. The kind-      to Israel's reproach.
nesses of Israel they answered with bitter cruelty             So it was that the messengers went out all through
whenever they could. And so it was now, Nahash,             Israel pleading for help. They were met with many
king of the Ammonites, had come and set seige about         willing listeners, with sympathy, with anguished cries
the city of Jabesh.     It was a one-sided battle, the      wherever they went; but that was all. So they came
nation of Ammon against the lone city of Jabesh. They       finally all the way to Gibeah were Saul lived. They
held on for a time. The men of Jabesh were able to          either knew nothing of Saul or else just never thought
keep the Ammonites from invading the walls of. their        of going directly to him. The messengers only stood
city; but it was impossible to break the siege as such.     in the streets of the city trying to convince someone
Ordinarily it was to be expected that their fellow          to come and help them. There was shock and much
countrymen would come to the aid of such a besieged         weeping, for the people understood well what Nahash
city; but everyone knew in that day that this was not       was trying to do; but that was about the extent of it.
true in Israel. Everyone was concerned only with his        It looked to all like an inevitable humiliation. In com-


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

plete despair the cries grew louder and louder until at     Jabesh, "To morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye
last they were heard by Saul, busy as usual in the          shall have help." Then, gathering his army behind
fields, and he came to inquire. Once again the mes-         him, he marched. All through the night they labored,
sengers of Jabesh recounted their tale.                     dividing their forces into three different fronts so that
   It was then that a strange and new thing happened        by morning's dawn they were ready to attack the
in Saul. It was something which he had felt only once       unsuspecting forces of Ammon. It was no battle, only
before -during that brief journey home from Ramah           a rout as the army of Ammon was scattered far and
when he had met with Samuel.         Suddenly all of his    wide so that by the heat of the day no two of them were
ambitions and fears and worries seemed to disappear         left together. It was a victory such as Israel had not
from his mind.     He felt like the sting of a whip the     seen for many and many a year. Now they knew that in
disgrace that Ammon was seeking to bring upon Israel        Israel there was a king and shouting with joy they
and it filled him with righteous indignation.       In a    gathered behind him.
moment he knew what was the only thing that could              And for a time it looked as though Saul was going
save them -the power of the God of Samuel who had           to be a good and capable king.         With discretion he
anointed him to be king.       For the moment his old       refused to punish those who had refused their support
character of doubt and pride and indecision seemed to       to him at the beginning. There were too many of them,
disappear, and in its place was a new person, a man         and to have slain them would have left an unhealing
of authority and determination. Quickly he stepped up to    scar across the heart of the nation. Even'more, at the
the oxen which he had been using in the field and cut       suggestion of Samuel, he led the people from Jabesh to
them into pieces. Then, drafting men for messengers,        Gilgal.    Here was the place where Israel had first
he sent them throughout the nation with the warning,        camped and sacrificed and commended themselves to
"Whosoever.  cometh not forth after Saul and after          God after coming through the Jordan into the land of
Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. This was         Canaan. Thus to this same place Samuel returned the
the leadership which Israel so badly needed. Soon           people, that the original dedication of the kingdom
some 330,000 men were gathered behind Saul for battle.      might be renewed. There once again Saul was acknow-
                                                            ledged to be king, this time by all the people. And
   It was a wonderful campaign by every measure.            there they offered  sacriffce  to God, acknowledging Him
With unwavering assurance, Saul sent the message to         to be the source of their strength and every victory.



     CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-


                      The Doctrine of Creation
                                   Days or Periods

                                                 Rev. H.  VeZdman

   It can hardly be said of the concordistic theory,        Period Theory is widely acclaimed and adopted today.
i.e., that the days of Genesis 1 are not really days of     I am not speaking now of the theory of Evolution
twenty four hours, but periods of thousands or millions     which      is taught    today     throughout the world's
of years in duration, that it represents an honest          schools     of learning.       Also from this point of
attempt to explain the days of Genesis 1 in the light of    view,      the    world has      witnessed a tremendous
Scripture.    The conclusion that these "days" were         change during the last decades. The undersigned
periods was surely not reached because a sincere            has already mentioned the trial that occurred in our
effort was made to let the Word of.God speak and throw      country some decades ago, when a high school teacher
light upon this question. We have already noted that        was placed on trial because he taught evolution in a
during the early centuries of the church of God in the      public high school and was prosecuted by William
New Dispensation, it was universally believed that the      Jennings Bryan, who ran unsuccessfully for the pres-
days of Genesis 1 are ordinary days of twenty-four          idency of our country three times. But I refer to the
hours, and therefore the same as our days. What             fact that this theory, the Period Theory, is widely
happened, then, that the concordistic theory should         heralded and accepted today in the Church, and taught
make its appearance and be so widely acclaimed as it        almost universally in our Christian High Schools. And
is in our present day? One can hardly deny that the         we may certainly say that it does not represent an


                                             THESTANDARDBEARER                                                     231

honest attempt to explain, exegete the Holy Scriptures.      the latter consisting of the fact that the earth moves
It is not true that the Word of God led people to believe    around the sun once a year. So, we need not adopt the
that the days of Genesis 1 are periods. That which led       concordistic theory of periods instead of days because
the Church today to embrace this theory was our              the Lord needed them, needed thousands and millions
modern so-called science. Science, it is said, speaks        of years to create the heavens and the earth and all the
facts. And one can hardly deny facts. Facts must be          things therein contained.    And, on the other hand, the
accepted.       And these scientific facts simply prove      concordistic theory is, frankly, repulsive to the under-
beyond the shadow of any doubt that the "days" of            signed. Why is it that our modern church world seems
Genesis 1 must have been periods. These facts simply         to crave this conception of the Divine creation of all
prove that our world cannot have been only six to            things? We believe that this theory is principally
eight thousand years old. And with these facts in mind       evolutionistic. Is it more to the glory of God to accept
men turned to the Holy Scriptures. The facts of science      a theory which would have us believe that thousands
must be accepted; so, Scripture must be interpreted in       and millions of years were necessary to explain the
agreement with these facts. This means that Science          creation of the heavens and the earth, or is it more to
rules over the Word of God, and must serve as a guiding      His glory to believe that everything was called into
rule in our explanation of the Word of God. This, of         being by the Lord's almighty word, so that "by the
course is a very dangerous method of interpreting            word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the
the Bible. We have always claimed that even Dogmatics        host of them by the breath of His mouth?" Frankly, the
may not rule over the Scriptures. And it is certainly        former is repulsive to me; the latter is certainly in
true that Science may not rule over these Scriptures.        harmony with what the Scriptures teach us concerning
The Word of God must stand alone. It carries in and          the living God. Fact is, all the mighty works of God
with it its own authority.      Any attempt to ascertain     are works of a moment. The Period  .Theory hardly
whether the "days" of Genesis 1 are ordinary days of         glorifies God.
twenty four hours or long periods of time, constituted         We now call attention to the arguments which we
of thousands or millions of years must be made only          may deduce from the Scriptures in support of the truth
upon the basis of the written Word of God. That Word         that the Lord created the heavens and the earth and all
is a lamp before our feet and a light upon our path also     things that are therein in six ordinary days. First of
in regard to this question of days or periods. And we        all, we call attention to the use of the word "day," or
do not hesitate to say that the concordistic theory can-     YOM, as it occurs in the creation account in Genesis
not possibly be maintained in the light of the written       1. Incidentally, this is, I believe, the only "Scriptural
Word of God.                                                 proof" which the advocates of the concordistic theory
   Before we proceed with our analysis of the con-           quote in support of their contention that the "days" of
cordistic theory in the light of Holy Writ (incidentally,    Genesis 1 were long periods of time. A day, however,
Rev. H. Hoeksema in his Dogmatics advances several           is a day, not a week or a month or a year. To be sure,
arguments against the idea that the "days" of Genesis        attention has been directed to the fact that we read in
1 are to be regarded as long periods of time, and we         the Word of God that one day is with the Lord as a
will refer to these arguments and elaborate somewhat         thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day,
upon them), we wish to make two observations. On             according to II Peter  3:8. It seems to me that the
the one hand, we certainly do not need the theory that       advocates of the Period-Theory are very eager to quote
the days of the first chapter of the Bible must be viewed    the first part of this text and not too eager to quote the
as long periods of time in order to embrace the truth        latter part of it. They are eager to call attention to the
of the Divine creation of all things.       We mean the      fact that one day is as a thousand years, but not too
following. It certainly was not necessary for God to         eager to remind us of the fact that a thousand years
extend His creative work or almighty speaking over           are as one day. It is said that whereas one day with
thousands upon thousands of years to make what He            the Lord is as a thousand years this can also be applied
made.        Dr. Bavinck may write, as he. does, that so     to the expression, day, in Genesis 1. But we  .must
many creatures were created upon the fifth day that          remember that we also read that a thousand years are
it is hardly possible to believe that all this occurred      as one day.       If we; therefore, may assume that the
within a period of twenty hours. But, what child of. God     "day" of Genesis 1 is a thousand years, may we not'
would dare to say that the Lord could not have created       also conclude that these thousand years of Genesis 1
the universe and all therein contained at the very           are as one day? When we read that `,a day is as a
beginning of time? That the Lord created all things          thousand years, and a thousand years are as `one day,"
in a period of six days certainly does not mean that         this reminds us of the truth that with God there is no
He needed these six days to make what He made. Who           time; He is eternal. We are also aware of the fact that
would dare to limit the almighty God and declare what        the Scriptures also speak of "hour" as denoting a long
He .would be able to do and what He would not be able        period of time, as when we read of the New Dispensa-
to do? God, for example, did not need all of the first       tion that it is the last hour. Nevertheless, we maintain
day, did He, to create the light. The Lord did not only      and surely must maintain that words in Scripture have
create the heavens and the earth, but He also made           their ordinary meaning unless the context indicates
time.    And this implies that He also created the day       that a longer period of time is meant. When we read
and the year, the former consisting of the fact that         that the New Dispensation is the last hour, it is obvious
the earth turns upon its axis once in twenty hours and       that the word "hour" refers to such a longer period


232                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

of time. How will we ever be able to read the Word of         were determined and regulated by the earth as it turns
God if words have not their ordinary meaning, if any          upon its axis, and therefore in its relation to the sun.
particular part of the Scriptures does not mean what          It is for this reason that distinction was made between
it says?       Then the wildest interpretations of the        the first three days and the latter three days of the
Scriptures will become possible.       Then anyone can        week of creation. Inasmuch as the sun,moon and stars
read the Scriptures and interpret them as he sees fit.        were called into being upon the fourth day, we may be-
And now one may well ask the question: Does the               lieve that the latter three days were ordinary days; we
creation account in Genesis 1 give us any right to            may surely believe that these latter three days were
interpret the days of creation as lengthy periods of          determined and regulated by their relation to the sun.
time, extending over thousands and millions of years?         Hence, these latter three days must have beenordinary
And the answer must be an emphatic NO. Fact is, the           days, like unto our days. This, however, would violate
days of Genesis 1 are limited by evening and morning.         a fundamental principle of healthy and sound exegesis.
That the evening is mentioned first is. because the           This fundamental principle is that the same wordin the
evening concluded the first part of the day of twenty         same connection must have the same meaning. But
hours, and the morning concluded the second part of           there is nothing in the holy record of Genesis 1 to
this day; Repeatedly we read: "And the evening and            indicate any difference between the first three days
the morning were the first, or second, or third day."         and the latter three days of the week of creation.
So, the day of Genesis 1 was limited by one evening           Besides, there is nothing in the Scriptures to indicate
and one morning.        If the days of Genesis 1 be long      any change whatever after the sixth or seventh day.
periods of time, extending over millions of years, then       Presuppose once that the latter three days were long
it must be granted that also the night aspect of these        periods of time, millions of years long. Beginning on
days, from the evening until the morning, must have           the fourth day, did the earth turn much more slowly
lasted thousands upon thousands of years. Considering         upon its axis, so, that once in a million years it made
that a day consists of a period of daylight and the           this turn'? But what a change must then be presupposed
night, the night must have been thousands of years            in the relation of the plants and animals and men?
long.      And, bearing in mind that the world of plants      Would, as we mentioned before , the plants survive
was created upon the third day, how, then, must we            after spending thousands of years in darkness, as the
account for the continued existence of these plants.          period, then, from evening until morning would cover
during a night that extended over thousands and mil-          thousands of years ?     Then, after these periods of
lions of years? Would plant life be able to survive           creation had finally passed on and become history,
under such circumstances? Reading in Genesis that             what happened that the days should now become ordinary
"it was evening and it was morning," wouldn't we be           days, -days of twenty hours? Is there anything in the
inclined to say that the Scriptures wish to make it           Word of God to indicate such a change? Does not an
perfectly plain to us that these days of creation were        unbiased, unprejudiced reading of Genesis 1 impress
ordinary days of twenty hours 7                               upon us the truth that, whereas the same is stated of
                                                              each day ( it was evening and it was morning), all the
       Secondly, the concordistic theory compels us to        days in the week of creation must have been of equal
distinguish between the first three days and the latter       length?    Surely, the Word of God does not indicate
three days of Genesis 1.      The Lord created the sun,       anything else, does it? If these "days*' of Genesis 1
moon and stars upon the fourth day. From the fourth           were long periods, then the Word of Godmust certainly
day on the light which God created upon the first day         be in error here. The Lord willing, we will continue
was concentrated in the sun, and light and darkness           with this discussion in our following article.



          FROM HOLY  WRIT-

                                   Our Brothers Burden
                                          and Our Own
                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers
                                                  Galatians   6,-l-5

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS                                     and rebellious retort to God Himself.        They were
   It was none less than Cain, who hated his brother,         spoken after he had killed his brother Abel, and who
who spoke the terrible words "Am I my brother's               was at that very moment lying in his own blood as this
keeper?" (Genesis 4:9b) These words were a horrible           drenched the earth1 And he continued in this way. It


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  233

is epitomized as the "way of Cain":. (Jude 11) It is           as He is the Spirit of Christ the head of the church,
the broad way which leads to destruction. And many             dwelling in the church as the members? We believe
there be which walk upon this way of hatred for the            that upon good grounds it can be stated that Paul is
b r o t h e r 1                                                speaking here of the Holy Spirit of God, as the Spirit
    We do well for our very life's sake, as much as we         of Christ in the church: the Spirit of Pentecost I This
love our soul's salvation, to, take heed to the warning        is evident from the entire epistle of Paul to the
of Christ, our Lord. He teaches us, in a very small            Galatians..    Fifteen times the apostle speaks of the
sentence, the entire law and the prophets as it relates        *`Spirit" in this letter , and always he refers to the
to our relationship to our brother. Fact is, that it is a      Divine Spirit, (Galatians 3:2, ,3, 5, 14; 4:6, 29; 5:5, 16,
dictum for every man whose breath is in his nostrils I         17, 18, 22, 25; 6:1, 8, 18.) It would lead us too far
Says Jesus "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would           afield to show this explicitly in each case as used by
that men should do unto ysu, do ye even so to them:            Paul. We, therefore, merely call attention to the in-
for this is the law and the prophets." (Matthew 7:12)          stances of the usages in Chapter 5. It is through the
                                                               Spirit that we wait for the hope of righteousness by
    This is not simply a legalistic "code"; it is the          faith. vs. 5. In verse 16 he writes "Walk by the Spirit,
law of the life of Christ Jesus. It is the law of the          and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh". In the
Spirit of life. It is the narrow way which leads to life.      verse 17, 18 Paul speaks of the warfare between the
It is the way which few are finding1 It does not seldom        Holy Spirit in us and the flesh. And these two are
happen that with the very "Church Order" in one's              contrasted in the verses 19 and 22 in the "works of
hands and while walking strictly according to the "law",       the flesh" and in the "fruit of the Spirit". It is
one either has not yet wholly escaped from the "way            obvious, therefore, that Paul is speaking of the Spirit
of Cain", or is, (and that is worse) walking squarely          of Christ here.
in the middle of the road that leads to destruction1              He is indeed speaking of the life-giving Spirit.
    John cries in his epistle "If a man say, I love God,       Jesus Himself says in John 6:63 "It is the Spirit that
and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth       quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." And as Christ
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love             is the Son of God and has received the Spirit, He is the
God whom he hath not seen?" (I John 4:20) And,                 last. Adam, is .the life-giving Spirit. (I Corinthians.
again, "and this is the commandment we. have from              15:45).
him, That he who loveth God love his brother also."
(I John 4:21) Earlier in this same Chapter the apostle            That we *`live in the Spirit" refers therefore to the
writes "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to          new life of Christ, the life of regeneration. It refers
love one another." (I John 4:ll)                               to the inward life in our hearts of faith which works
                                                               by love. What is more this is stated in a conditional
    The foregoing sets forth in bold relief the sad            sentence of fact. Paul harks back here to all he has
reality that the most holy of all God's children has           taught concerning our living by the Spirit as sons and
only a small beginnning of the new obedience. It               heirs. This is an established fact. At least thus it is
emphasizes for great and small, for office-bearers and         according to the confession of the believers. They
congregation that none of us has yet attained, and that        have begun in the Spirit. They have subjectively re-
none of us can with a good conscience before God look          ceived the Spirit's benefits by faith. (Galatians 3:2, 3)
down from his imaginary heights upon his brother with             If- such is the case according to our own confession
a better-than-thou attitude.                                   then it also follows that we ought to waEk in the Spirit.
    Hear Paul therefore in Galatians 6:1-S speak to the        The term to walk here is not the same as that used by
church of the Galatians,                                       Paul in verse 16. That term referred to the entire
                                                               circumference of a man's existence according to the
       "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye         law of God. The verb here is "peripateoo" in Greek.
    which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit      Here Paul uses the verb "stoicheoo" which means
    of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be        really: to stand or line up in a row. The notion seems
    tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil      to be that the inward life and the outward.manifestation
    the law of Christ.    For if a man think himself to be
    something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.       must be such that things line up1 They must line up
    But .let every man prove .his own work, and then shall     and conform to the law of the- Spirit of life toward God
    be have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.    and toward our brother. Here is the plurnbline of heaven
    For every man shall bear MS own burden."                   in our human relationships in the church. This is not
                                                               a rule which one brother fabricates for the other in a
THE ILLUMINATING CONTEXT - Galatians 5:25, 26                  very arbitrary way, but it is the rule of the King in
    Writes Paul in the context "If we live in the Spirit,      his heavenly kingdom.        It is the measuring of the
let us also walk in the Spirit." vs. 25                        temple and of each stone in the temple in their con-
                                                               fession and life toward each other. It is the command-
    It will be necessary to offer a bit of exegesis of this    ment which we have: that he who loveth God love his
injunction of Paul to the church. -The first question          brother  also1     Such is the status quo which God has
which arises is what does, Paul mean by "Spirit"?              instituted in the church by his Spirit. This is indicated
Does this refer to the human "spirit" .or does this            by the present tenses of the verbs "live" and "walk" I
refs. to the Holy Spirit, the third personof the Trinity,          But there is more.


234                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

   Paul also indicates that such was not the case here         in arrogance on the one side, on the other takes the
in the church of the Galatians. The root-sin of every          form of `discontent and envy.          The heart-burnings
man is pride.        It is to be like God. It is the sin of    and the social tension which this state of things creates,
Satan, the father- of the lie.      Man is puffed up. He       make every chance collision a danger; and the slightest
blows his own horn pretty loudly if exalted among              wound is inflamed into a rankling sore." And to quote
men, and if in a lesser degree he is gifted he is filled       once more "The stumbling brother is pushed on into a
with envy; he envies the brother so easily who has             fall; and the fallen man who might be helped to his
merely a greater position in a relative sense. The             feet, is left to lie there, the object of unpitying re-
difference is merely one of degree and not of essence.         proach.    Indeed, the lapse of his neighbor is to the
   Such was also the sad state in thechurch at Galatia!        vainglorious man a cause of satisfaction rather than
                                                               sorrow. The other's weakness serves for a foil to his
   Wherefore Paul writes in verse 26 "Let us not be            strength.. . God, he seems to say, I thank thee, that I
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying         am not like this wretched back-slider!" (Epistle To
one another." Such was the actual sad state of affairs         The Galatians, by Prof. George G.  Findlay, D.D. in
in the church. And this must stop1 The term "not"              Expositor's Bible)
in the Greek indicates that Paul is not saying: let it
not begin, but rather: let it stop., Let it no longer be          Hear John say: "If a man says, I love God and hates
with you such that you are desirous of empty glory             his brother, he is a liar! For the whole law is filled
And vain glory is empty `glory. It is a glory which            in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor
does not satisfy.      When once you have it it does not       as thyself I" And this Golden Rule must not be cor-
taste good in your own mouth. It is something which            rupted into a mere utilitarian maxim, as did the
is not from the Lord, but it is empty of all real content      Rabbi Hillet who taught "What is hateful to thyself do
and it never fits in with a "walk in the Spirit." Those        not to thy neighbor; for this is the whole law and all
who attain to it find it to be ashes in the mouth! Cries       else is its exposition." On this Lenski remarks in
the apostle: let it stop! Stop in your tracks ! It is a        his exposition of Matthew 7:12 "This is egoism which
grieving of the Spirit in which ye were sanctified to the      withholds its injury lest it suffer injury in return."
day of Christ. This glory is then one's reward, but               What a golden rule. to remember how we would
then the sole reward which does not satisfy. It has            desire to be treated if we were a "man overtaken in a
nothing to do with: well done, thou good and faithful          fault." It is the pity of Christ in our breast. Such a
servant I                                                      claim the erring brother has upon our sympathy1 It
                                                               were better that a mill-stone be hanged about our
   There were some in the congregation who were                neck, and we be cast into the sea, than that we should
"provocating". He initiated the evil each time. The            offend one of Christ's little ones1
reaction was on the part of others who were *`envious."
When these two meet there is a horrible collision                 Hence, says Paul: stop provoking one another,
each time. .Nothing is lined  up1 There is confusion           envying one another.
and strife I     Meekness of wisdom goes out of the               If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the
window I "The same disposition which manifests itself          Spirit.



   THE LORD GAVE THE WORD (Psalm 68:ll)


                              Particular Atonement
                                          and  Missions
                                                     Rev. C.  Hank0

   In my previous article I spoke of the fact that             hungry soul with the Bread of life and to give him life
Christ laid down His life for His sheep. In answer to          eternal. In faith he surrenders himself to that Lord
Daane's question, What does a repentant sinner be-             with his whole being for time and for eternity. And
lieve? the answer is: he believes in Jesus Christ as           what does the unbeliever reject, if there is not a "God
the Good Shepherd Who laid down His life for His               loves you, Christ died for you;" to reject7 That is,
sheep. He embraces Christ as His personal Savior,              what does he reject when he hears the gospel of a
and experiences His power to forgive sins, to feed his         particular atonement?      He rejects the Christ of the


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   235

Scriptures.     He wants nothing of Him, because he does      to Himself that which is in harmony with His own
not want to leave his sins, which he still cherishes in       glorious perfection and shows forth His praises.
his heart. He hates God and he rejects God's Christ.             3. "God so loved." This `so' can and evidently
He joins the wicked throng to cry out, "Away with this        does refer both to the extent as well as to the manner
One, crucify Himl" Isn't that exactly what even modern        of God's love. But then let us beware that we do not
theology is doing today?                                      limit the extent of that love to mere man, who is but a
   That immediately raises the question, but what about       speck of dust. Even if we were to include all humanity
those passages of Scripture that apparently speak of a        to stress the extent of God's love, we would still be
universal atonement 7                                         limiting it. It took an infinite love to bear the burden
   There are particularly three such passages that we         of God's wrath in perfect obedience and merit for us
should consider, since they all have this in common,          eternal life. The debt of our sin against the Most High
that they speak of the atoning death of Christ for the        Majesty of God had to be paid! God's justice had to
whole world.                                                  be satisfied. Only an infinite love could atone. Nothing
   There is, first of all, that ever familiar and often       else could save us.
quoted passage of John 3:16, "For God so loved the               Such was therefore also the manner of God's love,
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso-        that He spared not, but gave His only begotten Son as a
ever believeth in him should not perish, but have             ransom for our sins. God's blood was shed on Golgotha.
everlasting life."                                            (Acts 20:28). Nothing less would do.
   And there is the testimony of John the Baptist                4. In that light we can also understand the term
concerning Jesus in John 1:29, "Behold, the Lamb of           `world' in the assurance, "For God so loved the world."
God, which taketh away the sin of the world."                 The word `kosmos' is used which always refers to a
   And there is also the message of the apostle John          beautiful, harmonious whole, a complete unity. Some-
concerning Him in I John 2:2, "And he is the propitia-        times Scripture speaks of the entire creation as the
tion for our sins: and not for our's only, but also for       `worlds' which were formed by God .           Sometimes
the sins of the whole world."                                 Scripture speaks of the `world' of wickedness, whichwe
   Ever since the Arminian controversy of the early           as people of God must not love. How can we love that
seventeenth century, these verses have been used to           which God hates? In that case, Scripture refers to the
prove a "Christus pro omnibus," a Christ for all.             organic unity of a sinful human race (the people of
John 3:16 is taken to mean that Godloves  all men with-       God excluded) which finds its beauty, its harmony and
out exception. God's love is so great that it excludes        unity in "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and
no one. Christ died for all. And now it is God's desire       the pride of life." That world is in the process of
that no one should perish, but that every individual upon     passing away under the righteous judgment of God.
the earth should accept Christ, believe the gospel and        You certainly would not want to speak of that world as
receive eternal life.                                         including every individual, nor is that possible.
   This interpretation is so commonly accepted, that             But Scripture also speaks of the harmonious unity
it is considered inconceivable that there could be any        of God's elect in Christ, including the entire creation
other interpretation of this passage. It has been re-         as it is redeemed and will be glorified with Him.
peated so often, that no one even stops to consider that      Eternally God sees His Son as the Firstborn among
it might be wrong, in fact, that it might be very super-      many brethren, Who is given the ends of the earth as
ficial and a gross corruption of the text. For that it is.    His possession, and Who is Lord of lords forever.
John 3:16 is indeed a "Gospel in miniature", but then         In that great Day of days we shall see that beautiful,
it must also be a true miniature of the gospel of the         harmonious unity of the new creation as centered in
Scriptures.                                                   Christ and His Church, which is His Body. From that
   1. Notice, "God so loved." God's love can never            world the reprobate are excluded. The Vine is purged,
be compared to human love, since, at best, our love is        the dead branches are broken off and burned. John
but a creaturely reflection of the divine. God loves as       15:1, 2. That is the `world' of John 3:16.
God.    Therefore God's love is holy, for God is holy.           5. That love for the world motivated God in giving
God's love is righteous, for God is righteous. God's          His only Begotten Son, for the very purpose that
love is sovereign and unchangeable, even efficacious,         "whosoever believeth (all those who believe - as. in the
as God is sovereign and unchangeable.                         Greek) in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
                                                              life." That purpose is also realized. God's love is
   2. "God so  loved."  We so readily overlook the            never spurned. For faith is the gift of God. And God
fact that Scripture itself teaches us that love is the        unites His beloved elect to Christ by the bond of living
bond of perfectness. Love unites two perfect objects.         faith. He draws them from "this present, evil world"
Sin always interferes and disrupts that bond of per-          into living fellowship with Christ. They  have ever-
fectness.      How evident that becomes in the intimate       lasting life. No one can take that from them. No one
relationship of husband and wife. How readily dis-            can separate them from that unchanging love that He
trust, suspicion, bitterness, strife enter in to threaten     has spread abroad in their hearts.
that bond of love in marriage. How much more that                The same truth is witnessed by John the Baptist in
must be true of the love of God. How can God love a           John 1:29, "Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh
sinful, foul, corrupt world? He must turn away from it        away the sin of the world."
in holy revulsion. He seeks, yearns after, and draws              1. John had been preaching in the wilderness for


236                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

about a year. He, had told his listeners that the time        children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.
was at hand that all prophecy would reach its fulfill-        And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
ment.    The promised Christ was about to appear.             Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. And he is the
Therefore John called the people to repentance, and as        propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but
many as repented waited in eager anticipation for the         also for the sins of the whole world."
promised Messiah.                                                1. John speaks of a propitiation.  Christ gave his
   2. And then the day arrived that Jesus stood among         life as a sacrifice for sin, in order to satisfy God's
them.    No one recognized Him in His lowly state of          justice and reconcile His people with God. He bore
humiliation, but John knew Him, because God had de-           away the wrath of God to restore us into covenant
clared it unto him. And so John spoke of the One Who          fellowship with God. That is the idea of propitiation.
stood among them, whom they did not know, but Who                2. That same Christ is now -in heaven as the
was so much greater than John, that-John was not              Advocate, and High Priest of those same persons for
worthy to be His lowliest servant. The next day Jesus         whom He died. He intercedes for them on the basis of
was approaching John, evidently walking alone, and then       His meritorious death of the cross. And God also
John pointed Him out to his audience declaring: "Be-          hears Him, so that God regards that people as holy
hold, there He is."                                           and righteous in Christ, worthy of all the blessings `of
   3. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit John           salvation, even of eternal life. They are righteous
described Him as "the Lamb of God," the fulfillment           forever in Jesus Christ, the Righteous. Therefore God
of all the types and shadows of the old dispensation.         bestows on them all the blessings that Christ has
He is God's Lamb, slain from before the foundation of         merited for them. Even as they are reconciled to God,
the world, and now sent to bring the great sacrifice          they are also regenerated, called, justified, sanctified,
for the sins of His people.                                   and glorified.
   4. John even sees Him as the One Who fully ac-                3; That applies to "us", John says. He is writing
complishes that work entrusted to Him by the Father.          to the early church shortly after Pentecost. Many
He does. not attemptl to take away sin. He does not           members of that church were of Jewish origin, and
hopel to take away the sin of the world. He does not          therefore he may very well have been referring to the
open the way that -the sin of the world may be taken          church as it emerged out of the old dispensation. In
away.    He very actually  takes  away/the sin of the         that case, the `world' to which he refers is the church
world. He takes that entire load of sin on His mighty         of the new dispensation as it is now being gathered out
shoulders, the entire burden of our guilt and wrath,          of all the nations of the earth in distinction from the
and bears it in torments of hell, until the entire burden     Jews.
of sin has been borne away.                                      But f`us" also has a personal application. John had
   5. But again, no one has the right to interpret the '      written to them as "My little children", urging them
term `world' here as if it includes all mankind without       not to sin. But he had also added that very personal
exception. This again is the world of God's elect, as it      assurance, so necessary for all of us, that when we
is eternally given to Christ, of which He is the repre- ,     sin, we need not despair, nor continue in sin. We have
sentative Head, and for which He dies. It is that entire      forgiveness, which -has been accomplished for,us more
organism of the elect; only the reprobate are excluded.       than nineteen hundred years ago. We also have our
   6; Nor does anyone have the right to make a dis-           Advocate in heaven, Who intercedes for us in the basis
tinction here, as if Christ died redemptively for all,        of His death on the cross. He has reconciled us to
but that this is effectual only for some. Since Christ        God, and not only us, but the whole church universal,
died redemptively for the sin of the world, the entire        the whole world that was given to Christ by the Father.
burden of guilt is borne away, the entire debt is paid,          4. In that confidence we confess "an holy, catholic
the right to eternal life is merited, and the world is        church," gathered, defended and preserved by the Son
saved. Let every one who seeks his salvation in that          of God Himself by His Word and Spirit. What is more,
perfect Lamb of God rest assured that though his sins         we believe, "that I am and forever shall remain. a
are as scarlet they have been made as white as snow           living member of that church."
through the atoning blood of Golgotha.                           Let no man take that glorious and blessed assur-
   That leaves no problem as far as I John  2:2 is            ance from `you. For this is the gospel which through
concerned.     There the apostle writes, "My little           the Scriptures is preached to you.


                                                  ANNOUNCEMENT
                               The date of the continued session of Classis West,
                               September 1965, is now set for Tuesday, March 15,
                               1966. This continued session will begin at 9:00 A.M.
                               at the South Holland Protestant Reformed Church in
                               South Holland, Illinois.
                                                     Rev. D. J. Engelsma, Stated Clerk


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       237.



   EXAMINING  E  CUMENICALISM-

                        .Vatican Council  - Third Session


                                           "The Decree on Ecumenism"

                                                      Rev. G. Van  Baven

   To my mind, the .most interesting of the decisions                 it is only through Christ's Catholic Church, which is
made at the Vatican Council is this one. It treats                    "the all-embracing means of salvation," that they can
precisely of that matter which is such great concern                  benefit fully from the means of salvation. We believe
of other churches of our day.           It sets forth, too, a         that Our Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New
change in attitude, though not in doctrine, in the                    Covenant to the apostolic college alone, of which Peter
Romish Church. There was a time, and not too long                     is the head, in order to establish the one Body of
ago, when Romish leaders would not deign to meet                      Christ on earth to which all should be fully incorpor-
                                                                      ated who belong in any way to the people of God.
with those outside their own church domain.                The
Romish Church, after all, was by far the largest                      Secondly, the Romish Church recognizes the fact
single denomination within the realm of Christendom -              of divisions in the past, and even concedes a certain
and it was incumbent upon the others to return to                  measure of guilt for the separations which took place:
"mother." But that attitude appears to be changing.                         But in subsequent centuries much more serious
More and more a dialogue is being carried on between                  dissensions appeared and quite large communities
Rome and other churches. The basis of that dialogue                   separated from full communion with the Catholic
is set forth in this "decree."                                        Church- for which, often enough, men of both sides
   This all is being done under that banner: "That they               were to blame.
all may be one." And, of course, to seek the healing                  Thirdly, the document admits that essential ele-
of the many and deep breaches made in the past                     ments of proper communion can be seen outside of the
history of the church does seem most desirable indeed.             Romish Church:
But the question the Christian increasingly faces in                     Moreover, some, even very many of the significant
these days is: what is the testimony of Scripture? We                 elements and endowments which together go to build up
do read of the healing of one breach at the end of time               and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the
in Rev.  13:3.      It is the healing of the wound of the             visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written
beast. But Christ declares as one of the signs of the                 word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope and charity,
end of time: "Many shall come in My Name, saying, I                   with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, and
am Christ; and shall deceive many.... And many false                  visible elements too. All of these, which come from
prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And                     Christ and lead back to Christ, belong by right to the
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall                 one Church of Christ.
wax cold."        (Matt.  24:5, 11, 12). And the present                    .  ..It follows that the separated Churches and com-
                                                                      munities as such, though we believe them to be
decree of the Romish Church reminds strongly of both                  deficient in some respects, have been by no means
signs. Let the Church then beware.                                    deprived of significance and importance in themystery
                                                                      of Salvation.
THE PRINCIPLE OF ECUMENISM                                            Finally, to encourage the ecumenical movement,
   The document we consider in this article sets forth             the document suggests four things: 1. The church
first several principles the Romish Church considers               avoid judgments, expressions, and actions which do not
important. The following quotations are all from the               fairly represent the "separated brethren." 2. The
book:  Council  Daybook, Session 3,        pages     343 - 351.    church encourage "dialogue" between the different
First, and expectedly, Rome continues to maintain that             communions.         3. The church seek co-operation in the
the fulness of salvation can only be seen in it:                   "duties for the common good of humanity...." 4.
                                                                   Finally, that the members in the Romish Church
      Nevertheless,    our separated brethren, whether             "examine their own faithfulness to Christ's will...and,
   considered as individuals or as communities and
   Churches, are not blessed with that unhy which Jesus            wherever necessary, undertake with vigor the task
   Christ wished to bestow on all those who through Him            of renewal and reform."
   were born again into one body, and with Him quickened           THE PRACTICE OF ECUMENISM
   to newness of life  - that unity which the Holy Scriptures
   and the ancient Tradition of the Church proclaim. For              To carry out ecumenical endeavors on a practical


                                                    THESTANDARDBEARER

level, this second chapter suggests first that there                  they are linked with us in closest intimacy. Therefore
must be a continual reformation within the Church                     some worship in common, given suitable circumstances
herself.       It recognizes that "in various times and               and the approval of Church authority,  is  not merely
circumstances, there have been deficiencies in moral                  possible but to be encouraged.
conduct or in church discipline, or even in the way                       . ..The rich liturgical and spiritual heritage of the
that church teaching has been formulated - to be care-                Eastern Churches should be known, venerated, pre-
fully distinguished from the deposit of faith itself" and             served and cherished by all. They must recognize
that these "deficiencies" also "can and should be set                 that this is of supreme importance for the faithful
right at the opportune moment and in the proper way."                 preservation of the fulness of Christian tradition, and
   The "decree" declares that no "ecumenism worthy                    for bringing about the reconciliation between the
of the name" can take place without a change of heart.                Eastern and Western Christians.
It goes on to concede that the Romish Church has also
sinned against the "separated brethren" and begs                      In the second place, the chapter  reGognizes  the
forgiveness. Of course, this is stated in a very gen-              churches of the reformation, and sets forth consider-
eral way, and the "sins" for which it begs forgiveness             ations as basis for dialogue with them. I'll summarize
are not itemized.                                                  these "considerations."           (1) Rome recognizes and
                                                                   speaks well of the fact that other churches confess
          The words of St. John hold good about sins against       Jesus to be God, Lord, and Mediator. (2) It recognizes
   unity: "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a             a "love and reverence of Sacred Scripture" in churches
   liar,  and his word is not in us" (I John  1:lO). So we         outside of the Romish Church. (3) It recognizes that
   humbly beg pardon of God and of our separated breth-            these churches "while invoking the Holy Spirit, . . . seek
    ren, just as we forgive them that trespass against us.         in these very Scriptures God as it were speaking to
                                                                   them in Christ, Whom the prophets foretold,  Whois the
   Several steps are recommended to the Romish                     Word of God made flesh for us." It was this third
faithful to promote true ecumenism. Among these are                point that the pope personally modified at the close of
included:                                                          the third session when he introduced 19 modifications
                                                                   of this particular decree.           He changed the original
           (1) In certain special circumstances, such as in
    prayei services                                                word "find" to "seek", suggesting that after all there
                            "for  unity," and during ecumenical
    gatherings, it is allowable, indeed desirable that             is no "finding" of Christ in those groups outside of
    Catholics should join in prayer with their separated           the communion of Rome. The Protestant ecumenists
    brethren.. . .                                                 rather universally deplored the change made. (4) Rome
           (2) Witness to the unity of the Church very gen-        recognizes that the sacrament of baptism is performed
    erally forbids common worship to Christians, but the           in other communions in addition to its own. (5) Fi-
    grace to be had from it sometimes commends this                nally, it states that "the daily Christian life of these
    practice.         The course to be adopted...is left to the    brethren is nourished by their faith in Christ and
    prudent decision of the local episcopal authority.. . .        strengthened by the grace of baptism and by hearing
           (3) Most valuable... are meetings of the two sides
    --                                                             the word of God."
          especially for discussion of theological problems  -
    where each can treat with the other on an equal footing           On the basis of these "considerations," the Vatican
    --provided that those who take part in them are truly          Council encouraged efforts towards closer contact with
    competent and have the approval of the bishops.                the `*separated brethren."           It did issue a word of
           (4) Sacred theology and other branches of know-         warning toward the overly zealous:
    ledge, especially of an historical nature, must be
    taught with due regard for the ecumenical point of view,              This sacred council exhorts the faithful to refrain
    so that they may correspond as exactly as possible                from superficiality or imprudent zeal, for these can
    with the facts.                                                   hinder real progress toward unity. Their ecumenical
           (5) In these days when cooperation in social matters       action must be fully and sincerely Catholic, that is to
    is so widespread, all men without exception are called            say, faithful to the truth which we have received from
    to work together, with much greater reason all those              the apostles and Fathers of the Church, in harmony
    who believe in God, but most of all, all Christians in            with the faith which the Catholic Church has always
    that they bear the name of Christ. Cooperation among              professed. . . .
    Christians vividly expresses that bond which already
    unites them, and it sets in clearer relief the features           How much this decree will affect the cause of
    of Christ the Servant.                                         ecumenism, I do not know. It is evident, however, that
 CHURCHESSEPARATEDFROMTHEROMAN                                     within the past few years there is a far more friendly
APOSTOLICSEE                                                       attitude between the Roman Catholic Church and the
                                                                   protestants.           Many "dialogues" have already taken
    This third chapter distinguishes between two groups            place. And this is only the beginning. Within the last
which have separated from the Romish Church. There                 years, a burning desire has arisen in the heart of man
are first the Eastern Churches concerning which the                to unite all churches into one. Though many things yet
document states:                                                   deter, it seems nothing will stop that movement.
                                                                   Nothing, that is, til Christ returns on the clouds of
           These Churches, although separated from us, yet
    possess true sacraments and above all, by apostolic            glory to gather His faithful Church to Himself in
    succession, the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby          Heaven.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           239


                                            Papal Infallibility, It's Complete Collapse
    BOOK  REVIEWS-                                                         Before A Factual Investigation
                                            Adventures of a Deserter
                                            The Church In The Age Of Revolution

PAPAL INFALLIBILITY, It's Complete            than a year and a half for his "cour-         "The Church In The Age Of Revolution"
Collapse Before A Factual Investiga-          ageous and tireless activity in battling      (Vol. V of "The Pelican History of The
tion. J. B. Rowell; Kregel Publications;      the occupational forces for the cause         Church).       by Alec R. Vidler. Wm. B.
171 pages; $3.50.                             of Christian education."                      Eerdmans Publishing Company; 287 pp.
                                                                                            $5.00.
   The claim to papal infallibility was           This book, which is translated into          Reviews on two other volumes in
made church doctrine at the First             the English by Harry Van Dyke, is a           this series of books on Church History
Vatican Council held in 1870, In this         story of Jonah who is called "a de-           have appeared earlier in  The Standard
book, the author investigates this con-       serter" because he fled from his              Beaver.  This volume covers the his-
tention and examines whether it is            calling to preach to Nineveh. The             tory of the Church from 1789 to the
proper for the pope to claim such             author attempts, and we believe quite         present day.
infallibility when he speaks ex c&e&u.        aptly, to emphasize the universality of          The date 1789 is chosen because
He proves that this doctrine is an            Jonah's experience, applying it not only      this is the date of the French Revo-
arrogant assumption on the part of            to ministers who have the special             lution which, according to the author,
the pope in the light of the gross            calling to witness for the truth, but to      had profound impact upon subsequent
wickedness of past popes, the op-             all who tend to shirk their calling.          times up to the present. Hence the
position to the doctrine within the                                                         age which is covered by this book can
Roman Catholic Church before 1870,                The author is adept in the language       appropriately be called "An Age Of
the fierce opposition at the First Vat-       of the day, a fellow traveler in the          Revolution". Taking his starting point
ican Council where the doctrine was           space age, and speaks of travel to the        therefore in the political revolution in
established, the contradictions  inpapal      moon and astronauts as easily as he           Franch, he goes on to discuss the
decrees and conciliar decisions, and          does of surgical operations and selling       revolution in philosophy led by  Sch-
in the light of Scripture itself. Added       of cars.        In one word, the author is    leiermacher, Kant and  Hegel;  the rev-
to this is a  .brief  discussion of the       thoroughly acquainted with what is going      olution in the form of the Church  -
Second Vatican Council which was about        on in the world of our day, and the           expecially  in England, Ireland and
to get under way when the book was            problems that confront us, and ap-            Scotland as the Church lost its char-
written.                                      proaches the story of Jonah with ap-          acter of The Establishment; the rev-
   It is an effective refutation of the       plication to our day.                         olution in Biblical studies under the
claims that the pope has made to be                                                         influences of higher criticism; the
the infallible spokesman for Christ              The book is quite true to the Scrip-       revolution in theology under the impact
upon earth and it completely annihi-          tural narrative. It explains the thinking     of Darwinian evolution, scientific tech-
lates these haughty presumptions of           of Jonah, his sins, his conversion, his       nological advance and liberal theo-
the bishop of Rome.       Especially in       preaching in the light of our time.           logical thought from such men as
the light of the  fact- that Rome still       Very refreshing reading, I'd  say1            Barth, Niebuhr, Tillich and Bultmann;
insists on this doctrine, and in the             This does not mean that we sub-            and the revolutionary character of the
light of the fact that many within Prot-      scribe to all that is said in the book.       Church as it developed in America so
estantism are eager to establish more         For example,         the book repeatedly      differently from the Church in Europe.
cordial relationships with Rome, if, not      speaks of the patience of God. This              Included are discussions somewhat
to return to her communion, the book          may be due to the fact that it is a           brief on Eastern Orthodoxy, par-
is an exceedingly timely one.                 translation.      We have not the original    ticularly      in the Russian Orthodox
                         Prof. H. Hanko       Holland. But the expression "patience         Church, mission work, and the ecum-
                                              of God" is not a Scriptural concept.          enical movement.
                                              Never do you read in the Bible that God          While the book treats particularly
                                              is patient. He is said to be  longsuf-        of the major trends in the Church and
"Adventures of a Deserter," by Jan            fering and forebearing. He is also said       the world (and is in this respect
Overduin. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing          to be the God of all patience. But that       extremely valuable), we have the same
Co. 153 pages. $3.50.                         is quite different than to say He is          criticism to make of this volume as
                                              patient.    Patience is a grace He gives      we have made of the others. It offers
   The author of this little book of          to His people, but He Himself is never        no evaluation of philosophical and
153 pages is a minister of a Reformed         said to be patient. Nor do we agree           theological      trends, speaks without
Church in the Netherlands. We are             that all the children of God have the         criticism of the rise of higher critical
informed on the fly-leaf that he had          same experience and calling that Jonah        studies, the liberal trends in the Church
his theological training in the Free          had, as the author seems to imply.            and modern ecumenicism; it speaks
University of Amsterdam, that he is              But if you wish tostudyabout Jonah,        only disparagingly of Calvinism and
"a well-known pulpit orator, radio            and at the same time read a refresh-          mentions very briefly the history of
speaker, and publicist."     He is the        ingly written book related to him, we         the Church which through these revo-
author of several books. During the           recommend that you get this book,             lutions kept the faith.
second World War and the German               which was published as late as  No-              For those who want a compact sur-
occupation of the Netherlands, Rev.           ember 5, 1965.                                vey of the period treated, this book is
Overduin was imprisoned for more                                       Rev. M.  Schipper    a valuable asset.          Prof. H. Hanko


240                                           THE ST&NDARD BEARER

                                        NEWS  OF  OUR  Ciiu~t3fES-

                                        February 1, 1966      about this event. Can they count on you?
       Isabel, South Dakota has called Rev. J. Kortering                                   * * *
from a trio which included the Revs. Engelsma and                A "grocery shower"was held in First Church for
Schipper.                                                     the benefit of our Seminary students. Approximately
       Rev. Kortering has declined the call that came to      600 packages and cans of food were collected, plus a
him from Hudsonville;                                         nice sum of money. Both students, via the bulletin,
                           *  * *                             thanked the congregation for its thoughtfulness and the
       The first of a series of lectures sponsored by our     bond of fellowship shown through this gesture.
Mission Board was given the evening of Jan. 27. "What                                      ***
an evening 1" That exclamation was heard from many               Rev. Van Baren has completed his portion (about
lips, and it had a double meaning. First, the evening         100 visits) of the annual family visitation, and has
was the coldest of the winter. Radio weather news             expressed his "appreciation to the congregation for
sounded warnings concerning bad driving conditions,           very considerately observing the schedules which were
for blizzard weather was the order of the day. Below-         prepared"-.    This will give him some extra time which
zero temperatures and poor visibility were factors            he will also devote to his work of ministering to his
worth considering by those who had the best of intentions     new charge. He has already learned that his work is
of attending the lecture. The committee responsible           in the category of a village volunteer fireman - on 24
for the evening's arrangements weighed the suggestion         hour call.
to cancel the meeting, as many other meetings were.                                        ***
But the "What an evening!" developed into its second             South Holland's new clerk is Mr. J. Flikkema,
meaning before it was time to go home. The lecturer           2339 184th St. Lansing, Illinois; and the address -of the
was Prof. H. C. Hoeksema and his topic was, "The              treasurer is Mr. Gil. F. Van Baren, 15921 Parkside
Divine Foundation: The Infallible Scriptures". Music          Ave., South Holland, Ill.
was furnished by a ladies' trio from Southeast church                                      * *  *
and by the Hope Heralds, a men's group from Hope                 From the Adams St. School "Announcer" we learn
Church. Miss Mary Kregel,  of First Church, was at            that the Mothers' Club presented the school with a new
the pipe organ for the prelude, offertory and post-           console piano for the assembly room.
lude.        Rev. M. Schipper was chairman and led in                                      * * *
opening devotions and introduced the speaker. The                Oak Lawn's Ladies' Circle, with the co-operationof
quoted expression extolling the evening arose because         the Young People's Society who relinquished their
of the content of the lecture which, in unequivocal           building, sponsored a Singspiration Sunday Evening,
terms, acclaimed the Bible to be the inerrant, "Spirit-       Jan. 30 at 7 o'clock. The ladies invited the congrega-
Breathed" Word of God. The hardy souls who braved             tion to join them in an hour of song and praise designed
the wintry -blasts sat in spell-bound silence, feeling        to glorify our Creator and Redeemer. The bulletin
affinity with the speaker as he reminded them that            notice referred to the text, "Sing to the Lord, sing
this confession is not to be proved by logic to the           His praise all ye people".
worldling, but can only be said by faith. This affinity-                                   * * *
in-the-faith was in one instance revealed when a                 Oak Lawn's Young People's Society gave anadvance
listener, way back in the church, said in loud, clear         notice in the Jan. 30th bulletin regarding a special
tones, "Amen", when the speaker held up his Bible,            meeting to which they were inviting all the adult mem-
s aying , "This is. the Word of God." When we, the            bers of the congregation February 27.          The only
audience, had left the cars in the parking lot, we felt       explanation of the meeting was that it would be "a
a glow of self-satisfaction for having come out in such       Sunday evening of fellowship in the Word of God".
bad weather; but when we went back to our cars, the                                        *  * *
glow had changed to the satisfaction of one who had              South Holland's Men's Society, in an after recess
enjoyed a good meal - and indeed we had. What an              program, recently heard a paper on, "What is the
evening I                                                     relation between employer and employee according to
                           x  * *                             Scripture?"
       The second in the lecture series sponsored by the                                   * *  *
Mission Board will be held, D.V. March 3 at First                Bulletin Quote i-- Oak Lawn's: "We are a procrasti-
Church. At that time Prof. H. C. Hoeksema expects to          nating lot.     It is always what we are going to do
undertake a study of the truth embodied in the first          tomorrow that entices us, but it is only what we do
three chapters of Genesis. The Mission Board would            today that counts".
appreciate it if you would tell your friends and neighbors       . . . .see you in church.                      J.M.F.


