                                    he

                             tandard

                                           earer


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




IN  THIS  ISSUE:


      Meditation - Jerusalem's Mourners Rebuked


      Editorials - A Continuing Calling

                     The Nature of the Atonement


      Barth's Doctrine of Scripture

      Assurance of Covenant Membership



                                          Volume XLII/ Number    March 1, 1966


242                                                                                                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER

                                                                                                                                                                                               1               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                    I
                                                                                                                                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
                                                                                                                                                                                                       Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
                                                                    C O N T E N T S                                                                                                                                Editor--   Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
Meditation -
   Jerusalem's Mourners Rebuked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                      242,    Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
           Rev. M. Scbipper                                                                                                                                                                    Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
Editorials  -                                                                                                                                                                                  Rapids,  Mich.        49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
   Protestant Reformed Education: A Continuing Calling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245                                                                                             words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
           Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
   The Nature of the Atonement: Limited or General? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246                                                                                          lines are the first and fifteenth of the month.
           Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                All church news items should be addressed toMr.  J. M. Faber,
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   The Doctrine of Creation - Days or Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248                                                                                         1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
           Rev. H. Veldman                                                                              ._
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           Prof. H.  Hanko                                                                                                                                                                                 Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
Heeding The Doctrine -                                                                                                                                                                                              Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
   Barth's Doctrine of Scripture (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                     252
           Rev. d. j. engelsma                                                                                                                                                                         Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
Trying The Spirits  -                                                                                                                               ;.  .-                                          received it is  .assumed  that the subscriber wishes the sub-
   Doukhaborism                           . . . . . . . . . . .._...........................................................                                                           255          scription to continue  without the formality of a renewal order.
           Rev. R. C. Harbach                                            '                          j  .i . . .  1.
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The Lord Gave The Word -
   The `All Men' In Mission Preaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
           Rev. C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                                                  Ah'NOUNCEMENT
The Church At Worship -
   Assurance of Covenant Membership                                                                                                                                                                 The Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School will
                                                                                              . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    261
           Rev. G. Vanden  Berg                                                                                                                                                                     have openings for teachers in the Kindergarten, lst,
Book Reviews -                                                                                                                                                                                      and 3rd grades, and for a part-time teacher (4 hours
   The Kingdom of the Cults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                          263
News Of Our Churches  -                                                                                                                                                                             per day). For further information, contact the under-
          Mr. John Faber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I . . . . ;.: . . . . . . . ...' . . . . :.                                 264          signed:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Don Lotterman
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 1926 Porter St., S.W.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Wyoming, Michigan 49509



    MEDITATION-

                                                    . Jerusalem's Mourners Rebuked

                                                                                                                                                                by Rev.  n/r.  Schipper

                                                                  `And  there followed him a great company of people, and of women,
                                                                 which  also  bewailed  &d lamented  him. But Jesus  Cur&g  unto them
                                                                 said, Daughters  ofJerusalem,  weep not for me, but weep for yourselves
                                                                 for  and your children. For, behold, the days  aye coming, in the which
                                                                 they shall say, Blessed  aye the barren, and the worn bs that  never bare,
                                                                 and the paps which  never gave suck; Then shall they  be&n to say to the
                                                                 mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.  For  if they do these
                                                                 things in a green tree, what  shall be done in the  dry?"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Luke  23:27-31
      Via Dolorosa I                                                                                                                                                                                    What a contrast this exit of Jerusalem made to the
      Way of Sorrow1                                                                                                                                                                                royal entry only the Sunday before, called: Palm
      The Way of the Cross 1                                                                                                                                                                        Sunday1 Then, you remember, He made His triumphal
      On that way the Saviour was walking in the most                                                                                                                                               entry into the city of David riding upon an ass's colt,
literal sense of the word when the incident took place                                                                                                                                              accompanied with a great procession, multitudes of
which is related in our text 1                                                                                                                                                                      people waving palm branches and calling exuberantly,


                                                  THESTANDARDBEARER

"Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that                  A peculiar and a particular lamentation1
cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the high-              0, indeed, it was common occurrence to see weeping
est I" Now it is Good Friday morning, and He makes His         women on occasions such as this.            Perhaps out of
exit as a worthless evil doer I One worthy to be               curiosity they would follow such a procession, and out
executed! And that, too, under the shrill cry of a wild        of sympathetic emotion for the condemned they thought
mob, led by a Roman guard, with two malefactors, to            to lend pity to the accused, or request leniency of the
be hanged on a cross I                                         oppressors!
       How quickly and drastically the scenes change1             But here was no ordinary lament I
       From the praetorium, where the soldiers had                Their emotions run away with them when they see
mocked and oppressed Him, and where He had been                Jesus1 No doubt they saw a difference between Jesus
sentenced to death, Jesus is led through the midst of          and the other two who were going with Him to their
the city.        Most probably this exodus was over the        death.    Was not innocence written all over Jesus's
longest route. It was the custom of the day to make a          face?     Indeed, He was the Lamb that is led to the
public spectacle of the condemned. So the victim was           slaughter  I     And that innocent; spotless Lamb stood
paraded through the streets with a sign on his back,           out, even though- His holy beauty shone through a
identifying him with his crime. Out to the place of the        bloody brow, and a face that was marked with pain and
skull He is brought I                                          suffering1 Even Pilate had attested to His innocence1
       Two' things, the evangelist informs us, that deserve    How different He appears from those other two1 They
special attention1 Two things that stand out as happen-        were evildoers, with guilt imprinted in every wrinkle
ing along the way1                                             on their faces. And now look at Jesus! The difference
       The first relates to Simon, the Cyrenian, who was       is too great to go unnoticed1
forced to bear the cross after Jesus. A most beautiful             Their eyes well with tears, and their voices break
example of discipleship I                                      forth with loud.wailing I
       The other, concerns Jesus' rebuke of Jerusalem's           Their crying is evidently well-meant1  They want
weeping daughters I And it is this scene that especially       Jesus to know that their lamentation was especially for
calls our attention now1                                       Him. And so the Lord also interpreted it I
                             * * *                                 Weep not for Mel
       Jerusalem's mourners rebuked!                               Sharp, and apparently cruel rebuke I
       Not unusual was the fact that a multitude of people        Could not the Lord reward their seeming kindness
should be present on an occasion of this kind1 Nor was         with some semblance of appreciation? Whereas all the
it unusual that at such times there should be women            rest were venting their vile hatred and screaming
weeping1                                                       their anathemas, could He not at least be thankful that
       Yet now all was quite out of the ordinary!              there were some who had an ounce of sympathy?
       Not only does the text imply that here was a multi-     Should He not rather have complimented them for
tude exceeding great, but especially we observe the            their special interest?      Is not this rebuke entirely
oddity that the women were weeping for Jesus I Were            out of place?
there not two others who were being led away to be                Nol A thousand times, Nol
crucified? Yet the Lord.indicates  that the weeping was            0, indeed, weeping is necessary1 It is surely the
not for them, but for Himself 1                                time for weeping1
       Strange, too, that the Lord does not sympathize with        But not for Jesus 1
itl                                                               Weep not for Me!
       Rather, it merits His stern rebuke!                        Why not?, Especially for two reasons1
       Jerusalem's daughters sharply rebuked I                    In the first place, Jesus did not need their sym-
       They were not those honorable women who had             pathyl    If anyone must show pity, He must, not they1
followed Jesus during His ministry and served Him of           Besides, what He now suffers, He is doing of His own
their goods. For such the Lord has no rebuke, except           will and choice! Moreover, this suffering will be the
to  Marthas who, indistinctionfrom the Marys, are more         way to His glory1 Should that ever be an object of pity,
concerned about feeding Jesus than they are that Jesus         and evoke tears of sympathy? Indeed not! Rather, it
should feed  them1        Such will get from Him a loving      was proper to rejoice and to sing with holy joy!
rebuke. But these women are not of those who, realizing            And secondly, Jesus did not desire such weeping1
that the Lord had not a place to lay His head, softened        Tears of tender feelings which are not the expressions
His pillow, and carefully drew a blanket over Him while        of conscious guilt and repentance, He counts as worth-
He rested. They are not of those who presently stand           less. And if these women had had a consciousness of
afar off at the spectacle of the cross on the hill of the      their own and their nation's sins, it would `have'been
skull I                                                        better to have wept for themselves. And there is reason
       Nor are they just women, women one could find           for them to weep over themselves!
anywhere throughout Judea  or Galilee I                           But weep for yourselves and for your children1
       But daughters of Jerusalem!                                Notice how this rebuke covers more than one
       Of Jerusalem that always stoneth the prophets, and      generation! Jesus evidently saw the children carried
killeth those who are sent unto her1 Of Jerusalem that         on the arms of Jerusalem's daughters. These children,
is apostate I                                                  perhaps more than the `mothers who bear them, were
       And they weep!                                          presently to witness Divine retribution and judgment


244                                             THE -STANDARD BEARER

for Jerusalem's sins. Not so, that the children must          for the miseries that shall come upon them. There is
suffer for the sins of their parents.          The Lord is    no possibility of escape. Swift and sure is the judg-
righteous .to give unto every man as his work shall be!       ment! And they will surely say these things !
But we must remember that in the generations of the               And the ground for this prophetic announcement?
wicked sin develops. Such is definitely the case here.            "For if they do these things in a green tree, what
These daughters are the children of those who always          shall be done in the dry?"
killed the prophets.      That sin is developed in these          Figurative language!
daughters who are of Jerusalem which was now slaying              The green tree ! That is Christ and all who are
the One of whom all the prophets spoke, the Son, the          living in and out of Himl Christ is the living tree;
Heir. And their children would presently walk on in           believers and their spiritual seed, who are bound to Him
that same sin even in the light of the New Dispensation,      by a living faith, are the branches. The church in the
behind the day of Pentecost and the enlightened Gospel        narrowest sense of the word, according to the election
agel And with this fuller revelation make themselves          of grace with Christ as the Head, is the green tree1
yet more guilty when they walk in the sin of their sires I        The dry wood! All who come into contact with the
   If Jerusalem's daughters, therefore, would see their       Christ and His cross as its enemy! Whether Jew or
own end and that of their sinful generations, they would      Gentile, all who through history have crucified the
begin weeping now and never stop weeping!                     Christ and continued to do so, they are the dry wood.
   Indeed, this is a deserved but sharp rebuke]               Apostate Jerusalem, of whom these daughters are
                              *  * *                          representative, is the highest development of this dry
   A significant reason!                                      wood that always killed the prophets and those sent
   For, behold, the days are coming1                          unto her1
   Days of judgment1           Not merely, you understand,        Once was the dry wood green! Originally, from the
judgment of the last day, when God shall judge all the        organic and historical point of view, it had its origin in
secrets of men!        That, too, of course! That day is      the green tree. Historically all the dry wood can be
coming 1 But the Lord evidently has inmind a judgment         traced to believing parents. The tree in history pro-
that was imminent, and contemporaneous with that              duces green but also dry wood; not only Abel, but also
generation! Prophetically the Lord is pointing to im-         Cain; not only Jacob, but also Esau; not only believers,
pending doom for these daughters and their children!          but also unbelievers; not only elect, but also repro-
Literal destruction of Jerusalem, which is always a           bate !
precursor of the final destruction and judgment that              Always the dry kills and tortures the green. The
cometh upon all the world! Days they will be when the         green must seal its faith with its blood1 And now they
righteous shall be acquitted, perfectly justified; but the    were killing the most glorious representative of the
wicked justly condemned. As surely as the wicked have         green tree, its beauteous Head!
earned just judgment by their wicked acts, so shall they          And what they did to my Lord, they will do always
receive just retribution I                                    to all who believe in Him !
   How terrible are those days which the Lord predicts I          But it shall not continue forever1
   So terrible shall they be that they shall call the             Green wood will not burn! The fire cannot consume
barren blessed! Never before was it ever said that            it 1 Its persecution only enhances its beauty and makes
the barren are blessed1  Always she that was barren           it more glorious1
was considered accursed1 But now, she that has no                 But oh, that dry wood!
children will be better off than she that has borne them I        When it is cast into the fire of God's wrath it shall
Not, you understand, does the Lord mean to say that           consume away as tinder in the flame!
in the judgment the barren woman is moreblessed than              Therefore let Jerusalem's daughters, yea, let all the
those who gave suck. Rather, He is only stating the           wicked weep1 For the day cometh that shall burn as
sad wish of those who are lost, just as He does in the        an oven, and they shall be destroyed forever1
remainder of the prophetic announcement.                          But let the righteous rejoice, even when they see
   "Then shall they begin to say to themountains, Fall        their Saviour treading the via dolorosa to  Calvary1
on us; and to the hills, Cover us." This can only mean        From thence He shall be raised up to give them life
not only that they will want to hide from the face of         out of death, in order that they may grow into a fruitful
the Judge, but more particularly, they will express           bough and bring forth fruit that shall be unto the praises
the hope of annihilation; sudden death, when that             of Him Who loved them even unto `death!
judgment comes.
   Impossible wish!                                                        RESOL UTION OF SYMPATHY
   For the mountains will not fall on them, neither           The Men's Society of  Doon Protestant Reformed
shall the hills cover them in that day! All of this           Church wish to express its sympathy to Mr. Elmer
prophetic and descriptive language must serve to depict       Van Den Top, in the passing of his Brother-in-Law
the awful anguish that shall come upon this generation,
and all other wicked generations in the day of the Lord's                  MR. EILERT BLOEMENDAAL
wrath!                                                        May the Lord graciously comfort and sustain the
   Surely there is reason for Jerusalem's daughters,          sorrowing ones.
who represent the wombs out of which the wicked                                              Rev. R. Decker, President
generations of the church are born, to weep and howl                                  Minard Van Den Top, Secretary


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   245



     EDITORIAL-


            Protestant Reformed Education

                                                        A Continuing Calling

                                              by Prof.  H. C. Hoeksema

   Anyone  at- all acquainted with earlier volumes of        understand, there are rather definite plans in the
our Standard Bearer  will know that frequently, both in      making. In all such areas, whether in Northwest Iowa
the editorial columns and in the other departments,          or anywhere else, I would earnestly urge andencourage
the necessity of Protestant Reformed education for           our people to consider their calling and to act in
Protestant Reformed children has been stressed.              harmony with the criterion mentioned earlier in this
   One way of emphasizing that necessity is. to place        article:  wherevevandwhenevevthe Lord opens the way,
it in the context of our baptismal vow and its "...to the    Protestant Reformed people should establish and main-
utmost of your power...."                                    tain their own schools.
   Not infrequently past .editorials  put it this way:          But I have another and very important aspect of
Whevever  and whenever the  Lovd makes it possible,  OY      this continuing calling in mind. That is the possibility
opens the way, Protestant Reformed people should             of Protestant Reformed Secondary Education (high
establish and maintain their own schools.                    school education) in the greater Grand Rapids area.
   That remains the editorial stand of the Stundurd          This also is an aspect of our continuing calling. It is
Bearer.                                                      consistent that where we establish primary schools, we
   Perhaps the reader wonders why this is brought up.        also establish secondary schools. I say this also with
   Let me explain.                                           the qualification: wherever and whenever the Lord opens
   First of all, let me explain my purpose. My pur-          the way. But I hasten to affirm that it is my sincere
pose is not to apply some kind of editorial "pressure."      conviction that the Lord is both opening the way and
I do not believe that I possess such influence. If I did     pointing the way in this regard.
possess it, I  would not care to use  it: Nor would I           .On the principal side of the ledger, consider the fact
think much of ~ a school that resulted from pressure         that the. high school education of our children is, in
tactics. My purpose is rather to encourage our people        effect, Christian Reformed. There are no two ways
to consider the matter of Protestant Reformed educa-         about this. They expect this, and we expect it. For
tion very seriously and honestly in the light of the         the high schools are largely controlled by a Christian
question:  ~does the Lord open the way for us here and       Reformed constituency. But with a view to our Prot-
now? I believe that is a god-fearing approach.               estant Reformed children that can only be less than
   In the second place, let me explain my reasons.           satisfactory; and it is becoming less and less satis-
   You will notice that the title of this article makes      factory.     It always grieves me to see the primary
mention of a continuing calling. This suggests, in the       education of our Adams and Hope schools followed by
first place, that the ideal has not been reached, and        an education in high school that is not consistent with
that therefore we must continue to strive toward the         that of their first nine years.
ideal of Protestant Reformed education for Protestant           On  .the practical side of the ledger, moreover,
Reformed youth.                                              there are several favorable considerations also. Cer-
   I refer in this connection, in thefirstplace, to those    tainly, in the greater Grand Rapids area our Protestant
areas where we already have established our owngrade         Reformed constituency is sufficiently numerous to
schools. In these areas our calling continues not only       establish and maintain a high school of our own. Un-
to provide for our schools with unflagging zeal but also     deniably, a high school is no little undertaking; and its
to strive that the education given in those schools is in    establishment, due to the difficult level of education and
every respect more and more thoroughly and distinc-          due also to the fact that it can draw its student body
tively Reformed.                                             from only three grade levels, - its establishment is a
   Secondly, I refer to those areas where our parents        bit different than the establishment of a grade school.
have not yet succeeded in establishing their own             But we surely have enough potential supporting families,
schools.    In some of these areas it may undoubtedly        enough young people, and also enough potential sec-
be said that the time is not yetripe and the way .is not     ondary-level teachers to go ahead. I believe, too,
yet open. In other areas it begins to appear increasingly    that the Board has done considerable investigation
that the way is indeed open and that the establishment of    and planning (as reported in a recent news letter),
a school is a very real possibility. I ,have in mind, as     and that, whether we begin with only the tenth grade
an example, our people in Northwest Iowa, where, I           and add a grade each year, or, if the support warrants


246                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

it (as it surely could), we begin with all three grades      backing and dedicated support. I am informed that the
immediately,  - it is entirely within the realm of pos-      plot of ground for the school is almost paid for and
sibility to provide both a good quality of education and     that the society will have a modest fund left over
an education that is in harmony with our Reformed            toward building costs. This is precisely the time for
principles. I believe, too, that our Protestant Reformed     that added "boost" thatwill, so to speak, put the proj-
young people, who. undoubtedly will have to face in-         ect "into orbit."
creasingly severe difficulties and temptations in the'          In general, therefore, let all our people, and in
world in the midst of which their education must pre-        particular, let those in the greater Grand Rapids area
pare them to live covenant' lives, are worthy of the         continue to consider their duty in the light of the sound
best education we can provide them, even if it means         rule that 1 wherever and whenever the L ovd opens the
sacrifice on our part.        Indeed, anyone who views       way,  Protestant Reformed people should provide  Prot-
present day trends in education and in `the world in         estunt Reformed education  for  Protestant Reformed
general with both eyes open must conclude that such a        children.
Protestant Reformed high school education is a sore
need.                                                           And:. let us consider the fact that `we have a calling,
       Frankly, what this movement for secondary educa-      -from the Lord, Who has never yet'put  His faithful
tion needs at this stage is the addedimpetus of broader      people to shame !


       EDITORIAL-

                     THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT:
                                     -. limited or General?

                                              by  Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema


SCRIPTURE AND SATISFACTION (continued)                       very definitely points to the fact that this redemption
       There are still more terms which Scripture uses in    by the blood of the Lamb, or atonement, was limited,
connection with the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ       particular: for He has redeemed us out of every kindred,
which very plainly include the idea of satisfaction.         and tongue, and people, and nation. I Corinthians 6:20
       Scripture speaks of the atoning work of Christ as     employs the same language: "For ye are bought with a
an act of buying, purchasing, paying a price, and as an      price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your
act of redeeming, even as a slave is purchased and           spirit, which are God's." And `in I Corinthians 7:23
becomes the property of the purchaser, or as a slave's       that same fact of purchase, redemption, is mentioned:
liberty is purchased through the payment of a price.         *`Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of
The Greek terms (agovazein and exagorazein)  are re-         men." The second and related term (Greek: exagora-
lated to the Greek term for "market" (agora),. and           zein)  is-also rendered by "redeem" in our King James
these terms are often used in relation to commercial         Version. This term means essentially the same as the '
life even in the New Testament. There are-several            former term, except that it views us as slaves, pur-
passages where these terms occur with regard to the          chased out of bondage and unto liberty. This term,
work of redemption. II Peter 2:l speaks of those who         therefore, also includes the idea of the payment of a
"deny the Lord that bought them," or, as is also             price, and therefore the idea of satisfaction. Thus it is
possible, "deny that the Lord bought them.". In              used in Galatians 3:13 and Galatians 4:4 and 5. In the
Revelation 5:9 we read of the -"new song"~of  the four       former passage we read: "Christ hath redeemed us
beasts and the four and twenty elders at the occasion        from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:
when the Lamb standing as it had been slain took the         for it is written, Cursed is every one that harigeth on a
book with its seven seals out of the right hand of him       tree." And in the latter passage the Word of God tells
that sat on the throne: "And they sung a new song,           us: "But when the fulness of the time was come, God
saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open        sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast re-         law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we
deemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and      might receive the adoption of sons." The following
tongue, and people, and nation." The Lamb, therefore,        remarks from the "Theological Dictionary of the
has redeemed us, purchased us, to God; and the               New Testament," Vol. I, page 126, are pertinent: ."In
purchase price was His blood. We may note here, by           Paul, of course, the divine Purchaser does not pay
the way, that this text also makes a distinction which       only in appearance as in sacral redemption, but in the


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    247

most bitter reality, so that the parallel breaks down          of reconciliation.    And in divine reconciliation that
at the decisive point and there is thus a great differ-        previously existent relationship is that of God's eternal
ence. In respect of the seriousness of the purchase,           covenant. 3) Reconciliation implies that this relationship
Christ is to be compared to the one who actually pays          has been violated, so that it cannot function. There is
. . . . . . And everything depends on this. In this libera-    something in the way. Estrangement and alienation
tion from the curse of the Law, the essential point is         have been caused. The cause of that alienation is our
that it confers both and actual and also a legally             sin and guilt. 4) Reconciliation requires that the cause
established freedom ensuring against any renewal of            of. that alienation is removed, so that the alienation
slavery. The claim of the Law is satisfied."                   itself is removed, and so that the bond of friendship
   Finally, I call your attention to the terms reconcile       and love can properly function. And indivine reconcil-
and yeconciliation, terms which occur rather often in          iation this can only be accomplished by the actual
Scripture in connection with the atoning and redeeming         removal of the cause of estrangement, namely, sin and
work of Christ. Significant in this connection is the          guilt. In other words, God's justice with respect to
well-known passage of II Corinthians 5:18-21: "And             sin must be satisfied and the state of His people must
all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to him-          be changed from one of guilt to one of righteousness.
self by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry        This change God Himself accomplishes through the
of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ,             atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ. God was in
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their         Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. How? "He
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the           hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that
word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors            we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we
pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.              With this I conclude the discussion of the first
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no             essential element in the nature of the atonement. Let
sin; that we .might be made the righteousness of God           us remember that our main interest in this discussion
in him." This same idea of reconciliation occurs               is this question: is the nature of the atonement of Christ
elsewhere, as in Romans 5:lO and Colossians 1:19-21.           such that it is limited or not? Dr. Daane maintains that
The idea of reconciliation as set forth in II `Corinthians     it is unlimited, that is, general, that is, for all men.
5 may be briefly explained in the following remarks:           He now faces the question, in the light of Scripture and
1) It is evident that the apostle refers here to a very        the Reformed confessions: how, if the nature of the
specific historical event. God was in Christ reconciling       atonement is actual satisfaction of divine justice with
the world unto Himself: that was nineteen hundred              respect to sin, - how can the atonement be general,
years ago, at the cross. There our reconciliation was          unless salvation itself is also general, so that all men
accomplished.        This is also confirmed by verse 21.       are saved? To escape this consequence, -the con-
2) Reconciliation is a covenant idea. It presupposes a         sequence which he has so vehemently denied, - it
relation of friendship and love between those that are         seems to me that he must deny that the nature of the
to be reconciled. Even among men one cannot speak              atonement is that of satisfaction. But to do the latter
of the reconciliation of complete strangers; there must        is to deny the atonement itself. And this is certainly
be a previously existing relationship in order to speak        neither Reformed nor Scriptural.



                               CALL TO ASPIRANTS TO THE MINISTRY


   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
consistory 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


248                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



       CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-


                            The Doctrine of Creation
                                         Days or Periods

                                                   by Rev. H. Veldman

   We now continue with our discussion of God's                attempt of the devil to lead him away from God's
creation of the heavens and the earth, calling attention       commandments, he certainly would have attained unto
to the question whether the Irdays" of Genesis 1 are           that perfection.    But this is not all. Assuming that
to be viewed as ordinary days or as periods extending          Adam and Eve lived so long in the state of righteous-
over thousands and millions of years. Inour preceding          ness, may we not assume that children would have
article we first called attention to the significance of       been born to them in that state of perfection and
the word "YOM" in Genesis, the Hebrew word for day.            righteousness 7' And, of course, these children, we
And, secondly, we called attention to the fact that the        assume, would have become spiritually immortal also.
concordistic theory, the Period-Theory, compels us to          Besides, assuming that Adam had sinned after the
distinguish between the first three days and the latter        seventh day, and the sixth day had lasted thousands and
three days of Genesis 1.                                       thousands of years, would the sin of Adam affect these
   Before we continue with our discussion of this              thousands upon thousands of humans born in the state
concordistic theory, permit me to return to what we            of righteousness? One may object that all this "rea-
wrote in our preceding article about the use of the            s oning" is rather silly and far-fetched. To this we
word, YOM. We wish to add a brief observation. The             answer: that is exactly what happens when one departs
reader will recall that we called attention to 2 Peter         from the literal reading of the Word of God. Refusing
3:8 where we read that one day is with the Lord as a           to subscribe to the wisdom of the Lord, one simply
thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day.           falls into the folly of sin.      Depart from the clear
The reader will also recall that we made the remark            teaching of the Scriptures, and the result will be in-
that the advocates of the concordistic theory take             evitably that one will be confronted by all kinds of
peculiar delight in quoting the first half of this passage,    absurdities.    Adam and Eve must have been busy
namely, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand            thousands of years in the "keeping of the garden,"
years, and that, therefore, the "days" of Genesis 1            protecting it from all the attacks of the evil one before
may very well have been periods of a thousand years.           they enjoyed their first sabbath day. One might also
We now wish to ask this question: Presuppose once              be led to believe that our first parents really did not
that we read in Genesis 1 that the Lord created light in       need that sabbath day, inasmuch as by that time they
a period of a thousand years, would these advocates of         had attained unto spiritual immortality, the never being
the Period-Theory be willing to concede the possibility        able to sin. The fact, let us say, that Adam and Eve
that these thousand years may have been oneday?  Why           would have become spiritually immortal, that thousands
not? Does not 2 Peter 3:8 teach us that a thousand             of. people would have been born in the state of perfection,
years are. with the Lord as one day?                           would surely have made the fall inconceivable and
   We now proceed with our grounds in support of our           impossible.
contention that the days of Genesis 1 are to be viewed            In the fourth place, the supporters of the Period-
as ordinary days of twenty four hours. Thirdly (we             Theory point to the seventh day. _ They declare that,
quoted two grounds in our preceding article), assuming         whereas the Lord God is still resting of His works of
that the days of Genesis 1 are periods, tremendously           creation, the seventh day could very well have been a
long periods of thousands or millions of years, what           long period of time, and that for this reason it is very
must we say of Adam? Would not the conclusion be               well possible that also all the other days of the creation
unavoidable that he must have attained unto a certain          week were long periods of time. This argument, of
immortality, a not being able to sin? Adam and Eve             course, completely fails to make any sense. Fact is,
were created upon the sixth day. If this day were as           the Lord is not only resting today, but His creative work
long as these period theorists would have us believe,          is finished.    He has' ceased from creating, will not
then the conclusion is certainly warranted that he would       create again. If, then, the seventh day is a long period
have reached the "not being able to sin." Standing             of time because the Lord has ceased from creating,
solidly in the Cause of the Lord for thousands and             then the seventh day is not only a long period of time,
thousands of years, warding off successfully every             but it is eternal, without end. And if all the days of


                                             THE  STAiVDARD  BEARER                                               249
                                                             of Genesis 1.                   ~ 1
creation are equal in the sense that they are all such                        Hence, how majestic is Scripture's
long periods, then we cannot escape the absurdity that       account of the creation in Genesis 11 How marvellously
all the days are equally eternal. This means that we         and wonderfully Genesis 1 speaks of the almighty power'
are still in the first day; indeed, we are still in the      of our God! And we will have occasion presently to
first day, if all the days are eternal. All this, of         call attention to other Scriptural passages. One thing
course, is nonsense. This is not the meaning of the          is sure: that the speaking of God extended over thou-
seventh day. The Lord had hallowed the seventh day.          sands and millions of years is nowhere to be concluded
This was the day when the Lord and the creature (Adam)       from the Word of God1
He had made rejoiced together in the Lord's perfect             In the seventh place, what a strange impressionthis
work. And, as we shall see later, this seventh day was       concordistic theory leaves upon .us as far as the work
certainly an ordinary day of twenty four hours.              of the Lord is concerned! Then we have the utterly-
   In the fifth place, we have already called attention      strange presentation that the Lord, in creating a build-
to the fact that God not only created the universe, but      ing, constructs such a building that it has but one
that this creation of the universe also included the         story above the ground and thousands of stories below,
creation of time.     It is, of course, because of God's     the ground. We mean the following.        We believe, of
creation that we have our days, week and years. It           course, that Christ will return upon the clouds of
surely did not require the Lord an entire day of twenty      heaven. We do not believe that the world is gradually
four hours, for example, to create the light or the          being prepared for the kingdom of God and of His
firmament. The light and the firmament, etc., were           Christ, and that, slowly but surely, sin and misery and
called into existence by the word of the Lord and by the     wars and death, etc., will be removed and be replaced
breath of His mouth. It is not an accident, we under-        by the wonderful kingdom of God in Christ. This is
stand, that our days are as long as they are, of twenty      the heresy of post-millenialism. We believe in a per-
four hours. And it is also no accident that our years        sonal and bodily return of our Lord Jesus Christ upon
are as long as they are. But the Lord also created           the clouds of heaven, and that then we will have the
the week. This is very obvious from the fourth com-          perfected kingdom of our God in Christ ina new heaven
mandment, to which we will call attention later. It is       and a new earth. Then all that which is old shall have
of the Lord that the earth turns upon its axis once in       passed away and everything will have become new. When
twenty four hours, and that the earth turns around the       He will return we do not know. Only the Father knows
sun in the time allotted to one year. But the Lord           the hour of the coming of the Son of Man. Let us pre-
created the week when He hallowed and set aside the          suppose that the coming of Christ into the world in
seventh day to be a sabbath day. Thereby God called          Bethlehem. took place in the center of history, that
into existence the six-day work-week and the sabbath,        approximately two thousand years remain before His
the order of six plus one.                                   return at the last day. In the light of history and the
   In the sixth place, to believe that the days of crea-     signs of His coming which are held before us in the
tion are periods means that. one must inevitably fall        holy Scriptures, this is hardly conceivable. One can
into the error of evolutionism. There are, to be sure,       hardly believe that another two thousand years must
those advocates of the concordistic theory who claim to      elapse before His final appearance. But let us assume
reject the error of evolutionism. Evolutionism means         this merely for the sake of argument. The world, then,
that things have developed of themselves, that one           beginning with Adam's fall, will have existed, shall we
species developed into an entirely different species,        say, some eight to ten thousand years when Christ
that finally the monkey devloped into a man. It is           returns to make all things new. This is just like a
claimed by these period theorists that the Lordcreated       carpenter or a builder who, when building a house,
all the species.     But, advocating the theory -that the    builds one floor above the ground and a basement of
days of creation were long periods of thousands and          some thousands of stories below the ground1         How
millions of years, what do we have here? This, that          strange I What builder builds in such a manner! And
the mighty speaking of God was a speaking that extended      this should characterize the Divine Builder and heavenly
over millions of years ! The Word of God, we know, in        Architect! .From  all this we may safely conclude that
Genesis 1 and also in Psalm 33, declares that by the         the concordistic theory, that the days of creation are
word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the           long periods of time, involves us in all kinds of mon-
host of them by the breath of His mouth, and also that       strosities, and that it does not compare with Scripture's
the Lord speaks and it is and He commands and it             sublime and majestic account of the creation of the
stands.    But, what a strange speaking of the Almighty      heavens and the earth.
we have here1  Man, it is contended, did not develop            In addition to the grounds we have mentioned in this
from a monkey1       God made Adam by His almighty,          article and in our preceding article, we now wish to
creative power!      But, this forming of Adam by the        conclude by calling the attention of our readers to the
Lord extended over millions of, years? Is this the           fourth commandment. It is hardly necessary to quote
Scriptural account of creation as set forth in Genesis       the fourth commandment. We do wish to emphasize
l? There we read: "And God said, Let there be light,         that the ,ten commandments were proclaimed into the
and there was light." Ask a child how long it required       ears of the people by the Lord and given by the Lord
the Lord to make light, and he will tell you that it         to Israel through Moses upon the two tables of stone at
required Him just as long to make light as it took Him       Mt., Sinai during Israel's sojourn from the land of
to say it1 And this applies throughout the first chapter     Egypt to the land of Canaan. In this fourth command-


250                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

ment we are told that the Lord created all things in                 days and rest upon the seventh day because the Lord
six days and that he rested upon the seventh day, and also           created all things in six days and rested upon the
that He hallowed the seventh day; we are to do all our               seventh, must we not apply the sound principle of
work in six days and rest upon the seventh day. One won-             exegesis that the same word in the same connection
ders what Israel thought when these commandments were                must have the same meaning? One therefore violates
proclaimed in their ears, whether they concluded that                the holy and infallible record when he would maintain
these creation days were periods. Surely the days in                 that the days of creation were long periods of time.
which the people of God were to do all their work and                The concordistic theory certainly violates the clear
the seventh day in which they were to rest and cease                 language of .the Word of the Lord as set forth in the
from all their labours were. ordinary days of twenty-                fourth commandment.
four hours.        And if we read that we must labour six


                                                           I The World on. Divorce
               ALL AROUND US-
                                                                 The Institute of the Church

                                                                 News Briefs


                                                          by Prof. H.  Hank0


THE WORLD ON DIVORCE                                                 books were really geared to discourage divorce, all this
   The problem of divorce and remarriage has always                  has changed.
been a difficult problem - even (and perhaps especially)
in the world. Those who are not Christians recognize                            The real scandal is not that so many Americans
the fact that the foundation of all, society is the stable               resort to divorce. It is that so many of the laws of the
                                                                         land are sadly out of step with the growing recognition
family.       Divorce breaks down the family. It breeds                  that, for both married couples and society, divorce is
bitterness, broken homes, delinquency and tragedy.                       often preferable to a dead marriage....
Hence, even the world recognizes that the preserva-                             Though Roman Catholics get fewer divorces than
tion of society requires some sort of solution to the                    others because of their church's proscriptions, they
divorce problem.                                                         are not very far behind the Protestant breakup rate
  Time  recently devoted an "Essay" to the subject                       because of desertions, separations and annulments....
of divorce. Time's chief interest was the wide variety                          Americans are more relaxed, tolerant and realistic
of divorce laws in different states. and the antiquated                  about divorce than they used to be. Though vestiges of
character of many of these laws. But in the course of                    social stigma because of divorce still remain in small
the discussion,, some interesting points were made.                      U.S. communities, most of the nation long ago decided
                                                                         that a happy divorce, when such can be accomplished,
           Concerning the"prevalence of divorce, Time informs            is better than an unhappy marriage, or what (one
       its readers: Roughly 400,000 U. S. couples are                    author) called "holy deadlock". . . .
       being divorced each year. About 40% of them are child-                   The gradual weakening of religious strictures against
       less; the rest have some 500,000 children, two-thirds           divorce has also tended to make it more acceptable;
       of them are under the age of ten. More than 6,000,OOO             all but the most fundamental U. S. Protestants now
       Americans are now divorced or separated, and divorce              accept civil divorce  - and the "new moralists" go
       seems to breed divorce: probably half of all divorced             even further. In destructive family situations.. . "di-
       Americans are the children of divorced parents.                   vorce is the good thing to do: not merely excusable,
                                                                         but rather the greatest of all goods. The divorce rate
   While this sounds like a very bad situation, we are                   is a social symptom of increased respect for per-  '
informed that it is not really so bad after all:                         sonal  freedom and for genuine marriage commitment."
         It is not really as alarming as it is often made out                   That is a far cry from Christ's unequivocal con-
   to be. The rate of divorce in the U. S. has actually held             demnation of the Mosaic right of Jewish husbands to
   rather steady for 15 years, and the vast majority of                  banish their wives at will: "What therefore God hath
   Americans still stay married "until death do us part."                joined together, let not man put asunder." The bonds
   The rate hit an all-time high of 18.2 divorces per                    of Christian matrimony have been slowly loosening
   1000 existing marriages in 1946, when many hasty                      ever since the 12th century church began granting
   wartime marriages were dissolved. Since then it has                   annulments and separations.. . .
   dropped to 9.2 per 1,000, not much above the 6.6-per-
   1,000 figure that was the norm in 1920.                               Time's plea is therefore not simply that the laws
                                                                     governing divorce be brought up to date, but that they
   We are told also that, while at one time, society as              be also liberalized to the extent that divorce can
a whole frowned upon divorce, and even the laws on the               readily be granted to anyone who can't make marriage


                                                        THE  S.TXNDARD  BEARER                                                       251

work.        And in this, evidently, the majority of the                  against it.       To be detached from it is to forfeit our
churches in this country concur.`                                         place in mid-century affairs.
   However, to determine whether or not a marriage                              I personally believe the social revolution of our day,
can work, Time proposes that there be "a complete                         for all of its errors and difficulties, for all of its
new approach that totally banishes `fault' and all its                    mistakes, is the stirring of the Spirit of God, and that
sleazy consequences. The most sensible solution would                     we should support it, even if this should prove detri-
be a system that readily grants divorce only after                        mental to our institutional life.
skilled clinicians confirm that a marriage is' beyond                     All of this could pass unnoticed if it were not for
repair.      In many cases, divorce might be harder to                 the fact that there is an increasingly loud cry to dis-
get; in all, it would be far more humane."                             pense with the institute of the church in this modern
   All of this, as  Time  readily admits, carries the                  day. This article is but one voice among many others
whole institution of marriage far away from the Scrip-                 pleading with the church to discard the institutional
tural truths concerning this union which is a picture of               life. The cry is heard in practically every denomina-
the relation between Christ and His Church. Inasmuch                   tion.
as the world promotes this, it inevitably erodes the                       It is perhaps impossible to tell whether this spirit
foundations of society; to the extent that the church                  will grow; whether there will indeed be a day when the
supports this, it departs from her only foundation-                    church no longer exists as institute in the world. But
the Word of God and loses her right to exist. Obviously                it is well to be warned of the danger. Without the
the world has no real solution to this problem. The                    institute there would no longer be officebearers ap-
solution is, after all, to be found in the. words everyone             pointed by Christ  ,to rule over God's heritage and serve
pushes aside: "What therefore God hath joined to-                      the cause of Christian mercy. Without an institute
gether, let not man put asunder." How important it                     there could not possibly be any longer the official
becomes to maintain the purity of marriage and                         ministry of the gospel, the administration of the
instruct our children diligently in its holiness and                   sacraments and the exercise of Christian discipline.
importance.                                                            Without the institute of the church there would be no
                                                                       rules and regulations, no "Church Order" so that no
THE INSTITUTE OF THE  CH7LRCH                                          longer would things be done "decently and in good
   In a recent issue of the  Presbyterian  Jownal  two                 order." In short, this would be the end of the Church
-articles appeared (articles with which the editorial                  in every respect.
staff of the Jownd  did not agree) which spoke of the                      It is obvious that the tendency is in this direction.
office of the ministry. The first was a weary and soul-                The, offices in the church scarcely exist, in most
wrenching cry of discouragement written by a minister                  places substituted by a certain. "board of directors";
in despair over the fruits of his labor. The second                    the ministers preach a social gospel, involve them-
article (written by this same minister) gives a brief                  selves in social issues and substitute for the means of
description of his conception of what religion really is.              grace "programs" of entertainment. Christian disci-
In this second article the author makes some state-                    pline is lost and will probably never be brought back;
ments concerning the institute of the church which                     instead of decency and good order, anarchy prevails.
are worthy of some attention. He writes:                               The drift is there; the institute is in grave danger.
         . ..I                                                         And the trend spells the end of the Church.
                   believe that our local church must be willing to
   relinquish her present forms if this seems to be the                NEWS  BRIEFS
   movement of the Spirit in our mid-century. By forms,
   I mean our traditional patterns of worship and preach-                  - Eugene Carson Blake, stated clerk of the United
   ing . . ..our traditional patterns of speech and language,          Presbyterian Church, and famous for his "Blake-Pike
   including our creeds, and our traditional patterns of               proposals" of merger, was elected the new leader of
   evangelism.. . .                                                    the World Council of Churches in the place of Visser
         I am not too committed to preserve the institution            `t  Hooft. It took this large ecumenical (and apostate)
   in. the forms which we now have. I am committed to                  body a long time to find a leader of their choice. But
   preserve the institution in some form.                              the pick was made of a man who will, with his passionate
    I should be very happy for the laity to run the
  institution the way they feel led by the Spirit of God               dedication to all forrns of ecumenicism, advance the
   in order to strengthen it, and to assist them in any way            -cause of the WCC.
   I can.          In assisting the laity to run the church I can          -  The  Yearbook of  Americun  Church&  is about to
   assist in helping to interpret how the Christian faith.             be released. The book gives its annual summary of
   applies outside the church.. . .
         I believe, therefore, it may be better for us to use          statistics compiled by the National Council of Churches.
   our "captive" time from 9-12 on Sundays for our                     The statistics show that 123,307,449 or 64.4% of the
   leadership and some of our people in other ways than                population of this country are members of churches.
   public worship.. . .                                                This is a gain. The major groupings are:
         I believe the church should take part in the revolu-
   tions of our day. The local parish should not `be detached                     Protestant                        68,299,478
   from the social revolution. If it believes this revolution                     R o m a n   C a t h o l i c .     45,640,619
   is from God, it should actively be engaged in supporting                       Jewish                             5,600,OOO
   it and identifying itself with it. If it believes it is of                     Eastern Orthodox                   3,166,715
   the devil it should officially throw all of its weight                         Buddhism                             109;965


252                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

       Protestants break down as follows in the ten                The figures are quoted from  Christianity Today.
largest denominations:                                             -Some of our people may be acquainted with the
          Southern Baptist               10,598,429             fact that there is an organization of scientists in this
          Methodist Church               10,304,184             country which devotes itself to a Christian interpreta-
          National Baptist Inc.           5,500,000             tion of science maintaining the infallible inspiration of
          Episcopal Church                3,340,759             Scripture, its authority also in all matters of science,
          United Presbyterian Church 3,292,204                  creation of specific kinds by God within the creation
          Lutheran Church - LCA           3,131,062             week, the universality and historicity of the Noahchian
          National Baptist                2,668,799             flood.    The organization is not open to laymen; but,
          Lutheran Church -                                     from the Banner we have learned that the publications
             Missouri Synod               2,650,857             of this organization can be obtained by those interested
          American Lutheran Church 2,587,204                    in these important questions by writing Prof. W. H.
          Churches of Christ              2,250,OOO             Rusch, 4090 Geddes Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105..


  HE DING THE DOCTRINE -


                              Barth's Doctrine of Scripture



                                                  by Rev. D.  J.  Engelsma

   The doctrine of an infallible Bible, Barth labels            one who denies the humanity of Scripture denies the
"Docetism." At the same time, he maintains that the             humanity of Jesus, at the same time. Such an one has
church escapes this heresy only by acknowledging                succumbed to the dread heresy of Docetism.
Scripture to be an error-prone book. One's first re-               To men whose view of Scripture is that of the
action to the charge is to ask what "Docetism" can              Belgic Confession, "we call such writings holy and
possibly have to do with the doctrine of Holy Scripture.        divine Scriptures" (Art. III), or of the  Westminster
Docetism is the heresy of denying the humanity of               Confession,  ". ..God (is) the Author thereof; . ..it is the
Jesus Christ.       Those guilty of this heresy either          Word of God." (Chapter I, Art. IV), this argument may
outrightly deny or subtly emasculate the truth that             appear so poor as scarcely to deserve refutation. Yet,
Jesus Christ is "very man." Jesus, according to                 it is worth careful consideration. First, this argu-
them, was merely the appearance of a man or in                  ment for a fallible Bible serves notice that the struggle
one or another way was deficient in genuine humanity,           within the Reformed community over the matter of the
lacking, perhaps, a human spirit.                               doctrine of Scripture has taken a new turn. In former
   The reason why Barth introduces the subject of               times also, there have been men within the Reformed
Docetism into the controversy over Scripture is that            community whose teaching contradicted the Church's
he conceives of a strong parallel between Jesus Christ          confession of an infallible Bible. But they usually, if
and the Bible.      As Jesus is both very man and very          not always, insisted that they were in full agreement
God, so also the Bible is both genuinely human and              with the Church's confession of an infallible Bible.
truly divine. To deny or in any way weaken the humanity         When the Church opposed their teachings by asserting
of the Bible, therefore, is to make oneself guilty of           that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, they
the heresy of Docetism.            A denial of the  Bible's     readily agreed, although, in fact, their teaching was
humanity not only shows that one also has grave                 incompatible with that doctrine.1 They were on the
difficulty with Jesus' genuine humanity, but such a             defensive. Now, it is quite different. Now, those who
denial is itself an attack on  Jesus' humanity. So              deny infallibility are on the offensive. Not they who
intimately are Jesus and Scripture related.            Deny     deny, but those who assert infallibility are the heretics.
Scripture's humanity and, by that very fact, you have              Secondly, Barth's argument for the Bible's inviol-
denied Jesus' humanity. By the Bible's "humanity,"              able humanity is worth careful attention because it has
Barth understands not only the.fact that God used men           gained and, even now, is gaining widespread support.
to write the Bible but also that the Bible is fallible,         Although I intend to look more closely at this document
just as the men God used to write the Bible were sinful,        later, it may be noted. at this point, that the proposed
fallible men. It belongs to genuine "humanity" to be            "Confession of 1967," drawn up as the  cvedo of
fallible. Therefore, if .anyone denies the fallibility of       Presbyterians whose present confession concerning
Scripture, he denies Scripture's humanity. And since            Scripture is that of the  Westminster Confession, ex-
the strong parallel exists between Scripture and Jesus,         presses, overwhelmingly, the humanity of the Bible.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   253

    "The words of the Scriptures are the words of              very God and very man, the Bible is both divine and
men, conditioned by the language, thought-forms, and           human, it would not necessarily follow that Scripture
literary fashions of the places and times at which they        is fallible.     One can do battle with Barth within his
were written. They reflect views of life, history, and         own framework of thinking.         He contends that, like
the cosmos which were then current, and the under-             Jesus, the Bible is human. , If, for a moment, we grant
standing of them requires literary and historical              this claim, we can put the question to Barth whether
scholarship..  ." ("Confession of 1967," Part I, Section       the humanity of Jesus implies that He was error-prone,
III, B.)                                                       that is, sinful.      Jesus was genuinely human without
    It is far, far more than a curious fact that, whereas      being sinful.       Similarly, the Bible is human. without
the historic Reformed creeds assert, exclusively, the          being fallible.      As the Holy Spirit, in the miracle of
divinity of the Bible, this creed will assert, exclusively,    the incarnation, guarded the humanity of Christ from
the humanity of the Bible. The committee which com-            defilement of sin, the Holy Spirit, in the miracle of
posed this confession explains the significance of the         inspiration, protected the humanity of the Bible from
confession's statement on the Bible to be that, under          error. In keeping with Barth's own presuppositions,
this confession, scholarship will be "uninhibited by the       therefore, to say that' Scripture has errors implies
doctrine of  inerrancy."z      With the adoption of this       that Jesus was sinful.
confession, thousands of Presbyterians will be com-               Even though we reject Barth's strong parallel be-
mitted to the doctrine of the Bible's humanity, a              tween Jesus and the Bible, we conceive of a most
"humanity" of fallibility.                                     intimate relationship between Jesus and the Scripture.
  One does well, therefore, to consider Barth's argu-          The Bible is Jesus' Word, that is, not only the Word
ment for a Bible that is genuinely human and, therefore,       about Jesus but also the Word He spoke. Our attitude,
fallible .                                                     therefore, must be the same towards both. That one
    The very first objection that must be lodged against       attitude is the attitude ruled by faith. When Jesus says
Barth's view concerns his designation of Scripture as          of Himself that He has no sin, we believe Him and view
human. Barth likes to assume that friend and foe alike         the whole of His life and works in the light of His claim
will agree to use the bare expression, "human," in             to be sinless.       The result is that we do not find any
describing Scripture. By no means, however, is this            sins in His life. Now, if someone were to set aside
the case.     To call the Bible "human," to speak of a         this claim of Christ in order to scrutinize His life
human, as well as a divine, element in the Bible, or,          and works "objectively," he would find many sins
even to speak of human authors of the Bible is, in             with which to charge Christ.         Exactly this was the
itself, to take a step in the wrong direction. That the        procedure of the wicked Jews of Jesus' day. They
Reformed fathers used this or similar language, from           examined Jesus' life empirically, deliberately dis-
time to time, can in large part be ascribed to care-           regarding Jesus' claim to be the sinless Son of God
lessness. For us, who live in a time when the battle-          in our flesh.        Of course, then, they spotted many
lines are clearly drawn, to use such languge would be          sins. He broke the Sabbath, hob-nobbed with sinners,
not only a careless inaccuracy but a foolhardy wrong.          violated the law and blasphemed.         They condemned
Nor does such a description of the Bible make it               Him to feath for His sins.
impossible for one to do justice to the fact that God             The only alternative to a believing acceptance of
used men to write the Bible, to the fact that men wrote,       Jesus' claim to be sinless, as expressedin the question
not as automatons, but as consciously active persons           of John 8~46: "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" is
so that their personalities are reflected in the books         the direct repudiation of that claim in unbelief. TO
they were used to write, or to the fact that the language      disregard Jesus' claim in order to proceed to an
of the Bible is thoroughly human language.8           It is    "openminded" examination of the evidence of His life
striking and highly significant that the Reformed con-         is the way of unbelief which cannot but result in the
fessions, although recognizing full well God's use of          conclusion that Jesus' original claim was a lie.
men to write the Scriptures, are unanimous in their               It is the same with the matter of Scripture's claim
failure ever to speak of a "human Bible" or of the             to be the Word, inspired of God; and unbreakable. A
"human part of Scripture." The Reformed confes-                man can disregard this claim in order to research the
sions regard the Bible only as divine and maintain but         Bible, openmindedly, and thus on the basis of the
one Author of the canonical books, God Himself. To             contents to discover for himself whether the Bible has
call Scripture a human and divine book is to imperil           errors or not. But such an one can spare himself time
the truth that the Bible is exclusively the Word of God.       and trouble. He will find many errors and contradictions
With this confessional estimation of the Bible, the            and much foolishness. He will conclude that the Bible
"Report of the Committee on Inspiration to the Re-             errs.    Then, if he is pious, he will begin to explain
formed Ecumenical Synod of 1958" is in agreement.              how this does not affect the basic realities of our com-
This "Report" declares:                                        fort and salvation. In fact, the errors he will find do
    `1 . ..we may not say that Scripture is both human         not exist. But they will exist to the satisfaction, even
and divine or that it has a human element and one that         the sincere satisfaction, of one who chooses this way,
is divine. Scripture is wholly divine though given in          just as there were sins in Jesus' life, as far as the
its entirety through the instrumentality of men."4             Jews were concerned. For the disregard for Scrip-
    If it were granted that a strong parallel exists           ture's claim to be the inspired, inerrant Word of God
between Jesus and the Bible so that, just as Jesus is          is the way of unbelief. We may even go so far as to


254                                                   THE  STAN+lRD  BEARER

say that there is analogy between the Jews' being                             8. p. 29 of the brochure, "The Proposal to Revise
offended at Christ's claim to be God, looking, as they                   the Confessional Position of the United Presbyterian
were, at His humanity without faith, and Barth's being                   Church in the United States of America."
offended at the Scripture's claim to be the Word of                           3. That the language of the Bible is "thoroughly
God, looking, as he is, at the human language of                         human," John Calvin emphasized more than once,
Scripture without the' prior acceptance that it is the                   expressing this fact in the memorable phrase, "God
divine Word.                                                             Stammered." What Calvin intended to point out was
   We conclude this section of "Barth's Doctrine of                      that, in using human language, the language of men,
Scripture" with a quotation from Barth and a question                    God condescended toward us, in great mercy. God
directed to this quotation. -On page 529 of Volume I,                    used language to reveal Himself that is limited in its
                                                                         capability to convey the glorious riches of the great
2,  of the  Church Dogmatics  Barth states: "As truly
as Jesus died on the cross, . . . the prophets and                       God.        But Lester De Koster may not use this vivid
                                                                         expression of Calvin to insinuate that Calvin might
apostles . . . in the act of writing . . . were . . . capable            have backed the proponents of a fallible Bible. (cf.
and actually guilty of error in their spoken and written                   The Reformed  Jouvnal,  June.,  1959, p. 4). Whatmaynot
word." Our question is:, "If the prophets and apostles                   be lost out of sight is the fact that  "God  stammered"
were capable and actually guilty of error. in their                      so that for all the "roughness" and "meanness" of
writing of Scriptur?! how `truly' did Jesus die on the                   the Bible, its veracity (inerrancy) may not even be
cross ? What certamty  do we have that He really died,                   questioned.
as an historical. fact and as the Savior of men?"                             I cannot find De Koster's reference to such an
                                                                         expression of Calvin in Calvin's commentary on John
       FOOTNOTES                                                           20:25.    Calvin writes as follows in his commentary on
                                                                         John  3:12: "(God) condescends to our ignorance; and,
          1. One need think only of Dr. R.  Jan&en  and the              therefore, when God prattles to us in Scripture in a
       struggle of the Christian Reformed Church with him in             rough and popular style, let us know that this is done on
       the early 1920's. Despite all his vitiating of Scripture
       he could insist that he held the doctrine of an infallible          account of the love which he bears to us."
       Bible. ("Wij gaan er van uit dat de Schrift de onfeil-                 4. "Acts of the Fourth Reformed Ecumenical Synod
       bare Godsopenbaring is." Cf. R. Janssen, Voortzetting             of Potchefstroom, South Africa, August 6-13, 1958,"
       van den Strijd, p. 5.)                                            p. 53.


                                                           ANNOUNCEMENT
                                 In response to several inquiries and suggestions, the Board of the
                            R.F.P.A. is happy to inform our readers that pictures of our late
                            Editor-in-Chief, the Reverend H. Hoeksema, are now available.
                                 There are two poses available, accompanying this announcement and
                            marked as No; 1 and No. 2. These pictures come in one size, 8" x lo",
                            and are suitable for framing.
                                 To obtain a picture, please follow carefully the following instructions:
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                                           Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507





                                 No.  1                                                             No.  2


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   255
         TRYING THE SPIRITS-                                                                              1
                                    DOUKHABOl$ISM

                                                by Rev. R. C.  Havbach


   The name comes from the Russian  dukhabortiy,                 The Veriginite Dukhabors migrated, some to Cyprus,
meaning "spirit-wrestlers," which signifies in the            and some to Canada, in 1898. One authority sets their
divinity of man the struggle of his soul with the god         number at that time as 7,363, another as 7,427, while
within, thus disclosing an inherent albeit unphilosophical    their present number in Canada is adjudged by some to
pantheism. An illiterate peasant cult, it `stems from         be 20,000, others put the figure at 11,759 while still
the  Raskolniki,  schismatics, from the established           others claim that number to be from ten to twenty per
Russian Orthodox Church.        It denies the objective,      cent too high. The 1951 census records the total of
written Word of God and the sacraments.            It also    8,170.
rejects government, which it regards as a Pharaoh                The Catholic Encyclopedia says that the Dukhabors
persecuting the Hebrews in Egypt. In fact, all external       in Canada are "good colonists." They are said to be
authority, including that of the Bible, they reject.          generally well-mannered, hospitable to strangers,
Anarchistic and anti-authoritarian they are, recognizing      rather passive, showing a smiling politeness. It is
no rule, no leader, except reason and conscience, and         also said that a spirit of resentment is harbored
abjuring war, taxation, education, law courts, police         against all of the outside world, and that particularly
regulation and the modern order of society. Here lurk         the women, who live a more sheltered life than the
the seeds of an innate nihilist philosophy. They also         men, are more aggressively hostile to outsiders. The
abstain from animal food, intoxicants and tobacco. This       extremists among them, the die-hard Sons of Freedom,
latter practice is not in the interest of health or holi-     who claim to be pacifists, are notorious for their
ness, but, as it is charged, because they are extremely       Ku Kluxer tactics, their nudist protest pilgrimages,
masochistic, that is, they delight in the constant in-        arson (i.e., burning of property, their own, the neighbors
fliction of pain and suffering upon themselves. It is         and the government's) and dynamitings. Also a good
further believed that for this reason they claim to be        bit of extortion, exploitation and hoodlumism goes on
living examples of the three Hebrew children in the           among their own number.
fiery furnace, and are built not on the foundation of the        Despite what is factually reported in the first
apostles, but of the Twelve Death Angels.                     paragraph, it nevertheless remains true that the  Dukh-
   One of the early leaders of the band was Kapoustin.        abor people feel the need of a leader or a group strong
He claimed to be a reincarnation of Christ, reminding         enough to support and direct their lives. They feel
us of Hinduism, Theosophy and Baha'ism. He estab-             lost without a directing hand of authority. Many, not
lished the practice of community of property in op-           able to make it on their own, independently in the out-
position to the "iniquity of private ownership," the          side world, have found it necessary to return to the
root of all evil. Yet he and his family controlled large      group, usually to the hatchetmen of the society, the
communal estates. (In Communism, The Party controls           Sons of Freedom. The leader is adictator, as a despot
the people.) But in Canada their Communist life failed        is usually preferred by the peasant stock. He is an
again and again. Under this leader in 1841-44 the cult        autocratic god who tells them what to do, and who
was banished from Russia for its crimes, especially           grants them permission for certain privileges, as, e.g.,
that of assassination. The principles of Communist            to move to another location. The leaders do not, it is
class struggle and revolution are imbedded in this cult.      true, have the usual passivity and dependence of the
                                                              herd instinct peculiar to these people. But they have
   Another notable character was Verigin, who in              no real positive leadership ability, having so many
1892 was banished to Siberia where he learned Leo             native- negative and nihilistic tendencies which qualify
Tolstoy's Communism.         He named the cult "The           them only as experts in arson and dynamiting, or
Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood," and            similar violence and degradation. In addition, their
taught the equality and brotherhood of man, that all          leadership is hampered by cut throat competition,
people of the world are children of God. He was               which like Mexican generals or South American poli-
regarded by some of the ignorant members as a super-          ticians, they vie with one another for the positions
man.                                                          of prestige and privilege.


256                                            THESTANDARDBEARER

       One other chief characteristic of the Dukhabor is      everyone has infallible direct revelation. No one could
said to be that of inborn hostility. This is outwardly        be more absolutely right, nor more completely free of
manifested in his peculiar acts of violence, burning,         mistake than a Dukhabor. Missionaries have done little
bombing, fighting, shooting and naked demonstrations.         with the Dukhabors since they assume that human
Some modern psychiatrists claim that this hostility           personality has little place in the Christian life, reason
originates in the parent-child relationship. The Duk-         is discounted by them, logic is unknown to them and
habor child cannot express the great hostility he has         thinking is sinful.
for his parents. They control the child with threats of          The Bible is ostensibly reverenced, but actually
punishment, and repress him with threats of love with-        belittled, never read publicly in Dukhabor meetings,
held. The child, as a result, attempts to put up a front      interpreted mystically and sometimes destroyed in
of love for his parents, even for everybody, and tries        Bible-burning ceremonies. Creeds are rejected, and
to convince himself that he does not hate anyone.  Duk-       theologians are simply unknown. Crass superstition
habor hospitality is then said to be a way to deny,           is found among them, such as belief in "luck," super-
more to themselves, than to others, these hostile             natural signs and premonitions, the evil omens of the
feelings. They mean to say, "We don't hate, we love.          Black Cat, the Red Rooster and the Bogey Man, as
That we eat and drink with you proves it." The deep-          well as the use of magic, incantations, conjuring up
seated reason, then, that these people hate the whole         catastrophes (e.g., tornadoes), putting curses on people,
world is because they really hate their parents, are          and seeking of "divine" healing.
too ashamed to admit or show this, and so take out               The essential trinity is denied. Hence the Son is
their resentment on others, or oninanimate objects, as,       not co-equal with God, but "Christ" is merely the
for example, the dynamiting of a bridge.                      experience of mystical religious feeling in the heart.
       It is a natural human trait, even in the so called     The virgin birth is denied, as also the deity and per-
"incorrigibles," to desire approval and love.' Perhaps        sonality of the Holy Spirit.        God is not a personal
it is true that a maladjusted man's hatred of the world       being, nor a distinct being objective to man. Hence
is but a manifestation of his longing to be loved. But he     Dukhabors do not bow to God in heaven, they bow to
himself is helplessly caught in the death-trap of hate.       the god in each other. Theirs is a worship of man.
He is prone to hate ,God and his neighbor; he is hateful      They do not reverently worship, they merely acknow-
and hating his fellow man. For this reason he cannot          ledge the spark of the divine in the human mind.
love naive Joseph (Gn. 37:4, 5), nor any one else. He         Prayer is inward.      It is not addressed to God as an
is a natural born misanthropist, and that because             independent being. In time of need Dukhabors do not
fundamentally he is enmity against God-he hates               ask for strength; they feel strength surging through
God! The Dukhabor is a picture of the natural man.            their being. They feel God's presence, rather than to
He knows he is in the clutches of a power beyond              invoke it; they neither praise nor thank him. Like the
himself. But he neither will nor can do anything about        Quakers (who at times come to their aid), they have
it.     He admits, "We know we are crazy.,' He wants          no minister, no pulpit, no preaching. The doctrine of
love, but is unlovely, is hateful, and consequently is not    the Fall of Man is rejected. Nor is the biblical doctrine
loved, not by the unsympathetic world about him, nor          that Satan instigated the Fall accepted. Adam's sin was
even by the members of his own flaming hate-society,          that he clothed his nakedness. Sin is viewed through
nor by the despotic leaders who constantly and con-           Pelagian bi-focals as weakness which can be overcome,
sistently misguide this cult down the road of rejection,      to sinless perfection, by determined dedication. Like
depravation, degradation, ruin and destruction.               Christian Science, evil is regarded as an unreality.
       Dukhaborism has no theology. It is highly mystical,    Yet it is also believed that since God ordains every-
`and therefore has an exclusive individualism. God            thing, He also ordains evil, including their forms of it,
speaks directly to the soul of man, hence he is answer-       dynamiting, disrobing and arson, which is all attributed
able to no other authority but the light of his own soul.     to the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. Of course, in a
He has a negative sanctimoniousness according to which        Pelagian system there is no need for missionary
he is supposed to practice no smoking, no drinking, no        endeavor. Simply follow the teaching of Jesus and the
dancing, no meat eating, no owning, no voting, no             world will be transformed into the kingdom of God.
schooling, and, at times, the indispensable mark of              The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is scorned
Dukhaborism, no clothing.         The ideal includes no       on the ground that it destroys Christianity as a moral
possession or cherishing of family life. Parents are          force in the world, and that it nullifiesman's responsi-
addressed as "old man" or "old woman." Husbands,              bility for his own acts. In Dukhaborism there is no
wife and child, regarded as sisters and brothers, are         resurrection, no eternal punishment, no hell or heaven.
equally shared with all in the desired communal life,         At death there ensues a period of soul-sleep for six
so proving perfect unselfishness and freedom from envy        weeks. Then the soul, which had a pre-existence, and
and lust. This does fly in the face of Holy Writ, but         is sometimes reincarnated, is free from the bondageof
that matters not; -God speaks immediately to the soul         the flesh. But there is no future life. This life alone
of every man severally as He will, telling them what          they live for.    Death is the gateway to the Unknown.
to do, whether it be to burn property or to strip them-       These , `spirit-wrestlers" are busy striving to that end,
selves naked in public.        For each one is led by the     burning and bombing themselves into their desired
dictates of the Christ within. Not only "the kingdom          attainment of Nirvana, the blowing out of the candle of
of God is within you," but Godhimself is within. Hence        being.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



                      IN HIS  FEAR-

                                              INASMUCH

                                                by Rev. J. A. Heys

   When these lines appear in print "the season of          store, seeing the hustling, somewhat enthusiastic groups
giving' ' will for weeks have been a thing of the past.     of buyers, the thought struck us which in one word we
However, they are written a few days beforechristmas        placed at the head of these columns. How much of this
and were suggested by the hustle and bustle to be seen      exchanging of gifts, if indeed any of it, will be charac-
in stores of every type across the land. Stores and         terized by the Christ Himself in those memorable
means of transportation are crowded. Money flows            words which He spoke? "Inasmuch as ye have done it
freely and often lavishly for gifts for all the family      unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it
and a host of friends.     Each year the list becomes       unto me."       And is there indeed such giving today?
bigger, and one begins to wonder how it all can con-        Are we to suppose that He looks down from His throne
tinue.                                                      on high and smiles upon all this commercialization and
   It makes good business. But does it really have          all this giving of gifts and says toeach and all that they
anything to do with Christmas, and is it actually the       have done this unto Him? Jesus was not speaking of
spirit of Christmas7 Although the wise men came a           giving our children and friends luxuries and gifts with-
year or two after Christmas and to the house rather         out which they could easily live. He was speaking of
than to the stable with gifts of gold, frankincense and     the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the
myhrr, you do not read of the shepherds doing so and        sick, the prisoner. He was not speaking of exchanging
of being instructed by the angels to do so. The angel       gifts but of bestowing them upon those who could not
simply told them to go and see the Gift which God had       return them.      The hungry and thirsty could not feed
sent forth into our flesh. They then went home glorify-     you and give you drink. Were they in such a position
ing God. Their gift was one of praise and adoration,        they would not be thirsty and hungry themselves. The
of thanksgiving and glorification. But did they exchange    naked could not dress you in silks and satins, for they
gifts and bestow gifts upon men? Then, too, does it now     had nothing to cover their own naked bodies. The sick
a month after Christmas seem rather out of place even       and the prisoner could not return your visit and ex-
to talk about Christmas and the giving of gifts? But        change a visit with you. They were confined to their
Christmas is not such a transient thing, and the joy of     beds and to their cells. And a giving of gifts that stops
Christmas is not so temporary that it is gone in four       on December 26 is not one of which Jesus says, "Inas-
weeks.     The true Christmas spirit will continue till     much as ye have done it to one of these least of these,
the next celebration of Christmas. It will be as wel-       ye did it unto me."
come and refreshing in July as it is in December.              The poor we always have with us, Jesus also said.
The` desire to help, to serve, to give gifts will be as     The sick, we will all admit, are here in countless
strong during the hot summer days as on the crisp           numbers, and prisons have not yet become outmoded
winter night that marks our Christmas day in this           although they have been glorified.       In our own land
region.                                                     and in far off lands there are the naked, the hungry
   Although we do not like the name of Christmas, we        and the thirsty. Here at home there are contributing
like to point out that Christ is in that name1 The in-      factors for the situation that the deacons of the churches
fluence of the Roman Catholic Church upon the Prot-         find none upon whom to reveal the mercy of Christ.
estant church world is to be seen in that name. Al-         Insurance policies and social security are ahead(?) of
though we are vehemently opposed to the idolatrous          the Church, and to a great extent have replaced the
mass of the Roman Catholic Church as a worship of a         office of the deacon in the Church. And men are as a
creature - bread and wine - instead of the Creator, we      rule too proud to go to the deacons but prefer to re-
still speak of the mass of Christ's birth and contract      ceive from the world.
it into Christmas.     It is not always easy to coin a         Widows in need there still are. Aged couples in
name for an object or an event, but Christmas could         institutions of mercy and convalescent homes are not
and should certainly be replaced with a word or phrase      a rare but a common thing today. Men out of work or
that retains the Christ and links it up with His birth,     working on a greatly curtailed schedule can be found.
perhaps, Christ's Birthday, even as we speak of New         And, if in our own churches we are looking for a place
Year's Day. The point we wish to make, however, is          to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the
that the spirit of Christmas, `and the giving at that       naked, visit the "sick" and "prisoner", our Covenant
time must and does have Christ in it.                       God has given us the brethren and sisters in Jamaica
   Walking through a congested aisle of a department        to help. We have had the privilege the last few months


258                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

to speak in behalf of these brethren and sisters and         and cry as hungry and thirsty souls for the truth in the
their need in almost all of our churches in  Classis         richness which our Covenant `God has been pleased to
West from Lynden, Washington through the Dakotas,            give it to us, let us bend every effort. Let us leave no
Colorado, Mid-west and Illinois, showing in full color       stone unturned. Let us with all the facilities and powers
the labors performed last Spring by Mr. Harry Zwak           at our disposal share with others - in Jamaica but also
and the undersigned; we pleaded for material help to         here in our own land and wherever our heavenly Father
these whom. our God has bvought  across our path,whose       gives us an open door-inasmuch as it is service to
need HE has shown to us and of whom HE says, "Inas-          our Glorious King.
much as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye             Our Mission Committee is at present arranging for
have done it unto me." Dare we turn away and look the        additional sending of this spiritual bread and drink,
other way?      Dare we close the door and say? "But,        this truth of the righteousness of Christ that clothes
Lord, this is not dramatic enough. Please give us an-        us and makes us whiter than snow, this truth that
other field." Congregations of ours have sent in the         speaks of the healing balm for the troubled soul and
past and recent past to their relief. Congregations are      takes the believer out of his prison to give him liberty
preparing more bundles to be sent in the near future.        and freedom to serve his God. May our people pray
Let them consider the "Inasmuch" of Jesus and be             for fruit upon these labors. May our churches take a
sure of their reward in the day of days.                     keen and abiding interest in it and be thankful that we
   Let us also remember the "Inasmuch as ye did it           have such an open door where the truth we love and
not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."      cherish is received with open arms and accepted as
We have and we will receive the heartfelt and sincere        the Word of God that it is. It was refreshing to find yet
thanks of the brethren and sisters in Jamaica. They          in this day and age those who listened with bated breath,
will not return food and drink to us and give us clothing    having travelled many a mile on foot, are willing to be
in return. They are confined to their island and thus        taught and who received the Word with all gladness.
as the sick and imprisoned cannot return the visit,          We could have wished for the sun to stand still and the
they will not be able to come to our shores and make         days to be longer to be able to satisfy rather than - as
fancy speeches and make dramatic displays of grati-          was often the case of necessity-to disappoint. And
tude. They are a humble, sincere people who love the         still today the expressions of gratitude for the Word
Lord and live in childlike trust and dependence upon         and the work'of our churches continue to pour in. May
Him. They praise Him every day. They displayed a             our churches remember that inasmuch as we did this
refreshing spirituality in our presence. And we have         to these, we have done it unto Christ.      .
no reason to believe that it is not there every day and      Foot note:
in all their lives. The children displayed a serious-        After reporting of the work in the Mid-West and show-
ness and spirituality that it would be a delight to see      ing the brethren and sisters in Jamaica together with
also in our own covenant seed.                               their churches in full color, one of our ministers -I
   But there is another side and a deeper side. After        `wish I had obtained his permission to publishhis name,
all, naked we came into this world and with an empty         but not having thought of asking him at the time when
-stomach, and naked we shall leave with empty stom-          we showed the pictures in his church and being at the
achs . And whether we go through this life with a full       moment unable to do so, I will not willingly offend -
stomach or one that knows good nourishing food only          suggested that our Sunday Schools and Catechism
now and then is not too important. Whether we have           Classes use their collections for the Jamaican chil-
sickness and disease and are left alone in our grief         dren. A splendid idea to get our children to be mis-
and sorrow or whether we are surrounded by sym-              sion-conscious.    It was in itself interesting how eager
pathizers and comforters in our woes is not our deep-        the children were in all of our churches to see the
est concern.     Inasmuch as we have alleviated these        pictures of the work in Jamaica. Theyhave an interest
natural afflictions, we have served our God and King.        in the field, and now they have also seen some of the
How much more true it is when we share our spiritual         children of this beautiful island. Let them also have a
bread with those who are spiritually hungry and our          goal and an active interest in the cause of God's
spiritual drink with those who are athirst  spiritually!     Church as it is to be found in every nation, tongue and
How much richer is the thought that we have done it          tribe. Inasmuch as they will do it to the least of these,
unto Christ Himself inasmuch as we have brought in           they also will do it to Christ.
the preaching the clothing of the righteousness -of             The same holds true for the many societies in our
Christ to the naked, visited with the Word of God those      churches across our country. The labor will not be in
who are spiritually sick and in the prison house of sin      vain. It can never be, since the Lord has been raised
and death1 How beautiful upon the mountains are the          from the dead to His reward. And He promises us
feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. But also       that He will come quickly with that reward. Inasmuch
how blessed are these feet. Great shall your reward          as we have done this to Him, we shall in God's grace
be in the kingdom to come.                                   share in His reward.
   Let us never put the material above the spiritual.           And once again we ask? "Dare we ignore the other
Let us share with others the heritage of truth which is      side 7" Inasmuch as ye have not done it to one of the
ours. And whereas there are these brethren and sisters       least of these, ye have not done it to me". We have
with the same tongue .and language as ours (and it is so     heard the cry for  spiritual   help. We have seen the
easy to converse with them) and .they pray and plead         need for material help; "The eye cannot say unto the


                                               THE  STANDARD  BEARER                                                   259

hand, I have no need of thee; nor again the head to the        taught and a field where it is manifestly true and con-
feet, I have no nedd of you. Nay much more those mem-          fessed, "How beautiful upon the mountains (these
bers of the body, which seem to be more feeble are             mountains as well that rise almost up out of the sea
necessary." I Corinthians 12:21,22.                            to form wave after wave from shore to shore) are the
   Never mind a. reward in this life. Never mind that          feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
this will not get us praise of men (although these needy       glad tidings of good things." There you have the
will surely express and have expressed their heartfelt         Christmas spirit that never dies. Inasmuch as we
thanks to us). Mind the "inasmuch". And let us be              have done it in His fear, He will reward us in His
thankful ourselves for a people that is eager to be            grace.


  THE LORD GAVE THE WORD                      (Psalm  BS:U)



               The `All  Men' In Mission Preaching

                                                    by Rev. C.  Hank0

 From all of our previous discussion on this subject              "Who gave himself a ransom for all." I Tim. 2:6.
there can be no doubt but that Christ brought the                 "The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us aZZ."
ransom for the sins of His people, His own sheep, the          Isaiah 53:6.
church, His Body, the children of God, those given to             "Therefore as by the offence  of one judgment came
Him by the Father, the  many.                                  upon all men to condemnation; even so bythe righteous-
   There are many passages of Scripture that point             ness of one the free gift came upon aZZ menunto justi-
this out very clearly. I shall mention a few.                  fication of life." Rom. 5:18.
   "Who gave himself for us, that the might redeem us             "And that he died for all, that theywhich live should
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar          not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him
people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:14.                    which died for them, and rose again." II Cor. 5:15.
   "The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep."             "That he by the grace of God should taste death
John 1O:ll.                                                    for  every man."  Heb.  2:9.
   "Even as Christ  also  loved the  church,  and gave             "To reconcile all things to himself." Col. 1:20.
himself for it." Eph.  5:25.                                      The question demands an answer: how is it possible
   "The church of God, which he hath purchased with            to harmonize these' apparent contradictions? On the
his own blood." Acts 20:28.                                    one hand, Scripture speaks of the fact that Christ died
   "He is the saviour of the body." Eph. 5:23.                 as a ransom for  many.  Matth.  20:28. On the other
   "That Jesus should die for that nation; and not for         hand, it speaks of the fact that Christ died as a ransom
that nation only, but that also he should gather together      for all. I Tim.. 2:6.
in one `the children of God that were scattered abroad."          The remark has been made that if the term "whole
John 11:51,52.                                                 world" does not refer to the whole human race, and if
   "And for their sakes (whom thou hast given me out           "all men" does not mean all men head for head, and if
of the  world)   I sanctify myself, that they might be         "every man" does not mean every individual that ever
sanctified through the truth." John 17:19.                     lived upon the earth, how can the man on the street
   "To give his life a ransom for  many."  Matth.              ever understand the Bible, and how can a missionary
20:28.                                                         make himself understood by the illiterate on the mis-
   From all these passages it is evident that Christ           sion field? Is it not .much simpler to grant that when
died, both as to the intent as well as to the result, for      Scripture speaks of "all men" it means all men with-
those given to Him by the Father. He shed His blood            out exception?
for the very purpose of redeeming and sanctifying many             It has also been maintained that both statements
sons unto the Father.                                          are true, yet in a different sense. We can say that in
   Yet those who want to maintain a universal atone-           a sense Christ died for all men, and in another sense
ment will produce as many passages .from Scripture,            He died only for the elect. Therefore. when Christ
or possibly even more, to maintain their contention            speaks of laying down His life for His sheep He does
that Christ died for the whole human race. There are           not exclude the rest of humanity. And when He prays
many passages that might appear to be in flagrant              in His high priestly prayer for those given to Him by
contradiction to the passages quoted above, since they         the Father, He does not exclude the rest of the human
speak of Christ laying down His life for "all", or for         race.
"all men", or even for "every man.,' Allow me to                   In that strain the Remonstrants wrote years ago,
mention a few of these.                                        8 aying, "When Scripture states that Christ died for all


 260                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

 this refers to the fact that He accomplishedreconcilia-      preted to include every single individual in Decapolis,
 tion, and on the other hand, when it says that Christ        babies and all, as if without exception they all mar-
 shed his blood only fov many, this applies to the appli-     velled at the power of Jesus. We do not even do that
 cation of it, which is not for all." Amesius, as quoted      in our daily conversations.
 by Dr. A. Kuyper in "Uit Het Woord", vol. III, page 196.        "And they came to John, and said unto him, Rabbi,
        Some such distinction Prof. Dekker must have had      he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou
 in mind when he wrote, "There are, therefore, three          barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, andall men
 senses in which we may legitimately speak of the             come to him." John 3:26. Here again the "all men"
 atonement as being universal in design, i.e., the su@i-      must be limited to the Jews of that day. And we can
 ciency  and availability of salvation for all men and the    safely exclude many prominent Jews, such as the
 divine desire that all will receive it. The only point at    scribes and Pharisees. The text refers plainly to all
 which Scripture and the Reformed confessions point to        kinds of men.
 a limited design in the atonement is at the point of            "And sold their possessions and goods,`and parted
 efficacy. Only there can a doctrine of limited atone-        them to all men, as every man had need." Acts 2~45.
 ment be formulated which does not do clear violence          Here the "all men" is limited by the very context to
 to Biblical teaching concerning the universal love of        those within the group of believers.
.God." Reformed Journal, December, 1962)                         These examples could readily be multiplied. But
    Dr. A. Kuyper refers to this distinction as made by       why quote more? We all know that the term "all men"
 the Remonstrants as an untenable position that is a          is most generally limited by the context. Rarely do we
 mere playing with words. For, he goes on to say, by          meet the term that it is not immediately evident even to
 thus splitting in two the work of salvation, so that the     the casual reader that this is limited to a certain
 accomplishment of reconciliation and the application of      group.    And those rare cases in which it is not per-
 it are separated, then Christ ceases to be the fountain      fectly evident must certainly be interpreted in the light
 of our salvation, and His "It is finished" is an untruth     of the overwhelming testimony of Scripture that Christ's
 on Jesus' lips. If salvation is merited for many, but        atonement is for His people.
 is realized in only a few, then the accomplishment of           Let me briefly touch upon a few of the passages re-
 reconciliation is only half realized by the suffering        ferred to above to show that this is actually the case
 and death of God's Son, and without the application,         when Scripture speaks of Christ as a ransom for all
 instead of serving toward our salvation, only makes          men.
 our condemnation the greater. (See, "Uit Het Woord,`,           In I Tim. 2:6 Paul writes that Christ Jesus gave
 vol. III, page 197.)                                         Himself a ransom for all. A glance at the previous
    We can agree with that. But let me add, that Prof.        verses will show that in verse 1 of this chapter the
Dekker and all those who wish to make the distinction         apostle speaks of making prayers for all  men.  Im-
mentioned above, must prove from Scripture that this          mediately he qualifies this by saying that he has in
distinction always applies. Let them prove that when-         mind particularly kings and all those who are in
 ever Scripture speaks of Christ laying down His life as      authority.    Evidently the church had been neglecting to
 a ransom for all, this refers onlytothe sufficiency, the     pray for their enemies and those who despitefully used
 availability, and the divine desire to save. While on        them. Paul is therefore referring to all kinds of men.
the other hand, whenever Scripture speaks of Christ           And he still has all classes of men in mind when he
laying down His life for His sheep, as a ransom for           says in verse 4; "Who will have all men to be saved.`,
many, it refers to the efficacy of the atonement. I am        So that when he informs us that Christ died as a ransom
going to show in this article that this is not true. And      for all, he especially wants to impress on us that Christ
that is certainly not a simple distinction that appears       died as a ransom for all the elect,no matter what their
so obviously on the surface that the casual reader of         class or position may be.
 Scripture will recognize it. Nor is this a simple dis-          In Isaiah 53:6 the prophet is speaking for himself
tinction that can be made to the uneducated unbelievers       and for all of God's chosen people. He is confessing
in the mission field with the patent statement, "Christ       their faith in the suffering Servant of God. And there-
died for you.,,                                               fore he declares, "The Lord hath laid upon him the
    Anyone who reads Scripture carefully must soon            iniquity of us all." Isaiah had just confessed in the
realize that there is no contradiction at all between the     previous verse, "He was wounded for our transgres-
statements that express that Christ gave His life as a        sions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastise-
-ransom for many and those that teach that Christ gave        ment of our peace was upon him; (and notice the effi-
Himself as a ransom for all.                                  cacy of this accomplished work) and with his stripes
    First of all, these are many passages in Scripture        we are healed." And then the prophet adds the con-
that show plainly that "all" or "all men" cannot `mean        fession: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
every member of the human race. I will quote just a           turned-every one to his own way.,' Upon which he con-
few.                                                          fidently declares, "And the Lord hath laid on him the
    "And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis        iniquity of us  .all." The "all" is limited by "us",
how great things Jesus had done for him; and all men          those of Israel who experience the fruit of that ac-
did marvel." Mark 5:20. Here the very context limits          complished work in their hearts. They "all" without
the "all men" to the people of Decapolis. But even so,        exception know that the burden of their sins is borne
no one would insist that this statement must be inter-        away.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   26i

   We hear that. same triumphant confession from the         of Christ all who are in Christ are justified, even with-
lips of Paul in Rom. 8:32, "He that spared not His own       out exception.
Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not          Therefore when we read in Hebrews  2:9 that Christ
with him freely give us all things ?" Do not fail to         tasted death for "every man", nothing is said in the
notice that Paul is perfectly confident that, since God      statement as such just who are included. But it does
delivered up His own Son, for us, he will also surely        become evident from the next verse that this "every
give us all the benefits that Christ merited, even the       man" includes every single son of God.           Because
full salvation of life eternal.                              God's very purpose in the suffering of Christ was to
   Obviously the same thing is taught in Romans 5:18.        bring "many sons unto glory."
"Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came               Any student of Scripture must see that Christ is
upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteous-      always the center of God's revelation to us. He is the
ness of one the free gift came upon all men unto jus-        Firstborn among many brethren, Who will unite all
tificition of life." Here the comparison is made be-         things in heaven and on earth in Himself in the new
tween the legal solidarity of the human race in Adam         creation to the glory of the Father. He fully recon-
and the legal solidarity of God's people in Christ. By       tiles all things in heaven and on earth unto God, the
the offence  of one man all who were included in him         wicked excluded. Col.  1:20. And there is no reason
came under condemnation. And by the righteousness            why that cannot be preached on the mission field.



  THE CHURCH AT  WORSHIP-                    `0 worship the Lord in the beauty  of  holiness.'
                                                                                Psalm  90:9a


                    Assurance  Of Covenant Membership

                                               by Rev. G.  Vanden Berg

   We have been considering the purpose of the               you, this do in remembrance of Me; in like manner
institution of the Lord's Supper from the viewpoint          also after supper He took the cup, gave thanks and
of its objective significance, as set forth in the suf-      said, Drink ye all of it; this cup is the new testament in
fering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. This all-         my blood, which is shed for you and for many, for the
important aspect of the sacrament may not in any way         remission of sins; this do ye as often as ye drink it in
be minimized. In all that takes place in this celebration    remembrance of me': that is, as often as ye eat of
we must be brought to see the Christ of Scripture as         this bread and drink of this cup, you shall thereby as
He executes the eternal counsel of redemption. The           by a sure remembrance and pledge, be admonished and
aim of this ordinance of God is to "remember Him             assured of this My hearty love and faithfulness towards
by it".                                                      you; that, whereas you should otherwise have suffered
   There is, however, another viewpoint from which           eternal death, I have given My body to the death of the
we must consider the institution of the Lord's Supper.       cross, and shed My blood for you; and as certainly
A mere objective contemplation of the realities of the       feed and nourish your hungry and thirsty souls with
suffering of Christ, climaxing in His death for sin and      my crucified body, and shed blood, to everlasting life,
crowned with His glorious resurrection, is not ade-          as this bread is broken before your eyes, and this cup
quate. The benefits of His perfect work must be made         is given to you, and you eat and drink the same with
ours, and we must, through this very sacrament, be           your mouth, in remembrance of Me."
assured of our membership in His covenant. It is                Of significance here is the fact that the Communion
imperative that we see how the benefits of Christ's          Form speaks of an "admonition and assurance". These
redemptive work are applied in and through the Lord's        are not to be divorced, for reality is, that assurance
Supper unto us. Only then can the celebration of this        that we are partakers of the benefits of Christ can be
sacrament be to our spiritual profit.                        had only in the way of hearing and heeding the admoni-
   With this in mind we would consider the following         tion.    God works through the means of admonitions.
significant paragraph of the Communion Form:                 This same approach is found in our Heidelberg Cat-
   "And that we might firmly believe that we belong          echism in Lord's Day 28, where the question is asked:
to this covenant of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ, in         "How art thou admonished and assuved in the Lord's
His last Supper, took bread, and when He had given           Supper, that thou art a partaker of the one sacrifice of
thanks, He brake it, and gave it to His disciples and        Christ, accomplished on the cross, and of all His
said, `Take, eat, this is My body which is broken for        benefits?" Here also it is through the admonition that


                                             THESTANDARDBEARER

the assurance of being partaker of His benefits is            believe that in the institution of this sacrament Christ
attained.    And then it is also worth while to note the      gave the command to us, as well as to His disciples,
answer of the Catechism to this important question.           that we-should take the bread and eat it as representing
It points us to the admonition when it states: "That          His body that was broken for us and the cup which is
Christ has commanded me and all believers, to eat of          the new testament of His blood?
this broken bread, and to drink of. this cup, in remem-          Believing this, the sacrament of Holy Communion
brance of Him." Unless we can do this, that is, eat           affords us with a wonderful and rich assurance..
and drink Christ by faith, the observance of the out-         Christ Himself pledges to us His hearty love and
ward sacrament cannot afford us any assurance of              faithfulness .    He assures us that whereas we should
salvation. We must hear the Word of Christ, address-          have suffered eternal death, we need not die, for He
ing Himself to us, calling us to come to Him, to              has given His body to the death of the cross and shed
believe on Him, to eat and drink Him. Only when we            His blood for us. In that sacrifice He has accom-
have heard and heeded this command of Christ are we           plished complete and perfect salvation for us. And
receptive to the comforting and assuring promises             although, as our Belgic Confession expresses it,
contained in the sacrament and which the Catechism            "though the manner surpasses our understanding, and
delineates as follows:                                        cannot be comprehended by us, as the operations of
   "First, that His body was offered and broken on            the Holy Ghost are' hidden and incomprehensible,"
the cross for.me,  and His blood shed for me, as certainly    nevertheless, we are confidently assured that Christ
as I see with my eyes, the breadof the Lord broken for        will certainly feed and nourish our hungry and thirsty
me, and the cup communicated to me; and further, that         souls with His crucified. body, and shed blood, to ever-
He feeds andnourishes my soul to everlasting life, with       lasting life, as the bread is broken before our eyes,
His crucified body and shed blood, as assuredly as I          and the cup is given to us, and we eat and drink the
receive from the hands of the minister, and taste with        same with our mouths, in remembrance of Him. This
my mouth the bread and cup of the Lord, as certain            is our assurance that He has taken us into His ever-
signs of the body and blood of Christ."                       lasting covenant and makes us partakers of all its
   One of the purposes  ,of the Lord's Supper is to           benefits. And when you can leave the table of the Lord
assure believers of these wonderful realities. It first       with that confidence, you have been blessed with all
directs faith to the objective work of Christ, accom-         spiritual blessings in heavenly places.      Then your
plished through all his sufferings and death, and then,       cup runs over and your joy is full. In this confident
by means of the admonition of the Word, it applies the        assurance you can meet all the vicissitudes of the
benefits of this work subjectively to the hearts of the       present life, glory in tribulation and wait with patience
children of God.                                              for the day of victory in which sin and death shall be
   This does not mean that the application of the             swallowed up forever. Let us remember that it is to
benefits of the Lord's Supper is dependent upon our           this end, for this purpose, that the Lord has instituted
acceptance of the Word of Christ as though our heeding        His Supper. Do not construe this purpose or end as a
His Word were a condition or pre-requisite for the            mere idealism, a vain wish, an impotent desire but
impartation of the benefits.      On the contrary, our        remember that this is also reality, for Christ is the
hearing the Wordy and heeding it, or, in other words,         Sovereign Lord Who always accomplishes His purpose.
our believing Christ's instruction, is already the fruit      It is not something which Christ attempts to do, but it
of His grace and marks the beginning of the process in        is that which He sovereignly works. If then the cele-
which all the blessings of salvation are ultimately           bration of His Supper does not bear this fruit in us,
received. The point is. that without this beginning there     there is something wrong with us that necessitates an
can be no process., Further, the point is that the            immediate and thorough self-examination. Even as the
benefits of the Lord's Supper are not designed for            evidence of this fruit demonstrates the reality that we
everyone but are bestowed by. the Spirit of Christ only       are "in the faith", its absence points indubitably to a
upon- those who are believers, and faith is brought to        very serious spiritual deficiency in our lives.
manifestation, not through mystical and emotional                 In conclusion then we would have you note that the
devices, but by the hearing of the Wordof God. Always         Lord works this assurance in His people by directing
God works assurance in the hearts of His children, not        their faith to Himself.      Thus we quote further our
apart from but through His Word.                              beautiful Communion Form:
   This is also the. teaching of our Canons. In Chapter
V, Article 10 we confess:                                         "From this institution of the Holy Supper of our
   "This assurance, however, is not, produced by any          Lord Jesus Christ, we see that He directs, our faith
peculiar revelation contrary to, or independent of the        and trust to. His perfect sacrifice (once offered on the
Word of God; but springs from faith inGod's promises,         cross) as the only ground and foundation of our salva-
which He has most abundantly revealed .in His Word            tion, wherein He is become to our hungry and thirsty
for our comfort."                                             souls,   the true meat and drink of life eternal. For by
   The first question for us therefore is: "Can we            His death He hath taken away the cause of our eternal
hear the Word of Christ enjoining us in the sacrament         death and misery, namely, sin, and obtained for us the
to believe that He has instituted this Supper as a            quickening Spirit, that we by the same (Who dwelleth
remembrance of His death which is the only ,ground            in Christ as in the head, and in us as His members),
and foundation of our salvation?" Further, do we              might have true communion with Him and be made


                                                        THESTANDARDBEARER                                                             263

partakers of all His blessings, of life eternal, right-                      Spirit is grieved when, in the communion of saints,
eousness and glory."                                                         the brother is shunned, or despised, or maltreated.
   The picture is very-beautiful. Christ has removed                         Then there is no working of faith, but the works of the
the cause of our eternal death, namely, sin. He has                          flesh come to manifestation, and these works, which
obtained for us the living Spirit Who unites us in one                       are always corrupt, cause schisms in the body of
glorious body with Christ, the Head, and we the mem-                        Christ and destroy the communal life of the church.
bers.    To that body in all its members the Spirit of                       Because faith is not yet made perfect in us and the
Christ dispenses according as He wills, all the gifts                        flesh is strongly with us, we are `enjoined to seek the
and blessings of eternal life. By that same Spirit we                        Almighty God and Father of. our Lord Jesus Christ to
are then united in true brotherly love in one body and                       assist us in the exercise of `brotherly love through His
this love we `are to show, not only in word, but also in                     Holy Spirit.     By His grace we hear the admonitions
very deed toward one another. This communion of                              of His Word and walk as obedient children, enjoying
saints is the practical fruit of the true celebration of                     the full assurance that we are members of His` Cove-
the Lord's Supper.                                                           nant, that Christ died for us and rose again for our
    "Grieve not the Holy Spirit."                                            justification; and that we are heirs of eternal life.
   This is the command of the Word of God. And the

                                                        RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATHY
                                       The Mary Martha Circle of the South East Protestant
                                       Reformed Church expresses its sympathy to three of its
                                       members, Mrs. Samuel Reitsma, Miss Audrey Reitsma
                                       and Mrs. Gerald De. Vries in the loss of the husband
                                       and father
                                                           MR. SAMUEL REITSMA
                                      But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to
                                       everlasting upon them that fear Him.                  Psalm 103:17
                                                                              Mrs. F. Ondersma, Pres.
                                                               Mrs. D. Van Der Schaaf, Vice Pres.


                            BOOK REVIEWS-

                                                                   The Kingdom of the Cults


THE KINGDOM OF THE CULTS, Wal-                  authority of Scripture as a criterion              ing what the genuine looks and feels
ter R. Martin, M.A., Zondervan Pub-             for measuring, either the truth or the             like; he then concludes that if the
lishing Co., Grand Rapids,  Mich.; 443          falsity of the cultist's claims. It be-            average Christian would again become
pages; $5.95.                                   comes         evident,      when  re,ading  his    familiar with the great foundations of
                                                book, that uppermost in his mind is                his faith he would be able to detect
   The  author is an ordained Baptist           the search for the answer to the basic             those counterfeit elements so apparent
minister, teacher in the famous New             question once asked by our Lord Him-               in the Cult Systems which set them
York Bible Class in the downtown                self, "What think ye of the Christ,                apart from Biblical Christianity. For
Baptist Church.      He lectures exten-         Whose Son is He?" His entire 17th                  the non-conformist, who likes to read
sively and has written volumes on the           chapter is devoted to ask this question            magazines from back to front, this
subject of Cultism.         As to his ortho-    from each of the major cults under                 book is ideal, for having read the first
doxy, we let him speak for himself:             his scrutiny.             We would recommend       three chapters he can read the other
"I stand on the ramparts of Biblical            the same approach to the serious                   twelve in any order he pleases. We
Christianity as taught by the Apostles,         reader who would "try the spirits                  read, "Father Divine", followed by,
defended by the church fathers, re-             whether they be of God". This book                  "Black Muslims" and "Baha'ism",  and
discovered by the reformers, and em-            will add to your enjoyment of the                  so on, according to the attraction they
bodied in what is sometimes called              rubric  .written  by Rev. R. C. Harbach            had for us.
"Reformed Theology" He reveals his              in our Standard Bearer.
extensive      knowledge      of the Holy               The book is written in a very                 With some minor reservations we
Scriptures which he uses to refute the               readable style, the- average reader           recommend this book to our readers.
false religions of the Cults.                   will find no difficulty with the lan-              We feel that having put the book down
   His approach to the subject is the           guage, will not find himself wading in             you will agree with the author, "that a
theological      evaluation of        their     murky depths of reasoning; the author's            careful consideration of the Biblical
teachings,. and the contrast between            meaning is always quite clear. His                 evidence will allow no other conclusion
them and Biblical theology, with the                 analogies are to the point, for instance:     than that Satan is the prime mover and
emphasis upon exegesis and doctrine.                 he notes that bankers are taught to           architect of the major cult systems".
He stresses throughout his work the                  recognize counterfeit money by learn-                                    J. M. Faber


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



                                       NEWS OF OUR  CHURCHES-

                                     February 15, 1966
   Rev. J. Kortering, of Hull, Iowa, declined the call                                   *  *  *
from Hudsonville.                                              The Northwest Iowa Protestant Reformed School
   Hudsonville has now called Rev. J.A. Heys from a         Society met in Doon's church Feb. 4 to discuss pro-
trio which included the Revs. M. Schipper and H.            posals of the Board regarding property and building.
Veldman.                                                                                 * * *
   Edgerton, Minn. has tendered a call to Rev. D.              Holland's Ladies Society met in the home of one of
Englesma of Loveland, Colo.                                 their shut-in members, Mrs. N. Jonker, of Muskegon,
   Randolph, Wis. has announced their newest trio:          the week of Feb. 6, in observance of her 89th birthday
Revs. D. Engelsma, G. Lanting and H. Veldman.               anniversary Feb. 12.
                          *  *  *                                                        * * *
   Prof. H.C. Hoeksema will begin a series of Lenten           Loveland's congregation has agreed to the consis-
sermons in March. The topics: March 6 - "Christ's           tory's proposal to add to their weekly budget another
Bruising and God's Good Pleasure"; March 13 - "Re-          envelope containing  5Oc per week per family for a
sponsibility at the Cross".                                 Building Fund.
                          ***                                                            * * *
   Jamaican News.      According to Synod's decision,          South Holland is using a new bulletin cover incor-
work has begun on the plan of conducting correspond-        porating a drawing of their new church by Mr. C.
ence courses with the ministers (and their consistory       Nymeyer . They expect to occupy the new building in
members) of the Protestant Reformed Churches of             May.        Installation of pews and yard work must be
Jamaica. Rev. J.A. Heys, of our SouthHolland Church,        completed before the dedication date.
is busy preparing and developing this course, using                                      ***
printed lessons augmented by tapes containing special          Rev. B. Woudenberg, of Lynden, Wash. is firmly
instructions to the students taking the course. The         embarked on his new project of holding weekly evening
Introductory Lesson found its way to our desk and we        study classes in his church. These sessions are devoted
share some of it with you. In it Rev. Heys explains the     to a study of Biblical doctrines, and are open to the
puvpose  and the  goal  of the course, and gives some       public. Recordings of the meetings are taped, and are
definite instructions to his scholars as to theirprepar-    available to those who are interested in this study but
ations for the course. With each lesson an assignment       who are unable to attend the classes. This is a free
of written work is given. The tape that accompanied         service offered by Lynden's consistory.        They an-
the first lesson began with a prayer for God's blessing     nounce that, "the program outlined in this first Intro-
upon this new venture, followed by an expression of         duction is designed.. .to guide those who wish to develop
Christian greeting from our P.R.. Churches. Then a          in the knowledge of the Word of God in an orderly study
friendly talk explaining the system which will be           of `Christian doctrine". Lynden, we wish you "God-
followed.    The Pueose  is to be that of assistance to     speed" !
the P.R. ministers in Jamaica in their ministry; to                                      *xc*
share with them the truth of Reformed faith along the          We lift from Southeast's Feb. 13 bulletin the fol-
strict Scriptural lines as drawn up in The Three Forms      lowing paragraph: "The Reformation Day Rally speech
of Unity. The Goal is the study of the development of       will soon be off the press. It may interest you to know
the church of God in the Old Testament period; and the      that we have received requests for copies from as far
development of the five basic truths of Scripture as        south as Bethany, Okla., and as far north as Manistee,
formulated in the Five Points of Calvinism-the em-          Mich.       If you wish a copy, send your name to Rev.
bodiment of the Reformed faith. The tapes to be re-         Schipper .     It will be reserved for you." We do not
turned will carry questions from the students regard-       doubt that Rev. Schipper will also honor requests from
ing their studies which are not clear to them. With         our readers; ask him1
words of encouragement to his far-off students Rev.                                      ***
Heys closed his first taped session with thanksgiving to       A Quote from Oak Lawn's bulletin, which is in turn
God for this opportunity to share our precious heritage     a  quote  from  Doon's Church Directory: "One of the
with His children in the Island of Jamaica. To date         strongest indications of the spiritual vitality of the
five lessons have been prepared, the first of which is      members of `the church is how well the various societies
already furrowing the foreheads of the solemn stu-          are attended. Well attended societies that have lively
dents starving for Scripture study. It would be inter-      discussions of the Word of God indicate that that church
esting to hear directly from the Jamaicans as to their      is full of living members."
reaction to this study course.                                 . ..see you in church.                         J.M.F.


