                                          he


                               I.
                               `.`, ,/_:.i c earer

                                     r


     A   REF'ORMED  SEMI-&lNTHLY  M A G A Z I N E





          Meditation - The Choice of Faith


          Editorials - Bob Jones's Bed
                      RES Regional Conference

          The Good Shepherd of Israel

            :
          All Arourid Us - Support For Arminianijm
I                        T h e   Future


                                                Volume XLI  / Number 14  / April 15, 1966


314                                                                                                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

                                                                 C O N T E N T S
 Meditation  -                                                                                                                                                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
       The Choice of Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                    314
               Rev.  J. Kortering                                                                                                                                                       Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
 Editorials  -
       Bob Jones'Bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .              316                   Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
               Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                       Editov-  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema a
       RES Regional Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                319
               Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                     Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
 Editor's Notes  -                                                                                                                                                                      Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
       Note of Thanks                                                                                                                                                                   Rapids,  Mich.       49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
       Speaking of Billy Graham                                                                                                                                                         words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
       Annual Staff Meeting                                                                                                                                                             lines are the first and fifteenth of the month.
       Note of Sympathy
       Dogmatics Publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                          319               All church news items should be addressed  toMr.  J. M. Faber,
 The Lord Gave the Word -                                                                                                                                                                     1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
       Efficacious Grace And Mission Preaching  _.........._..................                                                                                        320
               Rev. C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                            Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee includedmust
 A Cloud of Witnesses -                                                                                                                                                                 be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below;
       A Foolish Fast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .             322               All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
               Rev. B. Woudenberg                                                                                                                                                               Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
 From Holy Writ -
       The Good Shepherd of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                    325                                  Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
               Rev. G. Lubbers                                                                                                                                                             Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
 The Church at Worship  -                                                                                                                                                               received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
       Celebrating The Lord's Supper . . . .._.....__... . .._..._._........  . . . . . . . . . . . 327                                                                                 scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
               Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg                                                                                                                                                                      Subscription price: $5.00 per year
 Contending for the Faith  -
       The Providence of God . . . . . .._._........_.....................................                                                                            329                   Second Class Postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
               Rev. H. Veldman
 All Around Us -
       Support For Armenianism
       The Future                                                                                                                                                                                                    NOTICE
       The Public School Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                            331
               Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                                                                   South Holland Men's Society is in need of Vol. 6 and 7
 Examining Ecumenicalism  -
       I.C.C.C.  (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      333       of Rev. Hoeksema's studies in the Heidelberg Catech-
               Rev. G. Van Baren                                                                                                                                                ism.        Anyone who has an extra copy of one or both,
 Book Reviews  -
       The Morning Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                   335       please contact
               Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                                       John Haak, Sec'y
       Several Sovereign Grace Union Tracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                       335
               H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                       16061 Evans Avenue
 News From Our Churches -                                                                                                                                                                                           South Holland, Illinois 60473
       Mr. J. M. Faber . . .._........................................................... 336



                            MEDl7'ATION-

                                                                                                             The Choice  of Faith
                                                                                                                                                                    by Rev; J. Kortering

                                                                           `By  faith  Moses, when he was  come  to years,  refused  to be called the
                                                                     son of  Pharoah's  daughter; choosing rather to  suffer  affliction with the
                                                                    people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures  of  sin  for  a season, es teeming'
                                                                     the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt  for  he
                                                                    had respect unto the recompense of the reward."                                                                                            Heb.  11.~24-26
       Choose to suffer?                                                                                                                                                           Such a strange man is a man of faith. A man whom
       How absurd 1                                                                                                                                                             God has fashioned and groomed by His grace to make
    What man would do such a thing.                                                                                                                                             such a choice.
    I know, it's one thing to suffer when we have no                                                                                                                               Are you such? Do. you choose rather to suffer af-
choice. There are many who suffer a great deal, some                                                                                                                            fliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleas-
all their life.. The hospitals are full of such people;                                                                                                                         ures of sin for a season? Do you who are ripe with
many homes bear the groans of such  suffercng;  the                                                                                                                             age and seasoned with life's experiences make this
battle field is smeared with it. Such however, do not                                                                                                                           choice?        Do you fathers and mothers make this choice
choose it! This suffering is laid upon them by a higher                                                                                                                         in your homes and' with your children? Do you young
Hand than theirs. And many bear up admirably.                                                                                                                                   people who are filled with the zest of life make this
       Our text speaks of suffering by choice!                                                                                                                                  choice?
       That has especially preponderous significance when                                                                                                                          No, it's not easy. By faith it's possible.
the fact remains that they could choose otherwise1                                                                                                                                 Moses was one who made such a choice.
Over against that way of suffering, prosperity, popu-                                                                                                                              God had revealed to  Amram and Jochebed that Moses
larity, fame and pleasure lie before them. But, they                                                                                                                            was a special child. We read in Scripture, "And they
reject these and choose suffering.                                                                                                                                              saw him that he was a goodly child". Recognizing that


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  1315
God has a special purpose with their new-born son,                As such you understand Egypt represents the world
they defied the order of Pharaoh and did not throw him        of all times. Today it is no different. Look at Ameri-
into the Nile River as commanded. For three months            ca and Europe: you will find the same lust for power.
they hid him and finally contrived the scheme to place        Oh how we boast of our first-rate military prepared-
him in the basket and float him on the Nile River near        ness, our fighters, our missiles, our bombs, and even
to the place where Pharaoh's daughter would come to           our manpower.        How the world dreams of one great
bathe.      God overruled these plans and provided for        united world  power1  How the same world boasts of its
Moses' safety when He caused the babe to cry and              great educational systems, its science, its schools, its
aroused the compassion of Pharaoh's daughter. As              methods in learning; it's all "progress". We are rich,
hopefully planned, Moses was taken back to be nursed          in fact the richest country in the world. And Egypt of
by his own mother. These must  havebeen two or three          this day offers everything to  m.ake  it even better. Join
precious years in which Moses' parents put forthevery         Egypt's unions and work 35 hours a week with twice as
effort to instruct their son in the promises of the cove-     much pay. Look to the government of Egypt for secur-
nant.     What God had said of Abraham was also true of       ity, social security, aid to dependent children, county
them, "For I know him, that he will command his chil-         welfare,  medicare  and what have you. Yes, with all
dren and his household after him, and they shall keep         the security of peace, prosperity, we can also add
the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the     pleasure.      Want fun? Join Egypt! With them you can
Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken         dance and  "sing" with a beat. With Egypt you can let
of him."                                                      your troubles and cares behind, forget your guilty
   After the early years of infancy, Moses was taken          conscience, drown it in alcohol and have fun besides.
into Pharaoh's court and became officially the son of         You don't even have to be seen by others enjoying the
Pharaoh's daughter. He was schooled in the best in-           pleasures of Egypt, just pop the cork at home and flick
stitution of learning. He entered into the courtlife of       the switch on the radio or T.V. or snuggle in a chair
the ruling monarch of Egypt.        He ate of the King's      with a book and have as much fun without even the
dainties and was favored by the whole land of Egypt.          bother of going out.
   It was when Moses was about 40 years old that                 By contrast we see the children of God. Our text
suddenly he made this choice of faith of which our text       identifies them as "suffering affliction". The whip
speaks. He must have faced a crisis. His education            lashed the backs of the Hebrew slaves. Muffled cries
having come to its conclusion, for in Egypt this educa-       of suppressed agony sounded as the oppressor's heel
tion was extended over a longer period of time, Phar-         punctured their flesh.       The fading horizon beckoned
aoh must have begun to make preparations to give              not a brighter day but a darkened night.
Moses a position of honor. Perhaps he was arranging              These Hebrews were not just another nation of
to give him a high position in the military, maybe in         people.      They were the people of God  ! Eternally God
government. Moses interpreted this turn of events as          had chosen them and their names were written on the
a threat to his position in relation to the Hebrews. All      palms of His hands. He loved them with an everlasting
through these years he had not forgotten the instruction      love. To them He had given the promises of the coming
of his parents; he knew he was to be numbered with            Savior of men. He blessed them greatly; God realized
Israel and perhaps he even knew he was to he instru-          His promise to them; He would make of them a great
mental in leading their exodus from Egypt.           This     nation and their seed would be as the stars of the
aroused him to make the choice of faith.                      heaven.
   He slew the Egyptian.                                         Yet, they were afflicted.
   You say, that was a choice of faith? That was  sin1           So it always is. Look at God's people today and do
He murdered.                                                  you see anything different? Be careful that you look at
   Indeed that is true. Nevertheless, Moses acted out         God's people  I Not all who are called- Israel are truly
of faith, a faith that as yet had to be schooled another      Israel.      All who stand with the faithful Hebrews of
40 years in the wilderness. It was wrong and the sub-         Moses' day surely bear a like load. There are not
sequent events make that clear, yet it was an act on          many rich among the people of God. It's usually hard
his part whereby he severed all connections with              for the people of God to find a job, and when they do
Egypt in order to be counted with the Hebrews, God's          their pay doesn't compare with Egypt's. While dwell-
people. This he did by faith.                                 ing in the midst of this world, Egypt usually has
                                                              something to say to God's people. It's not the kind of
   By this choice, Moses rejected Egypt. In his day,          language that appeals to our flesh  - mockery derision,
Egypt had established herself as a powerful nation.           and speaking evil.       Somehow we don't fit into their
Militarily, the armies of Pharaoh had distinguished           frame of mind, they don't care to have us around.
themselves by their trained horsemen and clever foot             To be sure, if we will only grant them the right to
soldiers able to handle the sword. Egypt was one of           live as they please, we will at least be able to get
the great centers of learning. In science and letters         along.     If we only say that everyone is entitled to live
she stood second to none. She was rich: the treasures         as they see fit and we all must have the right of free-
of grain and fruits abounded in the Nile valley. Yes,         dom of speech, even the freedom to curse God and
along with all the rest, and it usually is that way, Egypt    mock His commandments, we will at least be given a
also had all the pleasures of sin. In her luxury she          place on their streets. If we however, speak out against
bathed in depravity.                                          sin, confront that salesman who curses God, with the


316                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

testimony of the Holy God, speak to that man who vio-          by faith to remain single until God opens the way. We
lates the Sabbath day, condemn the evil practices of           rather belong to a small church which preaches the
the world, expose the hypocrisy of the apostate church         truth and for this remains small and does not appear
and you will soon feel the hot breath of wrath and             on the ecclesiastical census, than to be big and spirit-
condemnation.  F,or Christ's sake we suffer.                   ually empty.     By faith we choose to be honest and
       We must choose between the pleasures of Egypt           make a living honorably before God rather than cheat
and the afflictions of the people  .of God. On the one         and steal our neighbor's property, In our worship,
hand you have Egypt - all that appeals to the lust of the      our speech, our whole life, we choose to be counted
flesh and with it the just condemnation of the righteous       with those who live in the favor of God rather than
God.       On the other we find the people of God-the          those who live in the pleasure of Egypt.
sufferings and trials of the pilgrim who will pass through      It doesn't make  sense1 Choose to receive smaller
this world on the way to the city of God. The choice           wages, choose to remain unmarried, choose to spend
is either God or man.                                          our money on the things of the Kingdom of Heaven as
       We can't avoid this choice. We can't say, `I'll just    manifest in the church and forego the pleasures of
not choose." That's impossible, for no matter what             life?    It is the choice of faith1 This faith values the
we do we make a choice and that choice is either               friendship of God above all else and will bring into sub-
Egypt or Israel. Neither can we say, "I'll have both".         jection all of life in the service of the God whom we
That may be appealing, but it is so wrong, for in think-       love.
ing we can have both we will inevitably lose our con-              Such faith considers the reproach of Christ greater
nection with Israel, God's people. If we imagine that          riches than the pleasures of Egypt. You see, our sys-
we can he counted as God's people. and at the same             tem of values is different from Egypt.           At the top of
time join Egypt with the supposed intention of witness-        the list appears the name of our God, under that our
ing to Egypt, our witness will come to naught. Imagine         Lord Jesus Christ, and under that our fellow saints in
the folly of Moses thinking that he could choose Egypt         this world. These three form the grand triumverate of
and thus try to "convert" Egypt to follow the God of           the Covenant. If, for the sake of God in Christ and the
the Hebrews. That never works.                                 brethren we must suffer, we count it all joy. In that
                                                               suffering we have the seal of our divine calling. Jesus
       We must choose either  - or. Moses chose the suf-       reminded us, "They have hated me, they will hate you
fering Hebrews over against the throne of Egypt. We            also." There is something wrong if Egypt is our friend
make that choice from infancy to the grave. We make            and not our foe. Suffering at the hand of Egypt is our
the choice of faith when we reject "friends" who wallow        assurance that we are in the right camp.
in the mire of filth and pleasure. Instead of singing             Finally, we with Moses have respect unto the rec-
the songs- of Egypt, we sing Jehovah's praise. Instead         ompense unto the reward. There  is life after death.
of the pleasure of the cinema, we find the pleasure of         For Egypt that existence is terrible, it makes us
God's Divine Revelation. In determining our place of           shudder, it is called in God's Book,  hell1 For the
work, if a prospective job will not allow us to worship        children of God who suffered at the hand of Egypt, it
on the Sabbath day, if we would be required to forsake         is called heaven. What a contrast  1
the church and  .move to some distant place, if we have           May we' through that faith which joins us to Christ
to join the union, we say by faith, "No". We will work         from Whom flows  all the necessary wisdom and grace,
for less money, have more difficulty, but our God              make this proper choice.
comes first  1 Rather than marry a young man or wo-               This choice is not of man, it is of faith!
man with whom we cannot be joined in faith; we choose             That faith is the gift of God.



              EDITORIAL-


                                           Bob Jones's Bed

                                                by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

       The reader will recall that recently an editorial       of the fact that Bob Jones, Jr., (and Bob Jones  Univer-
attempt was made by Dr. Jerome De Jong to put me to            sit-y) was opposed to Billy Graham, as well as of the
bed with Bob Jones. This was done on the basis,  un-           reasons for this opposition. Only, from my general
doubtedly, that both Bob Jones, Jr., and I have opposed        knowledge of this individual and this school, I was
Billy Graham's activities.                                     quite certain that Bob Jones's bed was too short that I
       At the time, I must confess, I was wholly ignorant      could stretch myself on it, to employ a Biblical figure.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     317

Recently, however, there has been no small furor, both            Jr. (the present president of Bob Jones University),
in  the. religious and in the secular press, about Billy          and also his father, Bob Jones, Sr.
Graham's Greenville (South Carolina) Crusade and                        Both are rankly wrong on many of the great truths
about the opposition of the Joneses thereto.           And        of God's word. On the subject of the church they are
through the abundant publicity given to the matter in             farther from the truth than the North Pole is from the
the press, I have gained information, and, at the same            South.    This goes for the majority of the doctrines of
time, an insight into the real nature of said attempt to          grace.     I have heard Bob Jones Sr. make fun of the
put me to bed. Moreover, as I had expected, the facts             doctrine of election, from the pulpit, and also the doc-
                                                                  trine of security. He claims to believe the latter, but
also showed that Bob Jones, Jr., and I were not, un-              minimizes its worth in a way that makes one doubt how
beknownst to one another, sleeping in the same theo-              much he really believes this truth.
logical bed.                                                            Be that as it may, though we have differed with
   Meanwhile, this matter of theological beds is indeed           these two in many many instances, it is good to see
more serious than humorous, let us remember. In                   them take a stand against the so-called evangelistic
fact, I would suggest that it can become rather night-            efforts of Billy Graham.      I sincerely commend this
marish, if I may carry the figure a bit farther. More-            article and trust that God may bless it to the good of
over, although I did not state this when I last wrote on          our readers, and I do this with our sincere apprecia-
the subject, I had the distinct impression that my critic         tion to Bob Jones Jr. for having written it.
was attempting to sleep in two beds at the same time,             The Chapel Talk in question is too long to quote
- a Reformed bed and a Fundamentalist bed. Now that            here.     I will summarize its points and quote as neces-
is, to say the least, rather uncomfortable. Still more,        sary.
it is utterly inconsistent. Above all, it is highly danger-       1. This attitude of Bob Jones University was first
ous: for he who attempts to lie in two beds at the same        expressed in November of 1956 as an attitude of non-
time runs the risk, certainly, of falling between the two      cooperation and non-endorsement.
and landing on the floor with a thud. In other words,             2. This attitude is not based on any personal dif-
this all comes down to the same conclusion I have              ferences between the Joneses and Billy Graham, but
stated before: for Reformed churches to support the            is rather based on Billy Graham's "ecumenical `evan-
teaching and preaching of Billy Graham is to engage            gelism' " as being unscriptural. Graham is charac-
in ecclesiastical suicide.                                     terized as guilty of "Scriptural disobedience."
   This accounts for my interest in Bob Jones's bed.              3. To substantiate this charge, reference is made
   There have been many reports about the rift between         to the following:
the Joneses and Billy Graham.          The secular press          a) Cliff Barrows (a graduate of Bob Jones U.),
carried reports about it. In  Christianity Today,  April       though formerly "so separated. .  .that he did not like
1, 1966, there was a rather slanted report of the Green-       to attend a Southern Baptist church," now "goes any-
ville Crusade and of the Joneses' opposition thereto,          where to any kind of church-orthodox or heretic."
as well as an accompanying "news" article which                Cliff Barrows is the song leader of Graham's crusades.
makes several totally irrelevant observations about               b) "Billy Graham has said he would go anywhere
Bob Jones University. And in Carl McIntire's  paper,           under any sponsorship." And again: "That statement
Christian Beacon,.  an editorial is devoted to the same        is as broad a statement as one can conceive. He did
subject, an editorial which makes reference to two             not say, `I would go to any Bible-believing church.' He
(reproduced) Associated Press dispatches, one of which         said, `I will go anywhere under any sponsorship."' In
briefly reports the opposition of Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., to       this connection Jones accuses the Graham public rela-
Billy Graham's crusade, and the other of which reports         tions department of unscrupulousness, deceit, misdi-
the fact that Dr. L. Nelson Bell (father-in-law of Graham      rection, and false statements when they state that
and Executive Editor of  Christianity Today)  classifies       Graham does not go under modernistic sponsorship,
Bob Jones with the Pharisees and a certain  Dr.  Colin         that he does not "sponsor" them and they do not
Williams (a liberal, NCC opponent of Graham) with the          "sponsor" him.
Sadducees.   McIntire, of course, being an arch-opponent          c) Billy Graham had a Roman Catholic Bishop on
of the NCC and WCC and the arch-proponent of the               the platform in a South American country who made
ICCC, supports Bob Jones in this fuss. All these re-           the sign of the cross over the converts as they came
ports, however, were partial. They did not fully state         forward.     In this country Graham called on Cardinal
the position of Jones and his university. In one of our        Cushing, who was quoted as saying in effect to Billy
exchange papers, The Baptist Examiner,  March 12,              Graham, "I am glad to have Catholics go to hear you
1966, I found the complete statement by Jones himself.         preach because you make better Catholics out of
This was a Chapel Talk delivered by Bob Jones Jr.,             them."
on Feb. 8, 1965, soon after plans for the Greenville              d) "Billy Graham went into Southern California and
Crusade were announced.                                        had as honorary chairman of his committee Bishop
   Rather revealing is the introduction which  The             I<ennedy.    He is a rank, unbelieving, agnostic,  Christ-
Baptist Examiner  gives to this Chapel Talk:                   denying Methodist bishop; and yet Billy Graham's or-
       I never thought that I would ever carry anything        ganization tried to make it appear that his crusade was
   written by the leaders of Bob Jones University, to          under the control of Bible-believing folks and that these
   place my stamp of approval upon, and to commend.            liberals did not wield any authority. Whether they
   Through the years I have held up to ridicule Bob Jones,     wield any authority or not, Billy Graham gives them


318                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER

Chdstian  recognition and has  them,on  the platform to               We may point to the following:
pray over the meeting and calls them `brother'; and he                    1. There is not a single reference in Jones's ar-
refers the `decision'. cards  .of the professed converts              gumentation to Billy Graham's doctrine. Tacitly the
over to them. That is unscriptural. You are not to                    speech assumes, in fact, that' in his preaching Graham
turn the lambs over to the wolves. You are to protect                 is a Fundamentalist.
the lambs from the wolves." In this same connection                   2. The thrust of Jones's attack is against the
Jones states: "`The whole policy of the Graham or-                    "ecumenical" character of G r ah am  ' s evangelism,
ganization is effective in breaking down all the lines                against the fact that Graham will accept the sponsor-
set up between truth and error, between belief and un-                ship of anyone, that he will associate with avowed lib-
belief; and it is contrary to God's Word, which demands               erals and Roman Catholics in his crusades, and that
separation."                                                          in, all these policies he is not following a policy of
        e) Jones refers to a personal conversation occa-              Scriptural separation.
sioned by the fact that a film presenting Graham was                     In other words, Dr. Jones claims  that Billy  Graham
run in commercial theaters along with regular Holly-                  is not a good, consistent, separated Fundamentalist!
wood productions. In this personal conversation Mrs.                  This is the whole burden of Jones's opposition.
Graham is alleged to have said, "We have made up our                     On the other hand, my recent criticism of Graham
minds that we are not to call the righteous but sinners               w a s :
to repentance, and we are going to go just as far as we                   1. Not characterized whatsoever by references to
-can as long as we do not lose the prayer support of the              Graham's associations with liberals and Roman Cath-
Bible-believing Christians."                                          olics and his apparent willingness to be sponsored by
        f) After warning the students that the Graham                 anyone at all.
Crusade was off limits for them, Jones makes refer-                      2. But was characterized by criticism of Graham's
ence to Graham's associating with Bishop Pike:                        doctrine, and that too, from a Scriptural and specific-
                                                                      ally Reformed viewpoint. On that ground I criticized
           You see, they make it  ,appear that we do not want
   the modernists to  hear the Gospel. That is dishonest.             Graham's doctrine of the new birth and of total
        That is Jesuit reasoning; that is sophistry; that is          depravity.
        deceit.    We say,  let  them go; but let them  sit out in       In other words,  I criticized Graham because he, was
   front with the rest of the sinners  where they are under           an Arminiun-Fundamentalist.  The whole burden of my
        the gun -- not sit on the platform and look pious and try     opposition was that Reformed people should not support
        to act as if they were Christians and have Billy Graham       Graham.       The whole burden of Jones's opposition
        say, "I am going to ask Bishop Pike to lead us in             might be said to be that  Fumikmentalists   cannot con-
   prayer." Pike is the man .who says he does not believe             sistently support Graham.
   the Creed. He "would rather `sing it' than say it." It                And now: who belongs in whose bed?
   is not quite such a big lie if he sings it. Pike sat on               Certainly, not I in Bob Jones's bed; nor he in mine !
   the platform in Graham's Bay area crusade, and Graham
   publicly congratulated the people of California on this               But as a good Fundamentalist Dr. Jerome De Jong
   Christian man who was to head the Episcopal Church                 might well ask whether perhaps he should hop out of
   in that area1 Graham sat in a choir stall of the Epis-             Billy Graham's bed and into Bob Jones's. For from a
   copal Cathedral in San Francisco when Pike was con-                Fundamentalist viewpoint Jones's arguments appear to
        secrated Bishop- by his presence he approved  ofthis          have no little degree of cogency.
   man; and he is the very man who, when Graham had                    Mark you well, I am not trying to put De Jong to
   been in New York a year or two before, had made fun                bed with either Jones or Graham. He is quite capable,
   of the crusade there. But Pike found it was good "to               I think, of putting himself to bed. In fact, I would far
   get on the band wagon." So he did, and Billy received              prefer to see him voluntarily forsake both Graham
   him with open arms. That is wrong1                                 and Jones,' and come happily into a Reformed bed,  -
        Jones concludes by repeating that he cannot support           for example, mine.                      -
Graham because Graham embraces liberals, the very
liberals who persecute those who have stood and fought
for the Gospel. And in a final paragraph he explains
that `if he prayed publicly for Graham the way he ought                             RESOL UTION OF SYMPATHY
to, that is, prayed for Graham's repentance and prayed                The Senior Mr. and Mrs. Society of the First Protestant
that Graham might be forgiven for disobeying the Word                 Reformed Church expresses sincere sympathy to 4 of
and for turning little lambs of God over to wolves and                our members, Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius Doezema and
for building the church of Antichrist and aiding and                  Mr. and Mrs. Leonard. Dykstra, in the death of their
abetting apostasy, etc., --then people would be madder                father and father-in-law
at him (Jones) than if he did not pray for Graham at
all.                                                                                    MR. BERT  DYKSTRA
        Such, in brief, was the substance of this Chapel              Psalm  91:1-2, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of
Talk of Bob Jones, Jr.                                                the  Most  High shall abide under the shadow of the
        Whether anyone agrees with. Jones or not is not now           Almighty.     I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge
the  question.                                                        and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust".
        But  from  this speech it certainly becomes evident                                     Prof. H. Hanko, Pres.
why Jones does not support and endorse Billy Graham.                                            Mrs. D.  Hauck, Sec'y.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  319



      EDITORIAL-

                         -RES Regional Conference
                                               by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

   At the request of Paul G. Schrotenboer, General             man, among others); Dr. Jerome De Jong (Reformed);
Secretary of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod, I am               Edmund P. Clowney (Westminster Seminary); Dr. J.  G.
calling attention to this North American Regional              Vos; Dr. G. Aiken Taylor (Southern Presbyterian), and
Conference of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod. I am              others.
doing so as a matter of information and because of the            4/ Fees range from $14.00 for lectures only to
interest of our churches in the RES. Our synod has             $24.00 to cover lectures, meals, and lodging.
on more than one occasion expressed interest in send-             5/ The conference is open to general attendance.
ing observers to the RES upon due invitation. Because          Dr. Schrotenboer writes: "This is an ecumenical con-
this regional conference, though not of a synodical            ference for `participants of many church communions,
nature, is nevertheless related to the RES, I deem it          for theologians, evangelists, `laymen', missionaries
of interest to our churches and our people.                    and pastors. The topics will challenge all and will be
   As far as the idea of the conference is concerned,          too difficult for none."
I learn from Dr. Schrotenboer's letter the following:             6/ Although this is not stated in his letter, I would
"The idea of the conference was born at the 1963               suggest that  anydne interested may write to Dr.  Schro-
Synod of the RES when the delegates sensed that North          tenboer for an informational folder and for a registra-
American Christians, especially those who share like           tion form. Many, if not all, of our ministers have al-
precious faith, should confer, listen unitedly to exposi-      ready received this information. The General Secre-
tions from the Word in today's eraof ferment, and draw         tary's address is: Dr. Paul G. Schrotenboer, 729 Upper
closer together as they strive with one mind and heart         Gage Ave., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
for the faith of the gospel." I take it, therefore, that
this conference is strictly of a non-ecclesiastical nature.       I will not make any kind of predictionas to what one
   As far as information is concerned, I can pass on           will hear at this conference; nor do I intend to make
the following items:                                           any advance judgment. I only want to suggest that since
   l/ The conference is scheduled for July 26-28 at            our churches have expressed interest in sending ob-
"Knollcrest" (Calvin College's new campus) in Grand            servers to the RES, this would be an opportunity to ob-
R a p i d s .                                                  serve and somewhat "to get the feel" of the RES in an
   2/ The theme, to be developed in various speeches           unofficial way. From this point of view, it would be
and a panel discussion is "Christ or Chaos."                   good if some of our ministers and of our membership
   3/ Speakers and panelists are from various de-              could see their way clear to attend. Personally, I in-
nominations.     They include several Christian Re-            tend to do so if I can fit it into my summer schedule,
formed men (Dr. J. Nederhood, Dr. Gordon J.  Spyk-             D.V.


    EDITORIAL NOTES-




                                                by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

NOTE OF THANKS                                                 of attention in many circles, and our magazine is no
   A word of `thanks goes to  Torch and Trumpet,  organ        exception.    Be sure to note what "All Around Us" has
of the Reformed Fellowship, for including the  Stan,&&         to say on the subject in this issue. Watch for a series
Bearer  in its "Survey. .  ,An Annotated Guide to Certain      of articles by Rev. R .C. Harbach in "Trying the Spirits."
Magazines Current Among the Presbyterian and Re-               This will be a rather detailed critique, and it is sched-
formed Churches." This survey calls attention to our           uled to begin in our July issue. How do I know? Rev.
February 15 issue, particularly to four articles appear-       Harbach is always far ahead of schedule with his
ing therein. Our Standard  Bearer  likes to be noticed,        articles.
and we thank "T and T" for this publicity.                     ANNUAL STAFF MEETING
SPEAKNG   OF BILLY GRAHAM. . .                                    Annually, our Standard Bearer Staff meets at the
   Billy Graham, as usual, receives a goodly measure           time of our synodical meeting in June. Although this


320                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

may seem rather far off yet, that time will soon be              I believe the entire staff would join me in expressing
here.       At this meeting the Staff makes plans for the        this word of sympathy to our faithful business mana-
new volume-year of our magazine. Your editor sug-                ger, Mr. James Dykstra, in the recent death of his
gests to his fellow editors that they give some thought          aged father, Mr. Bert Dykstra, who passed away
to possible improvements to be decided upon at that              rather suddenly on Wednesday, March 30. May our
meeting.       We also invite our readers to send in any         God comfort the bereaved.
suggestions which they may have. The Standard  Bearer
is not interested in change for change's sake, but in            DOGMATICS PUBLICATION
changes that are improvements; and we are always                    Many of our readers are undoubtedly interested in
willing to listen.       Any of our readers who has sug-         progress being made on this project of publishing the
gestions as to contents and department-alignments                late Rev. H. Hoeksema's dogmatics. By the time this
may write to the editor, and his suggestions will re-            appears in print the last bit of typesetting will have
ceive due consideration.                                         been completed. After this, there remains the work
                                                                 of proof-reading and indexing before we actually go
NOTE OF SYMPATHY                                                 to press.     Our readers may look for announcements
       Although this is not a formal resolution of the staff,    of a pre-publication sale in the near future.



  THE LORD GAVE THE WORD- . . . . PS. 68:11


                          Efficacious Grace
                                                 and Mission Preaching

                                                     by Rev. C.  Hank0

   Efficacious grace is one of the fundamental truths            possible, since Scripture so emphatically teaches it on
of Scripture preserved for us by the Reformation and             every page, and the apostle Paul so confidently de-
maintained by the Calvinists. Calvinism confesses:               clares to the church, "By grace are ye saved through
       Sovereign predes tin&ion,  by which is meant that the     faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
God of all grace eternally decrees to lead His chosen            Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph.  2:8,9).
people to heavenly perfection in Christ, where they                 On the contrary, Arminians have always taken this
shall show forth His glorious praises forever; and that          as their maxim, even to the extent that it has virtually
also the wicked who are destined to perishin their sins          become a slogan with them. They proclaim it from
must serve toward the salvation of the elect.                    pulpit and in leaflet, they spread it in large letters
       Total Depravity,  which means that, apart from the        across billboards, or they blazon it in bright lights
saving grace of God, man is dead in  trespasses,and              over their tent or auditorium: Saved by grace! But in
sins, incapable of any good, also of accepting the               spite. of all their. emphasis on salvation by grace, they
gospel, and is prone to all evil.                                still deny this fundamental doctrine by applying their
       Particular atonement,  which signifies that God re-       own interpretation to the word `grace'.
veals His grace to His elect in the cross of Christ,                Grace, according to Arminians of every sort, is the
where justice and mercy meet together. God spared                willingness of God to make salvation available to all
not His Son, but gave Him as a ransom to redeem unto             men; God's offer of salvation to all, which remains
Himself a people that can enjoy and show forth His               contingent upon man's acceptance. Grace is effectual
praises forever..                                                only if man, on his part, shows a willingness to accept
   Efficacious grace,  by which we mean that God's               the profferred salvation.
grace is the power whereby God bestows upon His                     This was taught many years ago already in the Five
people the merited gifts of grace, to make them like             Articles of the Remonstrants, which were so strongly
unto Himself, beautiful and attractive before Him, that          condemned by our fathers in the Canons of Dordt,
they may live to His praise eternally.                           1618-19. The fourth article declares:
   Preservation  of  saints, which means that God pre-
serves His people in a living faith in the midst of trails                "That this grace of God is the beginning, continu-
                                                                     ance, and accomplishment of al.1 good, even to this ex-
and temptations, so that they grow in grace and are                  tent, that the regenerate man himself without prevenient
prepared for heavenly perfection.                                    or assisting, awakening, following and cooperative
   Now the Arminians have never openly denied this                   grace, can neither think, will, nor do good, nor with-
doctrine of salvation by grace. That is simply im-                   stand any temptation to evil; so that all good deeds or


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    3 2 1

   movements, that can be conceived, must be ascribed to      made that he denies human responsibility, has no
   the grace of God in Christ. But as respects the mode       message for the unsaved, preaches a powerless and
   of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible,    empty gospel.
   inasmuch as it is written concerning many, that they          Also the Christian Reformed Church in  1324 took
   have resisted the Holy Ghost, Acts 7, and elsewhere        the official position that the preaching of the Word is
   in many places."                                           a "general offer of the gospel." Prof. Dekker and
   Our first impression upon reading this article is          others conclude from this `that already there their
that it teaches emphatically that salvation is the work       church taught a universal love of God and a desire on
of God's sovereign grace  .with nothing of man in it.         God's part to make salvation available to all men.
The unwary may be deeply impressed by the fact that           They have stressed that it is simply impossible to
it speaks of the grace of God as "the beginning, con-         speak of two kinds of grace as two different attitudes
tinuance, -and accomplishment of all good." Natural           of God toward mankind, a common grace that does not
man can, according to the article, certainly do nothing       intend to save, and a special grace that does have as
toward his salvation. Even the regenerate man can             its intent to save. They maintain, and correctly so,
"neither think, will, nor do good."! He cannot as much        that grace must be saving grace or it is no grace.
as withstand evil without this grace of God. This grace       Only, of course, they insist that this saving grace is
must be first, must continue to operate in man, and           made  .available to all men-with the divine desire to
must follow up any good action that he can perform.           save all.
The article speaks of a "prevenient or assisting,                What else can anyone conclude from all this rea-
awakening, following and cooperative grace." Now all          soning but that grace is not irresistible? How can any-
that sounds like a strong emphasis on salvation by            one maintain a general offer of the gospel and still hold
grace. What more could anyone ask?                    -       the Calvinistic principle of efficacious grace?
   And yet this article is thoroughly Arminian and was           But what is the gospel message of the Scriptures ?
condemned as such by the fathers of Dordt who brand           It is high time that we seriously face that question.
it as "altogether  -Pelagian  and contrary to the whole          In doing so let us listen to the great missionary to
Scripture." (See our Canons, III and IV Head of Doc-          the Gentiles, the apostle Paul himself. He writes in
trine, Rejection of errors, article 7).                       Ephesians  1:3,  4a, as follows: "Blessed be the God and
   That also becomes evident from the- last part of           Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us
the article.     It is true that even there the free-will     with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
heresy is camouflaged as much as possible, but it             according as he hath chosen us in him before the foun-
still shows through.     After stressing that salvation is    dation of the world."
indeed of grace, the Arminians did not hesitate to add,          Some time ago I had occasion to refer to this same
"But as respects the mode of the  operatioI!   oft this       passage -to show that the apostle did not hesitate to
grace,  it is not irresistible."  True enough, this is a      preach sovereign election in the mission field and to
negative statement; they did not say that grace is            the newly organized churches. In fact, this glorious
resistible. But that is certainly what they meant! Nor        gospel of sovereign grace, rooted in eternal election,
did they say that man must accept the profferred salva-       so stirred the deepest recesses of his soul that he
tion, must be willing to be saved, and must also take         breathes forth a paean in adoration: Blessed be  God1
an active part in the work of salvation, or God can do           Now turning to this passage once more, we see that
nothing. But that was indeed the intent. Read the first       Paul ascribes the entire work of salvation solely to
part of the article once more in the light of that last       God in Christ. Anyone who preaches salvationby grace
statement that grace is not irresistible;.  -You see at       must preach that same glorious gospel.
once that the Arminians insisted on a free will in man.          Paul raises a doxology to "the God and Father of
They spoke of prevenient (going before, preceding)            our Lord Jesus Christ." Andthereasonfor this praise
grace; but they hastened to add that what they meant was      is, that God has  blessed Christ,  that is, God hasspoken
assisting grace. They spoke of an "awakening and fol-         His powerful, efficacious word of blessing upon Jesus
lowing grace," but they again added that they meant a         Christ.      That fact in itself is sufficient for the apostle
"cooperative grace." God is willing to assist and co-         to declare, "Glory be to the Father"!
operate with those who are willing to be helped. Do              God has blessed Christ! Let that be  preached,fp_r
you wonder that our fathers so strongly condemned             that is the very keynote of the gospel. That brings us
this error  7                                                 to the cross.        We are forcefully reminded that God
   This Arminianism is so common in the preaching             sent Jesus into the world to seek and to save that
today that one is hardly shocked by it any more. It is        which was lost. He became poor, that through His
not unusual to hear a minister speak of confronting           poverty many might be made rich. He humbled Him-
every. man with Christ, making overtures of grace,            self, took on the form of a servant, and walked the
offering Christ to the nations, and pleading with young       bitter way of shame and reproach that led to the cross.
and old to make a decision for Christ. And always the         In perfect obedience to the Father He bore the wrath
implication is that man must be willing to accept the         of God against sin all His life, but particularly on the
gospel in order to be saved.       Somehow he must show       cross.       He suffered torments of hell to deliver His
some token of willingness or `in some manner assist           people from the bondage of sin and death and to merit
toward his salvation.     And as soon as anyone insists       for them eternal life.
that this is contrary to the Scriptures the charge is            As a reward on this accomplished work of the
                                                                                                                           - -
                                                                                                                 _~


322                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

cross, God raised up Jesus, exalted Him to heavenly                 Preaching is never man's work. The power of the
perfection, and gave Him a Name above all names.                gospel is never dependent upon a well-organized evan-
God spoke His word of blessing upon Christ. He spoke            gelistic campaign or any other contrivance of man.
that word when He raised Him from the dead. He did              That does not mean that God does not use mere man to
so again when He exalted Him to a position of authority         preach the gospel, but the power of the gospel is al-
at His right  .hand. And He did so by bestowing on Him          ways the power of God, the work of grace operating by
the gift of the Holy Spirit. With that Holy Spirit God          the Spirit in the hearts of men. Salvation is the work-
also bestows on Christ all the blessings of salvation           ing of the power of God's might. It is that same Word
which He has merited by His death.                              of blessing that was so efficaciously spoken upon
       Therefore Paul can say that the God and Father of        Christ when God raised Him from the dead and exalted
our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us. Since Christ is           Him to heavenly power. It is that same working of the
our Head, and we are the members of His body, God               power of God's might that now draws His own out of
spoke that word of blessing upon us also when He                death into life. See Ephesians  1:19,20.
raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him to heavenly             Saved by grace, even efficacious grace, God's
power, by the working of the power of God's might.              grace! Saved by grace that is rooted in love, "accord-
When God blesses Christ with every spiritual blessing           ing as He hath chosen us in him (Christ) before the
Christ becomes the reservoir, containing and pouring            foundation of the world."
out all the blessings of salvation upon His church.
       Christ brings His gospel of salvation to His people.         An empty, powerless gospel? A cold, comfortless
He calls and sends His ambassadors to preach that               message? Paul did not think so. It is indeed devoid
gospel in His Name. And no one can preach except on             of all that is of man, but it is the power of God unto
the authority of Christ.      But Christ also applies that      salvation to all who believe, both to Jew and Gentile
preaching of the Word by His Spirit to the hearts of             according to sovereign mercy.
His people. The preaching of the Word is the means                  He that glories in that salvation must glory in the
of grace used by the Holy Spirit to work and strengthen         Lord !
faith in the hearts of His own.                                     Blessed be God!




        A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-



                                           A Foolish Fast

                                                 by Rev. B.  Woudenberg


                           And the men  of  Israel were distressed that day:  for  Saul  had adjured
                        the people, saying, Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening
                        that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none  of  the people tasted
                        any food. . .
                            ThensaidJonathan,  My father hath troubled the land; see, I pray you,
                        how mine eyes have been enlightened, because I tasted a little of this
                        honey.                                                  I Samuel  14124,  29

   The battle of. Jonathan with the Philistines at Mich-        numbers melted like snow before the rays of the sun.
mash was by every measure a miracle. He knew this               God was on Jonathan's side.
himself, for he had said to his armor-bearer before-                Moreover, there were in the camp of the Philistines
hand, "Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of             a good number of Israelites. Some of them were cap-
these uncircumcised: it may be that the LORD will               tives who had been taken by the forces of the enemy to
work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to           be held  .as hostages. And there were others who were
save by many or by few." And so, precisely, it had              deserters. They had become so discouraged under the
happened.       Two men by themselves plunged into the           aimless leadership of Saul that they had given them-
heart of the Philistine garrison. With their own hands          selves over to the enemy to be their slaves, figuring
twenty men of the enemy were slain; but not a sword             that would be the eventual outcome anyway. Quickly
touched them. Rather the swords of the Philistines              they observed something that they had never seen be-
were turned in confusion against their own ranks. Their         fore, the hand of God reaching down to work confusion


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 3 2 3

in the ranks of Israel's enemy,. and they recognized it      now to wait for an answer from Ahiah. Quickly Saul
for what it was. With hardly a hesitation, they stepped      called his men together and headed across the valley
forth to take up swords from the bodiesof  the slain and     between  Gibeah and Michmash.          But still, before they
to join themselves to the cause to which they really be-     went, there was one more element which Saul suddenly
longed. With them was none of the confusion which the        decided to interject. He told his men, "Cursed be the
Philistines felt, and by their hands many more of the        man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be
enemy were slain. The power of God was with them.            avenged of mine enemies," At last Saul had tasted the
   Meanwhile, a few miles away at  Gibeah, there were        exhilarating promise of a complete victory, and im-
still a few faithful watchmen keeping a wary eye on the      mediately he was determined to push it all of the way.
hill of Michmash and the garrison of the Philistines         He was not going to have his men lingering over the
encamped there.        They were quick to recognize the      booty and stuffing themselves with drink and good food.
very  ,earliest  signs of the battle. Although they were     To prevent it, he would proclaim a complete fast; and
too far away to discern the details of what was happen-      besides that ought to be a nice gesture adapted to
ing, it was evident enough that a battle was raging and      please the jealousy of Jehovah.
that the camp of the Philistines was being wiped out in             Saul was a pagan at heart. Fasting did have a place
utter confusion. Here was something they had never           and a practice in the Old Testament church, it was a
expected, and the joyful news they brought to their          very rich and moving evidence of repentance and sor-
king just as soon as they could locate him.                  row before the sight of God. But this Saul could not
   But to Saul this news was not so altogether wonder-       understand. He had come to the point where he thought
ful as might have been expected. Not that he didn't          it would be well for him to cultivate the favor of Jeho-
want the Philistines defeated and driven out of his          vah; but as far as repentance and sorrow for sin was
land. He wanted that badly enough. It was just that          concerned, these had no place in his heart or mind.
he didn't like those unexpected turns of events which        All he could ever see in any religious ceremony was a
he had not anticipated, and for which he very evidently      sort of ritualistic gesture which was sure to please the
could claim no credit. He wanted to know what was            gods and gain for himself thereby a magical power that
happening, and it irritated him to think that someone        would cause things to work in his favor. Behind what-
might have gone off to start something without first         ever he did was the scheming of his own self-centered
having consulted with him, the king. Before he did           ambition.       And himself lacking in common sense, the
anything, he wanted some answers. And the first thing        fast which Saul now called was completely without
he wanted to know was who was behind this all. And so        consideration for the needs of his men. It had value
once again he called for a numbering of the troops.          neither before God nor before men.
And besides, this would give him some time to decide                By the time Saul and his troops arrived at  Mich-
if it was-really safe now to move against the enemy.         mash, however, the battle itself was all but over.
   But there were only about 600 men left, and it            Countless Philistines had already died, and not even a
didn't take long to number them. The results were            token force remained united to' fight against Saul and
almost as Saul had anticipated, Jonathan and his armor-      his men.        Moreover, the news had already spread
bearer were missing, and they were the only ones.            throughout the area, and Israelite men were closing in
But even that didn't relieve Saul completely. It was         on Michmash from all directions. All that remained
true that Jonathan was his own son, and so the credit        to be done was to find and chase down the scattered
for this battle too would remain within the family. But      individuals who had once constituted the army of the
this was now the second time this had happened. After        Philistines.      But this in itself, although not especially
all, he, Saul was king; and it wasn't nice always to         dangerous, was hard and exhausting work. The ter-
have someone else stealing the glory even if it was          rain was difficult with hills and woods and rocky gullies
his own child.        And these things troubled Saul. It     and slopes. Every possible hiding place had to be
wasn't easy to be king. And he still wasn't sure that it     searched for fleeing Philistines, while the whole force
would be safe to go himself into battle.
   But then maybe all was not lost yet either. The
ceremonial calling on Jehovah for this battle had not
yet taken place. If he would do that, that was always                               FINAL NOTICE
worth something in Israel. And that would give him a                Those who desire to order one of the pictures of
little more time too.                                        the late Rev. H. Hoeksema should do so promptly. Be
   So Saul called for Ahiah the priest and said, "Bring      sure to include your name and address,  your$2.00,  and
hither the ephod of God." (Not the "ark of God" as in        your choice of picture No. 1 or No. 2. Send your order
the A.V.) But the attention of the people was not with       to:
Saul any longer. Everyone had their eyes on Michmash                         Mr. James Dykstra,
where the signs of battle and destruction were becom-                        1326 W. Butler Ave., SE,
ing ever more widespread. Even Saul's inexperienced                          Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
and  sceptical  eye could now see that the destruction of           Orders should be in not laterthan May 1.
the Philistine garrison was all but complete, and he
would have to hurry if he was going to play any part in
the battle at all.       Suddenly, his mind was made up.
They had to move and move fast. There was no time


   324                                            THESTANDARDBEARER

   of Israel pressed on as swiftly as possible so as to try        same time Saul was preoccupied with the desire to
   to overtake those Philistines which were still running          press on. The enemy was scattered and he wanted to
   and prevent them from regrouping somewhere before               prevent them from regrouping even if it meant they
  nightfall.                                                       should pursue through the night.      So he called for the
      It was hard and exhausting work,  and.soon  the men          priest to ask the will of God for him.
   of Israel, no matter how fresh they had been at the                But Saul had done foolishly, even wickedly, and God
   beginning, were tired, sore and hungry. But the word            would not allow it to rest. Thus to the inquiry of the
   had gotten around. With a curse, the king had forbidden        .priest God did not answer, an indication-that a sin had
   that anyone should take anything to eat before nightfall.       corrupted the nation.      Saul was troubled and angered..
   And so the-forces of Israel pressed on until the feet of        Immediately he demanded a casting of the lot to locate
   the men lagged from exhaustion and hunger. Of them              the sin and root it out. And, as is so characteristic
   all, Jonathan alone had not heard of his father's  com-         of a weak and unstable character, the first thing he
  mand, and he was hungry too. Thus it was rhat, as they           demanded was that he and his son should be justified.
  passed through a wood in which many swarms of bees               One can well imagine, therefore, the painful  embar-
   had made their hives, Jonathan thrust his rod into one          rassment of Saul when on the first lot he and his son
   of the honeycombs and ate the honey which he  ex-               were found to be guilty. Neither did it help a great
   tracted in this way. It was good and satisfying, and it         deal when the second lot revealed Jonathan to be the
_,  .revived  his lagging spirit.    Only then did one of the      guilty one and not himself. Saul was humiliated and
  men approach him and say, "Thy father straitly                   angry to the point where nothing else seemed to matter.
   charged the -people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the         Only then, as he might better have done at the  begin-
  man that eateth any food this day."              - -             ning, did he think to ask what the trouble was. Without
      Now suddenly Jonathan saw the reason why, during             hesitation, Jonathan answered, "I did but taste a little
   the afternoon hours, the press of the Israelites `upon          honey with the end of the rod that was in mine hand,
   the heels of the fleeing Philistines had lagged. The            and lo, I must die."
  men were weak from hunger. In dismay at the folly of                It was a sad day when Israel asked of Samuel a king
   his father Jonathan answered, ` `My father hath troubled        like those which the other nations  had; God heard
   the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been              their request and answered it. Saul was now that king;
  .enlightened,  because I tasted  a, little of this honey.        and he was altogether like the. heathen. He observed
   How much more, if  haply the people had eaten freely            the form of religion but had no feeling for the  great-
   today of the spoil of their enemies which they found?           ness of God  arid His forgiving love.       So here, even
  for had there not been now a much greater slaughter              Saul's natural love for his own child could not restrain
   among the Philistines?"                                        -him  -from the determination to have his will obeyed
      It was not until evening, however, that the most             and himself justified. Had he had  awhit of  understand-
   serious consequences became evident. For, as the sun            ing, Saul at this point might well have understood that
   approached its setting, the famished men stopped their          the trouble was not in the deed of Jonathan but in the
  pursuing completely. By now all they could think of              indiscretion of having threatened his men with a curse
  was food, and their whole attention was taken up in              in the first place.       But this was not Saul. His only
  locating some to eat. Then, at the .moment_  when the            answer was, "God  doso  and more also; for thou shalt
   sun was set and the curse of Saul. no-longer applied,           surely die, Jonathan."
   they fell upon the spoil. Sheep, oxen, calves, whatever            It was only the greater' discernment of the people
   they could find, were slain and eaten while they still          which prevented that day from ending in complete
   ran red with blood. And this was a terrible  thing;.for,        disaster.    With righteous indignation, they answered
  from its beginning as a nation, Israel had been strictly         Saul, "Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great
   commanded never to eat meat without draining first              salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the  LCRD liveth,
   the blood. (See Lev.  19:26)                                    there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground;
      Immediately, Saul, in his new consciousness of               for he hath wrought with God this day." And as the
   ceremonial observances, was disturbed, and he  com-             words left their lips, their hearts must'surelyhave felt
   manded that an altar should be built before which the           some of the foolishness which was theirs for having
-- people could slay the animals properly. But at the              asked for a king l?ke Saul in the first place.

                                                          CALL TO SYNOD
                     The Consistory of the  Doon, Iowa, Protestant Reformed Church hereby notifies that
                 the  1963 Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches will convene,  D.V., on Wednesday,
                 June 1, 1966 at 9:00 A.M. in our Doon Church.
                     The pre-synodical Prayer Service, conducted by the Rev. M.  Schipper,  will be held
                 on Thursday evening, May 31, 1966, at 8:00 P.M.  Synodical  delegates are requested to
                 meet with the Consistory before this service.
                     Delegates in need of lodging should contact Edward Van Egdom, Route 1, Box  40,
                 Doon,  Iowa 51235.
                                                             Consistory of  Doon Protestant Reformed Church
                                                             Rev. R. D. Decker, Pres.
                                                             Edw. Van Egdom, Clerk


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    325


     FROM HOLY' WRIT-

                The Good  Shepherd of Israel
                                                       John lO:l-39

                                                    by Rev. G. Lubbers

INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATIONS                                    relationship  ,of a good shepherd to his sheep! And we
    One of the more familiar and beautiful pastoral            hasten to add that in the Old Testament Scriptures
scenes` is that of the shepherd with his sheep. At all         already this figure of the shepherd and the sheep often
times this has caught the imaginative eye of artists           occurs.      And it is employed by the Lord to illustrate
and poets, whether such be believing or unbelieving.           the loving care of the Lord, who is Jehovah, toward his
Apart from the deeper meaning of the shepherd and             p-eople whom he loves and foreknows with an everlast-
his sheep there is a natural beauty about it that even         ing love.
the man with natural light can see. This makes the                For let it be stated most emphatically that the
Scriptural usage of this relationship of the shepherd          Scriptures teach on nearly every page that Jehovah is
and  his, sheep such an effective means to teach the          the SHEPHERD of Israel. He is such as He tabernacles
truth of the Gospel-story of God's covenant relation-         with His people in the place of gathering, the Old Testa-
ship to His people1                                           mental tabernacle. He dwells between the Cherubim of
   It is indeed very striking that so many of the better       the mercy-seat.       And as such he is the Shepherd of
known saints of the Old Testament Scriptures were             Israel in the blood of atonement and the ministry of
humble shepherds caring for their flock! In the early          reconciliation.    The festive throngs which wend their
dawn of history we meet with righteous Abel, who was          way up to Jerusalem from the far ends of the promised
a shepherd and who brought the firstlings of his flock        land lift up the prayerful song as recorded in Psalm
to the  .Lord for a sacrifice. After the Flood the Bible       80:1-3  "Give ear, 0 Shepherd of Israel, thou that
pictures to us the pastoral scenes of Abraham and Lot         leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between
grazing their flocks in the land, as pilgrims and stran-       cherubims shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin
gers. And who does not think of the flocks of a Jacob,         and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save
both in the land of Mesopotamia and later in the land of      us. Turn us ,again, 0 God, and cause thy face to shine;
Canaan, when mention is `made of sheep and shepherds.          and we shall be saved." And in Psalm 100 Israel is
And, to mention but one more, can anyone think of the          enjoined to worship the Lord and to "come before His
David, the ruddy youth, and not think of the shepherd         presence with singing." Why? The answer is so won-
boy with his sheep, protecting them by killing a lion         derfully given in the following "Know ye that the Lord
and a bear.? The beautiful imagery of Psalm 23 seems          he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we our-
to reflect very strongly the life of David, a shepherd         selves; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture
of  sheep1                                                     . . . .". And what child has not learned the incomparably
   It is  weil to remember that when God created-the          beautiful 23rd Psalm "The LORD is my shepherd I
world, the heavens and the earth, and all things con-          shall not want. . . . ?"
tained in the same, that he made all the earth to be a            We may safely assert that when Jesus came on earth
picture of the things heavenly and eternal. Wherefore         the waiting saints, who looked for the consolation of
when God in the flesh, Immanuel, walked upon earth            Israel, knew all about the Scriptural teaching that Je-
for thirty three years, he uttered many parables. Says        hovah, who dwells in the most holy place, is the Shep-
Christ, the chief prophet "The kingdom of heaven              herd of Israel. And when Jesus lifts up his voice, and
happens (comes to pass) in parables," Wherefore               cries, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
there is a symbolism in the animal world which often          house of Israel," the spiritual pulse of the believing
reoccurs in Scripture. Thus the ox is the symbol of           saints quickened with expectant hope that the Lord was
strength; the lion is the fearless king of the beasts;        visiting His people indeed. For was he not moved with
the eagle is the symbol of royal, serene majesty,             compassion because Israel and its multitudes were as
descending swiftly upon its prey. -And the serpent is         sheep not having a shepherd? Wherefore he began to
the symbol of what is wise and subtle. However, the           teach them many things.
sheep is the symbol of all that-is helpless, defenseless          A good case study of Christ as the good shepherd
and in dire need of protection, help and guidance. The        we have, amongst many, in his opening  of.the  eyes of
lost sheep cannot find his way back to the sheep-fold,        the man who was born blind. (John 9) How the shepherd
but will surely be slain by the wolves.  _    .-              leads this man to faith and salvation1 He commands
                                                              him to go to the pool of  Siloam  and wash the spittle of
   There. is no figure which-more graphically and             clay from his eyes.          He does so and he sees. And
touchingly portrays the loving and tender relationship        nothing can shake his faith that his eyes have been
of our heavenly Father to His people than that of the
                                                       . .    opened.       One thing he knows. He was blind, but now


326                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

he sees! This man who so opened his eyes must `be of          usual form and manner. John does not call it a parable
God. For his confession in Christ this man whose sight        (parabolee)  but rather it is called a proverb, an adage,
had been given him was cast forth from the synagogue.         a kind of dark saying. It is the term  paroimia.  Instead
Christ goes to seek him; he tells him who he is. And          of having one point of comparison, it rather is a com-
the man believes in him as the Son of man.                    parison which one must try to elicit from the proverb.
   This case shows that a better day had come. It was         It is something like the  Hebrew  Mashul. In the parable
that of which the Lord spoke through the prophet Eze-         are hidden meanings and teaching. They are in agree-
kiel, who spoke his woes upon the evil shepherds in           ment with the teaching of Scripture generally, but now
Israel, saying  ". .Thus saith the LORD God unto the          applied to a certain situation. It is not telling the truth
shepherds: woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do          "plainly" but veiled in a proverb.
feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the                There is one point which is rather strikingly placed
flocks!    Ye eat the fat and ye clothe you with the wool,    by Jesus on the foreground in this proverbial parable.
ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not  the flock".'      1~ is a depicting of the callingandoffice of the shepherd
In view of such shepherds the Lord prophesied through         of Israel in distinction from the evil shepherds who are
Ezekiel of a better day. Writes he "And I will set up         comparable to thieves and robbers who climb over the
one shepherd over them, and he. shall feed them, even         fence to destroy the flock. Christ and all the faithful
my shepherd David; he shall feed. them and he shall be        servants are as the shepherd of the sheep who enters
their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and         the sheepfold by means of the gate.        And all the evil
my servant David a prince among them; I the LORD              shepherds are like unto the thieves and robbers.
have spoken it." (Ezekiel  34:2,3, 23, 24)                        But we are anticipating.
       God himself must come into the flesh and be the            Let us take notice of the imagery of the proverbial
Shepherd of Israel! Then all the publicans and sinners        parable.
will come to hear him. The sheep will hear his voice;             The scene which Jesus portrays is very true to
they will hear the voice of God himself in that of the        life.    It is a pastoral scene in the life of shepherds in
Shepherd.     And they shall find rest for their souls.       the East. The sheepfold is a corral where each night-
                                                              ' fall the shepherds bring their flocks for the night.
THIEVES OR SHEPHERD?  (John  lO:l-6)                          The shepherds entrust the sheep to a doorkeeper at
   There is a solemnity here in this word of Christ           the gate. All the sheep of various flocks and shepherds
which we ought to heed and understand. Jesus intro-           are put together in one corral for thenight. But morn-
duces his teaching here in John  1O:l with the very ar-       ing comes. It is then that the shepherd comes to get
resting "Verily, verily, I say unto you"! It is note-         his sheep to bring them out to feed and to pasture.
worthy that Jesus employs this formula some twenty            When he comes in the morning he stands at the gate
five times in the Gospel of John. He never uses this          and he calls his sheep. He calls them by `name. Good
formula unless he would call special attention to a very      shepherds gave names to their individual sheep. And
important matter or issue of the kingdom of heaven,           to this call the sheep of a particular shepherd. respond
and of our life in the same.       Besides, it ought to be    by coming from among all the other sheep. They rec-
observed that this formula is never employed by the           ognize the voice of their shepherd.  Theywill not follow
Lord to introduce a new subject. It is ever to confirm        a stranger because they do not recognize the voice of
something concerning a subject already begun. It often        a stranger. Thus each shepherd cango before his sheep
is a reply against those who would contradict Jesus.          and lead them. Such is the picture in part.
And this verily, verily (Amen, Amen) is the end of all            The other part of the picture is that of the conduct
contradiction. It is a form of an  oath1                      of thieves and robbers. They do not come in the morn-
 How is this "Amen, Amen, I say unto you" to be               ing. In the deep of the night they come and crawl over
accounted for?                                                the fence to enter the sheepfold. Should they stand at
   He who  employ& this "Amen, Amen" is none                  the gate and call they would be detected by the door-
other than the faithful and true witness of God. He is        keeper as not being owners of the sheep in his custody.
the beginning of the creation of God. (Rev.  3:14) Let        Besides, should they stand and  call the sheep they
us not forget that formerly God spoke to the church by        would have no success. None of the sheep of the vari-
the mouths of prophets, but in these last days he hath        ous shepherds would follow such thieves and robbers.
spoken unto us by his Son. The prophets spoke the             These sheep will each follow but one shepherd. Hence,
Word of God saying "Thus saith the Lord". Christ              they will far less follow the voice of a thief. Besides,
speaks the Word of God and says ~"But I say unto you".        it would be pointless for a thief to call the sheep. For
Why? Because he is God in the flesh. He is Jehovah            his purpose is not to feed the sheep, but rather to kill
who dwells among his people. He is very really man,           and destroy the sheep for their own purpose of eating
and yet he is truly God. in one person. He spoke as one       them.
having authority and not as the Scribes. He made him-             Such a true to life illustration. It is a proverbial
self equal with God. He says: I and the Father are one.       parable which admirably fits the case at hand here. It
   This accounts for the very solemn and profound             is a fit interpretation of what was happening here when
"Verily, verily, I say unto you". He is speaking here         Jesus comes and stands in the gates of Israel in dis-
to the unbelieving Jews who had cast out the man who          tinction from what happens when the rulers of the Jews
was born blind. He tells them a parable which fits the        start casting the children of the king out of the
situation. However, the parable is not a parable in the       synagogue.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    327




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


                          Celebrating The Lord's Supper

                                                by Rev. G.  Vanden Berg

    The celebration of the Lord's Supper is throughout        about it. Neither do we need to apologize for any lack
 a  spiritual  exercise. This must be emphasized be-          of'superficial ritual that aims only to make an impres-
 cause, unless we eat and drink at the communion table        sion upon the observer. The clamor to add gaudiness
 in a spiritual way, our celebration is nothing but an        to the ceremony in order to make it more appealing
 empty formalism. If we in a physical way only partake        and impressive must constantly be suppressed, and
 of the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, we eat and       we must remain satisfied with the simple institution
 drink condemnation unto ourselves, for we have not then      as Christ gave it to His church. The criticisms that
 discerned the Lord's body. In the true sense of the          our simple liturgical practices do not fit in the ` `modern
 word there is no  celebration  of the Lord's death except    age" and the insistence that these "outdated customs"
 through faith, which is "the substance of things hoped       be discarded may not dissuade us from obedience in
 for and the evidence of things not seen". By it we           observing this sacrament in the manner Christ taught
 transcend all that is visible in the sacrament, and          us.      We maintain in our Confession, "Therefore we
 penetrate into a hidden world, where we lay hold of          reject all mixtures and damnable inventions, which
 unspeakable riches of communion with Christ.                 men have added unto, and blended with the sacraments,
    It is for this reason that, immediately before the        as profanations of them: and affirm that we ought to
 celebration of the sacrament, we are enjoined "to lift       rest satisfied with the ordinance which Christ and His
 our hearts up on high in heaven, where Christ Jesus is       apostles have taught us, and that we must speak of
 our Advocate, at the right hand of His heavenly Father,      them in the same manner as they have spoken."
 whither all the articles of our faith lead us." We must      (Belgic Confession, Art. 35)
 not "cleave with our hearts unto the external bread                 The simplicity of the service aims to put the em-
 and wine".      That will not profit us in any way. We       phasis where it belongs. All the elements and pro-
 have come to the table of the Lord with a spiritual          cedures in the ceremony must point to and direct the
 hunger and a spiritual thirst. We desire to be fed with      faith of the church to CHRIST. It is His Supper, and
 the Bread of Life, which we cannot find in the earthly,      everything connected with it must be designed to bring
 physical bread that is before us. That Bread is in           the communicant into conscious fellowship with Him.
 heaven at the right hand of God, and we attain unto Him      Any superficial additions which do not assist in realiz-
 only through faith. All the elements set before us are       ing this end may, without loss to the sacrament, be
 but signs which point to Him, and through which the          profitably omitted. Such elements are not needed but
 truth as it is in Jesus is unmistakably set forth. These     are -also not desired in the spiritual communion of the
 signs we must read with spiritual discernment, and           body of Christ. With this in mind we will make a few
 understanding them through faith we shall experience         observations of the ceremony under separate headings.
 the elevation of our hearts to the sphere where He
 dwells in communion with the ever blessed God.               THE ELEMENTS
    In this activity there must be no doubt. To be fed               Bread and wine constitute the proper elements of
 with the heavenly bread, Christ Jesus, we must be            the Lord's Supper. We are aware that in some circles
 assured that the sacrament has been instituted by Him,       these are substituted with wafers and grape juice or
 and that, therefore, He will also work through it apply-     wine diluted with water. This, however, is improper
 ing the benefits of His redemptive work unto our             in spite of various practical arguments that are raised
 hearts.    He will certainly feed and refresh our souls      in defense of this practice. The substitution of bread
 through the working of the Holy Spirit, with His body        by the wafer stems from the erroneous and super-
 and blood, as we receive the holy bread and wine in          stitious notion that in some mystical way the  breadof
 remembrance of Him.        If we lack this faith we are      communion is actually transformed into the real body
 unfit to celebrate His death, and we will fail utterly to    of Jesus Christ, and to then avoid the possibility of
 grasp the meaning ~of the various elements that belong       part of that body being wasted through the crumbling
 to this celebration.                                         of the bread the wafer is used. The substitution of wine
    The beauty of the celebration of the Lord's Supper        by grape juice is no doubt motivated by so-called
lies in the simplicity of the sacrament as observed in        temperance reasons and considers the use of any
 Reformed Churches.       There is nothing ostentatious       fermented wine to be sin; a consideration which  can-


   328              `..                           THE STANDARD BEARER

   not be maintained in the light of Scripture. When the             "Het brood, dat wij breken, is de gemeenschap des
   Bible speaks of wine, it does not mean grape juice but         lichaams van Christus. Neemt, eet, gedenkt, en gelooft,
   fermented wine.                                                dat het lichaam onzes Heeren Jesus  Christus gebroken
          Bread and wine therefore are proper symbols. They is tot een volkomen verzoening van al onze zonden."
   are physical elements taken from the world of our  ex-            "De drinkbeker der dankzegging, dien wij  dank-
   perience and designed to direct our faith to heavenly          zeggende zegenen, is de gemeenschap des bloeds van
   and spiritual realities. Bread is the staff of life. It is     Christus.    Neemt, drinkt  allen daaruit, gedenkt en
   a basic food in our daily diet. In Scripture it is spoken      gelooft, dat het dierbaar bloed onzes Heeren Jesus
   of with a broader connotation denoting all the necessi-        Christus vergoten is tot een volkomen verzoening van
   ties of our natural life. Thus when we pray, "Give us          al onze zonden."
   this day our daily bread", we ask God for such things             At this point of the ceremony we must avoid super-
   as we stand in need of in the present world so that we         stition, and must refrain from injecting into the  pro-
   may continue to live and serve Him as long as He is            ceeding some kind of mystical operation. Through the
   minded to have us here. Without bread we die. This             pronouncement of the minister there is not physical
   basic essential of our physical existence is chosen by         transformation of the elements taking place.       The
   the Lord to signify our deepest and only spiritual need,       operation is entirely spiritual and is performed by the
   the Bread of Life, Christ Himself.  WithoutI-Iim  we           Spirit of Christ through the Word. In this same vein,
   die.      Having Him we have all that is necessary. We         the expression "cup of blessing" must not mislead us.
   lack nothing.                                                  The cup needs no blessing through the minister, and
          Wine in Scripture denotes joy, prosperity and  lux-     he must not leave the impression that he is blessing
   ury.      As such it is the proper symbol directing us to      that cup by putting his hand over it. The blessing is
   the truth that all our joy, our eternal prosperity and         from God, not from man. Besides the Holland  render-
   .our luxurious riches of grace are inherent in the pre-        ing indicates clearly that the expression means  Icup
   cious blood  .of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the flowing         of thanksgiving" rather-than "cup of blessing". By the
   of His blood we, who are poor,  aremade  rich. Through         operation of the Spirit our hearts are lifted up from
   His blood we have the forgiveness of all our sins and          the visible elements unto Christ on high and as we see
   to us is imputed perfect righteousness, which is the           Him, our crucified Lord and Savior, our joy of thanks-
   implication of all the blessings of eternal life.              giving runs over. We eat and we drink Him, appropri-
          Not only therefore are the bread and wine proper        ating unto ourselves through faith the benefits of His
   symbols to set before our consciousness the blessings          redemptive work.
   of our salvation as these are all in Christ Jesus, but
   in the celebration of the Supper the bread must be             THE MANNER OF COMMUNION
   broken and the wine poured out. This is essential be-             The communion form suggests that "during the
   cause it proclaims to  ,us the truth  conoerning the           communion, there shall or may be devoutly sung, a
   manner in which those blessings were obtained for us.          psalm, or some chapter read, in remembrance of the
   The breaking of the, bread signifies the breaking of           death. of Christ." In this connection several passages
   the body of Christ on the cross, and the pouring of the        of Scripture which are appropriate are suggested. This
   wine represents the shedding of His precious blood             practice is more desirable than the custom that was
   as the atonement for our sins. It is not through any           followed by some in the past, when the minister would
   "whim of the will" or "works which we have done"               deliver a short sermonette during the communion. In
   that God saves us but the sole `ground and foundation          some instances there is silence by both the minister
   of our salvation is the cross of our Lord. Because His         and the congregation while the organist plays softly
   body was broken in death .and His blood was poured out         upon the organ. The thing of importance here is that
   in payment of our guilt we have eternal life in Him.           whatever is done must be conducive to directing atten-
   Believing this we receive the broken bread and poured          tion to the death of Christ and anything that would di-
   out wine in which the truth is signified to us and sealed      vert from this must be avoided. These most solemn
   in our hearts, and we are assured of the blessings of          moments must be devoted to deep meditation and con-
   God.                                                           templation of the Savior Whose death is being observed.
                                                                     In the communion proper different churches follow
   THE COMMUNION FORMULA                                          different-customs, none of which are to be condemned.
          In the breaking and distributing of the bread and in    Some observe what. is called "standing communion",
   the giving of the cup of communion the minister speaks         while others prefer "sitting communion". In some
   the words taken from I Corinthians  10:16. In our com-         churches the bread and wine are passed out to the
   munion form we find verybrief statements. "The bread           communicants, while in others the communicants come
   which we break, is the communion of the body of                to the table to receive these elements. The "common
   Christ.      The cup of blessing, which we bless, is the       cup" which used quite generally not too many decades
   communion of the blood of Christ." To these formulas           ago has largely been replaced today by the "individual
   we usually add the words: "Take, and eat (or drink) ye         cup".    Sanitary considerations, perhaps more than
   all of it, and do so in remembrance of Christ." This           anything else, has led to this change and since the
   is more in accord with the longer formulas as they             matter is adiaphora and there can be here no violation
-"=`appear in the Dutch. We quote those too for the benefit       of the ordinance of Christ, the change is a desirable
   of those who still read the Holland language.                  one. In some churches the communicants partake of


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER

the bread and wine as soon as they receive it, while                   gregation gets so imbedded in a certain way of  cele-
in others there is a waiting until the whole  congrega-                brating the Lord's  i Supper that it begins `to look upon
tion can eat and drink in unison.                                      all other ways as being wrong. We must not be slaves
                                                                       to tradition but we  Imust understand the "whys" of our
       All of these practices are determined by each                   liturgical practices! for an intelligent observance of the
church for itself.          There is no hard and fixed rule            Lord's Supper is much to be preferred to a traditional
governing these matters and it is proper that `this is                 one.       And then some changes with understanding may
so.      One danger we might point out here is that a con-             also prove to be spiritually beneficial.



          CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-


                                    The Providence of God

                                                           by Rev.  H. Veldman

       In our preceding article we concluded our discus-                       unto God, Neh.  9:6, Ps.  104:30,  Acts  17:28,Rom.   11:36,
sion of the question whether the days of Genesis 1 are                         COL  1:15,  Heb.  ;:3, Rev.  4:ll. Although distinguished
periods or ordinary days. And this also concludes our                          from its essence;, it is never independent in its exist-
discussion of the doctrine of creation. We now wish to                         ence; independence would be nothingness. The whole
call attention to the doctrine of the providence of. Cod.                      world, with all that is in it and happens in  it, stands
This follows naturally from the discussion of creation.                        under God's control: summer and winter, day and
                                                                               night, fruitful and unfruitful years, light and darkness,
The doctrine of Cod's providence has, of course, many                          all is His work and is formed by Him, Gen. 322, 9:14'
interesting features. The material on this subject as                          Lev.  26:3v.,  Deut.   11:12v.,  Job 38, Ps. 8, 29,  65, 104,
set forth by the early Church Fathers is not as rich as                        147, Jer.  3:3,  ?:24, Matt.  5:45,  f.f. The  SCriPtures
that which pertains to the means of grace and the doc-                         know no independent creature; this would be a contra-
trine of creation. The material, however, is certainly                         diction in itself.1     God cares for all  creatures, for
abundantly sufficient to be of great interest to our                           animals, Gen.  1:30,  6:19,  7:2,  9:10, Job  38:41, Ps.  36:7,
readers.                                                                       104:27,  147:9,  Joel   1:20, Matt.  6:26 etc., and especially
       We wish to begin this discussion by quoting, at                         also for people. He sees  themall, Job  34:21, Ps.  33:13,
length, from the late Prof.  H.' Bavinck. He writes on                         14, Prov.  15:3, forms their every heart and takes note
                                                                               of all their works, Ps.  33:15, Prov.  5:21; they are all
this subject in his Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. II, pages                         the works of His hands, Job  34:19, the poor and the
551, f.f., and we quote (we translate from the Holland):                       rich, Prov.  22:2, He determines their every dwelling,
                                                                               Deut.  32:8, Acts 17:26, inclines their every heart, Prov.
          when  God had finished His work upon the seventh                     21:1, directs allitheir paths, Prov.  5:21,   16:9,  19:21,
       day, which He had made, He rested upon the seventh                      Jer.  lo:23 etc., and does with the host of heaven and
       day from all  His work, Gen.  2:2, Ex.  20:11,  31:17.                  the inhabitants of the earth according to His pleasure,
       Thus the Scripture calls attention to the transition                    Dan.  4:35.    They  are in His hands as clay in the hand
       from the work of creation to that of preservation. That                 of the potter, as' a saw in the hand of him who draws
       this resting of God does not have its cause in weariness,               it, Is.  29:16,   45:9; Jer.  18:s;Rom.   9:20, 21.
       nor in an idle looking on, is clearly expressed by Holy                     His providential control is directed very particularly
       Writ again and again, Is.  40:28, Job.  5:17. Creation is               towards His people. The entire history of the patri-
       no work for God and preservation is not resting. The                    archs, of Israel, of the church (gemeente, H.V.), and of
       rest of God only indicates that He made an end of the                   every believer is proof of this. What men thought evil
       bringing forth of new things, Eccl.  1:9, 10; that the                  against them, Gcid meant it for their good, Gen. 5O:ZO;
       work of creation in the proper and limited sense of                     every weapon that is formed against them shall not
       the word, as a producing out of nothing, was finished;                  Prosper, Is.  54:17;  even the hairs of their head are all
       and that He delighted Himself in this completed work,                   counted, Matt. 10:30; everything works together for
       Gen.  1:31, Ex.  31:17, Ps.  104:31).   Thework  of creation            good unto them,  ;Rom.   8~28. Thus all that which has
       now goes over into that of preservation. Both are dis-                  been created stands in the power and under the control
       tinguished so essentially in the Scripture that they can                of God; both, chance and fate (toeval en noodlot, H.V.),
       be placed over against each other as labor and rest.                    are unknown in the Scriptures,  Ex.  21:13,  Prov.  16:33.
       And, yet, they are so closely related and connected,                    It is God, Who works all things according to the counsel
       that preservation itself can be called creating, Ps.                    of His will, Eph. 1:11, andmakes  everything subservient
       104:30,  148:5, Is.  45:7, Amos  4:13. Fact is, preserva-               to the revelation of His virtues, to the glory of His
       tion itself is also a Divine work, not less great and                   name,  Prov.  16:4, Rom.  11:36. All this the Scriptures
       glorious than creation. God always works, John 5:17,                    comprehend very. beautifully in such a way, that  they
       and the world has no existence in itself. From the mo-                  repeatedly  speak of God as of a King, Who rules over
       ment of its beginning it exists only in and through and                 all  things,  Ps.  l&16,  24:7, 8,  29:10,  44:5,  47:7,  74:l2,


330                                                          THE  STflDARD  BEARER

       115:3, Is.  33:22  etc.     God is a King, the King of kings                   the cross of Christ, and experienced in his own heart
       and the Lord of lords; a King, Who in Christ is a Father                       the forgiving and regenerating grace of God. And from
       for His subjects, and a Father, Who is also King over                          out of this new, sure experience in his own life he now
       His children.       All that which takes place among the                       glances over his entire existence and over the entire
       creatures, in the world of animals and people and                              world, and he  .discovers  in all things, not a chance or
       angels, in the family and state and society, of caring                         fate, but the guidance of God's fatherly hand. Never-
       for them, loving them, and the defending of the one by                        theless,  although all this has been unfolded correctly
       the other, is a weak picture of God's providential                             by Ritschl, saving faith, on the other hand, may not be
       control over all the works of His hands. His absolute                          identified with or seek its solution therein. Special
       power and His perfect love are the proper object of                            revelation is to be distinguished from general revela-
       faith in God's providence in the Holy Scriptures.                              tion, and saving faith in the person of Christ is another
               TO this testimony of Scripture must be added the                       than general faith in God's control in the world. It is
       testimony of all peoples. The doctrine of the providence                       exactly through faith in Christ that the believer is in
       of God is a mixture, known in part by all men out of                           the position, notwithstanding all problems, to hold fast
       God's revelation in nature. It is an article of faith in                       to the truth that that God, Who rules over the world, is
       every religion, also in the most adulterated religion;                         the same loving and merciful Father, Who forgave him
       whosoever denies it, undermines. religion; without it                          all his sins in Christ, adopted him to be His child, and
       there is no place anymore for  .prayer  and `sacrifice,                .       will cause him to inherit the everlasting salvation.
       for faith and hope, for trust and love. Cicero asks,                           And faith in God's providence is then no imagination
       Why serve God, if He care not for us whatever. Also                            but certain and sure, it rests upon the revelation of
       philosophy has often recognized and defended this                               God in Christ and carries with it the conviction, that
       providence of God.          Yet the doctrine of providence                     nature will be in the service of grace and the world
       was therefore not the same in heathen religion and                             will be in the service of the kingdom of God. Thus it
       philosophy as it is in Christendom. With the heathens                          looks gladly through all misery and suffering into the
       this faith in providence was more theory than practice,                        future; although' all the problems are not solved, faith
       more philosophical than religious dogma; it did not                            in God's fatherly hand -always lifts itself up out of the
       reach unto them in need and in death; it always tossed                         depths and causes one to glory even in tribulations.
       to and fro between chance and fate. Whereas God, for
       example, according to Plato was no creator but only he                         Although this is a lengthy quotation from the late
       who formed the world, his power found its boundary in                       Professor H. Bavinck, we wanted to quote it, to give
       finite material. Although Aristotle repeatedly speaks                       our readers a general resume of this doctrine of the
       of his faith in God's providential control, yet this co-                    providence of God as set forth by this theologian. We
       incided with him with the working of the causes of                          expect, of course, to call attention to  several  details
       nature; the Godhead stands as a lonely spectator out-                       of this doctrine as developed and confessed throughout
       side of the world, without will, without action, and the                    the ages.
       creature cannot expect from it any help or love. The
       Stoic identified providential care with nature, and, ac-                       Incidentally, we may remark that the word, provi-
       cording to the Epicurean providence was in conflict                         dence, as used to designate this doctrine, does not
       with the salvation of the Gods. It is true that some                        appear in Holy Writ. The attempt has been made to
       exerted themselves to escape both, chance and fate;                         give this- word `a Scriptural character by appealing to
       but it is a fact that fate always exerteditself behind                      such passages as Gen.  22:8, 1 Sam.  16:1, Ezek.  20:6,
       and above the Godhead, and fate penetrated from below                       Heb.  11:40.     There are also instances in the Scripture
       into the lower creatures and the smaller events of life.                    where the idea of making provision appears with respect
           The Christian's faith in God's providence is not of                     to man, as Rom.  12:17,  13:14, 1 Tim.  5:8. And the
       this nature. To the contrary, it is a source of comfort                     word, providence, also occurs in Acts  24:3. But this
       and hope, of trust and courage, of humility and confi-                      does not, take. away the fact that Scripture nowhere
       dence, Ps. 23,  33:10,  ff.,  44:5,  ff.,  127:1, 2,  146:2,  f.f.,
       etc.      Faith in providence rests by no means only upon                   speaks of a providence of God.  Gf course, this does
       God's revelation in nature, but more much upon His                          not necessarily mean that we may not therefore use
       covenant and promises; it has for its foundation not                        the term.       Terms such as Trinity and Attributes do
       only God's righteousness, but above all also His com-                       not appear in the Word of God either. However, the
       passion and grace; it presupposes the knowledge of                          term, providence, as such is an objectionable term.
       sin, much deeper than among the heathens (surely the                   The word, providence, is a compound word, and it
       heathens do not know sin, H.V.), but also the experi-                  means: to see before, or before-hand.                 Years ago,
       ence of God's forgiving love; it is no cosmological                    when it was common to burn coal to heat our `homes,
       speculation, but a glorious confession of faith. Cor-                  we would order coal before the winter set in, would
       rectly, therefore, Ritschl has brought this faith in
       providence in close connection with faith in salvation.                     supply ourselves with the necessary fuel before-hand.
       Faith in God's providence is not for the Christian an                  This, we understand, hardly applies to the Lord. The
       article of natural theology, to which later saving faith                    Lord does not merely see "before-hand." The  armin-
       is added.      But it is saving faith which causes us, first           ian, we know, is devoted to this type of terminology,
       of all, to believe with all our heart in the providence                     speaks of God's election and reprobation as upon fore-
       of God in the world, causes us to. see the meaning of                  seen faith and unbelief.            God, then, saw before the
       it and to taste the comfort of it. Faith in God's provi-               time that the one would believe and that the other
       dence is therefore an article of  Christian  faith. For                would not believe.           And He elected the believer and
       the natural man there are so many objections to be
       lodged against God's control of the world that it is ex-               reprobated the unbeliever. But this is not the language
       tremely difficult for him to cleave to it. But the                     of the Scriptures and of our confessions. God does
       Christian has beheld the special providence of God in                  not simply adapt Himself to foreseen circumstances, but


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                    I!                                                     331

He does and works all things after the counsel of His            sovereign counsel of His own will.  Wedefine the provi-
own will. And we are surely acquainted with the fact             dence of God as that almighty and everywhere present
that this sovereign and almighty control and direction           power of God  whe,reby  He sustains and directs all
of the Lord throughout the universe and also in the              things to that end which He has determined for them
lives of all the children of men is most clearly and             from before the  .foundation  of the world. And we do
definitely taught in the Word of God. Yet, this term,            well to understand  /that this applies most emphatically
providence, has been given a place in the dogmatical             to all things, including all the moral-rational acts of
terminology of the church of God. Of course, that the            all His moral creatures, including all the powers of
Lord provides for all creatures is surely according              sin and darkness.
to the Word of God. But He does this according to the


                                                                                            I
               ALL AROUND -US-                                Support For  Armipianism

                                                           The Future                       j/
                                                              The Public  Schoolj Issue

                                                    by Prof. H.  Hank0                           I
SUPPORT FOR ARMINLANISM                                          phasis alter this, for this minor disagreement is of no
   Recently, the following decision was adopted by the           principle account.  :                            Our Standard  Bearer  earnestly
Christian Reformed Consistories  ,of Saskatchewan,               urges these Consistories to reconsider their rash and
Canada:                                                          foolish action and take a stand in their own tradition of
                                                                 the Reformed faith. /
      The Consistories of the Saskatchewan Christian                                                  I
   Reformed Churches hereby resolve to lend their sup-           THE FUTURE                           I
   port to the Leighton Ford Evangelistic Crusades to- be
   conducted in our Province.                                       Time  carries  sbme interesting essays. Recently
      Our resolution is based on the following grounds:          one essay reported on a new kind of profession in
      1. Both Billy Graham and his associate Leighton            which men engage  m the art of predicting the future.
   Ford are committed to the Scriptural proclamation of          They do not do this for entertainment; their services
   the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a world dead in sin. The        are in great demand since many companies rely heavily
   Scriptures assure us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ          upon these predictions to plot the future course of
   is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.        their-enterprises.  /
   (Romans  1:16)                                                   It is interesting to note some of these predictions.
      2. Though we may not find ourselves in whole-
   hearted agreement with the method and emphasis of                - By 2000 A.D. the U.S. population will have soared
   this evangelistic crusade, nevertheless as Christian          to about 330 million people and nine out of ten will be
   Reformed people we should be actively engaged  ,in.the        living in  supercities; or their suburbs.
   counselling and follow-up program, in order that we              - A permanent lunar base will have been established
   may be God's servants in leading those, who under the         long before 2000  A,.D., and men will have flown past
   impression of the Gospel message have responded to            Venus and Mars.                           ;
   the invitation, into the fellowship of Christ's Church,          - Fish will be herded into large offshore pens as
   where they' may come to a fuller knowledge and con-           cattle and fields of seaweed will be farmed by frogmen
   fession of the truth of God's Word.                           who live for month's at a time in submerged houses,
   The key statement in the decision is: "Both Billy             all helping to alleviate the food shortage.
Graham and his associate  .Leighton Ford are com-                    - Climate control will be in the hands of men. For
mitted to the Scriptural proclamation of the Gospel of           example, a nuclear! generating plant on top of Mount
Jesus Christ to a world dead in sin." This is not true.          Wilson will produce so much heat that, guided into the
As has been shown by our editor in two editorials of             atmosphere above Los Angeles, it will raise the inver-
recent date, Billy Graham (and presumably his associ-            sion  .layer that hangs over the city to 19,000 feet, rid-
ate) are not committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,            ding the city of smog and drawing into the area sea
but preach a false gospel of Arminianism. With a                 breezes bringing rain which will transform that part
decision of this nature therefore (although what these           of the country into  a! fertile paradise.
consistories officially decided has long been the prac-              -In the area of, medicine artificial hearts, lungs,
tice of individual members) this segment of the Church           stomachs and other organs will be commonly available.
turns its back on the Reformed faith, ignores the heri-          The blind will be able to scan their surroundings by
tage of Dort and commits itself officially to the heresy         radar.    The deaf  will be enabled  .to hear'by means of
which her forefathers expressly condemned as evil and            similar devices.                               hrtificial  arms and legs will be
vicious.                                                         motorized and computerized and even connected to
   Nor will some disagreement with method and  em-               the brain. Babies will be grown outside their mothers


       332                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

       during the nine months of gestation. Bacterial and           nation's highways. He splits the atom to create bombs
       viral diseases will be eliminated.       Retarded infants    of unbelievable power and destructive force. He
       will receive chemical therapy at birth which will make       creates in his laboratories tranquilizers to calm his
       them normal people. Memory loss of old people will           frazzled nerves, but needs also pep pills to counteract
       be overcome. Genetic manipulation will become com-           his self-induced lethargy. He strives for peace while
       mon so that the shape or color of unborn babies will         the blood of his screaming and dying sons mocks his
       be controlled; and; in the words of one: "Man will be-       efforts.     He makes contraceptive pills, but who is able
       come the only animal that can direct his own evolution."     to predict the disastrous results of tampering with life
           - The kitchen will be automated so that the house-       processes? And will he not take evolutionaryprocesses
       wife can make out a menu for the whole week, put the         in his hands to make monstrosities? He makes mar-
       food in storage and the instructions in a computer.          velous machines to free him from the drudgery of labor
       The foods will be taken out of storage, cooked and           and to create leisure which he uses to live in shame-
       served at the proper time, all by mechanical means.          less debauchery. In the name of progress he denies
       Washing dishes, vacuuming rugs, washing windows,             the reality of crime and the need for punishment of the
       cutting grass will all be done by robots. Shopping will      criminal and fills the streets of his cities with anarchy,
       be done by video phone so that a housewife can select        chaos, and danger.
       her purchases by sight, order them and pay for them             This is his little heaven on earth. The curse shouts
       without stirring from the living room chair.                 at him, but he puts his fingers in his ears and will not
           - Only 10% of the population will be working, the        listen.     The higher he builds his quivering towers, the
       rest will be paid to be idle.     A man will go to school    greater is the catastrophe when it comes crashing
       for one-third of his life, work for one-third and be in      down in judgment upon his own sinful head.
       retirement for one-third. There won't be enough work            The child of God is not seduced by the allurements
       to go around unless this is done. Everyone will be in-       of man's dream; he looks to his inheritance in the
       dependently wealthy making about $30,000 to $40,000          everlasting kingdom of his Lord Jesus Christ.
       a year with government benefits.
          One man went so far as to say, "My hunch is that          THE PUBLIC SCHOOL ISSUE
       man will have finally expiated his original sin, and            The responsibility of Christian parents towards
       might now  .aspire to bliss."                                the public school system always creates a problem of
          Indeed, there are some problems to face. Some             sorts.      Not that we are interested in public school ed-
       worry about who will supervise this man-controlled           ucation itself, but our tax dollars are used to support
       evolution. Others are concerned about dangerous  side-       public education.       And, when bond issues or tax in-
       effects when the processes of conception and birth are       creases for public education come before the elector-
       tampered with  - as well they better be! No one sees         ate, Christian parents face a problem in voting. Do
       any possibility of eliminating death at 70 or 80  - at       they have a right to vote against tax increases and
       least for the time being. And leisure will be a major        thus defeat, if possible, the efforts made by the world
       problem: some of these self-appointed prophets see a         to raise needed money for public school education? Do
       "pleasure oriented society full of `wholesome de-            they have this right when they do not use the schools?
       generacy.* "
          No doubt God will permit men to realize some of              The problem recently came into the news in Buffalo,
       these dreams and build their little heaven on earth.         New York. The mayor of this city is Roman Catholic,
       But it must always be remembered that these dreams           and he appoints the school board. The result is that
       are made into realities in a world under God's curse.        the majority of the school board has been traditionally
       "The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked."       Roman Catholic, and these men have consistently re-
       And surely this `means that each accomplishment of           fused to raise sufficient money to care adequately for
       wicked men in this curse-torn world contains in itself       the educational needs of the schools. Their argument
       the seeds of further judgment and greater sin. Man's         has, been that in seeking increased taxes they are
       mighty accomplishments have always turned out to be          raising the taxes of their own people who receive no
       his worst enemies -killing him. He sows the seeds of         benefit from the additional money they are forced to
       destruction in all that he does, presently to reap the       pay; and each increase in taxes makes it all the harder
       whirlwind.     He builds a house of cards which collapses    to support their own parochial schools.
     - from the heavy weight of God's anger against his sin,            But the question persists: Do we have a right to
       and the resulting catastrophe carries man along with         withhold needed tax money from the public school sys-
       it to destruction.                                           tem and allow the system to deteriorate?
          The, curse of God is not something incidental to             The problem is complex. For one thing, the fact is
       what man does-added to it; rather, the curse per-            that public school officials are notoriously wasteful of
       meates all his life and fills all his efforts. There are     money and that people often rebel against elaborate
       instances of this equally evident today. Man conquers        building programs which are scarcely needed. The
       one disease only to be baffled by another of greater         result is that the public schools have facilities far
       horror.       He invents one antibiotic to eliminate one     more elaborate and modern than the Christian schools.
       strain of deadly virus or bacteria only to be faced with     For another thing, there is the fact that most Christian
_    - another, more vicious and destructive. He makes the          parents find the argument that "the public school sys-
._.-.:y:automobile,  but uses it to slaughter thousands on the      tem is basic to our democracy" very weak since they


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       333

insist that education is a parental responsibility and           If tax raises are proposed, we had better let the ones
not a state obligation.                                          who use the public schools decide what they want to do
   But what must we do under the present  circum-                about it. And if they are voted through, we will have to
stances where we are forced to pay school taxes and              bear the inequity and be willing increasingly to  sac-
where the increases which are constantly being made              rifice for the sake  iof our Cod-given calling to educate
jeopardize our own schools?                                      our own children. In this way we shall, no doubt, have
   It seems to me that the best we can do is protest             to suffer loss for the sake of our calling; but we ought
continuously the inequality of the present system and            to keep our hands off affairs in the world with which
insist that we have a right toalleviationfrom the public         we cannot concern ourselves.
school tax burden. But, for the rest, no doubt we are                 But here is a  sgbject  for some "after-recess  dis-
better off refraining from voting on public school issues.'      cussions" in our church societies.


        EXAMINING ECUMENICALISM-                                                                 /r


                                                   Ix!.C.C.                                 -;'


                                                     by Rev.. G. Van Baren

   The International Council of Christian Churches, as                    k. The necessity of maintaining, according to the
most organizations, has a constitution which governs                  Word of God, the burity of the Church in doctrine and
its operations.       An examination of this constitution             life;' And, still believing the Apostles' Creed to be a
soon reveals that the I.C.C.C. is indeed a far different              statement of Scriptural truth, we therefore incorporate
type of organization than the World Council of Churches               it in these articles  :of faith.
(W.C.C.). It is another question whetherweas denomi-
nation ought to join the I.C.C.C. To show the intent,                 Now one can readily see that the above is a rather
purpose, and doctrinal basis of this organization, I would       comprehensive statement of the faith of the church - a
like to make extensive quotes from their constitution            statement to which  /many, if not most, of the member-
in force as of 1964.                                             ship of the W.C.C.  ,could never agree. It is also ob-
                                                                 vious, however, that this statement avoids all possible
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS                                              conflict between his<orical Calvinism and Arminianism.
   In distinction from the W.C.C., theI.C.C.C.presents           It had to do this in order to gather under its wing those
in its constitution a lengtbly statement of doctrine. In         denominations presently working together in the  1.C .C.C.
article 2 we read:                                               Notice. point "e" above. Speaking of the death of .Christ,
       Among other equally Biblical truths, we believe and       quoting Scripture, the point emphasizes that He gave
   maintain the following:                                       His life a "ransom for many." As a statement, I have
       a. The plenary Divine inspiration of the Scriptures       no objection to it at all. Only, and obviously, the state-
   in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy         ment is phrased in such a way that it can be embraced
   and .infailibility, and, as the Word of God, the supreme      both by Arminian and Reformed. There is-noticeably
   and final authority- in faith and life;                       absent any statement on predestination  - which Re-
      b. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;           formed churches in the past insisted was one of the
       c. The essential, absolute, eternal Deity, and the        central truths of Scripture. The question must cer-
   real and proper, but sinless, humanity of our Lord            tainly be confronted:: How much cooperation is possible
   Jesus Christ;                                                 between blatant Arminianism and that which is faith-
       d. His birth of the virgin Mary;                          f u l l y   R e f o r m e d ?   :
       e. His substitutionary, expiatory death, in that He
   gave His life "a ransom for many;"
       f. His resurrection from the dead in the same body        THE PURPOSE OF *HE ORGANIZATION
   in which He was crucified and the second coming of this            In the first place; and negatively, the purpose of the
   same Jesus in power and great glory;
       g. The total depravity of man through the .Fall;          I.C.C.C., according  1 to its constitution, is NOT to seek
       h. Salvation, the effect of regeneration by the Spirit    organic union between member denominations. It is
   and the Word, not by works but by grace through faith;        not, evidently, the attempt of the organization to break
       i. The everlasting bliss of the saved, and the ever-      down denominations/ and build one which will rival in
   lasting suffering of the lost;                                size and strength any that might arise as fruit of the
       j. The real spiritual unity in Christ of all redeemed     work of the W.C.C. IArticle  8, speaking of the authority
   by His precious blood;                                        of the council, states in its first point:


334                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER

              The International Council of Christian Churches                (Article 3, section 3) The Council, or its designated
       shall have no authority to act for any member in any               Committee, shall make careful investigation of the doc-
       matter that has not been delegated to the Council by               trinal standards and spiritual condition of every body
       that body. It may, however, offer counsel and advice               applying for membership.      Every applicant for mem-
  to members and suggest opportunities for united ac-                     bership in the Council shall furnish its confessional
       tion in matters of common interest. The Council does               statements and also statistics of the number of its
       not seek organic union of its member bodies, nor will              churches, of its clergy, and of its lay membership.
       it trespass in any way upon their autonomy.                           (Article 8, paragraph 4) The Plenary Congress
                                                                          shall have the right to dismiss any constituent or
       Secondly, and positively, the I.C.C.C. intends to                  consultative body belonging to it  for proved cause.  In
oppose the modernism which arises in our day. In its                      case any question should arise as to the fitness of any
Preamble to the constitution this is emphatically stated:                 body belonging to the Council, the Plenary Congress,
              Whereas, It is the duty of all true churches of the         on its own initiative or by request of any two constitu-
       Lord Jesus Christ to make a clear testimony to their               ent members may cite such body to appear before the
   faith in Him, especially in these darkening days of                    Congress; and if the charges be proved, such member
       apostasy in many professing Churches, by which                     shall be dismissed. A two-thirds majority shall be
       apostasy whole denominations in their official capacity,           necessary for such dismissal.
       as well as individual Churches, have been swept into           The largest assembly of representatives of churches
       a paganizing stream of modernism under various                 holding membership is called the "Plenarycongress."
   names and in varying degree; and                                   This congress meets not less than every five years.
              Whereas, There has been a notable growth of             To this congress, each full member of the I.C.C.C. is
       autocratic domination on the part especially of modern-
       istic leaders by whom the rightful powers of true              entitled to send four delegates with full voting power
       Churches are often usurped and are now beingusurped;           for their first one hundred congregations, and for each
       and                                                            additional fifty congregations one more delegate is
              Whereas, The commands of God to His people to be        allowed.    The total number of voting delegates from
       separate from all unbelief and corruption are clear and        any one group of churches is limited to ten.
   positive; and also                                                    A study of the constitution, therefore, soon reveals
              Whereas, We believe the times demand the forma-         that there is a vast difference between this organiza-
       tion of a world-wide agency, for fellowship and  CO-           tion and the World Council of Churches. The purpose,
       operation on the part of Bible-believing Churches for          the basis, and the goals of the two are completely
       the proclamation and defense of the Gospel, for the            diverse.    And one who hears occasionally the "Twen-
       maintenance of a testimony pure, steadfast and world-          tieth Century Reformation Hour" of Dr. Carl  McIntire
       wide to those great facts and revealed truths of his-          (who happens to be president of the I.C.C.C. too),
       toric Christianity and especially to the great doctrines
       of the Protestant Reformation. . . .                           knows that one of the tasks  McIntire has taken upon
              Therefore, the bodies of various nationalities and      himself is to oppose and ridicule the W.C.C.
       languages forming this Council, do now establish it as            However, to work together with the I.C.C.C. as
       an agency, without compromise or evasion, unreserv-            Protestant Reformed Churches appears impossible.
       edly dedicated as a witness to "the faith once for all         With much of its doctrinal basis we could express
       delivered unto the saints."                                    agreement. With them, we hate the envelopingmodern-
       Further, it is evident from the Constitution that              ism of our day.      The fact is, though, that our Synod
the I.C.C.C. is a fellowship of churches which claim a                was correct when it pointed out that many of the
union with the Protestant reformation and insists on                  member denominations were "outside the pale of  Cal-
excluding from membership all those who seek union                    vinistic Protestantism." That fact, I believe, is re-
with the W.C.C.:                                                      flected in the actions taken too.. To this I hope to call
                                                                      your attention next time, D.V.
              Constituent membership in this Council shall be
       open to all those denominations associations of  Bible-
       believing Churches, the world over, and Bible-believ-
       ing societies in Scandinavia of a definite church char-
       acter, .which, by official action, approve and accept the                    RESOL UTION OF SYMPATHY
       preamble and the doctrinal statement of the Constitu-
       tion and apply to the Council for membership. No               The Board of the Society for Protestant Reformed
       denomination, association of churches or Bible-believ-         Secondary Education expresses its Christian sympathy
       ing society in Scandinavia of a definite church charac-        to its secretary, Mr. Cornelius Doezema, in the
       ter, in, or represented by, the World Council of               passing away of his father-in-law
       Churches or standing outside the stream of historic
       Christianity will be received.                                                    MR. BERT DYKSTRA
                                                                      May our gracious God comfort the bereaved family
CAREFUL REGULATION OF MEMBERSHIP                                      with His unchanging word and ever present Spirit.
   The I.C.C.C., according to its constitution, does not                                Dale Kuiper, Chairman
carelessly receive members.                Rather, it investigates                      Jacob Kuiper, Sr., Asst. Sec'y-Treas.
the applicant and also provides for the removal of such
denominations which might depart from the doctrinal
basis of the constitution.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              335





                  BOOK  REVIEWS-
                                                                The Morning Star

                                                                Several Sovereign  !Grace Union Tracts




The Morning Star  (Two centuries of           scholar. There are many other works                   Many of our older readers will  re-
violence from Sycliffe to Luther); by         that treat this same subject, but none        icall  that formerly we had some con-
G. H. W. Parker; Wm. B. Eerdmans              which fills the need of Reformed people.      tacts with the Sovereign Grace  `IJnion
Publishing Company; 1965; 248 pp.;            The series is written by men who stand        ,of England, particularly through the
$3.75.                                        in the tradition of Calvinism and are         `friendship between the late Rev. Henry
                                              deeply committed to it. The books are         ,Atherton and my father.           Recently
   The people of God have, throughout         well-written, but are eminently read-         several tracts from this organization
the ages, a certain obligation to know        able by all  .who are interested in this      !were sent to me by a U.S. agent whose
their past history. This is not because       important subject.                            iaddress  I have given above.        Among
they are merely curious about their              In this present volume, the author         `these were "Table Talk About  Elec-
forbears in the sense of a family being       leads us through the years preceding          Sian," a very brief tract about elec-
curious about its  genealogical  tree.        the Reformation, showing all along how        tion; "An Accomplished Redemption,"
Rather the reasons are: 1) The history        God was preparing events for this most        :a little pamphlet on particular  atone-
of the church of Christ is the history        important reformation of the church of        `ment; and "What Is This Calvinism,"
of the work of the Spirit of Christ with-     Christ.     He discusses at length the        a brief exposition of the Five Points of
in the Church gathering the Church,           two pre-reformers: Wycliffe and Hus,          Calvinism.
preserving the church and leading the         and interestingly enough, finds their
church into all truth. Thus, knowledge        basic doctrine to be the truth of pre-                Although much of what is contained
of her past history gives the church          destination' from which all their pro-        `in these tracts is a kind of Calvinism,
knowledge of God's work of salvation          posed reforms came forth.                          yet I was frankly rather disappointed
in Christ.    2) The church of today is          The series is not yet complete.                 in what I read. I get the impression
deeply indebted to the church of the          The books available are:                      ,that the Sovereign Grace Union is not
past.     In fact, the truth which the           Vol. 1: The Spreading Flame by             .putting out the kind of literature that
church confesses today is a truth which       F. F. Bruce.                                  it formerly did; at least, this material
she confesses in organic connection              Vol. 2: The Growing Storm by G.            `does not compare with many former
with the church of the past; it is a truth    M. S. Walker.                                 *productions which I have in my library.
which she has received as a heritage             Vol. 3: The Morning Star by G. H.          iThe Calvinism of these tracts is  "wa-
from her spiritual forbears; it is a          W. Parker.                                    ,tered down" Calvinism. "Table Talk
truth which she can defend against               Vol. 6: Light In The North by J. D.        `About Election" is definitely a failure
attack only by knowing what the church        Douglas.                                      `when it comes to the crucial subject
of yesteryear has confessed and how              Vol. 7: The Inextinguishable Blaze         ;of reprobation. The pamphlet on "An
this truth has been defended.                 by A. Skevington Wood.                        .Accomplished Redemption" speaks of
   We live in an age when the church,            In preparation are:                        !common  grace fruits of Christ's death
with increasing scorn, turns  awayfrom           Vol. 4: The Great Light by Rev.            :as well as of His atonement for the
her past, ignores her confessions, de-        Canon James Atkinson.                              elect. As to "What Is This Calvinism?"
spises the fruit of the Spirit and ridi-         Vol. 5: The Refining Fire by Dr.                I would have to say that Calvinism is
cules her history. This ought never to        J. I. Packer.                                      much more than the Five Points of
be characteristic of the people of God.          Vol. 8: The Light Of The World by          Calvinism. Hence, tracts of this nature
It is essential therefore that the people     J. Edwin Orr.                                 jare of very limited, and sometimes
of God have access to some history of            We urge our people to purchase                  questionable, value.
the Christian Church which is readable,       these books as valuable additions to          :       I also received the SGU quarterly,
interesting, sound, and written from          their libraries, to read and study them,      :"Peace  and Truth," the subscription
the perspective of faith.                     and to gain from them the spiritual           price of which is $1.05 per year. This
   This present volume is one of a            advantages which comes from knowing           little magazine contains some brief
series of eight volumes under the gen-        the history of Christ's church.                    articles and sermons and items of in-
eral subject: "The Advance of Chris-                                      Prof. H. Hanko    terest concerning the SGU.
tianity Through The Centuries." It is
edited by F. F. Bruce, Professor of                                                                 Perhaps I might add that the SGU
Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the         Several Sovereign Grace Union Tracts         ,does not publish many large books
University of Manchester.                     by various authors and of various             /any more.         This seems to be done
  In my opinion, this series fills ex-        prices.     These tracts and a price list     ,more  by the Banner of Truth Trust.
actly the need described above. There         of other publications are available from      IHowever, for those interested in SGU
are more thorough works on church             Grace Literature, P.O. Box 879,  Gaff-        :publications,  here is some information.
history, but they are written for the         ney, S.C. 29340.                                                           H. C. Hoeksema


336                                           THE STANDARD BEARER-


                                       NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES-

                                            April 1, 1966     Zwak to the Sunday School of First Hill is  also greatly
       The third, and final, lecture of the current series    appreciated; this Sunday School is under the charge of
sponsored by our Mission Committee was held in                Mrs. Ritchie.        Special prayers are offered for Rev.
First Church March 31. Prof. H.C. Hoeksema spoke              Heys who took it upon him to recommend the congrega-
to a capacity audience on, `Genesis and Science."             tions in Jamaica in their needs to the congregations of
His was the Biblical approach: Genesis is the infallible      the Protestant Reformed Churches of America."
record of the  .revelation of God concerning the begin-                                   * * *
ning of all things. The speaker defined Science to be             The Church Extension Committee of SouthHolland's
a formal knowledge of laws and facts that have been           church plans to ask the Mission Board of our churches
demonstrated, and limited to the study of present things      to sponsor a lecture in their new church after the
and processes, and those of the historic past; and            manner of the Reformation Day Rally held in Grand
posited that true knowledge is always knowledge of            Rapids.     This committee also announces that they are
God; hence: true science is concerned with that knowl-        currently mailing pamphlets to 3500. families, most of
edge, and must end there.                                     them in the Chicago area, but others go to Lynden,
       The professor described the relation between Gene-     Wash., Ripon,  Calif.,  Canada, Jamaica, and India.
sis and Science, negatively: that the data compiled by                                    * * *
the scientist cannot serve to explain the record in               The topics to be aired on the Reformed Witness Hour
Scripture; that the two do  .not stand side by side so        the next two weeks are, April 17 -"Alive Through
that one must read both at once to understand God's           Death"; April 24 - "Constrained by the Love of Christ",
revelation; but, positively: that a Christian begins and       and are based on the Word of God as found in II Cor.
ends on the basis of the absolute authority of Scripture      5:14,15.                                  `W
- not that the Bible is a science text book, but that on                                  * * *
the origin and destiny of all things the Bible speaks             Prof. H. Hanko lectured on "Our Calling with Re-
inerrantly.                                                   spect to the Ecumenical Movement" on March 25 in
 The speaker asserted that the Scriptural record              Oak Lawn's church for our people of Oak Lawn and
presents a full-grown creation with an appearance of          South Holland churches.
age:  .plants  before the seed, the chicken before the                                    * * *
egg, and the first man before babyhood. He warned                 The Annual Spring Banquet of the Young People's
against the speculative conclusions of the unbelieving         Societies is scheduled to be held in the Grandville Jr.
scientist who reads God's revelation of Himself in the        High School auditorium the evening of May 10. Prof.
Book of Creation, but who rules the Creator our of            Hanko has been secured to speak on "New Morality"
His Own Book, and therefore teaches the lie. The at-           as it exists in the colleges and universities today.
tentive throng filling that huge auditorium was ad-                                       * *  *
monished by the Word of God found in Rom.  1:19,20                The plans for the P.R.Y.P. Convention for 1966 are
that to follow the teachings of the modern day educator       well underway. Rev. G. Lanting, of Holland,  Mich. has
in the field of science will leave one without excuse in      been invited to speak at the Mass Meeting to be held on
the Day of Judgment: one should have seen the Crea-            Friday evening. The topic of his speech has been an-  _
tor's Eternal .Power  and Godhead-and worshipped!             nounced to be, "Seeds  of Faith". The general public
       Music was furnished by Mrs. C. Lubbers at the          is invited to attend this meeting.
                                                                                          * * *
organ, and by the choir from our Adams St. School
under the direction of Mr. Roland Petersen.           The         The April 1st meeting of the Hope School PTA
evening ended with the hearty singing of the Doxology,        .,featured  a round table discussion by the teachers on
"Praise God from whom  all blessings flow", and what  -:.::+"Harmonizing  Home and School".
a glorious soul-filling sound it is when some 1200                                        * * *
voices blend in one grand pean of praise of our God,              Holland's Ladies Society was host to the ladies of
from Whom and unto Whom are all things]                       Hope Church in their March 29th. meeting. The after
                            *  * *                            recess program consisted of the enjoyment of the film
       Jamaican  News from a letter over the signature of     of the work of Rev. Heys and Mr. Zwak on their last
Mrs. Gwendolyn Ritchie: "The congregation of First            visit to Jamaica.
Hill,  Lucea, Jamaica is wonderfully glad to hear of the                                -***
recovery of Mrs. C. Hanko and continues to pray for               The children of Hope School have reserved the audi-
her. The congregations of Mt. Salem (in Montego Bay)          torium of First Church in which to render an all school
and Latium and those of Westmoreland and First Hill           program on April 7. The theme will be "God's Un-
received the clothing from Rev. Hanko's congregation          breakable Chain," based on Rom.  8:28-30.
and are very thankful. The donation sent by Mr. Harry             . . . . see you in church                     J.M.F.


