                                       he



                                              earer


A  REFORMED' t$EMI-li4ONTHLY  MAGAiINE


                                                                            ,_'
IN  THIS  ISSUE:

        Meditation: Gone To Prepare A Place

        Editorial: Reason For Alarm!          .'
              ~-
                    "The Bases Of Unity"

                    Editorial Notes

        The Efficacious Calling

       All Around Us: Defense of the Formula of Subscription

                         The Obscenity Issue

                          The Prayer Issue

                                              Volume  XLII/ Number  16/  May 15, 1966


                                                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                                                             i                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                       C O N T E N T S
Meditation  -                                                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June,  July and August
   Gone To Prepare A Place . . . . . i . . . . . . .._..................'362                                                          Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
          Rev. J. Kortering                                                                                                                         Editor-  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema  a
Editorial  -
   Reason For Alarm! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365                      Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                                                                  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth  Terrace,  S.E., Grand
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                    Rapids,  Mich.       49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
   "The Bases of Unity" . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*....................... 367                                                    words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                    lines are the first and fifteenth of the month.
   Editorial Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369              All church news items should be addressed toMr. J. M. Faber,
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                          1123 Cooper,  SE., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
From Holy Writ -                                                                                                                  Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee includedmust
   The Good Shepherd Of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370                                 be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below;
          Rev. G. Lubbers                                                                                                         All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
The Church At Worship -                                                                                                                   Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
   The Post-Communion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372                                                Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
          Rev. G. Vanden  Berg                                                                                                       Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
The Lord Gave The Word -                                                                                                          received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
   The Efficacious Calling . . ..*..*............................. 374                                                            scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
          Rev. C. Hanko                                                                                                                             Subscription price: $5.00 per year
In His Fear -                                                                                                                         Second Class Postage paid at  Grand Rapids, Michigan
   Trusting In A Human god . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
          Rev. J. A. Heys                                                                                                                              ANNOUNCEMENT                     -
Trying The Spirits  -                                                                                                     The Free Christian School of  Edgerton  will need a
   Rationalistic Biblical Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379                               teacher for grades l-4.                 For more information, con-
          Rev. R. C. Harbach                                                                                              tact the undersigned.
All Around Us -                                                                                                                                             Allen Hendriks
   Defense of the Formula of Subscription
   The Obscenity Issue                                                                                                                                      Jasper, Minnesota 56144
   The Prayer Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
          Prof. H. Hank0                                                                                                                            SEMINm Y STUDENTS
Book Reviews  -
   Spiritual Depressions: Its Causes and Cure                                                                             Pre-seminary and seminary students in need of finan-
  -Man  in the Occurring of God's Revelation                                                                              cial assistance in attending our Protestant Reformed
   The Ten Commandments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383                         Seminary should contact the following:
          Rev. H. Veldman                                                                                                                                   Mr. J. M. Faber
News From Our Churches -                                                                                                                                    1123 Cooper Ave., S.E.
          Mr. J. Faber - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan. 49507


                       MEDITATION-


                                                     Gone To Prepare A Place

                                                                                                    by Rev. J.  Kovteving

                                                 `ln my Father's house  a?re many mansions: if it were not so, I would
                                          have told you. I go to  prepave a place  fov you. And if I go and  prepave
                                          a place for you,  I will  come again and  receive  you unto myself;  that
                                          where I am  theve ye may be also."                                                                              John  14.2,  3

    Saying good-bye is always hard.                                                                                       acute at the bedside of our dying loved ones.
    That's especially true for those who love each                                                                           It's hard to say good-bye. We desire the presence
other.                                                                                                                    of the person whom we love. We're afraid that we may
    It's part of dying, it's separation.                                                                                  never see them on earth again.
    The bleakness of such a moment is felt  wheil you                                                                        Our text could be called a Lover's farewell.
leave loved ones behind and move away. A congrega-                                                                           Jesus was saying good-bye to His Bride. That little
tion and minister encounter that pain when it's time                                                                      band of eleven represented His Church. Since He knew.
for farewell.                 Parents stand helplessly silent as their                                                    the pains of farewell, Jesus also knew that only one
son boards the plane for battle. The tension is most                                                                      promise would console Her, "I go . . . I will come


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

a g a i n . " To make certain that She understood, He sent    had publically announced it in the splendor of His
angels at the triumphant moment of His ascension to           heavenly throne.      By His decree of election, Father
re-affirm His promise, "This same Jesus, which is             had officially announced that Christ would become
taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like          married to His Bride, the Church. Father had ac-
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."                   quainted Him with all the names of "His own" who
   The Bridegroom was saying good-bye to His Bride.           together would be His Bride.          For us, the joy of
   He was about to leave Her to get everything ready          election is that we know that we are betrothed to
for the wedding.                                              Christ; we are destined to marry Him.
   According to Jewish custom, the husband-to-be                 Marriage is legal. To become married one must
was responsible for providing a place to live with His        have a marriage license.        Before God there is no
bride.      When everything was ready, his fellows would      "common-law" marriage; a man may not simply live
gather around him and they would parade down the              with a woman as husband and wife. The law must be
darkened street, his companions bearing the torches,          satisfied, a license must be secured.          This was
to the place where his bride lived. With jovial song          supremely true for the Only Begotten Son.         Christ
they would troop to the house where his bride was             Jesus was about to purchase that license.
waiting, take her and her companions along, and to-              Our text sets the scene.      Jesus was in the Upper-
gether make their way to the house he had prepared,           room with His disciples. His soul was exceedingly
the house that was to become their home. There they           sorrowful, even unto death. He had assured His Bride
would feast and there he would take his bride unto            that He must needs go away1 He had come to her only
himself.                                                      for a little while, to speak to Her, but especially to
   As the Bridegroom, Jesus now said unto His Bride,          secure the license, the right to marry His Bride ac-
"I go to prepare a place for you". That place is de-          cording to the law of God. He had to go away from His
scribed as, "FathePs  house of many mansions".                Bride, it was part of the price. He had to sign that
   Scripture uses many phrases to describe heaven.            marriage license in His Own blood. That was the only
It is called Revelation the New Heaven and New Earth.         way. "I go away".
In harmony with the Old Testament it is called the               It is this truth that humbles us to the dust. As the
Heavenly Canaan, or a country which is Heavenly.              Bride of Christ we are not arrayed in"white apparel".
The Bible speaks of it as the New Jerusalem, the City         We are guilty of spiritual whoredom. The wonder of
four-square.      But, Jesus here speaks of it as a house.    the love of Christ and the love of Father to give Christ
That is quite in harmony with His farewell. We, as            in marriage to us is this, Father and Son loved spiritual
the' Bride of Christ, are not first interested in the         whores !     Blush if you will, but that is true. Did not
earth as such, nor the country, nor the city, but the         the prophets of the Old Testament cry out, "How long
house!       The house is the place of the most intimate      go ye a whoring after other Gods, oh Israel?" We are
life for a new bride. It is there that the Bridegroom         sinners I    The righteous God has set a price on the
takes Her unto Himself.                                       marriage license of His Own Son; He must pay for
   That house is very beautiful. It has many rooms,           our spiritual whoredoml He must endure the affliction
places for each one to dwell. It is located in Jerusalem,     by bearing the sins of many. He loved His Bride even
glorified with golden streets and pearly gates. The           unto death.      In Gethsemane He prostrated Himself
city itself will be refreshed with the water that flows       upon the earth and cried, "Father, if it be possible,
from the Throne of God, graced on either side with the        let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will,
Tree of Life.       There will be no sounds of wailing in     but as thou wilt". The answer came clear and strong,
her streets, for tears shall be wiped from our eyes           "The right to marry Thy Bride can be secured only
and our hearts shall sing forever.         A house in that    through the dark caverns of hell; My righteousness
city is indeed most blessed.        Most of all however,      must needs be  fulfilledI" In humble obedience, Jesus
because that house will be home1 Jesus our Bride-             went the way of the cross; He went through the dark-
groom will not take us unto His  house, He will take us       ness of the wrath of God, and signed the marriage
unto  Himself  within that house. Still more, it will be      license with the drops of blood that flowed from
unto the glory of our  Father1  That house is Father's.       Calvary's skull.
He planned it, He, designed it, He provided for His Son          Father looked upon His obedient Son and beheld
a Bride, He sent His Son to prepare it, and He will           His perfect work. He marked how He loved Him and
finally give His Son in marriage so they can live in it.      loved His Bride even unto death. Father was pleased
It belongs to Father, and the glory of the marriage           and raised Him from the dead, thereby sealing the
will be forever unto Him.                                     marriage license with the official stamp of His divine
   Jesus must needs say good-bye to the earthly               approval.      When Jesus arose from the dead, He arose
manifestation of His Bride, in order that He may              in a heavenly body, fit for the dwelling place whence
come as the Bridegroom and take His Bride in mar-             He would take His Bride unto Himself.
riage.      You understand that when Jesus said, "I go           "I go to prepare a place for you."
to prepare a place for you", He does not simply mean             There is more. Having triumphed over sin and
that house as such will be prepared, but, "I go to pre-       death, yea even the grave, Jesus spent a few more
pare everything for our wedding".                             days with His Bride on earth. Even then, He constantly
   Jesus was "betrothed" to His Bride, or as we               reminded her, "Touch me not, for I have not yet
speak in our day, was engaged to Her. His Father              ascended unto my Father in heaven." No, He did not


364                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

arise from the dead to dwell on earth, His place was              Our Lord Jesus, Christ is preparing our place for
not here, as some vainly dream; His place was  `rip            us now.       Being exalted in the heavens, He has re-
there' `. After instructing His Bride concerning things        ceived all power in heaven and earth.        By the power
that would yet take place, Jesus once again bade  fare-        of His ruling arm He controls all things on the earth,
weil to His Bride. At the foot of Olivet, He gradually         all people, all nations, all events in nature, yea `every-
ascended before their eyes.        Again the voice of Jesus    thing in order that it may serve His Bride. He dwells
floated over the hills, "I go."                                by His grace and Spirit in the midst of His Church,
       So it must needs be.      All things must be made       blessing the preaching of the gospel both within the
ready for the wedding. More is necessary than to be            organic church and through Her mission labors,, using
engaged.       More is required than a license. The Bride      it as the means  to. call out of whoredom His Bride
must be prepared! She must be purified, so that her            and bring her within the pure and holy environment of
dress may be white !                                           the living Church.
                                                                  He comes to each one of us when our purpose on
       Jesus paid for the guilt of the spiritual whoredom      earth is finished. Our Bridegroom said, "I will come
of His Bride on the cross. All Her transgressions are          again to receive you unto myself." This is the reality
forgiven. Now, Jesus looked at His Bride and saw that          of death for the Bride of Christ. Yes, we pass through
her former life would still be a temptation to her. Not        the grave, but that is not separation from our Bride;
only was it necessary for the Bride to be liberated            it is a transformation by which our souls are cleansed
from the guilt of her sins, she must also be liberated         from all filth and our bodies await the resurrection,
from the power of those sins in her life. She must             when they, too, shall be like unto His most glorious
cease to be a  whore1  Surely Jesus Himself must do            body. Transcending the lofty skies, we go to Him to
-something about that, for the Bride Herself is helpless.      dwell with Him in all perfection. He comes in death
We know that, don't we. There are round about us all           to claim His Bride.
the temptations of the world, the pleasures and treas-            The most significant moment will be the wedding.
ures of this world, for the prince of the world goeth          The saints on earth are waiting, the saints in heaven
about seeking to allure us into our former whoredom.           are waiting.      As soon as our Bridegroom has "the
Our enemies flirt for our affection, telling us that we        place,  Father',s house of many mansions" ready, He
are foolish waiting for our Bridegroom, we might               will personally come upon the clouds of heaven to take
just as well live it up a bit. They love to cast our           His whole Bride unto Himself to dwell in heavenly
way, "Where is the promise of His coming?" We                  perfection forever.     Both according to body and soul,
are tempted, we need divine assistance.                        we will be ready for the wedding. Having been judged
                                                               righteous, we will be clothed with the wedding dress
   Jesus knew this; He said, "I will come again to             our Bridegroom has purchased for us; we will feel
receive you unto myself."          As soon as He left this     perfectly at home with Him. We will sing praises to
earth and, the cloud took Him out of our sight, He             our Father forever.
went to Father's right hand. Immediately He prayed                Our Bridegroom is away from us. He has sent us
for His Bride, that He might receive the Holy Spirit           His letter of love.        Everytime we open the Bible,
from the Father and send Him to Her to comfort Her             everytime we gather in church, we listen to our
and enable Her to be faithful while waiting for His            Bridegroom speak to us, either through letter or
return.        On Pentecost morning, Jesus returned in         messenger.      That thrills us, for then He is near to us!
the Spirit to His `Bride. No, He does not  .dwell per-            What a day it will be when we will be married to
sonally with His Bride now, rather He sent His                 Him! He will take us unto Himself; we will personally
Helper that He might dwell with His Bride to give              dwell with Him.        We will have fellowship with Him
Her strength and wisdom to continue in Her calling on          face to face in Father's House.
earth.       By that Spirit, Christ fulfills His promise to       May the Spirit of Christ dwell in us to keep us
His Bride, "Lo,.~~  am with you always, even unto the          faithful, ever looking for the return of our Bridegroom.
end of the world."                                                Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

                   WEDDING ANNNERSARY                                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
On May 4, 1966, our dear parents,                              The consistory of the  Doon Prot. Ref. Church expresses
          .MR. AND MRS. RALPH VAN SPYKER                       its sincere sympathy to Deacon John Van Den Top in
                                                               the death of his father
commemorated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. We                            MR. JACOB VAN DEN TOP
give thanks to our covenant God for sparing them for           at the age of 70 years, on April 16, 1966. For many
each other and for us. May the God of all grace be             years Brother Van Den Top was a faithful member
their source of joy and comfort in their declining             and officebearer of the  Doon Congregation. May the
years.       This is the prayer and wish of their grateful     family be comforted by the confession of the Psalmist:
children.        Evelyn Van Spyker                             "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward
                 Mr. and Mrs. Henry Vander Kolk                receive me to glory". Ps.  73:24.
                 Mr. and Mrs. Clifford Van Spyker                                            Rev. Robert Decker, Pres.
                 Mrs. Alvin Schreur                                                         Mr. Edw. Van Egdom, Clerk
                       ten grandchildren


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          365



           EDITORIAL-

                                      Reason For Alarm!

                                              by  Pvof.  H. C.  Hoe&emu

   Now and then rumblings of dissatisfaction about              For I. assure you that there is "something rotten
Calvin College make themselves heard either in con-          in Denmark."
versation or in public print. Sometimes the fears seem          It may be objected that the "Chimes" is a student
to be chiefly about an alleged socialistic tendency          paper and that the college cannot be judged on the
manifesting itself.      At other times fears have been      basis of, nor held responsible for, what the students
expressed about the orthodoxy of the instruction or          write.      To this I. answer as follows: 1) Unless there
about the Christian character of some of the student         is complete anarchy at Calvin, there is, or ought to
activities.                                                  be, faculty supervision of and a faculty advisor for
   In response to these expressions. of concern there        the Student Council and the "Chimes." 2) It cannot
seems to be an occasional flurry of excitement. Once         be denied that "Chimes" projects the image of Calvin
in a while voices calling for investigation are heard.       College.      It is Calvin students who publish it. And it
Then an article or two is written which aims to re-          is under Calvin College's name that this publication
assure the Christian Reformed constituency that basic-       goes forth. If the College will not be responsible for
ally nothing is wrong and that really Calvin College is      "Chimes," then it should not allow its name to be
striving to be Calvinistic. The excitement seems to          used by "Chimes." Besides, unless regulations have
die down; and all things continue as they were before.       changed radically since I attended Calvin, the faculty
   Usually I do not concern myself much with these           has ample power to regulate student activities and
affairs. I do not have any direct contact with Calvin        publications if it only chooses to use this power. 3)
College, for one thing.       Besides, although I am an      The "Chimes" reports numerous activities of a Fine
alumnus of Calvin, it is not my college: I am, after         Arts Festival in this issue which are evidently carried
all, an "outsider" who has no voice in the affairs of        on with faculty advice and approval.
the Christian R e f o r m e d Church's denominational           `No one who reads "Chimes" can fail to associate
school.        Moreover, from what I hear and observe I      what is written and reported with Calvin College,
gain the impression that a "clean-up" of the college         therefore.        And anyone who reads "Chimes" will
would indeed be a herculean task.                            automatically say, "This is  ,what Calvin College pro-
   Recently, however, one of our students called my          duces."
attention to the April 2 issue of the "Calvin College           What is so rotten, you ask?
Chimes," a paper "published weekly by the students              My answer -is that there is absolutely nothing dis-
of Calvin College by authority of the Student Council."      tinctive in the entire paper. You could substitute the
   When I perused this paper, I stood aghast!                name of almost any liberal private or church-con-
   I came to the conclusion that there is not only           trolled college for the name of Calvin College in this
reason for concern, but more than that, reason for           issue of "Chimes," and one would never guess that
alarm 1                                                      this was supposed to be the publication of a truly
   This I write not only for Protestant Reformed             Calvinistic, Reformed, orthodox institution.
parents who send their sons and daughters to college            Here is the evidence.
at Calvin, but also for the Christian Reformed con-
stituency, who may or may not know what is going on          "THE, GREAT GAP"
at Calvin, but who are responsible for and who are              This is the title of an editorial by "jl" that is not
called upon to support this denominational institution.      only un-Reformed, but downright modernistic, liberal,
Our Protestant Reformed parents and young people             and anti-Reformed. This editorial is evidently a re-
should be alert to the fact that, to put it mildly, there    action to some of Carl  McIntire's propaganda against
is much at Calvin College with which they cannot go          Calvin College and against "Chimes." But this does
along and much which they must not imbibe. They              not change the shocking character of the statements
must be alert to the fact that our young people should       made.       I will quote at length and without comment
attend Calvin College with an extremely critical atti-       from this editorial. Its thoroughly and radically mod-
tude, to say the least.      And the Christian Reformed      ernistic note is so horrifying and so obvious that no
constituency should be alarmed to the point that they        comment is necessary.
insist upon a thorough investigation and clean-up.                     McIntire was right, of course: there is a great
They should insist upon this ecclesiastically and by            gap.       In fact, it was the point of the article that the
way of protest.                                                 gap should be widened.          The faith of our fathers -


                                                 Tl@ STANDARD BEARER

 whatever McIntire may think of it-is plainly out of              afraid of what the Spirit might say in the twentieth
date.       If archaic theological methods still dominate         century?
 the Seminary, that is too bad - too bad for the Seminary                The gospel, when not shrunk to fit a theological
 and too bad for the denomination.                                strait-jacket, is as gigantic a revolutionary force as
    Perhaps systematic theology was meaningful once;              ever: its ethic of love clears away the cultural rubble
 and perhaps it will be meaningful again some day. But            of do's and don't's, spoofs fear, brings peace. Christ
 now it is harmful. We Christian Reformed .people are             died to free all men, Christian Reformed folk have
 so used to thinking in terms of election and reproba-            forgotten. McIntire is indeed right, the gap is great.
 tion, predestination and free ,will, redemption, justifi-        But not nearly as great as it should be.
 cation, providence, and all the rest that our religion
 has been reduced to theological fence-tending; With              I repeat: this is modernism. It is totally anti-Re-
 our thought gone sterile, strait-jacketed by remote           formed.        It is open rebellion against all that the
 abstractions, each with its own parcel of proof texts,        Christian Reformed Church officially stands for. And
 our moral behavior has become legalistic and  funda-          it emanates  ,from the very college which the Christian
 mentalistic.     In short, to paraphrase a famous Catho-      Reformed Church maintains. If the faculty does not
 lic, "We've got to get  ' this denomination moving            approve this stuff, let them openly and publicly re-
 again."
    But how? To begin with, chuck. every theological           pudiate it.      If the college authorities do not approve
 abstraction - the entire symmetrical system - and start       this, let them demand public apology, and let them
 theologizing all over again. Biblical theology might          suspend  f`Chimes." .But let the church investigate
 even make religion exciting and open-ended again.             whether this young man, who speaks for the Student
    Second, learn to read Scripture like any other             Council in its publication, is also perhaps giving
 book.       Inspired it is. But might it not be only false    utterance to what he is being taught in the class-room.
 piety that has led us to, think that its language is per-     And let the church investigate how, in the first place,
fectly chosen, and its concepts unchanging? If the Old         this kind of rot can ever come into print in the college's
 Testament picture of God shows a marked change from           name ! For the impression can never be avoided that
 Genesis to Psalms to Malachi, we ought to admit that
 rather than trying to reconcile the variant concepts.         Calvin College is judged by its students and by its
 The Bible, like any other. book, not only must be, but        student publications.
 deserves to be treated with the best historical and
`literary tools available.      We need not be dishonest       THE FINE ARTS FESTIVAL  IMPO$TS  THE WORLD
 scholars in order to believe in Christ.
    Third, stop heresy-hunting and jump aboard the                The above,  -editorial is not the only evidence.
 ecumenical bandwagon. While the church dwindles.              ."Chimes'? is replete with items about a coming Fine
 and its influence declines, we go on preserving our           Arts Festival at the college. And outstanding among
 "orthodoxy" as if it were spiritual virginity. So Joe         these  items is the number of items which speak of
 Roznowski thinks that he is really eating Christ when         various theatrical productions, theater personalities,
 he takes Communion, does that mean we must exclude            and other worldly imports which will have a place in
 him from our Supper? So Ernst Stein thinks man has            this Fine Arts Festival, all evidently with faculty ap-
 free will to choose for' Christ, does that mean he may        proval and faculty advice and recommendation.
 not teach in our college? Diversity does not entail
 incompatibility.      There is no such thing as heresy..         Let me briefly itemize some examples:
 There are only Christians and non-Christians. Chris-             1). On page 1 is an article introduced as follows:
 tians should forget antique quarrels and join the gay                   The film, 
 business of redoing theology and evangelizing the                                     The Three Faces  of  Eve,  will be shown
                                                                  in the Franklin Auditorium tomorrow night at  7:30 pm,
 world.                                                           under the sponsorship of the Psychology Club.
    -Fourth, send Legalism to the hanging tree. As                       Directed by Nunnally Johnson and released in 1957,
 McIntire has. himself -seen, freedom is a key Biblical           Faces 
 concept.                                                                   of Eve is the reinactment  of a case study made
               His perverse use of freedom does not make          by two University of Georgia psychiatrists of amultiple
 it any less crucial, any more than all the peasant               personality case. . . . . .
 debauches in Luther's Germany could undo the revolu-                    Mr. Roe1 Bijkerk of the Psychology` Department
 tionary good done by the reformer's-rediscovery that             said, "Faces of Eve is very well done." He added, "It
 Christians can  "love God and do as  ,they please."              is very good documentary of a very spectacular case,
 When one sees how Christian Reformed people multiply             in which we all should be interested."
 the Ten Commandments into thousands, proscribing
 everything from a glass of whiskey to a Sabbath swim,            2) Page 4 contains an item about a two-act drama
 one wonders what has become of the truth that was to.         written by a Calvin student and produced by the stu-
 have made us free.                                            dents.       Apart now from the whole drama-question,
    Fifth, resurrect the supernatural (or if that term is      which is not a question at all in Calvin, here is the
 odious, the spiritual). We believe in miracles, we say,       theme of the play (Christian indeedl): "The point of
 but only those that Christ and the prophets did. We           the play is that essentially reality is  unknowable, and
 say we believe in the power of love, but we tote guns
 from Domingo to Danang just in .case love doesn't             that if we are correct in some  of,. our guesses as to
 work.' Or do we, like McIntire does so often, render          what reality is, then this is mere coincidence."
 unto Caesar what is God's in our violent defense-of             . 3) Page 5 contains a detailed: article, with pic-
 "God, home, and country?" We say we  beIieve the              tures, about an Academy Award winning film to be
 Spirit is in us, but we close the canon with Paul. Did        shown, entitled,  ~"Through a Glass Darkly." This is
 the outpouring of God's grace end with Paul, or are we        nothing but a full-blown, worldly theatrical  produc-


                                                     THE  STANhRD  BEARER                                                      367

    tion, imported to the campus of a Reformed and                   complishments occupy several `paragraphs of an article.
    Christian college.                                               Of course, there is not a word about his Christian
        4) On the same  page is an article about a Rhythmic          character or Christian faith to recommend him. And
    Choir offering a religious dance lecture. This is being          the following tells us what sort of stuff he will feed the
    imported from East Congregational Church of Grand                sons  and daughters of Christian Reformed parents:
    Rapids.       It will be "a lecture-demonstration of the
    dance as an art form." The lecturer (whose recom-                            Mr. Moss' program will be entitled "An Evening
    mendation is that she has taught modern dance at two                 with Arnold Moss." Featured in this program will be
    worldly universities) will speak about "the fundamentals             a reading which Moss calls "The Seven Ages of Man."
    of art as they are exemplified in dance movements"                   In this reading he re-enacts scenes, stories and poems
    and will "discuss the nature of expressive movement                  that trace man's growth from "the infant mewling and
    as it can be used in worship services."                              puking in his nurse's arms," through young manhood
        5) Page 7 speaks of a filmstrip, "Modern Art and                 and maturity down to the "last scene of all, that ends
                                                                         this strange eventful history." The readings which
    the Gospel" which will be shown twice during this                    range `from passages of tragic grandeur to romping
    festival.     This film, commented on by a member of                 comedy and pure nonsense, include the writings of
    the college art department, comes recommended as                     Shakespeare, Whitman, Lewis Carroll, Dickens, and
    follows:  ". . .  :reveals the conflicts and tensions of             Ring Lardner.
    the twentieth century, not in a narrowly theological
    but in a broadly Christian context. . . . . .The Chris-             A word in conclusion. I do not write this because of
    tian viewer can learn from this painting (one shown               any vindictive delight in criticizing Calvin College or
    in the film, H.C.H.) not only that the Christian theme           the Christian Reformed Church. On the contrary, my
    of peace is relevant to the twentieth century, but also          heart bleeds when I observe things of this nature being
    that non-Christians are sensitive to the spiritual temper        promulgated in the name- of Christianity, let alone
    of the age and have much to teach Christians. The                Calvinism.        It is  dreadful.  .And I repeat: parents and
    film `interprets the religious in us in a broadly human          young people who are directly involved in education at
    way,' Mr. Boeve said, `without moralizing in a maudlin           Calvin College, as well as the entire Christian Re-
.   w a y . "'                                                       formed constituency which is responsible for the col-
        6) Finally, the Fine  Arts Festival imported "Mr.            lege, which supports it, and which is presently in the
    Arnold Moss, noted Shakespearean actor and Hollywood             process of financing the huge expansion program at
    performer" for the instruction, I take it, of Christian          Knollcrest, -- they all have reason for alarm1
    students.         Here is really an accomplished actor,              And when an alarm sounds, there should be resolute
    whose recommendations in the way of theatrical ac-               action I


                  EDITORIAL-


                                    "The Bases of Unity"

                                                       by  Pvof.  H. C. Hoeksema

        In his `prognostications as to issues to be treated              unimportant. What is important is that among serious
    by the  Reformed Journal  in the future Dr. Henry Stob               and inquiring people the question is rising again, and
    first mentions three issues which he groups under the                that a calm and considered address to it, conducted
    title which heads this editorial.                                    with due responsibility and patience, is what is re-
        The first of these issues Dr. Stob states as follows:            quired. The inquiry and discussion would get off to a
                                                                         good start if it were acknowledged at the outset that
            There was a flurry of discussion among us a few              while the Scriptures are the ultimate source, and
         years ago about the nature, inspiration, and authority          provide the ultimate norm for Christian teaching, the
         of the Bible. Contrary to the advice of some who be-            doctrine of Scripture that prevails at any time is as
        lieved that the discussion could be profitably continued         subject to amendment in the light of Scripture as any
         in the semi-public forum of theology, Synod adopted a           other doctrine.
         report referred to its constituent churches by the Re-
        formed Ecumenical Synod and later adopted a report           COMMENT
        of .its own committee which, though excellent in many
        respects, left important areas of theological concern            The reference here is to the discussion (and con-
        untouched.      The effect of these  synodical decisions     troversy) which came to a head at the Christian Re-
        has been to silence the question of the nature of            formed Synod of 1961, in which Dr. M. Wyngaarden
         Biblical inspiration and authority. Whether this effect     challenged the orthodoxy of Dr. John Kromminga,
        was intended- or not is for the moment irrelevant, and       president of Calvin Seminary. This discussion ended


368                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

with Synod declaring the charges against Dr.  Krom-           what he calls the "hermeneutical problem." He pre-
minga  to be "unsubstantiated" and with Synod com-            sents it as follows:
mending a lengthy report on infallibility, drawn up                    Closely related to the previous question, and pos-
by a study committee, to the church. It is certainly             sibly reducible to it, is the hermeneutical problem.
true that since that time there has been virtually no            The question is, how is the Bible to be understood,
further discussion of the matter. The  JownaZ  carried           how is it to be interpreted, how does one find one's
an article by M. Hoogland which claimed that the                 way into its meaning? Although there is no disposi-
Report on Infallibility still allowed room for maintain-         tion among Reformed scholars to adopt the demyth-
ing that there are inaccuracies in Scripture. But this           ologizing procedures of Rudolf  Bultmann, or to en-
article brought no reaction; and the  Joumal   itself for        dorse the allegorical methods of the contemporary
some inexplicable reason did not offer further dis-              radicals, questions have arisen in orthodox circles
cussion,                                                         as to  how accounts such as those provided by the
              As to what Dr. Stob here writes, I have the        early chapters of Genesis are to be understood. There
following comments:                                              is evidence that responsible Reformed theologians in
   1) In the Christian Reformed context, there is no             the Netherlands have moved beyond Assen, and it is
reason why there should not be further discussion. In            difficult to see how we in this community can avoid
the first place, it is not correct that the Synod of 1961        getting involved, or would want to avoid involvement,
"adopted" the study committee's report: On  p. 78 of             in the current inquiry.
the Acts of 1961 the report is commended to the church,
but nowhere is it decided to adopt the report  in  toto.      COMMENT
Moreover, one of the grounds for commending it to the            Dr. Stob is indeed correct when he suggests that
church was that "This report is a framework for               this problem of method of interpretation is "possibly
further study of the nature of the relationship between       reducible" to the issue of the nature, inspiration, and
inspiration and infallibility." Hence, the door is open       authority of the Bible. The latter certainly makes all
for further discussion.                                       the difference, fundamentally, as far as interpretation
   2) Dr. Kromminga was cleared and justified over            is concerned.         Hence, I would surely remove the
against Dr. Wyngaarden's charges without making any           modifier "possibly," and maintain that interpretation
substantial change in his position, but merely on the         and method of interpretation are inextricably bound up
basis of what was really no more than a statement             in the nature, inspiration, and authority of Scripture.
about his intentions in the use of the term "periph-          And I would add that the  perspicuity,  or clarity, of
ery."       In this regard also, the way is open for          Scripture is also a factor here that must be reckoned
discussion.                                                   with.     However, I have some questions in this regard:
   3) In my opinion, the report of the study committee           1) Does Dr. Stob indeed mean to say that it is a
failed to settle the most crucial issue in the discussion,    question with him, with Calvin Seminary (in part), and
that of the possibility of historical inaccuracies in         with the  Jownal,   as to how the Bible is to be under-
Scripture.      I believe that the report was basically       stood, how it is to be interpreted, how one finds one's
a compromise, designed to quiet the fears and silence         way  into its meaning? I can hardly believe this state-
the discussion. Apparently, at least, it succeeded until      ment as it stands.            If this is true, then everything
now in silencing the discussion.        But I say again:      exegetical and theological is at loose ends; there is
there is no essential reason, either in the report or         nothing settled and fixed.         For how can any truth, any
in the decisions of Synod, why the  Jouvnar!  should not      `doctrine, any dogma be construed as long as it is
break this silence.                                           still a  question how one finds one's way into the mean-
                                                              ing of the Bible, "the ultimate norm for Christian
   4) If, however, as seems likely, Dr. Stob has in           teaching." Then there are no "bases of unity."
mind an amendment or revision of the confessional                2) While Bultmann's demythologizing procedures
position of the Reformed churches on the  doctrine   of       are rejected, nothing is said about that other  not-to-
Scripture, then the proper method is not public inquiry       be-ignored theologian,  I<arl Barth.          How would the
into the subject in theological journals and patient          Journal  judge Barth's approach to Scripture? Would
discussion of the issues.       For while it is certainly     it concede a sphere of positive influence to Barth in
true that "the  doctvine  of Scripture that prevails at       regard to this hermeneutical problem and particularly
any time is as subject to amendment in the light of           in regard to the early chapters of Genesis?
Scripture as any other doctrine," it must be re-                 3) What does Dr. Stob mean by responsible Re-
membered that the proper way of amendment is not              formed theologians moving "beyond Assen?" Does
that of unofficial discussion and propaganda in the           he mean that they accept Assen and then advance from
churches, but the ecclesiastically orderly way of a           that point? Or does he perhaps mean that they are in
well-grounded gravamen against any article of the             radical disagreement with Assen, having already de-
Confession which is erroneous or inadequate. Unless           parted from the position of Assen and its literalism,
and until that course is followed, any discussion must        and want to legalize their refusal to be bound by
be conducted within the confines of "the  doctrine  of        Assen's decisions?
Scripture  that prevails," that is, the official doctrine        Finally, it seems to me that this whole issue is
of our confessions, and, of course, any interpretive          also inextricably bound up in the current discussions
decisions which have been made in the past.                   concerning evolutionism and theistic evolutionism,
   The second  basic issue mentioned by Dr. Sob is            and that, in fact, the desire to maintain a brand of


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    369

evolutionism has led to the desire. to revise and liber-        ing:      either relax the strict requirements of the
alize the interpretation of Genesis, and that this in           Formula of Subscription, or get the confessions them-
turn has led inevitably. to the necessity of a revision         selves revised. I submit, however:
of hermeneutics,  - a revision which is `a departure                    1) That it is totally improper to propagandize the
from sound principles of hermeneutics.               I would    churches on these matters without making, and rather
caution again, however, that any discussion (or de-             than making, these matters an ecclesiastical issue.
bate, which would be healthier; I find all this dis-               2) That if Dr. Stob and others think that the con-
cussion, or dialogue, as it is called, rather sicken-           fessions or the Formula of Subscription are in need
ing),  - any discussion of these matters must again             of revision, or if they even think that such need of
take place within the limits of Scripture and the con-          revision should be considered, they should bring this
fessions.                                                       to the attention of the Christian Reformed Synod in the
   The third issue mentioned by Dr. Stob indeed con-            orderly way. Then, when there is a concrete ecclesi-
cerns "the bases of unity." He presents it as follows:          astical issue before the churches and under study by
          The question of the Creeds, the nature of Confes-     the churches, there is ample room for discussion.
    sion, the meaning of Subscription, and the necessity        But until a man is willing to follow this course, he
    of periodical  creedal  revision is again in  _ the air.    should not disturb nor propagandize the churches with
    Some attention has recently been paid to these matters      discussion of the very bases of unity.
   by writers appearing in this Jouml. It seems evident            In conclusion, therefore, I would sound a warning,
   that the discussion must continue: There are issues          as follows:
   here that must be brought out into the open, carefully               1) The  Reformed  Joumull  is indeed raising issues
    and critically scrutinized, and then patiently resolved.    here which concern the very bases of unity. They are
                                                                open about this. But let all be alert to the fact.
COMMENT                                                            2) Let the Christian Reformed Church be on the
   Here, I feel, Dr. Stob arrives at a most crucial             alert for the promised future. discussion by the JownaZ.
issue.     It seems evident that to some in the Christian       And let those who are concerned about the preserva-
Reformed Church the Formula of Subscription is too              tion of our Reformed heritage be prepared to take
much of a straitjacket. The only real reason, however,          prompt and resolute action if this proves necessary.
why that Subscription is a straitjacket to some lies            Let none be deceived into thinking that our heritage
not in that Subscription, but in their own disagreement         can be preserved by mere journalistic debate, or
with the confessions to which they must subscribe.              dialogue.       If such complete freedom of discussion
One who is in full and voluntary agreement with the             is allowed, as seems to be the fashion of the day, then
confessions does not feel himself bound by the con-             finally the church will be deprived of its heritage.
fessions as by a straitjacket. But one who finds him-              3) The Standard Bearer will be watching, and will
self in disagreement must do one or both of the follow-         not hesitate-to join the fray.



                                           Editorial Notes

                                                  by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

   Our readers probably noticed the omission in the             and defensive approach of the  Standard Bearer,  par-.
May 1 issue of the Rev. B. Woudenberg's department,             titularly in the editorial department and in All Around
A Cloud of Witnesses.        This was not an intentional        Us. Let it be known hereby that this is not unintention-
omission by your editor, but was due to a mistake on            al, but very purposeful and highly necessary. The
the part of the firm which is responsible for our               ecclesiastical scene today is a sad and alarming one.
composition-work.                                               This is true both of the general picture of the church
                            *******                             and of the more limited picture of the Reformed
   An apology is also in order for the tardiness of the         community.        Everywhere today there is ecclesiastical
May 1 issue. This also was not the fault of the editorial       ferment and turmoil.          Ecumenicism, compromise,
department. Fact is that most of the copy for that issue'       doctrinal freedom, and revisionism, on the one hand,
was in well in. advance of the deadline. Our aim is to          and a floundering, hopeless attitude, on the other hand,
get the  S&u&d   Beaver  out promptly on the first and          are everywhere evinced. One is inclined to ask with
the fifteenth of the month. But our composition-man             the psalmist, "If the foundations be destroyed, what
failed us also in this regard, so that the May  1 issue         shall the righteous do?" For there is indeed reason
did not actually go to press until April  29.  We have a        for alarm.       And in this situation our  Stundavd  Bearer
promise that this will not happen again.                        finds it necessary to repeat and repeat and repeat the
                            *******                             old (but ever new and rich) truths of our Reformed
   Occasionally we hear comments about the critical             heritage, and to call upon all those who still love that


370                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

heritage to stand fast. This repetition is highly neces-        making these committees more representative of the
sary in such an age as this for us Protestant Reformed          denomination also, instead of limiting their personnel
people and our children; and it is also our hope to             to the Grand Rapids area. Or, if that change cannot be
reach and to encourage others to take a firm stand.             accomplished on such short notice, let Synod initiate
                            *******                             a study to that end.     I believe there are many good
       The 1966 Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches       reasons for. such a change and that these reasons out-
will soon meet, D.V., in Doon, Iowa, -- a salutary change       weigh any inconveniences which the change might
after several successive years of meeting in the Grand          produce.    May the Lord bless our Synod in its labors.
Rapids area. Judging from the Agenda, this Synod will                                   *******
be largely positive, and will probably spend most of its           It may be reported that my recent series of three
time on matters pertaining to our seminary and our              lectures will appear in booklet form in the very near
mission work.        It is rather striking that both major      future.     A sub-committee of the Mission Board has
standing committees, the Theological.School Committee           completed arrangements for publication, and the print-
and the Mission Board, are asking for enlargement, due          ing is already under way. Watch for further announce-
to the amount of work they must accomplish. Perhaps             ment.
this would be an opportune time for Synod to consider                                                            H.C.H.



         FROM HOLY  WRIT-



                              The Good Shepherd Of Israel


                                                    by Rev. G.  Lubbers

CHRIST, THE DOOR OF THE SHEEP  (John  10:7-10)                  assertion of Christ. Once Christ simply said "I Am"
       There seems to be something incongruous in Christ        and the soldiers and the band fell backwards to the
calling himself "the door", in view of the fact that in        ground.      That was when Christ was in the garden of
the parable of verses. l-6 he speaks of the shepherd            Gethsemane where Judas Iscariot and the band would
entering into the sheepfold by the door. Here Christ           take him. This incident and the constant usage of the
does not enter through the door unto his sheep, but he          words "I Am" show that we have here to do with
is the "door" by which the sheep enter, are saved,              something unique in the mouth of Jesus. This could
and go in and go out and find pasture. However, this            only come from his lips. He is greater than Solomon,
difficulty disappears when we remember that in the              and greater than all the prophets.      He is the great
parable Jesus is portraying the different attitudes of          Shepherd of Israel. He is the great I-AM-THAT-I-AM,
the false shepherds (thieves) and of the trueshepherds,         the Covenant Jehovah in the flesh. In Him the Lord
whereas here the Lord is teaching the truth concern-           has visited His people. His is a glory full of grace
ing his relationship to the sheep on a higher plane.            and truth. He is in the bosom of the Father; He is the
Here the Savior teaches the uniqueness of his being             only-begotten God, very God of God in our flesh. God
the Shepherd of the sheep. By His death and resur-              is manifested in Him in the flesh. In these last days
rection and ascension he is the "door" of the sheep,            God has spoken unto us through His Son!
who were given to him by the Father. Jesus shows us                This Deity of the eternal Son is reflected in and
here the hidden meaning of the proverb, the suggested           basic to all such expressions as, "I am the door"
implications of the  same1                                      (vs  9),  "I am the door of the sheep" (vs. 7) "I am the
       Christ is the door. He is emphatically the  door1        good shepherd" (Vss.  11,14) "I and the Father are
There is no other door to life and blessing. He says            one" (Vs. 30). In the foregoing quotations the unique-
very emphatically "I, I am the door". No one else is            ness of Christ is indicated in unmistakable language.
the door. He is the  personal  door. By entering through        And we must not overlook the fact that it was thus
Him we enter into life. He is the Mediator of God and           understood also by the Jewish antagonists of Christ
man. He gives life and that more abundantly; he gives          when they say, "Not concerning a good work do we
overflowing life. It is eternal life.                           stone thee, but concerning blasphemy, and that thou,
       This is all given us in the metaphor of a door1          being a man, makest thyself  God]" Jesus does not
       We should not fail to see the meaning either of the      deny that such is his meaning with the "I am the door
!`I  am  the door". Repeatedly John speaks of Christ as         of the sheep, etc." but defends his right to use this
saying "I Am. .  ."        Here we have the great  self-        language by showing that in the Scriptures those, who


                                               THE  STANDABD  REARER

were not God but merely men, are "called gods", as             these sheep were given to the Shepherd by  the'Father.
it is written in Psalm  82:6  "I say ye are gods". Nay,        And for these sheep and for these only the Shepherd
Christ's works demonstrate that He and the Father              will give His life. He is not simply a door where any-
are indeed  one1 The Jews would possibly say that God          one may enter, a door for man with his free-will to
was with him; he says I and God are equal!                     enter, but He is very particularly the door of  the sheep!
   This makes the "I am the door of the sheep" to              He is the door of the sheep which He knows by name  !
stand in a new dimension. He is the "door" which is            He claims all the sheep as His own peculiar possession.
a sheep-door.       Only the sheep can use this door and       He calls them mine own. The Greek text points this
enter in. The door here is the way to the Father, the          out very strongly: the mine!
covenant fellowship with God.      It is the opening of all       Only of these sheep is He the shepherd! In the
the treasures of salvation and our entrance into it.           most absolute sense all and every one that came be-
This salvation is all cast in metaphorical language            fore him were thieves and robbers.           None really
here:                                                          cared for the Sheep but He! That will be shown pres-
    1. It is an entering in through Christ.         By his     ently. He stands here in the Old Testament Israel, in
death and resurrection and ascension and by the                the midst of the temple and the shadows and He
operation of His Spirit.                                       claims it all as His own things. (John  1:ll) He stands
    2. There is the constant fellowship alluded to in          in the midst of Israel of the Old Testament, (be it then
"and shall go in and go out and find pasture". This            on the door-step of the New Testament in His blood)
refers to the joy of salvation ever afterwards  ! It           and seeks all the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
makes one think of Psalm  23:6 "Surely goodness and            These are all in one stall. Then His eyes look across
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I           the New Testament Dispensation, and He sees multi-
shall dwell in  the,house  of the LORD forever"!               tudes, multitudes of sheep among the nations, and those
                                                               He must also save as His own. And in saving them He
CHRIST, THE GOOD SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP
( J o h n   lO:ll-13)                                          will make them one flock, under one Shepherd. And
                                                               thus, too, he will indeed separate the sheep from the
    The Lord now expands the idea of the "door" by             goats, the seed of the woman from the seed of the
calling attention to the fact that he is  "the good shep-      serpent.
herd".      He is both the door of the sheep and the               How beautiful is the language of the sovereign love
shepherd of the sheep. Obviously this would not make           of God as portrayed in Ezekiel  34:11-16 "For thus
too good a sense if it were to be taken in the literal         saith the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, will both search
sense without a higher and deeper meaning of the               my sheep, and seek them out, as. a shepherd searches
mysteries of the kingdom. For how can any creaturely           out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep
entity be both a door of a building and a shepherd of          that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will
the sheep! Evidently such is not the meaning here of           deliver them out of all places where they have been
Jesus' words.                                                  scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring
    We must look here for an expansion of the metaphor         them out from the people, and gather them from the
"door".      Christ is the door as the good shepherd;          countries, and will bring them to their own land, and
Were He not the good shepherd He could never be the            feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers,
doiw.     ' For Christ is an entirely different kind of        and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will
shepherd than other shepherds, He is the good shep-            feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains
herd. He is good in the sense of being an altogether           of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a
lovely and beautiful Shepherd. He is the Son of God in         good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the
our flesh, who came to suffer and to die in our behalf.        mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will
He is God in the flesh, God-with-us, Immanuel! He is           cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will
the appointed Shepherd of God to rule over all God's           seek that which was lost, and bring again that which
sheep with His rod and staff forever. Even in heaven's         was driven away, and will bind up that which was
glory in the ages to come Christ will be the Shepherd          broken, and will strengthen that which was sick. . .  ."
of the one great  flock1 He will be God revealed in the            And how strong is God's sovereignty expressed in
Shekinah, above the mercy-seat, in the temple of God.          this same chapter of Ezekiel, where we read "there-
He is good and beautiful as God is beautiful. Holy,            fore, will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a
harmless, undefiled and separated from sinners is              prey: and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And
He, and, therefore, He is made higher than the                 I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall
heavens. He is the holy One of God!                            feed them, even my servant David; He shall feed them
    He is the door because He is the good shepherd.            and he shall be their shepherd. And, I the LORD will
He is the only one who was appointed to meet the               be their `God, and my servant David a prince among
awful foe called the Devil, and to enter into the very         them; I the LORD have spoken it." (Vss. 22-24)
anguish and sufferings of hell to bear the wrath of               This is all very beautiful and comforting.
God against the sins of all His people, of all the sheep.          However, in John 10 we have this shepherd in the
He is the only. one who truly labors for the well-being        flesh.      He is the one of Whom the Spirit of Christ
of the sheep. Herein is love, not that any man could           spoke in Ezekiel. He says: I am the good Shepherd!
love the sheep, but that God did send his Shepherd to          Christ here identifies himself with that Shepherd of
give His life a ransom for the many, many sheep. All           the prophecy, and with their knowledge of that Shepherd


     372                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

     from the Word of God. Therefore He can call Himself                      We are His flock, He doth us feed,
     "the" Shepherd. Amongst all the children of men He                         And for His sheep He doth us take.
     alone is the Shepherd. He is God's servant David. Is
     He not the Lion out of Judah's tribe, the Root of David?                 0 enter then His gates with joy,
     He alone is worthy to take the book of the prophecy and                  Within His courts His praise proclaim;
     apply this Word to Himself. In thevolume of the Scroll                     Let thankful songs your tongues employ,
     it is written of Him!                                                      0 bless and magnify IIis Name.
                                                                       Jesus is that good Shepherd.          He is God in the
            Yes, His are all the sheep; all the sheep of all        flesh, Jehovah, the God of the burning bush. He is
     ages.      Here we sing in the "Old Hundredth Psalm",          yesterday, today and forever the same.              He is the
                                                                    Lord God omnipotent. - He has power to lay down His
               Know that the Lord is God indeed;                    life and has power to take it again. He is the beloved
              Without our aid He did us make;                       of the Father forever!



             THE  Cl-iURCH  LiT WORSHIP-



                                   The Post-Communion

                                                    by Rev. G.  Vanderz   Berg

        Following .the ceremony in which the broken bread          been fed land nourished at the table of the Lord. and in
     and the poured out wine is received by, the communi-          the, strength of that nourishment we must go forth in
     cants, there  ,are yet two things in which the church         His service,. strong in His might to conquer all evil
     must take an active and. conscious part before the            and stand for the right. In that way His holy Name is
     commemoration of the death of the Lord is complete.           praised 1
     The importance of `this post-communion service must               Th.e content of this expression of praise is taken
     not be minimized, nor should it be omitted as though          from the 103rd Psalm and the 5th chapter of the
     it were non-essential in instances where the Lord's           Epistle of the Romans.          The former is a  .Psalm of
     Supper is celebrated in both. the worship services of         praise in which the Lord is extolled for His glorious
     a given  ,Lord's. Day. The second celebration, in such        work of redemption. Our souls are enjoined to bless
     cases, is frequently abbreviated as much as possible,         Him.       Yea, all that. is within us is called to break
     with the result that essential parts of the celebration       forth in blessing His Holy Name. We are to remember
     are sometimes omitted. This is not proper. The  post-         all His benefits to us. That the Psalm here speaks
     communion part of the service should be observed              negatively, "forget not all His `benefits", does not
     after every celebration of the Lord's death, because          imply justification in forgetting "some" ,of them. The
     the things contained therein are both beautiful and           negative form only emphasizes the imperative necessity
     essential.                                                    of  Ternem  beving all  of them.    Our heart and mind and
        In the first place then, the congregation unitedly         soul must be constantly overwhelmed with the spiritual
     gives expression to a doxology of praise to God. This         consciousness of the riches of grace that God has given
I    is introduced by the words, "Since the Lord hath now          to us in Christ. Only then can we live in communion
~    fed our souls at this table, let us therefore jointly         with Him, and only then will we show forth His praise
     praise His holy name with thanksgiving, and every one         in all that we are and in all that we do.
     say in his heart thus:"                                           This injunction is followed in the Psalm by an
        Emphatically this expression of praise is not to           enumeration of the benefits God has bestowed upon
     proceed from the lips only, but it must be resident in        His people. Quite impossible it would be to mention
     the heart. The heart is the center of one's life from a       everything that God has done in one Psalm. A life
     spiritual point of view, and out- of that heart therefore     time is of too short duration to tell this. Neither
     all the issues of life proceed. Hence, the joint ex-          does the Psalm purpose to do that, but it contains a
     pression of praise and thanksgiving is not something          summary description of the work of God set forth in
     that is to be momentarily rendered at the communion           the Supper that has been celebrated. The emphasis
     table, but it must be carried in the head  and expressed      lies upon the mercifulness and graciousness of our
     continuously through all the issues of our life. Our          God as these virtues are manifest in our Lord Jesus
     life must be a manifestation of the life of Christ in         Christ.        The mercy and grace of God are without
     the midst of the present world. It is this life that has      measure.        "As the heaven is high above the earth, so


                                               THESTANDARDBEARER                                                    373

great is His mercy towards them that fear Him. As              parts.    The first part contains a threefold expression
far as the East is from the West, so far hath He re-           of thanks  .and the second part contains a double peti-
moved our transgressions from us. Like as a father             tion.     In the thanksgiving our gratitude is expressed
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them `that fear      for the gift of God's Son, the gift of faith and the gift
Him." This mercy of God to us is experienced in the            of the Lord's Supper. The Son of God is given "for a
forgiveness .of all our iniquities and in the healing of       Mediator and a sacrifice for our sins, and to be our
all  ,our diseases; in the redeeming of our life-from          meat and drink unto life eternal.?' This is a concise
destruction.      God has not dealt  with.us as we deserve,    expression of the truth that all of our eternai needs
but He has crowned us with His loving kindness and             are satisfied in Christ.      He is our life and in Him
tender mercy. 0 God, how good Thou art. Shall we               there is no lack or want. He is the Shepherd of our
not, in the realization of this unfathomable goodness          souls.     He feeds us' in green pastures. He restores
of our God, bless Him and praise His Name unto all             our souls. He makes us toliedown beside still waters.
eternity1                                                      He is our Advocate with the Father Who does all that
   The second part of this doxology is taken out of            is necessary to bring us into the fellowship of the
Romans 5. The emphasis  .here is upon the merciful             covenant of grace.      For all that God has given us in
act of God in which He gave His Son, Christ Jesus,             Him we humbly give thanks first of all.
that we might be justified in Him, reconciled to God               To be the benefactors of this redemptive work of
and saved through His life. Because of this the be-            Christ, however, necessitates faith.       Without some
liever vows : "Therefore shall my mouth and heart              bond or channel uniting us to Christ we are out of
show forth the praise of the Lord from this time forth         connection with the store of all blessings. We have
forever more." These words of Romans 5 are so rich             no strength, ability or means in ourselves to procure
and beautiful that we should pause in our reading,             these things that are essential unto life eternal. Re-
meditate on them and, if you haven't already done so,          alizing this we are then also conscious that the means
take the time now to commit them to memory. We                 of procuring these things is also a gift of God and
quote them here:                                               therefore we also give thanks for the gift of "lively
   Who hath not spared His own Son, but delivered              (living) faith".     As we pray this the words of the
Him up for us all, and given us all things with Him.           apostle Paul resound in our soul: "For by grace are
"Therefore God commendeth therewith His love                   ye saved through faith and that, not of yourselves, it is
towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ          the gift of God". (Ephesians  2:8) And we confess:
died for us; much more then, being now justified in            "Faith is therefore to be considered as the gift of
His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through                God, not on account of its being offered by God to
Him: for, if, when we were enemies, we were rec-               man, to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure; but
onciled to God by the death of His Son; much more              because it is in reality conferred, breathed, and in-
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."              fused into him; or even because God bestows the
(Romans 5:8-10)                                                power or ability to believe, and then expects that
   More need not be said.           Great is the Lord and      man should by the exercise of his own free will, con-
greatly to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable.          sent to the terms of salvation, and actually believe in
Let us, the recipients of His wonderful salvation,             Christ; but because he who works in man both to will
humbly adore and praise Him forevermore..                      and to do, and indeed all things in all, produces both
   Following this the church unites in a concluding            the will to believe, and the  .act of believing also."
prayer of thanksgiving, which is climaxed and ended            (Canons III-IV, Art. 14)
with the perfect prayer our Lord taught us to pray                 Finally, we give thanks for that Divine pleasure
and: commonly denoted as "The Lord's Prayer". A                `that motivated our Lord Jesus Christ to institute the
few comments on this prayer will conclude our dis-             Holy Supper as the means of grace through which faith
cussion of this beautiful Lord's Supper form.                  and the living assurance of all the blessings of salva-
    The prayer is addressed to our "Almighty, merci-           tion is confirmed in us. Let us ever appreciate and
ful God and Father". It is not "Almighty God" and              therefore also use with diligence the same. means
"Merciful Father" although this would also be quite            which God has appointed' unto this end.
possible.       But the two adjectives modify both God and         The prayer of thanksgiving concludes with a  peti,
Father.      God is viewed in the prayer as our Father in      tion that our faithful God and Father will grant that
heaven; our Father in Christ Jesus.            It is as our    through the operation of the Holy Spirit the commem-
Father that He has manifest both His power and mercy           oration of the Lord's death may tend to the daily in-  /
in the work of redemption which we have celebrated             crease of our faith, as well as the increase of saving  \
in the Lord's Supper.         Sovereign power of God was       fellowship with Him. When we pray this we are con-
required to establish the basis and foundation of our          sciously aware of the truth emphasized so strongly by
salvation, and that power, wrought by Christ, the Son          the apostle James; who taught us that a dead faith is no
of God, was displayed as the manifestation of His              faith at all but that faith, saving faith in Jesus Christ,
mercy; His desire to deliver us from our misery and            is an active, living, working thing. Faith may not lie
make us partakers of the joy and blessedness of His            dormant, for its very nature is that it grows and  de-
own life. To this omnipotent and compassionate God             velopes and this development we experience by the
we render our thanks.                                          working of the Holy Spirit through the means of grace.
    The prayer itself may be divided into two main             And as faith grows in us we become more and more


374                                               THE STANDARD BEARER

conscious of our fellowship with Christ. Then we walk             Christ we must expect and we will unavoidably experi-
in the ways of His covenant and enjoy all the blessings           ence the wrath and opposition of all that is not of Christ
of that covenant. It is, therefore, through the means             in this world.        The servant is not greater than the
of the Lord's Supper that the riches and glories of the           Master and therefore, what they did to Him we may
covenant of grace are made our personal possession,               expect they will do to us. To His disciples the Lord
and for all of these we cannot cease to give thanks.              said, "Take up your cross and follow me". To that
With Paul we would cry out,. "Thanks be to God for His            cross belongs all the tribulations that the church must
unspeakable gift." (II Cor.  9:15)                                suffer for Christ's sake.
       Can we pray this prayer of communion?                         Are we thankful also for these?
       This question we would ask in conclusion, because
the answer to it unavoidably reflects upon our entire                Can we rejoice with Peter and John that we have
observance of the sacrament from the preparatory to               been counted worthy to suffer for the Kingdom of
the actual reception of its benefits. In answering the            Heaven?
question then we must be aware that "saving  fellow-                 If so, we may indeed pray that God will work by
ship with Christ" necessitates conflict with the world            His Spirit in us to increase more and more that
of darkness, with our own flesh and  with,the devil and           blessed fellowship with Christ; that it may not  di-
his whole dominion. We cannot walk in fellowship with             minish,  but. that even as the day of His coming  ap-
darkness and still be partakers of the benefits of the            proaches  and the powers of evil wax stronger, we
Kingdom of light.         There is an antithesis here that        may grow in grace to be faithful unto death, that no
cannot be bridged. When we walk in fellowship with                one take our crown.




        THE LORD GAVE THE WORD-



                                  The Efficacious Calling

                                                       by Rev.  C.  Hank0


       Our: God is the living God.                                form, and all the stars of the heavens stood. in their
       Before Him the angels hide  .their  faces in holy          places.    That same word called forth the birds and
adoration, the saints in heaven bow in humble worship,            the fishes, and animals of every sort.         And by that
the devils and the wicked tremble, and. the church on             word man came into being in God's own image and
earth rejoices to behold His salvation.                           likeness to have dominion over all the earthly creation
       The living God is the calling God, Who. calls the          as God's friend-servant. The Psalmist can truthfully
things that are not as though they were.              For He      say, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made:
needs but to speak and it  isi He commands and it                 and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
stands forth.      He quickens the `dead. He makes  Him,          . . .For he spake, and it was done; he commanded and
self a peculiar people  .that can declare His praises             it stood fast." Psalm  33:6, 9.
forever.       He makes all things new. He reveals His               Unbelief can never understand this. The unbeliever
glory in all the works of His hands, that in adoration            likes to convince himself that things simply evolve out
we may declare: "0 Lord, our Lord, how excellent                  of themselves.        The wonder of the universe is that
is Thy Name in all the earth!"                                    mere things come into existence and develop, repro-
       The living God, the  Creator,  calls.                      duce and bring forth still more wonderful things by
       In,the  beginning God. created, called into being this     mere chance and circumstance.  Hut the believer looks
present universe by the word of His' power. The Al-               to God Who needs but to speak and it is, and confesses
mighty said, "Let there be light," and there was light.           that this whole creation is a wonder of our God, an
By His powerful word He spread out the broad ex-                  amazing wonder, of His power and greatness, brought
panse of the' heavens, He called forth the dry land out           forth in a mere six days.          As Scripture itself ex-
of the water, He produced grass and herbs  aqd trees              presses it, "Through faith we understand that the
as food for man and beast.            God said, "Let there be     worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things
lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day          which are seen were not made of things which do ap-
from the night," and the sun appeared, the moon took              pear." Heb.  11:3.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 375

   This becomes even more significant to us when we          devil united all his forces to destroy the Christ, the
realize that  Christ   is that Word of power whereby         Anointed of God. He aroused the whole world against
God created all things in the beginning. John opens          the Christ, so that they stood as one man in a united
his gospel account with the remarkable statement, "In        effort to kill Him and silence His witness forever.
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with            And yet "of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the               Thou hast anointed, both  `Herod, and Pontius Pilate,
beginning with God. All things were made by him; and         with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were
without him was not any thing made that was made."           g at h e red together, fov to do whatsoever  thy hand and
John  l:I-3.    This shows us that the triune God made       thy counsel detevmined before to be done."  Acts  4~27,
the heavens and the earth. The Father sent forth the         28. We know that God raised Pharaoh  to.the  exalted
Word, the Son, and the Son worked mightily through           position as king of Egypt to oppress the people of God
the Holy Spirit Who moved upon the earth. See Gen.           for the very purpose that God might show His power
l:l-3.    But this also informs us that Christ already       through him, and that God's Name might be declared
then stood before God as the Firstborn, the Head of          throughout all the earth.     Rom.  9:17. Also Cyrus,
His church, by Whom and unto Whom all things were            king of Persia, was but a tool in the hand of the Al-
made.     Col.  1:15-19. This present creation is a most     mighty to subdue nations before Him. He is called
perfect picture of the creation to come, and even            God's servant, whose right hand God holds. The living
serves to bring forth the day when all things shall be       God declares: "For Jacob my servant's sake, and
made new. God knows the end from the beginning; His          Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy
counsel stands, and He does all His good pleasure in         name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not
almighty power and infinite wisdom. He is the calling        known me."
God.                                                            Since this earthly creation is given to us as a
   But we should also consider in passing that even in       picture of the spiritual and heavenly, all these ex-
creation the living God continues to carry out that which    amples of the powerful, efficacious calling of God in
His hand has begun. Even the continued existence and         creation and history are so many pictures of the
life of the creatures is from God.                           spiritual and abiding calling. Things happen in parables,
   There is a calling of God in the sphere of God's          that those who have eyes may see, behold, and wonder
providence, in nature and in history.      Providence is     in holy adoration at the mysteries of the kingdom of
that almighty and omnipresent power of God whereby           heaven.    That which no eye hath seen, no ear hath
He "continually speaks and it is, He commands and it         heard, and never entered into the heart of' man is
stands forth. He waters the hills from His chambers;         revealed to us by God Himself that we may know and
He causes the grass to grow, so that the earth brings        confess Him as God alone, Whose is the praise and
forth abundantly. He crowns the year with His good-          the glory forever.
ness, His paths drop fatness.         They drop upon the        The living God, the  Recveatov,  also calls.
pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice        There is an efficacious calling that raises the
on every side.     He clothes the pastures with flocks,      dead sinner out of death into life. Abraham was given
the valleys with corn: they shout for joy, they even         a very concrete demonstration of this powerful calling
sing. Psalm 104 and Psalm 65.                                in the birth of Isaac, the promised seed. Although
   Scripture even informs us that God carries out            Abraham was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety,
His providence through rational, moral creatures,            so that they were beyond the age of producing an off-
men and angels alike.       God calls each creature to       spring, God brought life out of death by giving them
occupy his own place in the course of history, each to       the wonder child Isaac in their old age. God performed
serve his own appointed purpose in the realization of        this wonder even as he had promised, because in the
the eternal glory of God's Name. The angels are so           loins of Abraham was the Wonder child, Jesus, Who
many ministering spirits, who eagerly wait upon God's        should be born of the virgin. And Romans  4:17 tells
bidding and are always carrying out the work that is         us that in saving faith Abraham believed God. He be-
entrusted to them. We may often wonder how those             lieved God "who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those
many millions of angels are all daily occupied, each         things which be not as though they were."
according to his ability and position, to help toward           God performs this same wonder of His calling
the salvation of the church and the coming of the Lord.      every time an elect sinner is regenerated. And I am
Yet we know that they are just as eager for the coming       referring now to the calling that even precedes the
of the kingdom as we are; and possibly more so. They         call of the gospel. It is the same powerful voice that
are always busy consciously and willingly performing         was so graphically portrayed to us by the Lord Him-
the duties which they alone can perform.        Even the     self when He stood at the grave of Lazarus and caused
devils in hell, in spite of themselves, are called to        His life-giving power to enter into the corpse of His
serve that God's name may be glorified.         Although     departed friend, to arouse him to hear, to respond, to
Satan is always plotting and scheming as the great           open his eyes, to stand on his feet, and to come forth
antagonist of God, employing all his demons to destroy       from the grave still wrapped in the linens of his burial.
God's Name and to wipe out His cause from the earth,         Even by that same power God raises the dead sinner
he not only fails miserably, but even serves God's           from spiritual death into spiritual life. For the dead
purpose toward the coming of the day of the Lord.            hear the voice of the Son of God, and live. Christ
We have a clear example of that in the cross. The            arouses the sinner out of his spiritual death-sleep,


376                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

even before he can hear. the gospel, saying, "Awake,                  This calling is always powerful. The Word of the
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." The              living God never returns void. His Word is a power
result is a new birth, a recreation.                           unto salvation to all who believe, and that same Word
       To use another figure, Scripture explains to us         works condemnation for those who reject it in unbelief.
that God implants the seed of life in our hearts. while
we are still dead in trespasses and sins. We are born           This calling is, therefore, also efficacious. A
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,          human'..word is spoken and soon forgotten. A mere
which abides forever. We become new creatures in               offer depends upon the recipient to accept or reject
Christ with a new, heavenly life within us. And this is        it.      An assurance from the lips of the preacher that
the work solely of God, through Christ, the Word of            God loves you and that Christ died for you means
God,  V$o lives and abides forever.- I Peter  1:25.            nothing to the sinner who hates God and cherishes his
       But there is still another calling of God, which is     sins.      A mere assurance of man means nothing even
far  m-ore familiar to us and which takes place through        to the regenerated sinner who is burdened with the
the preaching of the Word. This calling comes to us            load of sin and guilt. How can God love such a sinner
as the outward call of the gospel, which is applied to         as I am?       How can I ever accept the assurance that
our  .hearts by the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us. The          Christ died for such a miserable wretch as I am? But
Spirit uses the Word to enlighten our understanding,           God's Word is powerful. He awakens in us the con-
to turn our will, and to translate us from darkness into       sciousness of sin and guilt, because He first implants
God's marvellous light. As the result of this calling          His love in our hearts. And He Who arouses us to a
we are brought to conversion and to conscious faith in         consciousness of our own wretchedness also assures
God and in Christ.                                             us that our sins, be they ever so many, are forgiven.
       Concerning this calling Paul writes in Romans           Just as Jesus called the sin-burdened sinner to Him
8~29,   .30, "For whom he (God) did foreknow, he also          while He was still on earth, He now calls through His
did predestinate. . . .     Moreover, whom he did pre-         Word and by His Spirit in our hearts: "Come unto me,
destinate, them he also called."         And the apostle       all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
Peter assures us that we are a chosen generation, a            you rest."
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people,                  Thus God's calling is always sovereign. He is not
for the very purpose that we should "shew forth the           dependent upon the persuasive powers of a preacher,
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into       nor upon the will of those who hear the  Word+  He Who
his marvellous light." And the prophet Isaiah, com-            causes His Word to be preached also declares by His
forts the saints in the midst of severest. trials and          Spirit in the heart of His elect, regenerated child
sufferings with the assurance, "But now thus saith             all the words of eternal life. He causes the Word to
the Lord that created thee, 0 Jacob, and he that              bring forth fruit unto repentance and salvation. "It is
formed thee,. 0 Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed         not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of
thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine I"         God that showeth mercy."




              IN HIS  FEAR-




                               Trusting In A Human god


                                                   by Rev.  J. A. Heys


   Although our title above is in error as far as the         nouns, and (generally) their derivatives used in the
rules for capitalization are concerned, this title never-     primary sense shall be capitalized."       t
theless is doctrinally, theologically and Scripturally           It is a rather tragic situation and pathetic as well
correct. The rule for capitalization is that "all words       that one has to be in error in order to be right. We
in titles of books, periodicals; essays and the like,         have come to a strange situation when one must break
except particles -of three letters or less; academic           a rule of writing in order to write correctly. This bit
degrees and their abbreviations shall be capitalized."        of contradiction and inconsistency is in the world be-
And again, "Proper nouns, words used as proper                cause sin is in the world. Before the entrance of sin
                                  i


                                             THESTANDARDBEARER                                                   377

into the world man would never have spoken of a god          god that is nothing more than a combination of crea-
or ever conceived of using the word with a lower case        tures. And it may be added that no matter how beauti-
letter at the beginning. Adam said, "God", and to him        ful we might try to make our image, it will still be a
a god was the nonentity that it is. A god simply is          gross insult to the living God Whose place we try to
nothing and does not exist, as Paul also points out in       take away by our idol, or Whom we claim to represent
I Corinthians  8:4. Writes he, "As concerning there-         by our image.
fore the eating of those things that are offered in             Isaiah asks not foolishly but in all seriousness,
sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in       "To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness
the world, and that there is none other God but one."        will ye compare unto Him?" Isaiah  40:18. Compare
He continues in the next verses, "For though there           Him to any creature, be it man in His image, or be it
be that are called gods (note the lower case letter          Gabriel and Michael the archangels, you have dragged
wherewith the word begins) whether in heaven or in           Him down from His lofty, divine position and made
earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But          Him (only in your thinking and never in actual fact)
to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are          a creature-god. You have insulted, debased, ridiculed
all things, and  wee in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ,      Him.     No wonder He strictly forbids in the second
by Whom are all things, and we by Him." How then             commandment of His law that we make any graven
can we and shall we speak of trusting in a human God?        images to worship as representing Him. Did Israel
There is no such thing! And even though we do use            do Him justice by making a golden calf? and saying,
capital letters to designate men and objects which do        "These be the gods, 0 Israel, which have brought thee
not exist, such as Uncle Sam and Santa Claus, Utopia         up out of the land of Egypt." And it is not simply rep-
and Martians, God forbid that we place a creature on         resenting Him by a golden calf that is condemned, but
the level with the Creator to call a thing God! We would     all likenesses of God, and all ideas concerning Him
rather be correct in God's sight and render Him the          except those which He gives of Himself in His Word.
honor due  only to His name than to be considered               He is the Incomparable One. There is no creature
learned, educated, cultured, refined, grammatically          like unto Him, for He is the Creator and not a creature.
and editorially correct.                                     And though a man may be quite satisfied and pleased
   To many the idea of a human god is objectionable.         when you make a likeness of him in marble or upon
Many rightly see that a human god is no greater than         canvass, the living God wants no representations of
we and must fall short of helping poor, frail humanity.      Himself by the creature. Man may even be flattered
A god with human characteristics, even though they be        by that likeness and become puffed up to see his like-
of power far greater than ours, is still a dependent         ness displayed before other men.      God is filled with
creature.    Humanity is limited and never self-suffi-       righteous wrath and indignation when the creature
cient.    We need a God Who indeed is God. Men gener-        tries to express in the created matter the  untreated
ally speak of their god as being divine, and by this         God.     Jesus told the woman at the well in  Samaria,
very word mean to express a transcendency that lifts         "God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must
their god above man. But even though men generally           worship Him in spirit and in truth." We must know
attribute to their gods a superhuman power, wisdom           Him and derive our opinion of Him from what He says
and glory, there is yet so much trust in a human god -       in His Word of truth, and not from some statue or
even when men claim that Jehovah is their God - that         picture which most assuredly will tell the lie con-
in His fear we do well to examine our own lives and          cerning Him.      For He cannot be likened unto any
thinking, lest we be found praying to and confessing a       creature, but as the incomparable and transcendent
god instead of God.                                          God can be known only by what He says of Himself.
    All idolatry is not image worship, even though all       He can be known only in His Word.
image worship is idolatry. And image worship aiways             How can you with finite, limited material make a
manifests itself in the worship of and trust in a            likeness of that which is infinite and unlimited? How
creaturely god. Look about you in the image worship          big will you make this likeness and show that He is
of the Pagan world that still outwardly and openly           bigger because He is infinite?. How many eyes will
sacrifices to idols of wood and stone! What mon-             you give that likeness to show that He is all-seeing
strosities they make1 A fierce looking, hideous con-         and all-knowing; or will you make Him all eye? But
glomeration of parts of birds and beasts and of man          then where is the hearing, the speaking? How will
is the composition of their idol. To try to express the      you show His holiness? By a halo of gold around His
power( ?) of their god, they give their image those parts    head?     And this will adequately express that His
of animals that symbolize power to man. Their terror         whole being is holy? It will clearlyteach the unlearned
before this figment of their own imagination they ex-        that He IS holy and not that holiness hangs over Him
press in fierce, scowling lines upon the face of their       or is added to Him? The Son of God in our flesh had
idol.     In one way or another and by borrowing from        definite features -which by the way, He did not want
the creatures which they can see and of whose powers         preserved. He could have led man to invent the camera
they know, the heathen make an image of what they            and color film twenty centuries ago, had He wished
think their god is like. It does not always turn out to      to have us know these physical features, and were
be a human god but more often far more like a beast          they essential for our faith and salvation. His Son in
even than man. But the outcome always is, when men           our flesh also we must know by faith and as He is
begin to fashion an image of their god, that we see a        revealed in the Word.      We need no likeness of Him


378                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

Who could be likened, had God chosen to preserve               shepherd who tends the literal flock of sheep are the
His features for us today.          We need His life, His      pictures.     Christ and His people are the true vine and
Spirit and His salvation, not a photograph or statue           branches and shepherd and sheep. No different is it
of Him.       Surely we do not need a statue of Him on the     with God's attributes of love, mercy and grace. What
dash board of bur automobiles, of Mary and any of the          we see in man of love, mercy and grace are such faint
saints .      This too is image worship and idolatry, for      reflections of what is so infinite in God.
it puts the creature in His place to one degree or                 Arminianism of every hue and flavor presents a
another.                                                       human god who is disappointed in love far more often
       SO far we have not lost many readers, no doubt.         than he is loved by the object upon which he sets his
To a point we always find agreement and can jointly            affection.    God loves everybody, so the story goes, but
condemn certain evil practices' and works of unbelief.         he succeeds in getting so few to accept his love and
But let us look inwardly as well as outwardly. Is the          to love him in return. With this, of course, goes a
God Whom we trust actually God, or is He a human               human power.       No, to be honest we must say a sub-
god and thus not God? It is relatively simple to find          human power.        This is even reflected in that  God-
another's human god. What about ours? If, indeed, we           dishonoring question which results from having an
have not already taken the position that He is dead.           imaginary god, "Why not let God have His way with
       Indeed, what do we say of His love, mercy and           you and save you?" Here, indeed, is a human god,
grace?                                                         for that god turns ,out to be man. He has the power
       The fool `says in his heart that there is no God;       to frustrate the god that wants to save him. And if
and the Church has every right to call those who thus          God's love is a reflection of ours, this is to be under-
speak heathens. The Modernist says that God is dead;           stood as being the  power(   ?) of His love. God must be
and the Church has every right to say that those who           disappointed in love, if His love is no more sturdy
speak that way of God are not Christians and are like-         and substantial than that of the creature. Vines and
wise heathens.       Scripture does that! In Psalm  115:2      shepherds die. If God as our shepherd is a reflection
those who ask, "Where is now their God?", are called           of the human shepherd, the Modernist has his room to
he athens.     Certainly they  tire not disciples of Christ    say today that God is dead. At least He will come to
and worthy of the name Christians.             Christ never    death sooner or later.      If Christ, the vine, is only a
professed that God is dead. A church member who                picture of what we see growing in the field, He too will
takes that stand is dead! He evidences a dead heart,           die. For all these are temporary creatures that depend
a heart as dead as stone. He reveals himself as one            upon an Independent, Self-sufficient One.
dead in trespasses and sins. He shows that there is               Let' us break down our images of  ,Baa.l.  Let not our
not a spark of spiritual life in him. But while we can         children see and be tempted to bow down and to put
agree on the idolatry of these extremes, what about            their trust in Dagon, Ashteroth or any of  ,the modern
presenting the living God as having attributes that            idols.      But by all means break these mental images
are beset by human limitations?                                as well and smash them to smithereens! It is more
   God is love.        He is the God of all grace. And         difficult to do that. But the danger of `a mental image
Christ is our merciful High-priest. To this all must           is not less than that of an image of wood and stone.
agree, for this is the literal word of God. But the            And the trust in a mental image that originates in
question is whether we listen to what Scripture has            man's mind and is not derived from the Word of God
to say of these attributes of God. Do we begin with            is idolatry and image worship as surely as Israel
the love of man and explain God's love in its light?           committed these sins in worshipping the golden calf.
Or do we actually see that God is love and that in man,           It may be said of and to Modernism, "Your god is
created in His image and before the fall and only after        too small."       But this holds for Arminianism and
regeneration, there is a creaturely reflection of that         Pelagianism and all false doctrines as well. They
infinite love of God? Jesus said, "I am the true vine,         always are trust in human gods, and so often in gods
ye are the branches." And again He said, "I am the             that have less power and wisdom even than man. A
true (rather than good) shepherd." Shall we change             human god cannot save humanity, for it is produced
these and say that Christ is like the natural shepherd         by humanity and has all of its frailties and short-
and like the natural vine? Scripture approaches the            comings.      In His fear look up to Him Who is in the
matter from the exactly opposite direction. The vine           heavens and has done as He has pleased. Trust in the
which we see with the natural eye, and the human               God of Psalm  115:3. He will not let you down.

                                                                              RESOL UTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                               The Martha Society of the  Doon Protestant Reformed
            STANDARD BEARER STAFF MEETING                      Church expresses its Christian sympathy to our sister,
The Standard Bearer Staff will meet, D.V., the evening         Mrs. Jake Van Den Top and her children, in the recent
of June  .6 at 8 o'clock P.M., in our  Doon, Iowa church.      passing of their husband and father,
Will all the staff members please take note of this                             MR. JAKE VAN DEN TOP
annual meeting?
                         J. A. Heys, Sec'y.                    May our loving Father comfort the hearts of the
                                                               bereaved family with His eternal Spirit.
                                                                                       Rev. R. Decker, pres.
                                                                                       Mrs. C. Klein, sec'y.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     379



    TRYING THE SPIRITS-


                 Rationalistic Biblical Criticism

                                                  (Continued)

                                                 by Rev. R.  C.  Havbach

2. Its Method and Result  (cont'd). The facts available        plained as an outgrowth of the myths and folk-lore of
in the study of Scripture manuscripts do not warrant           the heathen nations surrounding Israel. Over against
more than one author of Genesis. Nor does single               this, we believe that the only explanation perfectly in
authorship necessarily demand one single style of              agreement with the facts is that the Old Testament is
writing throughout.      Cne author treating different         the revelation of God. By "the revelation of God" we
subjects may very well reveal different styles ap-             do not mean the self-accumulated information the
propriate to his themes.        A university professor         human mind acquires in meditative gropings for God,
preparing a manuscript of a philosophy text-book               thus making revelation a product of man's intellectual
writes in a style different from his successful efforts        achievement. But by revelation we mean the reception
it poetry.    A preacher's pulpit style may be generally       of truth at the disclosure, and on the authority of
rhetorical, but his colloquial style, humorously prac-         God. To us it is much more staggering to the human
tical.    An electronics engineer would be forgiven for        mind to believe that the compiling of the Pentateucb
explaining his specialization in technical terms; yet          as we now have it came out of this labyrinthine patch-
we would expect him to come with a different style             work of Modernism, than to believe the simple miracle
when addressing the literary. club. A teacher does             of an original composition given by God through the
not write to his class in the same style in which he           hand of Moses.
writes to his wife. Yet -in Scripture God addresses            3. Its  Inuccuvate   Representations.   Is there anycentral
His Church sometimes as "disciples"  (1earners)`and            and basic argument appealed to in support of this
at other times as His "bride."                                 smithereen-theory of the structure of Scripture? There
    Further claim for this theory of diversified author-       is; the gist of it being that in Exodus  6:2  the E author
ship is  ,made on the basis of repetition in Scripture.        states that the name  Jehovah  was not revealed until
There is said to he repetition of the Genesis 1 ac-            the time of Moses. Therefore, the passages in Genesis,
count of creation in Genesis 2. This is said to infer          where the name Jehovah appears, were not  .written  by
twin authorship of the repetitive passages.       But that     the person who recorded these Exodus words of God
which is summarial and supplementary is not repeti-            to Moses,  for. he would not put his name in the patri-
tive. The same may be said for Joseph and Pharaoh              archs' mouths as though they were familiar with it.
who had double dreams of the same prophesied events            He  would,not,  this means, create an anachronism, i.e.,
which applied separately to them. This does not sug-           the misplacing of historic language, and assign it to a
gest double authorship. Jesus preached the Sermon             period earlier than when it came into existence. (Fur-
on the Mount, but the reiteration of it on the plain           ther illustration of an anachronism we have in the use
(Luke  6)  does`not imply different orators.                   of cannon in Shakespeare's  "King John," as cannon
    It must be admitted that these literary deductions         were not employed in England until 100 years or more
came about only after thorough and scholarly examina-          after his reign). Therefore it was a different writer,
tion of the Hebrew manuscripts and versions, together          J, who made his contributions to the Book of Genesis
with the study of history, archaeology and contempo-           at an age far later than the time of Moses. So the
rary writings. The facts, and all available material,         argument runs.
with the possible exceptions of the latest findings in             But it simply cannot be that by the name  Jehovah,
archaeology and the latest rebuttals of orthodox schol-        God was not known until after the call of Moses, for in
ars, have been carefully examined and scrutinized.             this very chapter (Ex.  6)  Moses' mother, Jochebed, is
But the trouble is that the explanations given the ob-         mentioned, and her name consists of the abbreviated
jective facts and data consist of philosophies and hy-         form of  Jehovah: Jo  plus  chebhedh  equals  Jehovah  is
potheses. From real phenomena we are led to learned            glorious  . Besides, we may take Ex.  6:2 as a question
suppositions.  " The drawback, to Modernism, is the            (rather than a negative declaration), which was asked,
supernatural element in Scripture, and the rationalistic        "by My name Jehovah was I not known to them?" The
interpreters have always rejected it on the grounds            question requires the self-evident answer that He was
that it is more of a detriment than an asset to the            so known.         Jochebed's parents must have so knowr
cause of Christian truth. The Old Testament was ex-            Him.1        Intellectually they had this knowledge, but they


380                                          ~THE STANDARD BEARER

did not know in the fulness of religious experience the      "affinity" stresses, that the Israelite records have a
complete significance of this name Jehovah.         That     connection through causal relation with the Chaldean,
could not be until their redemption from Egypt.              i.e., the Chaldean source is the cause and origin of
       Since we have so many diverse documents, written      the Israelite stream.     But is this the correct picture?
by so confusing an array of compilers, as E and the          The Flood legends, indeed, are found among every
three subordinates of his school, J and the three lesser     people, but these fabled accounts do not in any way
J's, C (covenant code), D, P and his subjects, with no       gain an ascendancy over the pseudepigrapha  (false-
one knows how many R's (editors), how can we believe         writings), to say nothing of the fact that they come
that there is an unanimity of thought running between        nowhere near the high quality of Holy Scripture. But
them whatsoever? How may we be sure of the identity          is it reason to argue that because there are legends
of the J passages in distinction from the E,  etc;, when     of the Flood everywhere in the world  showingsimilari-
the destructive critics do not agree among themselves?       ties to the biblical account, that therefore the biblical
De Wette, Knobel and Bleek say one thing, Stahelin           account itself must be a legend and of legendary
another, Kuenen with still a different opinion; Ewald        origin? One may as sensibly aver that because there
has his peculiar view, and Hartmann, Bohlen and              are Coca-Cola signs in every foreign country in the
Wellhausen, although agreeing with each other, differ        world bearing resemblances to similar signs in our
from all the rest. For while denying that Moses was          country, that therefore Coca-Cola must be of foreign
the author of Genesis, of either the J or E sections, or     origin!     Furthermore, how would the Chaldeans,
that he was even the compiler R, somecritics attribute       Greeks, Hindus, Phyrygians, Chinese, Polynesians,
the authorship to Samuel, some to Hilkiah, others to         Mexicans and Cherokee Indians all in d e p e n d e n t 1 y
                                                             stumble on the same myth, if theirs was not a tradition
Jeremiah, still others to Ezra, others  .to someone
after the captivity, while a few hold Genesis to be a        of the same historical event?
collection of the labors of all these mentioned. How         5. Its  View of Science  and  Scripture. Another favorite
then may we even speak of a Modeemtistic  theory, when       attack upon the Word of God is to argue that the Book
that has not earned the recognition and reputation of        is not a scientific treatise, but an expressionof certain
a  theory  which is only a private opinion held among        tribal beliefs and religious aspirations of past ages.
scores of conflicting opinions and jumbled irrele-           The implication is that the Bible is not in harmony
vancies? ,                                                   with science, not any more than a collection of Baby-
                                                             lonian superstitions would be. It is filled with errors
4. Its Attack on Old Testament  History.     One of the
most time-worn contentions of this modernistic theory        which contradict the findings of science, so that the
                                                             best we can do with the biblical material is to "in-
(?) is that the religion of the Old Testament, and the       terpret it in a new way" and consider it "as the
Book of Genesis in particular, make "no claim to             highly symbolical expression of a truth which was
being in any way supernaturally furnished," and that         intuitively perceived by its redactor or by the sages
"the early narratives of Genesis respecting the Crea-        who communicated it to  him."4 The Flood as related
tion, the Fall, and the Flood are based upon myths and       in Genesis,
traditions which the Israelites inherited in common                           according to such reasoning, is not an
                                                             inspired record of a universal deluge, but an allegory
with other branches of the Semitic family."2
       It has always been naturalism's pet argument, in      meant to reveal a natural aversion on the part of God
the attempt to be rid of the supernatural element, to        toward violence and injustice.
affirm that the Old Testament has very little, if any,
historical accuracy.      Its basis is therefore not his-       But it is not the Genesis record which conflicts
torical, but mythological.      The Creation,  the. Fall,    with true science; it is philosophy, of one brand or
the Flood are not objective, historical events; but          other, which does. Facts do not conflict with Scrip-
since these accounts so closely resemble the popular         ture, nor does Scripture ever conflict with facts, but
legends then current among the surrounding heathen           unwarranted interpretations of the facts do.          Science
nations, they must have had their origin there and           has never been able to controvert the biblical account
were adopted therefrom, and eventually came to be            of the universal Flood, nor has it made such an at-
regar'ded as part and parcel of Israel's own religious       tempt.     Only certain philosophers have done so, or
fictions.     These accounts do have value, in that they     certain anti-Christian scientists who allowed them-
stimulate imagination as to what the history of Israel       selves to depart from the field of true science for
may have been like; but they are useless as a guide          the dead-end alleys of speculation. Not the Scripture,
to historical truth. Unoriginal Israel simply acquired       but the self-confident critic is in the wrong. . . .
its religion gradually from long exposure to the prev-
alent, environing heathen cultures.      "The labors of      1  Old and New Testament Biblical Theology,          G.  Vos,
Rawlinson, Lenormant, George Smith, Schrader,  Sayce           p. 73, Theol. Sem. of the Reformed Episcopal
and others have shown indisputably the affinity of the         Church, 1934.
Israelite with the Chaldean cosmogony."3                     2  Hastings1  Bible  Dictionary,  II, Genesis, p. 146,  Scrib-
       Mark, it is not, as we Reformed would say, "the         ner's, N.Y.' 1900.
affinity of the Chaldean legends to the Israelite cos-       3 Ibid.
mogony," which is the fact, but the statement, as            4 Human Destiny,  Lecomte du Nouy, 112, Longmans,
modern criticism makes it, means, as the word                  N.Y., 1947.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       381



     ALL AROUND US-

                                 Defense of the Formula of  Substiriptiori

                                  The Obscenity Issue

                                `The Prayer Issue                                            by  P"Jo). H. Hank0


DEFENSE OF THE FORMULA OF SUBSCRIPTION                              All of us remember that a few years ago differ-
   We have observed in previous issues of the Standuvd          ences of opinion arose regarding the doctrine of in-
Beaver   that the Church, pressing on towards modern-           fallibility of the Bible.       To us, it seems the novel
ism, is making concentrated efforts to dispose of the           opinions were in conflict with Article 3 of the Belgic
creeds.       Especially in the Reformed Church disposing       Confession, yet the royal road of not writing in public,
of the creeds implies also disposing of the Form of             but revealing our sentiments to consistory,  classis
Subscription. (Presbyterian Churches also require a              and synod was not followed.
                                                                    At present there is. much discussion of theistic
promise of their officebearers to uphold the creeds,            evolution as a possible explanation for the origin of
even though they do not use the Formula.) Hence,                 all things.     But is not Article 12 of the Belgic Con-
attacks are being made upon this Formula in efforts             fession clear on the doctrine of creation as the origin
to set it aside.       The idea is that, setting aside the       of all things? .  ; . In the light of the Confession and
Formula, the door will be open to free discussion of             Scripture, there seems to be no room for theistic
all and any doctrine which the Church has confessed,             evolution.     If it can be harmonized `with the doctrine
to re-examination of such doctrine, and to the pos-              of creation, why not go to consistory,  classis, and
sibility of arriving at different doctrines than those           synod to have such views judged?
historically maintained. Free discussion with nothing               The view has been advocated that "God loves all
                                                                men redemptively." But how does this fit in with the
binding upon the consciences and faith of the people           confession in the Canons of Dort (2:8) "that Christ by
of God is the desire of these men. (This became very             the blood- of the cross . . . should effectively redeem
evident in a recent article in the  Reformed  Jouvnal            . . . all those, and only those, who were from eternity
written by Henry Stob.)                                          chosen to salvation . . . ." The view advocated seems
   In  The Banner,  Rev. Conrad Veenstra, emeritus               in complete contradiction with the creed. Can ad-
minister in the Christian Reformed Church, rises to              vocating this view be compatible with the subscription
the defense of the Formula and points out that it is             to the Form?
being violated in the Church. It is good to hear such               To mention but one more illustration, namely, the
a protest.                                                       recent writing on reprobation. The position seems to
                                                                 us to conflict with the Canons (1:15) which declares
   By way of introduction to this article, Rev.  Veen-           that "God has decreed to leave some sinners in the
stra offers a brief history of the adoption of the For-          common misery into which they have willfully plunged
mula at the Synod of Dort.     From there he proceeds to         themselves and not to bestow upon them saving faith
discuss the fourfold purpose of the Formula. He                  and the grace of conversion . . . . And this is the de-
points out that it demands 1) a declaration of agree-            cree of reprobation."
ment with what is confessed in the Reformed Stand-               The author concludes this article by asking: "How
ards; 2) that it elicits a promise from those who sign        can brethren justify their public writing and teaching
it that they will "expound correctly and rise to vindi-       on these subjects in the light of their having subscribed
cate these truths when challenged"; 3) that it binds          in good conscience before God to the Creed?" And
the signer to reject these  errors  -especially the           he adds: "We must demand anew that leaders in
error of Arminianism; 4) that it spells out the way in        church and school hold themselves to their promises
which an objector to the creeds must walk: the way            made when they signed the Form of Subscription or
of gravamen to Consistory,  Classis and Synod; the            accept the penalty of being suspended from office."
meanwhile keeping silent in public and private, in
teaching, preaching and writing these views.                     This position of Rev. Veenstra we heartily endorse.
   After this introduction, Rev. Veenstraasks the             What he writes is so true.             And, surely, it is high
question whether the Church is maintaining her For-           time that someone rises up in the Christian Reformed
mula. After pointing out that a growing characteristic        Church to call attention to these violations of the
of our times is lawlessness in society, politics and          promises made by those who signed this document.
even in the Church, he finds these weaknesses begin-             But we have a few questions of our own to ask.
ning to show themselves also in the Christian Re-                First of all, is it not perhaps too late to ask that
formed Church. He then gives a couple of examples,            the penalty of suspension from office be applied to
and we quote from his article.                                those who violate their own promises? After all the


 382                                             THE  STANDARD   BiL4RER

  Formula also says  ". . . being ready always cheer-             country. Much lower moral standards (or none at all)
  fully to submit to the judgment of the consistory               are being accepted. One need only do cursory reading
  classis  and synod, under the penalty in case of re-            in news media to become aware of how deeply the filth
  fusal to be,  by that  very  fact,  suspended from office."     of obscenity has penetrated the lives of the citizenry.
  (Underlining, ours.) Should not that suspension from            No legislation, even though it would be far stronger
  office have taken place sometime ago when these                 than that made by the Supreme Court, can change the
writing began? It is never too late to undo a wrong,              foul heart of man.
  but it does become increasingly difficult.           All the       But all of this is due to fact that the objective law
  more so when Prof. Decker, who is referred to above,            of God has been abandoned. This is the great problem
  was recently reappointed to teach in the seminary.              facing the Supreme Court: they have no standard of
        Secondly, what about those who have been guilty of        what constitutes obscenity. They search for such a
  this violation? What do they think about this? In the           standard here and there, but always outside God's law,
  official church paper of the Christian Reformed Church          and come up with the standard of whether "to the
  they have been accused of violating this important              average person, applying contemporary standards,
  document and of breaking their promise. Will they               the dominant theme taken as a whole appeals to
  simply overlook this  7'     Can  they overlook it? I am        prurient interest." Even this makes the standard of
  sure that a minister of the gospel or professor who             obscenity some kind of majority vote of the populace.
  has been publicly accused of breaking his oath of               And, if the morals of the populace decay, the standards
  office and becoming worthy of suspension, if he is at           decline along with them. There is then at last nothing
  all serious about his calling, will rise in righteous           left of all sin which can be called obscene.
  anger in his own defense.         It seems to me that the          But God's law is very explicit about these things.
  sacredness of the promise demands this.                         The seventh commandment forms the basis; and its
        Surely, things cannot continue in this way.               interpretation is given throughout Scripture.               Paul
                                                                  writes to the Ephesians: "But fornication, and all
  THE OBSCENITY ISSUE                                             uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named
        The issue of pornography has been before the Su-          among you, as becometh saints: Neither filthiness, nor
  preme Court of the United States inseveralcases with-           foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient
  in the recent past. In an earlier decision, the Supreme         . . . .And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works
  Court had seemed to many to go too far in approving             of. darkness, but rather reprove them.               For it is a
  pornographic material which is at present flooding the          shame even to speak of those things which are done of
  mails and polluting countless newsstands throughout the         them in secret." Eph. 5:3, 4, 11, 12.
  country. The Court had made the test of pornography                When the law of God is rejected as the standard for
  to be whether "to the average person, applying con-             our life, moral chaos results.
  temporary standards, the dominant theme taken as a                 It is certainly the calling of the saints, more urgent
 whole, appeals to prurient inerest." On the basis of             than ever, to keep her garments unspotted from the
  this standard, material which was considered by many            world.
  to be obscene had been approved. In fact, one judge of
  the court in particular wrote an opinion which ex-              THE PRAYER ISSUE
 pressed the view that even this standard was too strong             Many have not been happy with the decisions of the
  and that the principle of "freedom of speech" per-              Supreme Court which forbade prayers of any kind in
 mitted anyone to write or to say anything which he               the public schools. Many bills were introduced into
 pleased without limitations by the court. While his              both houses of Congress to restore such devotional
  view did not prevail on the bench, nevertheless, proph -        exercises.       Up until recently these efforts were un-
  ets of gloom predicted that the Court was opening               successful -- their sponsors could not even get the bills
 the gates to yet greater streams of filth. The fact              on the floor of Congress for consideration and debate.
 was that the court had not yet condemned any one                    But Senator Everett Dirksen, minority leader in the
 publication.                                                     Senate, recently introduced a constitutional amendment
        In a more recent decision, the court ruled that           which would provide for voluntary prayers within the
 Ralph Ginzburg, a noted publisher of filth, was guilty           schools.      It reads: (I quote from  Christianity Today):
 of disobeying the laws and that he should be sent to
 jail.' The decision was complex: although it was made                      Nothing contained in this Constitution shall prohibit
                                                                     the authority administering any school, school system,
 by a 5-4 majority, nine justices, in three decisions,               educational institution or other public building supported
 wrote fourteen different opinions on the matter.                    in whole or in part through the expenditure of public
        The court has therefore committed itself to the              funds from providing for or permitting the voluntary
 position that some material is indeed pornography                   participation by students or others in prayer. Nothing
 and should be banned, while its publishers penalized.               contained in this article shall authorize any such
 But the material has to be pretty bad before this can               authority to prescribe the form or content of any
 be done.                                                            prayer.
        The issue goes considerably deeper than any court            While Dirksen does not want prescribed prayers
 decision, however.                                               to be foisted upon the students, nor that those who do
        It is surely evident that the decisions of the court      not want to pray be forced to pray, nevertheless, his
 reflect a growing immorality among the citizens of this          amendment provides for voluntary prayers to be made


                                                       THESTANDARDBEARER                                                            383

by those who wish to make them.                     This proposed        better to let the issue die.
amendment has gained considerable support in the                             And, after all, there  is no real solution to the
country.                                                                 problem.       The schools are public institutions. And
   It would  be well, it seems to me, to  abandon all                    the basic wrong lies here. The responsibility of ed-
these efforts permanently. It seems sacriligeous to                      ucation belongs to parents, not to the state. As long
make such a holy exercise as prayer (an exercise                         as  this  is- not followed, no solution to the problem
which is the peculiar privilege of the people of God                     exists. One cannot build a straight house on a crooked
anyway) some sort of legislative football. It is much                    foundation.



                                                   Spiritual Depressions: Its Causes and Cure

                                              I
         BOOK'REVIEWS-                             Man in the Occurring of God's Revelation

                                                   The Ten Commandments


Spiritual Depressions: Its Causes and.             Man in the Occurring of God's Revela-        Seminary in Decatur, Georgia.
Cure, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, 300                tion, by Ds. M. P. Van Dyk, 247 pages,          The author had intended originally
Pages, $3.95; Published by Wm. B.                  f 12.75; Published by J. H. Kok N.V.         to write a book containing no more than
Eerdmans Publishing Company.                                                                    ten sermons, one on each command-
                                                       This book, too, is written in the        ment.    But. it seemed to him that a
   Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is noted as              Holland language.     The Holland title      more useful contribution could be made
a gifted preacher who ministers at                 reads: "De Mens in het gebeuren van          to the subject by writing a book of this
Westminster Chapel in London, Eng-                 de Godsopenbaring."  Also of this book       nature. The purpose of this book is to
land.                                              it is true that it is not for laymen.        discuss and treat the ten command-
   The book deals with spiritual de-               The writer places himself before the         ments in the light of Jesus Christ, and
pressions. When I first saw the title,             question: What is man's place in the         to interpret the Law of God by the
I thought the book was a book on Psy-              revelation of God? Can a certain in-         Gospel, seeing each commandment in
chology and that it treated mental dis-            dependence be ascribed to him, or            the light of the whole Biblical message,
eases. However, it discusses spiritual             must all independence be denied him?         as centering in the life, death and res-
depressions, and calls attention to the            And the author studies this question         urrection of Jesus. This book of 181
fact that a child of God should be a               particularly in connection with the          pages treats each of the ten command-
living witness of the gospel of our Lord           theology of Barth, of whom Rev. Engels-      ments in as many chapters.
Jesus Christ. This gospel is a tre-                ma is writing in our Standard Bearer.           We may recommend this book to
mendous gospel, is designed and                    IS it true that, according to Barth,man      our readers.     It is easily read and
adapted to cover all our needs, is a               is more or less relegated to the back-       digested. This does not mean that we
power that is able to transform all of             ground?                                      agree with all its contents. Our people
man.                                                   As we stated, this book is written       will undoubtedly conclude that the auth-
   I enjoy its emphasis upon the gospel            in the Holland language; it is not for       or's treatment .of the ten command-
of divine grace. I enjoyed reading, e.g.,          laymen. I would assume that a proper         ments is different in many instances
the following on page 59: "I think we              evaluation of this book would depend         from the way we treat them. This,
should abolish this word decision. I               upon a thorough study of the theology        however, does not necessarily mean
do not like it. . . . ..Let me sum up this         of Karl Barth. The undersigned  con-         that we would discourage the purchas-
point by putting it like this. There are           `fesses that he is hardly qualified to do    ing of this book for this reason. But,
the people who decide to take up Chris-            this.    However, one must not. under-       we do not agree with all its contents.
tianity instead of being taken up by               estimate the position and influence of       Discussing the sixth commandment,
Christianity." And, in the last chapter            Barth. And we certainly believe that         for example, the author appears to
(incidentally, in these severalchapters            this book can be helpful as one examines.    condemn capital punishment. One also
the author treats various Scriptural               the writings and teachings of this well-     wonders whether he assumes the posi-
texts; they are sermons he preached                known theologian. Unto that end, wedo        tion that the Christ i an must judge
on consecutive Sunday mornings), he                not hesitate to recommend it.                whether a war is justifiable or not,
emphasizes that a child `of God can                                             H. Veldman      and that he must determine whether
do all things through Christ which                                                              he should obey in all instances the
strengtheneth him. On the one hand, he             The Ten Commandments, by Ronald D.           call to serve one's country in war.
refutes the error which would empha-               Wallace, 181 pages, $3.95; Published         We, of course, believe in capital pun-
size the "I" only. And, on the other               by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Com-           ishment and also maintain that the call
hand, he refutes the error which would             pany.                                        to arms may never be refused by the
obliterate the "I", making the child of                                                         individual, unless it would involve the
God a stock and block. And all em-                     Dr. Wallace, educated at the Uni-        Christian in a direct attack upon the
phasis is upon the grace of God in                 versity of Edinburgh and New College,        Church and Cause of the Son of God.
Christ.     I certainly may recommend              Edinburgh, having held charges in Eng-       However, with discretion the book can
this book to our readers.                          land, is presently serving as Professor      certainly be read.
                              H. Veldman           of Theology at Columbia Theological                                        H. Veldman


384 .                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


                                       NEWS'FROM OUR  CHURCHi3-

                                             Mav 1, 1966       cantion, "Weighed in the balance and found wanting."
   Hudsonville, in its April 25th congregational meet-         The back cover carried a message from the  Board
ing, chose to call Rev. M.  Schipper,  of Southeast            calling attention to the duty of the church to provide
Church, from a duo which included Rev. H. Veldman,             for faithful replacements of our "watchmen on the
of Hope Church in Grand Rapids.                                walls of Zion" when the time comes for them to be
                            * * *                              released from their duties. It questioned our aware-
   The Correspondence Course for the Protestant                ness of the seriousness of providing to our utmost
Reformed ministers in Jamaica is proceeding satis-             for the proper training of our covenant children, and
factorily.     Rev. J.A. Heys, their instructor, has fin-      warned against the indictment that wemay  be, "weighed
ished a series of five lessons covering "The Church in         in the balance and found wanting" with respect to that
the Old World", and devoted the sixth lesson to are-           training.
view.      The seventh tape that went out began a new                                        ***
series on, "The Church in the New World". It called                Rev. G. Van Baren  of First Church, was the speaker
attention to the fact of Noah's sin and the development       at the Men's League meeting held in First Church
of sin to that of Nimrod, who was an early revelation          April 18, and at the Ladies League held April 14 at
of the Anti-Christ. This latest lesson contained ques-         Hope Church.        At the Ladies Meeting he spoke on
tions regarding some of the Five Points of Calvinism,          "The Signs of the Times," based on the Book of Reve-
and the truths found in the Fifth Head of Doctrine in          lations.     At the Men's meeting Rev. Van  Baren  spoke
our Canons . Rev. Heys concluded the tape with words           on, "The Second Coming of Christ."                  Both these
of encouragement, telling his students that he was             topics have been timely ones ever since our Lord's
happy with their work -- in their written tests,  .and the     Ascension when the attending Angels told the Church,
sermons they were, returning on the tapes before their        "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into
re-use.       The, Mission Board is also well pleased with     Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen
the result of this unique venture and has plans for a         Him go into Heaven." The speaker warnedhis hearers
course on the  ,New Testament, with another instructor         about trying to prevent this Second Coming; to try to
preparing for this.'                                           read the Signs in the light of Scripture; to be diligent
                            * * *                              in the study of those Scriptures, in society and in our
   We `gather from the. bulletins from our `churches           homes -that those Scriptures may be a larnp unto our
that the Annual Young People's Convention for 1966             feet to light our way even unto the end, knowing that
will be a week-end affair -- an innovation in the history      Christ will keep His Church.               Speeches like, these
of our conventioneers. The Mass Meeting will be held           surely cause us to respond with the Apostle, "Come,
Friday evening; Saturday will make room for an out-            -Lord Jesus, yea come quickly".
ing, and `Sunday will be a day devoted to the Service                                        4 * *                    _'
of the Lord. Contributing  to. the spiritual fellowship            The Prot. Ref. High School Circle met April 4 at
among our young people, in -addition to two church             Southwest Church. The program consisted of a speech
services, will be discussion `groups in the afternoon          on; "The Principles of Teaching Bible", by Miss
revolving around the topics `Faith in Work' and `Ed-          Agatha Lubbers, of Hope  Prot. Ref.  Chr; School.
ucation'. A Singspiration following the `evening serv-                                       * *  *
ice will conclude a day of spiritual devotion."                   The Oak Lawn Men's Society invited the ladies of
                            * * *                              the church to their meeting held April 27. Rev.  Vanden
  The Reformed Witness Hour features  Rev.~   G. Lub-          Berg read a paper on, "Our Calling With Respect to
bers, of Southwest Church, for the month of May. The           the Fifth Commandment."                 Discussion followed the
topics for the second half of the month are: May 15  -         speech after recess.
"Duty  .of Parents to Their Children"; May 22 --                                             * * *
"Christ, the Lord of Servants and' Masters"; May 29 --            The  Redlands  Sunday School rendered an Easter
"The Great Foe".                                               Program immediately after the morning service. The
                            ***                                children sang some appropriate hymns, and their pastor,
   The Western Ladies League met in  Doon's Church             Rev. C. Hanko, told the Resurrection Story.                    The
April 15. Rev. J.  cortering,  of Hull, spoke on "En-          Choral Society rendered their Easter Cantata the pre-
during Friendship", and  Doon's pastor, Rev. R. Deck-          vious Monday evening. An offering was taken then to
e,r, was at the podium.for a short "Question Hour".            build up a fund for a new piano in the auditorium.
                            *-* *                                                            * * *
   The Grand Rapids area church bulletins of April 24              "Therefore,  my  beloved  bvethven,  be ye steadfast,
all had the same outside appearance.          The covers       unmovea ble, always abounding in the work  of the Lovd,
were furnished by the Society for Secondary Educa-             fovasmuch as ye know that  your  labor  is not in vain in
tion and were intended to remind the people of the             the  Lovd."  1 Cor.  15:58
financial drive to be held that week. The face of the
cover contained a drawing of a balance scale with a                .  .  . see you in church                                J.M.F.


