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



IN  THIS  ISSUE:


        Meditation - Fervent love
               .--A..
                 `
                 .i


        Edit&rib - Dr. Stob, Synod, the Committee, and Professor Dekke

         I               ;"
                          :'           Added Reason For Alarm


        Billy Graham's Ministry of Error

        All Around Us - Report of the Synod of 1966



                                                           Volume  XLII/ Number  lB/July  1, 1966


410                                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                                                                                                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

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                                                                 C O N T E N T S                                                                          Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
Meditation  -                                                                                                                                                           Editor-  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema  I
   Fervent Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    410
          Rev. J. Kortering                                                                                                                           Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
Editorial -                                                                                                                                           Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace,  SE., Grand
   Dr. Stob, Synod, the Committee, and Professor Dekker . . . . . . 413                                                                               Rapids,  Mich.       49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                        words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
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   Added Reason For Alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                        All church news items should be addressed toMr.  J. M. Faber,
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           Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                                             will convene, D.V., on Wednesday, July 6, at 9 A.M. at
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                                                                                                                                                      of their delegates.
                                                                                                                                                                                                     M.  Schipper,  S.C.




                                 MEDITATION-


                                                                                                              Fervent Love

                                                                                                                               by Rev. J.  Kovteving


                                                         `And above all things  have  fevvent  charity among yourselves:  for  charity
                                               shall covey the multitude of sins."
                                                                                                                                                                                     I Peter  4:8

       We need to love each other now more than ever.                                                                                                 at hand. This fact demands fervent love. The reason
                                                                                                                                                      is apparent. The last days are characterized by a  mul-
       That's what the Apostle Peter tells us, "But the                                                                                               titude of  sin1 The Word of God gives us the lurid de-
end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and                                                                                              tails of such evil days: men shall be lovers of pleasure
watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent                                                                                                  more than lovers of God. God will give men over to
charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the                                                                                                 seducing spirits so that they shall believe  thelie. This
multitude of sins."                                                                                                                                   will bring about the great apostacy and the falling away
       We are in the last days, for the end of all things is                                                                                          of many who dwell in the sphere of the church.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    411

   We are not immune to sin. We know from the history          He gives to us.
of the church and past experience that as we face                     What can we say then about God's love? Briefly,
temptations we often fall. This multitude of sin is the        it is the desire of the three Persons of the Trinity to
multitude of our sins, not just the sins of others.            seek each other in the perfect bond of friendship.
   It is here where love shines forth. Love, fervent           This indicates the following elements: love is person-
love, "covereth a multitude of sin." The strength of           al, love is mutual (seeks another person), love is giv-
our love is manifest in the way we deal `with each other       ing and receiving (friendship), and finally love is ex-
when we sin.        "Love covereth a multitude of sin."        ercised in the sphere of perfection.
That can happen only in one way: when we sin we visit                 This love which God freely exercises within Him-
one another in the love of Christ and show to one an-          self as Triune God, He likewise reveals to His people.
other the way of repentance and confession and thus            In the beginning, God revealed His love to Adam and
fall together under the covering of the blood of Jesus         Eve and entered into a bond of friendship with them in
Christ.                                                        the sphere of the perfect creation.        Since the first
   We need to heed this exhortation today.                     Adam fell into sin, God now reveals His love to His
   There is only one love that can accomplish such             people within the sphere of Jesus Christ, the Last
things, that is divine love. There are in the Greek            Adam.       It should be apparent to all, that outside of
language particularly three words that are translated          the sphere of Christ there is no love; there is the antith-
love.      The word  eves is found only in Classical Greek     esis of love, hatred and wrath.         In the Old Testa-
and not in the New Testament. Our word erotic is               ment the promise of Christ and the typical covering
derived from it and denotes sensual, especially sexual         of sin effected through sacrifices comprised the
lust.      Another word is  phileo,  which is found in the     sphere within which God exercised His love unto His
New Testament and conveys the idea of love as a friend         people. What clearer picture is there for us than Noah
especially as human concern and kindness. The third            and his family riding safely in the ark, in contrast to
word is agupao,  which emphasizes the love of God which        the world that was ripe for judgment. Noah was the
is manifest to us and dominates our lives.                     recipient of the love of God, but the world received
   In our test this third word is used.                        wrath.      The only basis for this distinction was that,
   It is a sad commentary on our times, that that              "Noah was saved by water", a picture of the cross
which calls itself church all too oftenfails to distinguish    of Calvary.
the love which believers have for each other in Christ                The love which we are exhorted to show to one
Jesus from the love which the world expresses. There           another is this same kind of love.         First, we seek
is a fundamental difference: one is human; the other           friendship. We are not content to sit by ourselves; we
is divine.                                                     desire in the love of God to have many friends. We
   We in America are cultured by democracy. Within             need the friendship of God in Jesus Christ, we need
the framework of this democracy our cherished tradi-           each other as brethren and sisters in Christ. Second-
tion has become the right of the individual. Our con-          ly, we recognize that the sphere within which this
stitutionally guaranteed four-freedoms (speech, press,         love and friendship can be exercised is Jesus Christ.
worship, and assembly) give to the citizen the right to        Our friendship cannot be prostituted with the unbeliever
do things as he pleases as long as they conform to a           in an unequal yoke; we seek those whom God loves,
law determined by majority. It follows from this that          our fellow believers who with us stand under the cov-
a good citizen "respects" the opinions of others and           ering of the blood of Calvary. Thirdly, we recognize
grants to each individual the right to give expression to      that as we are covered with the blood of Christ we
his views on any subject. Since in democracy there             must love each other in the way of perfect obedience.
is no ultimate criterion for what really is right or wrong,    Our sins are obstacles to the full expression of our
as for example the Bible, we are not to assume that we         mutual love.       We can love each other freely, only
are right and our neighbor wrong, but we must always           when we together believe in the only true God re-
allow for the possibility that we may be wrong and the         vealed in the Scriptures and when we live according
neighbor right. This is carried over into the realm of         to His Word. The more we hold to the perfect will of
faith and morals as well. Practically, this means there        God, the more fervently we cling to each other in the
is no room for criticism of others.        If one does this    bond of love. Finally, we persist in seeking that bond
he is labeled arrogant, unkind, or unloving. This same         of perfection, even when the one whom we love spurns
evil notion all too readily creeps into the church, and        it.     Look what we do to God when we sin; yet in His
as soon as it does the exhortation of our test goes out        love He seeks us and calls us efficaciously by His
the window.                                                    grace into the proper sphere. So in love we must seek
   Let us see how this is true.                                a wayward brother.
   The love of which our text speaks is God's love to                 The contrast between the love of the world and the
us, which in turn we share with one another. This              love of the child of God is clearly seen in what we do
means two things. First, God is the source of love;            with each other when we sin. The church imbued with
apart from Him there is no true love, there is only            the false conception of love says, oh, we need freedom,
human concern. Secondly, the character of our love             to each his  own1 The man of God who is filled with
for one another is a reflection of this love of God. To        the love of God in Christ goes to the erring and calls
put it differently, our love for each other in Christ is       him to repentance.
the same kind of love God has in Himself and which                    Peter speaks of a mountain of sin.       He's very


412                                              THESTANDARDBEARER

realistic.     We don't have to look first of all at the next      That's not removing sin, that is only spreading sin and
man; we look first of all at ourselves. Recognizing                partaking in it1
that we dwell in the last days, we know that tempta-                   Love recognizes the terror of sin and knows that it
tion is even greater. We are not, called to flee from              must be confessed. We spend therefore much time to-
the world; we must live in the midst of the world and              gether searching the Word of God. Only in the Word
testify against it. Knowing our calling, however, does             can we find the perfect directive for our life. It alone
not mean we consistently walk in it. Our flesh is so               is the Lamp upon our feet and Light upon our pathway.
weak. that we are prone to halt and stumble, sin and               In love we seek to walk according to the will of God
evil dwells within. We do the things God forbids, we               ourselves.      We seek to have our friends walk in har-
fail to do the things He commands. Shame covers our                mony with that same revealed will. These friends
faces.                                                             may be one's husband, wife, children, school pupils,
       Our sins are terrible. Sin is the power of death,           brethren in the church, neighbor, or anyone who crosses
that terrible separation from God. They cause us to                our pathway. If we sin, we welcome the brother who
tremble.      When we continue in sin we cannot love God           shows his love to us by coming to us and discussing
and we may not expect God to love us. The same                     our walk of life with us.          If we behold sin in our
thing is true in our relationship with each other. If              brother we will visit him and shine the light of the
we continue to wander in sin we cannot love each                   Word upon him.
other; we only hate.
       There is only one way that these terrible sins can              God uses such means. No  man  canconvert a sinner
be removed. They must be confessed, we must repent                 from his way, but God can and does use men as means
of our sins and turn to God and seek His will. Only as             to perform His work. When God beholds the sinner
we forsake ourselves and tearfully stand before the                confessing his sin, he looks at the sinner through the
cross of Jesus Christ can we lay hold of the covering              covering of the blood of the cross and forgives. When
of the blood and rest assured that our sins are for-               we look at the brother who has sinned and behold him
given.                                                             confessing his sin and turning from his evil way, we
       If the bond of love is to flow freely, our sins must        forgive and forget.
be confessed1 Confessed to God and confessed to one                    Have fervent love among yourselves, for love
another.       Love plans an important role in bringing            covereth a multitude of sins1
about this confession.                                                 Above all things, have this love.
       When we love each other we do not ignore each other's           We need it today. We need it in our homes as parents
sins.       We grieve when we sin, we grieve no less when          and children. We need it in our schools as pupils and
our brother sins.         We cannot possibly say in love,          teachers. We need it in our churches as office bearers
leave- him  alone1 He may say what he wants, he may                and congregation. We need it as churches in our deal-
write as he pleases, he may act as he feels moved, but             ing with each other and in our relations with believers
I'll just pay attention to myself. That's not love. We             round about us.
seek in the love of Christ to remove sin, not only from                We need fervent love! That kind of love is so pro-
our life, but also from the life of our brethren. Sin is           found that it welcomes criticism and receives correc-
so terrible it must be covered1                                    tion.    That love seeks perfection as the only medium
       Still more, we do not take pleasure in our brother's        in which it can truly express itself.
weaknesses.        If you know that a certain brother or               That love is the precious fruit of the work of Christ
sister has walked in a way unbecoming to the child of              Jesus in us. Have that love in your dealing with one
God, or heard that he has, you don't laugh about it do             another.      Should one of us falter upon life's pathway,
you ?      You don't spend your idle hours gossiping all           there will be one who loves us enough to care.
about the bad things someone has done and forthwith                    May God give us His grace that our love may be
tear that person apart and ignore the person involved?             fervent.


                                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                     The Ladies' Society "Ruth" of Hope Protestant
                                  Reformed Church expresses its sympathy to two of its
                                 members, Mrs. Peter Knott and Mrs. Peter Koole, in
                                  the loss of their mother
                                                MRS. LAMMERT LANTING
                                 May the bereaved be comforted in the Word of God
                                 found in Psalm  116:15, "Precious in the sight of the
                                  Lord is the death of His saints."
                                                                 Rev. H. Veldman, President
                                                       Mrs. David Meulenberg, Secretary


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    z413




    EDIT0 RIAL-



                          Dr. Stob, Synod, the Committee,

                                  and Professor Dekker


                                                    by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


   This editorial might also be entitled "Sequel to                 of Scripture in all matters of faith and practice. He
Tensions in `The Teaching."' For Dr. Stob himself                   believes that Cod is completely sovereign, and that
confirms what I wrote in the last issue concerning his              none are saved except by His good pleasure. He be-
desire for freedom of doctrine.                                     lieves that Christians are what they are by nothing
   As might be expected, the  Reformed   Journal  is.not            save the sovereign grace of Cod. He believes, on the
at all satisfied with the Report of the Committee to                basis of the Scriptures, that not all men will be saved:
Study the Doctrinal Expressions of Professor Harold                 he emphatically rejects universal salvation. In all
                                                                    points that affect the faith he is at one with the most
Dekker.      In the May-June issue this dissatisfaction is          simple and the most earnest member of the church.
expressed in no less than three articles, by Dr. Henry                 What divides him and some members of the Church
Stob, Dr. James Daane, and Dr. Harry Boer, staunch                  is not the faith, but the theological expression of it.
defenders of Professor Dekker, who for some unex-                   The faith is one thing; theology is another. The faith
plained reason has not of late spoken for himself. Dr.              is what draws all members of Christ's Church into
Stob writes a brief editorial which does not deal with              one confessing communion; theology is a scientific
the contents of the Committee Report under the title                endeavor into which not all people can be drawn.
"Synod, the Committee, and Professor Dekker." The                      The call has sometimes come for committed crea-
burden of this article is a plea that the Christian Re-             tiveness in theology.      The answer to that call is at
                                                                    hand. Men have been appointed to Calvin charged with
formed Synod should not proclaim the Committee's                    giving new form to the age-old Gospel.         They are
propositions as dogma, that is, as binding doctrinal                responding; not the least Professor Dekker. Let him
propositions in the Christian Reformed Church. He                  and all of us pursue our course. Should Professor
wants the doctrinal issues in theDekker Case to remain              Dekker or any other of us depart from the faith that is
open issues, in other words. This plea he states as                 confessed in the living community of the Church, let us
follows:                                                            be called to account. But let us not be subjected to
                                                                    theological criteria by an ecclesiastical court, for
       What I am chiefly concerned to say, however, is              then the theological enterprise is tragically arrested
    that, whether one considers the Committee's proposi-            and we are robbed of our vocations.
    tions  true or not, he should not counsel the Synod to
   proclaim them as `dogmas' to be honored by all who               Dr. Stob, therefore, advises that the Christian
    are charged to think Christianly about the biblical          Reformed Synod should declare that "since no article
   givens. This burden the theologian who is concerned           of faith has been put in jeopardy, the theological in-
    to be faithful to Christ, and to live in the freedom that    quiry must proceed unimpeded, but with all caution
    Christ has conferred- this burden he cannot bear.            and responsibility," and that the recommendation of
   Instead of this he must ask for the yoke of Christ,           the  Committee should not be accepted, but instead
   which is easy, and for the burden of Christ, which is         postponed indefinitely, with the Report being referred
   light.                                                        to the Churches for study.
   This plea Dr. Stob attempts to motivate and to jus-              All of the above is rather revealing,  andit  confirms
tify as follows:                                                 my suggestion in last month's editorial that the  Re-
                                                                 fovmed  Journal  favors freedom of doctrine on issues
       What is at stake in the case of Professor Dekker          on which the Reformed churches have long ago ex-
    is, among other things, the freedom of theological           pressed themselves confessionally.            I realize full
    inquiry.    Professor Dekker, let it be noted, calls         well that Stob's position is that "no article of faith
    nothing sacred into question.       He believes whole-       has been put in jeopardy." In fact, he attempts to
    heartedly in the creeds. He accepts the infallibility        picture Prof. Dekker as being soundly Reformed and


414                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

as being wholeheartedly devoted to the Reformed                    tian Reformed Church does not have the firmness and
faith.      With all his pleading, however, Stob really            resolution to take a condemnatory stand, and if, on the
ignores the fundamental issue. For while he claims                 contrary, they follow the suggestion of Dr. Stob, then
that Dekker believes the creeds wholeheartedly, that               the door is flung wide open, and complete liberty of
he holds to God's sovereignty and to salvation by                  doctrine will be the order of the day. Then indeed the
sovereign grace, and that he rejects universal salva-              Christian Reformed Church may expect from the
tion, he ignores the fact that Prof. Dekker has denied             Reformed  Jouvnal  open criticism of the confessional
the doctrine of particular atonement. Instead, he holds            position on the doctrine of the eternal decrees and
that all that Prof. Dekker taught was in full harmony              open promulgation of theistic evolution, and who knows
with the creeds: for "no article of faith has been put             what more. Particularly with respect to Arminianism
in jeopardy."                                                      all restraint will be removed.
       Here, of course, is the crux of the issue. If no               4. That all this has nothing to do with liberty of
article of the confession has been contradicted by                 theological development, nor with true liberty of theo-
Prof. Dekker, then, of course, all that he has written             logical expression. There has always been ample room
must be considered as legitimate theological inquiry               in Reformed churches for such development and ex-
and expression within the boundaries of the confes-                pression. It should be remembered that such develop-
sions.       And then all the controversy that has raged           ment ("creativeness," if you will), if it is to be true
about Dekker's position must be placed in the category             and constructive development, must be in the line of
of a difference of theological opinion within the con-             the truth and in the line, therefore, of the confessions.
fines of the confessions. If, however, the opposite is             If it is not the latter, it is not constructive, but des-
true, as the Report of the Committee seems to imply,               tructive; it is not development, but  .departure;  it is
and if Dekker's position cannot stand the test of                  not progress, but retrogression.        This is the only
Scripture and the confessions, then it is in order for             limitation of the Formula of Subscription. That theo-
the Christian Reformed Church to censure Dekker's                  logian who is not willing to exercise this kind of free-
statements, to demand retraction, and to discipline.               dom and who chafes at the restraint of any binding
       What the Synod will do about this situation I do not        subscription is not to be trusted. And that theologian
know, and I will not venture to predict. It would seem,            who complains whenothers wish to subject his opinions
however, that if the suggestion of Dr. Stob is not fol-            to the agreed upon test of the confessions renders
lowed, conflict is bound to result. For the  Jownal                himself suspect. The cry of heresy-hunting and the
seems rather adamant, if not downright militant, in                plea for liberty of doctrine has only too often been a
its support of Professor Dekker's orthodoxy and his                "red herring" in the history of the church.
right to express himself.                                             5. That, however, the opponents of Professor Dekker
       Nevertheless, it should be noted:                           have not been without fault from a procedural (and
       1. That the Christian Reformed Church is confronted         ethical) point of view. It should not be forgotten that
by a clear case of heresy. Professor Dekker has taught             Dekker's views have been made the object of investiga-
a universal and redemptive love of God; thereby, by                tion through the back door, so to speak. The present
implication he has denied sovereign election and rep-              committee report is the result of an  ovevtuve,  not of a
robation, no matter how vociferously some may assert               protest.    Charges under the Formula of Subscription
the contrary. Moreover, he has taught universal atone-             are not pending against Dekker and were not the oc-
ment and has denied the Reformed and confessional                  casion of the Study Committee's report and recom-
doctrine of particular (or definite or limited) atonement,         mendations.     For the same reason, of course, the
no matter how vociferously some may emphasize that                 Study Committee lacked the power to recommend any
he does not teach universal salvation (and what Armin-             disciplinary action against the professor, even though
ian ever taught universal salvation?).                             such disciplinary action should logically follow their
       2. That liberty of theological  inquiry  is not at stake    recommendations.      Also from this point of view, as
here, as Dr. Stob claims. After all, theological inquiry           well as from the point of view of the fact that Dekker's
is a private matter. It is limited to one's study and              position is the logical outgrowth of 1924, and that as a
research.        Any theologian has unlimited rights to            faithful son of his church he developed his views, my
in&ve into the truth and to inquire  even into the valid-          sympathies lie with Dekker. This only points up the
ity of the Reformed confessions. Professor Dekker,  -              fact that the only way out for the Christian Reformed
and everyone, including Dr. Stob, knows this, - did far            Church is to repudiate the heresy officially promulgated
more than  inquive.       He expressed  himself; and he did        in 1924, to return to the confessions, and resolutely to
so publicly:  and he did so contrary to the Reformed               oppose (not merely in the press, nor by  sidewise
confessions, and contrary to Scripture. He himself                 overtures, but by forthright protest) all doctrines re-
stated that the Christian Reformed Church was  .in                 pugnant thereto. If any other course is followed, I can
error in its commonly understood doctrine of limited               foresee only continuing decay and ultimately chaos,
atonement.       It is precisely at the point that an  office-     and with it the complete loss of the Reformed heritage.
bearer begins to express himself, either publicly or               That may take time; but in view of recent trends, it
privately, in a manner contrary to the confessions                 may not take much time! And there may be those who
that he becomes subject to the provisions of the Formula           are satisfied to say, "There will be peace in my time."
of Subscription.                                                   But let them be mindful of their children and their
       3. That if in this obvious case of heresy the  Chris-       children's children, as well as of their own peace  1


                                                  THE  STANDAl&  BEARER                                                  415



    EDITORIAL-

                                   Added  Reasoh  For  Alarm

                                                    by  Prof. H. C.. Hoeksema

   Our readers will recall that I recently reported on            :COMMENT
and criticized the April  22,  1966  issue of  Chimes,  a            It will be evident from the above report that the
Calvin College Student Council publication. In the in-
terest of complete reporting I now want to give the               `Chimes  editorial did not meet with the favor of the
                                                                  `college administration. However:
sequel to this incident, as I gleaned it from  Church                 1. The  action reported above is extremely mild in
and Nation of May 31 and June 21, 1966 (Dr. Marten H.             comparison with the offensive character of the editorial.
Woudstra, Editor).       From an article entitled "The                2. It is `a locking of the barn after the horse is out.
Great Gap" I quote the following:                                     3.  It leaves unanswered the question whether the
      . . . .Our editor has expressed his sincere concern         student publication gave expression at all to what is
   about the article The Great  Gap. He is not the only one       /being taught in the school. It should not be forgotten
   apparently.     A statement of the Student Publications        that not only the individual writer is responsible for
   Committee of the Faculty and the Executive Committee           ,this editorial; those who allowed it to be placed in
   of the Student Council approved by Dr. W. Spoelhof,            Chimes  are equally responsible. And I simply cannot
   the President of Calvin College, has come to the at-           believe that this violation was not deliberate, as the
   tention of the editor of this paper. In consultation with      statement quoted above would have us believe. If it
   Dr. Praamsma I (This is written by R. Kooistra,
   Managing Editor, H.C.H.) inform our readers about              was not deliberate, what was it then? Was it some-
   this statement, that you may have the whole story. It          thing that slipped through? I realize that a teacher
   states that "the article `The Great Cap' constitutes a         cannot be held responsible for what a student says. But
   serious breach of trust and a violation of clearly             `1 also recognize that as a rule studentsgive expression
   defined `responsibility-freedom' policy, though the            :to what they have been taught by their teachers,  -
   committee has been assured by the editor and the               sometimes, to the dismay of the teacher, in a much
   author that the violation was not deliberate." It then         ,more radical and forthright manner than his teacher
   informs us that the committee "condemns the spirit of          `would expect and desire. It is on this basis, as well
   the editorial as well as significant elements of its           ias on the basis of the fact that I sometimes hear  dis-
   substance." The Committee "finds the editorial ir-             iturbing reports of the instruction given at Calvin  Col-
   responsibly written, giving occasion for questioning the
   integrity of Calvin College, her student body and Faculty,     ilege, that I suggest again that animpartial and thorough
   and the theological orthodoxy of the Christian Re-             iinvestigation  be conducted. How much denial of the
   formed Church, the supporting and sponsoring de-               jinfallibility and sole authority of Scripture is there
   nomination."                                                   /at the college, for example? How much denial of the
                                                                  truth of creation and how much affirmation of evolu-
   The following decisions were taken:                            tionism is there? How much of the same sneering at-
      1. The April 22, 1966 issue of  Chimes, suspended           titude toward systematic theology, "theological  fence-
   from circulation earlier, shall be withheld from fur-          tending," and "remote abstractions," etc., which was
   ther circulation.                                              evinced in the condemned editorial is also found among
      2. Because this has been anotherwisecommendable             faculty members?
   GUmes  year, the committee is unwilling to impose any              4. No concern whatsoever is expressed about the
   general censorship. However, because of the aggra-             ,corruptions  of the Fine Arts Festival, with which the
   vated situation created by the editorial, the committee        same issue of  Chimes  was filled. These things may
   imposes a limitation prohibiting the further discussion        be euphemistically called "the theater arts," but they
   of this matter or the issues raised, in editorials, stor-      !are more correctly called the corruptions of the world
   ies, letters, or by inference in the remaining issues of       jand the imitation thereof.
   Chimes.                                                            But there is added reason for alarm. For in a
      3. The editor shall print this document and an ap-          ,"Postscript" to the above-quoted article, the Editor of
   propriate apology which shall reaffirm his acceptance
   of the Faculty-Board Statement on Student Publications         ,Chuvch  and Nation  writes as follows:
   in the next issue of Chimes.                                       Postscript.
      4. The writer of the editorial shall be dropped as                 In loyalty to Calvin College, Dr. L. Praamsma and
   news editor and from the editorial staff, shall not be             I decided to make no mention of the Student's article
   permitted to write editorials, but may write news                  The Great Gap, nor of the decisions of the Students
   stories and feature articles, provided the latter are              Publications Committee, even though we had serious
   first approved by the Faculty mentor.                              objections to the former and serious misgivings about


     416                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER
I
            the latter.    However, since another edition of the               gold-mine of promotional possibilities." For example,
            Chimes ("Chides") has come to our attention in which               airplane passengers flying over Grand Rapids could
            The Great Gap is followed by an article entitled The               read selected passages from their windows. Aschedule
            Gwat  Gag and we have found quite a few irresponsible              of opening the volume to selected proof-texts is cur-
            statements in this article and in the further part of              rently being worked out in a series of open forums
            the issue as well -which may make it necessary for                 held by the .Religion  Department and the Library Staff.
            C and N to make further comments on the situation -                   I always thought that jokes about the Bible betrayed
            I have decided to proceed with publication of the above            bad taste. I am not fussy, nor a sissy, I think but here
            materials anyway.                                                 is something which requires not only discipline, but
               To illustrate what I am saying, here are two quo-               much rather some sound teaching.
            tations.                                                                                                            Editor.
               In The Great Gag the author says:
               Second, learn to read the Stone Lectures like any               The Editor of C and N may call this sort of thing
            other book.     Expired they are. But might it not be           "bad taste," and Dr. L. Praamsma may speak of
            only false pity that has led us to think that they are also     "not being dry behind the ears" in connection with
            interesting and relevant? If Kuyper says that Calvin-           the editorial that gave rise to this criticism. But
            ism is reverently awaiting its future mandate on the            this is more serious than a little student tom-foolery
            beach at San Francisco when he means Orange City,               and immaturity. It is mocking of the Reformed faith;
            Iowa, we ought to allow him that margin of error. We            and it is also a sneering and satirical flouting of
            need not be North Beach Bohemians in `order to be
            good Dutch Calvinists.                                          authority.
               An other article is entitled: Gagantuan Scviptuve               I repeat, therefore, and I do so both for our own
        flown  from Infallibility. It informs us about "what is             parents and young people and for the Christian Re-
            thought to be the world's most unmanagable copy of              formed constituency: be warned1 There is an evil
            the Bible," which would have been acquired by Calvin            spirit manifest in this material which has emanated
            Library. It states:                                             from Calvin College.        Even as all is not gold that
               Mr. J. P. Pragma, College Vice President of                  glitters, so also all is not Calvinism which has the
            Promotion, commented that the new acquisition "is a             name of Calvin.



        TRYING THE SPIRITS-



                            Billy Graham's  ,Ministry of Error

                                                              by Rev. R. C.  Havbach

            Recently many of us read an editorial in a "Re-                 same boat.       Their construction was by no means on
     formed" publication concerning the preaching of Billy                  the same project.         For Noah was an ark-builder.
     Graham. The article surprised, even shocked many of                    Nimrod was a Babel-builder.  Graham disavows any
     us, since it slighted a man thoroughly Reformed and                    connection with the Noah construction company. He is
     came to the defense of one whose true colors are                       of the Nimrod Foundation.
     anything but of a Reformed hue. The item referred to                      The more we read of Graham the more apparent it
     did what is so commonly done with this modern                          becomes that he is not a Fundamentalist, but a liberal
     prophet in religious circles today, namely, it sugar-                  ecumenist.     In the  La  Pyensa,   Lima, Peru newspaper,
     coated him as a Fundamentalist next to whom any good                   Feb. 8, 1963, he "eulogized the attitude of Pope John
     Reformed man could be proud to stand. But it is at                     XXIII in his efforts to obtain greater tolerance and
     least extremely inaccurate, if not, false, to portray                  the final union between all the Christians" (ital. added).
     Billy Graham as a Fundamentalist.                  He no longer        "According to him (Graham), there is now greater
     needs nor wants such a camouflage.                   He does not       understanding      and    comprehension between the
     consider himself in the Fundamentalist camp, but in                    religions."      This reveals a desire not only to unite
     the Liberal camp. In St. Louis he said, "I am not a                    "all the Christians" but all "the religions" in one
     fundamentalist, I consider myself to be a Conserva-                    universal ecclesiastical body. What is really true of
     tive-Liberal."         In Europe he had said,  "I am not a             this "greater understanding" is not that Romanists are
     fundamentalist.         I am not a modernist. I am a con-              becoming more understanding of Protestants ingeneral,
     structionist."        Now that is interesting1 It makes us             nor more tolerant toward their theological position,
     think of Nimrod. He, too, was a constructionist. So                    and to Protestant missionary ministries , but that
     was Noah. But Nimrod and Noah cannot be put in the                     nominal and renegade "Protestants" are more tolerant


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  417

and soft toward the femininities and flatteries of            Picture Relief Fund banquet in Hollywood with 900 in
hierarchy and priestcraft.         The  Kalamazoo Gazette,    attendance.      Here he highly praised a recent book by
Nov. 14, 1963, reported that "Graham will preach at a         Romanist Bishop Fulton Sheen. The program concluded
Roman Catholic college next week, thanks to a Jew...          with a "benediction" by Rabbi Edgar Magnin, in which
The sermon will be Graham's first before a Roman              he thanked God for Graham, who has now come to
Catholic  body...`1  think,' said Graham, `that it is evi-    realize that the battle today is not one of faith against
dence of the ecumenical spirit in the world today."'          faith, but of faith against no faith. There is no record
What does Graham mean by this statement? Evidently            that Graham testified to this rabbi that Jesus Christ
he means that the present great dialogue between Jews,        is the true Messiah, the divine, co-equal Son of God.
Romanists and Modernists is succeeding, that the three        It seems that the religion of Judaism which rejects the
groups are learning that we have so much in common            Son of God is acceptable to Graham. For the same
that labor toward organic union into one world church         article quotes  Graham at the Graham Pavilion in the
must be our aim.                                              World's Fair as saying, "The Pavilion will also be a
    Very hard does Graham push the cause of modern            call to renew our faith in God, whether we be of the
ecumenicism. His crusade after the Nashville meetings         Jewish, Roman Catholic or Protestant faith, or some
donated about $65,000 toward a stadium at Vanderbilt          other religious affiliation." Since when do unregen-
University, "an extremely liberal Methodist institution       erate Jews, Romanists and Protestants have any faith to
on whose faculty the blasphemous Nels Ferre was then          renew?      How can a Unitarian religion (Judaism) be
serving."       As a result of the New York crusade the       thought to express "faith in God*`? Which God? But
Graham organization presented a gratuity of $67,000           this is Graham's conception of faith, that all men
to the N. Y. Protestant Council of Churches. The New          naturally and natively have it, whether they are of the
York  Times,  Oct. 25, 1963, reported, "Dr. Graham...         true church or the false church. Man need only put
recalled that during a recent Graham crusade in Sao           his faith in the right object. What is that right object7
Paulo, Brazil, the Roman Catholic bishop stood beside         Graham speaks of faith in "God," he does not speak of
him and blessed the converts (sic) as they came               faith in Jesus Christ.       That would offend the  Jews1
forward.       Protestant leaders protested that such a       While he was at it, why didn't he include those of the
display should not be permitted. Dr. Graham said he           Mohammedan faith, the Hindu, and the Buddhist faith?
told them: `He's the bishop here. You go ahead and            They, too, were well represented at the World's Fair
stop it.' " This is interesting, too. It reminds us of        and are becoming widely accepted in our country.
the answer the Jewish hierarchy gave the belated                 In the same issue of the periodical mentioned above
remonstrance of Judas, "What is that to us? See to it         we read: "Can you imagine Billy Graham, Oral Roberts
y o u r s e l f   I"                                          (the charlatan healer) and H. M. S. Richards, Seventh
    Did you ever know a Fundamentalist to associate           Day Adventist, being featured speakers on the same
with the modernist-liberalist National Council of             program and on the same platform? Well, it happened!
Churches and the World Council of Churches7 Yet this          - according to the Full Gospel Business Men's  Voice,
does Billy Graham! The San Francisco  Examinevof              at their 10th Annual Convention held in Seattle. This
Dec. 5, 1960, reported that "Evangelist Billy Graham          Pentecostal paper states,     `The Holy Spirit is breaking
preaching to an overflow audience in Grace Cathedral          down the denominational barriers, as Oral Roberts is
(the Episcopal citadel of Bp. Jas.  .A. Pike, who denies      used of God to bring healing to the nation. The F.G.B.
the virgin birth and the trinity), warned yesterday that      M.F.I. is bringing the Holy Spirit to the nation; while
America's race problem will getworse...Grahamspoke            the Seventh Day Adventist brings us prophecy.' " What
in a program sponsored by the Christian Men's As-             is it that Billy Graham is bringing to the nation? He
sembly, held in conjunction with the opening of the           tells us himself in his publicationof a "World Congress
meeting of the National Council of Churches." Two             on Evangelism" prayer-news bulletin dated January
years before this, in, Grace Episcopal Cathedral,             1966.      This congress is to be held in Berlin in Oct.
Graham was an honored guest at Bp. Pike's "conse-             -Nov. 1966.         It is to be the "largest evangelical
cration" on May 15, 1958. When Graham was at the              trans-denominational*' gathering, and the "most re-
Cow Palace, May 24, 1958, he had Pike on the platform         presentative" o f   evangelicals.    The theme will be,
to read the evening prayer after warm words of praise.        "One Race  - One Gospel  - One Task." Comments on
On Dec. 4, 1960, Pike had Graham in the Grace                 what Graham might mean by "one Gospel" we hold in
Cathedral pulpit for the National Council address.            reserve.       At the moment we are concerned with that
Graham therefore gives public recognition to and has          "one race'* idea.       From what you have just read of
fellowship with a heretic who denies not only the virgin      Graham, you certainly would not suppose that he refers
birth and the trinity, but the ascension, the sitting at      to Peter's "elect race" (I Peter  2:9, ASV). That,
God's right hand, and all the fundamentals of the             however, is indubitably and exclusively the "one race"
Christian faith.        Graham insists he is a minister in    holding the only "one Gospel." It is to be feared, and
the Southern Baptist Convention, which is not a part of       the fear is well-founded, that Graham envisions an
the World Council, yet he constantly pulls for the            ultimate race produced by a blend of all racial stock.
National and World Councils.                                  The ecumenical, post-millennial dreamers of the day
    When will men stop disguising Graham as a Funda-          see such a race as the only hope of attaining "world
mentalist?      The December 1965 issue of the  Old  Fuith    peace."
Contender  informs us that Graham spoke at a Motion              This champion of ecumenicalism is also lauded as


418                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

a Bible-believing evangelist.           Such white-washing is        the five points of Fundamentalism, but on the basis of
done with the  utmost confidence in Graham as holding                merely one point, the deity of Christ. Relative to his
the five great fundamentals of the faith, namely the                 N. Y. City campaign he said, "I am urging you, how-
infallible, verbal inspiration of the Bible, the Deity of            ever, to accept into our fellowship any man who accepts
Christ, the vicarious atonement, the bodily resurrection             the deity of Christ and will rally to my preaching." It
and His second coming.         But if we test Billy on these         is not at all certain whether Graham believes Christ's
fundamentals, we find that he does not think very much               deity to be such that He is consubstantial with the
of them as a standard for determining the sphere of                  Father.     Still,  .Bishop  Pike, who denies the virgin
Christian fellowship.        The  Washington Post  of April          birth, is acceptable to Graham's fellowship.
28, 1962, states, "The ground of Christian fellowship,
he (Graham) says is `not the-inspiration of Scriptures,                 Another point needs clarification. The "old un-
but the deity of Christ."' Graham does not believe that             resolved problem of human responsibility and divine
holy Scripture makes any claim for its own verbal                   sovereignty,' that we find involved in Reformed theology
inspiration.      Such a contention is, as he sees it, pure         is not at all involved in Graham's "theology." He
speculation. For Graham says, in the same article as                never allows such a problem to touch him. He
above, that "verbal inspiration of Scripture is only a              invariably  drops the sovereignty of God!        He does
theory and not a matter of great importance for the                 indeed speak of man being dead in sins, yet that dead
Christian faith." This belittling of-Scripture and its              sinner is not so dead that he cannot believe. Devoid
verbal inspiration makes the supernatural revelation of             he is of spiritual life, but he can still accept Christ.
the Word of God hardly more than a human expression.                (cf.  Wovbd  Aflame,  Billy Graham, Doubleday, 1965, p.
The danger of Graham's view of Scripture is that it                  109).    The problem here with Graham is the age-old
leads to bringing down of Holy Writ to the level of the             problem of Arminianism versus Calvinism. He stands
words of saints.                                                    with the former against the latter.
       Graham for years has operated not on the basis of                               (to be continued, D.V.)



       A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-


                                          The Rejection of Saul

                                                      by Rev.  B. Woudenbevg

                         And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt  offerings  and
                      sacrifices,  as in obeying the voice  of  the LORD? Behold, to obey is  better
                      than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of yams.
                         For rebellion is as the sin  of  witchcvafi,  and stubbornness is as iniquity
                      and idola b-y.    Because thou  bust rejected the  word of  tke  LORDS   ke  huth  also
                      Yejected  thee from being king.
                                                                                        H Samuel 652?2, 23

   Never was King Saul quite able to understand either              and the very idea that Jehovah should come first even
Samuel or Samuel"s God. He knewthat  in a very special              before this was to him unthinkable.           Samuel and
sense his position as king in Israel was due to them.               Samue1's  God were important to him only as long as
He knew that it was quite necessary for him to observe              and insofar as they served his own purposes. Perhaps
all of the religious conventionalities of the nation; and,          be would have never said this in so many words; but
although prior to his coronation he had bad little  todo            it was there, taken for granted, nonetheless.
with such things, he was now quite  wiS11ng  to do so to                It was this that had determined Saul's actions In
the best of his abilities. He knew that it was importanr            regard to the Amalekites. He understood full well that
to retain the favor of both Samuel and Samuel's God if              Jehovah wanted the Amalekites completely wiped out;
be was to get along as king in Israel; but how to do this           and, for  the main part, he was in agreement with this.
was actually quite beyond his comprehension. To him                 Et was just that he thought  that he knew a better way
the external observance of ceremonies was  all that                 of going about it than Samuel had suggested. Instead
religion could possibly demand, and  such things as                 of slaying everything and everybody immediately, it
respect for God, obedience and love never came into                 seemed to him that more could  be done  for his own
consideration.       He was a man of personal ambition,             image and to arouse the enthusiasm of the people by


                                               THESTANDARDBEARER                                                      419

saving the best of the cattle for a great sacrifical  feast    pace Samuel spoke, driving each word deep into Saul's
and to keep.  Agag as a living memento of this great           soul, "When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast
victory.     He suspected, of course, that Samuel might        thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the
not be exactly pleased by this type of thinking; but,          LORD anointed thee king over Israel? and the LORD
after all, he was king and what could be more im-              sent thee on a journey, and said, Goand  utterly destroy
portant than that the people's adulation of him should         the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them
continually be encouraged.                                     until they be consumed.        Wherefore then didst thou
   When finally the meeting between Saul and Samuel            not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the
did. take place at  Gilgal,  it was necessarily tense from     spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD`?"
the start. Saul would have liked to avoid this meeting            To Saul it just did not seem fair. He wanted so
completely and had in fact approached  Gilgal  by a round-     badly to be a good king, and he tried so hard to be one.
about route in `the hope of doing so. But when Saul            Why couldn't everyone recognize that? Why couldn't
looked up and saw Samuel approaching with determined           Jehovah? Why couldn't Samuel? He was only trying
step from a distance, he knew that the most he could           to please them all. He had destroyed the Amalekites
hope to do was to hasten to intercept him and try to           for all practical purposes. The only reason he had
break the news to him gradually while trying to ex-            spared anything was so that he could please the people
plain that in the main he had kept the Lord's com-             and show them what he had done. How could just spar-
mands concerning Amalek and that what few changes              ing  Agag and a few cattle be counted as such a major
he had made on his own were really for the better.             infringement.      Anguished, almost weeping, Saul cried
Thus, with the appearance of warm hospitality, he              back at Samuel in self-defense, "Yes, I have obeyed
came to meet Samuel with the comment, "I have per-             the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which
formed the commandment of the LORD."                           the LORD sent me, and have brought  Agag  .the king`of
   The answer of Samuel came fast, and like an icy             Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
blast, "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep           But the people took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the
in mine ears, and the lowing  of. the oxen which I             chief of the things which should have been utterly
hear." It was apparent that Samuel knew what he had            destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in
done. They were not within sight of where the captured         Gilgal."
cattle were; and, if they could be heard, it was barely                But Samuel was not to be swayed either by emotion
so; yet, Samuel knew perfectly well that they were             or futile reasoning.       God had spoken to him, and he
there.                                                         was a prophet. All he could do was to bring to Saul
   For Saul nothing remained but to try to explain             the message of the Lord. And this he did by continuing
himself as quickly as possible. Surely Samuel would            to say, "Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt
be able to see that it was better this way. Quickly            offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of
Saul retorted, "They have brought them from the                the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the              and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is
sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy          as the sinof  witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity
God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed." It               and idolatry. Because thou has rejected the word of
wasn't. exactly true, at least it had been as much his         the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being
doing as anyone's that the cattle had been spared.             king."
Still, it had been the people who had first suggested             These were harsh words, and Saul knew it. They
that they spare the cattle; and besides, the people            touched at the heart of his most precious ambition  -  "
could much better stand to lose reputation with'Samue1         the matter of being king.      For the glory of that office
than he could.     It was apparent that this thing was not     he lived, and without it he might as well die. But
going over well with Samuel, and the least that Saul           then, what could he do? After all, Samuel had spoken
could do was to try to put some of the blame on some-          almost as strongly years before already, and things
one else.     And as far as the reference to "thy God"         hadn't gone so badly since then. And as for the rest,
was concerned, that was really a slip. It would have           he really didn't quite know what Samuel' was talking
sounded better if Saul had called Jehovah "our God",           about, all that talk about obedience and rebellion.
but somehow he found it hard to think of  Him in any           Why should he have to obey anyone? Wasn't he king?
other terms than being the God of Samuel.                      And as far as sacrifices were concerned, what more
   But that didn't matter now. It could be seen that           could Samuel's God want? What more did any god
Saul had not gotten through to Samuel, or at least,            ever want? Sometimes he just could not figure Samuel
that he had not convinced him. His eyes flashed with           out.      Sometimes he just seemed to get started talking
anger as Samuel answered, "Stay, and I will tell thee          and would go in circles where Saul could not follow.
what the LORD hath said to me this night."                     But that wasn't so serious. The point was that the
   There was the explanation of how Samuel knew                people were waiting to get started with their sacrificial
about those cattle, God had told him about them. And           feast.      Undoubtedly some of them had seen. Samuel,
what He had said was not good. That could be seen              coming; and, if they should begin to suspect that
from Samuel's attitude.       Paralyzed with fear, all that    San-me1 was not pleased with the whole situation, that.
Saul could mutter back was, "Say  on." He might as             would be worse yet. The immediate problem was to
well know the worst.                                           get Samuel to take part in their sacrifice without the
   And  -it was the worst too. With  slow,  measured           people. knowing what had been going on between them,


420                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

and for that he knew only one thing that might affect               answered once again, "I have sinned: yet honour me
the prophet, a humble apology. So, at last, he turned              now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and
to Samuel and said, "I have sinned: for I have trans-              before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may
gressed the commandment of the LORD, and thywords:                  worship the LORD thy God."
because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.                   Saul should have known better. Samuel was not
Now therefore, I pray thee pardon my sin, and turn                  one to be used for any selfish purpose even if it were
again with me, that I may worship the Lord."                        the purpose of a king.
       But Samuel had come to know Saul's shallow                      This time Samuel yielded to Saul's request. He
fluctuations, and the word of God had not allowed for              went with Saul, and he did nothing to interfere with
any changing. With finality Samuel answered, "I will               the worship of Israel before its God. But once the
not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word               worship was finished and the time for the festivities
of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from                   was come, he stepped forward to ask for the attention
being king over Israel," and with that he turned to                 of the people.       Then he spoke his command, "Bring
leave.                                                              ye hither to me  Agag the king of the Amalekites."
       The situation was even worse than Saul had sus-                 While the people watched in silence,  Agag was
pected.      Not only had he lost the favor of Samuel; but          brought forward to Samuel. His step was quicker than
the people would see Samuel leaving and they would                  it had been, his head held higher, for he was now
know it too. It was more than Saul could take. Im-                  confident that the danger of death was passed. Neither
pulsively he reached out and grasped Samuel's coat                  did the white-haired old man to whom he was-brought
to make him stay, tearing the coat and leaving part                 seem to hold any cause for alarm. But he was mis-
hanging in. Saul's hand. It did stop Samuel, but only               taken.        The words of the old man themselves were
to bring from him the observation, "The LORD hath                   sharp like a sword, "As thy sword hath made women
rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and                  childless, so shall thy mother be childless among
hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better              women," and accordingly he acted. Taking a sword
than thou. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie             he hewed the proud king to pieces.              And with that
nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent."            Samuel turned and left. His actions spoke for them-
       By this time, however, Saul was no longer thinking           selves.       He, the prophet of the Lord, had had to do
of anything but sparing his own reputation before the               what Saul had failed in his commission. There was
people.. All he could think about was preventing Samuel            no reason for Israel to rejoice in its king any more
from leaving before the sacrifice.            Accordingly he        that day.



   CONTENDING FOR  THE FAITH-


                                     The Providence of God

                                                       by Rev.  H.'  Veldman


       The doctrine of the providence of God is generally               doctrine      of predestination. The earliest Church
treated from the aspect of three elements which                         Fathers present no definite views on the subject. In
constitute the Lord's providential control of all things:               opposition to the Stoic doctrine of fate and in their
preservation, cooperation and government. Before we                     desire to guard the holiness of God, they sometimes
call attention to these three elements in particular, we                over-emphasized the free will of man, and to that
                                                                        extent manifested a tendency to deny the absolute
wish to present a brief historical review of this doctrine              providential rule of God with respect to sinful actions.
as set forth by the late Prof. L. Berkhof in his "Re-                   (here the undersigned wishes to make a remark. The
formed Dogmatics,,' pages 165-166:                                      late Prof. Berkhof speaks here of an over-emphasis
                                                                        upon the free will of man.       This should have been
           With its doctrine of providence the Church took              borne in mind in 1924 when the Christian Reformed
       position against both the Epicurean notion that the.             Church formulated its Three Points. In Point One they
       world is governed by chance, and the Stoic view that it          speak of a general love of God to all men, revealing
       is ruled by fate. From the very start theologians took           itself particularly in the preaching of the gospel. This
       the position that God preserves and governs the world.           means that the gospel is an offer of grace and salvation,
       However, they did not always have an equally absolute            and such an offer must imply, of course, that the man
       conception of the divine control of all things. Due to           to .whom  the offer is extended is able to accept that
       close connection between the two, the history of the             offer.      And this, we understand, surely places an
       doctrine of providence follows in the main that of the           6`over-emphasiss9  upon the free will of man.) Augustine


                                                 THESTANDARDBEARER

   led the way in the development  of this doctrine (this        review is concerned of the doctrine of the providence
   surely must mean that he led the way in the develop-          of God.
   ment, not "of the doctrine of the denial of the absolute         The doctrine of the providence of God repudiates
   providential rule of God with respect to sinful actions,      two heresies in connection with the existence and
   but of the Scriptural doctrine of the providence of
   God - H.V.>    Over against the doctrines of fate and         development of all things in the midst of the world:
   chance, he stressed the fact that all things are pre-         Deism and Pantheism. To be sure, the word "provi-
   served and governed by the sovereign, wise, and               dence" itself is hardly adequate to define what the
   beneficent will of God. He made no reservations in            Scriptures mean when they speak of the Lord's prov-
   connection with the providence of God, but maintained         idential rule over all things. The word itself simply
   the control of God over the good and the evil that is in      means: foresight, a seeing beforehand. At best, the
   the world alike.     By defending the reality of second       word "providence" could simply mean that the Lord,
   causes, he safeguarded the holiness of God and upheld         taking heed of the need of all His creatures, provides
   the responsibility of man.                                    for them in all their needs. In former days, when it
      During the Middle Ages there was very little con-          was customary to heat our homes with coal, it was
   troversy .on the subject of divine providence. Not a          foresight to purchase a winter's supply of coal in
   single council expressed itself on this doctrine. The         advance.      We understand, of course, that the Lord did
   prevailing view was that of Augustine, which subjected        not merely "see things beforehand," but that He
   everything to the will of God. This does not mean,            sovereignly controls and determines all things. And the
   however, that there were no dissenting views. Pel-            doctrine of the providence of God certainly refers to
   agianism limited providence to the natural life, and          His almighty and omnipresent power whereby He
   excluded the ethical life. And Semi-Pelagians moved
   in the same direction, though they did not all goequally      sustains all things and also governs them unto the
   far. Some of the Scholastics considered the conserva-         realization of His eternal and sovereign purpose in
   tion of God as a continuation of His creative activity,       connection with all things.
   while others made a real distinction between the two.            Deism is the conception which separates God from
   Thomas Aquinas' doctrine of divine providence follows         the world. According to Deism God's concern with the
   in the main that of Augustine, and holds that. the will of    world is not universal and constant, special and per-
   God, as determined by His perfections, preserves and          petual, but only of a general nature. The world is like
   governs all things; while Duns Scotus and such Nomin-         an alarm clock; it is wound up and then proceeds to
   alists as Biel and Occam made everything dependent            run of itself.      When the Lord created the world He
   on the  arbitrary will of God.         This was a virtual
   introduction of the rule of chance.                           gave to all His creatures certain inalienable prop-
                                                                 erties, placed them under invariable laws, and then
      The Reformers on the whole subscribed to the               left them to work out their destiny by their own
   Augustinian doctrine of divine providence, though they        inherent powers.       The world really runs of itself.
   differed somewhat in details. While Luther believed           The Lord may retain a certain general oversight of the
   in general providence, he does not stress God's pres-
   ervation and government of the world in general as            world, not of any specific details, but of the general
   much as Calvin does.          He considers the doctrine       laws which He has established. The world is simply a
   primarily in its soteriological bearings. Socinians and       machine which God has placed in motion, but it is not a
   Arminians, though not both to the same degree, limited        ship which is constantly controlled and directed to a
   the providence of God by stressing the  indep.endent          certain goal or harbor. This deistic conception of the
   power of man to initiate action and thus to control his       providence of God is characteristic of Pelagianism, was
   life. The control of the world was really taken out of        adopted by several Roman Catholic theologians, and is
   the hands of God, and given into the hands of man, In         also one of the fundamental errors of Arminianism.
   the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries providence was
   virtually ruled out by a Deism which represented God             The heresy of Deism certainly applies to Pelagian-
   as withdrawing Himself from the world after the work          ism and Arminianism. To be sure, the Pelagian and
   of creation; and by a Pantheism which identified God          Arminian may agree to the providence of God as far
   and the `world, obliterated the distinction between           our natural life is concerned, but they are certainly
   creation and providence, and denied the reality of            deistic as far as their conception is concerned of the
   second causes.      And while Deism may now be con-           Lord's rule over the spiritual conduct and activities of
   sidered as a thing of the past, its view of the control       all His moral creatures. It is characteristic of the
   of the world is continued in the position of natural          Pelagian and Arminian that they drive a wedge between
   science that the world is controlled by an iron-clad          God and the sinner, and that wedge is the will of man.
   system of laws.     And modern liberal theology, with
   its pantheistic conception of the immanence of God, also      The Lord, then, is dependent upon the will of the
   tends to rule out the doctrine of divine providence.          sinner.     And this is also true as far as the Three
                                                                 Points of 1924 are concerned. These Points speak of
   T h e   l a t e   P r o f . L. Berkhof, in his Reformed       the gospel as an offer of salvation, and that the natural
Dogmatics, very often presents that which is contained           man is able to please God without the regeneration of
in the Reformed Dogmatics of Dr. I-I. Bavinck, an                his heart. Man is in control of his own destiny. He
acknowledged authority on the history of doctrine. Of            determines whether he shall be saved or not. Actually,
interest, of course; is what we read in tbe above                the Lord stands helplessly by, offering to all men His
quotation of the teachings of  Pelagius and Arminius.            salvation, and utterly dependent upon the sinner and his
We will have opportunity to return TV this in due time.          will as far as the actual bestowal of that salvation is
In the meantime, this may suffice as far as an historical        concerned.      And this applies not only to the initial be-


      422                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

      stowal  of faith and grace, but the sinner must continue to       course, then there is neither creation nor providence.
      will that salvation of the Lord even until the end. It is         Then the Lord certainly did not create anything outside
      the position of the Arminian that, once saved, the sinner         of Himself. Then there is simply no world apart from
      can still be lost and perish.              He must persevere      God.    And the result is that there is no God, and that
      until the end, and his ultimate salvation is surely               for the simple reason that all that is left is the world.
      dependent upon that sinner's perseverance.                        Pantheism,.  that all is God or that God is the world,
             Deism is, of course, denied by Holy Writ. We will          and, therefore, there is no God, is, of course, the end
      not at this time discuss the relation between God's               of all religion. It is also the end of all morality. If
      providence and sin. The Lord willing, we will return              there be no God, then there isnolife of prayer possible,
      to that in due time. But Scripture certainly denies the           and this for the simple reason that there is nobody to
      conception of Deism.          Many Scriptures could be            whom prayer can be made.          Then there is also no
      quoted.      But we will limit ourselves to what we read          morality and no sense or guilt of sin. In fact, then
      in Matthew  6:25-29: "Therefore I say unto you, Take              there is simply no sin because there is no God against
      no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye           whom anyone can sin.        Pantheism is the end of all
      shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.         responsibility of man, the end of all prayer life, the
      Is not the life more than meat, and the body than                 end of all morality and consciousness of sin. Then
      raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,           man can live as he pleases, except possibly for the
      neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your             exception that mankind must lead. respectable lives with
      heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better              a view to their preservation. And imagine what would
      than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one             become of this world if there were no God!. Fact is,
      cubit unto his stature? And why take you thought for              all men are conceived and born dead in sins and in
      raiment ?       Consider the lilies of the field, how they        trespasses. Then there would be nobody able to trans-
      grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say          form that hopelessly and helplessly dead sinner. Then
      unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not              there would be nobody able to call one sinner out of
      arranged like one of these." This passage needs no                death into life, out of darkness into the light. Then sin
      elucidation.      Besides, do not the Scriptures also teach       would have an absolutely free reign.      But pantheism
      us that not one sparrow can fall off the housetop without         is certainly denied by Scripture. Everywhere in Holy
      the will of our heavenly Father, and that all the hairs           Writ the truth is proclaimed that theLordis  God alone,
      of our heads are numbered? The deistic separation                 that He is infinitely exalted above the creature.. We
      between God and the world is certainly repudiated                 read in I Kings  8:27: "But will God indeed dwell on the
      throughout Holy Writ.                                             earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot
             The doctrine of the providence of God, however,            contain thee; how much less this house that I have
      also repudiates the error of Pantheism.             Pantheism     builded?" And we are all acquainted with the word of
      identifies God with the world. Whereas Deism separates            Isaiah, in Isaiah  40:15, 17: "Behold, the nations are as
      God from the world, Pantheism identifies the Lord with            a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust
      His creature.        It does not recognize the distinction        of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very
      between God and the world. It either absorbs the world            little thing. All nations before Him are as nothing; and
      in God or God in the world.               God is the world; Of    they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity."





                              .IN MEMORLAM
      On May 13, 1966 it pleased our heavenly Father to take               As is customary, the  Standard Beaver  will appear
      from us our beloved husband, father and grandfather               only once during the months of June, July, and August.
                           MARTIN CASEMIER
      at the age of 79 years.                                                        RESOL   UTION  OF SYMPATHY
             "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply         The Congregation of the First Protestant Reformed
-_    `ourhearts  to wisdom". Psalm  90:12.                             Church of Holland herewith expresses their sincere
                      Mrs. Ella Casemier                                sympathy to their Pastor, Rev. G. Lanting and  ftiily
                      Mr. and Mrs. Richard Taylor                       in the passing of his Mother
                      Mr. and Mrs. Al Casemier                                        MRS.  LAMBERT  LANTING
                      Mr. and Mrs. John Casemier
                      Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Casemier                     That the Lord may comfort the hearts of the bereaved
                      Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Doezeman                       is our prayer.    Psalm  90:12 "So teach us to number
                      Mr. and Mrs. Lavern Casemier                      our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
                      17 grandchildren                                                         Per Consistory
                       5 great grandchildren                                                     Mr. Lam Elzinga, Vice Pres.
      Holland, Michigan                                                                          Mr. B. Windemuller, Clerk


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                423





         ALL AROUND US-



                         Report of the Synod of 1966

                                                  by  Pyof. H. Hank0


    Tucked away in the far northwest corner of Iowa              To turn now to a brief survey of the work of-Synod,
is the small hamlet of  Doon.          Here too, for many    I must remind our readers that this is in no way either
years, the heritage of the Reformed faith has been           an official report or a complete one. I write from the
maintained by one of our Protestant Reformed Churches.       perspective of my own impressions of Synod; our people
Here, west of the Mississippi, after an absence of           are urged to obtain a copy of the printed Acts when
sixteen years, the Synod of our Churches met. It was         they become available later this summer.
in 1950 that the Synod met inHull;  this was the year the
Declaration of Principles was first proposed for adop-       THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL MATTERS
tion.    The contrast between that Synod and this one is         Several important and rather far-reaching decisions
indeed striking. At that Synod our Churches faced a          were taken concerning the work of our Theological
major crisis  - a crisis which later came to a climax        school.
in the schism of 1953. This year our Synod, confident            First of all, the Synod decided that our Theological
of the blessing of God upon our Churches in years gone       School must serve also as a means to witness-to the
by, took a hard look into the future and made extensive      Reformed faith in the Church world-of today. In order
plans for the days and years ahead.                          to accomplish this, Synod decided to open the doors of
    For myself, a return  toDoonwas  similar to a home-      the School to students from outside our Churches who,
coming.      The rolling hills of well-farmed land, the      while studying in our school, will nevertheless, not
growing corn, the blue sky, the warmth of hospitality,       necessarily preach within our own denomination.
the crash of thunderstorms, the peace and quiet of           There are, Synod was convinced, students who are'
rural life-all these brought back fond memories.             eager to obtain a seminary education which is em-
Yet also to Rev. Decker, pastor of the calling Church,       phatically Reformed and Calvinistic. Such an educa-
the Consistory of  Doon, and the ladies of  Doon  Church     tion is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. Our
belongs the credit for an enjoyable stay among our           Synod is making the instruction of our Seminary avail-
brethren in the Mid-west.                                    able to them.
    The Synod began Tuesday evening, May 31, in Doon             As a footnote to this, our  peopPe will be interested
Church with the presynodical prayer service. Rev.  M.        in knowing that I have talked with one who, while not a
Schipper  caught the spirit of our Churches and set the      member of our Churches, is deeply interested in at-
tone of the Synod when he preached in his own able way       tending our Seminary. He is, at present, a minister
on Neb. 4:17: ""They which builded  on the wall, and they    elsewhere.
that bare burdens, witb those that laded, everyone with          Secondly, Synod, taking cognizance of the excellent
one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the           work done by Prof.  H.  C. Hoeksema in our Seminary,
other hand held a weapon."'                                  appointed him for life-time tenure. This appointment
    The work of Synod was performed with efficiency;         he also accepted. For myself, this is abundant reason
this was due to the very excellent work done by the          for gratitude, for Prof. Hoeksema bas been of indis-
committees of pre-advice and by the effective work of        pensable help to me in my labors in the Seminary the
the  president2 Rev.  G. Van  Baren.  Wednesday was          past  year3 and our Seminary has prospered under his
spent in committee work after the assignments had            instruction.
been given; Thursday, Friday, and Monday were spent              Thirdly, Synod faced the problem of inadequate
8n the work. By Monday evening, the work was finished,       facilities for our Seminary, As most of our people
    Two of the appointed delegates were unable to            know, our Seminary has met in the basement of First
attend: Mr.  II.  Meulenberg  was recuperating from a        Church in a room provided for it.           Synod saw the
recent heart attack; Rev.  C, Hanks was facing the           possibility of these facilities being inadequate in the
prsspect  Qf surgery.     Synod was mindful of rbe ab-       future. Our Seminary library is rapidly growing and
sence of these two brethren and often brought their          is crowding the room; if we have students in different
needs before the throne of grace,                            grade levels, there will be a need of other classrooms;


424                                               THE  STX.iVDA.RD  BEARER

our present facilities are adequate for four or, at the         of the Word as the basic means by which Cod gathers
most, five students. Should our enrollment increase             His Church; and the relationship between the individual
beyond that point, our present room would not be large          congregations and the Synodical Mission Committee in
enough.       The result was that the Theological School        the work of Church extension.
Committee  .was instructed to make plans for the ex-                To turn to specifics: the whole matter of the work
pansion of our facilities to be presented at next year's        in Jamaica weighed heavily with Synod. The general
Synod.                                                          consensus was that much more ought to be done there
       Fourthly, the Synod faced the question of establish-     than is being done; specifically that there is a great
ing our own pre-seminary course. This was, under-               need to put a man on the island for an extended stay
standably, a major consideration.             There are many    who can work among these brethren in Christ.
problems which have to be faced; yet the Theological                Rev. J. Heys submitted a follow-up report of his
School Committee felt the urgent need of such a  pre-           visit with Elder H. Zwak to Jamaica and especially of
seminary course; and the final decision reads as                his work in supplying the ministers there withmaterial
follows:                                                        of a correspondence course. It ought to be of special
       1. That Synod go on record as favoring the estab-        interest to our people that Rev. Heys is drawing up
          lishment of a pre-seminary course.                    excellent material for these lessons and that they are
       2. That Synod instruct the Theological  SchoolCom-       being received favorably. To quote briefly from the
          mittee to begin preparation for such a course;        report:
          specifically:                                                   On my part  I  am satisfied to know that these
          a.  To. draw up a proposed constitution to be             brethren do not reject but embrace the Reformed
             submitted to Synod next year.                          faith, as they begin to learn it, in a childlike faith
          b. To begin making initial plans for curriculum,          that does not argue but very refreshingly accepts it
             facilities, etc.                                       as the proper interpretation of the WoYd of God. I am
          c. To discuss this matter within our Churches.            also satisfied  with the progress shown  thus far. And
          d. To investigate the matter of accreditation.            I am confident that with patient work and God's bless-
                                                                    ing, we will hear these brethren and sisters speak the
       3. The committee (i.e., the Committee of  Pre-               same language of faith which our covenant God has
          advice) makes this advise in distinction from             so graciously given to us to speak and believe. For
          the advise of the Theological School Committee            me personally it has been a blessing to be able to
          in the light of the following:                            prepare and conduct this course of instruction and I
          a. The Theological School Committee seems to              request the prayers of our Mission Board and our
             take the position that this should be done             congregations for me and for the brethren in Jamaica
             very soon.                                             and for God's blessing upon this work.
          b. While your committee agrees that this should           But Synod knew that more had to be done. The
             be done as quickly as possible, we urge            result was that, while the correspondence course will
             Synod to take cognizance of the following:         be continued, the Mission Committee was also in-
             1) The shortage of teaching personnel.             structed to draw up a program to be submitted to
             2) The phenomenal teaching load that would         Synod next year  - a program for putting a man in the
                 be placed upon our present faculty.            field in full time labor.
             3) The difficulty of selling this to our young         The other aspect of the work of missions concerned
                 men  - i.e., an education not culminating      itself with the expansion of the lectures which have
                 in a degree.                                   been held in the Grand Rapids area. Of over-riding
          c. The committee nevertheless believes:               concern was the fact that Cod has called us to live in
             1) That the establishment of such a school         a time of great apostasy when the Reformed faith is
                 is our solemn obligation.                      despised and many denominations are rapidly discard-
             2) That all our efforts should be put forth        ing their heritage. In addition to this was the fact that
                 to attain this goal as quickly as the Lord     increasingly the Lord has given to us audiences who
                 makes this possible.                           express a concern for the rapid departure of these
       Thus our Synod made preparations for the expan-          denominations from the principles of the Reformed
sion of our Theological School. It remains Synod's              faith.     Bearing these two factors in mind, Synod de-
prayer (and the prayer of our Churches) that Cod will           cided to expand the lecture series so that this same
send us young men to study for the ministry of the              lecture program can be carried out in other parts of
Word.                                                           the country where we have established congregations.
                                                                With the approval and cooperation of our various
MISSION MATTERS                                                 Consistories, this will be done in the years ahead.
       Proportionately, greater time was spent on mis-              Thirdly, an interesting and important report was
sions than on any other matter before Synod. Also in            submitted to Synod by a committee of the Mission
this area some important and far-reaching decisions             Committee which recently made a trip to the Eastern
were taken.                                                     part of the country and reported on its work. The
       That Synod did nothing hastily and rashly is evident     report is too lengthy to  quotei but gives evidence again
from the fact that there were long discussions on Synod         of the fact that increasingly we have received an open
concerning most fundamental questions of missionary             door to witness to the truth of Scripture.
work. These  questioils  centered about the preaching               Finally, a Foreign Mission Committee was  estab-


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      425

lished which shall make work of following the de-              place.      Some speculate such settlement of differences
velopments in the field of foreign missions so that            will take twenty-five years; others say, perhaps it
Synod will be able, in the future, to know of possible         will take forever. In other words, no one really cares
openings in that area of the Church's calling. Whether         whether they are ever settled.            By committing the
this committee  will have more work to do only the             Southern Presbyterians to this movement, the liberals
future will reveal.                                            scored a great victory within the Southern Presbyter-
   There was, of course, routine business before               ian denomination and pushed the conservatives into a
Synod which we shall not enter into in this report.            corner. The conservatives are alarmed.
One item of unfinished business was finally taken care
of; this was the matter of our  Synodical  and Classical          2) The Southern Presbyterians were engaged in
                                                               merger talks of their own with the Reformed Church
archives. The Litigation Committee reported that they
had finally been returned, although some are still             of America. The recent decision to join COCU makes
missing.                                                       a profound impact on these merger talks. This is
              The Stated Clerk was instructed to investi-      true, first of all, because the liberals had wanted
gate whether they can be located.
   All in all it was a fruitful Synod. Many decisions          badly to scuttle talks with the Reformed Church in
were taken which will drastically affect our future            order to open talks with the United Presbyterians.
calling.                                                       An overture to that effect was even defeated at this
             Synod was deeply aware of the many indica-
tions of God's favor upon us; and Synod, consciously           Assembly Meeting.          But, without any one apparently
dependent upon God's indispensable blessing, looked            noticing the inconsistency, the liberals got their way
into the future with the firm conviction that our              by way of COCU; and the Southern Presbyterians are
Churches have an urgent calling to fulfill in the days         committed after all to talks with the United Presby-
ahead.      May the prayers of all our people arise daily      terians -only now within the framework of COCU.
before the face of our covenant God that peace may             Further, the conservatives are afraid that indeed
reign within our Churches and that we may, by God's            merger talks with the Reformed Church will now cease.
grace, fulfill our calling in faithfulness.                    The Reformed Church has, all along, been somewhat
                           * *  *  8                           hesitant about this marriage, fearing that it was but a
                                                               first step with the United Presbyterians. This merger
SOUTHERN PRESBYTERLANS AND COCU                                the Reformed Church did not want. Their fears have
   There is one news item of considerable importance           been justified. The editor of  The  Pres  bytevian  Journal,
which we must include in this issue. We have not the           with some measure of despair, wrote:
room to report on this at length, but a more detailed                    It will be a long while before the shock wears off
report can be reserved for a future issue.                        most observers of the 1966 General Assembly of the
   In a surprise move, on the last day of the Assembly            Presbyterian Church US - even observers friendly to
Meeting, the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church US               the actions taken. No one, but no one really thought
(Southern) decided to join COCU. COCU stands for                  the Assembly would throw all caution to the winds and
"Conversation On Church Union", i.e., the discussions             adopt so long a list of radical proposals, capping the
now being held by representatives of eight denomina-              whole  performance by taking the Church into the
                                                                  "Blake-Pike" plan for a monster Church in America.
tions to form a giant protestant denomination number-             As we write these words the first dramatic effects of
ing some  25,000,OOO  people.           These are so-called       the Assembly's actions are being felt: plans for ex-
"Blake-Pike Talks" which we have discussed in pre-                changes between this Church and the Reformed Church
vious issues of the  Standard  Beaver. The two main               in America, with speakers scheduled to appear before
churches involved in these discussions are the United             respective synod meetings, are being cancelled. What
Presbyterian Church and the Episcopal Church. The                 a pity that one of the brightest potential unions in
former recently accepted the resignation of Eugene                Protestantism apparently has gone down the  drain1
Carson Blake, who will take the place of Visser `t                At this writing, it is not yet known what the Re-
Hooft in the World Council of Churches; and they               formed Church has done about the whole matter.
recently accepted the "New Confession of 1967". The
latter has become famous for its bishop in San Fran-
cisco, James Pike, who has denied the fundamental
doctrines of the truth  - the trinity, the virgin birth,
the resurrection of Christ, etc., and who recently
resigned his bishopric.
   The importance of this decision for the southern                           RESOL  UTION  OF SYMPATHY
Presbyterians is evident from the following:                   The Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed
   1) The COCU delegates (and many of the churches             Church of Holland, Michigan herewith expresses its
involved in these discussions) are liberal and modern.         sympathy to Mr. Lavern Casemier in the passing of
The leaders in this movement stand in the forefront            his Father
of modern day (and apostate) ecumenism and are
determined to press for unity at all costs. This is                                 MARTIN CASEMIER
evident especially from a recent decision of COCU to           "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain". Phil. 1:21.
merge soon and settle the differences still dividing                                            Rev. G. Lanting, Pres.
the churches at leisure and after the merger has taken                                          E. Cammenga, Sec'y.


426                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



   EXAMINING  ECUMENICALISM-


            The Second Vatican Council - Fourth Session


                                                 by Rev. G. Van  Baven


       The fourth and final session of the Vatican Council    an apocalyptic event, even in the most distant future.. . ."l
of the Roman Catholic Church came to its conclusion           The streams of thought in both protestant and Roman
last December  8, 1965.        Much happened during the       Catholic circles will more and more begin to flow in
four years this Council was in session. That is true          the same channels. There is an opening through this
in the world about us, but particularly in the realm of       Council into that period of the ecumenical "church"
that which is called "church". It is difficult now yet        of the last days.
to believe that so much could have happened in the
"church world" during this time. One cannot but be            STATISTICS ON THE COUNCIL
reminded that the end of time must be at hand.                   I have in the past presented some of the statistics
THE COUNCIL  `S CONCL  USION                                  of the Vatican Council. For your information, it might
                                                              be advantageous to consider the Council statistics
       It is difficult for an outsider, and one who has       after it has come to its close.
only read accounts of others, to come to specific                During the first three sessions, only five documents
conclusions concerning the Vatican Council now ended.         were approved (two during the second session, and
Even Roman Catholic scholars maintain that they               three during the third session). The fourth and last
themselves can not properly evaluate the work and             session approved a total of eleven documents. Of
effect of this Council except in the light of subsequent      course, that gives a large mass of material. Probably
history.      There is much truth to that. It remains to      most of this will not interest us at  all either. There-
be seen if some of the decisions taken will in fact be        fore, D.V., I intend only to consider a few of the (to
carried out by the Roman Catholic church in general,          us) significant actions taken.
and also whether each segment of that church will                It was on January 25, 1959 that Pope John XXIII
abide by and execute the declarations of the Council.         first announced his intention to summon the Vatican
       One thing is very evident at the close of this         Council.      On Oct. 11, 1962 the first session began its
Council: it was doubtlessly the source of more public-        meeting. The sessions usually met from some time
ity than any other event of "church" history. There           in September into the month of December. The final
was hardly a magazine or newspaper which did not              session was closed on December 8, 1965.
regularly report on developments. The eyes of the                Some other statistics (as given in the  Council
world were directed towards the actions of the Roman          Duybook,  Vol. 3) are: there were 168 general meet-
Catholic church - as they also intended.                      ings at which 147 reports were read and 2,212 speeches
   A second fact that has emerged from the Council            were given. There were also 4,361 written interven-
sessions is this: The Roman Catholic church has gained        tions.      The daily average attendance of bishops was
much of the favor of men  - both protestants and even         2,200. In addition to these, there were 460 officially
the non-religious. This also was, doubtlessly, one of         designated experts present.
the aims of this Council.                                        Statistics mean little by themselves. More inter-
   A third fact: this Council will greatly affect the         esting, it seems to me, are the reactions of the
life of the Roman Catholic church. I believe no basic         Roman Catholic experts themselves to this Council.
doctrines have been changed. Nevertheless, the Coun-
cil has opened the doors to debate and discussion in
the Roman Catholic church. I suspect that what will           EVAL UATION OF THE COUNCIL
happen will be that which is taking place in many                First, the brief closing address of Pope Paul is
protestant denominations today. While officially hold-        revealing.      Especially two significant things can be
ing to the old doctrines, there will be rapid develop-        detected in it.      He wants to make sure that all men
ment toward out-and-out modernism. Even the pres-             know the desire of the Roman Catholic church to greet
ent doctrines of the Romish church must lead to               them and welcome them as brothers. Secondly, the
modernism.       It is not even surprising to read state-     speech reflects what is true of most of the decisions
ments today as this: "The vanguard of Catholic thought        of the Council: Christ is forgotten.
today does not expect the  pavousia  to take the form of         The Pope speaks thus:


                                                   THESTANDARDBEARER

      This greeting is, before all, universal. It is ad-              There are five areas in which Kung believes ac-
   dressed to all of you assisting and participating here         complishments were made by the Romish church.
   in this sacred rite: to you, venerable brothers of the         First, progress, he believes, was made in the area of
   episcopate; to you, representatives of nations; to you,        ecumenism. He  claims that the Council expresses that
   people of God. And it is extended and broadened to the         Roman  Catholics share the blame for the disunity of
   entire world. How could it be otherwise if this council
   was said. to be and is ecumenical, that is to say, uni-        the church.        He points out that now other Christian
   versal? Just as the sound of the bell goes out through         communities are recognized as  churches.               An ecu-
   the skies, reaching each one within the radius of its          menical attitude is expected in the Romish church and
   sound waves, so at this moment does our greeting go            cooperation with other Christians is encouraged. He
   out to each and everyone of you. To those who receive          concludes:       "the ecumenical age has finally and ir-
   it and to those who do not, it resounds pleadingly in the      revocably begun for the Catholic church with Vatican
   ear of every man.2                                             11.933
   But it is also true that this closing speech, reflect-             Secondly, Kung sees achievement in those areas
ing what I would consider the tenor of the whole Coun-            in which the Reformers originally sought change. The
cil, shows that there is no room for the Christ. There            Council, he maintains, has placed far greater em-
is a brief reference to Christ and His word of "peace,"           phasis upon Scripture than was ever present since the
but that is all. The Pope would rather place his hope             Reformation.       He sees in the action taken the develop-
and expectations upon the Virgin Mary.                            ment of a liturgy based upon the Word. The Council
      But note what is taking place here this morning.            has given greater esteem to the laity and that popular
   While we close the ecumenical council, we are honor-           piety is now more in harmony with that which the Re-
   ing Mary Most Holy, the mother of Christ, and con-             formers sought.         Says Kung, "When we look at this
   sequently, as we declared on another occasion, the             whole area, it is clear that much of what the Council
   mother of God and our spiritual mother.            We are      did is of a preliminary, imperfect, even questionable
   honoring Mary Most Holy, the Immaculate One, there-            character, and that a number of important things are
   fore innocent, stupendous, perfect. She is the woman,          missing.       But it is nevertheless permissible to ask
   the true woman who is both ideal and real, the creature        this question: what would Martin Luther do if he were
   in whom the image of God is reflected with absolute
   clarity, without any disturbance, as happens in every          born in the Catholic Church of today?"3
   other human creature.                                              The third area of change deals with those of the
      IS it now perhaps in directing our gaze on this             non-Christian religions (Jewish, Islam, Buddhism,
   woman who is our humble sister and at the same time            etc.).     Kung sees closer unity between the Romish
   our heavenly mother and queen, the spotless and                Church and these of other religions. He also believes
   sacred mirror of infinite beauty, that we can terminate        that the Romish church has assumed a new attitude
   the spiritual ascent of the council and our final greeting?    toward the world itself. This was especially evident,
   Is it not here that our post-conciliar work can begin?         says he, in the adoption of a document treating religious
   Does not the beauty of Mary Immaculate become for us           freedom.
   an inspiring model, a comforting hope?2                            Finally, Kung believes that changes are and will be
   Of interest too are the comments of Father Hans                made internally within his church. There will be a new
Kung, a well-known, liberal Roman Catholic theologian.            relationship between Pope and bishops; the Roman
Though he is not wildly enthusiastic about the actions of         Curia will hopefully be reformed; the priesthood will
the Council, he nevertheless appears impressed and                be trained according to the needs of local areas; in
pleased by most of the decisions. He has complaints               mission endeavor, the Romish church will work "to-
though.                                                           ward overcoming the scandal of a divided Christen-
      . . .That which the Council did not accomplish need         dom, so deeply felt in mission  lands."3
   not and cannot be overlooked. There are certain de-                The conclusion of Kung is:
   crees (e.g. the decree on the communications media,
   the Declaration on Christian Education) which are                        This all-embracing program of reform within the
   hardly significant for the future. There are others                Church adopted by Vatican II will mean a great deal of
   which lack proportion, which are in many places am-                work in the years to come. But it must not be for-
   biguous or which simply are not forward-looking. There             gotten that a great deal was not formulated in the de-
   is probably not a single decree which proved completely            crees and that precisely this may be of greater sig-
   satisfactory to the bishops.                                       nificance for the next few decades:
      In practically all of the doctrinal decrees, a solid                  1. a new vitality is apparent in the CatholicChurch,
   exegetical, and often enough, historical foundation is             which transcends any formulations. 2. a new freedom
   wanting - a price exacted by the almost total absence              in thought and discussion has shown itself to be ex-
   of Catholic exegesis at the Council. Often enough, dip-            tremely fruitful. 3. a new relationship to truth, both
   lomatic compromises made a patchwork of precisely                  more historical and more existential, has become a
   the most critical matters -for example scripture and               reality. 4. the fragmentary and contingent character
   tradition, papal primacy and collegiality. These were              of all documents of the Magisterium was experienced
   compromises between a majority, which generally                    in the concrete. 5. Vatican II quiteconsciously avoided
   had the most serious and vital theology on their side              claiming the infallibility defined by Vatican I.  6.  the
   and the relatively small curial  party which controlled            theology of the neo-scholastic schools showed itself
   the Council machinery and made thorough use of this                incapable of dealing with new problems. 7. the author-
   control right to the end. None ofthis should be glossed            ity of a vital theology and of the theologians has been
   over.3                                                             decisively strengthened. 8. a new idea of church lead-


428                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

   ership has become visible on all levels (instead of                 He believes that the Council will  work toward greater
   one-man-rule, common responsibility). 9. the Church                 unity between the Roman Catholic church and all men
   has given up characteristically medieval positions in               of this world - and I think he is right.
       regard to civil society, the state, political life and
       scholasticism.     10. the  iustifiahle  concerns of the
   eastern churches and of the reformation have now
   found acceptance within the Church.3                                1. Commonweal,  April  22, 1966, pg. 149
                                                                       2. Council  Daybook,   Vol. 3, pgs. 362-363
       Such is the estimate of a liberal Roman Catholic.               3. Commonweal,  January 21, 1966, pgs. 461-468



                          ANNOUNCEMENT                                 members chosen from the Western branch of our
   Changes made by the Synod of 1966 in the "Synodical                 churches.    As much as possible a balance of three
Rules of Order" and in the "Constitutions of Standing                  ministers and three elders shall be maintained."
Committees" are the following. These changes ought                        In Article 7 of the Rules of Order of Synod, Section
                                                                       4, c, must be changed as follows:
to be noted by those who have the book, "The Church                        "c. Function: (a) Advise treasurer, (b) Determine,
Order of the Protestant Reformed Churches", revised                    in conjunction with treasurer and Mission Board
and reprinted in 1961.                                                 temporary subsidy for a new congregation in the in-
       Article 2 of the Constitution of the Theological                terim between Synods, (c) act in adjustment of assess-
School Committee, page 41, must now read as follows:                   ments or of subsidy in cases of proven need of an  un-
       "The Theological School Committee shall consist                 forseen or emergency nature."
of no less than ten members. There shall be an equal                                                G. VandenBerg,  Stated Clerk
representation of elders (or ex-elders) and ministers
on this committee at all times. They shall be elected
by synod for a term of three years, and are eligible
for re-election. . . . . .  ."                                                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
       Article 2 of the Constitution of the Mission Com-               The Men's and Ladies Societies of the First Protestant
mittee, pg. 43, must now read:                                         Reformed Church of Holland takes notice that the Lord
       "The Mission Committee shall consist of not less                in His wisdom has bereaved several of their members
than ten members, six of which shall be ministers,                     in the recent past through the departure of loved ones.
and four elders (or ex-elders), to be chosen from the                  Herewith we express our sympathy to the following:
Eastern branch of our churches. They shall be elected                     Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Korteringintheloss of his sister
by synod for a term of three years, and are eligible                                       Mrs. John Boers
for re-election."                                                         Mrs. Ella Casemier and Mr. and Mrs. L. Casemier
       Article 7 of the Rules of Order of Synod, pgs. 66               in the loss of their husband and father
and 67, Sections 1 and 2 must be changed to read as                                      Mr. Martin Casemier
follows:                                                                  Mr. and Mrs. Ben Bosman in the loss of his father
       ` `1. Theological School Committee: Constituency,                                 Mr. John W. Bosman
5 ministers and 5 elders (or ex-elders). (Acts 1966,                      Rev. and Mrs. G. Lanting in the loss of his mother
Art. 47)                                                                                 Mrs.  Lambert Lanting
       "2. Mission Board: Constituency, 10 members  - 6                May the Lord comfort your hearts as He did His dis-
ministers and 4 elders (or ex-elders) to be chosen                     ciples in John  14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my
from the Eastern branch of our churches).. (Acts                       peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth; give I
1966, Art. 98)"                                                        unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let
   To Article 7 of the Rules of Order of Synod, pg. 67,                it be afraid".
the following must be added:                                                                       Mr. E. Cammenga, Sec'y.
       "7. Foreign Mission Committee: Constituency, 6                                              Mrs. B. Windemuller, Sec'y.





                    Refuse to accept the doctrine of sovereign election, and you must ultimately deny the
                truth of vicarious atonement. For if Christ's death is substitutional, those for whom he
                died are certainly justified and reconciled to God. But it is evident that all  men'are not
                saved.     Hence, you must choose between two alternatives: Christ represented the elect,
                or in His death He did not really pay for the sins of those for whom He died. Election
                 and vicarious atonement are inseparably connected.
                                                                   - H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p. 23


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    429



   THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP-


                                Ecclesiastical Censure

                                                by Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg

   In our liturgical study the next matter for consider-         "But as some have such a hatred of discipline, as
ation is the Form of Excommunication as it appears in         to abhor the very name, they should attend to the
the back of our Psalter. The material or content of           following consideration: That if no society, and even no
this form is inseparably connected with the broader           house, though containing only a small family, can be
subject of ecclesiastical censure or discipline, since        preserved in a proper state without discipline, this is
excommunication is but one step, the final step, in this      far more necessary in the Church, the state of which
process. When the ecclesiastical machinery of disci-          ought to be the most orderly of all. As the saving
pline is activated by gross sin in the church and there       doctrine of Christ is the soul of the Church, so disci-
remains no evidence of repentance in the sinner, the          pline forms the ligaments which connect the members
end result is excommunication, and where this is              together, and keep each in its proper place. Whoever,
necessary the form which we purpose to discuss is to          therefore, either desire the abolition of all discipline,
be used.                                                      or obstruct its restoration, whether they act from design
   Although therefore our present study must be limited       or inadvertency, they certainly promote the entire dis-
to the matter of excommunication proper, it .will not be      solution of the Church. For what will be the conse-
out of place to make some general observations on the         quence, if every man be at liberty to follow his own
subject of ecclesiastical censure as such. In doing so        inclinations? But such would be the case, unless the
we must keep in mind that detailed questions that arise       preaching of the doctrine were accompanied with
belong properly to the field of Church Polity rather          private admonitions, reproofs, and other means to
than to that of  Liturgies  and consequently lie outside      enforce the doctrine, and prevent it from being alto-
of the scope of this rubric.  Wedo. not intend to discuss     gether ineffectual. Discipline, therefore, serves as a
Articles 71 to 81 of our Church Order now, but it is          bridle to curb and restrain the refractory, who resist
also impossible to avoid the fact that some matters           the doctrine of Christ; or as a spur to stimulate the
treated there come into focus in connection with our          inactive; and sometimes as a father's rod, with which
subject of  Excommunication.                                  those who have grievously fallen may be chastised in
   Even more than in the days of Calvin there are many        mercy, and with the gentleness of the Spirit of Christ.
today who would prefer to elide from our Church Order         Now, when we see the approach of certain beginnings
and Confession the matters dealing with Christian             of a dreadful desolation in the Church, since there is
discipline or, if they must be retained in the confes-        no solicitude or means to keep the people in obedience
sions, to then ignore them altogether or, at best, to         to our Lord, necessity itself proclaims the want of a
bring these things into practice only in cases of             remedy; and this is the only remedy which has been
extreme necessity.     The factors contributing to this       commanded by Christ, or which has ever been adopted
sorry state are, first, a general ignorance concerning        among believers ."
the purpose and nature of Christian discipline; secondly,        That ecclesiastical censure culminating in excom-
a pseudo emphasis upon the so-called Christian liberty        munication is both a necessary and legitimate function
of the members of the church, and, finally, a general         of the church is evident from the Scriptures themselves.
contempt for spiritual practices concomitant with             The. Intewzational  Bible Encyclopaedia,  Vol. II, pg. 1050,
licentious and worldly living.       The result is that       finds a form of excommunication practiced in both the
practices which our fathers condemned are condoned            Old and New Testaments. We quote the following:
by the church today and there seems  tobe no reversing          "Excommunication is exclusion from  churchfellow-
of this trend for the power of ecclesiastical censure is      ship as a means of personal discipline, or church
broken. The church has fallen into a state of disorder        purification, or both.     Its germs have been found in
and now welcomes into her confused fellowship all who         (1) the Mosaic `ban' or `curse' @eve?, devoted),
will contribute to her material support, regardless of        given over entirely to God's use or to destruction
walk of life.    Unless there is a resurgence of dis-         (Lev.  27:29); (2) the `cutting off', usually by death,
ciplinary action by the church, the continuance of her        stoning of certain offenders, breakers of the Sabbath
deterioration as a spiritual institution is inevitable.       (Ex.  31:14) and others (Lev.  17:4; Ex.  20:22-38); (3)
   Calvin, in his  Institutes  of the  Cjz&tiun  Religion.    the exclusion of the leprous from the camp (Lev.  13:4$
succintly  touched upon the urgent necessity of ec-           Nu.  12:14). At the restoration (Ezr.  10:7,8)  the penalty
clesiastical censure when he wrote in Chapter 12 of           of disobedience to Ezra's reforming movements was
Book IV as follows:                                           that `all his substance should be forfeited  (herem),


430                                            THE STANDARD  BEARER

and himself separated from the assembly of the                partial or total, of those whose acts jeopardize it.
captivity.' Nehemiah's similar dealing with the hus-              "The center of the Scriptural doctrine of eccles-
bands of heathen women helped to fix the principle.           iastical discipline is Matthew  18:15-18; and its prac-
The New Testament finds a well developed synagogal            tical application in the apostolical church is learned from
system of excommunication in two, possibly three,             I Cor. 5 and II Cor. 2:4-8. A member of the Corinthian
varieties or stages.       Nidday, for the first offense,     congregation had married his stepmother, and the
forbade the bath, the razor, and the frequenting of the       congregation had suffered the deed.       Paul then wrote
temple. It lasted thirty, sixty, or ninety days. If the       to the Corinthians that the offender should be excom-
offender still remained obstinate, the `curse',  (hevem)      municated, and `delivered unto Satan'.         His words
was formally pronounced upon him by a council of ten,         produced such an impression, not only on the con-
and he was shut out from the intellectual, religious and      gregation, but also on the offender, that, when he wrote
social life of the community, completely severed from         again to the Corinthians, Paul could recommend mercy.
the congregation.  Shammatha,   supposed by some to be        It is, however, not only for such flagrant offenses as
a third and final stage, is probably a general term ap-       the above that Paul demands punishment, but also for
plied to both  nidday  and  hevem.  We meet the system        minor failings by which a man is made a burden to his
in John  9:22, `put you out of the synagogue'. In Luke        fellow men (II Thess.  3:6); and he warns the congrega-
6:22 Christ may refer to the three stages: `separate          tions against heresy, for it eats like a canker (II Tim.
you from their company, and reproach you, and cast            2:17).    A heretic, after admonishing him once or twice
out your name as evil.' "                                     in vain, avoid (Tit. 3:lO); do not even bid him Godspeed
       And again on page 105 1, "Clear, specific instances    (II John 10, 11). The punishment, however, must never
of excommunication or directions regarding it, how-           be administered in a spirit of retaliation. Church
ever, are found in the Pauline and Johannine writings.        discipline, though necessary for the self-protection of
In the caseof  the incestuous man (I Cor. 5:1-12),  at the    the church, has as its aim the reclamation and recon-
instance of the apostle (`I verily, being absent in body      ciliation of the offender; hence, in the spirit of love it
but present in spirit'), the church, in a formal meeting      must dictate its punishments (II Cor. 2:6-8). That the
(`In the name of our Lord Jesus, ye being gathered            discipline is exercised by the Church is indicatedin all
together'), carrying out the apostle's desire and will        the passages cited except that from Titus, where the
(`and my spirit'), and using the power and authority          direction is given for personal guidance alone (cf.
conferred by Christ (`and with the power of our Lord          verse 9). The apostolical institutions of Excommuni-
Jesus'), formally cut off the offender from its fellow-       cation and reconciliation lived on in the postapostolic
ship, consigning (relinquishing 2) him to the power of the    church, and during the period of persecution became
prince of this world (`to deliver such a one unto Satan').    even more peremptory.         Under Decius, whose goal
Further, such action is enjoined in other cases: `Put         seems to have been the total destruction of Christianity,
away the wicked man from among yourselves.' II Cor.           there occurred, by the side of the most admirable
2:5-11 probably refers to the same case, terminated by        examples of faithfulness, so frequent instances of
the repentance and restoration of the offender. `Deliver-     defection that a special regulation for the reconciliation
ing over to Satan' must also include some physical ill,       of the lapsed became a necessity. This regulation,
perhaps culminating in death; as with Simon  Magus            which continued valid down to the fifth century, estab-
(Acts  8:20), Elymas (Acts  13:11), Ananias (Acts  5:5).      lished a course of penance which ran through various
I Timothy  1:20:  `Hyraenaeus and Alexander..  .that they     stages, and comprised a period of several years; but
might be taught not to blaspheme,' is a similar case of       its severity naturally called forth devices of evasion
excommunication accompanied by judicial and dis-              and subterfuge, such as the libelli of the confessors,
ciplinary physical ill. In III John 9, 10 we have a case      and church discipline became somewhat lax. A re-
of excommunication by a faction in control: `Diotrephes       action toward greater severity followed, and the  Mon-
. ..neither doth he himself receive.. .and them that would    tanists declared that the excommunicated ought to
he...casteth out of the church."                              remain for their whole life in a state of penance, while
   From  The New  Schaaf-Hevzog  Encyclopedia  it is          the Novatians affirmed that the church had no right
also evident that Christian discipline was commonly           at all to forgive the lapsed, though the Lord might be
practiced in the early church. In Vol . III, page 86          willing to do so. Meanwhile the developing organization
we find the following:                                        of the Church had reached the department of discipline,
       "Church discipline is a means of securing and          and the penitents, who had been excommunicated and
maintaining the spiritual purity of the Christian             desired to be received back into fellowship, were
Church.      This exercise arises from the fact that the      divided into four classes and compelled to pass
Church is a human institution, the members of which           through as many stages of penance."
are subject to the limitations and weaknesses of                 To all of this must yet be added the word of Christ
humanity. The Christian congregation, therefore, like         to Peter and through him to all of the apostles and to
every other community, needs a means of self pro-             His Church: "And I will give unto thee the keys of the
tection in order to suppress or eliminate whatever            kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on
might impair or destroy its life.          But, from the      earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou
constitution     of the Church,     the character of its      shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
discipline is purely spiritual.      Therefore the only       (Matthew  16:19).
means which can properly be employed is exclusion,               The exercise of ecclesiastical censure is not an


                                                 THESTANDARDBEARER                                                            431

optional matter but a vital function of the church which           harmful consequences. In this awareness we approach
is given to her by Divine command.           Its importance        our subject to consider the serious implications of the
may never be minimized and its neglect cannot avoid                form for excommunication.





          BOOK  REVIEWS-


                                Miracles: Yesterday and Today, True and False


                                Listening to God on Calvary




MIRACLES:        YESTERDAY AND TO-           made here and there have been aprob-         another thing, the book neglects to lay
DAY, TRUE AND FALSE, by Benjamin             lem. But it is of value also to others       emphasis on the truth that Christ died
S. War-field; Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub-           interested in this question.                 only for His elect people. One hopes
lishing Company; 1965; 327 pp.; $2.25;          The one weakness of the book, it          that when this fundamental truth is
paper.                                       seems to me, is the lack of a-defini-        called into question (also in the au-
                                             tion of miracles and discussion of the       thor's own denomination) that it would
   This volume contains the Thomas           true nature of miracles as they formed       be strongly emphasized. The various
Smyth Lectures delivered by the author       a part of the revelation of God.             crosswords give abundant occasion.
at Columbia Theological Seminary in             There are 230 pages in the main           But, alas, the book does not do this.
1917.      It was originally published in    part of the book, while more than 100        Further, and in close connection with
1918 under the title "Counterfeit Mir-       pages are needed for the extensive           the foregoing, the efficacious and sov-
acles" by Scribner's. With this paper-       footnotes.    Some of these footnotes        ereign power of the cross of Christ is
back volume, Eerdmans has made the           are extremely important. When this           seriously minimized by speaking of
book, long out of print, available.          is the case, I prefer the footnotes at       the cross as a serious invitation to all
  The author was professor at Prince-        the bottom of the pages of the text,         men to come and drink of the waters
ton Theological Seminary when that           rather than grouped together in the          of life. This was especially apparent
seminary was still a stronghold of           back of the book. It makes the read-         in the treatment of the fifthcrossword,
Presbyterian Calvinism in this country.      ing of a book of this nature difficult.      "1 thirst."
He takes the position that miracles                                  Prof. H. Hanko          There are several places where
ended with the apostolic age because                                                      the interpretations offered by the au-
miracles "were the credentials of the        LISTENING TO GOD ON CALVARY,                 thor are questionable; He writes, for
Apostles" and did not belong to the          by George Gritter; Baker Book House,         example, in connection with the fourth
Church apart from them.                      Grand Rapids, 1965; 143 pp., $2.50.          crossword: ` "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtha-
  Upon the basis of this position, the                                                    ni?' Why did Matthew first of all in-
author carefully examine s all the              This book presents meditations on         troduce these words in their untrans-
claims made for miracles in the early        the seven cross words of Christ. It          lated form? Turn to Mark and youfind
Church; by the Roman Catholic Church         appears that they were o rig i n a 11 y      them untranslated too, but there they
not only during the Middle Ages but          preached in the author's congregation.       appear not in the Hebrew, but in the
also in more recent times, as for ex-           The book has many commendable             Aramaic. You wonder which is most
ample, at the famous shrine of Lourdes;      features about it and is worthy of being     accurate. Very likely, since the words
by the many faith-healing sects which        read by those to whom the cross of           of Jesus were misunderstood and con-
arose in the latter part of the last         Christ. is their blessedness. Never-         fused with a call for Elijah, they were
century and in the early part of this        theless there are weaknesses to the          uttered in Hebrew. And at a later time
one.      The final chapter of the book      book, some rather important.         For     when Mark wrote his Gospel, he leaves
deals with an examination of the claims      one thing, the author, in speaking of        us with the impression that this word
of Christian Science and Mary Baker          the first crossword, rejects the in-         is translated so that we may under-
Eddy.                                        terpretation that this prayer of Christ      stand; and left untranslated that we
  This extended investigation certain-       is for His elect for whom He died and        may know that this confession of for-
ly proves the author's contention that       interprets it as meaning being aprayer       sakenness is beyond understanding."
miracles belonged to the apostolic           that judgment may be postponed. This            However, the book is recommend-
Church only and that all other claims        interpretation (while it is certainly not    ed for general reading and for help in
are spurious. This makes the book a          new) detracts from the beauty of this        meditating upon the sublime mystery
valuable one. It is of value to anyone       intercessory prayer of the Lord and          of the cross.
to whom the various claims of miracles       does violence to sound exegesis. For                                Prof. H. Hanko


432                                            THESTANDARDBEARER

                                        NEWS FROlCi OUR CHURCHES-
                                                       ".

                                            June .15, 1966       Prof. H. Hanko was scheduled to lecture, June 2, in
       Rev. M.Schipper,  of Southeast Church, has'declined    our church at Hull, Iowa. This lecture was sponsored
the call-from Hudsonville,  Mich.                             by the Reformed Action Society, and was on, "Our
       Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg, of Oak Lawn, has declined       Calling Towards Modern Day Ecumenism".
the call which he had received from our church at                                      * *  *
Edgerton, Minn. The trio also included the Revs. R.C.            Kalamazoo's consistory has prepared and printed a
Harbach and M. Schipper.                                      64 page booklet entitled, "Project Three Forms". It
                            * *  ri:                          contains the Three Forms of Unity as well as the Athan-
       Rev. C. Hanko, of Redlands,  Calif.,  was the Com-     asian Creed and the Nicene Creed. The bulletin notice
mencement Speaker at the  Redlands Christian School.          concerning this printing read, "Soon, then, we hope
Four of his church were numbered with the graduates           this best-of-all expressions of the faith of our fathers
this year. Rev. Hanko was unable to attend Synod this         will be ready for- sale and distribution through the
summer as delegated, that he might rest for his im-           consistory".
pending surgery, scheduled for June 21. His son, Prof.                                 * * *
H. Hanko plans to take his pulpit and congregational             Hull's pastor, Rev. J. Kortering, complimented the
work for four weeks beginning at that time. Reports           catechumens and their parents, in the May 15 bulletin,
from the manse reveal that Mrs. Hanko's  xeading and          for their co-operation in the ministry of catechism in
speech are steadily improving.                                their church. He was happy to announce that 40 cate-
                           *  * *                             chumens  had a perfect attendance record in the past
       Due to the heavy concentration of clergy in Iowa       season. We lifted a related item from  Redlands  bulle-
for Synod on Sunday, June 5, Seminarians Kuiper and           tin which obtains for all our readers: `(Although the
Moore were pretty busy in the churches inclassis  East.       season for catechism and societies has drawn to a
They both preached three times, and in three different        close, let us not neglect reading and studying the
churches.                                                     Scriptures personally and in our family circles; as
                           * * *                              Jesus instructs us, `Search the Scriptures. . . . they
       Are you a regular listener to the Reformed Witness     are they which testify of me"".
Hour radio program? Then we need not tell you of the                                   * * *
`series of sermons by Rev. G. Van  Baren delivered in            From Fort Sill, Oklahoma a letter has come to our
June.      This series is an answer to the question, "How     desk from one of our servicemen who would like to
can I get into Christ?" Have you a neighbor or friend         correspond with other P.R. young men in the Armed
who is not a confessing Christian but who is concerned        Forces.    He is Pvt. Roger Kamphuis, U.S. 55 829 461;
with that question? Then the printed copies of these          Battry  A. 4th Bn. 28th Arty. Fort Sill,  Okla. 73503.
sermons would be an ideal means for instruction in            Roger writes that he is in the 175 MM Gun Section,
the Doctrine of Regeneration, and how one can recog-          which is self-propelled, and can travel 45-55 MPH,
nize the evidences of the New Life in one's heart and         and has a range of 25 miles. Roger is a member of
soul.      The usual invitation given to the listeners is     Hope Church in  .Grand Rapids and is interested in
extended to our readers: send for the printed copies          news about members of other P.R. churches, whether
for your use,  OY  fo'ov  a  f&end. Mail your request to:     they be in the Army, Navy or Marines. How about-it,
The Reformed Witness Hour, Box  12305 Grand Rapids            men? Where are you, and what are you doing? Roger
1, Mich.                                                      and we are waiting to hear from you.
                           *  *  ;F                                                    * * *
   A short paragraph in  Doon's June 12th bulletin               South Holland's' consistory has announced a new
thanking those who catered for and housed the delegates       form of worship which will be inaugurated when they
to Synod, signaled the fact that our 1966 Synod meeting       occupy their new church edifice. Significant in this
belongs to history.       A few of the decisions reached      change is silent prayer by the entire congregation
(you may read about all of them in the printed Acts)          after which they rise to sing the doxology. The con-
are:     the emiritation of Rev. G. Vos, of Hudsonville;      gregation is also asked to join in the singing of stanzas
the life-term appointment of Prof. H. C. Hoeksema; an         1,3 and 5 of Psalter No. 360 after each infant baptism
instruction to the Theological School Comm. to plan a         ceremony; and that of Psalter No. 239 after a public
pre-seminary course; an instruction to the Mission            confession of faith is made in the service.
Board to continue their efforts in the lecture field; and                              *  * *
one to the Mission Board to furnish the calling church           Bulletin Quote:    "If thou art not born again, all thy
with a new "gross list" that a trio may be named from         outward, reformation is naught. Thou hast shut the
which to call a missionary.                                   door, but the thief is still in the house." Boston.
                           ***                                   . . . . . . see you in church                   J.M.F.


