                                              he

                          .                 tandard

                                                     earer


     A   R E F 'O R M E D   S E M I - M O N T H L Y   M A G A Z I N E



     IN  T#IS ISSUE:



I           Meditation: Good Counsel For The Future

            Edito&&: Consistency, Thou Art A Jewel!

                               Willing To, Come To Grips?

            World Congress On  Eycingelism

            Saul and David - Enemies
                    :.
~
                                                             ,.
                                       :
                                                    Volume  XLIII/  Number  7/January 1, 1967


146                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER

                             C O N T E N T S
Meditation  -
       Good Counsel For The Future . . . . . . . . . . ., . . . . . . . . . 146                              THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
             Rev.  M. Schipper
Editorials  -                                                                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
       Consistency, Thou Art A Jewel . . . ..o............ 148                                      Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                Editov- Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
       Willing To Come To Grips? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                               Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                                                                                                Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, SE., Grand
The Lord Gave The Word  -                                                                       Rapids, Mich.      49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
       Some Principles Of Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151                words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
             Prof. H. Hanko                                                                     lines are the first and fifteenth of the month.
From Holy Writ  -                                                                               All church news items should be addressed toMr.  J. M. Faber,
       The Book Of Hebrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154          1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
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             Rev. B. Woudenberg                                                                         Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave.,  SE.
Examining Ecumenicalism  -                                                                                        Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
       World Congress On Evangelism (2) . . . . . . . . . . ..158                                  Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
             Rev.  G. Van  Baren                                                                received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
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             Rev. H. Veldman                                                                        Second Class Postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
Heeding The Doctrine  -
       Barth's Doctrine Of Scripture (10) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
             Rev. D.  J. Engelsma
Trying The Spirits  -
       Dispensationalism An Ancient Error . . . . . . . . . . .165                              Classis   East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
             Rev. R. C. Harbach                                                                 meet, D.V., on Wednesday, January4,1967,  at 9:00 a.m.
Book Reviews  -                                                                                 at the Hope Protestant Reformed Church of Grand
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            H.C.H.                                                                              this in the appointment of their delegates.
News From Our Churches . . . ..o....................... 168                                                                 Rev. M. Schipper, Stated Clerk
            Mr. J. M. Faber




   MEDITATION-

                       Good Counsel For The Future

                                                                              by Rev. M. Schippev

                                    "Trust in the  Lovd with all thine  heavt; and lean not unto thine own under-
                              standing. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
                                                                                                                        Pyovevbs  3:5, 6

       When you read this meditation, you will have                                             His wise and -unchangeable counsel to its minutest
entered into a new span of time. It will be the year                                            details.    He Himself hath declared: "I am God, and
of our  Lord,  1967!                                                                            there is none like me, declaring the end from the
       What this new year holds in it for each of us, only                                      beginning, and from ancient  times the things that are
the Lord knows. He knows the end from the beginning!                                            not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
He planned and carefully laid out the scheme for all                                            will do all my pleasure." But we know not the times,
the ages. Surely also all the future is determined by                                           nor the things He has planned for our lives in the


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 147

year that is before us! In some respects, our entrance          in that object has its source and fountain-head in that
into this new year is like stepping into a great unknown!       heart.
       The days in which we live already bring to men's           Trust with all thine heart!
hearts trepidation and perplexity; and the unescapable             0, it is possible that one does not place all his
question concerning the unknown future can only add to          trust in its object. Sometimes we are double-hearted,
the confusion and unrest!                                       and when this is so, our confidence is pulled apart in
       We need counsel!                                         the direction of two or more objects of trust. And
       We need good counsel!                                    this situation can only bring with it mistrust and fear.
       Good counsel for the future!                             Then confidence, complete confidence, is destroyed!
       It is granted today, even in the world, whether men      Shall we obtain complete confidence, therefore, it
accept it or reject it, seek it or ignore it, that it is        must come from a heart that is single. The child of
wise to have good counsel, The high school student is           God is exhorted here to trust with his whole heart,
told at the beginning of the semester who his counselor         not half-heartedly!
is. The one who is troubled in soul is advised to see              And let not that object of trust be our own under-
a psychiatrist for counseling. In homes where there             standing!     Foolish that would be, indeed, when we
is marital difficulty, advice is given to seek a counselor.     need counsel, to then lean on, confide in, our own
The President will call in his advisors to counsel with         understanding! One who does this, clearly indicates
them as to the future progress of the war and its possible      that he is independent, not in need of help and advice.
cessation;      the economic problems, such as inflation        One who leans on his own understanding believes that
and the rising costs of living, etc. The business man           he has great intelligence;         he knows it all, and he
and the farmer, the professional and the layman, all            needs not to be instructed! Moreover, leaning on our
need advice; and if they are wise, they will seek it where      own understanding, that intelligent faculty of our
it is best obtained.                                            mind, whereby we skillfully weigh and analyze things,
       The child of God also needs counsel!                     has become darkness. The carnal mind which is enmity
       Also as he enters into the unknow of 1967!               against God, no longer discerns correctly from an ethical
       That good advice is given us in the words of our         point of view. Even the understanding of the regenerate
text !                                                          man is not to be perfectly trusted. Indeed, it under-
                             * * *                              stands much. In principle it sees correctly, and as it
       Trust in the Lord with all thine heart!                  is sanctified by the Spirit it is also to be trusted.
       And lean not unto thine own understanding!               But do not lean on it tooconfidently. For in the child of
       In all thy ways acknowledge Him! And He shall            God the darkness of the old man of sin still is present.
direct thy paths!                                               To will may be present, but how to perform that which
       Trust in Jehovah!                                        he wills he does not often realize.
       That is, let all your confidence go in the direction        The only worthy object of trust is Jehovah thy God!
of Him Who is your covenant God! To trust is to place              Jehovah is the faithful One!
confidence in someone or something, to set your hope               Faithful is He in respect to Himself; and faithful
on that object. Much the same idea is expressed in the          is He in respect to His own covenant people! What
middle part of the text, namely, to lean on, which              He promises He fulfills ! His promises are YEA and
means to repose confidence in or upon a substantial             AMEN in Christ Jesus!
object.      So that one who trusts looks away from him-           Trust in Him Only!
self and finds another or something else as an object                                     * * *
upon which he relies.                                              In all your ways acknowledge Him!
       Trusting is a principle element of faith! Faith is          In all your ways, is a figurative expression. One's
not only a certain, an assured knowledge, but also a            way is his mode of life, the way he lives, and especially
hearty confidence. These two elements, though they may          his lot, what he experiences in life. That the term
be distinguished, are always inseparably  connect,ed.           appears in the plural evidently. refers to the fact that
You do not put your confidence in one whom you do not           life is made up of various departments. We have a way
know. Therefore, shall we place our confidence upon             with our families.     We have a way with our church.
one, we must first know him as a worthy object of               We have a way with our daily occupation. We have a
trust.                                                          way that relates to the world in which we live. We
                                                                have a way with respect to the state, to the government,
       Trusting is an activity of the heart!                    to the war, to the economic and social problems of
       The heart is the center of our spiritual, moral life!    our times.
Out of the heart are all the issues of life: all our               Your ways, refers not to the ways of the ungodly,
thinking, willing, and desiring. These all find their           but the ways of the child of God; the child of God who
fountain and source in the center of our spiritual              has learned by grace to live antithetically, or shall we
being, the heart. As man thinketh in his heart, so is           say, thetically in the midst of the world. He strives
he.       All my outward actions, all the deeds of my body,     to live according to all the precepts of Jehovah his
find their motivation, their propelling force in the            God.      He lives out of the principle of regeneration,
heart. Not only do I know the object of my trust with           out of a heart that cannot sin because it is born of God.
the spiritual, experiential knowledge  .of the heart,           He lives from the principle that he loves God. He seeks
but also the confidence and implicit trust which I place        the city which has foundations. He loves  righteous-


148                                               THE STANDARD BEARER

ness, and strives to walk in sanctification. He seeks                Jehovah's paths are always straight, i.e., upright,
peace and pursues it.           And because he so lives, he       good, never crooked and perverse.  WhenHemakes our
meets opposition. The antithesis surrounds him in all             paths straight, they coincide with His. Knowing Him in
his ways. Even the flesh in which he dwells takes side            all our ways makes all our ways His ways!
with the enemies that oppose him.                                    Such is the promise that is given to those trusting
       Such are the ways of the child of God in the world,        in Jehovah!
also in the world of 1967 !                                          The wicked and rebellious, the unbelieving and
       Therefore shall he walk safely, it is necessary that       disobedient, always walk in crooked ways, that canonly
in all his ways he knows Jehovah!                                 end in confusion, disappointment, and ultimately de-
       That means, in all his ways he must discover               solation.
Jehovah his God!        Not merely does it mean that he              The believer, on the other hand, who knows Jehovah
sees Jehovah in all his ways. That, too, of course !              his God, and then puts all his confidence in Him, and
But the meaning is deeper than that! It means that                therefore discovers Jehovah in all his ways, and
everywhere he goes, in whatever he does,  andin all the           experiences His constant fellowship, finds his paths
experiences of life, Jehovah is his constant companion!           made straight !
When we acknowledge Him in all our ways, then we live                Those trusting in Him shall not be ashamed!
in the spiritual consciousness that He holds us by the               The very trusting is His work in us to straighten
hand, and surrounds us with His love and tender care!             US  out within, the fruit of which will be seen also in
                              *  * *                              the life we live, and on the paths we walk!
       And this is the comforting promise Jehovah gives:             Therefore, beloved, commit thy ways unto Jehovah;
I will direct your paths !                                        trust also in Him;       and He shall bring it to pass !
   That means that He will make our paths straight!                  And be sure not to lean on your own understanding!



 EDITORIALS-



                      Consistency, Thou Art A Jewel!

                                                   by  Pyof.  H. C. Hoeksema


       Although the statement that forms the caption of           But he justifies his support of Graham as a taking
this editorial may not always be true (as, for example,           "seriously the words of our Lord in  .Mark 9: 40:
when consistency involves being consistently wrong),              `He that is not against us is for us.' " Meanwhile he
it will nevertheless serve to express something of                asserts that he dissents "vigorously with those con-
the intent of this editorial.           For inconsistency one     servative Christian leaders who have recently de-
would not characterize as a jewel,  - especially not              nounced Billy Graham in sharp tones." And about
inconsistency in ecclesiastical and doctrinal matters.            this denouncing of Graham he writes:           "That, to my
And recent utterances in the official papers of the               mind, is doing despite to the cause of the gospel."
Christian Reformed Church betray an inconsistency                 Of course, if he were mindful of the full meaning of
which is far from commendable.               One can have a       "doing despite to the cause of the gospel," he might
degree of respect at least for the  consistency  of               just as well have applied to "those  conservativeChris-
one who is consistently wrong. And one must certainly             tian leaders" that other word of the Lord Jesus: "He
hold in high esteem and admiration the consistency                that is not for me is against me." For this is surely
of one, who is consistently  Tight.  But how sorry is             the implication.
the sight of one who is inconsistent, who halts between              Meanwhile, Dr. Bratt does minimize the differen-
two opinions, who attempts to straddle a fence, who               ces.    If he did not do so, he would have to come to the
talks double-talk.                                                conclusion that Billy Graham is indeed against the
   On page 7 of          The Banner.       (Nov. 25, 1966) Dr.    Christ of the Scriptures in his basic theology; and he
John Bratt uses his department to sing the praises                would have to accuse Graham of "doing despite to the
of Billy Graham, who "is a great man of God who is                cause of the gospel."
doing a magnificent work for Christ."               Dr. Bratt        For the editor of  The Reader Asks  states, first of
supposedly does not want to minimize differences.                 all, that "it is true that Billy Graham does express


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

himself at times in an Arminianizing way." Then he            beyond me when Graham is praised to the skies and
goes on, very speciously (because Arminianism is not          Dekker, in Dr. Bratt's own church, is opposed.
necessary to emphasize true responsibility), to excuse            But  The  Banner   is also inconsistent.
Graham's Arminianizing expressions by suggesting that             For in the  same  issue of  The  Bannev   in a book
these are only to make sure that manfaces  up squarely        review of "Billy Graham  - The Pastor's Dilemma"
to his own duty and responsibility.        In the second      I read:    "This book will in no wise leave the reader
place, Dr. Bratt quotes some statements out of context        complacent, but will help in rethinking our stand toward
to show, supposedly, that Graham can also express             the Graham crusades and toward the ecumenical
himself Calvinistically. He further alludes to Graham's       movement as a whole.          Because of the ecumenical
view of total depravity, of Scripture, of Christ's            climate that prevails, we are so easily egged on to
divinity, of Christ's vicarious atonement, and of Christ's    doctrinal compromise with the danger of making void
resurrection to show that "there is an affinity with          the heart of God's Word:         God's irresistible grace
us that is striking and encouraging and we can only            alone in the salvation of men. Is not this doctrine,
conclude that he is a mighty man of God doing great           so richly perfused in the Bible and also propounded by
things for Christ in our time."                               the Reformers, contradicted by Graham's emphasis on
   Now either the doctor is not able to discern               man's ability to make the right decision with regard
Arminianism when he reads it,  - and he gives some            to the kingdom of God?"
evidence of this, judging from some of the quota-                 Certainly, the "perplexed Michigan couple" who
tions,  - or he is deliberately playing down Graham's         sent their questions to Dr. Bratt must have been still
Arminianism for reasons best known to himself.                more perplexed if they also read the book review by
For anyone who has read "World Aflame" knows                  Jochem Vugteveen. In the face of such inconsistency,
that the one, underlying, recurrent theme in Graham's         who must be believed?
theology as set forth in that book is the false doctrine          Finally, the situation is complicated by The Banner's
of Arminianism. To say the least, Bratt's statement           editorial for that same week, wherein Editor Vander-
about Graham expressing himself at times in an  Ar-           Ploeg, in connection with Bishop Pike's heresies,
minianizing way would win first place as the under-           editorializes about "A heyday for heresy" and warns
statement of the year! But when Bratt speaks of an             about sweeping differences under the rug and con-
affinity with us that is striking and encouraging, then       cludes:    "Heresy may be having its heyday right now,
one almost gets the impression that he tries to make          but let's make no mistake about it:  the  church  that
Graham out for a staunch Calvinist. Graham's position         wants this heyday is  suye to  find that  tomovvow  will
on every one of the Five Points of Calvinism is that of        be its doomsday."     To be sure, the editor does not
thorough-going Arminianism. That he seems to maintain         refer in this connection to Billy Graham. But it fits.
the doctrine of Scripture, of the deity of Christ, or of      Translated it could read: "A Reformed church which
Christ's resurrection  - this is nothing but broad-based      supports the teaching and preaching of Billy Graham is
Fundamentalism.       And what, after all, does such          committing ecclesiastical suicide."
Fundamentalism mean when its fundamental tenets are               But the following week's issue of  The  Banner
in practice denied by its other teachings? What does          further complicated the inconsistency.
the doctrine of Scripture as inspired and infallible              .For in it there is an article (scarcely a report)
mean when one contradicts the plain teachings of              by the Rev. Henry J. Evenhouse about the World
Scripture? What does the doctrine of Christ's deity           Congress on Evangelism, attended by several Christian
mean when this Christ Who is the Son of God is pre-           Reformed ministers. To borrow an expression from
sented as impotent to save the sinner unless that sinner      Editor Vander Ploeg, that Congress was "a heyday
first asks Him?                                               for heresy," judging from the position papers published
   But it was not my intention to debate about Graham's       in  Chris  tiunity  Today. Especially the position paper
doctrine at this time:      in my recent exchange with        by Dr. Harold Ockenga on "The Basic Theology of
Dr. Jerome De Jong I demonstrated Graham's  Armin-            Evangelism" was thoroughly heretical. But about that
ianism rather in detail, especially with respect to the       World Congress, at which no soundly Reformed man
doctrine of total depravity and regeneration.                 should have felt at home, and which had as its leading
   We were speaking of consistency and inconsistency.         lights such neo-evangelicals as Billy Graham and Carl
   I submit that Dr. Bratt's position in the article          Henry, there is no word of criticism in  The Banner.
referred to is inconsistent with his vow in the Formula       The article is filled  w.ith high praise.       __,
of Subscription to reject particularly the errors con-            And Editor Haverkamp in  De  yachter,   (Dec. 6,
demned by the Synod of Dordrecht and to be disposed to        1966) adds to the inconsistency by means of a very
refute and contradict these and to "exert ourselves in        deceptive statement. He also writes  ,about the World
keeping the Church free from such errors." Instead,           Congress, and reports on "an interview" with "two of
of doing the preceding, Bratt praises Graham highly           the representatives of our mission and evangelisation
and by implication denies that Graham  is  a heretic          work; namely, `Rev. Henry Evenhouse and Rear. Wesley
who does despite to the cause of the gospel. Dr. Bratt's      Smedes." Just as in The Banner, so also in.De Wachter
position is also inconsistent because the doctor happens      j there is not actually a report of what took place in
to be on a committee which (for a Christian Reformed          I this congress. In this connection,  - although Editor
committee) rather severely condemns the rank  Ar-             Haverkamp does  not. relish unsolicited advice,  - I
minianism of Prof. Harold Dekker.         It rather goes      would give him the friendly advice that he could serve


 150                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

 his readers better by giving a report on and a basic          Graham.      Still another recommends a book critical of
 critique of the theology that prevailed at the World          Graham, and suggests that "our stand toward the
 Congress, as exemplified in the position paper of Harold      Graham crusades" needs rethinking, characterizing
 John Ockenga. But what disturbs me is the underlying          Graham's gospel as making void the heart of God's
 assumption that this Congress was interested  in the          Word, namely, God's irresistible grace alone in the
 puve  preaching   of  the  gospel. This assumption appears    salvation of men. Still others have high praise for a
 in Rev, Haverkamp's article.        For he writes:  "In       World Congress on Evangelism which was under
 vevband  met  het bovenstaande moet ook vevmeld               Arminian leadership, and even suggest that said congress
 wooden dat  stevke   nadti  gelegd  wevd  op de  nood-        was interested in the pure proclamation of the gospel.
 zakelijkheid van het  paven  aan  zuiveve vevkondiging           What a hodge-podge of inconsistency!
 van het evangelie, het beleven van het evangelie                 And how can the sheep who are supposed to be led
 in leven en  dienstbetoon.".     (In connection with the      by these shepherds be anything but confused?
 above, it must also be mentioned that strong emphasis            And how could a synod possibly condemn the
 was laid upon the necessity of accompanying the               Arminianism of one of its seminary professors,  -
 pure preaching of the gospel with a witness of the            even supposing that a future synod will be strong
 gospel in life and service.) You see, the assumption          enough to take such a stand,  - except at the expense
 in this statement is that the Congress stood for the          of hypocrisy?
 pure preaching of the gospel. Mind you, for the most
 part the Congress means by the pure preaching of the             Indeed! Consistency, thou art a jewel!
 gospel simply the gospel of Arminianism, and surely              But in the case of the Christian Reformed Church
 not the gospel purely preached according to the Re-           that consistency is sorely lacking; and it has been
 formed standards.                                             lacking ever since the First Point of 1924 was adopted.
    And thus, you have this picture. dne warns against         That, after all, is the basic inconsistency in the entire
 heresy's heyday.     Another sounds off in favor of Billy     hodge-podge of inconsistency pictured in this essay!





                      Willing To Come To Grips?

                                               by  Prof.  H. C. Hoeksema

    In  The  Bannev  editorial, "A heyday for heresy,"         (cf.  Standuvd   Beaver,  Nov. 1, 1965) To this the Rev.
 the Rev. J. Vander Ploeg makes a statement which              Vander Ploeg never replied.
 reminds me of some unfinished business.                          Now, though in another connection, he writes as
    The statement is: "An honest and thorough heresy           above.
 trial can clear the air for those willing to come to             But although the connection in which he writes above
 grips with accusations that are made in good faith."          is different, the principle, it seems to me, is the same.
                                                               In fact, with a slight change, the statement could be
  The unfinished business of which it reminds me is            applied to the matter of reconciliation of the CRC
 the matter of reconciliation of the Christian Reformed        and the PRC:     "An honest and thorough official con-
 Church and the Protestant Reformed Churches, about            ference can clear the air for those willing to come to
 which Editor Vander Ploeg wrote shortly after the             grips with accusations that are made in good faith."
 death of the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema. At that               What is the difference between that and my statement:
 time he suggested a reconciliation based upon the idea        "That genuine efforts at reconciliation must honestly
 that "what we have in common is so much greater               look at the causes of the breach and remove them?"
 than that which is keeping us apart." I suggested in             I take this opportunity to remind the Rev. Vander-
 reply that this was not genuine reconciliation, but           Ploeg that this is not only his personal unfinished
 compromise.     I wrote, further: "That genuine efforts       business, but a very serious item of unfinished business
 at reconciliation must honestly look at the causes of         of long standing for his denomination. Let me remind
the breach and remove them. For  such  reconciliation          him in this connection:
 the Protestant Reformed Churches have always been,               1. That the principals in 1924 never received an
 and are today, ready. For we love the Reformed faith,         honest and thorough heresy trial, but were nevertheless
 and we stand opposed to any departure therefrom."             cast out as heretics.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  151

    2.     That    in  1939,  upon the initiative of the late       6. In 1959 our Synod replied as follows: "Brethren,
Mr. Wm. B. Eerdmans, Sr., and the late Dr. Klaas                 we sincerely regret that you refuse to discuss with us
Schilder, an unofficial conference was held at the               the history that gave rise to our separate existence
Pantlind Hotel, in which the Protestant Reformed                 as Protestant Reformed Churches. It is indeed our
brethren were fully ready to discuss matters, in                 desire that we labor together `toward a fuller expression
which Rev. Herman Hoeksema delivered a position                  of our oneness in Christ.'     You will most certainly
paper, but in which the Christian Reformed brethren              agree, however, that such an expression of oneness
were unprepared, and, moreover, refused to discuss               must be rooted in truth and righteousness. Whatever
issues.                                                          was wrong in the sight of the God we serve must, if
    3. That the first Synod of the Protestant Reformed           at all possible, be rectified in the way of God's Word.
Churches in 1940 asked the Synod of the Christian                Brethren, neither for you nor for us can there be
Reformed Church for an official colloquy in the interest         blessing and spiritual peace in the way of sin. In all
of coming to grips with accusations made in good                 our preaching we exhort those who have made them-
faith.     The reply of the Christian Reformed Synod at          selves guilty to repentance and conversion. The same
that time was:        "We- desire to inform you that no          calling and will of God applies to us as churches.
official colloquy is possible on the basis you refer to
in your letter, since our Synods have expressed them-               "We earnestly invite you, therefore, to aconference
selves definitely on all matters to which you refer."            with a committee from our churches, wherein may be
    4.     That at the time of your centennial Synod in          discussed the entire history of  1924-`25 as well as
1957 we again invited your Synod "to seek official               the doctrinal issues at stake between us, in order that,
contact with our churches to rehearse. the entire                though our churches may not amalgamate into one,
history of  1924-`25, in order that, though the two              brotherly relations may be restored."
churches may not amalgamate into one, the brotherly                 There the matter stands.
relations may be restored." Your Synod passed the                   I am certain that Editor Vander Ploeg cannot show
unjustified pronouncement in response:           "The tone       a lack of good faith on our part.
and contents of the letter are not such as give promise             But then he faces the question whether he and the
of fruitful discussion."                                         Christian Reformed Churches are "willing to come to
                                                                 grips with accusations that are made in good faith."
    5. In 1958 we expressed our grief about the above               An honest and thorough conference characterized
ungrounded conclusion, and we reiterated that we were            by such a willingness "can clear the air."
willing to discuss the differences that have separated              I repeat: we of the Protestant Reformed Churches
us at any time. Again, however, your Synod ruled out             have always declared ourselves ready for such a con-
any discussion of differences by declaring:  "# . . we           ference.
judge these discussions must not be polemical rehearsals            For genuine efforts at reconciliation must honestly
of past history, but should recognize a common Reformed          look at the causes of the breach and remove them.
basis, and should point toward a fuller expression of               But we cannot and may not and  willnot sweep our
our oneness in Christ."                                          differences under the rug.




   THE LORD GAVE THE  WORD-




                          Some Principles Of Missions

                                                      by Prof.  H.  Ha&o


    We are discussing the relationship  bet.ween the             the character and principles of missions. We have
preaching of the gospel as the sole instrument of                already shown how that, inasmuch as this dispensation
mission work and .the coming of the Lord. It is our              is the age of Christ's coming, this dispensation is the
intention to demonstrate how the fact that this present          age of the signs of Christ's coming. And, if it be the
dispensation is the age of the Lord's returndetermines           age of the signs of Christ's coming, the preaching of


152                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER

the gospel is the principle sign out of which all other               of sin and evil.     This is why Jesus could describe
signs come and upon which all other signs follow.                     His own suffering as being the judgment of the world
       Before' we proceed with this subject, I want to call           and the casting out of the prince of darkness.
attention to an editorial which recently appeared in the                 But Christ's ascension. was closely connected to
Presbyterian Journal, the issue of November 16. Be-                   His cross.     The result therefore was that, in the
cause it is short, we quote it here in full.                          ascension, Christ was given a position at God's right
          We've seen it several times of late: "Historically          hand. In this position of authority and power, Christ
       speaking, the age of the missionary is drawing to a            is given supreme rule over all God's works. From
       close."                                                        henceforth, all that God does is performed through
          All over the world a mounting hostility against the         Jesus Christ. To Christ is entrusted the full execution
   white man is making it harder and harder for mis-                  of God's counsel.     All that God determined to do in
       sionaries to do their work where countries are stretching      His counsel, is now carried out through Christ. This
       their muscles in new independence. Sober churchmen
       believe that we may even witness the day when mis-             means further, that the work of providence (a work which
       sionaries, as we have known them since WilliamCarey,           is actually the realization of God's eternal counsel) is
       will be no longer.                                             also carried out through Christ.        The sustaining,
          We were reading one such pessimistic evaluation of          governing and directing of the whole creation and of all
       the modern scene when suddenly the words of the Lord           creatures in it belongs to Christ.        This work He
       came to mind: "This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be             executes from His lofty position in heaven.
   preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations;             If therefore, Christ's ascension is connected with
       and then shall the end come." (Matt.  24:14). Of               His cross, then surely we can see how the exaltation
       course!     The one "sign" of the return of Christ for         of Christ -results in the absolute sovereign rule of
       which His disciples were especially to watch was that          Christ over all things. He rules as Lord of lords and
       the gospel would have been taken around the world.
          There is nothing in Scripture to indicate that the          King of kings. He rules sovereignly, in the name of
       whole world must be brought to Christ before He                the Father, over all things;
       returns.     To the contrary. The Scriptures suggest              But in His rule, He has a purpose. This purpose
       plainly that the human situation will become worse             is the goal of His Father's counsel, the realization
       and worse, with proportionately fewer and fewer                of His Father's purpose.        That is, the purpose of
       obedient to the Gospel . . . even in the Church. But           Christ's rule is the end of the world, the judgment
       the Gospel will be taken everywhere for a witness              of all men, the establishment of the new heavens and
       unto all nations.                                              the new earth, the salvation of the elect. When Christ
          The end of missionary work will mark the end of             rules universally over all things, he directs the
       an era, they say. Indeed it might be .just that. It might      creation and men (and angels and devils) in such a way
       mark the end of the age.                                       that they must be a means to serve that glorious end.
   We agree not only that the end of missionary work                     Christ rules over His elect. He died for them on
"might" mark the end of the age; but that this is the                 the cross.    And because of His cross He rules over
principle sign by which the end of the age is pointed                 them in such a way that they are saved from the kingdom
out to us. But the question remains: Why is this so?                  of darkness and brought into His own kingdom which
       When Christ ascended into heaven, He was exalted               shall some day be everlastingly established. He saves
at the Father's right hand. This was the reward given                 them by the power of the preaching of the gospel.
to Him for His perfect work on the cross. When Christ                 For He sends forth His gospel as the "power of God
suffered and died on the cross, He accomplished several               unto salvation."     This gospel is His own powerful
things by His perfect obedience. In the first place, He               and irresistible word.     It is the sovereign call of
bore the sin and the guilt of His elect people and paid               Christ, a call which cannot be turned -down. For
the price that was demanded to satisfy God's justice.                 Christ calls, not only through the outward preaching of
He suffered all the penalty for sin in the place of His               the gospel, but also through the operation of the Spirit
people and took away sin's curse. In the second place,                in the hearts of His own. That gospel is the means of
He earned for His people the fulness of salvation                     salvation to those for whom Christ died and who are
which includes the full perfection of heaven. In the                  eternally destined to live with Christ in glory.
third place (and closely connected with this), He                        Already Christ is the King of His people. He rules
destroyed the power of sin. He fought in fierce combat                over them making them citizens of His kingdom while
with Satan in His hours of suffering.             He conquered        they still tarry for a little while in world. Already
over Satan and loosened his grip on God's world and                   they are brought to allegiance to  Ghrist.          Already
on His elect people. He defeated all the enemies of                   they acknowledge Christ as their Lord and King.
God and gained a magnificent victory over every power                 They bow in humble submission to Him and worship


                   .  .  . .He, therefore, whom Christ calls through His Church, is a preacher, and no one
                   else.     And such a preacher is, as far as his message is concerned, strictly bound to the
                   Word of God as contained in the Holy Scriptures. He may not add, nor subtract, a tittle
                   or iota from that Word, nor may he change it to suit the fancy of his audience. The full
                   counsel of God  he.must proclaim, nothing less, and no more.
                                                                    H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p.54


                                               THESTANDARDBEARER                                                   153

Him their sovereign Ruler. They anticipate the day            pose through the power of the gospel. This is the
when they shall live with Christ in the kingdom of            thesis of these articles.
heaven.        And this anticipation is intense and eager.       How is this possible?
All this because the gospel has saved them.                      In order to understand this, we must remember
   But Christ rules also over all things. In the first        that the gospel is indeed, on the one hand, a power
place, this means that Christ has the sovereign rule          of salvation.      But, just as really, and on the other
over the whole of God's creation. This is why there           hand, the gospel is also the power to harden. There
are signs also in the physical world. Scripture speaks        is more than one text in Scripture which teaches this
of such signs as the sun being darkened, the moon             truth.
turning to blood, the stars falling from their places,           We find- this purpose expressed by the Lord, for
all sorts of natural calamities such as earthquakes,          example, in Matthew  11:25, 26.         Here the Lord is
pestilences, etc.       Christ brings these signs into the    praying a prayer of thanksgiving for the reactions
creation to speak with a powerful voice of the fact that      He has found to His preaching  - reactions both of
He is coming in judgment. All because His cross had           faith and unbelief. And He finds the deepest reason
cosmic significance.       But this is not our immediate      for gratitude in that the will of God is being done:
concern.                                                      God has revealed the truth to some and hidden the
   In the second place, Christ rules over the affairs         truth from others.      "At that time Jesus answered and
of men.         He is the sovereign Lord of all. On His       said, I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and
cross He crushed the head of the serpent and defeated         earth, because thou hast hid these things from the
all the forces of sin and evil. Now, from heaven, He          wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
rules in such a way that also devils and wicked men           Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight."
must serve His purpose. It is true that they still live       Now it is true that the power of salvation and of
out of the principle of hatred and opposition to Christ       hardening is not, in this text, immediately ascribed
and to His kingdom.         They do all in their power to     to the gospel, but to God. But we must remember: in
destroy Christ's cause and defeat His Church. They            the first place, that, in the context, Jesus is speaking
rouse themselves again and again to do battle with the        of the unbelief of those who saw His mighty works
armies of the elect saints. All they do, in the conquering    and heard His preaching. God hid these things from
of the creation, in the advance of science and tech-          the Jews of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum  -
nology, in the development of the arts and the humanities,    cities in which the Lord had brought the gospel of the
they do in order to defeat Christ.            But they are    kingdom.      And, in the second place, the Lord Himself
totally unsuccessful. And their lack of success is not        adds in vs. 27:      "All things are delivered unto me of
simply due to the fact that Christ is stronger than they,     my Father:         and no man knoweth  .the Son, but the
so that Christ defeats them at last after a long and          Father;      neither knoweth any man the Father, save
bitter struggle. Not at all. Christ rules sovereignly         the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
over them  - also in all their wicked ways. Christ            him."      And finally, the power of the gospel is, after
rules in such a manner that they cannot do anything           all, the power of God Himself through the Spirit.
apart from His sovereign rule. Christ makes all               The gospel has no power in the mere outwardly spoken
that they do serve His own purpose. He sets kings on          word.      It has power only because God gives it power.
their thrones, and casts them down again. He brings              But this truth is also expounded elsewhere. When
nations on the battlefields of the world where they           Jesus began preaching in parables, the disciples asked
are hurled at each other to their mutual destruction.         the Lord why He taught in parables. His answer was
He sets the boundaries of the nations and directs             that these parables were a means to fulfill the prophecy
the forces of history in all their complexities. And          of Isaiah in which prophecy Isaiah spoke of the fact
all of it serves His purpose.                                 that, through the preaching, Israel  .would  be hardened.
   This is why even though the nations rage and the           "And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why
people imagine vain things, He that sitteth in the            speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered
heavens laughs and holds them in derision. Cf.                and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to
Psalm 2. This is why those who march in the armies            know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but unto
of Christ are not only conquerors;          they are  move    them it is not given.         For whosoever hath, to him
than  cowuevovs  through Him Who loved, them.          Cf.    shall be given, and he shall have more abundance:
Rom.  8:37.                                                   but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away
   Thus the rule of Christ is twofold: Christ rules           even that he hath.           Therefore speak I to them in
over His elect to make them willing and obedient              parables;     because they seeing see not; and hearing
citizens of His kingdom. Christ rules over the wicked         they hear not, neither do they understand.         And in
so that they, even in their hatred of Christ, serve           them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith,
Christ's purpose.                                             By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand;
   Yet there is a principle of unity in this rule of          and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For
Christ.     This principle of unity is that everything        this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears
must serve the goal of history and the end of God's           are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed;
c o u n s e l . And this principle of unity is attained       lest at any time they should see' with their eyes, and
through the preaching of the gospel: Christ accomplishes      hear with their ears, and should understand with their
His rule in all things so that all things serve His pur-      heart, Bnd should be converted, and I should heal


154                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

them.      But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and       but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God
your ears, for they hear."           Matthew 13: 10-16.       speak we in Christ."
                                                                 We have mentioned this point  - this important
       Paul very emphatically teaches this in a  well-        point, at length;    it is a principle which underlies all
known passage in II Corinthians 2. "Now thanks be             missionary work.           But we shall have to withhold
unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in               further comment on this for the present. Our purpose
Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge       now is merely to show that the gospel is a twofold
by us in every place.        For we are unto God a sweet      power.     And it is because the gospel is a twofold
savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them         power, that the gospel is also the unifying principle
that perish:      To the one we are the savour of death       in this sovereign rule of Christ over His people and
unto death;       and to the other the savour of life unto    the wicked.
life.     And who is sufficient for these `things? For we         We shall speak of this further, the Lord willing,
are not as many, which corrupt the word of God:               in our next article.



         FROM HOLY  WRIT-



                             The Book Of Hebrews

                                                  by Rev. G.  Lubbers


CHRIST'S RELATIONSHIP TO GOD AND TO                           of all. But now David is troubled. For David was living
ALL THINGS PROVEN FROM THE PSALMS                             in a beautiful house;        he dwelt in a palace made of
(continued) Hebrews 1:s                                       cedar wood brought from Lebanon. The contrast of
       The writer cites one more key-passage from the         tent and palace disturbed David's soul. The result
Psalms to prove the point that God never spoke to             was that he resolved to build a house for the LORD, so
the angels nor of the angels as He does concerning            that the Ark of the Covenant might too dwell in a
His Son, the Christ of God who came into the world.           more respectable dwelling place. Before he actually
He quotes the very significant passage from II Samuel         proceeded to build this contemplated house for the
7:14 which reads as follows: "and again: I shall be           LORD he inquired of the prophet Nathan.           Said he
unto him unto a Father, and He shall be unto me a Son."       "See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of
       This passage is found in a very significant setting    God dwelleth within curtains." (II Samuel  7:2) And
in the history of Israel and of King David. It is a direct    Nathan had given his blessing to this planned building
word of God through the prophet Nathan to David. It           of a house of cedar for the Lord.
contains the great promise of God to David concerning             However, they were both in error. They did not
David's throne;      David's throne shall endure forever.     really understand the blue-print of God for the New
And God's word is here a correction both of King              Jerusalem. They were thinking only in the terms of the
David and of the prophet's word to David. Nathan and          earthly city. They did not look to the end of the promise
David were both in error, even in their best intentions       of God to Abraham, not understanding the design of
and in their holiest aspirations.                             God in his promise to Abraham, that is, they did not
       The situation was as follows. David was, at the        see that the entire institution of the types and shadows
time here referred to, established as king in Jerusalem.      in general, and of the earthly tabernacle in particular,
All the enemies had been subdued by the LORD before           was "till the Seed should come." (Galatians  3:19)
David and his armies. It was "when king David sat             They were not submitting their thinking and planning
in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round           to the fact that God is the architect and builder of
about from all his enemies." It was then that David           the city which has foundations. (Hebrews  11:lO) They
had  .concern about the LORD'S house, particularly            are really thinking the things of man and not the
concerning the Ark of God. That Ark of God "dwelleth          things of  God;         High and noble as their plans and
between curtains."        David had brought up the Ark        thoughts seemed to be, they were nonetheless not
from the house of Abinadab, and finally the Ark               according to God. They were both very much in error.
had come to its resting-place in Zion. David had rebuilt          It was here that the Lord spoke in "visions."
the tent and placed the Ark in its place in the holiest       (Psalm  89:19)       God unfolds the deep things of the


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 155

Spirit at this point and causes the search-light of                  not really Solomon but must be the Christ. He stands
prophecy to shine across the ages of Israel's history                in the relationship to God of a  *son; He is the Heir
to come. As the Psalmist puts it "I have exalted one                 of all things.     Such is the place of the Son in God's
chosen out of the people."               This chosen one is the      covenant with man. For the "house" which the LORD
Son of God, the Heir of all things. And the Lord came                will build is the tabernacle of God with Man in  Im-
and spoke to Nathan the prophet. He speaks to him the                manuel, God-with-us!       The Son is here not viewed
same basic message and promise which He made to                      primarily as the Son in relationship to the Father in
the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;                 He sheds      the inter-trinitarian life, but rather as the Son in the
new light upon this same promise here in this critical               flesh, a Brother amongst the brethren, the First-born
hour of David's resolution to build the LORD'S Altar                 Son, the First-born of all creatures as the First-born
a house of cedar. Later, many years later, the LORD                  out of the dead! Thus he has received a name above the
will have Isaiah prophesy concerning this promise as                 angels s He is the builder of the house, because he is
it relates to the LORD's dwelling-place.               Cries the     God in the flesh. As God spake to and concerning this
prophet in Isaiah  66:  1, 2 "Thus saith the LORD, The               Son, the Heir, he never spoke concerning any of the
heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool:                  angels.      Only concerning this Son in the flesh did
where is the house that ye build unto me? and where                  God speak to David saying "He shall build an house
is the place of my rest?" David would build the LORD                 for my name, and I will establish the throne of his
such an house on earthly mount Zion in the typical land              kingdom forever." (II Samuel  7:13) Hear, then, the
of Canaan. But he is wrong. Many years later Stephen                 angel Gabriel speak to Mary in the annunciation of
will stand before the Sanhedrin in this very city and                Christ's birth" And, behold, thou shalt conceive in
proclaim in their ears the words of God spoken through               thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his
Isaiah and paraphrase it as follows "But the Most                    name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called
High does not dwell (kataoikei) in something made by                 the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give
man's hands" (Acts  7:47, 48) All attempts to make                   unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall
the Lord dwell permanently in such a house must by                   reign over the house of Jacob forever;        and of his
its very logic lead to idolatry, and deny that God is a              kingdom there shall be no end."          (Luke  1:31-33)
Spirit, and that they who worship him must worship him
in Spirit and in truth. Thus did Jesus proclaim the                  GOD'S WORD CONCERNING THE ANGELS
hour at hand when men would no longer worship on                     AND CONCERNING THE CHRIST CONTRASTED
either Samaria's mount nor on the earthly mount in                   Hebrews  1:7, 8, 9, 14
Jerusalem.           (John  4:21)    Such is the Divine design of       The writer contrasts the Word of God concerning
God in the history of David and of the Ark which dwelt               angels and concerning the Son in these verses. The
"within curtains."                                                   writer once more does so by quoting from the Psalms.
    There is one point in which the Lord agrees with                 He also makes a positive statement in the form of a
David's purpose.            The Ark is here not really at the        question at the end of this Chapter concerning the
final resting-place.           Truly, a house must be built;         angels, where we read `*Are they not all ministering
however, the Lord will not allow David to build Him                  spirits, sent forth to minister for them, who shall be
a house, which is impossible. Says the LORD through                  heirs of salvation?" This question is put in such a
Nathan to David "Furthermore, I tell thee that Jehovah               form that an affirmative answer is presupposed.
will build thee an house." (II Samuel  7:ll; I Chroni-                  Perhaps we should best begin by calling attention
c l e s   17:lOb)       And this house did not really refer          to the implication of this question in verse 14. The
to Solomon's building of the beautiful temple of cedar               writer here speaks of the very  nutuve  and office
overlaid with gold, but most emphatically referred to                of the angels of God.       Angels, as their very name
the house of many mansions which Christ prepared for                 indicates are messengers, messengers from God's
us in the heavens. (John 14: 1, 2).                                  throne to earth to the heirs of the promise, more
    In the first place because God in all of the dealings            particularly as these heirs are about to inherit sal-
with Israel never spoke to them concerning their building            vation.    This places the angels in one bold stroke in
him a house.           In all the wanderings in the desert from      a subordinate position not only to Christ the great
Sinai on, through the period of the judges till this very            Heir, but also in a subordinate position to the ehirs
day, did He ever speak of Israel building Him a house?               with Christ, the church. They are thoroughly adapted
Preposterous! Nay, it is just the other way around.                  to their office. They are spirits and their movement
Moses made the tabernacle after the pattern which the                is not limited to the earthly as is that of the saints
LORD showed him on the mountain. The earthly was                     on earth.      They are pictured as ascending and des-
but a pattern of the better and the heavenly. We shall               cending from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth
have abundant opportunity to see more of this in the                 in Jacob's dream at Bethel. (Genesis  28:10-22) They
book of Hebrews. Our point is that the entire book of                do appear in the form of amanat times and at different
Hebrews and the New Testament teaching is contained                  occasions in the Scriptures.        But ever they are
in `this Word of God through Nathan to. David. And the               "spirites," moral rational spirits who minister in
very heart of this `passage in II Samuel 7:1-17 is                   God's temple. Thers is a formal ministry. It is the
given here in Hebrews  1:Sb.  The key to the under-                  heavenly liturgy (leiturgika) before the throne of God,
standing of the promise concerning David's Son to                    as they ever behold the face of the heavenly Father
build the house for David is here given. This Son is                 of the heirs of salvation. (Matthew  18:lO) and they


156                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

ever rejoice over the repentance of one sinner (Luke            graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship
15:lO) and they stooop down in rapt attention beholding         him all ye gods." The KJV here translates from the
the work of God in the suffering to come upon the               original Hebrew Scriptures. The writer to the Hebrews
Christ and the eternal glory to follow. (I Peter  1:12)         here quotes from the Septuagint translation which reads
They are interested "spirits" who see the manifold              "worship him all ye angels of him" but adds "angels
wisdom of God displayed in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians             o f   G o d . " We hold that the Spirit here interprets the
3:lO)     And these angels ever minister to the needs of        sense and meaning of the Psalm as givenin  the Hebrew
the saints, even as they ministered (diakonia) to the           version of the Psalm. The contrast in the Psalm is
needs of Christ while on earth in his humiliation and           "idol" or the "Son." If he is not the eternal "Son"
suffering. (Matthew  4:ll)                                      then worshipping him would be idolatry. But now he is
       How could God ever have spoken to the exalted            exalted above the angels. No angels will permit any
ministering spirits about His throne as He speaks               man to worship them (Revelation 22: 8, 9) But the
to His Son? Nay, He could only command the angels               Son of God in the flesh can be' worshipped. All the
to bow down and worship and glorify the Son as they             angels must; they are not in a class with the Son of
glorify God Himself. Yes, all the angels of God must            God. In this Son dwells all the fulness of the godhead
worship Christ, the First-begotten of God. Thus did             bodily.      Such is the Christ as he came into the flesh,
God speak through David the prophet in Psalm  97:7              the effulgence of God's glory, the expressed image of
where we read "Confounded be all they that serve                His being.




       A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-



                            Saul and David  - Enemies

                                                 by Rev. B.  Woudenbevg


                       And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David... And Saul was yet the
                    moYe  afraid  of  David; and Saul became David's  enemy  continually.
                                                                                       I  Samuel  18:28, 29

       For a third time Saul was beginning to find relief       terrible thing to do, so that the whole palace had
from his fits of deep spiritual depression. The first           shuddered visibly before the horror of it. Even Saul
time had been after Samuel had informed him that God            himself had seemed almost relieved to know that the
had rejected him from being king over Israel, and only          javelin had missed its mark. And yet when David had
the soft playing of David's harp had revived him. The           courageously returned once again to try to help his
second time was when the giant Goliath, by threatening          king, he did the same thing over once again.
his kingdom and his life, had left him paralyzed with               Afterward, w,hile sitting alone and reflecting on what
fear. Again it had been David, this time with his sling,        he had done, the realization had gradually dawned upon
that had given him escape. But now David himself had            Saul. His actions had been foolish, poorly timed and
become Saul's curse. Suddenly one day, hearing David            indiscreet.        It was well that his javelin had not struck
praised above himself, Saul had come to the realization         home, for, if it had, the people would have never for-
that David was the very one whom God intended to make           given him. David was generally liked, and that had to
king in his stead. It had struck him cold with fear and         be reckoned with. But his goal had been right nonethe-
again that cloud of dark depression had settledupon his         less.      David had to be killed, he had to be gotten out of
heart. But once again it appeared that the way of relief        t h e   w a y .
was opening up before him;        and this time it was the          At first, Saul's own mind had recoiled at the
most satisfying of all, because it was his own doing..          thought.      He, after all, had been raised in Israel, and
       It had come to him quite unexpectedly that day when      he felt almost instinctively the terribleness of murder.
David had to try to help once again by playing his harp         But there was a certain fascination there which brought
for the troubled king. Suddenly, upon an impulse, he            him back to it again and again.           He only told himself
had snatched up his javelin and had tried with all of his       that it was not seriously meant, but only a way to
strength to impale the young musician. It had been a            occupy his troubled mind. Soon, however, the whole


                                             THESTANDARDBEARER                                                       157

matter had gone beyond this point, and he found him-         David won more and more victories for himself, and,
self quite determined to do what he could to implement       behaving himself wisely, he grew in favor and love
these thoughts.    But even at that excuses were not         with all of the people. Gradually Saul began to realize
hard to find, reasons why it was better for all concerned    once again that it was not a mere man against whom
that David should be gotten out of the way.         They     he was striving but against God Himself. It frightened
were more than sufficient to satisfy his own mind.           him.        In fact, he tried to keep the thought out of his
Soon Saul's whole conscious thought was given over to        mind because of the terror it struck in his heart. But
trying to find the best way in which David could be          never once did he consider repenting and desisting
destroyed while doing the least harm to himself.             from his plan. He only became the more determined
   Actually, for what was perhaps the first time in          to win out in the end.
his life, Saul had found an activity which suited his           He was beginning to realize, however, that, if he
nature almost perfectly. It was true that all his life       was going to win, he was going to have to become more
he had wanted only to be king, and when this dream           personally involved. Thus it was that he revived the
had come to fulfillment and he had prospered in his          plan once again of using his daughter for his end. Had
work, he had thought that he enjoyed it perfectly.           he not succeeded once in getting David to go out
Nevertheless, even in those early prospering years,          against Goliath by promising him his daughter in
there had been one very disconcerting element. As            marriage? It was fortunate that David had never dared
king in Israel he was expected to be a spiritual leader      mention the matter again afterward, and that he had
in Israel and was constantly required to engage in           not mentioned it to David either. Now once more he
various spiritual ceremonies of worship.         This he     could use it as a lever to drive David deeper into the
had done quite willingly but always with that vague          dangers of battle. So he called David to him and said,
underlying feeling that he didn't know what it was all       "Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee
about.    It had bothered him, especially when Samuel        to wife:       only be thou valiant for me, and fight the
was standing near watching so closely his every deed.        Lord's battles."
He had come to dislike those activities and avoid them          The answer of David was hard to evaluate. He
as much as he could.       Then too there had been the       said merely, "Who am I? and what is my life, or my
battles which he had always pretended to enjoy too.          father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law
And it was true, he had always enjoyed each victory          to the king?"         It was, however, enough for Saul to
with all of the glory and praise that was sure to follow.    warrant the conclusion that such a marriage was to
But the battles themselves - no one knew how inwardly        David a most desirable goal. Thus he could expect
he trembled before each one. No matter how he tried          that David would go on to throw himself just as
he could not seem to escape that feeling of fear that        recklessly into battle as he had when he went against
something might happen which would do him harm and           Goliath.       Never once, though, did the thought cross
perhaps even take his life. He was not a man of war          his mind that there might be something sinister or
at heart.    But this time things were different. He         ruthless about using his own daughter that way as a
knew who his enemy was; it was David. Neither did            pawn in a wicked, diabolic game.            To him nothing
he have to fear from him any immediate, personal             mattered but the destruction of David, and anything
harm.     David was one of his own soldiers subject to       it required was worth the price.
his own authority and discipline, and one who could             Actually, Saul had never seriouly intended to give
be expected to obey his every command.           All that    his daughter to David.        Promises were fine as bribes
Saul had to do was to see to it that David was put out       to get people to do his bidding; but he was king and who
of the way before the day could come when God could          could demand that he should keep them. So it was one
put David on his throne, and with all of his mental          day that, almost without thinking, Saul gave this daughter
powers Saul threw himself into his task. Although            twice promised to David to another. Or maybe it was
Saul would have never admitted it even to himself,           not so much without thinking,            Possibly Saul had
he really enjoyed what he was doing. It was a morose         planned it this way all along in the hope that he could
activity, just sitting there plotting and planning how to    thereby arouse the anger of David and incite him to
destroy an unsuspecting young men;         but it held a     say or do something that reflected unfaithfulness to
certain sweetness for Saul, a certain attraction. It         the king. If only he could find one such thing, it would
was the attraction of hatred and sin.                        be sufficient to call David in to judgment and requi e
   At first thought, of course, it did not appear to                                                                   %
                                                             of him the ultimate penalty. By it all, however, Davi
Saul that there would be anything at all difficult in        remained quite unaffected.                                 \
disposing of David. He merely appointed David head              It was while contemplating his lack of success in  `~
of a special fighting force of valiant men and sent          this matter that the thought came to Saul that maybe it
them out to where the battles were most severe.              wouldn't have been so bad if he had given his daughter
David being the kind of person he was, he could be           to David.        As a member of his own family, David
expected to place himself in the most dangerous              would be less likely to suspect his intentions, and
position of all. It seemed natural to expect, therefore,     would be even more subject to his influence than
that sooner or later the sword of the enemy would            before.       Moreover, while observing David regarding
find him, and he would be killed in a way in which no        this matter, Saul discovered the reason for David's
one would be able to lay any blame upon Saul.                lack of interest in Merab. While living together in
   But time went on and nothing happened except that         the royal palace, an attachment had developed between


158                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

David and his younger daughter Michal. It all seemed         to send David into a situation in which danger could
to fit together very nicely into another plan. Quickly       not possibly be avoided.          Once again he instructed
he called David to him and said, "Thou shalt this day        his servants, "Thus shall ye say to David, `The king
be my son in law in the one of the twain," by which he       desireth not any dowry, but an hundred foreskins of the
evidently meant to suggest that David should be married      Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies.' "
to Michal.      The only trouble was that David again            It was the foolishness of Saul. He knew that he
remained very much unwilling to commit himself.              was opposing a power much greater than himself and
                                                             of all the Philistines;         and yet he didn't know. He
       Saul, however, was by no means ready to give up       refused to know.         He kept on telling `himself that if
his plan. He determined to find for himself the reason       only he could find a danger great enough David would
for David's evasiveness. For this he called some of          fall.    So once again, filled with hope, he waited while
his servants, who could speak to David much more             David went out to do as he had suggested.
freely than he could himself, and he instructed them,            It was not long, it was actually much sooner than
"Commune with David secretly, and say, `Behold, the          he expected that David came back from his foray. The
king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love         report was taken directly to the king, for everyone
thee:      now therefore be the king's son in law.' "        thought he would be overjoyed at the message. It
   This was soon done, and the answer was brought            was actually enough to set his heart to trembling.
back that David had said, "Seemeth it to you a light         David had slain not just one hundred but two hundred
thing to be a king's son in law, seeing that I am a          for good measure, and he had returned himself without
poor man, and lightly esteemed."                             a scratch.
   This was exactly the opportunity which Saul was               This time there was no choice for Saul. He had
looking for. Being himself a cowardly man, he could          made the matter too definite. The date was set, and
not escape the feeling that somehow David had been           David became son-in-law to the king.               The people
avoiding the real danger of battle. But now that he          were glad, and the festivities were great; but Saul
knew that David was troubled by his inability to pay a       was afraid and trembled. The power was indeed great
high dowry, he could use that knowledge as an opportunity    which he had set himself to withstand.



 EXAMINING  ECUMENICALISM-


               World Congress On Evangelism
                                                      (cont.)


                                               by Rev. G. Van  Baven

   In the last issue we were noting what Dr. Harold                   Various theories concerning the Atonement have
John Ockenga, pastor of the Park Street Congregational           been taught, such as the governmental view, the
Church in Boston, presented as the "Basic Theology               exemplary view, the piacular view, and the view of
off. Evangelism." He insisted that proper evangelism             vicarious redemption. All these emphases are to be.
must proceed out of the truth of the Trinity. We                 found in the Scripture, but they are found as mani-
quoted some of his. remarks concerning the position              festations of the basic teaching that Jesus Christ
                                                                 satisfied the demands of divine righteousness, sub-
of the Father, the first Person of the Trinity, re-              stituted for us in his act of passive obedience to
garding evangelism. His'idea of predestination by the            justice, and thus demonstrated in his life and death a
Father from all eternity was nothing else but arminian.          divine justice and love. From this derived the govern-
The same arminianism becomes apparent in his dis-                mental, the moral, and the exemplary views of the
cussion of the work of the Son and the Spirit in evan-           Atonement.     It is this Gospel of redemption that is
gelism,                                                          able to affect the will;      nothing will move men to
                                                                 repentance and faith as does the preaching of the
GOD  THE  SilN IN EVANGELISM                                     propitiation of Calvary. (Christianity Today, Oct.
   Ockenga emphasizes the divinity of the Christ. He             28, 1966, pg. 12)
insists too on the real virgin birth of Christ. But his      Although Ockenga denies universalism, he does insist
view of the atonement is plainly arminian. He is ready       that Christ died for all:
to accept a variety of views concerning the work of
atonement:                                                            . ..Universalism  is hardly compatible with biblical


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     159

   teaching. The Bible declares that the Gospel must be           be the "theology" approved by most of those attending
   preached universally, that the death of Christ is suf-         the conference.         At the conclusion of the conference,
   ficient and applicable for all but is efficacious only to      a formal statement or "message" was adopted by
   those who believe.            The Bible emphasizes the re-     voice-vote  (I understand that only the affirmative vote
   sponsibility of acceptance of Christ. The plain alter-
   native to this is the state of being lost and of suffering     was called for;          there was no opportunity for those
   eternal torment (pg. 13).                                      opposed to the idea of the "message" to express their
                                                                  dissent).      This "message" reflects the same theology
                                                                  set forth by Cckenga  - as one could expect, since the
THE HOLY SPIRIT IN EVANGELISM                                     conference was the work of Billy Graham and as-
   Ockenga then proceeds to show how the Holy Spirit              sociates.       Some of the thoughts expressed by the
works in evangelism  - and his view again is strictly             message:
arminian.    He considers the Spirit as He Who works                     On behalf of our fellowmen everywhere, whom we
common grace:                                                        love and for whom our Saviour died, we promise with
                                                                     renewed zeal and faithfulness to bear to them the
      . ..Contemporary theology discloses a new interest             Good News of God's saving grace to a sinful and lost
   in and emphasis upon the Holy Spirit's ministry.                  humanity.. . .
   This applies not so much to the Spirit's ministry in                  . ..Our goal is nothing short of the evangelization
   common grace as to the ministry of the Holy Spirit                of the human race in this generation, by every means
   in special grace.             The Holy Spirit restrains the       God has given to the mind and will of men.
   destructive processes of sin and thus enables humanity                . ..All men are one in the humanity created by God
   to maintain an orderly life. The Holy Spirit also is              Himself.      All men are one in their common need of
   the source of the renewing processes in the churches              divine redemption, and all are offered salvation in
   and in society. The emphasis upon spiritual renewal               Jesus Christ....
   in the Roman Catholic Church and the various branches                 . ..We extend our hands to each other in love, and
   of Protestantism is directly attributable to the work             those same hands reach out to men everywhere with
   of the Holy Spirit... (pg. 13).                                   the prayer that the Prince of Peace may soon unite
                                                                     our sorely divided world.
   Ockenga insists further that his arminian view of                     . ..Recognizing that the ministry of reconciliation
the work of the Spirit "alone stimulates evangelism."                is given to us all, we seek to enlist every believer
Conversion he places before regeneration:                            and to close the ranks of all Christians for an ef-
                                                                     fective witness to our world....
       Evangelism may be equated with the public proc-                   While not all who hear the Gospel will respond to
   lamation of the good news of the Gospel or the private            it, our responsibility is to see that every one is given
   witnessing to the good news of the Gospel, with the               the opportunity to decide for Christ in our time....
   purpose of bringing individuals to faith in and con-                  Finally, we express to Evangelist Billy Graham
   fession of Christ as Savior. This is called "`con-                our gratitude for his vision of a World Congress on
   version," and conversion has two meanings. It may                 Evangelism.          To the magazine Christianity Today
   be the active turning on the part of an individual as a           goes our debt of thanks for- bringing it into reality....
   response to the Gospel. This is the lesser sense of
   conversion and is within the ability of the individual.           What did this Congress accomplish?               From the
   The New Testament uses the word epistrepho in the              reports that have come from Berlin, one would conclude
   active sense. Theologically, conversion is often used          that there is yet no evidence that anything was ac-
   in  the larger sense of being equated with regeneration.       complished.          When, before the meeting, this Congress
   This is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit     was compared to Pentecost, one could expect some-
   who convicts, converts, and transforms the life of the         thing tremendous to happen. It didn't. According to
   individual.      There is no possibility of an evangelistic    the  Pyesbytevian  Joumal  of Nov. 23, 1966:
   outreach without the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The
   twentieth century has seen the growth of the so-called                What did it accomplish?
   third force, which is the Christian movement em-                      No pronouncements were issued, no resolutions
   phasizing the person and work of the Holy Spirit.                 were passed.          A "sense of the assembly" message
       Regeneration, or the new birth by water and the               was approved by applause but not by a formal vote.
   Spirit (John 3:.5), is the requirement for any spiritual              Congress backers and participants will feel that
   and evangelistic movement.              Jesus said, "Except       Berlin was worthwhile if the organized Church hears
   a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of                 once again its marching orders: "Go ye into all the
   God."          (John  3:3)     Too much religion omits the        world and preach the Gospel to every creature."
   necessity of the new birth. Some theology minimizes
   the place of evangelism in regeneration. Some Lutherans           This same paper, which is opposed to the World
   and Anglicans teach baptismal regeneration.           Some     and National Council of Churches, points out: "While
   Reformed theologians teach that regeneration by the            the difference between such a gathering and those of
   Holy Spirit precedes conversion.            The evangelical    more ecumenical organizations was not accented, and
   position is that regeneration is conditioned upon re-          the negative note was not heard, one could not help
   pentance, confession, and faith. This alone stimulates         but noticing that names associated with evangelism in
   evangelism. (pg; 13)                                           the National Council of Churches and World Council of
                                                                  Churches circles were missing in Berlin." However,
CONCL USIONS                                                      the  Christian  Beacon  of Carl  MoIntire  (Nov. 17, 1966)
   The above "theology" for evangelism seems to                   mentions that "ecumenical leaders were commended


160                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER

to the  evangelicals.         Chandu Ray, chairman of the           one who yet maintains the Canons of Dordt. He knows
World Council's Commission on Mission and Evange-                   that arminianism can never be the foundation-theology
lism, delivered a major address...." Dr.  McIntire                  of evangelism. Besides, no Reformed man could favor
also refers to a confrontation he had with a Rev.                   this somewhat obvious attempt to promote ecumenism.
Walter Hollenwerder, secretary of evangelism for the                The reports of the Congress seem to indicate a de-
World Council of Churches. So there were represented                liberate effort to ward off every evidence of disharmony a
at this Congress at Berlin those who favored and                    and disagreement  - and to emphasize only the agree-
pressed the cause of ecumenism.                   Dr.  McIntire,    ment.        On the only "message" coming out of the
following the usual form of criticism, points out also              Congress, not even a negative vote was allowed.
that leaders of churches in Communist countries                        Evangelism we must have. It must be based on
were also invited and present  - men whom  M&tire                   "Calvinistic" theology  - that is, on the theology of
claims are communist agents.               Present also were        Scripture.      Such evangelism meets with the favor
observers from Judaism and Roman Catholicism.                       and blessing of God. This evangelism will not evan-
Could any expect the blessings of the Spirit of Pente-              gelize "the human race in this generation," but it
cost on such a gathering?                                           will serve to bring God's elect people from darkness
       I would conclude that this Congress was no place             to light.     May the church continue to be faithful in
where a Reformed churchman should be found  - not                   such evangelism.


  CONTENDING FOR THE  FAITH-


                                   The Providence Of God

                                                            M i r a c l e s

                                                         by Rev. H. Veldman


       Badge,  we noted in our preceding article, defines the           the so-called laws .of nature, and they are uniform
miracle as an event, in the external world, brought about               only as long as the Lord wills them to`be such. To say
by the immediate efficiency, or simple volition of God.                 that something has always been is no guarantee that it
This is a rather common definition of the miracles of                   will ever continue thus. Incidentally, the assertion of
Scripture.       We also called attention to the objections             Hodge in this quotation that "this night the voice of the
lodged against this definition. And Hodge answers these                 angel may be heard, swearing that time shall be no
                                                                        longer," must not be construed as if he teaches the
objections rather decisively, as follows:                              premillenarian teaching that Christ may come at any
          As to the other form of the objection, which assumes         moment in history. We realize that this night of sin
       that the laws of nature are in themselves immutable,             cannot come to an end until all things have been ful-
       and therefore that they cannot be suspended, it is enough       filled and the counsel of God has been realized.-H.V.)
       to say, (1) That this absolute immutability of natural                (2) It is utterly derogatory to the character of God
       laws is a gratuitous assumption. That a thing has been          to assume that He is subject to law, and especially to
       is no proof that it must always be. There is no absolute         the laws of matter. If theism (that God is God -H.V.)
       certainty, because no necessity, that the sun will rise          be once admitted, then it must be admitted that the
       to-morrow. We assume with confidence that it will thus          whole universe, with all that it contains and all the laws
       rise, but on what ground? What impossibility is there           by which it is controlled, must be subject to the will
       that this night the voice of the angel should be heard,         of God.      Professor Powell indeed says, that many
       swearing, "That time shall be no longer?' If time               theists deny the possibility of the suspension or
       began, time may end. If nature began to be, it may              violation of the laws of nature, but then he says that
       cease to be, and all about it must be liable to change.         there are many degrees of theism, and he included
       Scientific men have no right to assume that because             under that term theories which others regard as in-
       physical laws are, and, within the limits of our ex-             consistent with the doctrine of a personal God. It is
       perience, ever have been, regular in their operation,            certain that the objection to the definition of a miracle
       that they are, as Professor Powell says, "self-sus-             given above, now under consideration, depends for its
       taining and self-evolving." It is a great mistake to            validity on the assumption, that God is subject to
       suppose that uniformity is inconsistent with voluntary          nature so that he cannot control its laws. (to this we
       control; that because law reigns, God does not reign.           need not add much. How true it is that there are many
       The laws of nature are uniform only because He so                degrees of  theism, even as today there are many
       wills, and their uniformity continues only so long as He         degrees of protestantisml Imagine what sails today
       wills. (Hodge's reasoning here is plain. God controls            under the flag of protestantism! How many "protes-


                                                   THESTANDARDBEARER

   tants" are there not today who care nothing for the           produces a cube number; and then only squares until
   principles of protestantism, who are interested in the        the machine wears out. There are two ways of ac-
   modern movement of ecumenism and this at the cost of          counting      for the extraordinary cube number (inci-
   the truths of the Word of God1 - H.V.)                        dentally, whoever heard of such a phenomenon7 -
      (3). The authority of Scripture is for Christians          H.V.).       The one is that the maker of the machine
   decisive on this point. The Bible everywhere not only         directly interfered for its production. The other is
   asserts the absolute independence of God of all his           that he provided for its appearance in the original
   works, and his absolute control over them, but is also        construction of the machine. The latter explanation
   filled with examples of the actual exercise of this           gives a far higher idea of the skill and wisdom of the
   control. Every miracle recorded in the Scriptures is          mechanist;      and so, Mr. Babbage argues, it is "more
   such an example. When Christ called Lazarus from              consistent with the attributes of the Deity to look
   the grave, the chemical forces which were working the         upon miracles not as deviations from the laws assigned
   dissolution of his body ceased to operate. When He            by the Almighty for the government of matter and of
   said to the winds, Be still, the physical causes which        mind;       but as the exact fulfilment of much more
   produced the storm were arrested in their operation;          extensive laws than those we suppose to exist."
   when He walked on the sea the law of gravitation was          (so, the deist even would claim that his God-dishonoring
   counteracted by a stronger force - even the divine            theory adds to the glory of the Lord. - H.V.) In like
   will. In 2 Kings 6: 5, 6, we are told that an "axe head       manner Professor  Baden  Powell contends that every
   fell into the water," and that the manof  God cut a stick     physical effect must have a physical cause, and there-
   and cast it into the water, "and the iron did swim."          fore that miracles, considered as physical events,
   Here an effect was produced which all known physical          must be "referred to physical causes, possibly to
   laws would tend to prevent. The Scriptures, therefore,        known causes;       but, at all events, to some higher
   by word and deed, teach that God can act, not only with       cause or law, if at present unknown.
   physical causes, but without and against them.                    Secondly, this same ground is taken by many who
      (4)    After all, the suspension or violation of the       do not thus banish God from his works. They admit
   laws of nature involved in miracles is nothing more           that He is everywhere present, and everywhere acting,
   than is constantly taking place around us. One force          controlling physical laws so as to accomplish his
   counteracts another; vital force keeps the chemical           purposes;       but they insist that He never operates
   laws of matter in abeyance; and muscular force can            immediately, but always acts through the established
   control the action of physical force.        When a man       laws of nature. Thus the Duke of Argyle, whose ex-
   raises a weight from the ground, the law of gravity is        cellent work on the "Reign of Law" is thoroughly
   neither suspended nor violated, but counteracted by a         religious, says:      "There is nothing in religion in-
   stronger force. The same is true as to the walking            compatible with the belief that all exercises of God's
   of Christ on the water, and the swimming of the iron          power, whether ordinary or extraordinary, are ef-
   at the command of the prophet. The simple and grand           fected through the instrumentality of means - that is
   truth that the universe is not under the exclusive            to say, by the instrumentality of natural laws brought
   control of physical forces, but that everywhere and           out, as it were, and used for a divine purpose."
   always there is above, separate from, and superior to            Although t he Duke of Argyle is a theist, and admits
   all else, an infinite personal will, not superseding, but     of the constant operation of the Divine will in nature,
   directing and controlling all physical causes, acting         he is still urgent in insisting that the power of God in
   with or without them.      God is the author of nature:       nature is always exercised according to law, and in
   He has ordained its laws; He is everywhere present            connection with physical causes. Miracles, therefore,
   in his works:      He governs all things by cooperating       differ from ordinary events only in so far as the law
   and using the laws which He has ordained. He has left         according to which they come to pass, or the physical
   Himself free.                                                 forces acting in their production are unknown. He
   Also  of interest, according to Hodge, is a second            quotes with approbation from Locke, the following most
objection lodged against the usual definition of miracles        unsatisfactory definition: "A miracle, then, I take to
( a miracle, then, the reader may possibly remember,             be sensible operation, which, being above the com-
                                                                 prehension of the spectator, and, in his opinion,
may be defined as an event, in the external world,               contrary to the established course of nature, is taken
brought about by the immediate efficiency, or simple             by him to be divine. (that this is a most unsatisfactory
volition of God), that they should be referred to some           definition is established by the following  - H.V.)
higher, occult (mysterious) law of nature and not to the         This is the. precise view held by Baden Powell, who
immediate agency of God. What Hodge writes about                 in the essay repeatedly referred to above, makes a
this objection (page 622) is, I am sure, very interesting:       miracle a mere matter of opinion. It is not a matter
                                                                 of fact to be determined by testimony, but a matter
       This objection (that miracles should be referred to       of opinion as to the cause of that fact. The fact may
    some higher, occult law of nature - H.V.) is urged           be admitted, and one man may say it is due to natural
    by two very different classes of writers. First, those       law, known or unknown;        and then it is no miracle.
    who adopt the mechanical theory of the universe assume       Another man says it is due to the immediate power of
    that God has given it up to the government of natural        God.      In that case it is a miracle. Which of the two
    laws, and no more interfered with its natural operations     is correct, cannot be decided by testimony. It must
    than a ship-builder with the navigation of the ships he      be decided by the general views of nature and of God's
    has constructed (Deism  - H.V.)          This is the view    relation to the world, whichmenentertain. The doctrine
    presented       by Babbage in his "Ninth Bridgewater         that God works in the external world only through
    Treatise."      He supposes a man placed before his          physical forces, and even that He can act only in that
    calculating machine, which for millions and millions         way, leads, of necessity, to the conclusion that miracles
    of times produced square numbers;           then for once    are events in the external world brought about by


162                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

   unknown physical causes. They prove only "the pres-           true that Christianity believes in the immediate works
   ence of superhuman knowledge and the working of               and workings of the living God.  Andit  is also emphati-
   superhuman power.                                             cally true that this belief in the almighty power of God is
                                                                 becoming more and more "the special difficulty of our
   It is certainly true. what one writer wrote, namely:          time."     And this does not apply to the world, but to
"Belief in the supernatural is the special difficulty            that which calls itself Church. Questions which relate
of our time; that the denial of it is the form taken by          to the origin of the world, that this world is millions
all modern assaults on Christian faith,           and that       and millions of years old, and also whether Adam
acceptance of it lies at the root, not only of Christianity,     was the first man, certainly do not speakof  and breathe
but of all positive religion whatever." We do and will           respect for the infallible Scriptures and for the truth
object to the definition of a miracle, that it must be           of the Word of God that He is God alone, the Creator
viewed as an immediate, supernatural work of God.                of the heavens and the earth, by Whose word and the
We believe that the essence of the miracle in Scripture          breath of His mouth were made the heavens and the
must be sought elsewhere. Nevertheless, it is certainly          earth and all the host of them.


HEEDING THE  DOCTRINE-

                        Barth's  Doctrine Of Scripture
                                                                10

                                  The Scriptural Basis (continued)

                                                 by Rev. D.  J. Engelsma

   A   g l a r i n g    example of this perverse method          breathing." Barth himself does not make very much
of handling the Scriptures is Barth's interpreta-                of this in the  Church Dogmatics.  He merely includes
tion of        Romans 9.        Barth does not come out          the idea of "breathing forth God" as part of the
with the blunt declaration that Paul is wrong in Romans          meaning of the word  theopneustos  so that it comple-
9, as many of his liberal colleagues do. But, in the             ments but does not replace the idea of Scripture's
face of Paul's plain teaching that God sovereignly               being breathed forth  by  God. Others, however, carry
distinguishes between persons by showing mercy to some           this further than Barth himself does. They maintain
and hardening others according to an eternal election            that the meaning of the word  theopneustos  in II Timo-
of some in love and an eternal reprobation of others,            thy  3:16 is exclusively that of Scripture's breathing
Barth comes to the amazing conclusion that Romans 9              forth God. In' this way, they effectively oppose those
teaches that God loves and elects  aZZ men. The es-              who maintain that Scripture has a divine origin and,
timation of Scripture that allows for such a violent             therefore, cannot possibly contain errors.         When a
distortion of Scripture's words does not differ from             defender of Scripture's infallibility appeals to II Timo-
that estimation of Scripture which permits one forth-            thy  3:16, the adversary counters by saying that the
rightly to say that Scripture is wrong in Romans 9.              passage does not teach that Scripture is breathed forth
Indeed, Barth's procedure is more dangerous since he             by God but that Scripture breathes forth God, that is,
pays lip-service to Scripture's authority, while in fact         Scripture teaches the things of God and has a kind of
he disregards that authority.                                    divine influence upon men, which it can do and have
       Now, it is our contention that Barth's "explanation"      even though it is full of errors.          The reason, of
of II Timothy  3:16, and of II Peter  1:19-21, manifests         course, for rendering the word, "God-breathing" in-
Barth's' low conception of Scripture, in that it is no           stead of "God-breathed," is the aversion of these
explanation of Scripture's words at all but a reading            men to the doctrine of an inspired Bible. That which
into Scripture of Barth's ideas. He makes II Timothy             makes it possible for them to challenge the transla-
3:16 say what  he. thinks it should say and this is the          tion of the King James Version is the fact that the -word
opposite of what the passage itself teaches.                     occurs only once in the Bible, in this passage, so that
                                                                 there can be no comparison of the use of the word
       First, Barth suggests that the word  God-bbveathed        here with its use in other passages. Also, scholars
(the word translated "given by inspiration of God" in            tell us that words of this type are occasionally used
the King James Version) should be rendered  "God-                actively in secular authors.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     163

   But the word itself, as used in II Timothy  3:16,         15, Paul calls the Old Testament books "holy scrip-
and the entire context prove conclusively that the           tures" or "holy writings."            These books are set
meaning is the one expressed by the King James               apart from all other books; they are sacred; they
Version, "God-breathed" or "given by inspiration             partake of the holiness of God.           It is evident that
of God" and that the meaning cannot be "breathing            they are holy with God's holiness because they are
forth God."     Neither are they correct who say that        the holy words of the Holy God  - as He is holy, so
the exclusive meaning is that Scripture breathes forth       are His words holy.          Thus,     theopneustos,  "God-
God, nor is Barth correct, who says that this is par-        breathed," follows the phrase, "holy scriptures,"
tially the meaning.    The sole and exclusive meaning        very fittingly, explaining why Paul has called the
is that Scripture is breathed of or by God. The simple       scriptures holy. The same harmony holds between thee-
truth is that Scripture does not breathe forth God.          pneustos  and that which follows in verses 16 and
Scripture indeed testifies of God, speaks of God and         17.      Paul declares in verse 16 that Scripture is
objectively  Yeveals.  God but this is quite different       profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
from saying that it breathes Him forth. The word,            for education in righteousness. Evidently, the reason
theopneustos,  is a strong word, a word that refers to       why Scripture is profitable in these respects is that
a  creative  activity. To apply this word to Scripture,      Scripture is God-breathed. One who takes  theopneu-
as if Scripture breathes forth God, would be tantamount      stos  to mean "God-breathing" or "having a divine
to saying that Scripture  produces   God,  creates God,      influence" makes Paul guilty of a redundancy in
or  makes  God. This is not only false, it is blasphemy.     verse 16.       For then Paul says that "Scripture has a  -
And when we consider that the word  theopneustos  is         divine influence and (what amounts to the same thing
made up of the word  God  and  a form  of the word           -DE) is profitable for teaching" etc.
spirit,  the idea of the text becomes still clearer. The            The second element of Barth's explanation of
Bible does not "spirit forth" God, even in a loose           II Timothy  3:16 consists of the notion that Paul merely
sense  - it lacks such a power. For this reason, it is       teaches that the human writers of the Bible were es-
necessary, as the Reformed Churches have always              pecially obedient so that they wrote down a relatively
insisted, that in addition to the Bible there be an          accurate and reliable account of God's revelation, al-
activity of the Holy Spirit to apply to our hearts the       though they certainly included in their writings many
revelation of God in the Scriptures.       On the other      errors.      Now it is a puzzle that the Bible can be
hand, it is literally true that God breathes forth the       accurate and reliable on the one hand and filled with
Scriptures, that is, produces them, creates them and         mistakes on the other hand.           This is the queer, il-
makes them. And He did this by the Holy Spirit - He          logical "faith" we are solemnly called to exercise
"Spirited" the Scriptures. Scripture is God's  Wovd          not only by Barth but also by all proponents of a
and, just as our words are the product of our  "out-         fallible Bible.      We are no longer to regard only the
breathing," God's Word is the product of His Divine          truth as reliable but also falsehood. The difficulty
"outbreathing." This leads us to note that the state-        is compounded by the fact that we have no "Bible"
ment "Scripture is God-breathed" accords with other          or appendix to the Bible that lists the errors. What
passages in Scripture, e.g., II Peter  1:19-21, where        we are concerned with now, however, is this state-
Peter states that holy men spoke from God, being             ment of Barth as an explanation of II Timothy  3:16.
moved or carried along by the Spirit, and that this is       Then, it strikes us that, although Barth lays  all the
the reason why it is true that no prophecy of scripture      emphasis upon the wvitevs of the Bible and their special
is of private interpretation, that is, where Peter teach-    obedience, the text says absolutely nothing about the
es that the author of the words spoken  and  w&ten           human instruments at all. We do not read that Moses,
by holy men is God. The same idea is implied in all          David and Isaiah were inspired but that all scviptuve  is
the passages that refer to Scripture as the Word of          inspired or "God-breathed."           As far as the test is
God and that quote Old Testament passages as words,          concerned, it makes no difference what means God
not of the human writers but of the Holy Spirit (cf.         used to produce the Scriptures.           The statement of
Acts  1:16). Those who adopt the translation,  "God-         the text is a statement about the finished product,
breathing," in II Timothy  3:16, weaken the force of         about the 39 books of the Old Testament  - they have
this very strong word so that it merely has the figur-       the attribute of being breathed of God. The text says
ative sense,    "Scripture has a divine influence," and      that the Bible, the  whole  Bible and by implication
even then cannot find elsewhere in Scripture a similar       every part of the Bible, is, as such, the product of
statement to back up their explanation of II Timothy         the breathing forth of God, that the Bible fell from
3:16.    Nowhere does Scripture teach that the Bible         God's lips.        When Barth offers the explanation of
breathes forth God, even in a figurative sense.              this plain phrase, that human writers were especially
   This is sufficient to prove that  theopneustos  has       obedient, he deliberately ignores the main point made
and can only have the meaning, "God-breathed" or             by the text.       Barth must not say something about the
"given by inspiration of God." Those who contend             writers, at least, he must not stop with the writers,
for another meaning are blinded by their stubborn            but he must say something about the  product,  about
rejection of Scripture's plain and universal claim to        the 39 books of the Old Testament. He must say they
be God's, and emphatically, not man's Word. But              are God-breathed, inspired, so that, as far as the
the context in which the word  theopneustos  occurs          holiness, the authority, the reliability, the accuracy,
substantiates the meaning, "God-breathed." In verse          the infallibility and the inerrancy of these books are


164                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

concerned, it is as if God wrote these books with His          miserably in his "Doctrine of Scripture," we will
own finger. To talk merely about the human writers             expect to find consequences in all his theology. Nor
is to ignore the words of the text. But to go on to            are we surprised.        Put on guard by his wrong view
say, as Barth does, that the product of the efforts of         of Scripture, the standard and source of the faith of
the human writers is full of errors is to drag into the        the Church, we discover that he does not carry on
text a most violent (and disobedient) contradiction of         the principles of Luther and Calvin, purified and de-
what the text itself declares.      For this is to maintain    veloped, but rather adulterates them. On the subject
that Scripture is, at least in part, man-breathed.             of creation, on the subject of redemption, on the sub-
And this the text denies:         `All  scripture is  God-     ject of the last things, aliennotes are struck and foreign
breathed."      If Scripture is breathed forth by  God,        chords are sounded.        For all his genius and for all
it is free from errors no matter what means God                the appealing elements in his theology, Barth does not
used to have it written down. Again, our conclusion            represent the Reformation nor carry on its principles.
can only be that Barth pays no attention to what the           And he does not, in large part because he will not,
Bible says of itself but feels free to ignore and distort      with Luther, Calvin and the genuine sons of the Ref-
and impose his own notions upon the words of Scripture.        ormation acknowledge all Scripture to be God's Word
       The third element of Barth's explanation of the         and God's Word only.
phrase, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of                 This is sad, bitterly sad for everyone who loves
God," is the claim that the inspiration of the Bible           the Reformed faith, the faith of Scripture, the truth
consists not only of the inspiring of the human writers        of the glorious Jesus Christ in its richest and fullest
to write but also of the human readers to read with            manifestation. How powerfully might not Barth have
understanding. This also is a claim that lacks a shred         been used by Christ for the firming up of the Re-
of evidence in the passage.         The passage teaches,       formed faith and for its development in Reformed
to be sure, that the Bible, as an inspired book, is            Churches which are losing the first love, for the
also profitable for teaching and the rest but it does          stimulation of others who become weary, and for
not  say that inspiration itself  includes  the element of     the effective witnessing of the Reformed faith in all
our reading the Bible in faith. The Bible rather is            churches across the world.        How mighty an instru-
inspired apart from anyone's understanding it or not           ment he might have been with his incredible learn-
understanding it.      If no one in the world believed it,     ing and scholarship, his creative genius, his forceful
the Bible would still be inspired. Because the Bible           expression, his large spirit, and his dauntless courage.
is inspired, the Holy Spirit can work in the hearts            On the contrary, he attacks our foundations and must
of the elect to accomplish in them a right reading and         be resisted in the Name of Jesus Christ.
a right understanding of Scripture, so that they be-              Would that he had listened, on the doctrine of
come wise unto salvation. But this right reading is            Scripture, to H. F. Kohlbruegge, to whom Barth is
not  inspiration;    it is  Yevelation.  Inspiration refers    otherwise respectful:
to the origin of the Bible and, in connection with this            "The holy men of God were borne by this
Divine origin, to the Bible's character as the Holy                Spirit personally, not only to bring forth the
Word of God.         Barth imposes on the text his notion          acts but also to give every single word, just
that inspiration includes our believing reading of                 the way it is recorded.          This is a truth
the Bible, by this notion disagrees with all Reformed              which every one who knows it by experience
theology, and muddles two distinct activities of God               would not hesitate to seal with his own blood.
simply because he rebels against the truth of an                   What a presumption and want of understand-
inspired  book.                                                    ing, what lack of attention, what deplorable
       If the highly influential champion of the "new              blindness and ingratitude is manifest when
orthodoxy" and the outstanding spokesman of the                    a person questions the verbal inspiration by
movement to "advance" the Reformed faith fails so                  the Holy Spirit." (I Believe in the Holy Spivit)

 Order Your Copy NOW!
             H. Hoeksema,
                        "REFORMED DOGMATICS"
                                                                                        $14.95 postpaid

                            Send your order to: R.F.P.A.
                                                               Box 2006
                                                               Grand Rapids,  Mich.  49501


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   i65



    TRYING THE  SPIRITS-



              Dispensationalism An Ancient Error

                                             by Rev. R. C. Havbach


   The premillennial view is the doctrine of thevisible    on the face of it, as a system which puts the Church
and personal reign of Christ on the earth for one          out of the main stream of God's plan for the ages.
thousand years after the Antichrist, the False Prophet        What we have attempted to do above is to set
and apostate Christendom have been judged and con-         Dispensationalism aside from Premillennialism, his-
demned to the lake of fire. This view, in sharp con-       torically considered.       The latter does not go to the
trast to Postmillennialism, teaches that Christ will       bizarre extremes of Dispensationalism. It does not
not come into a perfect, converted world, but to one       view the second coming of Christ  .in two widely sep-
of mixed good and evil, with evil, largely, predominat-    arated stages, with a rapture into the air and a coming
ing. The slogan of premillennialism is "No millen-         down to the earth divided by a period of years. Nor
nium until Christ comes."       Premillennialists hold     is it so narrow as to hold that the "rapture" concerns
that at the Lord's coming, all the elect, of both dis-     the church only. For these and other.reasons it should
pensations, shall be caught up to meet the Lord in         be understood that Premillennialism and Dispensation-
the air, which is the rapture, to be immediately fol-      alism are not synonymous terms. All Dispensation-
lowed by His return with all the saints to the earth       alists are premillennial, but not all Premillennialists
for the millennial reign.                                  are dispensational.       Therefore, it would be fairer
   We are not to confuse the above with  Dispensa-         and more clarifying to speak of "historic premil-
tionalism.    The most popular form of Premillennial-      lennialism" as over against "dispensational premil-
ism is Dispensationalism.      Its theme is, "Rightly      lennialism" than to attribute dispensationalism as such
dividing the Word of truth," which means the dividing      flatly to the premillennial school. The following were
of Scripture according to seven periods of time, or,       notable historic  premillennialists:      Irenaeus, Justin
as so-called "ultra-dispensationalism" has it, ac-         Martyr, Tertullian,  Bengel,   Alford, Bonar,  Ellicott,
cording to ten periods. Usually these eras, ages or        W. J. Erdman, H. G. Guinness, W. G. Moorehead,
dispensations are distinguished in the following or-       George Muller of Bristol, B. W. Newton, Ryle, A.
der:  innocency, conscience, human government, prom-       Saphir, Tregelles, R. C. H. Trench and Nathanael
ise, law, grace and the kingdom.       The sixth dis-      West.        Some notable Bible expositors of this school
pensation, that of grace, is the dispensation of the       were:        Godet, Lange and Zahn. On the other hand,
Church. It is said to be  distinguished  from the other    well-known Dispensationalists we have in J.  N. Darby,
periods as a parenthesis in history. But if so, then       Wm. Kelly, W. E. Blackstone, James M. Gray, A. C.
we must understand the word underscored not to mean        Gaebelein, Wm.  L. Pettingill and especially  C. I.
"to make eminent, illustrious and worthy of special        Scofield.      These representatives should by no means
regard," but merely to separate or divide by some          be herded into the same corral. Staid pacers do not
mark or quality. For a parenthesis indicates some-         belong with wild broncos.
thing of-lesser regard, something not of the general          The slogan of Dispensationalism is, "All Scripture
trend or main connection. Accordingly, this view sees      is  for  us, but it is not all  to us,  or  about us."  Ex-
the Church age as having not only no connection with       plaining, they say, "Some parts of Scripture have
the preceding one of law, but as standing in sharp         particularly the  `Church   in view. Other parts belong
contrast to it. The same  may.be said of the follow-       to the  Jews. Therefore, certain sections of the Bible
ing kingdom age.      Although no one has objection to     have nothing to do with this present age, but belong
the dividing of Scripture according to periods of time,    to the past and abrogated old dispensation, while other
as such, yet because so much is made of this "mystery      sections concern the future great tribulation, a period
parenthesis" as it is called, it ought to be referred      which occurs after the Church has departed the earthly
to as Mystery-Parenthesis Dispensationalism.       The     scene.       Still other portions apply only to the earthly
term "dispensationalism" itself does not sufficiently      millennial kingdom of Christ." This hacking method
indicate what is so offensive in the system. But to        of interpreting Scripture chops the Bible into such
speak of Parenthesis Dispensationalism identifies it,      small fragments that the Christian is robbed of much


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


of the promises of God. The inspired "rightly divid-             Over 400 hundred years ago John Calvin wrote in
ing the Word of truth" (II Tim.  2:15) does not mean          his  Institutes  a beautiful refutation of modern  dispen-
we are to dissect the Bible into pieces, making it a          sationalism.      Says he, "From the preceding obser-
sort of crazy-quilt. Rather it means "to hew a straight       vations it may now be evident that all those persons,
line through the Word of truth." But the line  Dis-           from the beginning of the world, whom God has adopted
pensationalism.  makes through Scripture is disjointed,       into the society of His people, have been federally
slip-knotted, sheep-shanked, strained and broken with         connected with Him by the same law and the same
many gaps intervening along its shabby, ludicrous             doctrine which are in force among us: but because it
length.                                                       is of no small importance that this point be estab-
                                                              lished, I shall show, by way of appendix, since the
   Dispensationalism has close comparison to Modern-          fathers were partakers with us of the same inheritance,
ism, despite the fact that the former vehemently              and hoped for the same salvation through the grace
repudiates the latter.    For Dispensationalists claim        of our common Mediator, how far their condition in
the evangelical school, accepting the infallibility and       this connection was from ours. For though the testi-
divine authority of Scripture. But they become guilty         monies we have collected from the law and the prophets
of approaching the Bible according to modernistic             in proof of this, render it sufficiently evident that the
methods. For both Dispensationalism and Modernism             people of God have never had any other rule of religion
have a subjective theory of Bible structure.          The     and piety, yet because some writers have raised many
latter reads the Book of Isaiah applying its subjective       disputes concerning the difference of the Old and New
method and decides that chapters 40-66 could never            Testaments, which may occasion doubts in the minds
have been written by the same prophet, but must               of an undiscerning reader, we shall assign a particular
have come from a later period. The former reads               chapter for the better and more accurate discussion of
the Gospel According to Matthew applying its sub-             this subject.      Moreover, what would otherwise have
jective hypothesis, and decides that the Sermon on the        been very useful, has now been rendered necessary
Mount is not intended for the Church today, but for a         for us by Servetus and some madmen of the sect of the
future age, after the Church has gone. These two              Anabaptists, who entertain no other ideas of the  Is-
methods are basically the same, yet the one comes             raelitish nation, than a herd of swine, whom they pre-
from Modernism's "critical school" and the other              tend to have been pampered by the Lord in this world,
from Dispensationalism's "prophetical school."                without the least hope of a future immortality in
                                                              heaven." (From          The Similarity  of the Old and New
   Although Dispensationalism is a questionable  her-         Testaments,  Bk. II, X, 1).        In the next paragraph
meneutical method relatively new, arising as it did in        Calvin says, "The covenant of all the fathers is so far
England and Ireland about 136 years ago, its ideas            from differing substantially from ours, that it is the
were i.n some places prevalent 280 years ago. For             very same;        it only varies in the administration."
Puritan John Owen in his  Doctrine  of  Saints' Pev-          But dispensationalism has eight different covenants!
severance  wrote, "Some  labour  muchto   .Yob   believevs    Calvin further on adds, "Carnal opulence and felicity
of the consolation intended for them in the evangelical       were not proposed to the Jews as the mark towards
promises of the Old Testament, though made in the             which they should ultimately aspire, but that they
general to the Church on this account, (affirming)            were adopted to the hope of immortality, and that
that they were  made to the Jews',  and being to them         the truth of this adoption was certified to them by
peculiar, our concernment lieth not now in them" (ital.       oracles, by the law, and by the prophets." This
added).                                                       being so, the Old Testament brought to the Jews the
                                                              same high spiritual truth of the New Testament, and
   But it is really no new teaching that God's promises       proves that the chosen people of the old dispensation
are divided, some to the Church, embracing a heaven-          were not an earthly people with only material aims
ly people, and some to the Jews, an earthly people.           and seeking only "earthly blessings." Indeed, "the
The Church of England in its Thirty-Nine Articles of          end of the Old Testament was always in Christ and
Religion was correct when it over three hundred               eternal life."     "Then let us drive far away from us
years ago denied this error. The Reformed Episcopal           this absurd and pernicious notion, either that the Lord
Church in its Article VI puts it thus: "The Old               proposed nothing else to the Jews, or that the Jews
Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in             sought nothing else, but an abundance of food, carnal
the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered         delights, flourishing wealth, external power, a numer-
to mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator be-            ous offspring, and whatever is esteemed valuable by
tween God and man, being both God and man. Wherefore          a natural man" (II, X, 23).        Calvin also points out
they, are not to be heard, which feign that the old           where the Jews were wrong and are wrong today,
fathers did look only for transitory promises..." If          namely, "in expecting an earthly kingdom of the
any Jews had the faith of Abraham, they were not an           Messiah."        He calls this expectation a stroke of
earthly people, did not mind earthly things and did not       blindness and also a keeping of "themselves in volun-
expect earthly promises to be fulfilled to them, but          tary darkness."       Dispensationalism is then such a
heavenly promises, as Gen.  15:l and Heb.  11:13-16           grave error that it is both a mark of the righteous
clearly and convincingly show.                                judgment of God and the wilful sin of man.


                           6.'


                                                     THESTANDARDBEARER                                                             167


   BOOK  REVIEWS-

                                               The Acts of the Apostles

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, Vol. II                consistent quality:                           in Rome.
(Calvin's New Testament Commentaries),                                     some are less                      A sample of Calvin's com-
translated, by John W. Fraser; Wm. B.            thorough and give evidence of less            ments on verse 27 will illustrate my
Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.;          study than others.                            point:    "We gather from this that the
329 pp., $6.00.                                    But Calvin is Reformed, and he al-          Word of God is not declared to all so
  Calvin's Commentaries actually need            ways gives evidence of desiring the           that they may return to soundness of
no introduction among us, nor a rec-             truth of the Word of God, even when           mind, but the spoken words ring in the
ommendation. The reissuance of these             that truth is severe. He is not one           ears of many without the effective power
commentaries, and that too, in a new             who obviously attempts to squirm away         of the Spirit, only so that they may be
translation, is a worthwhile project of          from the evident meaning of the text.         rendered inexcusable.       But here the
the Eerdmans Company. This is the                And this is always refreshing in his          pride of the flesh rashly cries out
kind of literature that must be kept             commentaries.         Thus, for example,      against God;       just as we see many
on the market and that must continue             when he comes to a passage which              protesting that it is in vain, yes even
to be used by our people. And these              plainly teaches God's sovereignty in          absurd, for men to be called, unless
are commentaries that should be found            the matter of salvation, both as far          they possess the ability to obey. For
in the library of any serious student of         as elect and reprobate are concerned,         even if the reason why God appears to
Scripture.                                       he is ready to accept what the text           the blind, and speaks to the deaf, is
  This does not mean that we worship             teaches.    An example of this is found       hidden from us, yet His will alone,
John Calvin:        in that sense we are no      in this particular commentary in his          which is the rule of all justice, ought
Calvinists. Nor does it mean that we             explanation of Acts 28: 25, ff.? where        to be like a thousand  reasons to us."
slavishly accept Calvin's explanation of         the passage from Isaiah 6  which is             Once again, therefore, I recommend
a text of Scripture: Calvin's expla-             quoted six times in the New Testament         Calvin's Commentaries, and this new
nations are not always the correct ones.         is applied by Paul to the unbelieving         edition of the Commentary on Acts in
Besides, it is even true that Calvin's           Jews to whom he had expounded the             particular.
various commentaries are not all of              Scriptures while he was a prisoner                                             H.C.H.




                                                                                       RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATHY
                                                                          The Ladies Society of the First Protestant Reformed
                   ATTENTIONMENTEACHERS!                                  Church of Holland, Michigan, mourns the loss-of one
    The Board of the Society for Protestant Reformed                      of its faithful members
Secondary Education plans to appoint  a- principal for                                  MRS. HAROLD SCHIPPER
our High School in the near future. This appointment
will be on a part-time basis initially with the under-                    who at the age of 38 years, entered her eternal rest
standing that this can become full-time in September                      on Thursday, December 15, 1966.
of 1968. Send all correspondence as soon as possible                      We also express our deep sympathy to her husband
to the Secretary-                                                         and children and mother-in-law,  Mrs. P. Schipper,
              Mr. C. Doezema,                                             and commit their needs to the God of all grace. The
              1936 Plymouth Terrace S.E.                                  mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
              Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49506                               upon them that fear him. Psalm  103:17.
                                                                                                     Mrs. J. Van Kampen, President
                                                                                                  Mrs.  B. Windemuller, Secretary


                   RESOLUTIONOFSYMPATHY                                                   ATTENTIONTEACHERS!
The Men's Society of the Southeast Protestant Re-                            The Board of the Society for Protestant Reformed
formed Church wish to express their Christian sympathy                    Secondary Education announces the opening of positions
to Rev. M. Schipper, in the death of his sister-in-law:                   in our High School effective in September of 1968, D.V.
                                                                          All qualified teachers who are interested in accepting
                   MRS. HAROLD SCHIPPER                                   a position in the High School at this time are requested
We know that all things work together for good to them                    to contact the Board. Send allrequestes for information
that love God, to them that are called according to His                   to the Secretary:
purpose.                                                                                       Mr. C. Doezema,
                                       Gerrit Pipe, Vice Pres.                                 1936 Plymouth Terrace, S.E.
                                         William Faber, Sec'y.                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49506


                                                   -  -.                                    --_-.~           ~~

 168                                               THE STANDARD BEARER

                                            NEWS FROM  OUR  CHURCHES-

                                                 Dec. 15, 1966       Classis  also accepted the invitation of Hope Church
    Rev. C. Hanko, of Redlands,  Calif.,  received the               to meet there the first Wednesday in January.
 call from our church in Holland,  Mich.                                After the chairman expressed his appreciation to
    Rev. D. Engelsma, of Loveland, Colo., declined                   the committee of pre-advice for their service, and to
 the call from Hull, Iowa. The consistory has announced              the  classis for its cooperation,  classis  adjourned.
 a new trio consisting of the Revs. C. Hanko, G. Lubbers             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema offered the closing prayer.
 and M. Schipper.                                                                                        M. Schipper, Stated Clerk
                             * *  *                                                                * * *
 REPORT OF  CLASSIS  EAST                                               The Holiday Singspiration sponsored by the Beacon
 October 5 and December 7, 1966                                      Lights Staff was held in First Church, Grand Rapids,
At Holland, Michigan                                                 Dec. 11 after the evening service. Don Jonker opened
                                                                     the program with prayer and then turned the meeting
    Rev. G. Lanting presided over the preliminary                    over to Jim Schipper to lead the people in singing.
 devotions, and after the credentials were accepted,                 Special numbers were:              a duet by Mr. and Mrs.  C.
 pronounced the classical session properly constituted.              Jonker, with daughter Marilyn at the piano; a trumpet
 Rev. G. Lubbers, following the order of rotation then               duet by Don l<noper  and son, John, with daughter Donna
 presided, while the Rev. Lanting recorded the minutes.              at the piano. The audience joined in singing appropriate
 All the churches were represented by two delegates                  Psalter numbers and Christmas carols, and contributed
 each.                                                               to the needs of Beacon Lights with an offering.
    The brethren  T. Elzinga and  S. Bylsma were ap-                                               * * *
 pointed to serve on the finance committee.                 Prof.       Holland bade farewell to Rev. G. Lanting and family
 H. C. Hoeksema was granted an advisory vote. And                    in a public gathering Friday evening, Dec. 2. Elder
 the Rev.  G. Van  Baren,  and Elders D. Meulenberg                  T. Elzinga led in opening devotions. Representatives
 and  M.  I<lop were appointed to arrange the classical              of the societies - Wilma  Haveman of the Young Peo-
 appointment schedule. Classis  West requested supply                ple's, Mrs. Van Kampen of the Ladies, J.  H.  Korter-
 for the churches in Randolph,  Edgerton  and in the                 ing of the Men's, each gave -a word of farewell to
 Dakotas.      Hope Church also requested pulpit supply.             their departing pastor and Elder S.  DeVries did so
    The following schedule was adopted: Hope  - Oct.                 for the consistory. The musical part of the program
 23 Lubbers Nov. 6 Harbach Nov. 20 Van  Baren Dec.                   included a quartet, a trio, and a flute solo. Mr. B.
 4 Lubbers Dec. 18 Harbach Jan. 8 Lanting. Randolph                  Windemuller made the presentation of remembrance
 -Oct. 30 Van  Baren  Nov. 13 Lanting Nov. 27 Harbach                to their pastor of seven years. The program ended with
 Dec. 4 Van  Baren  Dec. 18 Lanting. Jan. 8 Lubbers.                 the poignant hymn, "God be with you till we meet
 Edgerton   - Dec. 4, 11 Veldman. Isabel  & Forbes  -                again."    Time was then given for the enjoyment of
 Jan. 8, 15, 22 Schipper.                                            refreshments, and the tendering of  personal.farewells.
    Classis  then considered two appeals and the answers                                           * * *
 from the consistory of the church from which the appeals               The "Studies in Biblical Doctrines" as prepared
 came.       Classis  decided to put this material into the          by Rev. B. Woudenberg of Lynden, Wash., is finding
 hands of a study committee, consisting of the Revs.                 its way to mail  -boxes in widely scattered sections;
%. Lanting, Harbach, and Lubbers, and the Elders J.  De-             from the southern states of Alabama,. Kentucky, and
 Vries,  M. Klop, and D. Engelsma.                                   Tennessee to the wintry north Province of British
    Classis  voted for two members to serve on the                   Columbia in Canada. A British Columbia reader writes,
 Classical Committee, namely, the Rev. G. Van  Baren                 "My name has been sent in by a dear Christian friend.
 and the Rev. H. Veldman.              They will serve for two       I must say that I am glad as I certainly do enjoy your
 years.                                                              Bible Studies. Thank you so much for sending them to
    The Questions of Article 41 of the Church Order                  me..."     Indeed, "The Kingdom  of  Heaven is like a
 were asked and answered satisfactorily.. After the                  mustard s?ed . ..`I
 concept minutes were approved,  classis adjourned                                                 * *  *
 until December 7th.                                                    Hudsonville's consistory has decided to alternate
    On  1 December 7th  classis  continued its October               the preaching schedule so that the Heidleberg Catechism
 meeting, Rev. Lubbers leading. in the opening devotions.            will be preached every other Sunday evening.
 Elder S. De Vries  .took  the place of Rev. Lanting who                                           * * *
.had accepted the call  <to our  Edgerton  Church. The                  When you look' back in `66 and then turn to peer
committee appointed  .in October to study the appeals                into `67 remember that the Exalted Jesus, the Bright
 and  the/ answers of the consistory gave its report.                and Morning Star said, "Behold  I. come-quickly; and
 Classis  dealt with the matter in executive session.                my reward is with me, to give every man according
    A word of appreciation was expressed-to the ladies               as his work shall be." Rev.  22:12.
 of our Holland Church for their catering services.                     . . . see you in church                            J.M.F.


