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A   R E F O R M E D   SEMI-MONTHLY  M A G A Z I N E
                                                              .


IN  THIS  ISSUE:


       Meditation: With the Fourth Man In The Furnace

       Editorials: Prediction Fulfilled

                    The Nature of the Atonement

       Dispensationalism A Modern Thief

       All Around Us: A Loud, Clear Protest

                        A Repudiation of Dordt

                                           Volume XLIII/ Number 8  / January 15, 1967


 170                                                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

                                            C O N T E N T S
                                                                                                                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
Mediatation -
   With The Fourth Man In The Furnace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
          Rev. M. Schipper
Editorials -                                                                                                                          Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
   Prediction Fulfilled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172                              Editor--  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
   The Nature Of The Atonement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 C,ommunications  relative to contents should be addressed to
          Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                    Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
Trying The Spirits -                                                                                                              Rapids,  Mich.       49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
   Dispensationalism A Modern Thief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176                                       words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
          Rev. R. C. Harbach                                                                                                      lines are the first and fifteenth of the month.
From Holy Writ -                                                                                                                  All church news items should beaddressed toMr.  J. M. Faber,
   The Book of Hebrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178                        1123 Cooper, S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
          Rev. G. Lubbers
The Church At Worship -                                                                                                           Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee includedmust
   The Tast Of The Ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 be in by the 5th or the 20th of the month, previous to publication
          Rev. G. Vanden  Berg                                                                                                    011 the 15th or the 1st respectively.
In His Fear -                                                                                                                     A.11 matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
   Honour To Whom Honour - 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
          Rev. J. A. Heys                                                                                                                 Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
All Around Us -                                                                                                                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
   A Loud, Clear Protest                                                                                                             Renewal: Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
   A Repudiation of Dordt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185                 received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
          Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                          scription to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
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   David Discovers Hatred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
          Rev.  B. Woudenberg                                                                                                         Second Class Postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
Contending For The Faith -
   The Providence of God - Miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189                                        Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed Churches
          Rev. H. Veldman                                                                                                          will meet on Wednesday, March 15, at the South Holland
Book Reviews  -                                                                                                                    Protestant Reformed Church.  Classis  begins at 9:00
   Hymns For Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191           A.M. All material for the Agenda should be in the hands
News From Our Churches                                                                                                             of the Stated Clerk thirty days before the convening of
   Mr. J. Faber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .192     Classis, that is, by February 14. Delegates in need of
                                                                                                                                   lodging are to notify the clerk of the South Holland
                                                                                                                                   consistory.
                                                                                                                                                              Rev. D. J. Engelsma, Stated Clerk


  MEDITATION-


         With The  Fourt'h Man In The Furnace
                                                                                                           by Rev. M.  Schippev

                                         `Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and ?Tose up in haste, and spake,
                                 and said unto his  counselors, Did not we cast  three men bound into the midst  of the
                                five?            They answered  and said unto  the king,  Trme, 0 king. He  answered   and said,
                                 Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the five, and they have no  hurt; and
                                 the  fovm of the fourth is like the Son  of God.'                                                                               Daniel  3:24, 25

     Marvelous manifestation of faith!                                                                                                 Amazing trust!
     Such may the chapter of Scripture be called in                                                                                    In the face of the dreadful threat of being cast into
which our text is found!                                                                                                           the burning,  fiery furnace, they believed the God of
     Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego dared to change                                                                               their fathers could deliver them. If He would not save
the king's word!                                                                                                                   them from the oven, then certainly He could  deliver
     Mind you, they set themselves over against the                                                                                them out of it.          But if He was pleased to have them
world's mighty monarch! They braved every conse-                                                                                   perish in the flames, they would be faithful to their God
quence, refusing to heed the command to fall down and                                                                              rather than men!
worship the golden image the king had set up!                                                                                          Miraculous deliverance in the way of faith!


                                                     THESTANDARDBEARER                                                         171

         Of that also the chapter under consideration speaks !        is the image so magnificent, nor is it always of golden
         The Lord Almighty did reveal His power! It was               texture, and a literal image to be worshipped. But the
      not His pleasure that his servants should perish; nor           thing symbolized is always there!            Sometimes that
      was it His delight to deliver them from the fire. His           image is to be found in actual, historical personalities.
      way was much more glorious ! He saved them out of               History produces men like Caesar, Nero, and Napoleon;
      the furnace! And so perfect was the deliverance that            men like Hitler, Stalin, and Hirohito, Son of Heaven,
      especially two things are to be noted.             While the    who actually have commanded worship. Then again, it
      executioners are killed by the awful heat, the friends          is an ideology, such as Jezebel imposed upon the
     -have not a hair on their head singed; yea, not even             Israelites, that  Baa1 was god; or the paganish,  anti-
      the smell of fire has passed on them. And the king is           godly philosophy of communism and socialism of our
      deeply impressed! 0, to be sure, there comes to him             day.        And in the consummation of the ages, Scripture
      no real change of heart, as subsequent history plainly          predicts the literal manifestation of the image. Anti-
      shows;       but a temporary impression in which he is          christ develops rapidly toward his final manifestation.
      forced to acknowledge the living God, and adore Him             Then the combination symbolized in the image of
      for His greatness !                                             Nebuchadnezzar's making will be literally fulfilled,
         The golden image and the fiery furnace !                     when Antichrist shall appear with great power and
         The faithful God and His faithful servants !                 pomp.        Literally shall an image be made to the beast
         With the fourth man in the furnace!                          which will be more fearsome, awe inspiring, than that
       That is  the, history and experience that surrounds            before which the three friends were compelled to bow
      our text! A history and an experience which is often            down and worship.. It shall be made to speak, and to
      repeated for the people of God's covenant in the world!         cause that as many as would not worship it should be
                                  * * *                               killed !
         Awesome occasion!                                                Indeed, the image becomes the occasion for the
         To be with the fourth man in the furnace always              furnace !
      has its occasion! Always there is the image that is                                          * * *
      set up! The image before which you are commanded                    Dreadful experience!
      to bow down and worship!                                            Such it was for the three friends!
         In the present case, it was the golden image which               The command is issued! All were to be gathered
      Nebuchadnezzar had set up in the plain of Dura, in the          before the image.         The nobles and the people of the
      province of Babylon.        As far as its appearance was        provinces of Babylon.         Also the three friends! All
      concerned, there were especially three aspects to be            were to fall down and worship at the sound of music.
      noticed.     First, its enormous size  - perhaps as much        And refusal to do so, carried with it the threat of death
      as ninety feet in height and nine feet in width. Standing       in the burning, fiery furnace!
      out in the open it could draw attention for miles                   The friends refused unconditionally!
      around.      Secondly, it was made of gold  - not neces-            0, if excuses are ever permissible they could have
      sarily of solid gold, but more probably overlaid with           made them! Could they not have said: We are young,
      gold.      Along with its size, standing out there under a      and we desire to live? Were they not at the very be-
      sunny sky, its splendor, its magnificence commanded             ginning of their earthly career, just lately having been
      attention and adoration. Thirdly, it was undoubtedly,           set over the affairs of the province of Babylon? Was
      in part at least, in human form. Perhaps a bust, set            not all of life right in fromt of them? Could they not
      up on a pillar, also overlaid with gold.                        also with a semblance of piety have reasoned that God
I        Significant golden image!                                    could use living saints better than dead martyrs? Or,
I        Symbol of Babylon's god, to whom gratitude should            could they not have said:             We shall bow only out-
      be expressed for the prosperity he was assumed to               wardly, but not inwardly in our hearts? Does not God
      have given. It was meant to be a perpetual memorial             know that in our hearts we love and serve Him, not the
I     to Bel.       Symbol, too, of Babylon's power. Babylon,         idol god of Babylon? Besides, we have families, wives
1     the great, nation of tremendous power and wealth.               and children, what will happen to them ifwe are killed?
     . Symbol also of Babylon's king. It was Nebuchadnezzar               But so they did not reason! Their answer is un-
      who had it made and set it up, the king who said, "Is           equivocal!       "We are not careful to answer thee in this
      this not great Babylon which I have built?" A com-              matter.       If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to
      bination of all these is evidently the significance of          deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will
      the image.       Babylon is the golden head in the king's       deliver us out of thine hand, 0 king. But if not, be it
      dream.       And Babylon is not great without its king, as      known unto thee, 0 king, that we will not serve thy
      he himself clearly intimated. And that the king intended        gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast
      it to be discovered as the symbol of Babylon's god, is          set up."         Such an answer is not given by those who
      indicated in the fact that he commanded that it should          perhaps were weary of life, or merely obstinate, or
      be worshipped. In distinction from the God of heaven            perhaps extremely patriotic insurrectionists.           Nay,
      and earth, the image symbolized the power, the leaders,         rather, they answered thus because they believed in
      and the gods of this world.                                     God.
         Readily it is to be perceived that this image exists             With this answer, the king became furious, and he
      in all ages ! The essence of the image is always present!       commanded that every precaution be taken to make
      Not necessarily always in the same form. Not always             theirs  death swift and sure.          The furnace is heated


1 7 2                                       THE STANDARD BEARER

above its capacity.     The strongest men in his army       ever the consequences may be! The victory of faith
are ordered to bind the friends and to cast them into       lies precisely in the way of sacrifice and faithfulness
the furnace. Incidentally, we ought to notice how the       unto death! Always there will be the furnace! This is
Lord makes even the enemies cooperate to make the           what we must expect also in the future! Anti-Christ
miracle He is about to perform more glorious! To be         will command !         The remnant will be faithful ! The
noticed too is the fact that the furnace is the last        reward will be the fiery furnace.        A furnace, much
resort.     At first it appeared the king was reluctant     hotter, a persecution much more severe than was the
to dispose of the friends. He gave them a chance to         lot of the friends!
escape, persuading them to conform to his command.                                      * *  *
The devil does not desire first of all the death of           But God brings deliverance !
God's servants, but their  apostacy. But when the saints       Through the fire!
remain steadfast in their faith, he will not hesitate to       God's way with His saints is generally not to
bring them to their death. So also here the friends         deliver them from the fire, from tribulation, but
are given to the flames.                                    through the fire.        The Chiliast dream of a rapture
                                                            that delivers from tribulation will never be realized!
   Thus is is principally in all history! Always there      Through the fire, that is the rule!
is the same command, and threat! Serve me, seek me,            But always with the fourth man in the furnace!
honor me! Or die! Die politically! Die socially and            "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst
economically!     And ultimately, die physically! And       of the fire! And the form of the fourth is like the Son
always there is that same duty of the child of God to       of God!"
reply unconditionally! They may not seek excuses, as           0, indeed, He is the Son of God, our Saviour! God
they so often are inclined to do. How often today when      has no other deliverer of His people! They cannot save
so called Christians are confronted with much less          themselves, nor have they any in their ranks who can
awesome threats, but yet principally with the same          save them. Therefore God Himself comes down in the
command, they are making all kinds of excuses and so        Person of His Son, and assumes the form of man, and
bending the knee before the image! We hear them say:        goes with His man servants into the flames to preserve
It's easy for ministers to tell us what we ought to do,     them and deliver them. So wonderfully were the friends
but if they were in the same situation with which we        delivered that not a hair was singed, not even the
are faced they would also succumb. We hear them             effects of fire were upon them. Not so does the Lord
say:     We do not believe in the principles of ungodly     always deliver from the physical flame, nor does He
unionism, and we do not attend their meetings, but we       always deliver from physical death. Sometimes He
have to live! Some complain: How can anyone expect          allows them to be burned, to suffer, and die!
us to lose our seniority after we have worked so long          But always He is with them! Even in the shadows
to get it? And some have even dared to remind us that       of death He accompanies them!
if they did not retain their jobs in closed shops, being       He delivers them through faith! Not, you under-
members of ungodly unions, our churches and our             stand, were the friends delivered because they believed.
Christian schools could not continue to exist. All who      Our faith is never the ground for our salvation. They
speak thus have never experienced the faith of the          were saved through faith, a faith that placed them in
friends. It is not the speech of faith!                     God, the God of their salvation. And faith is the gift
   Our calling is to take an unequivocal stand, what-       of God!




           EDITORIALS-



                                     Prediction Fulfilled


                                             by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


   Recently my attention was called to a prediction         arts" question.         This prediction was made in an
made in 1928 by the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema               editorial about the showing of the film, "MartinLuther,
concerning the stand of the Christian Reformed Churches     His Life and Times," under the auspices of a Christian
on  tk "movie question," - currently called the "film       Reformed Young Men's Society at that time. The entire


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 173

editorial contains instruction about drama and the            were adopted. Always one must remember, of course,
movie which would be well worth repeating today. But          that the term "film arts" is a euphemism for what is
for the present I wish to quote the prediction which          commonly known among us as "the movie."              The
occurs at the close of the editorial. This is quoted          latter term has a bad sound; the term "film arts" is
from page 198 of Volume IV of the Standard Bearer:            supposedly more palatable, probably because it sounds
   "I will not emphasize now, that these `good movies'        more "cultural."
will create a taste for all movies, and that it is not at        But here are the statements, quoted in full:
all impossible, that under the auspices of some  Re-              "1)     The film arts as actualized in the cinema
formed  (?) body all shows and theatres will be open          and television is a legitimate cultural medium to be
unto our young folks.                                         used by the Christian in the fulfillment of the cultural
  "Why not?        Concede the principle of the theatre       mandate.
and what remains is only a relative matter.                       "2) If our Christian witness is to have relevance
   "Presently you may see consistories investigating          and redemptive value in modern society, it is neces-
whether or not a play or movie is good or bad, in             sary for us to make the meaningful distinction between
order to determine whether or not anyone becomes              the film arts as art forms, which are to be judged as
subject to the discipline of the Church by attending it.      legitimate media of culture, and the film arts pro-
   "And within a short time we will see the day, that         ducts, which are in each instance to be subjected to
the whole matter of the theatre andvaudetteis dropped,        the moral judgment of the Christian community.
or their frequenting is sanctioned by some Synod.                 "3) Although the film arts as a cultural medium
Perhaps some future Synod will pass a resolution that         is largely under secular control, its products are no
the attendance of theatre and vaudette is not at all a        more and no less secular than the products of other
sin, providing we as Christian people strive to make          media such as the daily newspaper, the radio, or the
them as good as possible and that we protest whenever         literature of our western world, and can be used
somethi ng ungodly is presented.                              similarly for cultural edification.
   "Such was the final outcome of the Union-question.             "4)     Since the film arts is a cultural medium that
   "I venture to prophesy that such will be the end of        can be used for good or evil, the products of the film
the amusement problem."                                       industry must be judged on their merits in the light
   Such was the prediction made thirty-nine years ago.        of Christian standards of excellence."
   That prediction has now come true.                            Translated into simple English and interpreted
   For proof of this I offer the following significant        charitably, this means briefly: "good movies" are
statements gleaned from the 1966 decision of the              okay !
Christian Reformed Synod on "The Church and the                  The remaining sections of the decision bear out still
Film Arts." The following quotations are taken from           more emphatically that the Standard Bearer's pre-
the "Acts of Synod, 1966, of the Christian Reformed           diction of 1928 has been fulfilled. The section on the
Church," pp. 33, ff.                                          "Christian Evaluation of the Film Arts" has the
   "Because sin entered the world, even the best              following statements:
works of man are defiled with sin, (cf. Heidelberg              "1) In keeping with the directives enunciated above,
Catechism, Question  62), but sin is being restrained         it is incumbent upon the mature Christian to exercise
by God's common grace."                                       a responsible personal freedom in the use of the film
   "The difference between believers and unbelievers          arts.
cannot always be detected in the products of their                "2)     Recognizing that the film arts are largely
cultural activities, but it becomes evident in their          under the control and administration of  non-Christian
motivation, direction, and purpose. (Romans  1:1,2)"          agencies (why not say "ungodly?" H.C.H.), the Christ-
   "Every area of human life is a battlefield bet-            ian must exercise a Spirit-guided and enlightened dis-
ween good and evil,. where the Christian must learn -to       crimination in the use of the film arts.
discern and to do the will of God. Therefore the                  "3) The Christian should reject and condemn the
Christian must accept and enjoy whatever things are           message of those film arts products which sanction
true, honorable, just, pure, and lovely (Philippians 4:8),    sin and subvert the Christian interpretation of life.
and he must reject and shun all evil."                        (Ephesians 5:3,11,12)
   "The Christian must not only abstain from and                  "4)     A Christian may witness a dramatic presen-
protest against evil in the world, but he must also           tation of the realities of life which portrays a redemp-
call society to the obedience of Christ, thus serving as      tive struggle between good and evil when such a
the salt of the earth and the light of the world. (Mat-       portrayal helps him in his struggle to overcome evil
thew  5:13,14)"                                               with good (Romans  12:21) and thus makes a contribu-
   "The Christian must make discriminate use of the           tion to a more fully oriented citizenship in the Kingdom
products of culture, in harmony with the Scriptural           of God.
principle of Christian liberty."                                  `5)      Responsible discrimination should also be
   The above are a partial quotation of the devious           exercised in the use of the film arts products from
principles adopted concerning the Christian's relation-       broadly Christian sources."
ship to the world. If one analyzes these principles,              From the section on "The Cultural Task in the
he can figure out how the following  synodical state-         Field of-the Film Arts" we quote point 1:
ments concerning the "Film Arts as a Cultural Medium"             "There is a large educational task that must be


174                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

initiated by responsible agencies at the various levels         them as good as possible and that we protest whenever
of life in the Church.                                          something ungodly is presented.
       `I a. The membership of the Church must become              And what, we may ask, is the principle behind this
more sensitive to what is good and what is evil in              whole decision? What has led to this synodical denial
the film arts so as to come to a meaningful evaluation          of the absolute antithesis?
and a discriminate use of the same.                                The 1966 Synod made that very plain.
       "b.     It is imperative that the Christian community       It is this:       "...sin is being restrained by God's
should engage in the constructive critique of the film          common grace."
arts, being led by those who are specialists in art and            In other words, here is another fruit in the sphere
in Christian ethics.                                            of the practical life of the church which is a direct
  I`6.         The fruit of this effort (b) should be repre-    result of the fundamentally wrong course chosen by
sented as a cultural and moral witness to the church            the Christian Reformed Church in 1924, when they
and society:          for we are `the salt of the earth...      adopted the Three Points of Common Grace. Follow-
(and) the light of the world.' (Matthew 5:13,14)"               ing the principle of "common grace" and the "re-
       Finally, the decision includes some pronounce-           straint of sin," the Christian Reformed Church has,
ments about the "Pastoral Task of the Church" in                in effect, brought an end to the so-called "amuse-
this matter. Of these we quote points 3, 4, and 5:              ment problem" by getting rid of the problem, not by
       c`3)     Those entrusted with the care of the flock      solving it.
must earnestly warn against all movie and television
products which portray or promote a philosophy of                 I call attention to this not in order to say, "We
life and a way of thinking that is contrary to the              told you so...." But I do so, first of all, with a view
Christian way of life.                                          to warning those who are serious-minded about their
       "4)      There must be a candid recognition and          Reformed heritage and the Reformed way of life.
promotion of such film arts products as are able to             Let them take note of the fact that the error of 1924
meet the test of those Biblical principles and form             is more and more bearing its evil fruits! And let
part of the cultural wealth of our society.                     them take note of the fact that the error of 1924 is
       "5)      The congregation must be educated in a          indeed a devastating error, not only from the point
practical way so that its members may become more               of view of the Arminianizing tendency of the First
qualified to distinguish between good and evil inmovies         Point and the "general, well-meant offer of salva-
and television programs."                                       tion," but also from the point of view of the common
                              * * *                             grace theory of the Three Points and its bearing upon
       It will be evident from a perusal of the above           the antithetical calling of God's people.
synodical pronouncements that, while it required many              At the same time, this may serve as an occasion
words for the Synod of the CRC to say it, never-                to warn our own churches, and  particulary  own own
theless they have said what was predicted thirty-nine           young people.        In this connection I may conclude by
years ago, namely, that a future synod will sanction            quoting the concluding words of that editorial written
the frequenting of the theater and will pass a resolution       in 1928:       "But in the meantime I warn our own young
that the attendance of the theater is not at all a sin,         folks not to go along with the present tendency. Rather
providing we, as Christian people, strive to make               go in the radically opposite direction."





                         The Nature Of `The Atonement

                                       Limited or General?

                                                 by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


THE CONFESSIONS ON THE DEFINITE AND                             and Canons  II (Of the Death of Christ, And the  Re-
PERSONAL ELEMENT OF THE ATONEMENT                               demption of Men Thereby).          The historical reason
(Continued)                                                     for this close connection lies in the fact of the close  i
   The last time this subject was discussed (Dec. 15            connection between the first two points of the Ar-  /
issue, p. 127) we concluded by emphasizing the close            minians.       The latter maintained their false doctrine
connection between Canons I (Of Divine Predestination)          of conditional election.       It is exactly over against :


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    175

these false views that the Synod of Dordrecht main-             which had fallen through their own fault, from their
tained the true doctrine of predestination and, in              primitive state of rectitude, into sin and destruction,
harmony         therewith, the true doctrine of atonement,      a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ,
that is, atonement for the elect alone. There is no             whom he from eternity appointed the Mediator and
disjunction between Canons I and Canons II.                     Head of the elect, and the foundation of Salvation.
    It is important that we understand this.            The        This elect number, though by nature neither better
Dekker-Daane theory fails completely to reckon with             nor more deserving than others, but with theminvolved
this. That theory claims to maintain sovereign elec-            in one common misery, God hath decreed to give to
tion.       It also claims to maintain that only the elect      Christ, to be saved by him, and effectually to call and
shall be saved.         But between these two it wants to       draw them to his communion by his Word and Spirit,
posit a universal atonement and a redemptive love               to bestow upon them true faith, justification and san-
of God for all men manifested in that universal atone-          ctification;     and having powerfully preserved them in
ment. (This, at least, was the original presentation;           the fellowship of his Son, finally, to glorify them for
from various statements in the Report of the Doc-               the demonstration of his mercy, and for the praise
trinal Committee appointed by the Chr. Ref. Synod it            of his glorious grace;       as it is written: "According
appears as though Prof. Dekker's views have undergone           as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation
some modifications which are still less Reformed.)              of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame
Hence, the Dekker-Daane Theory postulated some                  before him in love; having predestinated us unto the
universal links between particular links in the chain           adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, ac-
of salvation.       Moreover, the Dekker-Daane Theory           cording to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise
did this in the line of the First Point of 1924. The            of the glory of his grace, wherein. he hath made us
First Point forged the first universal link: the preach-        accepted in the beloved."           Eph. 1: 4, 5, 6. And
ing of the gospel is grace (a well-meant offer of sal-          elsewhere: "Whom he did predestinate, them he also
vation, an offer of grace) to all that hear the preach-         called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
ing.       Following the Arminian track of the two-track        and whom he justified them he also glorified." Rom.
theology adopted in 1924 (if you will pardonthe mixture         8:30.
of metaphors), Dekker and Daane forged another link,               Notice the following elements here in connection
namely, the link of universal atonement.          (The link     with the subject under discussion:
of the universal love of God is not essentially a new              1)      A  certain numbev  of  persons  are according to
and different link from that of the universal grace of          God's eternal good pleasure chosen. This is further
God posited in the First Point.)                                emphasized in Article 10.
        But these universal links do not fit in the chain of       2)      These persons are  chosen in  Christ.  This is
particular salvation.                                           twice emphasized in the article. Election is not an
    The fathers of Dordrecht saw this very clearly,             arbitrary appointment of some to everlasting life;
and they' expressed it in the Canons.                           but election is strictly in Christ.           This is stated
    Approaching the subject from the historical point           already in the first paragraph of the article: "....a
of view in the first five articles of the First Head of         certain number of persons to redemption,&  Chest,
Doctrine, the fathers come to the distinction between           whom he from eternity appointed the Mediator and
believers and unbelievers. Some believe the gospel;             Head of the elect, and the foundation of Salvation."
some do not believe the gospel. The guilt of unbelief           And again in the second paragraph it is emphasized:
is not in God, but in man himself; but faith in Jesus           "This elect number . . ..God hath decreed to give to
Christ, and salvation through Him is the free gift of           Chvist...."       Here you have the key to the whole
God.                                                            question concerning the atonement.            Christ is the
        But then the question is: how is it  to.be explained    foundation of salvation. In Christ and His atoning blood
that some men believe and have this gift of faith from          is the judicial basis of all salvation, all righteous-
God, while. others do not?          And the answer to this      ness and forgiveness, all the right to eternal life.
important question,  - a question which makes division          And Christ is the  Head and  Mediatov  of  the elect.  God
between those who truly hold to a gospel of free                hath decreed to give the elect;  to Christ.        The  all-
grace and those who do not,  - the answer to this               important question, therefore, when Christ dies is
question brings us squarely into the domain of the              this:  who  aye in Him,     who belong to Him,     who are
decree of God.          There is but one answer, that of        vepyesented by Him,        in whose place does He stand in
Article 6, namely:         "That some receive the gift of       the judgn?ent  of God?     For these, and for these only,
faith from God, and others do not receive it proceeds           are there righteousness and justification, and all the
from God's eternal decree" (of election and repro-              benefits of salvation in that Christ. One must be  in
bation).                                                        Christ:      otherwise there is no single benefit of grace
    The decree of election is then set forth in Article         for him.        And the answer to the question who are in
7 of Canons I, which we here quote:                             Christ is:  the elect, and the elect only.
                                                                   3)      All of salvation belongs to this decree. Atone-
        Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, where-     ment and redemption  and the application of all the
by before the foundation of the world, he hath out of           benefits of salvation to the elect,  - these are all
mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure            included.        Election is not merely appointment to
of his own will, chosen, from the whole human race,             eternal life and glory;       it is appointment to  ever-


176                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

lasting glory and to all that belongs to the way of           of the benefits of salvation) is separately mentioned
that glory.      And the latter includes not merely the       in the next words of the article: "and effectually to
bestowal of the gifts of regeneration, calling, faith,        call and draw them to his communion...to bestow
justification, sanctification, and glorification (that is,    upon them true faith, etc."
the application of the benefits of Christ); but it in-           It is very evident, therefore, that the chain of sal-
cludes the appointment to be the heirs and benefici-          vation is from beginning to end a closed, a particular
aries of the benefits objectively merited and obtained        chain, forged in the eternal decree of election.
by Christ. This is also plainly taught in this article.
In paragraph 1 of this article this is stressed when it          This explains why Article  9' of the First Head
is stated that God has chosen "a certain number of            speaks of election as "the fountain of every saving
persons  to redemption in  Christ," and again when            good;       from which proceed faith, holiness, and the
Christ is called "the foundation of Salvation." Both          other gifts of salvation, and finally eternal life it-
of these terms refer to the objective work of Christ          self, as its fruits and effects..."
in His atoning death, whereby He objectively accomplish-         And this forms the background of Article 8 of
ed our salvation and obtained for the elect the benefits      Canons II, which has been so much the focal point of
of salvation.      And in the second paragraph this is        the current discussion of the atonement. It is strictly
again stressed when it is stated that God decreed to          in the light of Canons I, and particularly Canons I, 7,
give the elect to Christ, "to be saved by him." The           that Canons II, 8 must be interpreted. The elect, and
latter phrase      very evidently refers to the work of       they only are in Christ. In Christ are all the benefits
Christ objectively accomplished in His cross and re-          of salvation, both from the objective and subjective
surrection, sometimes called the work of Christ               viewpoint. Those benefits are only for those who are
`*for us" in distinction from the work of Christ "in          in Christ;       outside of Christ there are no benefits,
us." For that work of Christ "in us" (the application         only wrath.



  TRYING THE  SPIRITS-




          Dispensationalism A Modern Thief


                                                by Rev. R. C.  Havbach



   It is a distinction of Dispensationalism, not of           be asked, "Does not God do many good things to all
Reformed truth, to speak of spiritual blessings and           men, including those outside of Christ, sending rain
temporal blessings. The distinction is made because           upon the just and the unjust, and filling even the
it is mistakenly believed that God makes promises             wicked with food' and gladness?" (See Ps.  17:14 and
that apply to all men without exception, and that He          Acts  14:17).     This is true. But those good gifts are
has blessings for all men, if not spiritual, then             not blessings to the wicked. The Lord says they are
temporal.        But the promises of God are all made         not in Prov.  3:32-35. The righteous enjoy His secret,
exclusively in Christ. Not one of them can be of any          but the froward are an abomination to Him. "The
good to those outside of Christ. There is no favor of         curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but
God shown outside of Christ. To put it more pointedly,        He blesseth the habitation of the just." Those outside
there is no favor of God shown to any apart from the          of Christ He scorns, "but He gives grace to the lowly,"
Cross.    Outside of the purchased mercies of Calvary,        not to the wicked. The wise shall experience glory,
there is no favor shown men.         To speak of special      but fools shame. Good gifts, according to this Word of
mercies in Calvary and common mercies outside                 God, are common, but not blessings. Good gifts to
Calvary is plain Modernism. Any outside of Christ             the righteous are blessings, but to the wicked they
are out of the favor of God. He has such in His view          are like food given to bullocks prepared. for the day
only as the objects of His wrath. There is no place           of slaughter (cp. Jer.  12:3 with Jas.  5:5). Temporal
of refuge or hope for a man except in Christ. If it           gifts do not make temporal blessings. For blessings


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   177

are not temporal; they are spiritual. Temporalities            an unshakable faith in the divine, verbal inspiration
are common; but mercies are particular.                        of Holy Writ, and in the inerrancy and veracity of
   One of the. greatest promises of God of the highest         the promises. They are not so likely to go astray at
spiritual order is found in Heb.  135, where we read,          this point.       But there is the temptation before them--
"for He hath said, `I will never leave thee, nor for-          to yield to the subtle persuasion that  thegreat  majority
sake thee.' " Now, who would conceive of this promise          of God's promises do not belong to Christians at all  -
as for the Jews, and not for the Church? Yet to whom           they are but a "parenthesis" people  - but, because
was this precious promise first given'? To Jews  -             made to the people of the Old Covenant, are the pro-
Moses and Joshua (cp. Deut.  31:6  with Josh.  15).            perty of the Jews only.
This proves that there are evangelical promises in the            Dispensationalism does go to the extreme of belit-
Old Testament, and that, according to the writer of            tling the Old Testament, its importance and value.
the Epistle to the Hebrews, they are for the one               Some of its disciples cannot criticize strongly enough
Church of all ages. (cp. Heb.  12:22-24 with  13:5,6,          those who do not limit themselves entirely to the
marg. refs.).     Now, let not Dispensationalists object       New Testament. This is done, not by open atheists,
here to say we are "spiritualizing" in such a way that         or by known Modernists, but by those who are the
we, the Church, take all the blessings of Scripture,           reputed champions of orthodoxy, who profess the plenary
and leave all the curses to the Jews, that we thus rob         inspiration of holy Scripture. So the alert  defences
the Jews. For all the Jews who have but the faith of           of the Christian may become slowed and deadened,
Abraham are with us partakers of the same promises.            without his awareness, merely because the ministry
We do not rob them of anything. Rather,  Dispensa-             he sits under is that of men faithful to the "funda-
tionalism, by its very nature, makes its adherents             mentals," well versed in Scripture and completely
religious thieves who rob believers, the Church, whether       dedicated to Christ.       Then when they come out with
Jew or Gentile, of the comfort meant for them in the           their "dispensational truth," they "must be right!"
gracious promises of the Old Covenant.                            We say once again, Dispensationalism compares
   Since the -Puritans and Reformers were quite aware          in many ways to Modernism, in fact, has in it the
of the dangers inherent in this faulty interpretive            seeds of  M,odernism,  and so can be no adequate de-
system, it will be most instructive to closely consider        fense against or refutation of Modernism. Modernists
a condensation from John Owen given in answer to the           are like King Jehoiakim, who with his pen-knife cut
plea that promises made to Old Testament Israel belong         whole sections of the Scripture out of the Book of the
exclusively to the Jews.       "If this plea be admitted,      Covenant and threw them into the fire. The teachers
I know not any one promise that would more evidently           of "dispensational truth" have often called attention
fall under the power of it, than this we have now in           to these destructive "higher critical" methods of the
consideration.    It was made to a peculiar person, and        Modernists in their handling of Scripture. Thomas
that upon a peculiar occasion; made to a general or            Jefferson's version of the New Testament is a good
captain of armies, with respect to the great wars he           example of this pernicious method. Hence the tendency
had to undertake, upon the special command .of God.            is to allay the fears in the minds of the hearers of
May not a poor, hungry believer say, `What is this to          these who are regarded as "sound expositors of
me?    I am not a general of an army, have no wars             Scripture" and "internationally known Bible teachers."
to make upon God's command.             The virtues of this    The tendency is to be favorably impressed by men who
promise doubtless expired with the conquest of Canaan,         "stand for the whole Word of God" and who earnestly
and died with him to whom it was made !' " But Owen            denounce "modernism" and expose "evolutionism."
goes on to maintain "the sameness  of love that is in          The inference is, here certainly we must have men
aZE the promises, their establishment in  one  Mediator,       who may be safely followed in all their assertions!
and the general concernment of believers in  every  one        Yet both dispensationalism and modernism are pro-
of them, and that on whatsoever occasion given. This           ductive of a fractional, pen-knife edition of the Bible,
promise to Joshua is here applied to the conditionof           so that "the whole Word of God" is hardly recogni-
the weakest, meanest and poorest of the saints of              zable.    For Modernists claim much of the Old and
God, to all and every one of them, to the saints of old,       New Testaments to be spurious; while  Dispensation-
even Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David and the residue of           alists claim much of both Testaments belongs not to
them who walked with God in their generations. So              us. Both pen-knife addicts render much of Scripture
that we may say boldly (without staggering at it by            a dead letter.
unbelief) `the Lord is  my  Helper.' This is a conclusion         Of course, it may be argued that many promises
of faith! because God said to Joshua, a BELIEVER,              were given to Israel and so can have no direct re-
`I will never leave  thee,  nor forsake  thee' (though         ference to the Church, that therefore Christians cannot
upon a particular occasion, and in reference to a par-         fairly appropriate them, nor justly expect their fulfilment
ticular employment),  every          believer may say with     to them. But if this were true, then Rom.  15:4 would
boldness, `He is  my Helper  !' "                              not be true:        "For whatsoever things were written
   It is not possible that believers be not led in-            aforetime, were written for  our learning, that we
fallibly to glory. Yet it is possible that their comfort       through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might
along the way to a great extent be undermined. This            have hope." If certain passages of God's Word do not
occurs when their confidence in the promises of God            belong to me, how can they be of comfort to me? how
is either weakened or removed. True believers have             can that bring me hope which belongs exclusively to


178                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

the Jews ?    Christ came not to limit and segregate           their arbitrary and subjective scheme of seven dis-
the promises, some to Jews and some to Christians.             pensations. This is not to "rightly divide the Word of
He came "to  confirm  the promises made unto the               truth," but to turn the Scriptures exactly upside down.
fathers, and that the  Gentiles  might glorify God for         All of God's works and ways, all of history are based
His mercy."  (15:8,9)                                          upon the everlasting Covenant. His plan and purpose
   Dispensationalists, who regard certain vast areas           are with a view to the ultimate complete realization
of the Old Testament of carnal and earthly content,            of His covenant. The various dispensations are but
charge that their opponents misapply these parts to            dispensations of the covenant, parts of the one grand
themselves in that they "spiritualize" them. We turn           foreordained whole. God's own essential, inherent life
that around, charging that they "sectionize" and "ato-         is an intertheistic, trinitarian, covenant life.    Each
mize" the Scriptures, setting the exact boundaries of          of the three persons of the divine trinity conspire
mutually exclusive d i s p e n s at i on s, and dividing to    to realize the fulfilment of the great design of the
distinct companies various parts of the Word of God.           covenant, which was that God in Christ should dwell
This method erects arbitrary hedges which bar Christ's         in the glorified election of grace in the New Heavens
sheep from large portions of the green pastures of His         and New Earth. The three persons unite to secure this
Word.    For, as they say, the Old Testament does not          design. All their acts of creation, providence and grace
contain "Church truth," hence is not for us. Neither           were and are performed to this end. The Father or-
do the Gospels and most of the Revelation.  Ultra-             dained the Son to be the incarnate God, the anointed
dispensationalists leave for the Christian no more than        Mediator in His office of prophet, priest and king.
a few prison epistles of Paul as that which applies to         The Spirit pledged Himself for the effectual application
the Church today. The epistles of Peter belong to a            of the purchased redemption of Christ to all its pre-
coming age and to the Jewish remnant in the future             destined beneficiaries. Therefore, in Christ God would
great tribulation.     The Sermon on the Mount is re-          establish, maintain and fulfil His covenant. He would
served for the Jews in the promised millennial kingdom.        prepare the way for its realization, actually provide
                                                               all things necessary to that end and guarantee the
   What is so fundamentally wrong with  Dispensa-              success of it. There is God's plan of the ages. In it
tionalism is that it has a wrong and not the most basic        we have a biblical  .dispensationalism,  which alone is
starting point. They base God's plan of the ages upon          in harmony with Ephesians 1:lO.





         FROM HOLY WRIT-





                                  The Book Of Hebrews


                                                  by Rev. G.  Lubbers



GOD'S WORD CONCERNING THE ANGELS                               place of the eternal Son in God's decree and providence
AND CONCERNING THE CHRIST CONTRASTED                           in history.    This is evident from such a Scripture
(continued) Hebrews  1:7, 8, 9, 14                             passage as Romans  829 "...that he might be the
   In quoting Psalm  97:7 the writer speaks of God's           firstborn among many brethren." Christ is, according
bringing in the "Firstbegotten into the world." We             to Colossians  1:15, the Firstborn of all creatures; he
observe that the term Firstbegotten is not the same as         is such as the Firstborn out of the dead,  (Idem 18)
"Onlybegotten."       The latter refers to the personal        and as he is exalted at the right hand of the Majesty
subsistency of the person of the Son in the  inter-            of God on high.
trinitarian life of God, and the relationship of the              Evidently the bringing in of the Firstborn of God
eternal Son to the person of the Father and of the Holy        refers not simply to his birth and nativity at Bethle-
Spirit in the Godhead, while the former refers to the          hem, (born from the virgin Mary), but must refer to


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    179

Christ's exaltation, and final glorious manifestation in      church and over the nations. This sceptre is a sceptre  `
the last day, when the Son of Man shall come with all         of righteousness. The Christ of God loved righteousness,
the holy angels (Matthew  25:31). Truely this greatness       even in the depths of hell. In his blood and atonement
of the `Firstborn does not wait absolutely till that time     it is established forever.
of the final return of Christ in his Parousia and the            Only such a throne, established in righteousness,
eternal state of all things. How could it! Jacob already      can endure forever.        And therefore the kingdoms of
sees this greatness of the Christ in relationship to the      the world always disappear. Such was the case with
angels in his dream at Bethel, (Genesis  28:10-12) and        the great kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece
Christ refers to this at the very beginning of his earthly    and Rome.        It was because the iniquity of their sin
ministry when he says to Nathanael "Verily, verily,           was found out and had come up before God. However,
I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open,           the writer to the Hebrews also signals another view-
(in an abiding state of being open) and the angels of God     point here. It is that the heavens and the earth, which
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." (John          are now, are in their very nature such that they cannot
1:51)    Did not the very heavens open at  Bethlehem-         endure forever. The writer quotes Psalm  102:25-27
Ephratha in that wondrous night of Jesus' birth when          and draws a contrast between the earthly present con-
an angel announced the glad-tidings, "For unto you is         stitution and nature of things and the abiding kingdom
born this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord?"             of Christ which shall not end.          When this present
And were there not suddenly a multitude of the heavenly       creation shall cease, the kingdom of Christ abides in a
hosts with the shepherds, saying "Glory to God in the         kingdom in the New heaven and in the new earth.
highest ?"       And was this song not really the song of     Writes the Psalmist in the afore-mentioned Psalm
Israel, all through the Old Testament dispensation, and       "Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth:
has it not been sung with more understanding and hope         and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall
ever afterwards? However, how much greater will this          perish but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall
song be enhanced when Jesus shall sit upon his throne         wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change
in his kingdom of glory in the ages to come. Then we          them, and they shall be changed.          But thou art the
shall see him in all his glory face to face  - then when      same, and thy years shall have no end." Thus the
the sacerdotal prayer as recorded in John  17:24  will        eternal kingdom of the everlasting king is contrasted
be fulfilled, the holy utterance from his pure lips           with all that is transitory and fades away. Here are
"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given          strong teachings concerning the last things on God's
me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my            agenda with the world, and concerning the eternal
glory, which thou hast given me: for thou  lovest me          state.      This is the death-blow to all the cultism of
before the foundation of  she world." Such love the           post-millenialism of every hue and color, which deny
LORD never had for an angel; all the angels must              the resurrection, and the renewal of all things. The
fall prostrate before him.        The royal diadem has        kingdom of Christ is heavenly.         The very heavens
been placed by God himself upon his head; he is               under which we dwell and the earth which has soaked
crowned Lord of all !                                         up the blood of saints will vanish away and grow old.
                                                              God will change it for new garments and raiments
THE EVERLASTING THRONE AND KINGDOM                            to exhibit His glory in Christ.
OF CHRIST Hebkews 1:8, 9.                                        The reason why the earthly must vanish is that it
    All Unitarians and monarchians, past and present,         is not eternal. It is itself a part of the history of the
deny the diety of Christ. Yes, they will allow him to         coming of the Son of God. Over against this we have
be "divine" because he is so human. These infidels            the eternity of God and of the Christ of God. God
are legions upon legions. They are antichrists who            does not change and His years do not end. Such a King
deny the faith of the fathers. (I John  2:18;4:3) These       is given us from the God of Israel, who is the God of
must not be allowed to enter our home, neither must we        the living, and not of the dead.
bid them Godspeed. Nevertheless Psalm  45:6 clearly           CHAPTER II
teaches that Jesus is "God." He is the true God and
eternal life.      (I John  5:20) That is exactly what the    He brews 2:1-4
Spirit of Christ calls him in Psalm  45:6 as quoted                     "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest
here in Hebrews  1:8, where we read "Thy throne, 0               heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any
God, is forever and ever."          And this "0 God" is          time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken
addressed to the Son! Yes, there it stands: God, the             by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and
Son.     He is very God of God. His is an-everlasting            disobedience received a just recompence  of reward;
                                                                 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation;
throne, kingdom and dominion. All other thrones in               which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and
history toppled, but His throne shall stand forever.             was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God
His is the kingdom, power and glory forever.                     also bearing them witness, both with signs andwonders,
    The very idea and nature of a "throne" is that it            and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost,
represents the rule and dominion of God over the                 according to His own will?"
creature.     God does not have a throne in relationship
to Himself. A throne finds its place in the inhabitable       KEYNOTE EXHORTATION TO THE HEBREWS
world of God. And with the throne belongs the sceptrej        He brews 2:l
the emblem of  divines  authority to rule over the                God has spoken. He had spoken of old time by the


-280                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

 prophets to the fathers.       In these last days He has       warned Israel of old time, standing at the beginning
 spoken unto us in His Son. That is the prejudice of             of the era of the types and shadows, so the writer to
 faith;     it is the end of all contradiction; truly is is     the Hebrews warns the church in the New Testament
 the last and only court of appeal. Well may we take            dispensation  in, regard to all the words of God, both
 that speaking of God seriously. When the writer says           in their promisory nature and in their fulfilment.
 "therefore" he stops to exhort the readers to take                 Moses' exhortation was the "keynote" for all the
 this word of God seriously by pointing out the sanction        prophets after them.           In this passage we hear the
 which God gives to His word both in the Old and in the         echo, so to speak, of that warning of Moses to the
 New Testaments. If the word of God was to be taken              church of the New Testament dispensation, for it is
 seriously in the Old Testament, it must be taken far           the same God speaking in both of them.
 more seriously in the New Testament. Here we see                   Moreover, here this necessity of hearing and heeding
 the warning finger of God raised to us.                        is intensified. The reason is that God's speaking in
     The writer to the Hebrews will utter more warnings         His Son is so much greater and more glorious than it
 in this letter which must be heeded by the hearers.             could ever be in Moses. Hence, we ought to give the
 However, in our passage the warning is of a general            more earnest heed to the things which have been
 nature;     it is not concerning some particular fault or      heard, preached in the gospel. For the greater the.
 sin, but refers to the basic attitude toward God, His          things heard, the greater the disobedience and the divine
 word and toward those who have spoken it, be they              retribution by the sovereign Judge of all the earth.
 angels or men. For it is with the living God with whom
 we have to do. For if we do not have or maintain this           THE THINGS SPOKEN THROUGH ANGELS
 basic attitude of faith. and obedience to the word of           STEDFAST AND SURE Hebrews 2:2
 -God, all the instruction which the writer has given,
 and which he will give together with the admonitions               There were many appearances of angels in the
 will be of no avail.       Then the readers and hearers        Old Testament dispensation to the fathers, and none
 will be like an empty vessel, because they are like the        of these appearances of individual angels to the saints
 forgetful hearers. The figure of speech employed in            of old need be excluded from what is here stated.
 the Greek is that of "flowing through" like waters             Yet it seems to me that the writer here has reference
 through a sieve.                                               to the particular appearance of the angels at the occasion
     Who does not think in this connection of the re-           of the law-giving at Sinai.         This is evident not only
 peated warnings of Moses to the children of Israel             from the fact of the distinction made in Heb.  1:l of
 to whom the oracles of God had been intrusted.                 the twofold speaking of God, respectively to the fathers
 Writes he in Deut.  4:9       "Only take heed to thyself,      and to  US,  but equally evident from the fact that the
 and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget these           entire book of Hebrews contrasts the Old Covenant
 things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they               under the types and shadows with the New Testament
 -depart- from thy heart all the days of thy life: but          in Christ Jesus, a  I<ing-Priest after the order of
 teach them to thy sons and thy. son's sons, specially          Melchizedek.     Since this Old Covenant begins with
 the day thou stoodest before Horeb, when the LORD              Moses at Mount Sinai with the law-giving, and since
 said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I             there on Horeb God gave the law through angels in
 will make them hear my words, that they may learn to           the hand of a Mediator, Moses, we hold that the writer
 fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth,      is speaking of what God spoke through angels to Moses
 and that they may teach their children." As Moses              and thus to us at Mount Sinai. (Gal. 3:19b)



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



                              The Task of the Ministry

                                                 by Rev. G.  Vanden Berg


     In four distinct phases the task of the ministry of        raments, and, (4) together. with the elders, exercise
 the Word is spelled out in the Form of Ordination.             Christian discipline. Two things are to be immediately
 He must (1) preach the Word of God, (2) lead the               observed here. First of all, it ought to be evident to
 congregation in public prayer, (3) administer the  sac-        us that although our Form distinquishes a four-fold


                                               THESTANDARDBEL~RER                                                    181

labor, the task of the minister of the' Word is really         large extent lost.         The preacher himself must live
one.       All of these aspects of his labor constitute a      according to the Word of God so that in his entire
form of the preaching of the Word.           In the second     life is clearly manifest a most powerful application of
place, to this other forms of the preaching of the Word        that Word. The preacher who warns his congregation
may be added.         Thus, for example, the call-letter       against the sins of worldliness while he himself in-
that is used in our churches stipulates the following          dulges in worldly pleasures is not going to effectively
as expected labors of the minister of the Word:                convey his message to the congregation. The preacher
"P,reaching twice on the Lord's Day, attending to              who preaches emphatically against the sin of covet-
catechetical instruction, to family visiting and calling       ousness and uses all of his oratorical ability to persuade
on the sick, and furthermore of all things that pertain        the congregation to give more liberally toward the
to the work of a faithful and diligent servant of the Lord,    support of Kingdom causes is going to be disappointed
all these agreeably to the Word of God."                       with the response to his preaching if he himself mani-
   It follows from all of this that it is quite impossible     fests a mercenary walk of life. Even as the example
to make a complete list itemizing the varied labors            of parents in the home is a very potent means of
expected of the minister. A characterization of this           instructing the children, so the example of the pastor
office must be left general. Both the congregation and         is not without influence within the church. The Word
the minister must realize that it is expected of him           of God must then be applied to himself and then he
that he be "a faithful and diligent servant of the             must be instrumental in applying that Word, the power
Lord."       In any way in which he can minister to the        of which he himself tastes, to his flock. This he must
spiritual needs of the flock of Christ, he must stand          do by "admonishing, comforting and reproving accord-
in readiness to do so, and the church must not expect          ing to everyone's need."
other labors of him that would detract from the                   In this task the preacher often "steps on toes."
faithful and diligent execution of this calling. With          He creates enemies which simply cannot be avoided.
this in mind we may consider the description of his            There are always some who are willing to hear the
labor as we find it in the Form of Ordination.                 Word of God as long as it has no application. They
   The opening statement of the Form expresses suc-            readily assent to the historic facts of the Bible and
cinctly the preacher's task of preaching the Word. It          unhesitatingly express agreement with the doctrinal
states:      "That they faithfully explain to their flock,     confession of the church. However, when it comes to
the Word of the Lord, revealed by the writings of the          practicing the things they profess to believe, it is a
prophets and the apostles; and apply the same as well          different story.         A preacher who gives a theoretic
in general as in particular, to the edification of the         exposition of doctrine or relates historic incidents
hearers; instructing, admonishing, comforting and re-          from the Bible is, in their judgment, a good preacher,
proving, according to every one's need; preaching              but if he applies these things to the congregation so
repentance towards God, and reconciliation with him            that they begin to affect their way of living, their
through faith in Christ;        and refuting with the Holy     evaluation of him undergoes a radical change. Yet,
Scriptures,      all schisms    and heresies which are         the preacher must always apply the Word of God. It
repugnant to the pure doctrine."                               is for him, not a matter of choice, but a responsi-
   Several things are to be observed here. Funda-              bility of his office.
mentally important is it that this entire charge is not           In close connection with this the Form of Ordination
the product of man's thinking but is most emphatically         states that the minister of the Word must "preach
in accord with the Word of God itself. The Form of             repentance towards God, and reconciliation with Him
Ordination offers considerable Scriptural proof for            through Faith in Christ."          Under this heading the
this which we will not quote now.          Essentially the     preacher is mandated to proclaim the whole counsel
same description of this office is contained in the            of God. He must preach the full-orbed gospel or, in
words of Paul to Timothy:          "Preach the Word; be        the words of Canons II, 5, "the promise of the gospel
instant in season, out of season;        reprove, rebuke,      is, that whosoever believeth in Christ crucified,  shall
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." (11               not perish, but have everlasting life. This promise,
Timothy  4:2)                                                  together with the command to repent and believe, ought
   The task of the preacher is to  explain  the Word           to be declared and published to all nations, and `to all
of God.        He must be a teacher. When some of the          persons promiscuously and without distinction, to whom
sheep fail to understand his instruction and ask him           God out of His good pleasure sends the gospel.". Of
questions concerning the things he teaches, he must            course, also this needs explanation.        The preacher
not become indignant or turn from them in disgust,             may not preach the Arminian lie. He may not speak
but he must exercise all patience to teach. Pain-              about reconciliation with God along the lines that all
stakingly he must explain Scripture with Scripture so          Modernism advocates.            He must preach the truth
that the truth is unveiled with such clarity that all          concerning God and His eternal and unchangeable
can understand.                                                works, about Christ and His redemptive accomplish-
   The office of the minister is not that of a lecturer.       ment, and about man and his salvation by grace
He must also apply the Word of God which he explains           alone. He must show the truth that God has reconciled
in the preaching to the church. To this application            His people unto Himself in Christ Jesus, and he must
belongs, first of all, a self-application. Without this        demand sincere and wholehearted repentance on the
the  effect@eness of the  preacher"s  teaching is to a         part of all, while at the same time he shows that the


182                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

act of repentance and the way of repentance is the                 critical of this false doctrine but God Himself through
fruit of Divine grace in those who are indeed the                  His Word is declaring the truth over against the lie
children of God. The preacher is an ambassador of                  of man. To safeguard the church against the danger
God, and therefore he may come only with God's                     of being infiltrated with all kinds of human philosophies,
message.                                                           the preacher must diligently and faithfully expose
  Finally, in this connection, the preacher is enjoined            heresy in whatever form it may appear and over against
to "refute with the Holy Scriptures, all schisms and               it hold forth the Word of Life.
heresies which are repugnant to the pure doctrine."                   The second part of the minister's task is that of
Not infrequently strong opposition is found in the                 offering the public prayers of the congregation. His
church to this phase of the preacher's task. As long               task is not only that of prophet and teacher but he is
as the preacher limits his refugation of heresy to                 also a priest of God in behalf of the people. This part
those false doctrines that were taught centuries ago               of the ordination form reads as follows:
the opposition remains rather mild but if heresies                    "It is the office of the Ministers, publicly to call
of a more recent date or current evils in the church               upon the name of the Lord in behalf of the whole con-
are refuted, the dislike for the preaching. becomes                gregation;       for that which the apostles say, we will
rather acute in some.       The preacher is accused of             give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry
trying to break down other churches or of being a                  of the Word, is common to these pastors with the
chronic fault-finder and the like. Little do these people          apostles;       to which St. Paul alluding, thus speaketh
seem to realize that it is an essential part of the                to Timothy:         `I exhort therefore, that first of all
preacher's calling to "refute heresies and schisms."               supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
He must do this, not simply because the Form of                    thanks be made for all men; for kings, and for all
Ordination by which he is ordained into office says                that are in authority,' " etc. ( I Tim.  2:1, 2)
so, but because the Word of God in Titus  1:9 says:                   It is evident that this refers to more than the
"That a minister must hold fast the faithful Word of               mere fact that in congregational worship the minister
God, that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to                leads the congregation in prayer. Oh, to be sure, he also
exhort and convince the gainsayers." The mouths of                 does this, and we do not minimize that part of public
many unruly and vain talkers who subvert whole                     worship. However, the emphasis here, as is especially
houses must be stopped.         They must be rebuked               evident from the passages of Scripture cited, appears
sharply. (Titus 1: 10-11)        And the preacher must             to be that a faithful and diligent minister of the Word
boldly refute and expose all heresy, not because he                is one who carries the needs and burdens of the church
wants to be destructively critical, but for the truth's            upon his heart. The true spiritual welfare of the people
sake. For that reason this refutation of heresy must               of God is his deepest concern. He knows their trials
always be "with  the Holy  Scriptures."     This is very           and temptations and the dangers that beset them each
important.    The preacher may not rail against another            day.       He realizes too that without God they cannot
man's opinion simply because he does not agree with                stand, but will surely fall.       Hence, he brings them
it or has some personal  predjudice against it. That is            continually to the throne of grace. He never ceases
not preaching.     Rather, if another is teaching that             to pray for them.        The preacher, as representing
which is in conflict with the Word of God, he may and              Christ in the congregation, is an  interceeding high
he must use the Word of God to show from it that the               priest giving himself over continually to prayer.
teaching he is combatting is of the lie. When this is done         One cannot help wondering how much praying for the
we must remember that it is not the preacher then                  congregation preachers can do in many of the ac-
who is expressing disagreement with  .and is being                 tivities in which preachers indulge today?


  IN HIS  FEAR-


                      Honour To  Wh.om Honour
                                                              5

                                                  by Rev. J. A. Heys

   If it is a legitimate excuse today, it will be one              thereafter.      For the principles of God's Word never
tomorrow.                                                          change.        Men may come and `men may go. All flesh
   If today it is a principle of the Word of God, it               is as grass and soon passes away.         But the Word of
will be such a principle tomorrow and all the days                 God abides forever. Not one jot or tittle of that Word


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   183

will pass away, although heaven and earth shall both           founded, that excuse will be as valid in the days when
pass away as we now know them.                                 the final form of all antichristian activity is upon this
   We do well, therefore, to take a serious and                earth. In fact in those days when one will have to show
careful look, especially if we have already taken the          his allegiance to the beast by taking his mark upon
position that there are conflicting callings for the child     his right hand or forehead, the matter will. be far more
of God in this life and that he has to choose between          serious about providing for one's families' needs than
them.       If this is true, he had better be sure that he     even today. If today we are required to join ourselves
makes the proper choice.        And he had better be sure      with unbelievers in acts of riot, revolt, rebellion and
that the conflict is not in his soul instead of in the         revolution in order to hold our jobs, the requirement
Word of God.                                                   of that mark of the beast will be all the more important.
   That to which we refer and have in mind in regard           To-day one can get another job, often with less pay
to our calling to render honour to whom honour is              and a job for which one is not trained and skilled. But
due is the frequently voiced argument in defense of            he can find another way to provide for his family
membership in the so-called neutral unions. Neutral            without walking in a way of dishonouring those whom
they certainly are not, for how can that which is              God has placed over him in the sphere of labor. In
antichristian in its very approach to the problems of          the days of the Antichrist it will be either take the
the working man be termed neutral? We have besides             mark of the beast or be given absolutely no right to
the words of Jesus, "He that is not with me is against         buy or sell, which is far more critical than not being
me;        and he that gathereth not with me scattereth        able to find work. You will find no social security, no
abroad." Matthew  12:30. That is not an oversimplifica-        State welfare, no doles, no support of any kind. And if
tion of the matter but the basic principle whereby  all        it is a principle of the Word of God that one must
men and their actions may be judged and indeed must            provide for the needs of his family regardless of what
be judged.      By their fruits ye shall know them. And        commitments and alliances man must make in order
when we find fruit of not gathering with Christ and not        to provide, this principle will still be there in the days
walking with Him in the problems of this world, or in          of the Antichrist and the  whole  Church membership
any sphere of life, we have His word for it that it is         will have to heed this principle and take the mark of
antichristian activity.                                        the beast, for that mark will touch every man, woman
   But the excuse is raised that Scripture either              and child and not simply men in some fields of labor.
contains contradictory or subordinate principles that             And then the fifth commandment will be set aside.
demand of His people that in certain circumstances they        Paul is mistaken when he says that we must render
join the so-called neutral unions in order to fulfill          honour to whom honour is due. Man's earthly needs
their God-given calling.         We come then to find a        are more important than his spiritual.         We are to
conflict between the teaching of the Word of God that          restate the truth and declare Jesus' words not to be
the labouring man must render honour to his employer           relevant to the day in which we live and therefore
and between the calling of every husband and household         declare instead, "Seek ye first the things of this life,
head to provide for the needs of his family. Paul              and the things of the kingdom of God and its righteous-
says, does he not, in II Corinthians  12:14b, "For the         ness will be added to you." But let us remember that in
children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the          the law we have four commandments FIRST in regard
parents for the children."         It certainly is a man's     to our inner as well as outer conduct towards the living
calling to work and to provide for the needs of his            God.       First is the commandment that we love God with
family.      The sluggard is admonished to go to the ant       all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and in
and consider her ways. The law commands of us that             that love to love the neighbour. Taking the mark of the
we work six days. A man has a moral responsibility             beast in order to provide food for our loved ones is
over against his family to provide for its needs and           loving them in a lack of love towards God. It is taking
to be diligent to care for those dependent upon him.           a stand of opposition to Him in order to favour our
       But, and this is the point which we began to stress,    families and loved ones. It is a love that is not in His
if that means that one has to join the unions of the           fear, but in the fear that He cannot and will not keep
world, be unequally yoked with the unbelievers and             His Word and take care of us. It is a love in the fear
support or even participate in their acts of dishonouring      of losing the things of this life, because we are more
the employer, because of this calling which God gives          interested in this than in losing God's favour and the
to man to support his family diligently and faithfully,        things of His kingdom.
then this department and these lines of this magazine             No different is it when today we seek our daily
would be solemnly obliged to tell each and every               bread in the way of rebellion, revolution, riot and
reader that he should by all means in the dreadful             revolt.      When we seek  - and today it is not even a
days which lie ahead for God's Church, willingly and           case of the necessities but the luxuries of life  - the
unhesitatingly take the mark of the beast.         Come to     things of this life in a way of dishonouring the authori-
think of it, they would not in that way even be dreadful       ties which God placed over us, then we dishonour
days, but times of prosperity and material advance-            God.       And by our actions we condemn the Son of God
ment. But if the excuse holds today as far as the labor        in our flesh who told Satan, "Man shall not live by
unions are concerned, whose very constitutions and             bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out
preambles spell out the godless and antichristian              of the mouth of God." The meaning, simply stated,
principles for which they stand and on which they are          is that we may not have any bread which we obtain


184                                             THESTANDARDBEARER

in the way of breaking one of God's commandments.               threatening the employer with loss, if he does not
That means we may not steal to eat. It means also               come across is breaking not only the fifth commandment
that we may not riot and rebel against the employer,            but also the eighth and the first! Listen to what the
go on strike, insist that we retain our job but let the         Heidelberg Catechism has to say about the eighth
employer suffer loss while we refuse to work until              commandment in its positive demand, "But what
he meets our conditions.        As long as we insist that it    doth God require in this commandment?              That I
is our job, we must honour the employer as employer             promote the advantage of my neighbour in every
and may not resort to force, coercion, violence, threat         instance I can or may;     and deal with him as I desire
and the like to get him to go our way with wages or             to be dealt with by others: further that I faithfully
working conditions.        We may not threaten him, put         labor, so that I may be able to relieve the needy."
him in a "tight spot," cause him inconvenience and              If you do not want to accept this confession drawn up
loss in order to get our own way, to get our opinion            by man, you must still bow before the words of Jesus
adopted, to make him see things as we see them.                 referred to therein, namely, the so-called Golden
Then we assume the position of employer, master or              Rule:    "Do unto others as you would have them do
plain "boss," and the honour we should bestow upon              unto you."     The labor unions of the world do not
him we take to ourselves.                                       subscribe to this but have substituted: Do unto others
    But you did not go on strike? You do not approve            what you must and can in order to get them to do unto
of these actions?         You have refused the picket line      you the advantage and good that you seek!
and to serve in a blockade of the factory or the like?              And as long as you belong to institutions, organiza-
But have you protested against these evils and called           tions or societies that practice this evil after your
them evils and sin and great wickedness before the              protests have been rejected, you are responsible before
union representatives?         Have you joined labor or-        God for all the evil of the organization which you con-
ganizations  - either in factory, office, farming areas         tinue to support morally and financially. The leaders
or what have you, it makes no difference - that practice        who stand at the head of such organizations are by
all this violence, riot, threat and coercion, and then          your choice your representatives. The members who
given a Christian witness that these things are of the          actually do the violence are your servants and helpers
devil and been left to go your way? It is safe to say           who do the evil work for you; but you retain the guilt.
that you have not, because by your very Christian               And. although our government has made union member-
witness you have already violated the constitution of           ship compulsory for some types of work, it has not
these so-called neutral unions. They "make no bones             made that work compulsory. And even if it did, We
about it" that they are not Christian, are not dedicated        ought to obey God rather than man.
to the service of Christ Who said that man should not               Is the matter really so serious? Just answer the
live by bread alone, Who moved Peter to write in-               question, Will it be so serious in the days of the mark
fallibly, "Servants, be subject to your masters with            of the beast? Why cannot we not do a little thing like
all fear;     not only to the good and gentle, but also to      that? Why can we not join his ranks and still hold on
the froward, For this is thankworthy; if a man for              to our religious convictions in silence and seclusion?
conscience towards God endure grief, suffering wrong-           Why can we not vex our righteous souls as Lot and
fully," and Who through the Apostle John warns against          stay in Sodom?      Well, God brought him out, did He
taking the mark of the beast for bread and food and             not? and showed us that otherwise we will perish with
life.                                                           the wicked. Are you sure that He will bring you out?
                                                                Elimelech tried to live by bread alone and went to
    Even then, if you object and are left to retain your        Moab for a short sojourn, till the famine was over
membership in such an antichristian organization and            in Israel. He never got back but died in exile!
the antichristian activities are continued and practiced,           And again, Adam and Eve may seem to have com-
you are guilty of all of that violence, murder, de-             mitted such a "little sin," but it is the cause of all
struction of property, dishonouring of the masters              our woe and death today. Ham's sin seemed so minor,
(employers), revolt and rebellion  - and it is rebellion        but the curse came because of it. Uzzah seemed so
when one does not do the employer the honour of being           concerned with God's cause, but God smote him at
master over his employees  - because of corporate               once when he touched the ark. And we could go on.
responsibility.       As we wrote before, the wickedness        ANY sin of any kind is not honouring GOD to Whom
of belonging to the so-called labor unions is not that          all honour is due. All sin is telling Him that we will
organizing into unions is wrong. A united request for           not honour Him as the Lawgiver. In His fear we will
better working conditions and higher wages is not per           render honour to Him.       And if we do not, we must
se wicked.         But the strike is and always is. Force,      live in fear of His holy wrath. Our God is a consuming
coercion always is. Taking things in our hands and              fire.


                         Only when the Holy Spirit accomplishes the wonder-work of faith in the
                         heart can the sinner accept Christ.       And he in whom the Spirit has
                         wrought the marvellous work of faith can nor will ever reject Him!
                                                        - H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace"


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          185



    ALL AROUND US-


                                  A Loud, Clear Protest

                           A Repudiation of Dordt

                                                       by Pyof. H. Hanko

   One aspect of the controversies within the Christian           knowledge by their cultural and historical situations,
Reformed Church which has deeply troubled many                    and that some of their consequent, inevitable mis-
within and outside that denomination is the absence of            interpretations of reality and that some of their naive
any effective opposition to the liberalism which is               misconceptions have been perpetuated in the Bible."
troubling the church.       Often the fervent wish is ex-                    With this low view of the inspired writers, of
pressed that someone could act as an articulate and                  course, Van Elderen can hardly defend the infallibility
forceful spokesman for conservatism and orthodoxy.                   and inerrancy of the Scriptures.           Nor is it inex-
At times, it is true, various voices of protest have                 plicable that, as a result, young men in their clas-
been raised against the evils in the church. But these               sical examinations should ask brightly:            "Do you
voices have often been bland and weak, urging only                   want a theological or a scientific answer?" A young
caution and restraint.       While the grievous doctrinal            Christian Reformed minister said to me a few sum-
errors which threaten the church require voices strong               mers ago: "Of course, you know the Bible's not in-
and clear, courageous in the defense of the faith and                fallible. Words crumble...."
in the condemnation of evil.          When one's house is            Meeter continues by referring to an article in
burning down, it will not do to reflect upon whether              which John Timmer and William La Fleur (Christian
the fire is really as grave a threat as is imagined; it           Reformed missionaries to Japan) defended the multiple
is not sufficient to call for an investigating committee          authorship of the prophecy of Isaiah. (This is an old
to inquire into the seriousness of the fire. It is not            modernist position which is intended to deny that the
even adequate merely to whisper hoarsely: "Fire,                  passages in Isaiah  - especially the ones referring
Fire."        All efforts must be put forth to extinguish         to Cyrus and the return from captivity  - are pro-
the blaze.                                                        phetic.       It is taught by these modernists that the
   But now and then such a loud and clear voice is                second part of Isaiah was written by someone other
heard calling out to the church concerning the dangers            than Isaiah who lived after the return from captivity
which threaten her. One such article recently appeared            and was speaking of past events.)               Meeter rejects
in the Torch and Trumpet written by Merle Meeter,                 this view which Timmer and La Fleur propounded
professor at Dordt College, and entitled "The Winds               and writes:
Of Change."         He points to various liberal writings                   And now our missionaries come before us excitedly
which have appeared in the Reformed Journal and ex-                  dragging the mouldering corpse that they have ex-
poses their evils.                                                   humed.
   In the first part of the article, Meeter attacks
the influence of Bultmann in the Seminary of the                     Meeter writes too about the late Peter Berkhout's
Christian Reformed Church. Commenting on an article               plea for theistic evolution. Berkhout had argued it was
by Bastian Van  Elderen (professor of New Testament               impossible to obtain a Ph.D. unless one believed in
in the Seminary), he points out that Van  Elderen  is             some form of evolution. This Meeter denies,  point?
ready to concede that Bultmann has made a consider-               ing to several professors in Dordt.               Berkhout had
able contribution to Biblical hermeneutics:                       also pleaded that the young people in the church clamor
                                                                  for such revision of the church's position. Meeter
      Such commendation of neo-orthodox paganism has              comments:
   become fashionable. It seems that orthodox theologians
   are not worth quoting anymore; only those who deny                       Irrefutable logic . . . . Some young people are clam-
   Christ's deity can afford us valuable insights into               oring for the right to premarital sexual experimen-
   theological truth. One cannot repress the text: "Be               tation; shall we stop trying to suppress that natural
   ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. . .             `#truth"?
   for. . . what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?        Lewis Smedes had joined with those who desire
   Meeter further points out that Van  Elderen has                the church to become a member of the World Council
increasingly adopted the "Sitz-im-Leben idea" which               of Churches.          Smedes considered the W.C.C. "as
maintains "that the Biblical writers were limited in              the only really ecumenical movement in our world,


                                                    THESTANDABDBEARER

and in the light of that fact it must be evaluated as                Meeter ends his article by speaking of the growing
the best answer available to our Lord's undeniable de-           opposition to these heresies and praying that God will
mand for unity among his people and his flock."                  preserve the church from them.
   Meeter will have none of this:                                    There will, no doubt, be some within the church
       Does Smedes know what the "plain Christianity"            who  find this article "harsh, unbrotherly, lacking in
   of the W.C.C. means?         It means social, economic,       charity" etc.; but we find it a refreshingly coura-
   and political ideals, not the Gospel message to repent        geous condemnation of the evils in that denomination.
   and helieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior;        It is not in the hope of trouble for troubles sake that
   it means consorting with many denominations that              we write this; but in the hope that this kind of trouble
   sanction avowed humanists, agnostics, and atheists in         will alert the church to her dangers and be a first
   their memberships; it means being joined with men             step towards a return to the faith. But there must
   who smirk indecently at the Virgin Birth, who grimace         be more of such writing, and it must be followed by
   with loathing at the blood Atonement, who guffaw with
   derision at the historical, bodily resurrection of our        ecclesiastical action.
   Lord Jesus. This is the "plain" Christianity that we          A REPlJDlATIONOFDORDT
   are to accept and oppose to secularism. What con-
   ceivable form of secularism could be more heinous                 A news item appeared in a recent Newsletter of
   than the blasphemies countenanced by the World Coun-          the Reformed Ecumenical Synod which we quote:
   cil of Churches?                                                       The Synod of the Netherlands Reformed Church
       . . . Smedes' approbation is plain. But God save              (Hervormde Kerk) decided earlier this month at its
   us from going to the devil to find our unity.                     meeting in Driebergen, the Netherlands, to establish
   On the Dekker case, Meeter is astounded that                      closer ties with the Remonstrant Churches. The Re-
even though Dekker, in order to defend his position,                 monstrant Churches have their origin in the dispute
                                                                     in the years 1618 - 19 when the Reformed churches
admitted to the study committee that "the atonement                  adopted the Canons of Dordt which set forth the biblical
as such has no efficacy" nevertheless the Synod re-                  doctrines on the depravity of man and Cod's election
fused to treat the matter and postponed action. This                 and sovereign grace. The `closer ties' mean that a
was following advice offered before Synod in the Re-                 remonstrant minister may conduct services and ad-
formed Journal.        And this advice was given on the              minister the sacraments in a Netherlands Reformed
basis of the contention of Henry Stob and others that                Church and is also eligible to receive a call to one
complete doctrinal freedom should be permitted in the                of the Netherlands Reformed Churches. He may.even
church.    Meeter concludes that this was really also                serve there as a pastor' for a certain length of time.
the position of Synod.                                               The decision was taken after an extended debate in
                                                                     which it was said that either the proposal to establish
       Everyone who has experienced Synodical  workings              closer ties would have to be rejected or the Canons
    acknowledges that the contingent, who chorus: "Theo-             of Ddrdt would have to be changed or rejected. The
    logy is a science!" and "Make way for free inquiry!",            proposal was adopted by a vote of 35 to 6.
    successfully effected procedural delay by gaining post-          The Hervormde Kerk still officially stands on the
    ponement.    For in another year a new flock of theo-        basis of the Canons of Dordt; but this was evidently
    logically befuddled young men (For Dekker, of course,
    continues to propound his views, unimpeded by any            ignored by the Synod even though it was called to
    interim ecclesiastical restriction) will be boosted          their attention.    Dordt means nothing to them any-
    aboard the bandwagon of the detractors.          Also in     more.
    that year, a few more old laymen who have studied,               But we cannot help but wonder whether the same
    understood, and professed the Biblically-grounded Con-       decision could not be taken by other Reformed churches
   fessions of the Church will die.                              both in the Netherlands and in our own country. In
                                                                 these Reformed churches the doctrines of the Remon-
   Finding that James Daane and  Harry Boer are also             strants (Arminians) are openly held: Billy Graham
a part of this plea for theological freedom, he writes:          is supported, reprobation is denied, no censure is
       . . . Behind James Daane and Harold Dekker are            applied to those who maintain universal atonement,
    Lewis Smgdes purveying his incipient universalism.. .;       etc. It is just possible that these Remonstrant mini-
    and Harry Boer, who adriotly presents his allegations        sters would preach very similar sermons to what
    against the doctrine of reprobation "in the form of a        are now being heard rather generally in the Reformed
   report."                                                      churches.



                          . . ..eonversion is a radical change. It is a break with sin as sin, and a
                          turning to God for God's sake, a love of righteousness for righteous-
                          ness' sake. It is, therefore, not a turning away from some sins, and a
                        keeping of some of God's precepts.           It is a hatred of all sin, and a
                        fundamental delight in all the precepts of the Lord our God.
                                                          - H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace"


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     187




A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-


                                 David Discovers Hatred

                                                by Rev. B. Woudenbevg


                     Delivev  me  from  mine enemies, 0 my God: defend  me  from  them that  yise  up
                 against  me.
                     Deliver  me from  the  workers  of iniquity, and save  me  from  bloody men.
                     For, lo, they lie in wait  fov my  soul: the mighty  are  gathered  against  me;  not
                 fov my  transgression,   nor  for my sin,  0 LORD.
                                                                                             Psalm  59:1-3

   One by one Saul's attempts to destroy David by                      Among them, no one was more completely shocked
ordering him into dangerous situations came to naught.          than was Jonathan.          All along Saul had thought of
It was uncanny, and it troubled Saul. Underneath he             Jonathan as his most certain ally, for  itwas Jonathan's
knew that there was a higher hand protecting David,             throne and Jonathan's future to which David was the
and it frightened him no end. Never, however, did he            greatest threat. But Jonathan was not one who rested
approach the point where he considered turning back             his life upon dreams of future grandeur. All he cared
from his designs against David. Rather he became                for was bound up in the fellowship of faith and love
ever more intense.        If he could not rely upon the         which he shared most intimately with David. It was
Philistines to put an end to David's career, then he            that which was shocked, even painfully wounded by the
would have to move on a different front. He would               announcement of Saul's determination.
enlist his own family to the cause. They ought to be                   From the presence of his hate-filled father, Jonathan
able to close in upon David without too much difficulty         raced in frenzied anguish to find his friend. No sooner
or suspicion.      After all, Jonathan was David's best         had he found him than he poured out, half in tears and
friend and  Michal was his wife. Who better than they           half in anger, all that he had learned, saying, "Saul my
could help to lead David into a trap.                           father seeketh to kill thee: now, therefore, I pray thee,
   More and more, Saul's mind was becoming do-                  take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a
minated by his determination to destroy David. It had           secret place, and hide thyself: and I will go out and
started only as an impulsive reaction to his despair,           stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and
but it had become almost his sole concern. Every-               I will commune with my father of thee; and what I
thing he saw and thought and planned was important              see, that I will tell thee."
to him only as it reflected upon this aim. He could                    If the hatred of Saul was amazing to Jonathan, it
think of David as being nothing but a very subtle and           was even more so to David, for personal animosity
conscious challenger to his throne. In his mind there           was completely foreign to his nature.              He knew
was hardly a doubt but that his family would be able            hatred, of course, in his relationship to the heathen,
to see this too once he had tipped them off to it.              but that was a different matter.              They were the
   Thus it  was  that on a certain day Saul called              enemies of Israel and Israel's God, and his hatred
together his son Jonathan and all of the most imtimate          toward them was only an expression of his love and
servants of his household. There without ceremony               concern for his own people and God. In turn he expected
he announced to them that David had to be killed.               to be hated by them. But why should Saul hate him?
Whether he went further into detail to tell them the            They were both members of the same race, they both
reasons for this decision  `we do not know; but ap-             served the same God, they both followed the same goal
parently the announcement was met with absolute                 in life.      Surely Saul as king knew this; and he had
silence upon the part of all. Saul may well have taken          served both Israel and Saul with single dedication and
it as a silence of consent; but to the others it was            without regard to his own life.           All the jealousy,
more a matter of stunned amazement. They all had                bitterness, hatred, and pride that moved the heart of
come to know David well and to love him. By them he             Saul were as yet beyond the comprehension of David's
was considered one of the most faithful and trustworthy         young and innocent mind.          Numbed with uncompre-
servants which Saul had, and his great and courageous           hending astonishment, for the first time meeting a foe
exploits in behalf of Israel seemed -to prove it. It            whom he did not know how to counteract, David in
seemed almost beyond believing that all this hadearned          dumb silence submitted himself to the instructions of
for David was the king's most bitter hatred.                    Jonathan.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

    Near to the palace where the king lived, there was            Israel was overjoyed. There seemed to be no end
a large field of wild, undeveloped terrain. It formed          to the victories that David was able to bring about,
the palace grounds.         In it they hunted, games were      and once again they welcomed him home with a great,
played, target practice was held with arrows and               excited celebration.     But that was almost the worst
spears, and all kinds of recreation was sought. Here           thing they could have done, at least insofar as Saul
Saul would go to walk each morning as he thought and'          was concerned. It opened all of the old wounds again,
made his plans.        It was here that Jonathan had spent     it brought out all of the old jealousy, bitterness and
countless hours with David in the way that young men           hatred. He was the king, and he was the one who ought
are apt to do. They knew the field from end to end as          to be honored, not this upstart David. And with that
no one else did.         In it they had even discovered a      fell once again into deep, dark depression.
secret hiding place, a secluded cave perhaps, where               Once again the halls of the royal palace were like
they could go when they wanted to be sure to be alone.         a cold, foreboding tomb. Everyone felt the weight of
To this cave Jonathan sent David until he could in-            Saul's evil spirit, and almost no one expected it to
vestigate more surely just how serious the danger              come out well when David decided to go on as though
really was.                                                    nothing had happened between him and the king and to
    The next morning as Saul went out for his usual            play his harp for the troubled king. It was all somehow
walk, Jonathan was there to meet him. His words                like an old drama re-enacted too often. The music,
were respectful but firm. He said, "Let not the king           played no doubt as skillfully as ever, had lost its
sin against his servant, against David; because his            sparkle until it seemed to sound more like a dirge than
works have been to thee-ward very good: for he did             a hymn.         Everyone in the court stood anxiously
put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and         with bated breath knowing only too well what to
the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel:             expect until at last the fingers of Saul reached out
thou sawest it, and didst rejoice: wherefore then wilt         and grasped, it seemed more slowely this time, the
thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without         javelin that sood by his side.      Only the thrust ap-
a cause?"                                                      peared more vehement, more determined, more visibly
    The words hit Saul hard where it hurt. This was            filled with hatred than before. But David was gone
his son Jonathan talking, the one whom he had counted          almost before it left Saul's hand, and the king knew
on the most to help him against David, the one whose           without even turning back to look how futile it all had
throne he was trying to protect. But what could he say         become.        Even David was not surprised this time,
in answer? How could he explain to Jonathan the danger         only saddened and deeply pained. How he had hoped
he saw without revealing to him what Samuel had                that it might be different; but it couldn't be. This time
said?  - and that he could never do. To himself it had         he did not stop with leaving the room. He went on and
seemed so clear; but to explain it all to someone else         left the palace until he came at last to his own home.
was almost impossible. Besides, there was anelement            He was never to return again.
of logic to what Jonathan had said.          Maybe he was         For Saul, too, this time was enough. It was not going
pressing too hard. Maybe he had better draw back.              to happen again. He was determined, and no one was
    But Jonathan was not to be satisfied with that. He         going to talk him out of it. Out of the streets of the
was determined to have. the matter finished. He                city he called to himself a group of base and wicked
pressed his father further until Saul was forced to            men.       In fact, they were not even Israelites. They
sware an oath, "As the LORD liveth, he shall not be            were heathen, refugees perhaps from the law of some
slain,"       It. was hard for Saul to do; but he was not      other land. But that was what he needed, men who felt
prepared to have his own son turn against him. For             no loyalty or gratitude to David. His instructions for
the time being he had to give in.                              them were to go to David's house and lie in wait for
    For a while it almost seemed as if things had              him and to slay him when he came out.
returned to normal in the palace once again. Saul was             But David was not one to be so easily fooled. He
finally relenting from his determination to find ever          was a man of war and he recognized an enemy when
new and more dangerous assignments for David to                he saw him. He saw the menapproaching. He detected
fight.      He was beginning to realize that that was of no    them in hiding while they still thought themselves well
use.        In fact, David was even allowed' to return to      hidden.      It only made the whole thing more painful.
Saul's court, to eat with the men at the royal table,          Was he a common criminal that he had to be pursued
and to relax with Jonathan as they had in the past.            and hounded, waited for and entrapped by men who
    It was the Philistines that brought about the next         were mean and vulgarlikedogs. Had they come directly
change.       They had not remained unmoved by the many        to his door and ordered him in the name of the king to
attacks of David upon their ranks, and they were               follow them, he no doubt would have gone without
longing for their opportunity to have their revenge.           resistance.     He was not one to refuse the command of
When at last, therefore, David had returned to the             his king. But to be surrounded and waited for like an 1
palace and all was quiet, it appeared to them the              animal was too much, the shame too great. Had not  j
opportunity to invade and set up their defenses had            Michal interfered, he no doubt would have waited for
come.        But it didn't last long. Almost immediately       the order of Saul to come anyway;      but at her urging !
David had called his company together and had gone             be slipped away under cover of dark until he came to
out to obliterate the efforts of the Philistines com-          Samuel.     There he remained, and there he composed
pletely.                                                       the pained words of Psalm 59:


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    189

  Deliver me from mine enemies, 0 my God:                         awake to visit all the heathen:
     deliver me from them that rise up against me.                be not merciful to any wicked transgressors.
  Deliver me from the workers of iniquity,                      They return at evening:
     and save me from bloody men.                                 they make noise like a dog,
  For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul:                          and go round about the city.
     the mighty are gathered against me;                        Behold, they belch out with their mouth:
       not for my transgression,                                  swords are in their lips:
       nor for my sin, 0 LORD.                                    for who, say they doth hear?
  They run and prepare themselves without my fault:             But thou, 0 LORD, shalt laugh at them;
    awake to help me, and behold.                               thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.
                                                                Because of his strength will I wait upon thee:
  Thou therefore, 0 LORD God of host, the God of Israel,          for God is my defense....."



   CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-


                         The Providence Of God
                                                 Miracles

                                                   by Rev. H. Veldman


   In our preceding article we called attention to a                (2). This hypothesis is not -only unnecessary, but
second objection lodged against the usual definition of          it is unsatisfactory. There are miracles which tran-
miracles (a miracle is an event, in the external world,          scend not only all known, but all possible laws of
brought about by the immediate efficiency or simple              nature. Nature cannot create. It cannot originate life;
volition of God), that they should be referred to some           otherwise it would be God, and nothing beyond nature
higher, occult law of nature and not to the immediate            would be necessary to account for the universe and for
agency of God.     Hodge's answer to this objection is           all that it contains. As, therefore, there are miracles
                                                                 which cannot be accounted for by "a higher law of
also pertinent  and decisive:                                    nature," it is clear that they are to be referred to
      (1). With regard to this theory, it may be remarked        the immediate power of God, and not to some unknown
   in the first place, that it is a perfectly gratuitous         physical force. All theists are obliged to acknowledge
   hypothesis (simply something taken for granted - H.V.)        this immediate agency of God in the original act of
   It assumed the existence of laws of nature without            creation. Then there were no laws or forces through
   necessity and without evidence (a miracle, then, is           which his efficiency could be exercised. The fact,
   ascribed to some hidden law of nature, which has lain         therefore, on which the Church doctrine on this subject
   dormant for ages, and then suddenly begins to operate         rests must be admitted. (this must be self-evident. If
   in the bringing forth of that particular miracle; these       nothing occurs in the universe through the immediate
   hidden laws of nature are otherwise wholly unnecessary        agency or power of the Lord, how is it possible to
   and they are hidden away in nature without evidence -         account for the creation of the heavens and the earth,
   H.V.). By laws, in such connections, is usually meant         or how is it possible to account for the existence of
   either the ordered sequence of events, or the power by        anything?    If things have their origin within them-
   which that sequence is secured. In either case there is       selves, how must we explain the origin of the be-
   this ordered sequence. But where is the evidence that         ginning of the universe?)
   anywhere in the universe the living of the dead, the             (3). The Scriptures not only are silent about any
   recovery of the sick, the stilling of the storm, and          higher law as the cause of miraculous events, but
   the swimming of iron, follow as matters of course on          they always refer them to the immediate power of
   a command? The Church doctrine on miracles gives              God.    Christ said He cast out devils by the finger of
   a simple, rational, and satisfactory account of their         God. He never referred to anything but his own will as
   occurrence, which renders all assumption of unknown           the efficient antecedent of the effect produced, "I
   laws unnecessary and unjustifiable. It is utterly im-         will, be thou clean." He healed by a touch - by a
   possible to prove, as this theory assumes, that every         word. When he gavemiraculous powers to the Apostles,
   physical effect must have a physical cause. Our own           He did not make them alchemists. They did not claim
   wills are causes in the sphere of nature; and the om-         knowledge of occult laws.       Peter, when called to
   nipotent will of God is not tied to any one mode of           account for the healing of the lame man in the temple,
   operation.                                                    said that it was the name of Christ, faith in his name


190                                               THESTANDARDBEARER

   that had made the man every whit whole. It is more-           those who do not make distinction between God and
   over plain that, on this theory, mi acles must lose           nature.       This, we know, is the terrible heresy of
   their value as                          "\,
                      proofs of a divine corn ission. If the     Pantheism.       This Pantheistic theory, which teaches
   Apostles did the wonders which they performed by the          that the government of the world is not the determination
   knowledge of, or through the efficiency of natural            of events by an extramundane intelligence, but by
   laws, then they are on the level of the experimenter
   who makes water freeze in a red hot spoon. If God be          reason as immanent in the  cosmical forces themselves
   not the author of the miracle, it does not prove a divine     and in their relation, precludes the possibility of the
   message.                                                      miracle.      Then, the possibility of the miracle is also
                                                                 denied by those who declare that, although the world's
       (4).      There is force also in what the Rev. J. B.
   Mozley says:        "To say that the material fact which      material and mental have real existence, there is no
   takes place in a miracle admits of being referred to          causality that proceeds from God.          Second causes
   an unknown natural cause, is not to say that the miracle      are only the occasions or the modes in which the
   itself does. A, miracle is the material fact as coin-         divine efficiency is exerted. As a certain writer de-
   ciding with an express announcement or with express           clares:      "The operations of God, when uniform, we
   supernatural pretensions in the agent. It is this cor-        call laws;       when rare or isolated, we call them
   respondence of two facts which constitutes a miracle.         miracles."       The only difference is in our mode of
   It a person says to a blind man, `See,' and he sees, it       viewing them.       But, is this principally not the same
   is not the  sudden return of sight alone that we have to
   account for, but its return at that particular moment.        as saying that miracles are supernatural works of
   For it is' morally impossible that this exact agreement       God?       And, is this not in harmony with the common
  of an event with a command or notification could have          definition of the miracle, namely that the miracle is an
   been by mere chance, or, as we should say, been an            event brought about by the immediate efficiency or
   extraordinary coincidence, especially if it is repeated       simple volition of God? Is it therefore not necessary
   in other causes." It is very certain that no one who          that we seek the true character of the miracle in
   saw Lazarus rise from the grave, when Jesus said,             something else rather than by viewing it as an im-
   "Lazarus, come forth," ever thought of any physical           mediate, supernatural operation of the Lord?
   law as the cause of that event.                                  A third objection against the possibility of miracles,
Hodge also calls attention to miracles and extra-                and of the same character, is that miracles suppose
ordinary  providences.  Another objection that has been          separate, individual acts of the Divine will, and this,
lodged against the usual definition of miracles is that          it is claimed, is inconsistent with the nature of an
this definition is not sufficiently comprehensive. This          Absolute Being. Such a God, it is claimed, cannot be
definition does not cover a large class of miracles              absolute.     In turning Himself from one act to another,
recorded in the Scriptures. The Word of God speaks               or now putting forth a certain kind of efficiency (the.
of miracles in which the Lord operates, not im-                  extraordinary), and then resting again, He does and is
mediately, but providentially, through means, as in the          at one moment what He does not and is not at another,
sudden rising of a fog which conceals an army and                and thus falls into the category of the changeable, the
thus saves it from destruction, or in a storm which              temporary and the finite. Of course, this objection
disperses a hostile fleet and thus saves a nation.' We           is lodged against miracles by those who would explain
may also apply this to the plagues sent by the Lord upon         all things as developing from forces residing in nature
Egypt, to the flight of quails to supply the wants of            itself. They appeal to the unchangeableness of God, but
God's people in the desert, and to the draught of fishes         this is merely a subterfuge.         They do not wish to
recorded in the Gospels. Trench makes the distinction            maintain the unchangeableness of the Lord, but they
between        "providential" and "absolute" miracles.           would rule Him out of all things. They seek to destroy
Hodge answers this objection against the usual definition        the truth that the Lord intervenes in and through the
of the miracle by declaring that this want of compre-            history of this world. This, of course, is impossible.
hensiveness does not seem to be sufficient reason for            If all things occur and develop from forces residing
rejecting the common definition of a miracle. Whereas            in nature itself, what must one say of the creation of
there is a large class of miracles recorded in the               the heavens and the earth and all the things in the
Scriptures to which this common definition of the                earth? Then also the heavens and the earth must have
miracle applies, and the Word of God stresses this               developed out of themselves. This, of course, is the
aspect of the miracle, this definition should stand.             teaching of Evolution. Nevertheless, also this objection
Besides,  .these  "providential" miracles in the Word of         against the possibility of miracles seems to point to
God do not lose their significance when viewed in a              the necessity of seeking the essence of the miracle
class by themselves.          It is true, of course, that the    somewhere else than in the supernatural sphere.
flocks of locusts or of        e quails would not, of them-         A fourth objection against the possibility of miracles
selves, have been prooF"of any special divine inter-             is founded on the  deistical  theory that the relation of
vention;       but, when taking into consideration that these    God to the world is analogous to that of a mechanist to
events occur upon the word of Moses, then it is plain            a machine. A mechanist has no occasion to interfere
that they do occur only through the will of God, and that        in the working of an engine which he has made, except
therefore they are not merely natural phenomena.                 to correct its irregularities;     so, if God interferes in
   As far as the possibility of miracles is concerned,           the natural order of events as produced by the secondary
Hodge also treats this aspect of the subject on pages            causes which He has ordained, it can only be because
626-629. Of course, this possibility is denied by all            of the imperfection of His work.        As this cannot be


                                                   THE'STANDARD' BEARER                                                           191

rationally admitted, neither can the doctrine of miracles,            and with His relation to the world that the effects of
which supposes such special interference, be admitted.                His power should be immediate, that is, without the
This objection is answered by showing that the relation               intervention of natural causes, as through their  in-
of God to the world is not that of a mechanist to a                   strumentality. The Word of God certainly emphasizes
machine, but of an everywhere-present, all-controlling,               the truth that the Lord never divorces Himself from
intelligent will. The doctrine of miracles, therefore,                the things He has made.                He is the almighty and
is founded on the doctrine of theism (not to be  con-                 everywhere-present God. Whether He acts immediately
founded with deism), that is, of an extramundane                      or through means, He is constantly upholding the  uni-
personal God, Who, being distinct from the world,                     verse and everything therein, and He may certainly
upholds and governs it according to His own will.                     operate in all the works of His hands as He sees fit.
Whatever secondary causes there may be, the Divine                    Nevertheless, it is well to seek the definition of the
efficiency does not supersede these causes, but upholds               miracle elsewhere.         We do `not favor the distinction
and guides them in their operations. But at the same                  between the natural and the supernatural. We believe
time this almighty and omnipresent Being is free to                   that the essence and purpose of the Scriptural miracle
act with or without or against those causes, as He                    must be sought in the sphere of Divine grace. To this,
sees fit. Hence, it is just as consistent with His nature             the Lord willing, we will call attention the next time.



           BOOK  REVIEWS-



                                              Hymns For Youth

HYMNS FOR YOUTH, Compiled and Edited           have been taken directly from the               some of the harmonizations may seem
by John E. Hamersma, et al; published by       Psalms or other passages  bf Scripture          strange at first, I believe they are
The National Union of Christian Schools
and Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,            and set to appropriate music. The               readily singable by children of any
Grand Rapids, Mich. (264 pages; 184 songs;     caliber of the selected tunes and har-          age group.
price not indicated.)                          monizations may be characterized as               In my opinion, the liturgistic and
  The preface of this hymn book i,n-           worshipful. Many are taken from the             symbolic art work with which the
forms us that the songs in the book            Genevan Psalter of Reformation times,           book  is liberally sprinkled definitely
have been carefully sifted out of the          and there are many other lofty and              detracts from the beauty of an other-
great body of hymns of the past and            singable melodies from other lands              wise  well-executed publication. In
present, and that the texts of the songs       and eras of history. In other words,            fact, I find especially the colored art
have been weighed for meaningful con-          this is no ordinary book of sentimental         work rather hideous.
tent, Biblical soundness, and clarity of       "ditties" of shallow content and form.            With the exception of a few ques-
expression.                                      In fact, I would suggest that many of         tionable selections, this book can find
  For the most part, this reviewer             these songs merit the attention of the          good use, both in our schools and in
found this to be true. The content of          adult who is looking  for  sound content        our homes, where, incidentally, family
the songs is more sound, solid, and            and dignified music for his worship and         and group singing has become  toomuch
therefore more edifying, than that `of         song.    But the book is primarily in-          of a lost art.
most hymn books. Many of the  lyrics           tended for our youth.     And although                                          H.C.H.



                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
The Ladies Society of the Southwest Protestant Re-                    The Men's Society of Hope Protestant Reformed Church,
formed Church wishes to extend its sincere sympathy                   expresses its sympathy to one of its fellow members,
to one of its fellow members, Mrs. Peter Offringa in                  Mr. Peter Zandstra, in the loss of his sister,
the death of her mother,                                                                   MRS. HAROLD SCHIPPER
                         MRS. HELEN MORREN
and her brother-in-law,                                               May our Covenant God comfort the bereaved in their
                         MR. BEN VON VELS                             sorrow by the words of Psalm  29:11, "The Lord will
May God comfort her with the assurance that He doeth                  give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His
all things well and for the sake of His people.                       people with peace".
                             Rev. G. Lubbers, Pres.                                                              John Dykstra, Sec'y.
                             Mrs. R.  Clawson,  Sec'y.


192


                                       NEWS  FRQM OUR  CHURCHES-

        Rev. C. Hanko, of Redlands, has declined the call      meeting lessons. Our minister and three lay leaders
from Holland,  Mich. and this decision was announced           each take a lesson a month, and I would like the other
at the New Year's eve service.                                 two lay leaders to have a study sheet sent out to
        Rev. M. Schipper,  of Southwest Church has received    them."         Some questions at the bottom of lesson  #39
the call from Hull, Iowa.                                      were;         "Why was Jesus thankful that the "wise and
                             *****                             prudent"did not receive the Gospel? What does it
        Jamaican News:     The question might be raised        mean to "see and not  perceive..(to) hear and not
concerning the results of the Correspondence Course            understand?" What is a "savor of death unto death?"
which the Ministers in the Island are taking, and              Without having studied this lesson with. his group
whether the new preaching of the Word is not now               can you answer these questions?
way over the heads of the people of their congre-                                           *****
gations.       Here are some excerpts from letters to             Are you within driving distance of Grand Rapids?
answer those questions.                                        Then you will want to come to First Church to attend
        "Rev. Elliott told me to write you telling how I       a lecture to be given on January 26 by Prof. H. Hanko.
am enjoying the course of the Reformed Faith. Well,            This is the first of a series treating The Five Points
Rev. Heys, I can't express to you how I love the               of Calvinism.        This first lecture is, of course, on
course.       Oh, there are more interested. They give         "Total Depravity," surely a timely topic in these
me more zeal, more courage to hold to my God. I                days of apostasy wherein the basic tenets of the truth
am ever praying to my Covenant God to help me day              of God's Word are being ignored or denied entirely.
by day in the Reformed Faith....." Another member              The committee for the series of lectures is asking
writes,  ". . ..I thank you very much for the lessons you      all our people to publicize this program as much as
are sending to Pastor  Frame.          I don't have time to    possible that we may share this speech with as
study the course, but my children are trying. I                many as possible.         Relatives, neighbors and friends
thank you for the Five Points of Calvinism. It gives           rate a personal invitation from you; will you extend
me another grip. This directs me more. I will hold             it to them?
these points by the help of God until my days are                                           *****
ended...."       No, this glorious truth is not going over        Doon's consistory sponsored a public lecture which
their heads, it is penetrating their hearts.         Their     was held Dec. 19 in the Christian Reformed Church of
many letters mention their desire to have their in-            that town.        Prof. H. Hanko spoke on "Creation vs.
structor come back to them soon to preach to them              Evolution." This announced topic aroused enough in-
and teach them face to face. Yes, our truth and our            terest in the community and surrounding districts to
churches have made an impact upon these sincere                fill the auditorium. Parents of high school and college
people.       It reminds one of "The people who sat in         age children are especially concerned with this sub-
darkness have seen a great light."           They now see      ject because of what their children are being taught in
un-dreamed-of riches in the Word of God. May God               their schools.        And well they might be ! For if it is
continue to provide us this- opportunity to open up            scientifically impossible  for the world and its in-
to them the treasures in God's Word.                           habitants to have been created in six days, then the
                             *****                             Virgin Birth is also scientifically impossible, and we
        The Senior Young People's Society of First Church      have no Immanual (God with us), and we are yet in
invited all the young people of the area churches to           our sins !
a Christmas celebration in their church Sunday after-                                       *****
noon. Normally the societies recess during the holi-              Other Christmas programs in the news:              Red-
days but the host society provided the opportunity to          lands' young people sponsored a hymn sing Dec. 11;
remember the birth of Christ with the singing of carols        their Sunday School program was scheduled for Wed-
and by the spoken word. Prof. H. C. Hoeksema spoke             nesday evening Dec. 21.          Hudsonville's Senior and
to the young people on the evil inherent in the world's        Junior Choirs rendered a public program after the
celebration of Christmas and the danger of conform-            evening service Christmas Day.
ing;       and pointed the way to true remembrance of                                       *****
the Advent of The Immanuel. Chas. Westra, of the                  Notices of appreciation constantly appear in our
Southeast Society, led the singing, and a trombone             bulletins. One recently found in Holland's was for the
duet by Jim Decker and Gary Bylsma was enjoyed                 gift of a tape recorder from the Men's Society; and
during refreshment time after the program.                     one in Kalamazoo's thanked two of their members
                             *****                             for a canopy and a handrail at the entrance of their
   Lynden's pastor, Rev. Woudenberg, writes that he            church, and for a new church sign.
would be happy to send copies of his "Studies in                                            *****
Biblical Doctrine" to any who request them. Eviden-               A "quiet , thought" found  t in Southeast's bulletin:
tly they are being used in Marshalltown, Iowa, for a           "There are 365 `fear nots' in the Bible; one for
letter from that city says, "Thank you for the study           each day of this year."
sheets.        I think these would be good for prayer          . . . ..see you in church                           J.M.F.


