                                        e

                              tandard

                                             earer


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





                Meditation: Christ's Mock Coronation

                 Editorial: "Report of the Doctrine Committee"
                           -a Critical Study

                 The Task of the Ministry

                 Doing Good Unto Our Enemies

                 The Significance of the Races in the world


                                                VoZume  XLIII/  N-urn  ber 9  /  Febnuwy  1, 1967


.--.+,

     .'


194                                                                                              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
Meditation  -
      Christ's Mock Coronation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
            Rev. M. Schipper
Editorial  -                                                                                                                      Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
      Report of the Doctrinal Committee - A Critical Study . 196                                                                                Editov-  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
            Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
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Feature Article  -
      The Significance Of The Races In The World . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
            Rev. R. C. Harbach
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              MEDITATION-


                                                  .Christ's Mock Coronation

                                                                                                       by Rev. M. Schippev

                                        "Then Pilate thevefove took Jesus, and scourged him. And the soldiers platted
                              a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a  pu@Ze robe, and
                              said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote him with  their hands. Pilate thevefove
                              went forth again, and  saith  unto them, Behold I  bving  him  forth  to you, that ye may
                              know  thu t I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns,
                              and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them,  BehoZd the  man!"
                                                                                                                                                              John  19:1-5

      Will ye therefore that I release unto you the King                                                                      innocency?        Had he not again and again confessed
of the  Jews?                                                                                                                 that he knew of no fault in Him, and that he knew the
      That was Pilate's question!                                                                                             Jews had no real accusation, but only for envy they
       Indicative it was of Pilate's weak position! Should                                                                    had delivered Him up?            And did not Pilate himself
he  not rather have said, I will release unto you the                                                                         say, that he had power to kill and to release? And if
King of the Jews?                                Was he not convinced of Jesus'                                               he wanted to be a just judge in the matter, after


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  195

acknowledging Jesus' innocence, have released Him?                affixed on the one end to a wooden handle, and on the
And if he did not care for justice, which evidently               other were attached metal pellets or pieces of bone.
he did not, should he not for pragmatic reasons have              By such scourging the victim's back was cut to
released Jesus because he was afraid of Him? That                 pieces.
Pilate's position was very weak becomes still more                   They ploughed deeply upon His back!
evident when we consider Matthew's interpretation of                 They made long their furrows !
it.      Matthew tells us that Pilate asked: What shall I            Yes, verily, the Prince of Israel shows His people
do then with Jesus which is called Christ? Imagine a              how to endure the whip lashes of the wicked, of the
judge asking the accusers to express the verdict!                 wicked of whom the Psalmist declared  (129:3) that
Should he not rather have asked himself: What ought               the enemies had played hard upon Israel's back, that
I to do with Jesus? And without hesitation should he              by His stripes they might be healed!
not have replied: I ought to release Him at once, on                 And they platted a crown of thorns, and pressed it
the grounds that He is perfectly innocent, and there is           on His head!
no cause of death in Him!                                            The soldiers will have their fun today!
       Barabbas or Jesus !                                           They cover His bleeding body with a faded purple
       Once before the Roman judge had attempted toevade          soldier's robe, and placed a flimsy reed in His hand for
any judgment of the Lord, when he had sent Jesus to               a sceptre, a symbol of mock authority.
Herod,  the fox. But when Herod  had ascertained that                And they make mock obeisance! They bow down
Jesus was not John the Baptist risen from the dead,               before Him, false worshippers as they are! And they
and that he therefore had nothing to fear of this Jesus,          exclaim:       Hail, King of the Jews !    And they smote
and after He had vented his mockery upon Jesus, he                Him with their hands !
sent Him back again to Pilate. Now Pilate tries for                  What awful mockery!
the second time to get rid of the responsibility of                  What awful depravity!
judging Jesus by placing a proposition, a choice                     Such ridicule of His Kingly office ! As a King, He
before the people; the choice, namely, between Barabbas           must have a crown. But why such a crown? As King
and Jesus.        It was his hope that the people's choice        He must have a royal robe. But why such a robe? As
would be Jesus Who should be released unto them at                King He must also have a sceptre. But why such a
the feast.                                                        sceptre?       Here is evidenced man's total depravity!
       Not this man, but Barabbas!                                And lest we should conclude that the soldiers were
       That is the people's choice !                              wicked beasts, vile men whom we would have stopped
                              *  * *                              had we been there; let us understand it well, this is
       Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged             every natural man apart from the grace of God!
Him !                                                             This is what every man by nature is capable of doing
       Though scourging was customary, it opened to               and actually does when God allows Himself to be taken
Pilate another possible avenue of escape. He hoped                with wicked hands, and He does not fight back!
that when the people would see His emaciated, beaten,                                        * * *
bloody form, they would be satisfied to let Him go.                  Devilish purpose!
Especially had he hoped for this when he allowed                     It was Pilate's purpose to use this caricature to
Jesus to appear before them as a poor imitation of a              finally persuade the people to let Jesus go. There is
king whom the soldiers had mockingly dressed up in                no indication that Pilate did not condone this vile
the scourging room.                                               treatment of the Saviour. He does not remonstrate
       In the scourging room !                                    against the evil abuse of the soldiers, but he uses the
       The soldier's hangout! The place where they spent          mock image they built in one last effort to have Jesus
their leisure moments to chat and visit between the               discharged.
scenes of trial. Where now, you may imagine they had                 "Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto
more to talk and frolic about than usual. In this room            them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may
were also all the weapons of torture kept. There                  know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus
was the flogging pole.            And on the wall, each in its    forth, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
proper place, were the lashes used in flogging. In                robe.      And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!"
another area, row upon row, were pitched their spears                Ecce homo!
and shields which they could pick up at a moment's notice            Behold the man!
when they would be ordered out to use them. Only                     See what I have done to Him! You say that He made
he who was a Roman citizen could be spared the ordeal             Himself a King?        Well, witness what I think of His
of flogging. All the rest, whether guilty or innocent,            kingship! Notice that I have made it so that there is
were beaten to draw out of them innocence or guilt. And           hardly anything left of Him. You say, He has power?
usually when one was sentenced to be crucified, he                If you will look at Him closely you will see that He
was first stripped to the waist or made entirely                  has no power at all! You say, He is a threat to Cae-
naked, then tied with his hands to the flogging pole              sar? Well, I have thoroughly interrogated Him on that
with his head bent forward and with his back arched               point also.      0, yes, He admitted under questioning
in such a way that the skin was stretched tightly.                that He is a king! But listen to me closely, He has
Then with the powerful hand of one of the soldiers                shown to me that His kingdom is of another world.
the victim was severely beaten with leather strips                All that Caesar and I, and also you, have to be  con-


196                                              THE STANDARD BEARER

 cerned about is this world. So, I ask you, what is there       kingship is in Him, while all other kings are mere
to be alarmed about?          Look at Him ! Does He look        earthly, sinful, faulty types of Him!
like a king? Look at that crown! That crown that fits              He is God's anointed King!
 so tightly that there are lines of blood streaming                Appointed is He to do battle  with all the powers of
 from His brow! Look at that robe! Don't you recognize          evil and to overcome them;           not with the show of
 it? Do you see any semblance of royality in it? Behold         physical and material strength, but by allowing the
 the man!                                                       world and Satan to draw His blood, whereby He must
       Mind you, all the while this fiend of injustice knows    save His people from their sin and guilt. Therefore
 that Jesus is perfectly innocent. Hear him speak: I            He has no armies at present to do battle for Him.
find no fault, no cause for punishment in Him!                  That is why He refuses a crown of gold upon His
       How devilish! What miscarriage of justice!               head.       For the moment the only crown that befits Him
       To knowingly scourge an innocent man! To allow           is one of suffering of which the thorns are a fit
 the King to be so ridiculously mocked! And then to             picture.       The only royal robe that is His is the one
 present Him as innocent and harmless ! Indeed, his was         that shall be laid upon His shoulders after He rises
 a devilish purpose !                                           from the dead and is ascended to glory. For the
                            * * *                               present the only attire that befits Him is the soldier's
       Strange paradox!                                         faded robe that can only bring upon Him ridicule and
       Apparently utterly helpless He stands!                   shame.        0, yes, His is the sceptre of Judah's tribe
       Behold the man!     He does not look like a king at      which He shall wave.in His hand when He is seated at
 all ! Much less like the King !                                Father's right hand. But for now, let it be the flirnsy
       Only once during the awful episode before Pilate         reed, until one can be forged for Him to wield when
 does He open His mouth in defense of His kingship!             He shall come in the power of His Father and with all
 Says He:       "My kingdom is not of this world: if my         the holy angels to set up His kingdom, of which there
 kingdom were of this world, then would my servants             shall be no end!
 fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but            Yes, Pilate, for the moment you may mock with
now is my kingdom not from hence . . . . Thou sayest            Him Whom you allowed to be so  malicously and
 that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this         mockingly crowned!
 cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness           But, behold, the day comes, and even now is, when
 unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth          the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father
 my voice." That is all He said! For the rest He was            and His kingdom, when every eye shall see Him, even
 dumb, and opened not His mouth.                                they that pierced Him!
                                                                   Then shall they call to the mountains and the rocks
    While actually He is the King of kings !                    to annihilate them from before the face of Him with
    0, to be sure, not as though He stands at the end of        Whom they shall have to do! Then shall He destroy
a long line of kings, as if He was just another among           all His and our enemies, and settle His kingdom which
the kings of the earth! His kingship is not one to be           shall embrace heaven and earth, and wherein only
learned by comparison. Rather, the eternal idea of              righteousness shall forever dwell!




   EDITORIAL-


           Report Of The Doctrinal Committee
                                           A Critical Study (1)

                                                 by  PYof. H. C. Hoeksema

A WORD OF INTRODUCTION                                          time referring the report to the churches for study
    The report referred to in the above caption is, of          (results of which study were to be sent to the Study
course, the report of the study committee appointed             Committee by the end of January, 1967) and posing
in the so-called "Dekker Case" by the Christian  Re-            some additional questions, or problems, in connection
formed Synod of 1964.           This committee, you will        with the report.
recall, submitted its report after two years to the 1966           Some months ago I wrote that I would offer criticism
Synod. The Synod postponed consideration, at the same           of that report, and this I now begin to do.


                                              THE  STANDARD  BEARER                                                 197

   There is ample justification for this critical study          The committee obviously recognizes this fact in the
by an "outsider".      One reason lies, of course, in the     body of its report. For they repeatedly criticize the
fact that the  Standard  Beaver  has been following the       doctrinal position of Professor Dekker on confessional
"Dekker Case" from the beginning, particularly because        and Scriptural grounds. Yet the conclusions and rec-
of its roots in 1924. Another reason lies in the fact         ommendations of the Report contain not a single word
that the  Stand&d   Beaver   is, and always has been,         of condemnation of this action of violating the Formula
vitally concerned and interested in any matter which          of Subscription, not a single charge of heresy, - infact,
concerns our Reformed heritage, and is especially             not a single word of any kind about what the churches
interested in this matter, which lies so close to the         should do about the fact that ever since 1962 their
very heart of that heritage. From this  poi,nt of view,       seminary professor has been teaching doctrines in
this study may also serve for the instruction of our          conflict with the adopted doctrinal position of the
Protestant Reformed people, in order that they not only       Christian Reformed Church and has been inculcating
may be kept informed about what is being done with our        these doctrines into their future ministers. Even apart
Reformed heritage in other circles, but also  maylearn        from any proposing of disciplinary measures, the
anew how vital it is to maintain the Reformed faith in        Report does not utter a direct word of condemnation.
all of its precision and to guard against every departure     Throughout its recommendations the report speaks
therefrom.    Another important reason lies in the fact       impersonally and abstractly, as though it were merely
that the  Standuvd   Beaver  continues to count it an on-     making some recommendations on an academic theo-
going duty to testify and to warn our Christian Re-           logical question.
formed brethren concerning the dangerous con-                    This is a sad thing.
sequences of the doctrinal position adopted in 1924. It          For when all is said and done, the simple fact
is also our hope and prayer that there are those who          remains that the CRC was and is faced by the intensely
will heed the  Standuvd  Beaver's  witness in this regard.    practical problem of a seminary professor flagrantly
   It is not the intention of this study to follow the        violating the Formula of Subscription and the problem
Doctrinal Report step by step from the beginning to the       of what to do about it. That problem was not faced
end.    For one thing, the Report is too lengthy for this.    when it first arose in 1962, and it has not been faced
But more than this, the Report is altogether too con-         to this very day.      And the Report of the Doctrinal
fused to allow for such a method. I have seldom seen          Committee does not face it.
such a piece of confusion. The Janus-head is made to             It might be objected at this point that no proper
spin so rapidly by the committee that the reader of           protest against Prof. Dekker's doctrine has ever been
the report has difficulty in determining which face of        received by the Synod, that he has not been formally
Janus he is beholding at any given moment. The basic          charged under the Formula of Subscription. It might
reason for this confusion, of course, is the fact that        be objected, too, that all that Synod had before it in
throughout the 70 pages of the Report the study com-          1964 was an overture requesting a doctrinal study. It
mittee is striving mightily to do the impossible, namely,     might also be objected that the Doctrinal Study Com-
to condemn the position of Professor Dekker and to            mittee was not instructed by Synod to pass any judg-
uphold the First Point of 1924 and its well-meant offer       ment or recommend any judgment of this kind, but
of the gospel. In the course of this study, this most         simply to make a doctrinal study. Moreover,  - looking
basic failure of the Report, I trust, will become             at it from Prof. Dekker's viewpoint,  - I would have
abundantly evident.      And if the Christian Reformed        serious church political objections against the com-
Church ever hopes to succeed in effectively shutting          mencement of some kind of heresy trial in this fashion
the door on Arminianism and universalism, they must           and at this date.
first honestly face up to the fact that in the First Point       Nevertheless, the fact as such remains that rank
they have hand-cuffed themselves with a doctrinal             Arminianism has been publicly taught by a seminary
position which makes it doctrinally and morally im-           professor.    What is the Christian Reformed Church
possible for them to do this.                                 going to do about it, if anything? Nothing more than
   Hence, rather than to attempt a  paragraph-by-             adopt some doctrinal propositions which propose
paragraph treatment of the Report, this critical study        absolutely nothing new?
will attempt to draw some definite lines and to call             Still more.
attention to the fundamental failings and errors of the          The Study Committee had the mandate "to evaluate
Report and its conclusions, referring to and quoting          its findings and study." -When this part of the mandate
from the Report as necessary.                                 is put in connection with the first part of the mandate,
THE PRACTICAL FAILURE OF THE REPORT                           namely, "To study in the light of Scripture and the
   One feature of this Doctrinal Report which, it seems       Creeds the doctrine of limited atonement as it relates
to me, all should note is the fact that the very real and     to the love of God, the doctrinal expressions of Pro-
practical problem involved is not actually touched. That      fessor H. Dekker. . . . and other related questions .  ..."
very real and practical problem is the fact that a            it might well be argued that the Christian Reformed
seminary professor publicly propagated the heresy of          Church might expect some direct and pointed and
Arminian universalism in the religious press, undoubt-        concrete recommendations as to the heretical or  non-
edly also taught it in his seminary courses, continued        heretical character of Professor Dekker's teachings.
to maintain it publicly inthe churches, and, presumably,      But the propositions which the committee recommends
is continuing to maintain this position today.                are merely the kind of propositions one might expect


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER

a debating society or a ministerial or theological con-         longer makes that distinction. This is plain from the
ference to adopt.                                               following paragraph of the committee's report in which
   Still more.                                                  a letter from Prof. Dekker is quoted: (Acts of Synod of
   A reading of the introductory paragraphs of the              the CRC, 1966, p. 448)
"Conclusion and Recommendation" of the Report leave
the distinct impression that the Committee intentionally              In his articles, published in The Reformed  Jouynal,
follows this course, hopes that its recommendations                Prof. Dekker tried to point up this difference by the
will serve as oil upon the troubled waters, and for                use of such terms:  redemptive  and  Yedeeming  love.
                                                                   However, in a later statement to our committee he
the rest wishes to let the past be forgotten and allow             admitted that this distinction was ineffectual in ex-
for future theological reflection and dialogue. The                pressing his real meaning, "because of semantic con-
paragraphs. which leave this  irenic and compromising              fusion between the two terms and because of its sug-
impression are the following:                                      gestion of two qualitatively different loves." Therefore
      By way of conclusion we wish to state that in the            he now prefers "to speak simply of the one love of
   pursuit of the assigned study the committee has con-            God as redemptive to  all men." But he adds, "I
   sulted frequently with Prof. Dekker and with the                recognize, of course, that this one love of God is
   professors in the departments of Dogmatics and Ex-              experienced differently by the redeemed. This was my
   egesis at Calvin Seminary; and we feel that a sincere           intent in using the term `redeeming love.' " Yet, after
   expression of appreciation is due them for their willing        he writes this, he still adds another sentence in which
   and enlightened assistance.                                     he states: "another consideration which favors aban-
       As we noted in our preliminary observations, all            doning the distinction of redemptive and redeeming love
   must remember that in connection with the matters               is that, strictly speaking, it is not the love of God as
   touched upon by Prof. Dekker we meet with great                 such which redeems. Rather it is God Himself who
   difficulties.    ,No one is able to give a completely           redeems through His Word and Spirit."
   satisfactory solution of the problems which they raise.         We understood, of course, that the  redemptive-
   There will always be mysteries that will baffle our
   finite minds.                                                redeeming distinction never did hold. But now Prof.
                     And, since we desire to fully recognize
   these mysteries and paradoxes, we are of the opinion         Dekker clearly abandons it. According to him, God's
   that no undue and artificial restrictions should be          love is universal, and His love for elect and reprobate
   placed upon those who wish to take part in the theolog-      is exactly the same.
   ical reflection and dialogue in which the Reformed              This not only makes the professor's position in
   community is presently engaged.                              regard to the alleged universal love of God very explicit,
      There are, however, certain affirmations which must       but it also necessarily involves him in the error that
   be made in connection with these theological discus-         God's love (which he equates with God's grace) is
   sions so that we may avoid both, the Scylla of undue         resistible. For the simple fact is that also in Professor
   universalism  which repudiates definite atonement and
   leads into Arminianism and the Charybdis of an undue         Dekker's view that same redemptive love does not
   particularism whereby mission ardor and  zeal would          redeem all men.
   be stymied or curtailed.       Therefore, in order that         2. Prof. Dekker not only teaches that God's alleged
   these theological discussions may be carried on in the       universal love is redemptive, but also that God actually
   proper scriptural and  creedal  framework, we  recom-        performs redemptive acts in behalf of the reprobate.
   ment that Synod adopt the following propositions....         This is plain from the following statement of Dekker
   This very serious failure of the Report is intensified       quoted by the committee (page 449):
by the fact that in the course of his contacts with the               . . ..In my view God does perform redemptive acts
study committee Professor Dekker made his doctrinal                on behalf of the non-elect.      Such redemptive acts
position more explicit and made statements to the                  must then belong to His intent, for nothing that God
committee which give adequate reason to charge him                 does is excluded from His intent.        What are these
with further error. These matters are referred to in               redemptive acts? They are the same, it seems to me,
the body of the report, but they are not directly referred         as those which He performs for  all men, for example,
to and condemned in the "Conclusion and Recom-                     the restraint of sin, the giving of His Word, the incar-
                                                                   nation and the atonement of Christ, and the preaching of
mendation." These I shall enumerate under the next                 the gospel. It remains to answer the first part of the
heading.                                                           question.    I would say that the universal love of God
COMPOUNDING OF ERROR                                               does not include any ultimate intent to bring about the
                                                                   eternal salvation of the non-elect. On the other hand,
   In more than one way Prof. Dekker clarified his                 it remains true that Christ is the Savior of all men
doctrinal position in his correspondence with the com-             (I Timothy 4:lO) and that all men experience salvation
mittee, and, at the same time, either made his errors              in certain proximate ways, e.g., the continuation of
more explicit and intense or added to them. Let me                 life and wellbeing, the conquest of evils such as sick-
mention the following and prove them by quotations:                ness which result from sin, social order, peace, and
   1. Prof. Dekker has abandoned  all distinctions in              justice, and physical resurrection.
the love of God and maintains in the most absolute                 Now there is a goodly measure of theological
sense that God's love is one and universal. It is               double-talk in the above quotation and the  same plaguing
simply a redemptive love of all men. Previously, you            lack of definition of such concepts as atonement,
will recall, he attempted to distinguish between a              redemption, and salvation. The committee is almost as
redemptive love and a redeeming love. Now he no                 guilty of this as Prof. Dekker is,  - as will become


                                                 THE STANDARD  B&U&R                                                          199

evident later. It is sheer nonsense, for example, to                     . . ..Surely.  as the committee suggests, the factor of
speak of "experiencing salvation in certain proximate                 availability is involved in the offer of thegospel. How-
ways." And it is also sheer nonsense to speak of the                  ever, it is then also necessarily involved in the atone-
restraint of sin, the giving of His Word, and the                     ment which is revealed by the gospel. May we separate
preaching of the gospel as a redemptive act. But note                 between what is revealed in the gospel and what actually
that Prof. Dekker states in plain words that God per-                 exists, in a way to eliminate the latter? If the notion
forms redemptive acts on behalf of the non-elect                      of availability is limited to `the concrete presentation
                                                                      of the gospel,' without some objective reality behind
(reprobate).      Note, too, that he `includes in these re-           it, does not the gospel offer itself become unreal? It
demptive acts of God both the incarnation and the atone-              seems to me that the integrity of Cod and the sincerity
m ent.                                                                of the offer of the gospel are at stake here.
   3. Professor Dekker abandons completely any idea                   4. Prof. Dekker gives serious reason to doubt
of an atonement that is limited in any way, and with              whether he actually believes that the atonement is
this abandons the idea of efficacy in the atonement. You          expiatory in nature. He seems to insist that it is, but
will recall that formerly he made a four-fold dis-                only on the basis of his own definition and qualification
tinction in the atonement: as to sufficiency, availa-             of atonement and expiation. If one considers his view
bility, divine desire, and efficacy. And he taught that           in the light of the Reformed confession of these truths,
the atonement was universal in the first three senses,            then one must come to the conclusion thathe denies the
but limited in the last sense. Now he abandons the idea           expiatory nature of the atonement. Here are his own
of efficacy. I will simply quote without comment his              words again, quoted by the Report, p. 464:
own words, as quoted by the Report (page 463):
          Further study and reflection have led me to see                When I say, `Christ died for you' to any man, I
   that the atonement as such has no efficacy (the sense             mean to say that Christ has actually suffered for his
    in which I previously said it is limited). Redeeming              sins and has in that sense expiated his guilt. If, how-
    efficacy lies neither in the love of God as such nor in           ever, the word `expiate' is intended by definition to
    the atonement as such but rather in the redeeming                 include the idea of effectuation, which to my mind it
    work of the Holy Spirit.      Here too is the sovereign          need not include, I would not want to use the word
   freedom of divine grace (cf. John 3:3-8, 16-18)..  The             expiation to describe what Christ has done for all men.
    atonement itself is inherently universal, as both the             The facts, however, are these: 1) According to the
    Scriptures and the Confessions it seem to me, teach           Reformed faith, the atonement is efficacious. 2) This
    (cf. Canons II, 8 and Catechism Q. 37). Moreover, the
    Canons speak only once of the atonement itself as             efficaciousness of the atonement is the basis of what
    being efficacious (II, 8) and this statement must be          Dekker calls the effectuation of the atonement (This
    seen in its immediate and larger contexts. It seems           effectuation is the application of the atonement and its
    to me that there is neither need nor warrant for re-          benefits to the heart and life of the elect sinner by the
    taining the concept of limited atonement, as it has been      Spirit of Christ. HCH). This effectuation `is insepar-
    traditionally used among us.         At the same time I       able from the efficacy of the atonement, and it follows
    recognize, of course, that the redeeming work of the          from the latter necessarily. 3) When Prof. Dekker,
    Spirit is a fruit of and is dependent upon Christ's           therefore, excludes this idea of effectuation, and
    atonement.                                                    therefore the idea of efficacy, he by his own expressed
   At the same time, Prof. Dekker insists that this               qualification denies and is compelled to deny that the
universality of the atonement and especially the uni-             atonement is expiatory.
versal availability of the atonement is not merely a                  This is indeed a serious error. But let me remind
matter of what the committee calls "the concrete                  the reader that in my still unfinished series on The
presentation of the gospel." Here he gets down to the             Nature of the Atonement, I insisted that the choice
important question which we have often asked concerning           was between a universal atonement which was not
the theory of a general, well-meant offer of salvation,           expiatory, i.e., was not satisfaction for sin, or a
namely: if Christ did not atone for all, how can God              definite atonement which was expiatory, i.e., was satis-
offer salvation to all graciously? Prof. Dekker insists           faction for sin.     Prof. Dekker has not literally chosen
that this question can only be answered by maintaining            the former; but he has done so by clear implication.
that Christ in objective reality atoned for all men. Here                                      *  Q  *
are his own words, quoted by the committee, p. 464:                   Now what is the conclusion from the above?


                   Yes, faith is by grace; it is the gift of  God1. . . ..it is not superfluous to accentuate
                   this truth. How often this truth is distorted in our day! How many there are who,
                   even though they do not literally preach that faith is the work of man, leave the
                   impression by their way of preaching, their pleading and begging, that it is in the
                   power of any sinner to believe in Christ whenever he pleases, and to reject Him as
                   he pleases! . . ..And so they change the wonderwork of God into an arbitrary whim of
                   the sinner's will!      But it is not so. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
                   runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
                                                                - H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace"


200                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

       Note, in the first place, that Prof. Dekker's errors       It might be objected that the committee had no
are very, very plain. Any Reformed man will recognize          mandate to do the above. I doubt this. But even if it
them spontaneously.                                            were true, I cannot understand how a committee can
       In the second place, we must remember that the          have knowledge of such obvious and such serious and
committee had all this material before them. They              explicit errors, errors more explicit and serious than
treated it; they analyzed it. They quoted it and to an         originally appeared in Prof. Dekker's writings, and
extent criticized it in the body of their Report.              then fail completely to do anything about it. In fact,
       In this light, it is simply inconceivable to me that    they apparently failed even to warn the Synod of 1966
the "Conclusion and Recommendation" of the Report              that postponement of consideration of the report would
says not a single word directly about Prof. Dekker's           result in allowing their seminary professor to continue
errors, fails to condemn them as heresy, fails to              promulgating these errors for another year.
reckon with the fact that he has gone on teaching those           No one sounded an alarm!
errors for more than four years, and fails to breathe             No one preferred formal charges!
a word concerning any disciplinary action. There really           If any in the Christian Reformed Church arein dead
is not even so much as a word of warning in the  com-          earnest about trying to remain at all Reformed, they
mittee's "Conclusion and Recommendation."                      had better wake up and act!



  TRYING  THE  SPIRITS-



                 DispensationaTlism  A Carnalizing System


                                                 by Rev. R. C.  Havbach

   God's plan of the ages is not the mere unfolding            manifestation of the Sons of God. The center of His
of the eras of time until the last when eternity is            providential workings is the glorified Mediator dwelling
ushered in.       The periods of the world are directed        in the midst of a glorified people chosen in Him before
in the providence of God through their beginning,              the foundation of the universe.
continuance and end according to the will of God for              Dispensationalism has no such solid foundation.
all things.      Each period is marked by a particular         It is based on a test of  man  and his obedience to a
progressive development of the divine purpose to the           specific revelation of the will of God, which test and
end that the promise gradually revealed be seen in             revelation in each succeeding age may be antithetical
ever clearer light until it is realized in its most            to any former or following test and revelation. Thus,
comprehensive fulfilment.        The dispensations begin       there is not so much development in the movement
then with not man, but the promise.           They are all     from one dispensation to another as there is contrast.
unfoldings and increasingly fuller revelations of `the         For example, in the dispensation  of. law, man was
promise of God. The promise is the promise of the              tested according to works. Before that, he was tested
covenant.      It is the covenant which is at the bottom       according to promise, a rather evangelical dispensation.
of all. The various dispensations are but dispensations        Now he is being tested, not by law, but by grace. Thus
of the covenant. The one great aim God has in mind             a false antithesis is made between law and grace.
is covenant friendship and fellowship with His people.         For the scriptural antithesis is between sin and grace.
All things else are means unto the execution and               Dispensationalism, then, produces a view of history
securing of that end.        The glorification of a people     which is man-centered and, for its several parts,
in covenant friendship with God triune was ordained            without connection and development.        The system
from eternity. Man's redemption was ordained in order          constantly emphasizes that each dispensation ends
to that glorification. Man's sin was ordained with a           in failure . In fact, the teaching is, each dispensation
view to his redemption. The creation of heaven was             begins with man.       The Dispensation of Innocence
decreed with a view to the eternal dwelling-place of           began with Adam, Conscience with fallen Adam, Human
the redeemed.        The creation of the heavens and the       Government with Noah, Promise with Abraham and
earth was ordained as the way to God's heavenly                Law with Moses. This emphasis on man is offensive
tabernacle.      The works of providence were ordained         enough, but that "the age of  grace" and the "kingdom
to secure the revolutions of the universe unto the             age" begin with  man  is especially offensive. For grace


                                             THE STANDARD: BEARER                                                   201

is sovereign, not the will of man, and Christ's reign         chosen and purchased possession. Therefore we read,
is supreme, not man.       But since each dispensation        "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
begins with man, each closes with the failure of man.         Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
This leaves a further offense in that "man fails under        in the heavenlies in Christ, according as He hath
grace." What hope is there, then, for man, if he fails        chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
even under grace? What will keep him from failing             that we should be holy and without blame before Him"
and falling if grace does not? True, every man, in-           (Eph.  1:3,4).    The foundation of all God's dealings
cluding the elect man, will fall under grace and from         with men is found not in man, nor in time, nor in the
grace as long as grace reigns merely over him and             scene of man's activities, but in what is affirmed in
around him. But when sovereign, irresistible grace            the above Scripture. Nor may this truth be limited to
reigns  in. him, he cannot and shall not fail nor fall.       New Testament saints, for it applies to the whole
But Dispensationalism does not go very far with respect       election of grace.
to sin and grace in the plan of God.                             Dispensationalism will, of course, object, on this
   Nevertheless, the entrance of sin was ordained             point, that the Old Testament saints were not blessed
and planned in order to effectuate the work of redemption.    with  spiritual blessings in the  heavenlies,  but rather
Just as the glory of the sun, moon and stars is espe-         with  temporal   things on  earth.    They had a  matevial
cially appreciated upon the background of the black           inheritance and an  earthly welfare promised them. But
curtain of night, so sin was needed as a black back-          the Gospel will not bear this out, for according to it,
ground to put into sharper relief the glories of God's        in Abraham and his seed God would bless not only
grace in the redemption of His people. How could              Israel but all the nations (Gentiles) of the earth.
grace be appreciated without sin? How could mercy be          This blessing that would come alike on Jew and
known without misery?       How could God's almighty          Gentile was a  spiritual   one, as Paul taught when he
power be seen without humanly insurmountable obstacles        said "that the blessing of Abraham might come on
to be overcome? God ordained sin, its entrance into           the Gentiles through Jesus Christ: that we might re-
the world, its operations and effect, in order to more        ceive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal.
grandly reveal His wonderful attributes - which all add       3,8,9,14). What blessing was to comeonthe Gentiles  -
up to one, glory!                                             (and, mind you, Gentiles which had no promise of a
   The government of this world in the providence of          geographical Canaan)? The same promised the Jews,
God is ordered and controlled for the sake of the work        namely, the promise of the Spirit through faith! The
of redemption. We know that all things work together          promise of the Spirit is the essence of all spiritual
for good to them that love God, who are the called            blessings in Christ.        When we have the Spirit given
according to His purpose. To illustrate: this magazine        us, then we have all spiritual blessings brought us.
is published in the interest of that system of doctrine       You will see that this is so by a comparison of Lk.
found in Scripture called the Reformed Truth. There           11:13 with Mt.  7:ll. In the one place, Christ speaks
are many providences  of God which make this possible.        of the Father giving "the Holy Spirit to them that
Trees grow for more years than generations of man,            ask Him," while in the other, this is explained as
to be cut down, made into pulp and then to paper.             "giving good things to them that ask Him." Further-
Steel was manufactured for machines to linotype, print,       more, it is not Old Testament point of view to teach
cut and fold. Ink is necessary. So the postal system,         that the blessed man was one whose possessions were
the railway system and ships at sea, to transport             great, whose lands, flocks and herds were fabulously
these magazines to places of distribution throughout          increased. No, rather David insisted, and Paul agreed
foreign countries. Little do captain or crew, traveling       with him, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are for-
to a remote island of the sea, believe they are instru-       given, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the
ments of God to place a copy of this publication in the       man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (Ro.  4:7f)
hands of one of His elect there.
   No, in God's plan of the ages, the starting point is          At the beginning of the New Testament dispensation
not man, nor even the creation of the world. His plan         Peter stood up and preached to his brethren the Jews.
does not begin in time, but in eternity. True, the            He and they were still very much used to thinking
Bible begins with the Book of Genesis, and so may be          according to Old Testament concepts.         At the temple
said to begin with the Adamic dispensation, but not           he remarked in his address to them, "Ye are the
really. True, Scripture begins with the creation, in-         children of the prophets, and of the covenant which
cluding the creation of man as made in the image of           God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, `And
God.    Yet we are not told in Genesis what the image         in thy seed shall all the  kindreds of the earth be
of God is. We turn to the Book of Ephesians for that          blessed' "  (AC.  3:25).      Now, aside from what the
(4:24). We also turn to the very same book in its first       people themselves might have supposed that blessing
chapter for the foundation of our study and thinking,         to be, what did Peter conceive it to be? Did he explain
for the key to God's plan of the ages. For the character      it to them as consisting in an earthly kingdom, with
and content of God's eternal plan realized throughout         temporal blessings and material pomp and power?
the periods of history, we must turn to Ephesians One.        Not so, but he expounded in the words, "Unto you
Not in Genesis, but in Ephesians, by whichwe interpret        first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him
Genesis, do we learn that the center of God's counsel         to  bless you in  turning away every one of you from
is His glory in Christ through the redemption of His          his iniquities." (v.26) Peter, in introducing the new


202                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

dispensation to Jews emerging from the old, puts              the Scriptures. The .Word  of God itself has a spiritual
forth to them, as a sample of what they  may.expect           outlook.     Jerusalem is  "spidudly   called Sodom and
to find in the new, but one single. blessing which stands     Egypt." (Rev.  11:8) The history of Israel, e.g., -under
for all the rest in the new covenant. The one blessing        Joshua, has a  spiritual meaning. Certainly the Psalms
which he introduced is fundamental and a foretaste            are full of  spiritual  meaning.  _ The "blessed" man is
of all the others. Peter in this way revealed himself         the one whose delight is in the law (teaching)  ofthe
well taught of his Master. For at the beginning of His        Lord. (Psm. 1) The "green pastures" and "still
ministry;He proclaimed the blessings of the kingdom           waters" represent not natural, but spiritual realities.
of heaven, which were given not in earthly offices            Then let not carnalizers of Holy Writ ridicule a
and benefits, but in the "poor in spirit," the "meek"         spiritual interpretation of "Mount Zion," the "cedars
and the "pure in heart."                                      of Lebanon," the "dew of Hermon" and the ox which
    The charge of Dispensationalism against us is that        "treadeth out the corn." Spiritual things can only be
we spiritualize  the promises of God. Well; we cer-           spiritually discerned.      Purely natural things are
tainly do not do as Dispensationalists, and  cavnalize        nothing but chaff.



        THE  CHURCH   AT  WORSHIP-



                          The Task  Of The Ministry


                                               by Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg

    We concluded our previous article with the observa-          1) Let us keep in mind that whatever interpretation
tion that to the task of the ministry of the Word be-         may be given to this text, the apostle Paul could not
longs the labor of publicly calling upon the name of the      and does not enjoin ministers to do what is directly in
Lord in behalf of the whole congregation. The minister        conflict with the fundamental principle of prayer set
is also a priest.     He must carry the needs and the         forth by the Lord Himself in His prayer recorded in
burdens, as well as the thanksgivings, of the congre-         John 17 when He said: "I pray for them: I pray not for
gation to the throne of grace. Continuous prayers and         the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me; for
intercessions must be made, for, as we saw, this task         they are  Thine." (vs. 17) No minister of the Word of
is not an  occasional%  one but a perpetual one. The          God has the right to lead a congregation of God's people
minister of the Word carries the church in his heart,         in prayer contrary to this directive. This then posi-
.and, seeking her welfare, brings her continuously to God.    tively excludes here a prayer for the reprobate world.
   The passage of the Word of God that is cited in this          2) Those who would insist upon a liteval interpreta-
connection in the Form of Ordination of Ministers of          tion of Paul's words must also remember that they
the Word is I Timothy  2:1, 2. In this passage Paul           may not then limit the "all men" and "kings" to the
exhorts Timothy to make "supplications, prayers, inter-       rulers of our own country and exclude from their
cessions, and giving of thanks for all men; for kings,        prayers the "kings and rulers" of nations that are
and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a         opposed to us. This is oftendone, and then the impres-
quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty."       sion is left that God's blessing is sought upon American
Not infrequently this passage is used in an attempt to        government while, by implication, His curse is invoked
induce ministers of the Word to do what is directly           upon the government of other peoples. The evil of such
contrary to their office and calling when they lead the       a prayer ought to be evident to us.
congregation in public prayer. However, before we are           3) If the limitation of the above paragraph is not
ready to condemn the preacher for failing to mention          made and the prayer is made for "all", a careful
the civic authorities, from the municipal to the national     analysis of such a prayer will reveal that it is nothing
level, in the congregational prayer, let us be sure that      more than a seeking of the realization of sinful man's
we understand this passage of the Word of God.                idealism of a world-society in which all men coexist
    We will not at this time attempt to explain all that      in a carnal peace and quietness. It denies the reality
is involved in this highly controversial passage. The         that God "has put enmity"; that He had made separa-
following observations will suffice to make clear the         tion, and that, apart from the peace of the cross of
specific charge given here to Timothy and to the              Calvary, there is no peace. Ignoring the Scriptural
ministers of the Word of God.                                 truth that God never willed to save allmen  individually,


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    203

this prayer proceeds from a thoroughly wrong premise          sented by the office-bearers, and not solely' upon the
and. can only be uttered in the service of the cause of       pastors.    This I believe is correct, and then why can-
the  anti-Christ..  To God it is an abomination.              not the consistory delegate the authority to administer
4) Let. us remember that the injunction .to pray for          the sacraments to one of its elders if need be?
"all men, for kings- and for all that are in authority,"         The `argument in favor of the position advocated in
must be. understood in  conneotion  with the phrase of        our Ordination Form is undoubtedly that the administra-
,verse  2 , "that we (the church) may lead a quiet and        tion of the sacraments belongs to and is inseparable
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty," and verse       from the preaching of the Word. This is without ques-
4, "Who (God) will have all men to be saved and to            tion also true. We cannot have the administration of
.come unto -the knowledge of the truth." And do not           the sacraments without the preaching of the Word. The
:overlook  verse 3, which says, "For. this is good and        former depends upon the latter. However, is it not true
acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour." What is          that when a congregation is without a minister, the
good in God's sight? It is good that the church lives in      elders of the church lead the congregation in worship
all godliness and honesty. It is good that all men come       in a Reading Service? Is not this a form of the preach-
to the knowledge of the truth; that all men be saved.         ing of the Word? Or must we say that the congregation
Thus it is evident that Paul is not speaking of individ-      has had no preaching of the Word on that day? The
uals but of classes of men that comprise the church           same is true when Seminarians speak an edifying word
of the living God. God has chosen His people from every       in the congregations. It seems to me that if preaching
station and calling in life, and for them (and not for the    the Word is construed as the official speaking of Christ
world) we must pray. But the question may be asked            Himself in the church through the office, we must also
as to why the apostle singles out the particular class        believe that Christ speaks through the elder who reads
of "kings and those in authority?" Calvin, in reply to        a sermon and through the Seminarian who "preaches"
this question, says, "they were the classes that the          as well as through the ordained minister.
church of that day under Roman persecution were most             Furthermore, when a congregation is vacant, the
apt to hate and leave out of their prayers." The same         elders are called up to perform other pastoral labor
author adds, "that they may begin to impart to us those       also.    They must  catechise  the youth, call on the sick,
benefits of which they formerly deprived us."                 do family-visitation, etc. Why then, if necessity dic-
   And so the minister of the Word must carry the             tates, can they not, by the authority of the church,
church to God in prayer. He must lead the church, not         administer the sacraments? We may also note here
to hate, but to pray for those that despitefully use them     that in a certain sense there is anoverlap in the three-
whether they are near or far, in positions of authority       fold office of the church. Strictly speaking, the elders
or in subjection, of whatever class they maybe. Pray-         represent the Kingship of Christ and are the rulers
ing  .for the church, he is not to seek carnal objectives     of the church. Yet the ministers, who in the narrow
but the promotion of her godliness and honesty, for in        sense of the word represent the Prophetic office of
this way the church prospers in the grace of God. This        Christ, together  .with the elders rule the church and
is good and acceptable to God.                                form its Council.       Then, too, the deacons are the
   The third aspect of the minister's calling delineated      ministers of mercy as representing Christ's priest-
in the Form of Ordination is the task of administering        hood, but the section of the Ordination Form for
the holy sacraments. We quote:                                Ministers which we previously discussed indicates that
   "Their office is to administer the sacraments, which       the minister's task includes the priestly function of
the Lord hath instituted as seals of His grace: as is         prayer.     If this overlap is recognized, I do not think
evident from the command given by Christ to the               any injustice to the command of Christ is perpetrated
apostles, and in them to all pastors: `Baptize them in        if, in cases of necessity, the elders  ofthe church would
the name of the"Father,  and, of the Son, and of the Holy     proceed in the ministerial function of administering the
Ghost.' Likewise: `for I have received of the Lord, that      sacraments.      It would, in my judgment, be better to
which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus          have a child baptized by an elder (really by the church
the same night in which he was betrayed, etc.' "              through the elder) than to leave the child unbaptized,
   The Reformed position has always been that the             and it would be better to celebrate the Lord's Supper
administration of the sacraments belongs exclusivelyto        with an elder officiating than to neglect the commem-
the office of the ministry of the Word. We raise the          oration of His death by this sacrament which He has
question for sake of discussion whether this is neces-        instituted for that purpose. If it can be shown that this
sarily the case? Are the Scriptural passages cited            "command of Christ" was given  exclusively  to the
here conclusive proof for this contention? This would         "apostles and  .pastors," the current practice in our
make an interesting and, I believe, profitable subject        churches has Scriptural support. Otherwise, though
for discussion at an office-bearer's conference or in         we have no objection to the continuance of this practice
our Men's Societies. We might consider whether the            as something that is generally acceptable, we cannot
c.ommand  of Christ here is spoken to the apostles,           say that it must-  .be so.
"and in them to all pastors" or whether it is not
proper to say that this command was given to the                 The final aspect of the' minister's calling deals with
apostles, "and in them to the church;" If the latter be       their duty to "keep the Church of God in good discip-
accepted; the responsibility of administering the sacra-      line,. and to govern it in such a manner as the Lord
ments rests upon the church, the institute as  repre-         hath ordained."


204                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

       Before we proceed further to discuss this aspect of     there are the Words of Christ to His apostles that
the minister's calling, we like to have it observed that       "whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in
no one would conclude from this description of the             heaven."    Next, the form says, "Paul will have the
calling of the ministers that they are to exercise             ministers to know how to rule their own house, since
discipline in the church  alone,  that is to say, without      they otherwise neither can provide for nor rule the
the elders. Such would not be according to the ordina-         Church of God." Thirdly, pastors in Scripture are
tion of Christ, for, as we will see later in connection        called "stewards of God, and bishops, that is, over-
with the form for the ordination of elders, this task          seers and watchmen, for they have the oversight of the
belongs specifically to them.         Yet, here it is also     house of God, wherein they are conversant."
included as part of the task of the ministers of the              There is no question concerning the necessity of
Word.                                                          good order in the house of God. Paul says, "Let all
       The Form for Ordination bases this upon several         things be done decently and in good order." However,
considerations which we only mention here and will             the question arises, is this the task of the ministers
discuss, D.V., more fully in our next article. First,          of the Word or of the elders or both?



       IN  HIS  FEAR-



                Doing Good Unto Our Enemies

                                                   by Rev. J. A. Heys

       Jesus said it.                                          not limit the text so severely as to make Genesis
   He said it in Matthew 5:44. And He said it in slightly      3:15 a prediction of nothing more than Christ's per-
different language.                                            sonal victory over the devil and the beast out of the
   He had already given us the command, "Love your             sea, that red dragon that has waited from the very
enemies." And therefore now He declares, "Do good              beginning to try to kill the Christ. Viewed from its
to them that hate you."                                        positive point of view Genesis 3:15 means that God will
       We have enemies in that we have those who hate us.      put love in the hearts of the seed of the woman; and
We have them because they hate us because of who we            for that reason the unregenerated, who are the seed,
are. We have them because of  what we are. In either           the spiritual children of the devil, will hate the regen-
instance we must do them good, even though there is a          erated children of God, the members of His elect
sense in which we must hate them. Yes, the Word of God         Church. Here is the answer of grace to all the momen-
does teach that.         Does not the psalmist speak by        tary "victory" of Satan! Look! and see Adam and Eve
infallible inspiration in Psalm  26:5 when he states, "I       cowering under the trees of the garden.       Behold the
have hated the congregation of evil doers; and will not        man made in God's image to reflect His virtues of
sit with the wicked." Do we not read in Psalm  31:6            righteousness and holiness, of true knowledge and
"I have hated them that regard lying vanities; but I           wisdom! See that spiritually perfect creature now a
trust in the Lord?"          In Psalm  139:21  the psalmist    vicious rebel completely under the control of the evil
even dares to bring this matter before God's face and          spirit, who is Satan! What a tragedy, we would say.
asks, "Do not I hate them, 0 Lord, that hate Thee?             How pathetic Adam and Eve looked with fig-leaf aprons
and am not I grieved with those that rise up against           and cringing with fear under the trees. Where is the
Thee?" And, indeed, we may ask here, Is it possible            king and priest of God in that beautiful garden? Where
to love God and love those that hate Him? Is it possible       is he around whom that whole earthly creation revolved
to love those that hate God without hating God our-            and through whose mind and will and works every crea-
selves? And John tells us in I John 2:lS not to love the       ture was to return to God in praise and thanksgiving
world. That he means men is evident from the addition          and service? What shall we say to all these things?
"Neither the things of the world." And surely we must             There is an answer of grace. There is a word of
not forget Genesis  3:15.                                      God that brings back hope and cheer and joy and peace.
   The seed of the woman mentioned in Genesis  3:15            This hatred the devil has wrought. Here he has brought
is certainly in the ultimate sense Christ, Who according       the king and priest of God's earthly creation.     His is
toGalatians 3:16 is The Seed of Abraham. And the seed          the mastery over God's royal priesthood. But, listen!
of the serpent ultimately is the Antichrist. But we dare       God will speak! This is not the end of the story. Man


                                             THESTANDARDBEARER                                                     205

cringes in fear.      But the grace of God will give him     bour; and we are not to expect anything else in this
another fear, one of reverence and awe before his            world.
Maker. This evil Satan has done; but God will over-             Often therefore we find ourselves hated by un-
throw all his works, for God will put His love back          believers because we are ourselves living as unbe-
into the hearts of some, the seed of the woman, through      lievers, and we injure and torment, insult and irritate.
Christ Whom the Church brings forth in the fulness of        We do not do good to the neighbour but evil. We do not
time.    For this Seed of the woman will crush the head      seek his advantage but take advantage of him. We do
of the dragon and deliver His people fully from his          not do unto him that which we would want him to do to
power. They shall no longer love sin and the children        us but that which we would severely condemn, if he did
of the devil in as far as they are enemies of the Living     it to us.     Because of what we are, impatient, hateful
God, but they will have enmity in their hearts. They         and hating, cruel and conniving sinners, we invite the
will love God and hate with a perfect hatred all those       wrath and enmity of our fellow men. Surely the demand
who are God's  elzemies.  That is what the psalmist said     of God in all this is that we love that neighbour instead
in Psalm  139:21  after asking the question of God, "Do      and cease all our cruelty and abuse, hatred and enmity.
I not hate them that hate Thee?" He declares, "I hate        We must do good to all men, and as the Heidelberg
them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies."        Catechism teaches us, "show patience, peace, meek-
Are you one of those that hate God's enemies or of           ness, mercy, and all kindness towards him, andprevent
those that love them? How could you ever heed the            his hurt as much as in us lies."
Word of God to fight the good fight of faith, if you love       It makes no difference actually why men hate us, as
God's enemies ?                                              far as our calling is concerned to do them good. We
   We said a moment ago that we have enemies                 must love them whether they hate us because we are
because of who we are and because of what we are.            God's people or because we have sinned against them.
God's enemies become our enemies because we are              As  ouv enemies we may never seek revengeupon them.
His children.       Satan, the serpent and all his seed      Our calling is to be the meek, the peacemakers. Our
hates us because they see the life of Christ, the Seed       calling, as far as our enemies is concerned, is to turn
of the woman, in us. When our covenant seed make             the other cheek. Returning blow for blow, an eye for
confession of their faith, when they begin to take           an eye and a tooth for a tooth is out of place whether
their places with us in the battle of faith and declare      we have gotten the enmity of men because of our own
before the whole world that they belong to their faithful    evil works or whether it is because of the reproach of
Saviour, Jesus Christ, the devil and his wholedominion       Christ to Whom we belong.
manifest the hatred that they have for God. Because we          If we have gotten the enmity of men because we have
are of the party of the Living God, we are hated; and an     broken one or the other of the ten commandments of
unchanging enmity is there towards us no matter how          our God, if it is because we have stolen his goods, slan-
sweetly the adversary may smile. The God we love             dered or insulted him with our tongues, dishonoured
they hate, and therefore they hate us and will assault       him in his office or the like, we certainly should not
us either with persecution or temptation.                    continue in our evil and injure him bodily or even kill
                                                             him when he attacks us for our wickedness. Then we
   But, sad to say, we are also hated for what we are.       had better get down on our knees and confess our sin
And we are sinners.      By nature we are haters of God      to God and to him and make restitution where we may
and of the neighbour. Do not forget that by nature we        for our evil. And here we may consider the fact of the
are all the seed of the serpent. The wonder of salva-        awfulness of murder in that no restitution can ever be
tion is not simply that there are seed of the serpent in     made either to those whom we have killed or those
this world since the fall and also seed of the woman.        whose loved one we have killed. You can steal, and
The blessedness of the cross of Christ and the power         repenting you may give him twofold or even tenfold,
of His Spirit is not that since the fall there are Cains     and the man whom you robbed is better off financially
but also Abels, Esaus but also Jacobs, barbarians but        than before your sin against him. You can confess
also believers.     No the wonder and the blessedness of     your backbiting and slander, your libel and false wit-
it all is that we all come into this world as Cains and      ness; and you can befriend him so in years that follow
Esaus and unbelievers that the blood of Christ makes         that he has gotten a better friend than he ever had be-
us to be besides this during this life Abels and Jacobs      fore.     But when you take his life away, he is gone, and
and believers and presently in glory delivers us com-        there is no possibility of ever confessing your sin to
pletely from the Cain and Esau that is in us from birth.     him. Never can you fill that void that you have made
And do not forget that besides the enmity between the        in his family and  among  his loved ones and friends.
seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, there         Death is so final. From it we can make no return. All
is also an enmity between some of the seed of the            violence against our personal enemies is also strongly
serpent and other of the seed of the serpent. Un-            condemned by the Word of God as an act of hatred
believer rises up against unbeliever, murderer against       against God Himself.,
murderer, thief against thief. Yea the unbelieving thief        And if we have gotten the enmity of the world be-
and murderer rises up against other unbelievers who          cause we are the Church of God, and we must hate God's
have not laid a finger on them or taken a penny from         enemies with a perfect and complete hatred, even then
them.    The heart that beats only with hatred towards       we must love them as OUY enemies and do good to them
God will also beat only with hatred against the  neigh-      as those who do evil against us. Paul feels the need in


   206                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

  Ephesians   6:11-16 of reminding us that we do not                   practice these sinful taboos and segregations. And
   wrestle against  flesh, and blood even when the enemy               although the enmity was chiefly from the side of the
   comes against us with the arm of flesh and with a                   Jews towards the Samaritans, because they were not of
   sword of. steel and of fiery darts that burn the flesh.             the seed of Abraham and still' `lived -in Canaan, the
   We have only one weapon wherewith wemayfight. That                  Samaritan shows mercy and compassion onthe  wounded
   weapon is not of steel. It is not fashioned by nuclear              Jew near Jericho. His own fellowmen, the priest and
   fission.          It is not made in any of the armament plants      the Levite satisfy only their curiosity and continue on
  -of this world;           It is the  armour of God, the  armour      their way. The Samaritan does good. Indeed, the priest
   which He makes and supplies. And the only weapon of                 and Levite did not do evil. They did not add to the
   attack is the sword of the-spirit, which is the Word of             injuries of that wounded Jew; but they did not show
   God. With it you may.fight. All other weapons and all               love and did not do good to him. The Samaritan did
   the strengthof your arm and tongue you must put away                good to his enemy and thereby showed love.
        and lock in your closet.                                          Failing to do good to  ou'v enemies is failing to do
         What is more, Jesus' words are positive. He does              the good God demands of us. And failing to do the good
   npt- say, "Do not hate your enemies. Do not do evil to              that God demands of us is saying by our deeds that He
   those that hate-you." He tells us to do something rather            is not God. And so we have a god beside Him and'break
   than  -to' refrain from doing something. Of course, by              the whole law. In His fear we stand in awe before Him
   His. creative command He causes His own to do that                  as God. In His fear, therefore, we seek to deal with the
   which He commands. But that does not take away the                  neighbour as before His face. And indeed, we always
  .fact that He comman<s, and that He commands us to do                are before His face, and nothing is hid from His
  -something.             His parable of The Merciful Samaritan        searching eyes. But living in His fear means that we
   (erroneously and usually called, The Good Samaritan)                are conscious of this fact and that we behave in the
   is .a case in point. Here was indeed an "enemy," For                consciousness thereof and with the desire to be pleasing
   the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, and that              in His sight as the God of our salvation. In His fear
   sinfully. so. Jesus showed the sin of it by going through           is in the love of God. In His fear is doing good to our
   Samaria  on his way from  Judea  to Galilee. He did not             enemies in order to do the good that God demands.



          .`-A  CLOUD  OF  WllfVESSESr
        ._.


  ,.

                                             David and Jonathan
          ('





                                                        by Rev. B.  Woudenbevg
                     .
                                       Theve is a  friend that sticketh  closev than a  bvothev.
                                                                                  Pyovevbs  18:24
               Saul had thought that he would be able to rely          to Saul, for Jonathan had always been rather independent
  upon the support of his children in his struggle with                following, as he did, his firm dedication to the worship
  David.           Through his years as king, he had developed         of Jehovah just as David did.
  the mind  of. a tyrant which could not really believe                   Still it had seemed that Michal would be different.
  that anyone would dare not to do his bidding, par-                   She after all shared none of the religious fervor which
  ticularly  ,not someone of his own family. That was                  David and Jonathan did. `In fact, andthis was something
--why he had consented to the friendshi_p_between  Jonathan            David himself didn't even know, she had gone so far
  and David; that was why he consented to the marriage                 as to experiment with the worshipping of teraphim
  between David and Michal. Assuming the loyalty of                    and still kept them with her in her home. Saul himself
  his children, he was sure that through them he would                 had not particularly liked that, for he always had
  gain an advantage. in that struggle which' had come to               tried to maintain the appearance of religious purity
  dominate his life completely.                                        even though he had no real feeling for it; but, in the
                                                                       w.ay  -of a pampering father, he had allowed her to do
          It was  not. long, however, before Saul began to             what she chose as long as it did not become publicly
  discover how wrong he had been.  .No sooner had he                   known.     Now it even afforded him a .bit of assurance
  informed Jonathan. of his intentions  : to destroy David             that Michal could never  `be really close to David even
  than Jonathan took exception with it and argued against              though they were married. Therefore, he felt, she at
  Saul's plan. But this. was perhaps not too surprising                least would remain faithful to him.  '


                                               THESTANDARDBEARER                                                    `2i)7

   But in, this also, Saul was quite mistaken.. It was         could to prepare this innocent, trusting-.and brilliant
true that the union between David and Michal was not           young man for the great <responsibilities that-one day
a spiritual union and could never, therefore, develop          he would have. to shoulder.  .'          -           (:
into a truly successful marriage. At the same time                Undoubtedly David would have been satisfied to
though, Michal.felt no real loyalty to her father. Rather,     have remained with Samuel indefinitely.           To him,
at the time, she was quite infatuated with her new             everything that Samuel had to say was far more
husband, and when she found him threatened by her              -beautiful  and important than anything that he could
father, she was the first to urge David to flee from           learn from anyone else.      Besides this, Samuel met
her father's wrath. Even more, once David had left,            regularly with the schools  .of the prophets to teach
she did her utmost to prevent or at least delay Saul           and to worship with them.          These schools were
from discovering his absence.. Taking her teraphim             composed of groups of young  menu who met regularly
from its hiding place, she placed it in David's bed, she       with the old prophet so that they might. learn from
put some goat's hair about it and covered it all with          him and so that they might sing and dance in services
a sheet so that it might appear that David was still           of worship before God. With them David felt as fully
lying there.      The next morning, just as she had ex-        at home as he ever had with any company of fighting
pected, messengers came from her father summoning              men.    He shared with them a common joy and faith.
David to the palace.       She informed them, however,            It could not last, however, Saul was far too deter-
that he was sick and could not come, allowing them             mined to have David out of the way. Soon the report
to look into the bedroom from the doorway.                     returned to him as to where David' was staying, and
   But Saul was in no mood to be put off once again.           that was all he had to know. He called to himself a
His answer was curt, "Bring him up to me in the bed,           company of his most trusted servants and sent them
that I may slay him."             Only in this way did they    to take David captive.
discover the subterfuge of Michal, for in the bed they            Little, though, did he realize the nature of David's
found nothing but the image and the goat's hair.               defense. The messengers of  Saul;ordinarily  ahardened
   When the message was brought to Saul he felt                group of men, came upon him in Naioth of  Ramah just
more hurt than anything else, betrayed by his own              as the school of the prophets was engaged in its service
daughter.      The next time he met Michal, his question       of worship. It was an embarrassing moment, for no
to her reflected his disappointment, "Why hast thou            one in Israel could lightly interfere with so deeply
deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is           religious a ceremony, and so the men stopped and
escaped?"       Neither did her answer help for it was         waited for the service to be ended. But then a strange
evidently not true. She said, "He said unto me, Let            thing happened. As the men listened they were them-
me go;        why should I kill thee?" Not only was this       selves caught up into the spirit of the service until
quite out of character for David, it could not account         they danced and sang praises to God along with all the
for the image and the goat's hair. It only reflected           prophets.    The result was that when the service was
the fact that Michal could not be trusted. She felt            ended, it no longer seemed possible to them to lift a
no loyalty to her father, and she felt no real loyalty         finger against one of the company, and surely not
to the reputation of her own husband. She was quite            against one as well favored as David. Instead, they
willing to present him as a violent and unprincipled           joined themselves to the company of the prophets
man if only it served her immediate purpose.                   and continued in the service of praise to God.
   Meanwhile, David had come to the home of Samuel                 At first Saul must have wondered what delayed
in  Ramah.      There was no better place for him to be.       the return of his soldiers; but when the reason was
He had at last come to the same conclusion as Samuel           brought to him, he was furious. Quickly he called
had many years before  - that is, that King Saul was a         together another group of soldiers and sent them to
wicked, proud and ungodly man. The fact hurt him               Ramah on the same mission. It made him even more
and burdened his soul as nothing else could ever do.           furious when the message came back that the same
That was why it was good for him to be with Samuel,            thing had happened to them.         A third group were
because Samuel had passed through the same ex-                 summoned and sent after the first two; but when they
perience in his day. One can well imagine the hours            too fell under the influence of the prophets, in utter
and days spent together by the two men, the one so             exasperation Saul determined to go himself.
young and the other so old but both sharing a common               It all had seemed easy enough when Saul had  s>
disappointment and a common consolation- as no other           out on his way;      but, the closer he came to  Naiotd
two could. It may well be that here for the first time         the more uncertain Saul became.        He was enterin 8
David discovered what it was that actually stood between       the territory of Samuel and that was enough to  troubl&
him and Saul. Samuel had known it himself for many             him in itself.     He had never felt really easy when
years, and the time was come when David should know            near Samuel, and now he had not met the old prophet
also.     Saul's kingdom was not to last. God had taken        since their confrontation at GilgaL'It was a considerably
it away from him;         and when Samuel had appeared         less determined man who finally came to Naioth only
to anoint him in his youth it had been so that he              to find the `prophets once more engaged in their
might someday take Saul's place.  Wemay well imagine           service of worship. It must surely have been a strange
how profoundly David contemplated all that the old             sight, the king in his royal robes standing sullenly,
prophet had  to, say  .to him;     and we may well--imagine    silently watching and waiting for the' service  to,end
with what diligence Samuel sought to do all that he            while the prophets danced on in their service of worship


208                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

as though oblivious to his presence. To the king himself       had known that he could go to Samuel, but now where?
though it must have been even more strange. There              He could think of only one other truly trustworthy
before him was David and the men whom he had sent              friend  - Jonathan. He would go to him.
to take him all busily engaged in the service of the              So it was that David went back, back to where he
prophets, utterly indifferent to his presence,  unfright-      had come from, back to the very shadow of the palace
ened  and undismayed.      But as he watched gradually         walls, back to the hiding place which he had shared
something began to come over him too.            Slowly the    so often with Jonathan in the fields surrounding the
blanket of time seemed to roll back and he remembered          palace of Saul.
how he had once danced with the prophets. It had been             It was a tender, touching meeting that the two
immediately after he was anointed king, when only he           men had there.      David was weary, tired from run-
and Samuel as yet knew it. Overcome with joy and a             ning, utterly dismayed. What was a man to do, where
strange feeling about God he had joined a company of           was he to go when the very king of Israel was determined
prophets and danced along with them and spoke of the           to have his life? In anguish David threw himself upon
wonder of God. And so it was that Saul forgot himself          the shoulders of Jonathan and cried, "What have I
and went out to dance once again and to prophesy and           done ?     what is mine iniquity?    and what is my sin
speak of the greatness of God. Wildly Saul danced,             before thy father, that he seeketh my life?"
more so than all the rest, until he threw his clothes             The answer to the question was one that neither
aside and fell in a deep swoon to the ground.                  Jonathan nor David wanted to admit. The anger of
   It was then that the dancing stopped. Sadly David           Saul had no rational explanation. It arose from the
looked upon the unconscious king. He knew why Saul             wickedness of a heart that could not endure the way of
had come, and so quietly he gathered his few possessions       the Lord.      It was the hatred with which the wicked
together and fled.                                             have ever looked upon the righteous from the be-
   Never had David felt so much alone. Before he               ginning of time.

       `
        .





  CONTENDING  FOR  THE  FAITH-



                            The Providence Of God
                                                   Miracles

                                                   by Rev.  H. Veldman

   What is the Scriptural idea of the miracle, or                 The true significance of the miracles in Holy
wonder? We can understand that the miracle should              Writ can be understood only when we understand that
be discussed in connection with the providence of              the miracle belongs in the sphere of Divine grace.
God, and particularly with that aspect of God's prov-          The miracles of Scripture are usually discussed in
idence which is known as Government.             When dis-     connection with God's Providence and then, as we
cussing the providence of the Lord we distinguish              have already noted, particularly with that aspect of
between Preservation, Cooperation and Government.              the Lord's Providence which is known as Government.
And Government stresses that aspect of God's prov-             Only, we must have a clear conception of this phase
idence whereby the Lord guides all things to their             of God's Providence. In our treatment of this opera-
own determinate end, as willed by Him from before              tion of God, we emphasized that, from the beginning
the foundations of the world.      These miracles or           of the history of the world, God causes all things to
works of God, we have noted, are often defined as              work together unto the realization of His eternal
events, in the external world, brought about by the            counsel in the new heavens and upon the new earth.
immediate efficiency, or simple volition of God. Mir-          This includes the entrance of sin into the world. We
acles, therefore, are immediate works of the Lord.             must conceive of two spheres of life, a natural and
A miracle is often viewed as an extraordinary work             earthly sphere and a spiritual and heavenly sphere.
of God. We can then certainly understand the remark            The former, the natural sphere, is then sustained by
of Bretschneider:       "The operations of God, when           "Common Grace," whereas the latter is the sphere
uniform, we call laws;      when rare or isolated, we          of God's Special Grace. When God created the heavens
call them miracles."                                           and the earth, He had in mind an original creation


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       209

 ordinance, a development of the world and its powers        received the law exclusively from the Lord, that the
 from a natural point of view. Sindisturbed this original    Church of God, in the Old Dispensation, was exclusively
 plan of the Lord. And now the Lord would maintain           the product of Divine grace, or the wonder of Divine
 this original creation ordinance. He realizes this by       grace.      And, why should he see this need in the light
 His operation of "Common Grace." And the result is          of the teaching of Common Grace? Is there not much
 that a natural sphere is called into existence in which,    good in the world? Why, then, should Moses borrow
 apart from regeneration and salvation, the natural man      from heathen nations, as far as the law is concerned,
 can develop a worldly culture and life whichis  pleasing    and why should it be necessary for him to be dependent
 to God and acceptable in His sight.                         exclusively upon the Lord?            Why, in the light of
    In this conception of "Common Grace" the miracle         Common Grace, should there not be many sources
 of Holy Writ really has no place. This theory of "Com-      from which the Mediator of the Old Dispensation would
 mon Grace" really has no place in it for the super-         be able to draw? If, on the other hand, the absolute
 natural, the Lord's Divine and irresistible grace. To       antithesis be maintained between the Church and the
 be sure, this theory speaks of a certain common             World, then we can understand that all revelation of
 grace.    And this common grace checked the process         the truth and salvation is exclusively Divine, and that
 of sin in Adam, so that he did not wholly corrupt,          the Church of God in the midst of the world is wholly
 and it also enabled him and all mankind to do that          a wonder of Divine grace.
 which is good in the sight of God. However, in the             Calling attention to the several words which are
 first place, this applies to all mankind, and not only      used in Scripture to express the idea of the miracle,
 to the elect. In the second place, it is of effect only     Rev. Hoeksema writes in his Dogmatics as follows
 in the sphere of civic righteousness, in the sphere         (Anthropology, Locus II):
 of this natural life. And, in the third place, it must
 not be confused with God's special grace, and must                    Several words are used to express our idea of a
                                                                miracle. There is first of all theHebrew term 
 be divorced from Christ and from the cross of Cal-                                                               PELE',
                                                                from the verb PALA', which means "to separate, to
 vary, although there are those who claim that the cross'       distinguish, to make distinguished, to make wonderful,
 of Calvary is also the ground for this common grace.           extraordinary." A miracle, therefore, is a work of
 Be this all as it may, it is clear that this common            God that strikes the attention by being extraordinary.
 grace renders man not wholly corrupt, enables him to           This corresponds to the Greek word thauma,  a mar-
 retain glimmerings or remnants of his natural good-            velous work.      Of course, all the works of God are
 ness and righteousness, so that he is able to do much          marvels, whether we see a sunset or the raising of
 good in the sight of God. And any theory of natural            the dead: but our senses are so dulled that our special
 goodness, without redeeming and regenerating grace,            attention must be aroused to behold them as the works
                                                                of the Almighty. A similar significance has the noun
 renders in that measure the Lord's Divine and irre-            MOPHETH,   often used in combination with the word
 sistible grace unnecessary. This is also verified in           `OTHOTH   in the phrase  `OTHOTH   UMPOPHeTHiM,
 the early history of our Protestant Reformed Churches.         signs and wonders, like the Greek semeia kai tevatu.
 This early history of our churches is inseparably              The  MOPHeTHLM,  or  tevafa,   are splendid works or
 connected with what is known in this history as the            deeds that stand out because of their manifestation of
 Dr. Jansen case., Dr.  R.. Jansen was a professor in           great power and wisdom. And signs are the visible
 Calvin Seminary during the years 1914-1922. He                 tokens 05 the presence of the extraordinary and mar-
 was deposed in 1922.        He entertained and taught          velous power of God. They are also called GOBHUROTH,
 heretical views with respect to such doctrines as              mighty works, dunameis, evga megaleia.
- miracles and Divine inspiration.      There were also         Miracles have been defined as supernatural works
 other issues, but we need not call attention to them        of God. The distinction is made between the natural
 at this time.     Dr. Jansen, however, attempted to         and the supernatural (above nature). What is really
 answer and silence his accusers by calling attention        meant with this distinction? Supernatural works are
 to the fact that, whereas he believed in the doctrine       works of God, in which the Lord, in a special sense,
 of Common Grace, they (especially the Revs.  H.             operates in the affairs of the children of men and
 Danhof and H. Hoeksema) did not understand him be-          causes His power to be known and displayed. But, is
 cause of their denial of this doctrine. Neither is it       it possible for one who believes in the Scriptural
 difficult to understand this counter charge of the          doctrine of the providence of God to distinguish be-
 accused professor. The denial of Common Grace, of           tween the natural and the supernatural? This is fun-
 course, emphasizes the absolute antithesis between the      damentally Deism.         Deism is the conception which
 church and the world. Denying Common Grace, we              advocates that the world develops of itself. According
 maintain that the Divine penalty of death was               to this heresy, the world is like a clock  which the Lord
 executed upon mankind when Adam and Eve ate                 winds up at the beginning of time and which is then left
 of the forbidden fruit, that the human race was             to run of itself. To the things natural, then, belong
 wholly given over to sin and darkness, that man,            the so-called laws of nature. That the sun rises in
 created in the image of God, became the image of the        the morning and sets in the evening, that "whatsoever
 devil, lost all his original spiritual gifts, became an     goes up must come down," that the farmer sows his
 enemy of God and a friend and ally of the devil in the      seed in the springtime and harvests his crop in the
 all-comprehensive sense of the word. Dr. Jansen did         autumn, that food nourishes and strengthens and drink
 not see the need of infallible inspiration, that Moses      refreshes,  - all these things are natural things, the


210                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

laws of nature.         Miracles, then, are supernatural.           them who go down in ships, that do business in great
The Lord, as it were, "steps in" and reveals His                    waters.      And, as they traffic upon the seas, they en-
power in a special way. However, are not all things                 counter storms. The Lord makes them to reel to and
either "natural" or "supernatural"? These so-called                 fro and to stagger like a drunken man, and He also
"laws of nature" are surely nothing else than the                   makes the storm a calm, so that the waves become
Lord's orderly control over all things. Nature never                still.     We would surely call these things the most
operates of itself.         Or, if we wish to speak of the          ordinary events in life, but the psalmist speaks of them
"supernatural," is not everything supernatural? The                 as the works of the Lord and His wonders in the deep.
Word of God surely does not distinguish between the                 And this is the language of the Word of God throughout.
natural and the supernatural. The things which we call              Who pays any attention to a sparrow as it falls off the
natural are always works of God, manifestations of the              housetop, but the Word of God tells us that no sparrow
omnipresent power of God by which He sustains and                   falls off the housetop without the will of our heavenly
governs all things. The most common things, things                  Father.        We behold the lilies of the field, see their
that occur daily, are works of the Most High. It is for             beauty, and view these flowers as though they are the
this reason that the Word of God calls the most common              most natural things in the world. And yet we read in
events the works of God, as in Ps.  107:23-32:                      the Scriptures that it is the Lord Who clotheth them
                                                                    with this beauty;      in fact, not even Solomon in all his
         They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business    glory was clothed with a beauty and glory as these
   in great waters; These see the works of the Lord, and            lilies of the field. The sun rises in the morning and
   his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and                  sets in the evening, and we think nothing of it. We
   raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves              simply take this for granted, and view this wonder as
   thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again
   to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.          a "natural law." But the Word of God informs us that
   They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,            He causes His sun to rise upon the just and the unjust
       and are at their wit's end.     Then they cry unto the       and also causes His rain to fall upon the evil and the
   Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their         good.      So, the distinction between the "natural" and
   distresses.     He maketh the storm a calm, so that the          the "supernatural" hardly holds for the believing child
   waves thereof are still. Then -are they glad because             of God who believes in the providence of the Lord.
   they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired            To him, everything speaks of the wonders and mighty
   haven.      Oh that men would praise the Lord for his            works of the Lord. It is  theLord Who, by His almighty
   goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children            and omnipresent power, causes all things to be and to
   of men! Let. them exalt him also in the congregation
  -of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the             develop in the midst of the world. That we do not often
   elders.                                                          see these wonders of the Lord is because of the dullness
                                                                    of our senses; our eyes are too often closed to behold
   Notice, please, that the psalmist in these verses                these wonders of our God as they occur daily all
speaks of the most ordinary things.               He speaks of       around us.



   ALL  AROUND  US-

                                           What  Chaprains Believe
                                           The `God-Is-Dead' Men Are Serious
                                           Marriage Paving The Way To Unity

                                                        by  Pyof. H. Hank0

WHAT CHAPLAINS BELIEVE
   One of our servicemen, now serving outside this                                  MY PERSONAL COMMITMENT
country, recently sent me a small booklet entitled                      In gratitude to God for His love and mercy, I do
"Protestants Believe."           It was published and  copy-            here and now receive Christ and profess the
righted by the "General Commission on Chaplains,"                       faith set forth in this pamphlet.
and is evidently intended to serve as a basis for the                   Signed:
instruction of servicemen in the Protestant Faith. This                 Date:
appears from a statement found inside the back cover
which reads:                                                            It is an excellent example of the kind of religion to


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        211

which our service men are exposed in the chapel                       One suspects, after reading the section on God and
services which they attend.                                        Christ that the author does not even believe in the
   In the introduction of the book entitled "Belief Is             trinity. This suspicion is strengthened by the state-
Power !" we read:                                                  ment on "The Holy Spirit."
      On the following pages of this pamphlet  are set                   When Protestants say, "We believe in the Holy
   forth some of the great religious beliefs commonly                Spirit," they mean:
   held by Protestant Christians for many generations....                -that  God is  Spivit.
      No statement of a Common Faith can be final,                       -that  God is Holy.
   complete or fully satisfactory to everyone.          These            -that in human experience, God is a  Divine  Pyes-
   statements omit some beliefs accepted by many Prot-                ence, the Holy Spirit.
   estants; they may be stated in a form different from                  -that, as Holy Spirit, God is continually seeking to
   that used by some.         However, they do represent a           protect  the spirits of men from evil and destruction
   solid ground of agreement on which most people who                and to bving them into happy fellowship with Himself..
   call themselves Protestants would be likely to agree....
   It is no doubt true that this is accepted by most                 The shallow and superficial view of sin so commonly
Protestants.       But it only shows how far Protestants           held today is also reflected in this brochure in what is
have drifted away from the Protestant Reformation.                 found under the subject of "The forgiveness of sins."
The statement of doctrine can serve as a basis for                        -that man has abused the powers God gave him,
the whole ecumenical movement of our day  - and is                    especially the power to choose.
perhaps intended to do just this.              It is extremely            -that, through the abuse of his God-given power,
deceptive in that it makes abundant use of Scriptural                 man has often greatly wronged God and destroyed his
terminology, but fills these terms with meanings                      fellowship with God  - that is, he has sinned against
foreign to the Word of God. It is so vague and general                God.
that anyone in the whole church world (including out-                     -that sin results in unhappiness and tragedy for
right modernists and Roman Catholics) can accept it.                  men and in great sorrow for God.
                                                                          -that whenever a man really wants to renew the
It sounds very much like something drawn up under the                 fellowship, God is willing, and will no longer hold the
auspices of the National Council of Churches.                         wrong against the man; that is, if a man will sincerely
   We offer some partial quotations from it, admittedly               confess his sin and turn away from it (repent) God will
taking those which strike us as being the most decep-                 forgive him.
tive and false.
   Under the general heading "One God", we read:                      Forgiveness then does not come through the atone-
                                                                   ment of Christ, but only through being willing to con-
       When Protestants say, "We believe in one God,"              fess that one has done wrong.
   they mean:                                                         In the statement under the title "The Bible" the
       -that  back  of all  the  mystery  of life and of the
   universe                                                        booklet uses an expression which has become  themotto
                is a power that created, sustains and rules all
   things.                                                         of those who deny that the Scriptures are the infallibly
       -that this Power  knows, feels, loves and has pur-          inspired Word of God. It says that "the Bible contains
   poses.                                                          the Word of God for men." This expression is de-
       This Power is a Personal  Being; and, as such, is           liberately used to deny that the Bible is the Word of
   the Father of all human beings.                                 God. There is, according to thosewhomake this state-
   Under the heading "Jesus Christ" we read:                       ment, much in the Bible which is not the Word of God.
                                                                   But this Word of God is somewhere in the Bible. It
      When Protestants say, "We believe in Jesus Christ,"          remains for man to try to find it.
   they mean:                                                         In the statement on "The Life Everlasting" no
      -that in Jesus of Nazareth God has revealed him-             mention is made at all of heaven or the eternal per-
   self to men in understandable, human form.                      fection of God's covenant. It merely states:
      -that God was in Jesus so completely that He was
   above all other men THE Son of God.                                    -that man bears the image of God; that is, he
      - that Jesus was so completely human,  being tempt-             shares with God His special powers of thinking, feeling
   ed in all points as other men, yet without sin, that He            and choosing.
   was above all other men THE Son of Man.                                -that, out of His great love and mercy, God seeks
      -that Jesus, by His words and by His life, became               to give men a life that is lived eternally with Him.
   the highest Example and the greatest Teachev of men.                   -that, in the resurrection of Christ, we see both a
      -that  Jesus lived so perfectly  the life of THE Son            sign and promise of God's redeeming purpose, and of
   of Man and THE Son of God that He is Lo& and Master                His saving power.
   of human living at its best and highest.
      -that, by His life, death, and resurrection Jesus is            I include this material in our  Standard  Beaver  in
   the Redeemer of Men and the Savior of the world.                order that our servicemen who read thismay  be warned
      - that the Jesus of history, is  the Living  Cl&& in         of the insidious evils of false doctrine to which they
   the experience of all who accept Him.                           are exposed by their chaplains. It all sounds so pious,
   Such a statement as this above could be received by             so true,  that it is quite conceivable that some of our
any modernist in the world who denies the virgin birth,            servicemen will think this a statement worthy of their
the atonement and the resurrection of Christ bodily                faith. This is especially a danger when our service-
from the grave.                                                    men are  far from their homes and the influence of their


212                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER

church. Hence, this is intended to be a solemn warning              MARRIAGE PAVING THE WAY TO UNITY
to be on guard against this perversion of your faith.                  We are indebted to the  Presbyteviun   Jownal  for a
THE  `rGOD-IS-DEAD" MEN ARE SERIOUS                                 news item concerning a recent marriage betweenaman
                                                                    from the Roman Catholic Church and a woman who is a
   The bold blasphemy of those who teach that God is                member of the United Presbyterian Church. We are
dead is so utterly astonishing that sometimes we can                not so much interested in the fact of the marriage as
scarcely imagine that they really teach these things.               we are in the explanation offered by Dr. Scott Frances
Yet they do. And they are serious about it to. Below                Brenner, secretary for fraternal relations with Cath-
are some quotes taken from a television interview with              olics, Orthodox and Jews for the Board of Christian
Dr. William Hamilton, a leading spokesman of this                   Education of the UPUSA Church. The girl was married
movement.          These quotes originally appeared in a            in Rome and received permission from the Vatican to
newspaper,  The  Toronto   Stav, and are taken from the             receive the sacrament of the Eucharist.
Christian Beacon.          Dr. Hamilton is quoted as saying            In justification for this conduct, Dr. Brenner is
among other things:                                                 quoted as saying: the girl involved was required to
          We are atheists, but  Christian  atheists.                make "an express act of belief in the real presence of
          We  differ  from classical atheism in that it says        Christ in the Eucharist and an act of obedience to the
       that there never was a God, whereas we say that there        Pope." But Presbyterians
       was a God but there isn't now.
          We do not know, we do not adore, we do not believe                  are as convinced of the real presence of Christ in
       in God.                                                         the Eucharist as are our Catholic brethren.
          What we have come up with is a new style of
       Christian theology. It is a breathtaking way of doing           He pointed out that the Presbyterians are loyal to
       Christianity  - without God.                                 Calvin in maintaining a certain presence of Christ in
          We say that it is possible to live as Christians, in
   obedience to Jesus, without ,God.                                the sacrament; only they call it "a spiritual presence"
          God's death is not a sad thing, although  thexe is        rather than a "real presence."
   this understandable nostalgia for the God who's gone.
          It's not the occasion for a requiem but for a comedy.               For a Christian, however, nothing  `is more  real
   For me the death of God is a liberating experience, a               than the spiritual. Therefore I think the time has come
   highly moral experience. It frees me to be committed                to omit the adjective and join in one common confession
   to the service of my neighbor, without God getting in               of the presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
   the way.
          Christianity is obedience to Christ and for that we          In other words, the difference between the Reformed
   don't need God.                                                  view of the sacrament and the Roman Catholic view, so
          Jesus was wrong about a lot of things, but he was         important to the Reformers, is no longer a barrier to
   still a great person.                                            unity.      And we may well ask: if this is not a barrier,
          Jesus is a way of being in the presence of others,        what is?
   He is a clue or model as to how we should act towards               On the matter of pledging obedience to the pope,
   others.                                                          Dr. Brenner is quoted as saying:
          I see no way of affirming the life of the human
   community after death. Nor can I affirm the existence
   of Jesus after death. He, too, has ceased to exist.                        I believe that most Presbyterians want to respect
          If prayer is construed as something addressed to a           and obey the Holy Father insofar as their consciences
   reality outside of oneself, then there is no place for it.          let them do so.
   And yet, as great as the blasphemy is, it is only a                 It is apparent that the ecumenical movement is
forthright statement of what countless theologians                  broad enough to bring all Protestants and Roman
actually believe but are hesitant to express because of             Catholics together across the chasm of the Reformation
their positions in the established church. Yet even                 - even though this involves abject acceptance of Roman
their hesitancy is giving way to increased boldness.                Catholic dogma.




                     No man is able or willing to convert himself, unless God converts him first. Nor
                     does God's work of conversion leave the sinner inactive, like a "stock and block."
                     In conversion God changes the mind, and the sinner sees all things in a new spiritual
                     light; God turns the will, and the sinner begins to hate sin and long for righteous-
                     ness; God works in the heart of the sinner true repentance, and the sinner repents;
                     God draws and the sinner comes; God calls the sinner to turn from his wicked way,
                     by His word of irresistible grace and power, and the sinner obeys, turns and finds
                     that God is abundantly merciful.
                                                                   - H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace"


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        213



 FEATURE  ARTICLE-


                    The Significance Of The Races

                                            In  The World

                                                 by Rev. R.  C.  l?avbach

   (Editor's Note. Following is the substance of an             a Jewish word; it is a Hebrew ethnological term. We
address delivered by the Rev. R. C. Harbach for the             find the word six times in Gen. 10  (5,20,31,32, twice)
League of Men's Societies at its fall meeting in 1966.          used to express certain divisions of mankind, but these
Deeming this address instructive, the League asked              divisions are not particularly racial. We read that the
that it be published in our magazine, and we gladly             isles, i.e., the seacoasts (settlements would naturally
concur with this request. H.C.H.)                               follow the coasts first), the seacoasts of the Gentiles
                                                                (goyim) were "divided in their lands, every one after
   Prior to the Flood, we are unable to trace man's             his tongue, after their families, in their nations
ancestry, except in the revelation of Scripture. There          (goyim)" (Gen.  10:s).       Here is a fourfold division:
we learn that Jehovah created man in His image, in              geographical (isles), lingual (tongue), tribal (families)
distinction from the animals, which were made "after            and ethnological (nations). The word  goyim  is trans-
-their kind." Then the human race multiplied out of             lated  heathen  148 times,  nations  373 times and  people
the family of Adam. Sin having sprung out of the in-            11 times. But not only are the Japhethites by this word
dividual first of all, it soon spread to the family, thence     said to be Gentiles (in v. 5) and the Hamites  are in v. 20
to society, and finally infected the race, which in turn        proved to be Gentiles, but verses 31 and  37 prove
became so corrupt that God destroyed it with a univer-          that the word applies likewise to the Shemites. They
sal `flood, except for a remnant of humanity, which             are  goyim also!
preserved the human race. Science has no information                Also in Scripture we find the word people some-
relative to this period to offer, either to confirm or to       times used in relation to the word  nation.         "This
deny the above biblical history.                                nation  (goi) is Thy people (am)." (Ex.  33:13) There
   Continuing, the human race multiplied, spreading             is a word for  tribe,  which means  family,  not race.
throughout the earth as separate peoples, speaking              The N.T. has a word for  peopZe  from which we get
diverse languages, a factor brought about by divine             our word laity; it has a synonym from which we get
judgment.    City life is evident in this period. Science       our word  ethnic,  another from which we get our word
has no information relative to this period, either,             democrat,  another word which means crowd, and a
although philosophy inserts here in this era its hoaxes         word often translated  kindred.  But there is no word
of the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal man. All the races            for  race in the Bible. In order to express the idea of
of the world are, according to Scripture, the descendants       the whole human  yace, four of these words are used
of Adam.                                                        together in the same connection: peoples,  kind~eds,
   God "hath made of one blood all  nations of men for          tongues  and. nations.     Scripture does recognize the
to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined          fact that there are races, but it knows no superior
the times before appointed, and the bounds of their             race. The Word of God does not teach the superiority,
habitation." (Acts  17:26) God made the race of men,            nor the inferiority, of Jew, Greek, Scythian, Barbarian,
not from a  simi,Cwity   of bloods (which is all the evolu-     Cretians or Arabians. Neither does the Bible teach
tionists are able to discover as to the relation of human       any racial equality or inequality. The idea of equality
to other bloods), but  out of one  bloqd,  i.e., out of the     is a metric concept which is not applicable to or-
blood of Adam ("Have we not all one father? hath not            ganisms.        Poodles are neither equal nor unequal to
one God created us?" (Mal.  2:10), and Eve ("because            collies.      Some poodles are all a man can handle on a
she was the mother of all living." (Gen.  3:20)  Man's          leash.       A large poodle and a shaven collie would look
racial beginnings, then, go back to the time before Abra-       like "Mutt and Jeff."         But poodles and collies are
ham and aftevNoah and the Tower of Babel.                       merely two different kinds of dogs.           The idea of
   But the point of view of Scripture is national, rather       equality does not enter here. It is not to the point to
than racial. Abraham is the father of many nations;             speak of Japanese and Germans as equal or unequal.
in him and in his Seed all the nations of the earth shall       They are neither, but are two distinct races with
be blessed. The biblical word goyim used to designate           different traits and characteristics. "Racial equality"
the nations of the world is not a racial word, nor is it        is a political fiction which has no basis in reality.


214                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

       But since the Bible does speak of Japhetic, Hamitic    of a Prof. Scott of Princeton University.                 Pictures
and  Shemitic  lands, countries, tongues, families and        of this facsimile were spread throughout the news-
nations, then it does speak of races. We are especial-        papers and magazines of the land in the name of
ly interested in  The Significance of the Races in the        science.        Where is the real Mr. Pithecanthropus?
Wovld,  considering, I. Their Origin, II. Their Rise          Will he please stand up?               The Christian, however,
and III. Their Destinies.                                     cannot moan the loss of a `missing link' when, not
       The biblical account of the origin of the races of     just links, but whole chains are missing!
mankind is rejected by the modernistic thinkers of                Second, the so called Piltdown  Man  is a collection
the public schools, colleges and universities, and,           of four skull fragments, a jaw fragment, and a tooth.
generally, by today's men of "science."           Denying     There is no evidence, and therefore no certainty that
the inerrancy and inspiration of Scripture, they assume       the jaw fragment belongs to the skull fragments. The
the hypothesis of evolution as the answer. S. R.              lower jaw of the Piltdown Man, therefore, may not
Driver, professor of Hebrew at Oxford adequately              be Piltdown's lower jaw;               and his upper jaw is not!
represents the modern position. He states, "The first         That is, it was never found; but in the reconstructed
11 chapters of Genesis, it may safely be assumed,             Piltdown Man the upper jaw is only a plaster of Paris
report faithfully  what  was cuvvently  believed among the    filling to give some idea of what he might have looked
Hebrews  respecting the early history of mankind: they        like. Thus scientific (?) imagination again!
contain no account of the  YeaE beginnings of man, or of          Third, the Man of Heidelberg is merely a jaw-bone
human civilization, upon the earth." (HBD, IV, 792)           found in 1907 near Mauer, Germany. It may have be-
The Genesis narrative is, accordingly, merely Hebrew          longed to a man the size of Goliath, as it is unusually
folk-lore, with a conception of God which is naive and        large, though there are similar structures found among
"imperfectly disengaged from polytheism," the latter          negroes. This piece is no evidence of evolution. At
supposed because of such plural references to God as          best, it is evidence of a man possibly of giant propor-
"Let  us go down, and there confound their language."         tions .      But it is only a bony  pavt of a  man!  The so
(11:7)       Chapter Eleven of Genesis only  ostensibly       called Cro-Magnon Man (a `Paleolithic man) is only a
accounts "for the distribution of man `over the face          skull of about the size and shape of Darwin's own skull
of the whole earth."' It does not  yeally do so. For          capacity and profile.
modernists,      educational and ecclesiastical, contend          On such suspicious and uncertain grounds the
that the Genesis account is deprived of all historical        "scientific" (evolutionary) point of view rests. What
or scientific value. For to be truly historical, scien-       is given as real evidence for this position is that which
tific. and scholarly, the  `paleolithic' man and the          seems to lend support to evolutionism. But evidence
`neolithic' man must be taken into account. For they          which would prove to the contrary is never given. And
existed.      But the biblical history does not go back       the evidences of human remains given as proof of
that far;     "and any explanation, purporting to account     evolution are no different from the skeletal remains
for the populations of the earth, and the diversity of        of today.
languages spoken by them, can be no historically true             But according to the Bible and the Genesis record
account either of the diffusion of mankind, or of the
 .1                                                           in particular, the racial beginnings of man stem from
diversity of speech," (ibid.) unless it takes cogni-          "the three sons of Noah:          and of them was the whole
zance of them!                                                earth overspread." (Gen.  9:19) The race developed
       According to the theory of evolution, besides the      in a three-fold direction, the record of which is found
"Paleolithic" man and the "neolithic" man there are           in the brief account of the three national registers of
-also the so called "Ape Man of Java (Pithecanthropus         Genesis, chapter ten. The races are there presented
Erectus)," the "Piltdown Man," the "HeidelbergMan,"           under the figure of a hub and wheel. The rim of the
the "Neanderthal Man" and the  "Cro-Magnon  Man."             wheel is first circumscribed in the Japhetic peoples,
These are claimed to be "men" which actually existed.         the farthest removed over the earth. Then more detail
As . a matter of fact, we have only clay  models  of          is depicted in the spokes of the wheel representing
them, which are products of pure imagination. For             the Hamitic nations. They are, naturally, somewhat
there are by no means complete skeletal remains of            nearer the center. Then the  Shemites  are the hub of
these "men," but only fragments of skulls, a leg bone,        the wheel. If we may borrow from a James-original,
and some teeth. From these smithereens, sculptured            this is the wheel of existence (James  3:6), the wheel
busts and artists' conceptions have been made and             of the races. It rolls in the direction of the descent
offered to a gullible public as proof of man's evolution      of the Seed of the Woman.
from a low animal form.
       Take first the Ape Man of Java (Pithecanthropus),           "REFORMED DOGMATICS"
so called, (but merely a piece of a skull cap), found
by a man named Dubois on the bank of a river in Java           iend your order,
in 1891.       But he hid this `man' (bone!) for 30 years                accompanied by check  OY money order to:
from the public.        Hence, scientific men could not
verify or disprove his finding.         Who will believe                           R.F.P.A.
                                                                                     (Permanent Committee for the Publication I
that after such a long period of seclusion, demon-                                   Protestant Reformed Literature)
strative proof was established?        A plaster cast of                           P.O. Box 2006,
                                                                                   Grand Rapids, Michigan, 49501
this bone-fragment somehow came into the hands


                                                 THESTANDARDBEARER                                                       215


                       GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY                                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
On February 21 we plan to celebrate our fiftieth                 The Men's Society of South Holland Protestant Re-
wedding anniversary, a golden jubilee. Open house                formed Church expresses its sympathy to one  oftheir
will be held at our home at 609 Jefferson Street,                members, Mr. Michael Van  Baren,  in the loss of his
Pella, Iowa.                                                     mother,
   The Lord has truly been good to us; He has led us
all the way on the pilgrim journey in wedded union;                             MRS. FRANK VAN BAREN
His Name alone receive all the praise.                           May the bereaved be comforted by Psalm  116:15,
   "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most             "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty".              saints".
Psalm  91:l.                Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Vander Molen                             Jack Lenting, Sec'y.

                                                                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                 The Men's and Ladies Societies of the South Holland
                                                                 Protestant Reformed Church extends their heartfelt
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                           sympathy to our fellow members, Mr. and Mrs. Art
                                                                 Zandstra, Mr. and Mrs. John Zandstra, Mr. and Mrs.
The Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed               Bart Zandstra, and Mr. and Mrs. Evert Buiter, in the
Church of Holland, Michigan, hereby expresses their              loss of their sister and sister-in-law
sincere sympathy with one of its members, Mr. Harold
Schipper, in the loss of his wife,                                             MRS. DOROTHY SCHIPPER
                  MRS. HAROLD SCHIPPER                           May the Lord comfort you in this time of sorrow.
                                                                                        Rev. J. Heys, Pres.
May our gracious God comfort and sustain Harold and                                     Mrs. R. Poortinga, Sec'y.
his family, in the conviction that when God is for us,
nothing can be against us. But also in all these things,
though they are grevious according to the flesh, we are                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
more than conquerors through Him who loved us.                   The Young People's Society of the Holland Church
Rom  8:31, 37.                                                   wishes to express its deepest sympathy to two of its
                            J. H. Kortering, Vice Pres.          members, Jane and John Schipper, in the loss of their
                            Edw. Cammenga, Secretary             mother,
                                                                                MRS. HAROLD SCHIPPER
                                                                 "We know that all things work together for good to
                                                                 them that love God." T. Elzinga, Vice Pres.
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                  C.  Haveman, Vice Sec'y.
The Sunday School of the First Protestant Reformed
Church of Holland, Michigan hereby express their                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
sympathy to the Superintendent, Mr. Harold Schipper,
and children in their loss of wife and mother,                   The Consistory of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church
                                                                 expresses its sympathy to their fellow office bearer,
                  MRS. HAROLD SCHIPPER                           Mr. Peter Zandstra, in the death of his sister,
May the Promises of God in His Word be a comfort to
them, in their present need. "Happy is he who hath                              MRS. HAROLD SCHIPPER
the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah          Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto Thy name:
his God." Psalm  146:5                                           the upright shall dwell in Thy presence. Ps.  140:13
                            Ervin Kortering, Asst. Supt.                                Rev. J. Kortering, Pres.
                            Lafern Kortering, Secretary                                 D. Engelsma, Sec'y.



                  Always God is first in the whole work of salvation, and man's activity is only the
                  fruit of the grace God works in the heart. For we are saved by grace, through
                  faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. And the converted sinner will
                  never boast of his own work in conversion, but give the glory to Him of whom, and
                  through whom, and unto whom are all things! He that glorieth, let him glory in the
                  Lord !
                                                               -H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace"


216                                               THE  STANDARD  BEARER



                                         NEWS  FROM  OUR  CHURCHES-

                                            January 15, 1967       vening along its shabby, ludicrous length". If not, then
       Rev. M. Schipper,  of Southeast Church, declined the        you have not read the entire issue, and you should go
call tendered him by our Hull, Iowa, congregation.                 back and read Rev. Harbach's treatise on  "Dispensa-
                            * * *                                  tionalism An Ancient Error."
       Southwest Church has appointed two clerks, the new                                         * *  *
consistory clerk is Mr. Ted Engelsma, 2333 Clyde                      Of special interest to our constituency is the news
Park Ave.,  SW., Grand Rapids, `Michigan, 49509; and               found in the latest Seminary Newsletter that their
the bulletin clerk is Mr. P. Lotterman, 2141 Newport               library facilities will be available to us so that it will
S.W., Wyoming,  Mich.,  49509. Southeast's new clerk is            be possible to borrow a book for reference and study
Mr. John  DeVries,  824 Evergreen St. S.E., Grand                  upon our request. The faculty also announced a new
Rapids,  Mich., 49507; and First Church has appointed              project: that of the publishing of a "Theological Jour-
Mr. James Heys, 1432 Giddings Ave. S.E., Grand                     nal" to meet the need of maintaining the historic and
Rapids, Mich.,  49506.                                             Reformed position on a wide range of theological sub-
                            *  * *                                 jects  - a position steadily abandoned by much of the
   Kalamazoo's consistory has inaugurated a change in              church world. We may expect the first issue next fall.
their order of worship. We note that in the evening                The faculty ended the letter with a plea we cannot
service they now use Doxology  #8 in our Psalter as a              afford to neglect when it commended "our Seminary
closing doxology. In so doing they have joined many of             and its needs to our churches and to the prayers of
our congregations who thus pray for the grace of Christ,           our people". It is the age-old request made by God's
the love of God, and the communion of the Spirit, and              ministers, "Brethren, pray for us!"
ask for the fruit of that communion in their fellowship,                                          * * *
immediately before the minister pronounces that bless-                Dicl   you  know  that our South Holland Church has
ing upon them.                                                     made arrangements to hold a public lecture in the
                            *  * *                                 Thornridge High School in  Dolton,  Ill.? The announced
   Oak Lawn's Extension Committee has published a                  topic is, "The Reformed Faith in Crisis", with Prof.
good 8-page paper.        Its name  - "The Reformed Mes-           H. C. Hoeksema as lecturer. We presume that our
senger", and it can be had free of charge by writing               professors and ministers must feel lonely in the
the Committee at: 9402 South 53rd Court, Oak Lawn,                 awareness that we are the  only denomination which
Ill., 60435.                                                       still warns the Reformed people of the danger threat-
                            * * *                                  ening our position that is based on the faith of the giant
   The January 3rd Officer, Bearers' Conference was                leaders of the Reformation of the 17th century. Indeed,
held in the Hope Church of Grand Rapids, with Rev. J.              Christ's Word of prophecy is being fulfilled when,
Kortering addressing the men of the Conference. His                referring to the falling away of many, He said, "be-
assigned topic was, "The Proper Supervision by the                 cause iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall
Consistory over the Preaching of the Word". This                   wax cold".
important duty of the Elders is one in which they vowed                                           *  * *
to be diligent when they were installed into office, and              Southeast's Young People's Society, in their January
is probably the most demanding of their manifold duties            15th after recess program scheduled Prof. H.  C.Hoek-
for it involves a "diligent search of the Word of God,             sema who gave an historical introduction to the Three
and to be continually meditating on the mysteries of               Points of Common Grace; and the young people of
faith". The result of that speech cannot but spur the              Loveland are reading and discussing the book, "The
office bearers to be mentally alert under the preaching            Protestant Reformed Churches'of America" currently
of the Gospel that they may prevent any "strange                   treating the doctrinal part under the chapter heading,
doctrine" being taught; and to heed the exhortation to             "The General Grace Theory of the First Point".
"watch diligently against the wolves which might come              Surely an indication that the leaders of our youth
into the sheepfold of Christ." Blessed is the church               realize that today's youth is tomorrow's church.
whose "watchers on the walls of Zion" take their vow                                              * * *
seriously as one made to Christ, the King of His Church!              Rev. R. Decker's year-end bulletin carried a warm
                            *  * *                                 expression of appreciation for the congregation's
   Do  you  know  which Standard  Bearer   article in the          acceptance of his family into their hearts and homes,
January 1st issueincluded this sentence? "But the line             and the many tokens of Christian love manifestedin the
. . . . . through Scripture is disjointed, slip-knotted, sheep-    14 months of his pastorship in Doon.
shanked, strained and broken with many gaps  inter-                   . . ..see you in church.                         J.M.F.


