                                       he



                                              earer
                                .-

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





    IN THIS ISSUE:


                      Meditation: Hearts Transformed By The living Lord

                      Editorials: `Report of the Doctrinal Committee'
                                                -A Critical Study (3)

                                      TtiE BANNER, The Offer,
                                                and Limited Atonement

                                      Thus Spake John Calvin!

                      Virgins For Christ's Sake (Continued)

                       Dispensationalism On Israel and The Church

                                                   Volume XLIII/ Number 13 / April 1, 1967


                                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER

                                                        C O N T E N T S                                                                                              THE  STqNDARD  BEARER
M e d i t a t i o n   -
       Hearts Transformed By The Living Lord . . . ..*................. 290                                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June,' July and August
               Rev. J. Kortering                                                                                                                             Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
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       "Report of the Doctrinal Committee"                                                                                                                                Editor- Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
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       The Banner, The Offer, and Limited Atonement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294                                                                    Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
       Thus Spake John Calvin1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295                           Rapids, Mich.      49506. Contributions will be limited to 300
               Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                      words and must be neatly written or typewritten. Copy dead-
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               Rev. R. C. Harbach                                                                                                                        see address below.
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       Virgins For Christ's Sake (continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303                                                 received it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the sub-
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       The Providence of God  - Miracles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . 307
              Rev. H. Veldman
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               Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
Question Box -                                                                                                                                          Classis  East of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
       Again: Hating God's Enemies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311                                       hold its next session on April 5, 1967 at 9 a.m. in the
              Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                      Southeast Protestant Reformed Church, Grand Rapids,
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              Mr. J. M. Faber                                                                                                                           announcement in the appointment of their delegates.
                                                                                                                                                                                                            M.  Schipper,  S.C.



                 MEDITATION-


                                         Hearts Transformed By The Living Lord

                                                                                                                               by Rev. J. Koyteving

                                                         `And he said unto them, What manneT of communications are these that ye have
                                               one to another, as ye walk and are sad . . . . and they said one to another, Did not OUY
                                               heart  burn within us, while he  talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us
                                               the Scviptuve . . . . And they told what things  weye done in the way, and how he was
                                               known  of them in breaking  of bread."
                                                                                                                                                                                     Luke 24.-l 7, 32, 35

          Burdened hearts!                                                                                                                              they are returning home from the feast indespair. No,
          Burning hearts  1                                                                                                                             they do not sulk. Cleopas and his friend have learned
          Bountiful hearts !                                                                                                                            that pent up frustration eventually erupts into the
          The living Lord effects such a transformation. He                                                                                             volcanic torrents of bitterness and rejection. They
  alone is able.                                                                                                                                        are talking together, giving vent to their sorrowing and
           Let us join the travelers to Emmaus and behold the                                                                                           burdened hearts.
 power of the resurrection.                                                                                                                                 It had- been a strange Passover. Cleopas and his
          Two men plod homeward. Strange as it may seem                                                                                                 friend had traveled the meager six or seven miles to


                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  291

                Jerusalem in answer to the mandatory statute of the             a martyr and thus turn the loss into gain by heralding
                law that all within a radius of fifteenmiles of Jerusalem       forth the principles for which Christ lived and for
                should assemble for the feast once a year. They too             which He even died. By following this Christ and living
          I     had exchanged excited greetings with fellow celebrants          in the brotherhood for which He died, we resurrect
                anticipating the presence of Him Who had caused such            Him from the dead and enable Him to continue influ-
                a stir in all Jewry.          From time to time they had        encing mankind.
                assembled with the multitude to hear Him speak with                We may not place these travellers in such a catagory
                authority and not as the Scribes.  .They had witnessed          of blasphemers. Cleopas and his brother according to
                His divine power in the healing of the sick. They had           the faith simply did not understand. If Christ was to be
                been moved to believe that without question He was the          Israel's redeemer and free them from the bondage of
                promised One Who shall redeem Israel.                           their enemies and restore peace and prosperity to
                    How the events of this feast had dealt them a crush-        Jerusalem, why did He die?
                ing blow. Instead of sitting at His feet while He taught           Those burdened hearts must now begin to burn.
                in the temple, they stood afar off and beheld Him in               Jesus draws up along side them. What are you
                suffering and shame.         From His lips came not the         talking about? Foolish question. You a stranger in
                majestic, "I am the light of the world;" rather the             Jerusalem?        Shame on you, don't you know anything
                piercing cry from the darkness of hell, "My God, My             about the most important question that is being
                God, why hast thou forsaken me". The response of the            discussed in all Jerusalem? What kind of a Jew are
                multitude was not, "Hosanna!           Blessed is he that       you?
                cometh in the name of the Lord;" rather, "Crucify                  The great Pedagogue must lead them on, for hearts
                Him, crucify Him, His blood be upon us and our                  must be unburdened before they can burn. What things?
                children."                                                         Then the flood gates of their wretched hearts are
                    The reverse was stunning!                                   opened.     The whole story now gushes forth one wave
                    Travelling home, Cleopas `and his friend couldn't           after another.
                understand it.        In burning indignation they pointed          0 fools and slow of heart to believe all that the
                accusing fingers at their chief priests and rulers. How         prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered
                could they have done it! Jesus was no criminal; He              these things and to enter into His glory?
               had tenderly healed the sick and delivered untold thou-             As the  flame of the Spirit began to penetrate, their
                sands from their misery. They had discerned a depth             hearts began to burn. That burning was not hatred,
                in his teaching, so totally lacking in the leaders of the       nor offense at what Jesus said. Christ could call them
                Jews.       If His subject was too profound, He would tell a    foolish ones and slow of faith, but that didn't make them
                story or give an illustration that would immediately            angry.     On the contrary, it made them eager to hear
                clarify the point. He didn't waver on any interpreta-           more.      Suddenly they began to realize that this Man
                tion by claiming there were two points to every issue.          spoke with authority. They didn't know it was Jesus
                When He considered the leaders of the people to err, He         for their eyes were  holden.  Nevertheless they began
                told them in no uncertain terms. He had been a re-              to understand that this "stranger" was well versed in
                freshing breeze upon the stagnant ecclesiastical waters         the Scriptures and had insights that theydidn'tpossess.
                of their day. Was He not Israel's redeemer?                     How quickly their sojourn of so few miles must have
                    Now He was dead. Crucified as a criminal, of all            passed as Jesus began to "expound unto them from
                things !
     I                                                                          Moses and all the prophets the things concerning him-
                    Burdened hearts.                                            self."
     I              To make matters even worse, that very morning
                they had heard rumors that defied the imagination.                 The  Prophet preached to these travellers. The
                Some of the women had gone to His tomb very early               theme of His sermon was, "Ought not Christ to have
I               and found it empty. They saw a vision of angels which           suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"
                declared that He was alive! To confirm this, some of            Taking them through the portico of the "mother
I               the disciples had gone from the upper room to the               promise" He unveiled before their eyes the basic unity
                grave; and their report was affirmative, the grave was          of Scripture.      Christ was to come as the seed of the
                empty. Had the disciples of Jesus come by night and             woman to destroy the seed of the serpent and redeem
                stolen the body, as some had claimed? Was He alive?             Israel from all their iniquity through the sacrifice of  1
                To their knowledge no one had seen Him.                         His own flesh upon the cross. The blood of the lambs
                    Perturbed, confused, and sad they tried tofindpeace         cried unto God for the fulfillment. The tabernacle and
                for their burdened hearts. Why did Jesus have to die?           the temple were earthly signs of God dwelling in the
                    These travellers to  Emmaus are in a class all by           hearts of His people as they dwelt under the covering
               themselves. They did not reject the cross; they  simply          of blood. That veil must needs be rent! The feasts of
                could not understand it. Surely, there are many who             the people had no significance in themselves, they
                view the cross as  -a stone of stumbling and as a rock          pointed to a better day when the joy of the heart would
                of offense.       They wholeheartedly despise the cross,        be manifest not in waving palm branches and dancing,
                hate it, and forthwith conclude that any gospel that            but in the triumphant song and worshipful praise as all
                preaches salvation through the blood of atonement must          creatures blend their voices in singing, "Worthy is the
                be rejected. To such the cross was a tragedy; and the           Lamb that was slain." Abraham by faith looked for
                only way to overcome its terrible loss is to make Christ        that day, David sang about it, the prophets expounded


292                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

it. The hope of Israel was to be found at the foot of the       which `He died, then He is not alive to preach. If Christ
cross.                                                          be dead, ye are yet in your sins, and of all men most
   Here we find Christ Himself emphasizing the cen-             miserable.
trality of the cross. Christ  must  suffer and enter into           May the Word of Christ cause our hearts to burn.
glory! The cross was not a tragic mistake. Neither                  That word drew these travellers to Christ. Even
was the Son of Man a victim. It was necessary that He           though they did not know it was He, yet they did not
die; it was the only way to glory. That necessity lay           want to be separated. Christ  pretendedHe would travel
in the very purpose of His coming. He came to redeem            beyond Emmaus,  but Cleopas and his friend constrained
Israel. A price had to be paid for the release of His           Him to stay. Jesus knew that they had need of further
captive saints. The righteous God as Judge of heaven            revelation; for in the breaking of bread their eyes
and earth had pronounced judgment upon the sinner,              were opened, and they knew it was Jesus.
"The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."                That did it! Suddenly their eyes focused upon Him
The curse of death had to be carried away by a man              who is the resurrection and the life. Jesus met them
that was more than a man, yea, very God. That Jesus             in their very need. They could not understand why He
had done. His Father had sent Him to represent His              had to suffer and die, now He had told them. Now they
own and accomplish this necessary work. That was                could understand more fully the glory that followed.
now past. These travellers to  Emmaus  may have been            The Redeemer of Israel came not to establish an
eyewitnesses to the events.                                     earthly kingdom, but a far more glorious Kingdom in
   Once that price of redemption was paid, there was            the everlasting portals of peace with His Father in
only one thing left: glory! As the righteousness of God         heaven.         -
was satisfied for all His own, Christ must needs mani-              He disappeared. And thus it should be. For His
fest Himself as the complete redeemer. Death in all             glory is beyond our earthly comprehension.
its horror was swallowed up in victory. The wrath of                Bountiful hearts !
hell was overcome, for He drank the bitter dregs; the               It was too quiet and lonely in Emmaus  that evening.
caverns of death are free from all pitfalls, for He             There awaited many a troubled heart in Jerusalem that
made it a passage way unto life; the grave with its             would flutter with joy to hear that Jesus was alive and
naked fear has been clothed with immortality. All this          victorious.          They must needs return with all haste to
is summed up in one word, glory! The glory of our               tell the disciples.
Lord Jesus Christ!                                                  One joyful cry greets them, "The Lord is risen
   No wonder their hearts burned! This was good                 indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon."
news.     A new light was cast upon the dark past. The              Bountiful hearts cannot keep silent. A transforma-
blurred and confused feast now took on even greater             tion took place that must needs be heralded. The Lord
meaning than usual.         This was a feast of all feasts.     of life had unburdened their hearts through His
For not only was it typical, but they had just witnessed        burning process. Glory to His name!
its fulfillment.                                                    Without this revelation Calvary would be unspeakably
   The gospel of the Living Lord is exactly the                 black.      A hopeless sinner could never find peace. But
necessity of the cross as the way unto glory. It is             now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-
only this word that can bring burdened hearts to the            fruits of them that slept.
burning stage.      Change that word of the cross as it is
being done today, and no wonder you have a dead                     Death is swallowed up in victory!
"Christianity".      If Christ is a good example, a proof           May our hearts undergo this transformation, and
of universal love and brotherhood, one whom man has             may our lips show forth the praises of His glory from
to resurrect from the dead by accepting the things for          this time forward and forever more.





                       There are, indeed, Christians that always live  indoubt  as to their own salvation.
                    They are concerned about their final salvation. They live in constant fear and
                    trembling that they are lost. They cannot surrender themselves with wholehearted
                    confidence to Christ. They never once lift up their heads in the joy of faith to sing
                    songs of redemption to the glory of God's grace in the Beloved. Such Christians
                    should honestly examine their own hearts and lives to discover what is wrong,
                    and what is the cause of this abnormal and, sinful fear and doubt.
                                                         - H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p. 87


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 293


     EDITORIALS-

                       "R&port of the Doctrinal Committee"
                                                          A Critical Study

                              The Committee and the  "0ffer"

                                                          by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

THE COMMITTEE'S VIEW OF HISTORY                                        evangelical?" There are other questions. Does the
           It was to be expected, in the light of the back-            committee contend that the position represented in
ground of the Dekker Case and in the light of the                      "the Rev. H. Hoeksema's attacks upon 1924" leads to
Committee's mandate, that the Study Committee would                    a "lack of zeal in witnessing to the world outside?"
pay no little attention to 1924. Not only does the Com-                Then I challenge them to prove this. For I maintain
mittee give its attention to the doctrine of the Three                 that  a  proper Christian "witness to the world out-
Points, but they present an analysis of the history of                 side" can only be made on the basis of and from the
the Christian Reformed Church after 1924. Already                      position of the antithesis, and that when once you
here, however, the committee goes astray. This be-                     abandon the absolute antithesis (as was principally
comes evident in their "introductory analysis" (Acts,                  done when the Three Points were adopted), you can
1966, p. 439):                                                         no longer effectively witness. How can one witness
                 . . ..But it may be argued, and perhaps with some     against those with whom he stands on common ground?
           justification, that in our reaction to the Rev. H. Hoek-    Or does the committee understand by "witnessing" the
           sema's attacks upon 1924 we may have been inclined          proclaiming of a general, well-meant offer of salvation
           to be somewhat afraid of being too evangelical in our       to all men? But then the committee is accusing the
           missionary approach.      This may have accounted for       Christian Reformed Church of being deterred from
           our apparent lack of zeal in witnessing to the world        consistently following up the position of the First
           outside, especially during the first decade after 1924.     Point by the attacks, mind you, of one whom they had
           We must confess that oftentimes our evangelistic efforts    been bold enough and strong enough to cast out as a
           were feeble and sporadic. For example, only in a few
           places did we carry on extensive evangelistic programs,     heretic?
           and even these were almost completely institutionalized        But I would suggest that the committee's explanation
           and did not challenge the active participation of the       of the history after 1924 is negative and reactionary.
           rank and file of our church members. Even today,               Mark you well, I would be the last to contend that
           although we have made much progress in our mis-             "the Rev. H. Hoeksema's attacks upon 1924" did not
           sionary outreach, we still have to admit that more of       act as a check upon the tendency toward Arminianism
           our church members ought to be personally involved          and the tendency toward world-conformity in the
           in evangelism. But especially in the first years after      Christian Reformed Churches since 1924. I believe
           1924 many of our people lacked the evangelistic             that these "attacks" as well as his (and others', -in
           fervor and zeal that should have characterized them.        fact, the entire witness of our Protestant Reformed
           Now one might, perhaps, with some justification, be         Churches) positive maintenance of the Reformed line
somewhat inclined to overlook the fact that the com-                   has been a definite restraint upon the Christian Re-
mittee seems to be somewhat afraid of making a                         formed Church's becoming "too" un-Reformed.
forthright judgment and apparently is very much                           But the real explanation of the history of the CRC
inclined toward qualified and overly cautious state-                   is to be found in the following factors:
ments.             But I nevertheless am very curious as to why            1.  `Beginselen weaken  door."     Principles    work
the committee loads a statement like this with such                    through.      The principle in this case is the two-fold
qualifications. Note:  ". ..it may be argued, and perhaps              principle of common grace and of general grace in the
with  some  justification,....that we  may  have  been.  in-           First Point of 1924.
clined to be  somewhat.  afraid of being too evangelical                  2. However, as leaven (or yeast) in a lump, it re-
           ,,
. . . .          Moreover, I am very eager to know what the            quired time for a principle, such as that of the First
committee understands by "too evangelical." If being                   Point, to work through into the practice of the Christian
"evangelical" is something good (for example, being                    Reformed Church.
agreeable to the gospel,  - cf. Webster), then how is it                  3. There was also present in the Christian Reformed
possible to be too evangelical? And if, on the other                   Church, - especially in the generation of 1924,  - a Re-
hand, it is something evil (for example, being inclined                formed principle and a Reformed sense. This was a
to conduct mission work of an Arminian, revivalist                     principle and a sense diametrically the opposite of that
type), then is not any degree of being evangelical  "too               of the First Point.


294                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

   4. The attacks and warnings of the Rev. H. Hoeksema            meaning offer of salvation on the part of God to all men
and the testimony of the Protestant Reformed Churches             without distinction.    God's well-meaning "offer" of
appealed to the Reformed principle and the Reformed               salvation cannot possibly be wider in scope than the
sensitivities of the Christian Reformed Church, and               objective satisfaction and justification of the cross of
thus acted as a restraint upon the working through of             Christ (Thus: limited atonement, H.C.H.). And those
the leaven of the First Point.                                    that preach a well-meaning offer of God to all men,
   5. But: principles work through! And it was in-                must and will ultimately embrace the doctrine of
                                                                  universal atonement also.
evitable, therefore,     that eventually the Arminian
principle of the First Point should work through and              Hence, what has taken place in the Dekker Case is
leaven the entire witness of the Christian Reformed           the literal fulfillment of the above prediction.        Prof.
Church.    This is due to the fact that historically the      Dekker has consistently followed the line of the First
Arminian principle has always proved to be more                Point to the consequence of universal atonement.
popular than the Reformed principle. Andin  the Dekker            I say this not to gloat, nor in any since to rejoice
Case the Christian Reformed Church is simply experi-          about the fact that this prediction proved true. This is
encing the realization of the axiom that  "beginselen         not a cause for joy, but for grief.
weaken doov. "                                                    I say it as another warning to the earnest-minded
   In this connection, it should draw the attention of        in the Christian Reformed Church who do not really
the serious-minded and concerned Christian Reformed           want to go in the direction of Arminianism and who are
brethren, those who are truly minded to be Reformed,          frightened by the prospect of the doctrine of universal
that all this was predicted.           Let me give but one     atonement.
example of such a prediction. I quote from Rev. H.                This prediction has been fulfilled before your very
Hoeksema's "The Triple Knowledge, An Exposition of            eyes ! It is embodied in the position of Prof. Dekker !
the Heidelberg Catechism," Volume III, p. 112. This               Ought this not to be viewed as concrete historical
prediction was published in 1946; but in essence it was       proof that the First Point of 1924 and its well-meant
made many times ever since 1924:                              offer was wrong,' and that the Protestant Reformed
       And this also holds for the camouflaged Arminianism    Churches were right in their opposition to that First
   that professes to believe in sovereign election, and in    Point?
   particular atonement, but presents the gospel as awell-        Think on these things!





       The Banner, The Offer, and Limited Atonement

                                               by  Pyof. H.  C. Hoeksema

   The February  24  issue of  The  Bannev  (cf. Henry            Mr. Peterson makes the following points by quoting
Peterson's "The Sincere Offer of the Gospel" on pp.           with approval from various writings of Prof. John
16, 17) presents a concrete example of the point made         Murray, the late Ned B. Stonehouse, and the late R. B.
in my editorial in this issue about the Report of the         Kuiper:
Doctrinal Committee.                                              1. This general offer is an offer of grace. (Let the
   It is not my intention to give a detailed account and      Dekker Case committee take note of this  !) "The whole
criticism of this article. The article is full of con-        gamut of redemptive grace is included" in Christ's
fusion and half-truth. Moreover, while it purports to         offering Himself.     "Salvation is all of its aspects and
be an exposition of Canons III, IV, 6-9, it bears about       in the furthest reaches of glory consummated is the
as little resemblance to the teachings of the Canons in       overture."
these articles as black to white.  Infact, it seems to me         2. God desires the salvation of all men, and the
that any thinking reader of  The Banner  who takes the        preacher must declare this. He must declare that "God
trouble to read these very clear articles of the Canons       does not desire the death of any but the salvation of
will detect this.    The Rev. Peterson is not actually        all."
writing about the Canons here, but he is attempting a             Now take note of the following facts that are indubit-
defense of the First Point of 1924.                           able on the basis of Scripture and our Reformed con-
   My purpose is to illustrate the utter inconsistency        fessions:
between the idea of the general, well-meant offer of              1. The gospel is the gospel of the cross, of Christ
salvation and the Reformed doctrine of limited atone-         crucified. And the preaching of the gospel is the proc-
ment. This article is a case in point.                        lamation of Christ crucified.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    295

   2. Moreover, Christ crucified is the revelation and         III, IV and projects that doctrine of the atonement into
realization of God's desire and purpose to save.               the actual preaching of the gospel, nevertheless to
   3. But Christ crucified is Christ crucified for the         delimit the atonement and make it universal.
elect, and for them only. He is the Christ of limited             Prof. Dekker did this; and he openly came out for
atonement.                                                     universal atonement.
   4. How, then, can it properly be said that in the              The Rev. Peterson apparently does not want to do
gospel of Christ crucified for the elect only there is         the latter, and he seeks refuge in the "seeming con-
declared God's desire for the salvation of all men?            tradiction" or paradox.
   The Rev. Peterson calls this a seeming contradic-              Prof. Dekker,  - on the basis of the First Point,  -
tion, or paradox.                                              is consistent.
   It is perfectly obvious, however, that this is not a           And Peterson, to be consistent, must inevitably come
seeming  contradiction,. but a  real  contradiction.           to the same position.
   Here you have an illustration of the attempt to                The alternative is: let go of the First Point.
maintain the doctrine of limited atonement in Canons              The alternative is the better way. For it is Re-
II, and at the same time, when one speaks of Canons            formed!





                       Thus Spake John Calvin!

                                                by  Pyof,  H. C. Hoeksema


   In connection with the Rev. Peterson's writings on          but that, in opposition to his remonstrances, they
God's desiring the salvation of all men reference is           voluntarily bring ruin upon themselves,  - let us show
made to several Scripture passages.           As might be      by a brief explication that they are not at all inconsistent
expected, one of these is the well-known and  oft-             with the foregoing doctrine (of reprobation, H.C.H.) A
quoted Ezekiel  33:ll: "Say unto them, As I live, saith        passage is produced from Ezekiel, where God says, `I
the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the           have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the
wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live:        wicked turn from his way and live.' If this is to be
turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye          extended to all mankind, why does he not urge many to
die, 0 house of Israel?"                                       repentance, whose minds are more flexible to obedi-
   Ever since 1924, of course, this text has frequently        ence than those of others, who grow more and more
`been misused in order to show that Goddoes not desire         callous to his daily invitations? Among the inhabitants
the death of any, but the salvationof all. The defenders       of Nineveh and Sodom, Christ himself declares that his
of the First Point cited this text and explained it. in        evangelical preaching and miracles would have brought
this way. And they have been followed in this by many          forth more fruit than in  Judea.  How is it, then, if God
others.                                                        will have all men to be saved, that he opens not the
   The claim has even been made that John Calvin               gate of repentance to those miserable men who would
supports this explanation.                                     be more ready to receive the favour?  Hence we  pev-
   Now it may be granted that Calvin is not always             ceive it to be a violent  pevvevsion of the passage,  if
entirely clear in his explanation of this passage. I am        the will of God mentioned by the prophet, be set in op-
not saying that Calvin adopts the Arminian explanation,        position to his  eternal counsel, by which he  has dis-
but rather that it is sometimes a bit difficult to see         tinguished the elect from the  Yepvobate.      Now, if we
clearly that he does not believe that this text teaches        inquire the genuine sense of the prophet, his only
that God desires the salvation of the reprobate.               meaning is to inspire the penitent with hopes of pardon.
   Recently, however, my attention was drawn to a              And this is the sum, that it is beyond a doubt that God
passage in the "Institutes" in which Calvin speaks             is ready to pardon sinners immediately on their con-
very plain language on this score. I pass it on to the         version. Therefore he wills not their death, inasmuch
reader, not because John Calvin is the end of all argu-        as he wills their repentance. But experience teaches,
ment, but in order to show that his support cannot be          that he does  -not will the repentance of those whom he
claimed for an Arminian interpretation of Ezekiel 33: 11.      externally calls, in such a manner as to affect all their
The quotation is from Book III, Chapter XXIV, Para-            hearts.    Nor should he on this account be charged with
graph XV (the Allen translation):                              acting deceitfully; for, though his external call only
   "But as objections are frequently raised from some          renders those who hear without obeying it inexcusable,
passages of Scripture, in which God seems to deny that         yet it is justly esteemed the testimony of God's grace,
the destruction of the wicked is caused by his decree,         by which he reconciles men to himself. Let us observe,


296                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

therefore, the design of the prophet in saying that God          always be met by Divine mercy; but on whom repentance
has no pleasure in the death of a sinner; it is to assure        is bestowed, we are clearly taught by Ezekiel himself,
the pious of God's readiness to pardon them immediately          as well as by all the prophets and apostles." (italics
upon their repentance, and to show the impious the              mine, H.C.H.)
aggravation of their sin in rejecting suchgreat compas-             This is "Calvinistic."
sion and kindness of God. Repentance, therefore, will


                                             Editor's Notes

                                                 by  Pyof.  H. C. Hoeksema

       This first note is for those who send in contribu-       that your department does not appear as scheduled as
tions . I cannot always discern from letters sent to me          a signal not to send in your scheduled copy. In order
as editor whether such letters are intended for pub-            to keep the wheels of publication running smoothly I
lication or not.       I do not wish to slight anyone who       must receive all scheduled copy. Please observe your
intends a letter for publication; nor do I wish to em-          schedule unless you receive explicit notice to the
barrass anyone who does not intend his letter for pub-          contrary.
lication.     It would be helpful, therefore, if letters to                                * * *
the editor would include a note to clarify this matter.             This third item will be of general interest. A recent
                               * * *                            issue of  Christianity   To&Y  carried special notice of
   This second note is for my fellow staff members.              "Reformed Dogmatics" in its "Reading for  Perspec-
It has been happening recently that occasionally I              *tive" department, along with a miniature picture of the
receive correspondence, questions, and other extra              volume.      We appreciate this publicity, especially be-
copy which makes it necessary to delay publication of           cause of the comparatively large circulation of this
one of the regular department contributions. Usually            magazine.       Incidentally, we will keep our readers
this entails only a delay of one or two issues, and only        informed of various book reviews which appear in the
rarely the skipping of a regularly scheduled turn for a         near future on a number of review copies which were
department.      Hence, please do not interpret the fact        sent out.



             A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-


                                         David In Flight

                                                  by Rev. B.  Woudenbevg


                      The  Yighteous  cvy, and the LORD  heaveth, and deliveveth them out  of  all  their
                  troubles.
                      The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of
                  a contrite  spirit.
                     Many  a?re the afflictions  of  the  Yighteous: but the LORD deliveveth him out  of
                  them all.
                                                                                        I Psalm  34:17-19
   For a few days David had felt himself sustained by           dear friend than David felt the darkness closing in
the faith of Jonathan.         As Jonathan spoke to him, it     again. .He was alone, all alone in the world, and didn't
seemed that God came close to him again in love. Even           know where he could turn. Where could he go? He had
Jonathan's parting words had held their thrill when he          tried Samuel in Ramah, and that hadn't worked. He had
said, "Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both             appealed to his friend Jonathan, and all that Jonathan
of us in the name of the LORD, saying, The LORD be              was able to do was to commit him to the keeping of
between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed           God.    Now what was left? There was  only.one place
for ever." But no sooner did he turn away from this             that David could think of, the tabernacle presently


                                             THESTANDARDBEARER

staked out at Nob near Jerusalem. He didn't really            the situation through. Leaving his servants outside,
know why he should go there. It had nothing very con-         David entered the court of the tabernacle alone, and,
crete to offer to a fugitive from the king. It was just       no sooner had he done so than it was evident that there
that there was no other place to go either. This was the      iYas no welcome even here for him any longer. In the
only place left which somehow in his mind identified          court stood Abimelech the priest, and over his face a
itself with safety and promise. In some manner David          look of shock, even dismay, at the appearance of David.
gave notification to his personal servants to come with          Abimelech, of course, was not unfamiliar with the
him, and then, slowly, almost half-heartedly, he made         deteriorating relationship between David and Saul.
his way toward Nob.                                           Everyone knew, it was the talk of the day. And, if
   David had entered one of the most critical testing         David was now coming in flight from Saul as he had
periods of his life. Before this he had always lived in       come to  Ramah  before, it foreboded no good for the
comparative security.       It was true that he had often     tabernacle and the priest; for the king in his anger
been exposed to the dangers of battle, but this had not       would not be far behind. Moreover, the fact that David
frightened him and he had always had friends and              was standing there now  all alone in itself seem to
admirers to whom he could return for assurance and            indicate that everything was not right. David was no
encouragement.      Even when Saul had first turned           stranger to the tabernacle; he came there often. But
against him it had not been like this. It had pained          that was usually with a group of soldiers for prayer
and troubled him to taste the dissatisfaction of the          before a battle or for thanksgiving and cleansing after
king; but he had been able to read in the eyes of almost      one; and now for him to stand there all alone was
everyone that their sympathies were with him, and he          strangely out of place. It frightened the priest, and his
had really believed that, if only he would persevere          face showed it. Even more was this so because at the
in the right, this evil also could be overcome. But it        very time Doeg, the Edomite and favored servant of
hadn't worked out that way. The harder he had tried to        Saul was there also.      He shouldn't have been, to be
do the right, the more hopeless it had seemed to be-          sure. As an Edomite he had no place in the tabernacle
come: and now it had reached the point where he was           of Saul. But he was an intimate of the king, and Saul
about to give up. Even his determination to follow the        liked all of his friends to take part in the ceremonies
right had dimmed. Already there had been something            of Israel often without regard to the details of the law.
unnaturally desperate about his statement to Jonathan         The priest bad not the courage to refuse him. But now
when first meeting him, "There is but a step between          he could be sure that Doeg would be watching closely
me and death." Jonathan had felt this, and even he had        every action of the priest with regard to David, and it
not dared to refuse to go along with David's plan to          would not be long before all would be repeated in the
feel out his father by means of a lie. And now that           ears of the king.    Anxiously he queried David, "Why
the meeting with Jonathan had not really helped to            art thou alone, and no man with thee?"
drive away his gloom, David's usual determination to             David sensed the situation almost immediately. The
do the right was even weaker still.                           question of the priest pierced into his heart like a cruel
   It had to be this way. This was God's testing-time         taunt.    As welcomed as he had been in the past, even
for David. God's will for David was not that he should        here in the house of God no one was going to go out of
be a mere warrior in Israel's army; he was ordained           his way to help him. It was as though the last outpost
to be king, a leader in Israel who would go forth in the      of righteousness had turned against him; and, with a
name of the Lord. But for this one lesson had to be           feeling of almost reckless abandonment, he decided
learned -namely, that he who leads in the name of the         that the only thing he could do was to try to lie his way
Lord has to go on alone with no one to strengthen him         out of the predicament. Quickly he turned to Abimelech
but His God. There can be no returning to the comfort         and said, "The king hath commanded me a business,
of admirers and friends; there can be no reliance upon        and hath said unto me, Let noman know any thing of the
the encouragement of any fellow man; he who leads in          business whereabout I send thee, and what I have
righteousness can only trust in God. This David had           commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to
to learn. It was a hard lesson; and, because David was        such and such a place. Now therefore  .what is under
but a man, there was sure to be faltering on the way.         thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand,
But, even while he felt so much alone in this hour of         or what there is present."
darkness, the grace of God was with him, bringing               Abimelech was relieved; for he knew David well and
him slowly to the light.                                      in his mind it was quite unimaginable that anything that
   David himself, of course, realized nothing of this at      David said would not be absolutely true. He answered,
the time. He felt only completely alone and forsaken.         "There is no common bread under mine hand, but there
It seemed that he had no one to rely upon but himself         is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept them-
and his own ingenuity, and it was not enough.                 selves at least from women." In another day, such as
   In this state of discouragement, David approached          with the Jews of Jesus time (Matt.  12:3,4) this would
the tabernacle at Nob, while in his heart there remained      have been thought quite unthinkable. But this was another
only a faint hope that somehow here he might find some        day and the details of ceremonial law were not pressed
guidance or at least some encouragement to go on.             that closely. The priest was satisfied if only David and
Always he had found welcome in the tabernacle, and            his men were ceremonially clean.
surely here in the house of God some safety could be             To this David was quick to agree by answering, "Of
found, at least until he had opportunity to rest and think    a truth women have been kept from us about these three


298                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young          hands of the Philistines just to demonstrate for all to
men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common,            see that they would treat him better than did his own
yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel."       people.
The exact line of reasoning here is rather difficult to           So it was that David presented himself at the gate of
follow; but the general idea appears to have been that        Achish the king of Gath. The people were confounded,
because of the need of the occasion and the worthiness        for there is an unwritten supposition among almost all
of their need, it was quite proper to bypass the strict       peoples that a person who presents himself peaceably
demands of the ceremonial law  - a line of reasoning of       should not be molested. But this was David; and even
which Jesus later approved (Matt. 12).                        as he was brought before Achish, he could hear them
   Accordingly the bread was given David, and yet             saying, "Is not this David the king of the land? did they
David had another need which had to be filled. So he          not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul
went on to ask further, "And is there not here under          hath slain his thousands, and David his tenthousands?"
thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought         It appeared that even the Philistines had deducted
my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's           already that he was ordained to become the next king
business  Irequired haste." Since the time that he had        of Israel, and surely then his life was not safe either.
escaped from the window of his own home, David had            Once again he felt the need of falling back on  subter-
traveled  jalone and without weapons; but now it was          fuge to keep himself safe. To make it appear as though
become evident that there was no safety for him any           he had lost his reason, he began to scratch at the door
longer  inl Israel. He would have to leave the country         and let spittle fall from his mouth as though he were
and shift for himself.                                        mad.
   As  Ddvid  perhaps had expected, Abimelech replied,            Achish, however, would not take David seriously. It
"The  sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou              was almost as though he saw through David's pretense
slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped     and sarcastically answered, "Lo, ye see the man is mad:
in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take     wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need
it: for  theire is no other save that here."                  of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the
   This sword was undoubtedly large and awkward for           mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into
a  normad man to handle. But David was a man also             my house?" He saw that David's madness was only a
of exceptional strength and evidently considered  him-        pretense; but he also scorned taking him captive under
self able /to use it, for he replied, "There is none like     such circumstances and drove him out of the city.
that;  give1 it me." And with that, David left the taber-         David was left no place to go but into the wilderness
nacle. ,                                                      to dwell among the caves of the rocks. There he went
   Never /had David felt so completely forsaken as now.        and found the cave of Adullam in which he could live,
No matter where he turned no one could or would help          and where he could spend many days and weeks thinking
him.    In his own nation, among his own friends, amid        upon the way of the Lord. There once again he learned
those for  ,who he had so often endangered his own life,      to call upon the Lord and slowly but surely came to the
there was no place of safety to be found. Slowly the          light; for it was there, we are told, that he wrote the
bitterness seeped into his soul until he determined that      words of Psalm  34:17, "The righteous cry, and the
he would jbe better off in the hands of his enemies than      LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their
of his friends.    He would go and give himself into the      troubles...."



  TRYlNb THE SPIRI7S-
          /


          @spensationalism  On Israel And The Church

                                                 by Rev. R. C.  Havbach


   Continuing our examination of dispensationalism, we        the woman, between thy seed and her seed; He shall
again  cali attention to Christ's words, "I will build My      crush thy head, and thou shalt crush His heel." The
church, " /and, this time, to the fact that they amount to    old covenant people were a body of believers, a  con-
the charter of the Christian church. For the charter          gregation (Ps.  22:22), founded on that charter. Then
of the old /covenant church we have in the first promise      they were founded on Christ. There is only one founda-
of Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity between thee and          tion, and only one building on that foundation. In this


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        299

connection, it is highly recommended to  dispensation-         the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the general
alists that they give Matthew Henry's commentary a             assembly or the church of the firstborn, it is all one
close perusal.    He was a biblically-minded man, who          and the same body seen from different viewpoints.
hewed rather consistently and closely to Holy Writ,               A text sometimes appealed to as teaching that the
certainly far more so than they who claim to "rightly          church had its beginning at Pentecost is I Cor.  1:13,
divide- the Word of truth" as these age-theorists do.          "For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body,
He on this text said, "Christ...signed and published           whether Jews or Gentiles..  ." But this does not mean
this royal, this divine charter, by which that body            that we were all so baptized  at the same  time,  as no
politic is incorporated...God had a church in the world        corporate action is in view, for on that day  Gentiles
from the beginning, and it was built upon the rock of          were not baptized by the Spirit. Paul means by "all...
the promised Seed, Gen.  3:15. But now that promised           in one body" the  members  of the  body  of Christ, the
Seed being come, it was requisite that the church should       same body and members from Adam and Abel onward,
have a new charter, as Christian, and standing in              whom we saw mentioned in Ps.  35:lO;  40:5;  69:5;  81:5;
relation to a Christ already come. Now here we have            84~8, 9;  139:15, 16 and many other passages. By
that charter." No  new  church was chartered by the            "baptized" (by the Spirit) Paul refers plainly to nothing
Lord, but the same church with a new charter. That             other than to being "regenerated." It is regeneration
church certainly was to be found in the old dispensa-          which makes a man a member of the body of Christ.
tion.    Although denied by dispensationalists, the very          It has been argued by dispensationalists that Eph.
word for "church" is found in that era. For the N.T.           1:19-23 proves there was no church before Pentecost.
word which Jesus used for "church",  ekklesia,  is the         God gave Christ to be the "Head over all things to the
word used to translate the O.T. word for "church,"             church which is His body"  after the ascension, it is
qahul,  in the "congregation  of the Lord." (Ps.  22:22        pointed out. This is no reasoning. One may as well
with Heb.  2:12) The point is, a  qahul  is a  church.  If     argue that no sins were remitted until after Christ
there was a qahal in that day, there was a church then.        made atonement on the cross.             Or that none were
When Jesus referred to the building of His church, He          regenerated until after Christ was made a "life-giving
spoke of "his own  house,  whose  house  are we." (Heb.        Spirit" at His resurrection. It would be just as valid
3:6)  T h i s   "h o u s e " of God was not some wholly new    argument to say that Christ couldnot make intercession
thing which began at Pentecost. For it is the same             for His people until after He sat down at God's right
house Moses was a member of (cp. Heb. 3:2-6 with Nu.           hand.      But this is refuted by  Zech.   1:12, 13  (3:1,  2)!
12:7) and of which the psalmist was a member when he           Christ was Mediator "set up (anointed) from ever-
said, "Except the Lord build the  house,  they labor in        lasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was."
vain that build it." (Ps.  127:l)  That gracious declara-      (Prov.  8:23) We must be able  tosee  Christ as the  pre-
tion certainly applies to our house of the present dis-        incarnate Head of His people from the beginning, be-
pensation, as Prov.  9:1, Song  2:4 and Matt.  lo:25 will      cause "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
show.     If the reader will take the time to carefully        world," as well as Christ the incarnate Head in his-
examine these texts he will see the devastating effect         tory after His birth, death, resurrection and ascension.
they have on dispensationalism.                                Otherwise we cannot "rightly divide the Word of
    The idea that the church of N.T. saints is a wholly        truth," much less "cut a straight line through the
new thing limited to this Christiandispensation, and not       truth."
found in the old dispensation is proved erroneous by the          In the Book of Daniel it is revealed that "the saints
teaching of Heb.  12:22, 23. It is not true that the O.T.      of the Most High shall  take  the kingdom and possess
Jews only had Moses and the law, while they of the new         the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." (7:18)
dispensation have Christ and the gospel. For the old           This kingdom is none other than the "everlasting king-
covenant Israel had Abraham and the promises in which          dom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." (II Pet.
they embraced Christ. (cp. Jn. 8:56 with Heb. 11:13, 26)       1:ll)      In the 1909 edition of the  Scofield Reference
Mount Zion, the city of the living God, is the city            Bible the editor inserted the marginal note, "That
Abraham looked for (Heb.  ll:lO), which was prepared           these are church saints seems clear from Acts  16:17;
for  all  (v. 13) the O.T. saints, which they desired          Rom.  8:17; II Tim.  2:10-12;  I Pet.  2:9; Rev.  1:6, etc."
(v.  lb), and which we of the Christian dispensation           But in the 1917 edition this note was changed to read,
also seek  (13:14).  In contrast to "the new Jerusalem,"       "That church-saints will also  shave in the rule seems
the heavenly Jerusalem is "the above Jerusalem"                clear from Acts  16:17, etc." (ital. added) The note as
(Gal.  4:26, Gk.), which is the mother of us all, i.e., of     it now stands means that through eternity the church
all the children of the promise, including believers of        will have a place subservient toIsrael!  But the meaning
the O.T., as the following quotation (v. 27) from Isaiah       is, if anything, that the chuvch will not merely share in
indicates.    It only takes a comparison of Heb.  11:lO        the kingdom, but  take  it and possess it for ever! It is
with  12:22 to learn that the O.T. saints looked for the       also of interest that the phrase, "the saints of the most
heavenly  Jerusalem! The "general assembly" in the             High" may also be translated "the saints of the
O.T. was called "the assembly of the saints" (Ps.  89:7)       highest places," which parallels Eph.  1:3;  2:6. That
or the "assembly of the upright." (111:l)      In the N.T.     Daniel wrote of New Testament saints is plain from a
it is seen to be the entire Election of Grace, as is           comparison of  7:27 with Luke  12:32.  Paul  referred to
evident from the added, "which are written in heaven."         what could only be Old Testament saints when he wrote
(cp; Isa.  4:3; Dn.  12:l) But whether Zion, the city of       of Gentiles being "fellow-citizens  with  the  saints."


300                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

These saints included the "prophets" of the O.T. and              (Ps. -39:12;  119:19) Scripture distinguishes between
the "apostles" of the N.T. (Eph.  2:19-22).      They being       one who is a Jew outwardly and the Jew `inwardly,
"fitly framed  together'!  and  "builded   togethelrll  refers    between a carnal Israel and the spiritual Israel. There
to the saints of all ages as members of the same body,            is an Israel within Israel, the Israel of God. According
the same household; That household is "the household              to Romans  2:28, 29, all God's regenerated people are
of faith." (Gal.  6:lO) The O.T. saints were members              true Jews.
of that household according to Hebrews 11, verse 39.
But the would-be "right-dividers" have wrongly divided               Keeping this distinction in mind, attend to the words
the household of God, have not maintained "the unity of           of Asaph.      "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such
the Spirit," and in effect have made God the author of            as are of a clean heart." (Ps.  73:l) What is the mean-
confusion.     For the inseparable unity of  0. and  N.T.         ing of "Israel" in this place? Certainly not the nation
saints is seen in the New Jerusalem which bears not               of Israel nor the natural Jews living at that time, for
                                                                  it could not be said that 
only the names of the twelve apostles on its foundations,                                       they,  as such, had "clean
                                                                  hearts."  "
but also the  names of the twelve tribes of Israel on its                       0 Lord, be Thou my Helper true, for just
gates! (Rev.  21:12)                                              and godly men are few; the faithful who can find?"
                                                                  (Ps.  12:l) A "clean heart" is not found in the natural
   The writer in his dispensation'alist days moved in             man, Jew or Gentile, for all the descendants of Adam
circles where it was loudly insisted that "Jew" meant             are born with a heart consummately deceitful and
"Jew" and not Christian, and that "Israel" meant                  desperately wicked.      A clean heart is the product of
"Israel" and not Church. It was commonly held that                regeneration through the sprinkling of (baptism of) the
Israel was an earthly people. It never occurred to the            blood of Jesus Christ (Heb.  10:22), a purifying act of
writer then that such a statement ought to be adjudged            God through faith (Acts  15:9). Thus the Israel men-
inane !     Granted they were an earthly people, -what            tioned in the text is the regenerated, the  spiritual
else could they be? certainly not a lunar people,                 Israel. The text obviously excludes carnal Israel.
dwelling on earth's satellite, nor a marine people,
inhabiting Atlantis or Aquatania. The Canaanites and                 Jesus so distinguished.       "Behold, an Israelite in-
the Edomites were also an earthly people. Christians              deed, in whom is no guile!" (Jn.  1:47) By "Israelite"
here below are an earthly people, for in body and soul            He meant more than a mere natural descendant of
they are still this side of heaven. If the  dispensation-         Jacob. I-Ie meant a  true  Israelite. When He said, "If
alists explain that what is intended by this language is          ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples
that Israel's was an  earthly  inhevitunce,   we must ask,        indeed,"  (8:31) He meant disciples in fact, not in name
Did the patriarchs have an earthly inheritance? It                only.    Jesus was saying that Nathanael was a regener-
ought to be plainly evident by now in this series that            ated person, "in whom is no guile," which added the
Hebrews 11 proves otherwise. (14-16) Why contend                  confirmation that Nathanael was a saved and spiritual
that Moses had an earthly inheritance in the face of              man, like the man described in Ps.  32:2, "Blessed is
Heb.  11:26? Do not assign such an inheritance to                 the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and
David, for he claimed to be "a  stvangev  in the earth."          in whose spirit is no guile."




        FROM HOLY WRIT-



                              The Book of Hebrews

                                                      by Rev. G.  Lubbers


THE "ALL THINGS" OF PSALM 8                                       state subjected to men.  ("upotetagmena")  We do not
AS INTERPRETED IN HEBREWS 2:8, 9                                  yet see the new heavens and the new earth of which
(Continued)                                                       Psalm 8 speaks, and which will be the realization of
       The world to come is indeed subjected to Jesus,            the glory of Christ over all things. (Ephesians  1:9, 10;
and, in Him, to man. That is the objective status as              Colossians  1:16-18) We do not yet see this new order
spoken of in Psalm 8; and thus it is also taught us in            of things as a permanent and continual possession.
Hebrews  2:5, where we have the fact tense "has sub-              That we will experience by sight when all of creation
jected"!      However, we do not yet now see that the all         shall share in the glory of the sons of God. Then we
things  (`Vu  panta')  are in a permanent and abiding             shall see God face to face; we shall then see Him as


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

          He is. The term to see here is  `%o~oo'Yllen", that is,            We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. He is
          the continuous exercise of sight. (Compare Hebrews             in a permanent state of victory over death; He is the last
          11:27; I John 3:2) Now we are saved in hope and await          Adam, the one man through whom is the resurrection
          the  .final  manifestation of man, the sons of glory with      and the victory.      And we can see, in His glorious
          patience.       This is a point which the readers, the         exaltation, the proof and evidence that His was a victory
          Hebrew Christians, do well to remember. We live by             over death.    And thus the glory of God's grace in Him
          faith now, and not by sight.                                   is set far above all the heavens. The "glory" with
             Nevertheless, the glorification of Christ as set over       which He is crowned is the actual high estate above
          all things is for us a reality of experience in faith and      the angels at God's own right hand. It is the glory of
          hope.       In faith and hope we see Jesus crowned with        God in the Son, in which the Father is glorified in the
          glory and honor. The term  `&crowned" in the Greek             Son. (John  13:31, 32;  14:13;  17:1,4,5,  10) The ascrip-
          refers to a victory crown. The verb form in the Greek          tion of "honor" to the crowned man, Christ, refers to
          is the perfect passive participle:  "estefanoomenon".          the recognition of His glory by all creatures in heaven
          It refers to a crowning which is completed up to the           and on earth. (John 5:23, 8:49; 12:26) Man has no honor
          present moment, and which Christ underwent from the            or glory apart from this exaltation of Christ because
          Father as the fruit of His labors. The man Jesus did           of His suffering of death.
          not crown Himself, but He was given the victory                    No, we do not now yet see all things subjected to
          crown, to wit, a name and position above every name.           Christ.    It seems that all things are rather subjected
          Even though our present eyes do not yet experience             to sin, death, vanity. But in faith and hope we see this
          all things subjected to Him, we know that one day this         Jesus when we give earnest heed to the word which was
          shall be fully realized by the exalted Jesus!                  spoken to us by the Lord himself, and confirmed by
          FOR THE SUFFERING OF DEATH CR0 WNED WITH                       the apostles and accompanied by the signs and wonders
          GL ORY AND HONOR - He bvews 2:9                                of God's Spirit as He wills to administer His grace of
                                                                         life.
             Jesus was not crowned with glory and honor because
          He was made a little lower than the angels; ,on the con-       A LITTLE LOWER  THAN THE ANGELS  -  Hebrews  2:9
          trary, He was crowned with glory and honor because                 In the interpretation of this verse here in Hebrews
          of, on the basis of His suffering of death. Here we            2:9 we encounter a difficulty concerning the meaning of
          touch upon the very crux of the question of man's              the phrase "`Jesus, who was made a little lower than
          exaltation as he is remembered by God and visited in           the angels". This part of the text here is a quotation
          love.    Only thus will Psalm 8 have any meaning. The          from Psalm  8~6  "wathechassveehu   meath  meelohim",
          Psalm is, indeed, very Christological. Only when we            that is, "made a little less than God". Our text in
          see the Cross of Christ in that Psalm will we see that         Hebrews  2:9 quotes from the Septuagint translation
          the glory of God is set above the heavens in the exalta-       which translates "elomim" not "God" but "angels".
          tion of man!                                                   This translation is followed by the  KJV, the Holland
     I       The term "death" in the Greek is  "thunutos". It            translation, and the German as well. The difficulty is
          is the key-word here throughout. Through one man sin           in part one of translation, and in part one of exegesis
          entered into the world, and through that sin and               and conception.
I         transgression death entered. It is well to notice that in          At the outset we may observe that the term "elohim",
          this section of Hebrews 2, which we are considering,           that is "gods" is allowed by Christ himself in John
          the term  death  occurs five times. In verse 9 twice we        lo:34 in quoting from Psalm  82:6 "I said ye are gods,
          read the term death, and twice in verse 14 and once in         and all of  -you sons of the most high." Here "gods"
          verse 15.       And in each case the term does not simply      refers to the great men in Israel who are in authority,
          refer to physical death, but refers todeath  as the wages      and clothed with the divine dignity of office, they are
          of sin which came into the world through the transgres-        those who are to judge the poor and fatherless and to
          sion of one man. (Romans  5:12, 14;  6:23) Death refers        do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Such are
          to the death penalty which God announced to Adam in            called "gods", clothed with divine dignity. We have
          paradise as the verdict of God upon his eating of the          the same conception in Psalm  138:lb,  "Before  thegods
          forbidden tree.      It refers to temporal death, spiritual    will I sing praises unto thee." The reason for this is
          death, and to eternal death; to death in all its compass       evidently that God is greater than the great of the earth,
          as the consequence of sin in the righteous judgment of         and the Psalmist is not afraid to acknowledge the
          God.     It is not the death which the righteous die in the    Great before the great.
          Lord and by which they pass into the portals of glory,             It is evidently along this line that the translators
          but it is raw death, the deathwhichis the bearing of the       in the Septuagint thought of the angels about the throne
          eternal wrath of God against sin, the curse of the             of God. These angels are high in royal dignity; they
          sinner, and eternal banishment from God's sight!               are such as always before the face of the Father,
             This death the Christ must suffer. He must suffer           singing the  tvisagion  before God. Being clothed which
          the wrath of God against sin. He must suffer death,            such dignity they are called "gods" in the Hebrew in
          taste death, and conquer death, swallow up death unto          Psalm  8:6.
          victory.     He must fulfill all righteousness of the law          The term a "little" in the Hebrew is made to refer
          until He has fully finished it. That Christ has accom-         not to time, a little while, but is made to refer to
          plished on the Cross of Calvary.                               degree  of dignity. Thus it is in Psalm 8. However,


302                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

interpreters, Calvin included, would make it refer in        here: "in order that by the grace of God he might taste
Hebrews  2:9 to the short while of Christ's state of         death in behalf of all." It is quite evident that this
humiliation.     Christ was then for a little while lower    grace here is God's grace to those for whom Christ
than the angels in the state of humiliation, but because     must taste death. This is God's saving grace whereby
of the suffering of death is exalted above the angels.       the sinner is brought all the way from death to life,
It was not because of the fact that Christ suffered that     and from sin and guilt to righteousness and glory. The
he became of lower dignity in relationship to God's          question is: who are the "all" here in the text? Does
throne than the angels, but because He was man, real         this teach. general atonement? It ought to be clear to
man assuming the flesh and blood of the children. And        the believing students of the Bible that "all" is ever
this interpretation apparently squares pretty well with      limited by the context and its teaching. And, then,
the general teaching of Scripture as well as that of         when we read verse 11, we notice that the "all" are
the teaching here in Hebrews 2.                              "all" who are sanctified in Christ. Besides, we read
       The first man was indeed made a king. However,        in verse 10 of the `*many sons" which are to be brought
he fell and lost his dignity and honor. Now the Psalmist     to glory. These are the many sons of Abraham, which
sees man exalted as in the counsel and purpose of God,       are as the sand upon the seashore and as the stars in
in Messianic prophecy. He sees man exalted a little          the heavens in multitude. These are all the children of
lower than God, that is, with divinedignity. He is well-     God, the sons according to election, whom Jesus calls
nigh made God. He is a little lower. This intended           brethren unashamedly. For all of these sons of God,
dignity of him, who was seen as a little lower than God      these brethren, Christ must taste death on the Cross..
in the prophetic perspective, is realized in Jesus as        And thus the grace of God is for us; thus too the man-
He is crowned with glory and honor, and that, too,           hood in Christ is truly made a little lower than God,
because of the suffering of death. He to whom God            well-nigh divine, partakers of the divine nature. It is
said in the decree: thou art my Son, this day have I         the motif of grace which makes the Cross necessary!
begotten thee, is here presented as having come to this         However, there is still another reason why the
position of glory because of the suffering of death.         suffering of death is necessary, why man is raised
Seeing this Jesus glorified we. see man exalted a little     through glory through the sufferings and death of
lower than God, yet above the angels. The glorification      Christ.       This is the deep and profound theological
of man according to Psalm 8 is not in the first Adam,        reason.       It befitted God thus to do so! It was and is in
taken from the earth and created in God's image, but         keeping with God's greatness and His relationship to
rather in the last Adam, the Lord from heaven. He            all things. All things are for Him and all things are
that is seen in the Psalm as a little lower than God,        by Him. In all of the inhabitable world there is nothing
is realized in Christ's death and resurrection to such       that is a reality apart from God. All is caused by Him
royal dignity above the angels. And truly all things are     and all has God as its end and goal. Now it befits God
subjected to this Christ, and nothing is omitted in          in bringing many sons to glory, and in giving them a
heaven or on earth.                                          place in "all things" to do so in the way of Christ's
                                                             suffering.      That is the theological ground and reason
                                                             for the Cross of Christ.
THE ONL Y WAY TO GL OR Y:
THE SUFFERING OF DEATH - Hebrews 2:9, 10                        Besides, there is also a divinely appointed legal
                                                             and juridical necessity for the Cross. The just demand
       The divine motive and purpose for exalting the        of God must be satisfied. And this demands the death
Son, and in Him exalting man, is that God would show         of the Son of God. This implies that since we are saved
forth His grace. God would manifest the glory of His         from God's wrath through Christ's death, we shall be
grace in Jesus Christ. Writes the Hebrews epistle            much more saved through his life to glory.





                LADIES' L EAG UE MEETING                                     ATTENTION: YOUNG PEOPLE
The Eastern Ladies' League will hold its Spring meeting,     Reminder: the scholarship application forms for the
Thursday evening, April 27, at Hudsonville Protestant        `67  - `68 term must be submitted by May 1, 1967.
Reformed Church at 8 o'clock. Rev. Herman Veldman            Complete details and application forms may be obtained
will speak on "The New Morality". Ladies, you are            from your society secretary.
invited to meet with us for an evening of Christian                                          Wilma  Haveman, Secretary
fellowship.
                              E. Kuiper, Asst. Secretary


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  303



            IN HIS  FEAR-


                             Virgins For Christ's Sake

                                                    (Continued)

                                                   by Rev. J. A. Heys


   There is in the world a continuous development of           mind and will of Satan. Sin is always spiritual inter-
sin.                                                           course with the devil and, as we already  stated>
   The force of that statement is felt  whenwe  consider       rebellion against the living God. Sin is taking to our
the fact that all the sin in the world today grew out of       bosoms and embracing in love the corrupt thoughts and
just one sin in paradise.                                      desires of The Wicked One and rejecting and fleeing
   From an external point of view that sin does not            from the Holy God Who made us and Whose we are.
even appear to be so bad. It was nothing more than             Whenever we sin, we are spiritual harlots and no
eating a piece of forbidden fruit. It injured no one. It       longer virgins for Christ's sake. And a very close
did no social injustice. It shed no blood and robbed no        connection between this spiritual adultery and actual
one of his possessions.        But if we see it in its true    physical adultery is evident in that as soon as they had
nature, if we see it as God sees it, we will understand        played the harlot with Satan, Adam and Eve knew that
that it was nothing less than rebellion against God!           they were naked. Their pure minds anddedicated wills
Nothing more than eating a piece of fruit, and yet             were not shocked or disturbed by such a fact. But once
nothing less than defying the living God! Let those            having committed spiritual adultery, they saw the whole
who busy themselves on their pulpits with a `"social           field of immorality before them and realized that some-
gospel" take heed to the root of all the evils in this         thing should be done.    And in  defence of our position
world and of all the violations of the second table of         above that not only has sin developed into all kinds of
the law! It is so easy to strain at a gnat and swallow         sins and that each sin develops with its increasingly
a camel today.       And you are not going to kill a poison    devilish variations, let it be pointed out that the
sumac tree by plucking a few leaves off now and then.          pendulum has swung so far today that the forces that
You better get at the root of the tree. And until the love     would tear those fig leaves away and invite and en-
of God is once again in man's heart, he can only hate          courage what was loathsome even to Adam and Eve
his brother and commit what are called social in-              are multiplying and gaining power. As one commenta-
justices and crime.                                            tor said, "With the topless bathing suit the bottom fell
        From that one sin of Adam came all the sins of         out!" Indeed there is hardly a bottom any more, and
today.       From a rebellious and God-defying position        surely there is no ceiling anymore either. With the
man went ahead to all the violence, cruelty and filth of       introduction of The Pill, the sky is the limit. And let
today as well as to all the idolatry, image worship,           no one deceive you into thinking that The Pill was dis-
blasphemy and Sabbath desecration. That one sin led            covered because man was so concerned about the pop-
to many forms of rebellion, in fact to rebellion in            ulation explosion that he fears a shortage of food within
every sphere of man's life. And not only has that one          a few generations. Let him then turn his "scientific"
sin developed into all the evils condemned literally in        mind to ways and means of producing more food, and
the ten commandments, but there has been asteady and           teachman how to avoid all the waste of food in the proc-
continuous development of each and every one of these          essing methods not only but also in the home. Let
sins.      And, since we are now dealing with the seventh      him spend his money on irrigation systems, and let
commandment and the immorality and filth that is in            him no longer continue in the folly that is so evident in
the world today, we intend to speak about those sins           this local area: tearing up rich farmland for housing
that go beyond the literal adultery of the seventh             projects.
commandment and about those evils unto which that sin             But to return to Adam, divorce of Eve and the re-
has developed.                                                 marrying of another was quite impossible in the years
        After all is said, Adam could not even have com-       shortly after the fall of man.      And he could surely
mitted the sin of the seventh commandment in the way           find no occasion to divorce Eve on the grounds of
it is committed today. All sin, of course, is spiritual        adultery.    They undoubtedly soon saw this sin in their
adultery.       It is this in that whenever we sin, we are     children, even as they saw murder in theirfamily. And
adding the foreign element into our covenant relation-         they surely understood that this was the fruit of their
ship to God that we think and will and act after the           own sin. How they must have watched the conduct of


                                              THE STANDARD BEABER

their children! At first they looked innocent enough,          that the unbeliever -be he a professor of Theology as
even as ours do. These little newborn babes do not             far as his title is concerned  - became bold enough to
look like rebels. But lest we fall into the folly of the       say that God is dead. But every act of sin on our part
worldly philosophy that they sin only by imitation, let        is a matter of living from the principle that He is dead.
it be borne in mind that Cain never had an example of          (And lest you feel constrained to rush back in protest
murder to follow and imitate. The beasts of the field          that we may not call amember  in the church here below
killed each other, and Adam killed a lamb for a sacri-         and who teaches Theology an unbeliever, ask yourself
fice.    But Cain in killing Abel was not imitating these      the question, Does one believe in a dead God? If one
acts, but developing in the rebellicn of his father against    does not believe that a certain person exists, is that
God and His law. Was he also imitating the beasts when         faith in this Person? Is not a believer exactly one who
he buried his brother's body?                                  believes in God?) There is so  littleof  this  Covum  Deo,
    And so in process of time adultery did appear in the       that is, living before the face of God and acting in the
children of Adam and Eve. There was faithlessness              consciousness of His command.          Of course, if our
between man and wife. There were those who eyed                standard is only what will be approved of by men, then
and captured the wives and husbands of others. And             when the unmarried agree to defile themselves with the
when the violator is unmarried, it is not adultery, but        help of The Pill or its forerunners and cousins, no
fornication.    Paul says of fornication: "Every sin that      "harm" has been done. But that is not what Leviticus
a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth        20 teaches us, or for that matter any portion of the
fornication sinneth against his own body." We do well          Word of God. The law in one word is love to God. And
to bear that in mind. He sinnethwith his body, but also        our covenant young women do well to remember that.
against it, because he has a calling to be a virgin for        Our covenant young men as well, of course. But the
Christ's sake.                                                 point we wish to make at the moment concerns the
    Fornication is losing one's virginity illegally. The       covenant young woman who is asked to prove her love.
married lose their virginity legally. For they are now         Worldly  counsellors  and newspaper column advisers
before God one flesh. And therein God gives them the           in purely worldly wisdom suggest that the challenge be
right and does not consider it fornication when they           returned to the young man that he prove his love by
live together as man and wife. Here there is no adding         refraining from his demands or pleas. The covenant
of a foreign element as in adultery; and here is no            young woman has a far more powerful weapon in the
rebellion against the living God and no defying of Him         very Word of God:  Prove  your love  to  God! And the
in His law. Fornication is a nasty thing! Marriage is          covenant young man or young woman (and for that
a beautiful gift of the living God. Let it be remembered       matter also the older man and woman) who loves God
that God designed our bodies and fashioned us to be            will want to be a virgin for Christ's sake. He will be
what we are. He made man and woman to be physical,             with all his life and with all his powers dedicated unto
spiritual, and psychical counterparts.       And he gave       the living God and will pass his pilgrimage here below
them the right as well as the power to propogate the           waiting for The Bridegroom to come. There is only one
human race.       No, let us go back to paradise: He           way to prove love to God, and that is to walk in the way
gave Adam and Eve and in them the entire Church the            of His commandments.
right and power to bring forth the covenant seed. Man             Unto our young people, therefore, we would give
fell and now brings forth nothing but enemies of God.          advice that they may live in His fear. First of all, do
But the right and power to reproduce its kind in the           not put yourself in a position where you invite being
cause of God's kingdom was there in Adam and Eve               unequally yoked with an unbeliever. And that means
before they fell.    After the fall God did not take this      no dates of any kind at any time with one whom you
power and this right away, but sinful man corrupts it          know as an unbeliever or of whose faith you have no
and commits spiritual adultery even when he lives one          knowledge.    If we do not frequent places where we will
life with one life's companion. But fornication is the         meet such, we do not tempt ourselves to be approached
misuse by the unmarried of the faculties and powers            or to approach them. If we deliberately go looking for
which God has given them to employ to the glory of             such, we are asking for trouble and have already
His name and for the cause of the bringing forth of            inwardly failed to be virgins for Christ's sake. In our
the covenant seed. God made man and wife for the sake          complex age it is so easy to meet them anyway at work
of His Church. In the angel world no such condition            or on the way to work. And therefore we must be on
exists, and there is neither adultery nor fornication          our guard that we are not controlled by the flesh. That
among them. They were able to rebel, and a host of             it be established without a shadow of a doubt that the
them did rebel against God; but not in the way of adul-        young man or young woman loves God before any social
tery and fornication as it is practiced among men.             connections with him or her are established is the
   Fornication is a grievous sin!                              safest rule not only, but a solemn calling before God.
   In the Old Testament dispensation it called for             Even as young people we are not here to have a good
stoning. Leviticus  20:10-21  contains a whole series of       time but to serve a sovereign and holy God. Whatever
condemnations of violations of the seventh command-            good time we may have and may seek must be one
ment together with the death penalty upon them. That           that revolves around and centers in the service of
the sin is agreeable and enjoyable to both parties does        God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength,
not change the fact that it is rebellion against God.          with our bodies and all their faculties and powers.
That is the seriousness of the evil! It is but recently        We have them for no other reason  thanfor His service.


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          305

   The unbeliever, the man or woman that does not                     Dating the unbeliever in the vain hope that he might
love God cannot help us in our service and worship of              become a believer in years to come is playing with
God. To them you can never say, "Prove your love to               fire.       Going outside of the Church to find a friend
God !' ' And rather than to be an help meet, that is, fit,        means that you have to enjoy his friendship outside of
suitable, to the covenant young man or young woman,                the Church. It is not in His fear. It is not living as a
the unbelieving husband or wife will be a detriment                virgin for Christ's sake. And it makes impossible one
and will hamper the believer in his spiritual life and             life that lives with an eye to the marriage feast of The
that of the children God may give them. Our young                  Lamb.       All too soon the flesh falls in love  with.flesh,
people as a rule do not look so far ahead, but let them            and the spirit, though it is still willing, is unable to
remember that children of parents who are spiritually              resist the cry of the flesh. Young people: Do not ask
unequally yoked will be attracted to the spiritually               and seek for spiritual incompatibility!
weaker and not to the stronger of the parents.


 ALL AROUND  US-


            The Federal Control of State Aid

                              Ecumenical News Items

                                                        by Pyof. H. Hanho

THE FEDERAL CONTROL OF STATE AID                                             It says how many students can ride a bus.
   A reproduction of an article appearing originally in                      It individually approves each and every bus route.
The Houston Post  of March 31, 1966 recently came to                         It can have an auditor walk in, demand the map of
my desk.        It is one of a series of articles discussing          bus routes and go out and drive over them to see if
the question of federal aid and federal control. It                   district transportation reports are true.
vividly describes how federal and state aid to public                        The state says how many teachers of which it will
                                                                      pay the minimum state required salaries. It says how
schools has been followed by rigid controls from                      many principals a district may have, and how many
which there is no escape.                                             assistant principals, counselors etc.
   The article discusses what has happened in the                            The state pays salaries for specific positions, and if
Aldine school district, one of 22 school districts within             a person is used for something else the salary can be
a county. This particular school district has 15,500                  eliminated.
students, is receiving $3.4 million from the state while                     The state, to a degree, picks the books Aldine can
raising $1.4 million in local taxes.                                  use.Its textbook committee reviews texts from all over
       For this $3.4 million what does the state control?             the country, decides on five and then submits these
   Here is a partial list:                                            five to Aldine  for its textbook committee to pick from.
       It tells Aldine how many college credit hours its              The district can pick one book in each subject, or a
   teachers must have. It dictates the number of hours                combination of one or more (as long as the number in
   in the particular field a teacher instructs. It says how           combination equals what a single selection would have.)
   many and what kind of hours the librarian must have.                      The state grants or withholds accreditation from
       It tells the district how many students a teacher              a district like Aldine. It can suspend this accredita-
   can teach....                                                      tion, or threaten to, if a serious effort is not made to,
       An auditor can walk into the  Aldine Administration            meet standards it has set up.                                    .-
   Building any day and audit the record of any or all                       The Texas Education Agency  - the state's public
   teachers.                                                          school district regulatory and financial agent  - sets
       It can do the same on students. Districts must                 up course requirements. It specifies just how many
   keep accurate attendance records for one of three                  minutes a day or week a student must spend in such
   state sources of aid is based upon average daily                   things as health, science, history and American gov-
   attendance.                                                        ernment.
       In the field of transportation the state does this:                   There is a minimum standard set up for buildings,
       It will not allow Aldine to buy its own buses. They            libraries, teaching supplies and other things.
   have to be ordered through the State Board of Control.
   The district can specify the size of the bus, hut not the          The superintendent of this district is quoted as
   manufacturer.                                                   saying:
      Then the state tells the district where it may pick                    School districts today are not the same as they were
   up students -none within two miles of the school they              fifteen years ago and I suspect that they are not what
  . are to attend if the district wants to get paid.                  they will be 10 years from now.


306                                                THE STANDARD BEARER

         State  controi  goes into every area of a school dis-     of Churches also received funds from the CIA, although
   trict. It includes the whole ball of wax.                       the amounts were small.
                                                                      -While for many years the Masonic Lodge and the
   The article goes on to say                                      Knights of Columbus were the bitterest of enemies,
         (The school district superintendent) is not critical      leaders from both recently met and joined in a "co-
   of the state controls although he says the massive              operative pledge" in which they expressed agreement
   volume of record keeping and red tape gets irritating           on basic beliefs in the brotherhood of man under the
   at times.                                                       fatherhood of God; and in which they agreed to labor
         The state's objective, however limiting it is towards     together for social and moral reform. The Knights
   local control, is to increase educational standards....         of Columbus is a Roman Catholic Lodge and the extent
         The state, in general, tries to help districts do         of the bitterness between them is evident from the fact
   things they would do for themselves if they had had             that membership in the Masonic Lodge by a Roman
   the money.. . . Because of this, most school adminis-           Catholic means excommunication from the church. But
   trators take an understanding viewpoint of the situa-
   tion.                                                           it is now hoped that Canon Law will be changed so that
                                                                   the two lodges will be able to work more closely to-
   Those who dream of state aid to Christian schools               gether; and perhaps even merge.
without the clutching fingers of state control are                    -The National Council of Churches continues to
engaging in wishful thinking. This article too clearly             meddle in political affairs; this time passing a resolu-
demonstrates what happens when money comes to a                    tion which urges the government to change its draft
school from the state or federal government.                       laws so that anyone conscientiously opposing a partic-
   If it be objected that this article speaks of a public          ular war for any reason be exempt from the draft.
school system, then let it be remembered that even                 This is only one policy statement which the NCC has
the public school districts were once independent                  made advising the government of its opinion on the
organizations.       Besides, many school districts long           Viet Nam War.
resisted the enticements of state aid, but have only                  -A professor of New Testament Exegetical theology
recently succumbed to these allurements. What has                  at Concordia Lutheran Seminary, has accepted an
happened in these public schools can and will happen               appointment for one year to teach at the  Jesuit-
to the Christian schools which are tempted to accept               operated University of San Francisco. This exchange
government largesse.                                               of professors in church-operated colleges, universities
   A note of warning is therefore in order. It may                 and seminaries is becoming increasingly common.
become increasingly difficult to support our own                      -In 1965 the Roman Catholic Church agreed to a
schools.        It may be unjust to be forced to pay local         proposal from the World Council of Churches to set up
taxes to support the public school systems as well as              a "Joint Working Group" which would discuss the
to support our own schools. But we shall have to do it             possibilities of dialogue and collaboration between the
or lose our schools.                                               WCC and the Roman Catholic Church. The committee
EC UMENICAL NEWS ITEMS                                             has issued its first report and listed the main areas of
                                                                   possible cooperation between these two organizations.
   Since ecumenism is so much in the headlines of                  It has also proposed a "Joint Theological Commission"
the ecclesiastical press these days, a month's reading             to study various problems now dividing Protestants and
of various religious periodicals produces an abundance             Roman Catholics.
of notes on ecumenical progress. We offer the follow-                 -1nterreligious  services are becoming increasingly
ing as a sampling of what a single month has brought.              popular. Rev. H. C.  Hoeksema  reportedin the editorial
It is illustrative of how rapidly the tides of ecumenism           column of our paper an interreligious service held in
are moving and into what areas they are penetrating.               Grand Rapids at which Dr. John Kromminga of Calvin
       -Another denomination has joined the Consultation           Seminary participated. These services are being held
on Church Union (COCU) which already embraces nine                 throughout the country and the world embracing every
denominations: The United Presbyterians, the Metho-                denomination.
dists, the Episcopalians, The Evangelical                United       -From the RES Newsletter we quote the following
Brethren Church, The Presbyterian Church U.S. (which
is engaged in its own merger talks with the Reformed                     Reformed and Presbyterian Churches are sitting at
Church of America), the Disciples of Christ, and the                  over  30 church union conference tables with more than
United Church of Christ. This denomination is the                     90 partners in the quest for unity. The figure includes
500,000-member  Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.                 only formal union negotiations between Churches; it
       -This denomination is itself holding merger talks              omits discussions like those between Lutheran and
with the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the                   Reformed theologians in North America and Europe.
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.                                The church union movement is  most. active in
                                                                      Africa, where Reformed and Presbyterian Churches
       -The National Council of Churches reveals again                are involved in nine separate sets of negotiations.
that it has become an instrument for the distribution                 Europe is second with eight, six of which. are in the
of government funds. In the recent reports of funds                   British Isles. On the continent, talks are going on only
being channeled through various organizations by the                  between Reformed and Lutheran Churches in France,
Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA, the government's                and in the framework of the Netherlands Ecumenical
spying bureau) it is revealed that the National Council               Council. WARC member Churches are in five negotia-


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      307

   tions in North America, four in Asia, three in Aus-                  byterian Church in Southern Africa, Tsonga Presby-
   tralasia, and one in Latin America.                                  terian Church, and Bantu Presbyterian Church (South
          Anglicans,  Methodistsj  Congregationalists and other         Africa). The three South African Churches. are also
   Reformed bodies appear most frequently as partners                   in talks with Anglicans, however, and the Presbyterian
   in union talks with Reformed Churches....                            Church U.S. this year joined the COCU talks....
          Four intra-Reformed unions are contemplated:
   Presbyterian Church U.S. and Reformed Church in                      And so it goes on. This is one month's news. You
   America; Cumberland Presbyterian Church and Second                can readily imagine how rapidly the church world is
   Cumberland Presbyterian Church (USA); Presbyterian                moving towards union  - towards the realization of its
   Church in West Cameroon,  Eglise evangelique du Cam-              dream to place all denominations (and all religions)
   e'Youn and Eglise PFesbytevienne camevounaise; Pres-              under one ecclesiastical roof.



      CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-


                                        The Providence of God

                                                            Mirades

                                                         by Rev. H.  Veldman


   Of the Wonder of the grace of God the center is                   while Christ was among us in our flesh and blood.
Immanuel, God with us, in Jesus Christ, our Lord. And                Indeed, what a multitude of sick people! Besides, we do
we concluded our preceding article by calling attention              well to take note of the character of these sick people!
to the fact that He is Himself, centrally, this-Wonder               They are blind and deaf and dumb andlame and leprous
of Divine grace. We now conclude our articles on the                 and devil-possessed. To be blind means  thatwe  cannot
miracles of Holy Writ.                                               see, to be deaf that we cannot hear, to be lame that we
   This Immanuel is also centrally the Wonder of                     cannot walk, to be dumb that we cannot speak. All
Divine grace in Hisdeath  and resurrection. He descends              these sicknesses, we understand, are symbols of the
into the depths of the curse of God for all His own. He              power of sin, The power of sin is so absolute! We
suffers the agonies and torments of everlasting hell.                are blind and cannot see, deaf and cannot hear, lame
He endures the unfathomable agony of being forsaken                  and cannot walk, dumb and cannot speak.               We are
of God, the experiencing of the wrath of God, not as                 spiritually dead and there is no life in us. Indeed, the
upon Himself, but upon all the sins of those whom the                power of sin is so absolute! Whenever we see a miracle
Father has given Him from before the foundation of the               we see a symbol of the power of the grace of God. In
world.      And He rises from the dead! He ascends into              every miracle we see the power of God's grace breaking
heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father!                through our night of sin and death. When Christ causes
He receives the Spirit beyond measure. The glory of                  the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak
God's everlasting kingdom and covenant is realized in                and the lame to walk, we see apicture  of what the grace
Him! The breaking through of the grace of God, through               of God accomplishes in the dead sinner. This is the
sin and death and hell into heavenly glory and immor-                essence of the miracle: it is a symbol of the power of
tality, is realized in Him! He is, therefore, centrally              God's grace. The world may deny -these miracles, do
the Wonder of the grace of God. He receives the Spirit               all within their power to remove their effect. But the
and power to realize His glory in all His elect. He is               child of God believes in them, has no difficulty ac-
the mighty Shiloh, Divinely equipped to call His own out             cepting them, because he himself has experienced within
of darkness into light, out of death into life; He has the           himself the wonderful power of the grace of God.
power to give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf,
speaking to the dumb, walking to the lame, to call us                                  THE DOCTRINE OF SIN
into God's everlasting covenant and kingdom.                            The Lord willing, we will not call attention to the
   Finally, of this wonder of the grace of God, operating            history of the doctrine of sin as developed in the church
in us of and through our Lord Jesus Christ, all                      of God throughout the ages of the New Dispensation.
miracles are signs and symbols. We are not surprised,                The subject of  sinis averywidefield and of the greatest
of course, that the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ              significance.    It affects, very vitally, the reality and
in our flesh and blood should be accompanied by a host               the possibility of our salvation. But it is also directly
of miracles. Neither does it surpriseus that the prince              related to the glory of the living God. The reality of
of the powers of the air should congregate and assemble              sin, that we are conceived and born dead in sins and
all his forces, apparently, in the land of Palestine                 in trespasses, helplessly and hopelessly lost in our


308                                             TBESTANDARDBEARER

iniquity, incapable of doing any good and inclined to all         ness of human depravity was the exclusive and funda-
evil, lives so really and vividly in the soul and con-            mental principle upon which the entire theology of that
sciousness of the redeemed and saved child and church             time was founded, yet every Christian conscience was
of God!     How is it possible for a church to confess            convinced of the opposition between the ideal and the
anything less than this; in fact, how is it possible for a        real, and the effects of sin in destroying the harmony
                                                                  of life; ,and this, too, in proportion to the strictness of
church to deny the truth of man's utter depravity, as             claims set up for human freedom.
did the Christian Reformed Church in 1924, when they
formulated their Three Points which include the heresy            Our Reformed Confessions do not give us a concise
that the natural man, without the regeneration of the          definition of sin. However, thisdoesnot mean that they
heart, is able to do that, in things civil, which is good      do not have anything to say on this subject. The Heidel-
in the sight of the Lord. Besides, how necessary is            berg Catechism calls attention to the subject-of sin in
this Scriptural doctrine of sin as far as our con-             Part I which deals with man's misery. In Question 9
sciousness of the need of the Redeemer is concerned!           of Lord's Day IV the question is asked: "Doth not God
Parts I and II of our Heidelberg Catechism are so              then do injustice to man, by requiring from him in His
inseparably connected.       People that are whole need        law, that which he cannot perform?" And the answer
not a physician. Only they that are sick contact the           follows: "Not at all; for God made man capable of
doctor. Our consciousness of the need of the Christ            performing it; but man, by the instigation of the devil,
is inseparably connected with our consciousness of sin         and his own wilful disobedience, deprived himself and
and guilt. Finally, this doctrine of sin is also a doctrine    all his posterity of those divine gifts." God, therefore,
that concerns the glory of God.        A true conception of    demands of the sinner the impossible. What the Lord
God's holiness and righteousness, that He is God and           demands of the sinner in His law is clearly set forth
He alone, can never lead a sinner to any other con-            in Lord's Day II, where  .we read that the law of God
clusion than that he is so hopelessly corrupt that he is       demands that we love the Lord our God with all our
incapable of any good and inclined to all evil. Then he        heart and soul and mind and strength, and our neighbors
must confess that he is evil, born in sin, enmity against      as ourselves. This law of God we cannot perform. We
God and the neighbor, never subject to the law of God          are incapable of any good and inclined to all evil. This
and never able to be subject to it.                            means that we do not love God and the neighbor, but, on
   The doctrine of sin is also a very wide field.              the contrary, we hate Him and the neighbor. And in
Historically, it also embraces the pelagian and arminian       Question and Answer V we are told that we are prone
controversies.    Treating this subject, we will discuss       by nature to hate God and our neighbor. This implies
the history of this doctrine, the Lord willing, as it was      tbat sin, according to the Heidelberg Catechism, is not
developed in successive periods throughout the New             merely a matter of the deed, of what we do, but that it
Dispensation. We will begin, therefore, with the period        is a matter of our nature, of what we are. We are not
80  - 250 A.D. That this period begins at approximately        corrupt as we will to be corrupt (pelagianism), but we
80 A.D. is because this period begins at the conclusion        walk in ways of corruption because we are corrupt.
of the apostolic era.       We realize, of course, that            In our Confession of Faith, the Belgic Confession,
heretical conceptions and tendencies were already in           we read in Art. XIV the following:
existence during the time of the apostles. The apostles,              We believe that God created man out of the dust of
however, being Divinely inspired, were, of course, the             the earth, and made and formed him after His own
last and final word. They, too, we understand, opposed             image and likeness, good, righteous, and holy, capable
                                                                   in all things to will, agreeably to the will of God. But
heresy.    This is evident from their epistles. Never-             being in honor, he understood it not, neither knew his
theless, heretical departures from the truth remained              excellency, but wilfully subjected himself to sin, and
more or less subdued while the apostles lived. This                consequently to death, and the curse, giving ear to the
explains why the first era to which we call attention              words of the devil. For the commandment of life, which
begins at approximately 80 A.D. This period, 80  - 250,            he had received, he transgressed; and by sin separated
is also known as the Age of Apologetics. It was the                himself from God, who was his true life, having cor-
era of fierce persecution, although this trying time for           rupted his whole nature; whereby he made himself liable
the church of Christ did extend beyond 250 A.D., coming            to corporal and spiritual death. And being thus become
to a close with the rise of Constantine the Great, under           wicked, pei-verse,  and corrupt in all his ways, he hath
whose power and influence the church was granted                   lost all his excellent gifts, which he had received from
                                                                   God, and only retained a few remains (tracks, traces,
external rest and became honored instead of being an               - H.V.) thereof, which, however, are sufficient to leave
object of reproach. It was through him that the church             man without excuse; for all the light which is in us is
of Christ received equal status before the law with all            changed  &nto darkness, and the darkness comprehended
the other religions in the midst of the world.                     it not: where St. John calleth men darkness. Therefore
THE  FYRSTPERIOD, 80-250A.D.                                       we reject all that is taught repugnant to this, concerning
                                                                   the free will of man, since man is but a slave of sin;.
   Concerning this period, Hagenbach writes as follows:            and has nothing of himself, unless it is given him from
                                                                   heaven.
       However much the primitive church was inclined, as
   we have already seen, to look with a free and clear            And in Art. XV of the same Confession we read the
   vision at the bright side of man (his ideal nature), yet    following:
   it did not endeavor to conceal the dark side by a false            We believe that, through the disobedience of Adam,
   idealism. Though it can not be said that the conscious-         original sin is extended to all mankind; which is a


                                                          -


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER

        corruption of the whole nature, and an hereditary dis-            berg Catechism. Sin is a matter of our nature. Man
        ease, wherewith infants themselves are infected even              has become wholly corrupt and he has lost all his
        in their mother's womb, and which produceth in man                excellent gifts, retaining only traces of them. This
        all sorts of sin, being in him as a root thereof; and
        therefore is so vile and abominable in the sight of God,          does not mean that' he retained remnants of these
        that it is sufficient to condemn all mankind. Nor is it           original gifts of  .holiness and righteousness, but only
        by any means abolished or done away bybaptism; since              traces of them which means that he once possessed
        sin always issues forth from this woeful source, as               them but no longer possesses them. Sin, therefore, is
        water from a fountain; notwithstanding it is not imputed          not merely ignorance; the evil is not merely lack of
        to the children of God unto condemnation, but by His              that which is good; it is a corruption of the entire nature
        grace and mercy is forgiven them.                                 of man, a wilful refusal to walk in the commandments
        In these articles of our Belgic Confession, XIV and               of the Lord.        And the same language characterizes
XV, the same truth is held before us as in our Heidel-                    also the Canons of Dordt.





                                                 CONTRIBUTION

                                                           by  P~of. H. C. Hoeksema

Prof. H. C+ Hoeksema                              gers.       Their goal is one big church       recommendation; at least, I certainly
Grand Rapids, Michigan                            all singing the same songs - but not           know of none that I have caused.
                                                  those songs given to the church by               2) Diligence in observing Article 69
Dear Brother in Christ:                           God. (5)                                       of our Church Order has nothing to do
       I call your attention to the statement       It frightens me and makes me very            with our schools. If, however, brother
you made in your reply to my article              sad that one of our professors, who            Huisken thinks I am in violation of
in the Standard Bearer, February 15,              says he has great love for our Psalter         Article 86 of the Church Order, he is
1967: "For my part this recommen-                 at the same time recommends hymns              welcome to prove this before the prop-
dation will stand." The fact is that it           in our schools. (6)                            er ecclesiastical instances.     I agree
is being ignored. The Edgerton  school              In closing I quote Rev. H. Hoeksema         that it is good. reasoning to sing the
board took a contrary stand in 1953               from the Standard Bearer, Vol. 4, pp.          same songs in our schools as we sing
when the De Wolf element tried to                 317-319, also found in Acts of Synod,          in our churches, but  not exclusively.
introduce hymns into our school. Do               1960, pp. 115: "There is no need for           I prefer to state it this way: It is good
you see how you cause confusion and               hymns next to the Psalms of David,            to sing "psalms and hymns.and  spirit-
discord with your recommendation?(  1)            which are presented to us in Holy             ual songs" in our schools, "singing
  We cannot show all diligence in ob-             Scripture.      There is in the Psalms         and making melody in your heart to
serving our Church Order, Article 86              a spiritual wealth wherein also the           the Lord."
and at the same time recommend                    heart of the New Testament church is             3) Brother Huisken seems to for-
hymns in our schools. It is good rea-             able to express itself perfectly, pro-        get that I did not recommend hymns
soning to sing the same songs in our              vided one learns to understand those           in general, nor all hymns, but that I
schools as we sing in our churches.               Psalms well." (7)                             made a qualified recommendation of a
(2)                                                             Fraternally yours,               specific song-book, - a book, by the
  Our Psalter is the best song book                             Henry Huisken                   way, in which there are also several
there is and we must only recommend                             Edgerton, Minnesota              excellent      psalm-versifications from
the best. The hymns need not be rec-                                                            the Genevan Psalter. I wish the brother
ommended.          They are very common           REPLY                                         would take the trouble to study the
- you can listen to them around the                 My reply, - and this will be the last        book recommended.
clock if you desire. Psalter numbers              word on the specific matter of my                4) Fully agreed.
are rarely heard. (3)                             qualified recommendation  of a specific          5) This is an unproved generaliza-
  -The  Psalms are the best remedy                song-book, unless something new is             tion. Besides: a) I believe it is more
for a sin sick soul. They give peace              presented,  - follows the order of the         accurate to say that singing of shallow
and comfort to the sick and dying.                reference numbers which I have in-             and corrupt hymns and departure from
What a privilege for God's elect church           serted in brother Huisken's letter:            the truth go hand in hand. b) You are
to sing these Psalms through the use                 1) It is in the nature of a recom-          now writing about churches that intro-
of-our precious Psalter. (4)                      mendation that anyone has the .right           duce hymns; I have not pleaded for the
  History teaches us that singing hymns           either to follow it or ignore it. Edger-       introduction of hymns in our churches.
and departure from the truth go hand              ton's school board could, however,             c) I am afraid that lurking in this para-
in hand.        Churches that introduced          hardly take a contrary stand in 19.53          graph is the underlying idea that all
hymns soon forsook the Psalter. These             to a recommendation which was not              hymns and hymn-singing are princip-
churches now sing the same songs as               made until 1966. Nor do I see how I            ally wrong.
the churches who are busy with mer-               ! cause confusion and discord with my            6) Your fears are ungrounded, and


310                                                   THESTANDARDBEARER

your sadness is unwarranted. For:             words "the dipping in" were ever              eliminated the quotation from Dr.
a) Love for the Psalter and love of           inserted in the "Form for the Ad-             Smyth partly to abbreviate, but mostly
s o m e   hymns     are    not    mutually    ministration of Baptism". This type           because my questioner was inquiring
exclusive.      b) I did not in general       of concession tends to cut away the           as to the official stand of our Prot-
recommend hymns, but I made a limited         ground for infant baptism inasmuch as         estant Reformed Churches on im-
recommendation of a specific book, and        immersion is obviously not suitable for       mersion. This I answered by inform-
not for use in the churches.         _        application to infants.      This in turn     ing him that immersion is an allowable
  7) You must not try to use the late         undercuts the doctrine of the covenant        form of baptism according to our
Rev. H. Hoeksema in support of your           and paves the way for the entire false        liturgical Form.
position. For: a) Your quotation is           philosophy of baptist theology.                 Thirdly, the following by way of a
taken entirely out of context: read the              How much better to agree with Dr.      brief reply to your suggestions: 1)
whole article, which, by the way, was         Smyth that Scripture is and must be           Much as I appreciate the desire to
originally written in Dutch. It will          the sole basis for the doctrine and           maintain infant baptism, I do not be-
appear that Rev. Hoeksema had no ob-          theology of baptism!       Here the facts     lieve that allowing immersion under-
jection to hymns as such, to say the          are clear and unmistakable.         From      cuts the doctrine of the covenant. Nor
least; and it will also appear that he        Genesis to Revelation there is no im-         do I believe that it is historically
was dealing with a specific proposal          mersion in the Bible and not onesingle        correct that immersion is a concession
in the Christian Reformed Church at           Scripture text can be adduced to prove        to baptist theology; or that the words
.that time. b) It is well known that only     it.      The score is 41 to 0 in favor of     "the dipping in" were inserted in our
a few years ago the Rev. Hoeksema             sprinkling and pouring! This is because       Form for the purpose of placating
was in favor of a change in Article 69        immersion runs counter to the sym-            baptist oriented individuals.
of the Church Order.         c) It is well    bolism of Scripture. All through the            2) I hesitate to criticize Dr. Smyth's
known that Rev. Hoeksema even com-            Bible the elements of water, oil, blood       argumentation because I have only one
posed some suggested hymns. d) It is          and Spirit are always applied to the          page of his writings on the subject.
well known that Rev. Hoeksema had             person, never the person to the element!      However, I would hold to the allow-
some favorite hymns which he loved            God applies His blessings to us. As           ability of immersion (not the necessity
to sing and also to quote in sermons.         helpless sinners we cannot apply these        of it, as baptists do): a) on linguistic
One was Isaac Watts' "When I Survey           supreme blessings to ourselves. To            grounds; b) in view of the two great
the Wondrous Cross."                          deem otherwise is to cut out the heart        types of baptism, which certainly were
   Again, for my part, the recommen-          of Calvinism. It is precisely the false       no sprinklings; c) in view of the mean-
dation will stand. And, anyone is free        doctrine of man contributing to his own       ing of baptism itself (not the  sacra-
to regard or disregard it. I merely           salvation which must be guarded a-            ment, but the spiritual reality for which
`gave my opinion and advice about a           gainst, even symbolically in the sacra-       it stands), namely, being buried with
 book sent me for review.                     ments.       In essentials like these we      Christ and arising in newness of life.
                                    H.C.H.    must above all maintain Scriptural            d) in view of the fact that Scripture,
                                              consistency. To me baptism signifies          both in the Old and in the New Testa-
                                              not only the washing away of sin, our         ment, speaks of washings as well as
                                              induction into the body of Christ, the        of sprinklings.     e) because it cannot
                                              sign and seal of the blessings of the         be proved that New Testament baptisms
                                              everlasting covenant but also the holy        were in every case by sprinkling, no
                                              anointing of the Holy Spirit whereby          more than it can be proved that they
Professor H. C. Hoeksema                      we are made prophets, priests and             were by immersion.
Editor, The Standard Bearer                   kings in Christ's kingdom. How else             3) I do not know of any Scriptural
                                              can we be Christians, which means             ground for the idea that our baptism
Dear Brother in Christ:                       "anointed ones", if we are not anointed?      constitutes an anointing in the literal
   As a new subscriber to your excellent      Only thus can we be like Christ and           and physical sense of the word, even
magazine, I find it not only interesting      fulfil all righteousness by His almighty      though I fully agree that "when we are
but most informative. Amparticularly          power and grace.                              baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost,
pleased -with the way you uphold the                    Sincerely in our Saviour's Name,    the Holy Ghost assures us, by this
standards of our Reformed faith,                        William A. De Jonge                 holy sacrament, that he will dwell in
pointing out. the dangerous defections                  Montclair, New Jersey               us and sanctify us to be members of
which are manifesting themselves              *As a member of the Orthodox Pres-            Christ," etc.
among erstwhile conservative churches         byterian church am happy to report that         4) Of course, I emphatically agree
ostensibly committed to our Calvinistic       "dipping" is not mentioned in our             with your thought that "AS helpless
creeds.       May the Lord bless you in       baptismal formulae.                           sinners we cannot apply these supreme
your valiant fight for truth!                                                               blessings to ourselves.  Todeemother-
  On page 223 of your February 15                                                           wise is to cut out the heart of Calvin-
issue under Question Box, attention                                                         ism." However, I do not see that the
is called to a quotation from Dr.                                                           symbolism of immersion as such is a
Thomas Smyth to the effect that  im-                                                        denial of this truth.
mersion is not a Scriptural mode for          REPLY                                           Once again, thanks for your interest.
the administration of baptism. I am                  First of all, a word of welcome to     Any more detailed treatment of the im-
disappointed that this truth was not          you as a new subscriber to our maga-          mersion question will have to wait
-high lighted more effectively. It has        zine, and also a word of thanks for           until I have more time and space.
long been a matter of deep concern            your expression of esteem and, en-            Besides, I would like to study Dr.
to me that for the sake of placating          couragement.                                  Smyth's position in detail.
certain baptist oriented individuals the             Secondly, a word of explanation. I                                      H.C.H.


                                                THESTANDARDBEARER                                                       311


         QUESTION BOX-  _  d


                     Again  - Hating God's Enemies?

    From brother N.D., of Byron Center, Michigan a                  In the second place, bother N.D. is obligated under
`further question has come in, as follows:                       the law of the state to stop and render assistance in
Dear Rev. Hoeksema:                                              case of a personal injury accident. And violation of
    I thank you for answering my question in the Feb.            the law of the land would be contrary to Scripture's
15 issue. I still have alittle  difficulty with hating God's     injunction to be in subjection to the higher powers.
enemies.     As far as yours and Rev. Hey's writing is           Rom. 13.
concerned, that we should not seek their company nor                In the third place, I think brother N.D. realizes that
cooperate with them in their evil doing, that was not my         to pass by or to leave this hypothetically severely
problem.     My trouble is: how far must I carry this            injured man would be tantamount to hypothetical mur-
hate? Suppose I am driving on a lonely road at about             der. Not to help such a man when I am in a position `to
sixty miles per hour.      About a half mile ahead of me         do so,  - especially when on this lonely road I am the
is another car going about the same speed. All of a              only one in a position to help him, -would be as bad
sudden one of the front ties of the car ahead of me blows        as shooting him.
out, and the car rolls in the ditch. Of course, I stop,             In the fourth place, it is certainly the Christian's
and find the driver badly hurt, but also swearing and            calling to reveal himself by his testimony as standing
cursing.    I tell him to stop his blasphemy and to thank        over against any enemy of God in his sin. It is not the
God that he is not killed. Nevertheless, he keeps on             Christian's calling to take vengeance upon such a man.
taking God's name in vain. Now my question is: must              God will avenge Himself upon His own enemies in His
I leave him there or help him while he proves himself            own time. To do so is His prerogative, not ours.
to be God's enemy whom I must hate with a perfect                   In the fifth place, the apostle Paul is writing in
hate, which means that I desire his destruction, while           Romans 9 about his personal attitude with respect to
Paul writes in Romans 9 the opposite? Yours truly,               "(his) brethren, (his) kinsmen according to the flesh,"
-N.D.                                                            etc.       When, in response to his preaching, the Jews
                                                                 revealed themselves as unbelieving, the same apostle
REPLY                                                            did not hesitate to quote the severe words of Isaiah
    In the first place, brother  N.D.`s question presents        6:9  with application to them. Cf. Acts  28:25, ff. Even
a strictly hypothetical case. Since it is  hypothetical,-1       then, you may depend on it that Paul had personally
may also conceive of a hypothetically different turn of          the same attitude as is described in Romans  9:1-5.
events, namely, that brother N.D. tells this hypothetical
blasphemer that he will help him, but that he must stop                  Finally, this illustrates what I tried to emphasize
his cursing; since the severely injured man is inter-            in my first reply to brother N.D., namely, that to hate
ested in being helped, he will probably also stop his            God's enemies with a  perfect   hatred is a spiritually
cursing, - not for God's sake, but for the sake of his own       delicate matter for an imperfect child of God.
skin.                                                                                                                H.C.H.

The Northwest Iowa Protestant Reformed School, the               The Free Christian School of Edgerton, Minnesota is in
 Lord willing, will open its doors September of 1967.            need of a teacher for the lower room for the coming
Two teachers are needed: one for grades 1 to 4, the              school year. If interested, please contact:
other for grades 5 to 8.        Prospective teachers may                        Mr. Allen Hendriks
write:                                                                          R.R. 2
            Mr. Ray Brunsting                                                   Jasper, Minnesota 56144
             R.R. 2, Rock Valley, Iowa 51247
             The Northwest Iowa Protestant Reformed
                   School Board
                                                                 The Protestant Reformed Christian School of South
 The Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School must              Holland, Illinois, is in need of a teacher in the lower
 replace teachers for Kindergarten, grades One and               room, to teach grades 1 through 3. Please submit
 Three for the 1967-68 school year. Those who are                applications to:
 interested in filling one of these positions, please contact                   Mr. Gise Van  Baren
 Mr. Clare Kuiper, 2450 Boulevard, S.W., Wyoming,                               16057 School Street
 Michigan, 49509.                                                               South Holland, Illinois 60473


312                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

                                      NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES-

                                         March 11, 1967      90th birthday anniversary. This sister was a charter
   Rev. C. Hanko, of Redlands, has declined the call         member of our Grand Haven church; and since it was
which had come to him from our church in Hull, Iowa.         dissolved, her membership has been with Holland's
   Rev. J. A. Heys, of South Holland, Ill., has accepted     congregation. The Ladies Society paid an evening visit
the call he has received from Holland,  Mich.                to their aged member and presented her with the gift
   Randolph's new trio consists of the Revs. D.  Engel-      of an AM-FM table model radio.
sma, C. Hanko, and M. Schipper.                                                          ***
                                                                Rev. G. Van  Baren, in his Prayer Day sermon,
                           * * *                             expounded God's Word as recorded in Jeremiah  14:22,
   Rev. D. Engelsma, on a three-week Classical Ap-           !`Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that
pointment to Hull, included a meeting of  Classis  West      can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art
in that time. The classical appointment was shared           not thou he, 0 Lord our God? therefore we will wait
with Rev. Decker in a pulpit exchange Sunday after-          upon thee: for thou has made all things." What a
noon, March 5. Loveland's consistory decided to con-         storehouse of comfort did the Holy Spirit tuck into
duct the Annual Prayer Day Service a week early for          that brief text!
the above reason.                                                                        * * *
                           * * *                                Hope School staff has picked up quite a heavy proj-
   Jamaican News.      In a recent letter to a Grand         ect for their all  - school Spring Program which is
Rapids brother Rev. Elliott exults that he has many          scheduled to be given in First Church's auditorium
candidates for adult baptism in his various churches.        March 23.           The title, "Our    Catholic Undoubted
And you may be sure that these candidates will have          Christian Faith," an exposition of the Apostles' Creed.
been instructed in the truth as it is embodied in the        You will agree that this is quite an ambitious under-
Five Points of Calvinism!                                    taking, and far outclasses the caliber of many of the
                           *  * *                            other school programs advertised in the daily papers,
   Southeast's March 5 bulletin expressed the good           whose products consist of the presentations of "plays",
news that Rev. Schipper, "hoped to teach thecatechism        or like vanities.
classes again this week and to lead the societies."                                      * * *
                           * * *                                Doon's Ladies' Society prepares and sends parcels
   The Staff of our Theological School has announced         of baked goods to the Servicemen who are members of
the first "Seminary Day" will be held March 28, D.V.         their church.        Jay Stellinga received his package in
On that date all the prospective seminary students are       far-off Viet Nam where the Service has called him.
invited to attend one day's classes in the school. The                                   * * *
program provides for "practice preaching" by semin-             Loveland's church now displays a new bulletin and
arian D. Kuiper; a regular "History of Dogma" class          pamphlet rack, the work and gift of Mr. Paul Griess.
of Prof. H. Hanko; and Prof. H. C. Hoeksema's "Dog-                                      ***
matics" class. Beside the two regular students seven            A harbinger of Spring: some of the bulletins are
other young men are expected to sit in on this session       mentioning that the young people's societies are electing
of school that they may get a little taste of the banquet    delegates to the Summer Convention.
they will be privileged to attend when they will have                                    ***
finished their high school and college education. Here          Edgerton's Men's Society was host to those of Hull
is hoping that the next "open house" will be for the         and  Doon March 6. The after recess program featured
general public that we, too, may appreciate the menu         a paper on, "Protestant Reformed Mission Work",
served in our seminary.                                      with a general discussion following.
                           + *  *                                                        * * *
   Redlands' church has a new Communion Table,                  Hope School Board is taking a telescopic glance at
built for, and presented to the church by the two            their needs in the future. It has prepared forms for
Joostens. Is a new matching pulpit next?                     a five-year kindergarten enrollment survey to be filled
                           * * *                             out by parents of one, two, three, and four year  olds-
   Holland's Feb. 12 bulletin expressed congratulations      and babies.
and greetings to Mrs. N. Yonker who celebrated her              . ..see you in church                           J.M.F.


