                                    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: "Search Me, 0 God"

                Editorial: The "Dekker Case"

                                at the Christian Reformed Synod

                David and the Piece of Skirt

                All Around Us: Ecumenism and Mergers

                                Controversy on Abortion

               "Fiddling While Rome Burns"


                                              Volume  XLIII/ Number  19 /August 1, 1966


434                                                                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                                                                                                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                               C O N T E N T S
Meditation -                                                                                                                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August
   Search Me, 0 God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434                    Published  by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
          Rev. J. I<ortering                                                                                                                                     Editor- Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
Editorial  -
   The "Dekker Case" at the C. R. Synod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437                                                    Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
          Prof. H. C. .Hoeksema                                                                                                                Prof. H. C. Hoeksema, 1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E., Grand
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   _ Rev. J. A. Heys
Trying The Spirits  -                                                                                                                          All church news items should be addressed to Mr. J. M. Faber,
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          Rev. B. Woudenberg                                                                                                                   see address below.
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    Ecumenism and Mergers                                                                                                                              Mr. James Dykstra,  1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
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          Rev. G. Vanden  Berg                                                                                                                    Second Class Postage paid at Grand  Rapids, Michigan _
Examining Ecumenicalism  -
    "Fiddling While Rome Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453
          Rev. G. Van Baren                                                                                                                                             TEACHERS
News From The Churches  -                                                                                                                  Rope Protestant Reformed Christian School still needs
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                                                                                                                                                                  LE 4-0098



        MEDITATION-


                                                                           Search  Mb, 0 God

                                                                                                                by Rev. J. Kovteving

                                          Search me, 0 God, and know my heavt: tvy me and know my thoughts: and see i)
                                  theve be any wicked way in me, and lead  me in the way everlasting.
                                                                                                                                                                       Psalm  139.23, 24

     Search me, 0 God!                                                                                                                        The prospect is frightening.
     What a paradoxical petition. It .just doesn't seem                                                                                       Ask God to examine us ? Our inclination is the very
to make sense to ask God to do something that will                                                                                         opposite: hide from God! We even try to hide from our
bring us to grief.                                                                                                                         fellow man.           We don't like the thought of going to a
     Yet this is exactly what we do when we sincerely                                                                                      psychiatrist and,having to lay bare before the analyt-
pray with the Psalmist, "Search me, 0 God and know                                                                                         ical mind of man our secret thoughts. Many a time we
my heart: try me and know my thoughts: and see if there                                                                                    revolt against the penetrating questions doctors like
be any wicked way in me; and lead me in the way                                                                                            to ask. To us it appears as an unnecessary waste of
everlasting."                                                                                                                              time to answer so many trivial questions. Besides it


                                            THESTANDARDBEARER                                                     435

is quite exhausting to recall things from the distant       of ourselves. We long for certain things and thus are
past. In our complacency we would just as well leave        motivated to action. We respond to many things about
the past alone.    There are too many foul pools that       us, we laugh and cry, we love and hate, sometimes
will begin to stink anew if we stir them up before our      we are placid and other times violent with rage. All
conscience. And this is fear of man. If we take this        these things are expressions of our soul which are
prayer of the Psalmist as our own, we ask God to be         included in the simple designation of "thoughts." Still
the examiner and thoroughly analyze our whole life.         deeper within each one of us lies the human heart.
Before His face nothing is hid and His judgment is          Man is a spiritual person. His spirituality is either
always in strictest righteousness.                          good or evil.      The condition of this spirituality is
   Yet, we pray,  Sear.ch me, 0 God. We recognize           determined by the heart. That which David designates
that without this divine examination we are hopelessly      here as heart is really the spiritual source of all our
lost forever. We desire to see ourselves as God sees        activity. What the physical heart does to the physical
us, terrible though it may be, in order that through        body, viz., pumps through our veins the fluid of life,
repentance of sin and striving after righteousness we       so our heart gives spiritual impetus to all our thoughts
may enjoy precious fellowship with Him.                     and consequently also our way. The love of God or the
   David was awed by the omniscience of Jehovah. In         hatred of God lies at the bottom of all our deeds. This
the context he reflects upon this virtue of God. He         love or hatred is in our heart.
begins by declaring, "0 Lord, thou hast searched me            God's examination is thorough.          He knows the
and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine          motives of man. He knows the secret thoughts. Nothing
uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou      is hidden from his holy eyes. All our deeds are written
compassest  my path and my lying down, and art              in the book of His remembrance.          This knowledge
acquainted with all my ways." He muses upon Jeho-           prompts David to say, "Search me and know my heart."
vah's presence in the earth; it is so great that nothing    Literally this means that God looks into us and digs
takes place `apart from His direction and knowledge.        into our heart and uncovers for us what motivates us
This omniscience is antithetically expressed. Since         to act the way we do. Do we think about the things we
God knows all about the wicked he will surely slay          do and act the way we do because we really love God
them. His righteousness will not be cast aside, He is       or do we do it to be seen of men? Are we hypocrites or
jealous in His holiness. Therefore David declares that      are we sincere? We desire to know and therefore we
he will not be counted among the friends of those that      request that God examine our heart and communicate
hate God; rather he will hate them that hate God and        to us what He finds. Still more, we know there is an
count them his enemies.      Concerning the righteous       area of human experience which is secret to other
however, David reflects that they may dwell in the          people, but known to us and God. This is the area of
uttermost parts of the sea and even there God leads         our ~thoughts. Hence we pray that God likewise try our
and holds with His right hand.                              thoughts, weigh them upon the scales of His divine
   This contemplation upon the omniscience of God           judgment and view them according to His holy law and
occasions the petition of our text. We desire to know       see how they compare to what God demands of us.
all about ourselves and to whom else can we go to           Finally we also include a petition for our way, "See
learn this? Can we discover it for ourselves? Can           if there be any evil way in me." Are we walking on
our fellow man tell us? The answer is an emphatic,          the straight and narrow way that leads to the kingdom
no! Only God can, and therefore we turn to Him.             of heaven or are we on the broad and crooked that
   We express the desire for a thorough examination.        leads to destruction? With this petition we request of
   David mentions three aspects of the human person-        God an answer.
ality: the heart, thoughts, and way. He presents them          Perhaps you face a problem at this point. Why do
in this order since our heart is the spiritual core and     we ask God to do the examining? Why is it not suffi-
affects both our thoughts and way. Our way is the most      cient for us to look at our own heart and search it out,
apparent, for it has to do with our relationships with      to try our thoughts, and see our own way. Why do we
each other. Our bodies are the houses for our souls.        request God to be the examiner?
When we use our eyes, ears, hands, for example we              The answer is simply this: man cannot examine
are busy in the things that can be visibly seen. Our        himself properly. Any examination which has the pur-
way consists of our family life, our daily work, whether    pose of analyzing our spiritual condition and is done
in the home or out of it. It involves our working hours     appart from God is destined for failure. The natural
and leisure hours. Our activities in church, home, and      man is not qualified to conduct such an examination.
school all constitute our way. Whether we are good          There are two reasons for this. There are natural
citizens and obey those in authority or revolt against      reasons first of all. Our heart lies beneath our co5:
those whom God has placed over us determines whether        scious experience; we can only see the fruits of the
our way is good or not. This way is the fruit of our        heart, but not the heart itself. Besides, even if we
thoughts.    There is more to our life than that which      were to judge our heart by the fruits, there are many
meets the eye. Beneath the surface lies the soul which      works that are lost to the scope of our finite experience.
is as a full time factory producing these deeds. Our        We cannot possibly recall all the past thoughts, much
minds possess the ability to retain thoughts, to recall     less deeds.      Some are forgotten because they didn't
ideas, to reason out certain things. Our human will         make much of an impression, others are willfully
arouses within us the desire to seek something outside      Yepressed.     Add to this the whole world of dreams,


436                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


which also forms a large part of our thoughts. Many            not our sins washed away once for all? Indeed they
of these things are lost to us; we cannot even examine         are, but the conscious appropriation of the forgiveness
them. Besides these, there also are spiritual reasons          of sins becomes ours only in the way of the repentance
for our inadequacy to examine ourselves. The natural           from sin. This is the heart of this prayer. And how
man does not call sin by its proper name; we try to            can we repent from sins we do not even know? How
find some other designation like, weakness, short-             can we repent if we excuse our sins? We cannot, and
comings, or such like. If we are to judge our deeds            therefore the natural man doesn't know repentance.
to learn whether they are spiritually good or evil, we         The spiritual man of God cries unto the Almighty that
most certainly would not use God's holy law; we would          He examine us and according to His holy law know our
use our own fickle standard. This is true because the          heart, try our thoughts, and see our way, and that He
human heart is evil. We do not have the love of God in         communicate to us what He finds, that we may repent
our. hearts; by nature we hate Him. Therefore our              of all our sins and seek His forgiveness for the sake
judgment of ourselves from a spiritual point of view is        of Christ Jesus.
not trustworthy.      We excuse sin and imagine. hypo-             God answers this prayer. It leaves us smitten and
critically that all is well with our soul. We need but         broken hearted. No, He doesn't answer with a voice
look at the world about us and see how they find "hope"        from heaven. He calls to us through the preaching of
in a life hereafter on the basis of all kinds of foolish       the Word and tells us who we are and what our heart,
works. Man likes to sin with impunity.                         thoughts, and way really is. He holds the mirror of
       Only God Himself is qualified to examine us. His        His law before us and gives us insight through the
way is the only way that leads to covenant peace. He           working of the Holy Spirit. Then we begin to see our-
maintains that only in the way of perfect love can             selves as God sees us.
one ever find His divine favor. This mandate to love               And what a sight!
is spelled out clearly in His holy law. The law tells              We tremble at the horror of death that lurks within
us to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and              us and is so frequently manifest without us.        Our
strength and our neighbor as ourselves. This objective         trembling knees sink to the earth and our burdened
law is the standard for God's judgment of our spiritual        heart cries out: God be merciful to me, a sinner. We
condition.     He searches out our inmost being with the       tell God that we hate our evil way, we desire to do what
penetrating light of His holy law.                             He wills us to do, for deeply within our hearts we love
       All this sounds terrible, doesn't it? We ask the        Him. We pray, lead me on the way everlasting. That
righteous God who is a consuming fire against all who          way is the faithful way of His perfect law.
violate His perfect ordinance to examine us? Indeed,               Shall we make this our daily prayer?
because this God is also merciful. His justice is ir-              The way everlasting is moistened with the tears of
revocable. His mercy satisfies His justice. What a             those that walk thereon. The more earnestly that we
thrill to make this petition with our eye fixed upon the       pray this petition, the more we will weep. Our sorrow
cross. This constitutes our only hope. Our prayer for          is not as those that have no hope, we know the joy of
examination by God is brought to the throne of grace in        forgiveness.
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.                                 After the final searching before the great white
                                                               throne we will rejoice evermore in the God of mercy.
   If so, why do we desire that God examine us? Are                Search me, 0 God!




               Yes, indeed, only through the power of God's marvellous grace in Christ Jesus, that
            redeemed us from sin, that delivered us from the dominion of corruption, that translated us
            out of darkness into His marvellous light, and that is still working within us to will and to do
            of `His good pleasure,' can this choice be made. By nature we will always choose the world,
            our present life, our name and job and earthly prosperity. The natural man cannot possibly
            understand that the reproach of Christ must be esteemed greater riches than the treasures of
            the world.    How could he? Without God he is in the world, and with this world all his life is
            bound up. For, first of all, by grace it is given us to believe in Christ. And believing in Him,
            by that faith we live out of Him, and He lives in us. And living out of Him, we are new crea-
            tures, we have a radically new way of judging and evaluating things, so that we consider that
            the statutes of the Lord are more to be desired than much fine gold, and consider all things
            but dross for the excellency of Christ Jesus our Lord. In that light we do, indeed, discern that
            it is far better to lose the whole world than to be unfaithful to our Lord. But, secondly, through
            that grace we also look forward to a better resurrection, and know that if here we suffer with
            Christ, we shall also be glorified with Him.-H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," pp. 104, 105


I                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        437



        EDITORIAL

                 The "Dekker Case" at the
                                                  Christian Reformed Synod

                                                    by  P~of.  H. C. Hoeksema

          As reported previously in the  Standard  Beaver,                1. That Synod receive the report of the Doctrinal
       there were several significant matters to be decided            Committee as information and express its gratitude to
       by the Christian Reformed Synod, all of which were              this committee for its faithful and diligent work.
       more or less directly related to the current tension               2. That Synod commend the report of the Doctrinal
     between liberals and conservatives in the Christian               Committee to the churches for guidance and as a valuable
       Reformed Church, as some would put it. Personally, I            contribution, within the Reformed tradition, to the dis-
                                                                       cussion of the matters contained within the report.
       am -convinced that it is more correct to speak not                 3. That Synod refrain from adopting the recom-
       merely of a tension between liberal and conservative            mendations contained in the report of the Doctrinal
       wings but of a growing trend toward liberalism, i.e.,           Committee (pp. 453-61).
       toward a non-distinctive and non-Reformed position,                Grounds:
       which is the direct and inevitable outgrowth of the                a. Although the Doctrinal Committee proposes "that
       fundamental position taken by the CRC in 1924. It is            Synod do not make isolated extra-creedal statements,"
       because of this latter conviction that the  Standuvd            there is danger that adoption of these recommendations
       Beaver also takes .an interest in the current issues and        would make them just that.
       tensions in the CRC and lets its testimony go forth, for           (Note: Propositions not initially intended as extra-
                                                                       creedal  statements are in fact being used as though
       the instruction and warning of all who may read it.             they are creedal  by the Doctrinal Committee in its
          Undoubtedly the most important matter before the             present report to Synod (pp. 454-55).
       1967 Synod of the Christian Reformed Church was a                  b. Such propositions may be a hindrance to seeking
       doctrinal matter, that of` what is popularly called the         unity with other Reformed Churches, as is evident from
       "Dekker Case." Since the  Stundavd  Beaver  has fol-            the report of the Contact Committee with Canadian
       lowed, reported on, and commented on this case from             Reformed Churches (Report No. 15, Agenda, 1967, pp.
       the very beginning, it is but proper that our readers be        56-52).
       kept informed as to what has taken place. Undersigned,             c. Such propositions may tend to curtail legitimate
       along with some of his colleagues, was present at as            discussion in the churches.
       many sessions of the Synod as possible in order to                 d. This course of action is in keeping with that
                                                                       taken by the Synod of 1961 regarding the report on the
       present a prompt and accurate report especially,                doctrine of infallibility. (Acts, 1961, pp. 78-79).
       though not exclusively, on this matter.
          An Advisory Committee on Doctrinal Matters, con-             By way of explanation, let me insert that the "Note"
       sisting of thirteen delegates, finally distributed its      referring to "extra-creedal statements" being used
       report toward the end of the second week of Synod's         "as though they are creedal by the Doctrinal Com-
       meetings, on Thursday, June 22. Late onFriday after-        mittee" refers to the Study Committee's first recom-
       noon, June 23, the synod began to deliberate and to de-     mendation. That first recommendation claims that "In
      tide on the recommendations of the advisory commit-          the light of Scripture and the Confessions a distinction
       tee. In its "Analysis" of the various Agenda materials      must be maintained between God's benevolence toward
       committed to` it, which is nothing but a brief summary      all His creatures; His. love of. compassion for every
       of the reports and overtures on the "Dekker Case"           sinner; and His unique love for His own (the elect). It
       appearing in the Agenda, the committee is unanimous.        is therefore unwarranted to speak of one love of God
      Also  in its first set of recommendations, concerning        which is redemptive in nature for all men distribu-
       "The Report of -the Study Committee," the committee         tively." And for its alleged three-fold distinction in
       was unanimous.     From that point on the Advisory          the love of God the committee, of course, could find
       Committee was divided, seven to six, and came with a        no Scriptural and confessional proof. Hence, in their
       Majority Report and a Minority Report.                      grounds they appeal to the First Point of 1924 and its
                                                                   proposition that "according to Scripture and the Con-
                         DECIsi`ONS TAKEN                          fession it is evident that there is, besides the saving
          The unanimous recommendations of the Advisory            grace of- God shown only to the electunto eternal life,
       Committee, i.e., those under "C. The Report of the          also a certain favor or grace of God, which He mani,
       Study Committee" are as follows:                            fests toward His creatures in general." It is to this
                  -.


438                                             THESTANDAkDBEARER


"creedal" use of the First Point that the Advisory                Notice here already the preoccupation with the First
Committee refers in the above note.                            Point of 1924 and its well-meant gospel offer. Notice,
   What happened to the above recommendations?                 too, that the committee does not statehowit is possible
   They evoked very little discussion, pro or con. And         to misuse the statement that Christ died for the elect
with little ado, the Synod adopted all three. In fact, I       only. Notice, too that the committee injects this matter
was not a little amazed that there was no opposition to        into the discussion; this is not the issue in the Dekker
these decisions.      Whether or not, from a Protestant        Case whatsoever.
Reformed point of view, one would agree with the                  On the basis of the above preliminary observations
recommendations of the Study Committee is not the              the Majority Report next comes with three recom-
question.      But that from  a'christian Reformed view-       mendations:
point recommendations "2" and "3" could simply                        a. That Synod declare that such statements as
be adopted amazed me. It would appear to me that any              mentioned in D, 1, a (Prof. Dekker's statements, HCH)
would-be opponents of Prof. Dekker's position gave                should not be used in an isolated way because so used
away considerable ground in agreeing to these recom-              they are subject to interpretations not warranted by the
mendations. But about the meaning and significance of             Creeds.
these decisions I will comment later.                                 b. That Synod warn against any use of such state-
   Now let me return to my report.                                ments:
                                                                      1) That denies the unique love-relationship of God
                    MAJORITYREPORT                                to the elect. (Belgic Confession Art. 20; Heidelberg
                                                                  Catechism A. 37, 70; Canons of Dort II, 9; III-IV, 7,
   At this point the Advisory Committee was con-                  16; V, 6)
fronted by the question of the doctrinal expressions of               2) That denies the unique benefits of the death of
Prof. Dekker.      And it is at this point that the commit-       Christ for the elect.      (Belgic Conf. Art. 21;  Heid.
tee became divided. The Majority Report is rather                 Catechism A. 40, 67; Canons of Dort, I, 7; II, 8)
lengthy, but I will try to present the thrust of it, partly           3) That denies the ultimate efficacy of God's love
by summary and partly by quotation. It is very definitely         and of Christ's death for the redemption of the elect.
an attempt at whitewashing the entire case. It leaves             (cf. references under immediatelyprecedingstatement)
                                                                      4) That denies the unity of the work of Christ and
the impression of saying something while it actually              of the Holy Spirit in man's redemption. (Heid. Cate-
says nothing definitive. It neither condemns the posi-            chism, L. Day 20; Canons of Dort, V, 7)
tion of Prof. Dekker nor the position of those who                    5) That denies that "the wrath of God abides upon
disagree with him. It is a studied attempt to throw oil           those who believe not the Gospel." (Canons of Dort,
on the troubled waters of the CRC and to leave the real           I, 4)
issues unsettled and the door open for further dis-                   c. That Synod warn against the use of such state-
cussion.                                                          ments as mentioned in D, 1, b:
   Under "D. The Doctrinal Expressions of Professor                   1) That could undermine. the Scriptural approach to
H. Dekker," it makes, first of all, some "Preliminary             men in preaching and witnessing which includes a most
Observations." These observations call attention, in              urgent invitation to faith in Christ, to repentance from
the first place, to the statements of Professor Dekker            sin and unbelief, and to service for Christ. (Heid.
which "have caused extensive discussion and con-                  Catechism, A. 84; Canons of Dort, II, 5; III-IV; 8)
                                                                      2) That suggests that the Scriptural and Creedal
troversy in the churches." These are Prof. Dekker's               doctrine of election does not itself contribute to a loving
well-known and often quoted statements teaching a                 concern'for those who have not heard the gospel. (Heid.
universal redemptive love of God and auniversal atone-            Catechism, L. Day 21, Canons of Dort, I, 6, 7)
ment; they need not be quoted here. Then the report                   3) That stifles the zeal and joy of the Church in
goes on to say: "Because of the confusion created by              proclaiming that "the death of the Son of God is the
the faulty use of such expressions the advisory com-              only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for
mittee deems it necessary for Synod to issue warnings             sin, and is of infinite worth and value, abundantly
                                                                  sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world."
concerning them in the light of the Creeds." Notice               (Canons of Dort, II, 3)
the trend. The report speaks only of  conjksion.   More-
over, it speaks not of  faulty  expYession.s  or heretical        Space does not permit a detailed analysis and
expressions; but it speaks of the "faulty use of such          criticism of the above at this time. Besides, it is still
expressions."      The plain implication is that there is      a question whether these recommendations will even
also a correct use of such expressions.                        come before the synod. But note three things: a) That
   Next, in the typical language of compromise the             there is no single word of condemnation of Dekker's
report comes with a "however." It states, without              doctrinal position as such; in fact, the first recom-
any proof or motivation, the following:                        mendation again presupposes that Prof. Dekker's state-
                                                               ments can be used in a way consistent with the Creeds.
                                                               Imagine !       Arminianism justified by the Canons of
       b. However, we should not lose sight of the mis-
   sionary concern which Professor Dekker has sought to        Dordrecht !      b) These recommendations are entirely
   express.      Nor should we overlook the fact that it is    negative; they are ,,a  .warning  with a double edge. But
   possibie to misuse statements such as, "Christ died         they fail completely to state positively either what is
   for the elect only" and "Christ died only for his own."     the correct use of Dekker's statements or.  what. is the
 (, Misuse of such statements obscures and does not do         correct use of such statements as, "Christ  diedfor the
   justice to the well-meant gospel offer.                     elect only."      c) That the confessional proofs  .under


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER

recommendation "c" do not prove what they are sup-               and the confessions it is unwarranted to state that....'
posed to prove. The committee should have offered as             Thus, for example, the first recommendation of the
its proof under this recommendation the First Point of           Minority Report read originally: "That Synod declare
1924.                                                            that in the light of Scripture and the confessions it is
   The next section of the Majority Report is "E.                unwarranted to speak of one love of God which is
Actions with Respect to Professor Dekker." In this               redemptive in nature for all men distributively." The
section is expressed the real thrust of the report from          wording here was later changed to include a literal
a practical point of view. It contains five recommenda-          quotation of Prof. Dekker's statement, "that God loves
tions which actually settle nothing, except that Prof.           all men with a redemptive love." To each of these six
Dekker is doctrinally in the clear and that the door is          statements the Study Committee's grounds are appended.
open for further discussion, -that is, should the synod              In the second place, the Minority Report proposes
approve anything of this kind. Here they are:                    "That Synod require Professor H. Dekker,  to refrain
         1. That Synod commend Professor Dekker for his          from using such statements in his future teaching,
   "desire to be biblically and theologically sound in           writing and preaching." Notice that no retraction or
   mission motivation." (Report 41, Agenda, 1967, p. 379)        apology is- required: only a promise to behave in the
         2. That Synod admonish Professor Dekker for the         future !
   imprecise and indiscreet way in which he used the                 And, finally, the Minority Report recommends
   statements mentioned in D, 1, a above.                        "That Synod warn against the use of any statements"
         Grounds:                                                such as those mentioned by the Majority Report, "That
         a. He has not made clear that his use of these          could undermine the Scriptural approach to men in
   statements is in conformity with the creeds.                  preaching and witnessing, etc." Here follow the same
         b. He has publicly and dogmatically expressed his
   own underdeveloped interpretation of the creeds in op-        three statements against which the Majority Report
   position to a commonly accepted interpretation.               warns and which we have already quoted.
         3. That Synod recognize the need for further the-           Thus far the Minority Report.
   ological  discussion on the doctrinal issues raised in
   the writings of Professor Dekker.                                          WELAT HAPPENED AT SYNOD?
         Grounds:                                                    On Friday afternoon the first recommendation of
         a. The confessions do not present a definitive or       the Minority Report was presented .to the synod. It
   binding exegesis of the disputed passages.                    immediately became evident that there was no agree-
         b. There are varying interpretations of the disputed
   passages among reformed scholars past and present.            ment on this proposition, and a prolonged debate began,
         4. That Synod warn that such discussion take place      which was continued in an evening session until about
   within the framework delineated in the recommenda-            11 o'clock. At this time synod adjourned for the night,
   tions under D-2.                                              but the debate was by no means finished. If memory
         5. -That Synod accept Professor Dekker's oral state-    serves me correctly, synod's president said that he
   ment that he is resolved to concur with the above rec-        still had fourteen names on his list of those who wanted
   ommendations .                                                to speak on this proposition. And this was only the
   This is followed, finally, by recommendations that            first recommendation, though, undoubtedly the most
a pastoral letter be addressed to the Christian Re-              fundamental one!
formed Churches. This letter is to inform them of the                But on Saturday morning a motion was presented to
decisions and counsel them to guide their thoughts and           recess.     After a long discussion, this motion was
actions along the lines of these decisions. And the aim          passed. Synod is to reconvene on Tuesday, August 29.
is to promote peace and unity within the churches. This          In the interim the Advisory Committee must meet
letter is to be drawn up by the officers of Synod.               again, and they may consult with Prof. Dekker, the
   Thus far the Majority Report. It has not as yet               Study Committee, and anyone else of their choosing.
been treated on the floor of Synod, although synod's             They are supposed to present a unified report if
president promised that before the Minority Report               possible, and this report must be in the hands of the
would be brought to a vote, there would be opportunity           delegates two weeks prior to the date when Synod recon-
to consider the Majority Report.                                 venes. In the meantime, the various Christian Reformed
                                                                 papers are supposed to keep silence on the Dekker
                     THE MINORITY REPORT                         Case.
   Against this background the Minority Report must
be considered.                                                                       EVAL UATION
   What does it propose7                                             I will not venture to prophesy what the Advisory
   In the first place, it presents six statements for            Committee will advise nor what the synod will decide
Synod to adopt which embody the negative part of the             at the continued session. It seems to me, however, that
Study Committee's recommendations. The Study Com-                it should not be very difficult to harmonize the two
mittee's recommendations were .quoted (without the               reports. There is only a difference of degree between
grounds) in the June 1 issue of the Standard Bearer              them, and neither one really decides the crucial issues
(see All Around Us); hence, I shall not quote the                involved, all of which center about the impossibility of
Minority Report in full. Its first six  recommenda;              consistently maintaining the First Point and its general,
tions are those parts of the Study Committee's rec-              well-meant offer of salvation along' side the creedal
ommendations which read, "In the light of Scripture              position of sovereign predestination, particular grace,


                                                                                                                           I





440                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


and definite (limited) atonement. For that reason also,        the distinct impression from some of the remarks that
the synod is essentially no farther today than it was a        not only is Prof. Dekker correct when he claims that
year ago, when it postponed consideration of the              many of the Christian Reformed missionaries will be
Doctrinal Report.     It has simply marked time for a          stymied because they want to preach and are preaching
year; and today it confronts the very same difficulties        exactly what he teaches, but that there are also pastors
as a year ago. For that reason1 believe that no matter         in the home churches who want to preach and are
what the Synod may decide, it will only decide something       preaching what Dekker proposes. Looking at it from a
about the case without actually deciding the issues,           "pastoral situation," as one delegate put it, they would
UNLESS, -and that I do not expect, much as I could             be at a loss as to what and how to preach if Dekker's
wish it, - it has the ecclesiastical honesty to face up to     doctrinal position should be ruled out.
the errors of the First Point of 1924.                            But above all, to this observer it was an amazing
   This, it seems to this observer, is substantiated by        thing that a synod which goes by the narne "Reformed"
several items.                                                 could debate for hours without coming to a conclusion
   In the first place; there is the very fact that the         on the proposition which was debated: "That in the
Synod deliberately refrained from adopting the Study           light of Scripture and the confessions it is unwarranted
Committee's  recomm,endations.  It is in the positive         to say that God loves all men with a redemptive love."
part of these recommendations that a traditional but              A proposition like that should not require ten
grossly inconsistent interpretation of the First Point        minutes to decide.
is embodied.      This very matter has been a burning             Or how long do you think the fathers of Dordrecht,
issue in the Dekker Case. And the synod has already            or the fathers of the Afscheiding or of the Doleantie
decided not to adopt the Study Committee's recom-             would have needed?
mendations; and whether even the negative part of those           But the Christian Reformed Synod of 1967 recessed
recommendations will be passed in some form by the            without having adopted that simple proposition!
Synod is at this stage highly doubtful, apart from the            This is a concrete example of just how far the cancer
fact that it will not really solve any problems.              of the First Point has eaten into the vitals of the
   In the second place, in the limited amount of debate       Christian Reformed denomination.
thus far it has been very striking that the nub of the            It is shameful; and it is sad!
problem has been the First Point and the alleged
"paradoxes" in which it involves one.                            When I see this, I am humbly gladthat I am Protes-
                                             And "para-
doxes" is exactly the term employed more than once            tant Reformed; and all our people should be thankful
in the course of the debate.                                  for it.
                                   The difficulty is that                 They should be strengthened, too, in the con-
these alleged paradoxes are plainly contradictions.           viction of their rightness.
And such paradoxes no one can leave unexplained;                  And those in the Christian Reformed Church who
inevitably there will be those who can be satisfied           earnestly desire to hold to the Reformed faith should
only by following completely the Arminian line or by          begin to see that they and their generations cannot
following consistently the Reformed line.                     hope to do so in the Christian Reformed denomination
   In the third place, listening to the debate, I gained      and under the yoke of the First Point of 1924.




             IN HIS  FEAR-



                                          Bea.utif ul Feet

                                                    by Rev. J. A. Heys


   No1 Not really.                                             although we may concede that man's feet are quite
   In the literal sense of the world the feet of man are      funciional and serviceable, we hardly consider them to
never beautiful. The shrivaled up, long, and slender          be a thing of beauty. Especially after that child has
feet of the newborn babe can hardly be called beauti-         begun to wear shoes and develops corns, callouses and
ful. The feet of a well-nourished baby may for a time         bunions, or, because of lack of shoes, inherits cuts
display a fleeting beauty in comparison with what              and bruises and scars and calloused soles because of
these feet were and will be; but although we speak of         the hot and cruel path upon which he must walk, do his
a beautiful face, even in this sin-cursed world, and          feet lose any temporary beauty.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   441

    In the figurative sense of the word the feet of some     that our covenant God has graciously given us. With,
are beautiful. Isaiah declares, and Paul quotes him in       baited breath they listened as the Rev. C. Hanko spoke,
Romans 10:15, "How beautiful are the feet of them that       and broke forth with their sincere and enthusiastic
preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of        "An=n'2 "Praise God?`; "Blessed be God forever";
good things." Isaiah's version has it this way, "How         or else, walking along in the truth, they punctuated
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that        the sentences with a devout, sincere and quiet, "Yes,
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace: that           Yes." On our visit two years ago with Elder Zwak,
bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation;    we listened to their account of how the truth came to
that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" We may note         them as water upon adry and thirsty land. It was there-
that the feet of some are beautiful, and not of all who      fore with some fear, yet eagerness, when it came our
claim the position of being a preacher in Zion. Those        turn with Mr. Zwak to place our feet upon those same
who come with the philosophy of men, with Satan's            mountains and on those same paths with the gospel of
propoganda and the wiles of the Antichrist have ugly         peace, that we spoke to those who were total strangers
feet.    And we shudder when we see these feet come          in the physical sense and brethren and sisters spirit-
over the mountains and must despise their appearance.        ually by the grace of God.
How can we tell? Listen, the preacher sent by God               We rejoiced when our feet also were beautiful to
declares, "Thy God  reigneth!"  Test all the preach-         them and most welcome upon their mountains. We
ing by that! Does the message say that He reigns, or         strove, as the Rev. C. Hanko did, to hold before them
only tries to reign? To me it is no good tidings that I      that truth, "Thy God reigneth!" And returning to the
am to look to one Who cannot reign unless I let Him.         States it was also our privilege to underscore this by
I need no such God. He needs ME ! I have no use for a        a correspondence course in Old Testament History
God Who will save me only if I let Him. He needs me,         wherein this truth was stressed from the view point
I do not need Him. Ugly and not beautiful are the feet       of the Five Points of Calvinism, whit h in each point
of those who preach the philosophy, "Why not let God         declare that He reigns. For He elects unconditionally
have His way?"       Beautiful is the truth, "Our God        a totally depraved people; and He by irresistible grace
reigneth!"    And beautiful are the feet of those that       calls them to a salvation that is very particular,
preach that gospel, those good tidings, that comforting      because of His limiting of the work of atonement by
and reassuring message.                                      His own sovereign will, as is expressed in that un-
    Undersigned, together with Mr. H. Zwak, expects,         conditional election; and because He reigns, He pre-
the Lord willing, to be with his feet upon the mountains     serves that people everlastingly to a sure and unchange-
of Jamaica when these lines appear in print (Due to the      able salvation.
deadline for copy for the August 1 issue, this is being         That truth was received as being so very, very
written June 20), leaving for Jamaica June 27 and            beautiful; and we would share with you afew lines from
arriving there late that afternoon. He is not boasting       recent letters - there were so many in the past as
of how beautiful his feet are, but in humble gratitude       well -when they received knowledge that our Mission
to the living God acknowledges that whit h His people        Board would again send feet to their mountains with
of another color, race and nation have expressed and         that truth. A fellow labourer in the gospel in Jamaica
we hope will again experience. Among those who in            wrote, "I notice carefully that plans have been made
generations cannot and never will be able to say that        finally of a visit to this island on June 27, and we hope
they are of the fleshly seed of Abraham and of Seth,         to greet each other again, as it pleased our Father
nor even of Japheth, God has His spiritual seed of           above and our Mission Board and Synod. May our
Abraham; and to them the gospel of peace is beautiful.       covenant God guide you to your destination on a safe
Therefore the feet of those that come over the moun-         voyage, for He is the Pilot of everything. Kindly
tains to preach these glad tidings are also beautiful. At    excuse me of not meeting you at the airport (He lives
this writing, therefore, we look forward in eager            about 100 miles away, has no car, nor extra money for
anticipation to having our feet walk the mountains of        bus fare.) to greet you with a holy kiss, since we hope
Jamaica from First Hill just south of Luceathrough all       to meet within a few days after (for the sessions of
Westmoreland and up Mt. Salem and Porters Mountain           instruction to be given at Montego Bay)." Another
to the hills and mountains in the eastern end of the         colleague writes, "I am very glad, the Lord willing,
Island, where the Blue Mountains reach up out of the         that you will be with us here .in Jamaica the 27th of
rich tropical vegetation toward the clear, blue sky. (0,     June.      All the brethren are eagerly awaiting your
yes, they even have occasionally a blue moon in the          coming.      Wishing you the Lord's blessing while I
night sky of Jamaica.)                                       eagerly await your coming." And a third wrote, "I am
    But share with us the enthusiasm of these Carib-         happy to know that you will be with us for a second visit
bean children of God for the appearance of our feet          on the Island of Jamaica to embrace us with the Word
upon their mountains. For months and even years they         of God in the power of God unto salvation. As to the
have written of it and pleaded with our churches to          meetings (those referred to above in Montego Bay) I
send some one to preach these tidings. Elders Meulen-        would like to receive every blessing that you are
berg and Zwak brought home the first urgent pleas, as        desiring to bring for me through the leading of the
the first emissaries from our churches to the Island.        Lord."
And later Elder Meulenberg returned with the Rev. C.            Then two days ago we received the following letter,
Hanko, who gave them first hand the riches of the truth      which we are sorry we did not receive in time to pre-


 442                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


 sent to the Synod, "Dear Brethren, Some time ago I          unites us in a way that Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean
 was informed by the Radio Committee that I was going        Sea and the island of Cuba between us and them do not
 to receive five special tapes that deal with the Five       separate.      As one of our Protestant Reformed mem-
 Points of Calvinism, and when I was satisfied with these    bers is reported to have said (and we agree one hundred
 Five Points of Calvinism to send some report either to      percent and wish you all could experience that) after
 Rev. Heys or to our Mission Board. Dear Brethren,           being with these brethren and sisters for only a short
 we surely are satisfied with this doctrine. The preach-     while, you do not notice a color difference between us...
 ing and teaching of Rev. `H. Hanko (He received only           You may therefore expect (rather believe that it
 the first two lectures on the Five Points of Calvinism      happened) that also from their side, as they stand on
 when. he wrote this letter. ) is the same as the basic      the "waving gallery" of the Montego Bay airport on
 teaching of Rev. Heys and also as the preaching and         June 27 and look to the northwest, they will be strain-
 teaching of the Protestant, Reformed Churches, which        ing to catch a glimpse of that little dot that soon has
 is the Reformed Faith. Dear Esteemed Brethren, let          wings; and they will consider those wings of that plane
 me explain that we of the Protestant Reformed Churches      to be beautiful because they bear up the feet of those
 in Jamaica by the help of our covenant God are growing      who shall walk their mountains and preach the gospel
 daily more and more as God has promised.... May our         of peace among them.
 covenant God ever bless this gospel field of the Re-           Sunday School children and teachers, can you not
 formed Faith throughout the. world where said Reformed      get enthusiastic about helping these Jamaican children?
 Witness Hour broadcast is voiced and proclaimed."           Can you not form your own mission project in harmony
        The above speaks for itself, but we want to call     with the step taken by our Mission Board and Synod?
 your attention to that "our" in that first letter. It is    Many of you have pen pals on the Island. When we
 with deep respect, considering to be beautiful all the      return, the Lord willing, we can perhaps, show you
 feet of those in our churches who were privileged to        their pictures in full color. You with your abundance,
 come there with the truth, that they have adopted our       can you not give to those who have so little? You can
 name, and call themselves the Protestant Reformed           be upon those mountains with your gifts and in the
 Churches of Jamaica. This is not plagerism. It is           spirit. We must first of all minister to their spiritual
 not theft; nor is it conceit. The truth of the Reformed     needs.       But their natural needs may not be ignored.
 Faith has taken hold of them; and theyfeel  ONE with us     And the truth which we preach to them speaks of loving
 more keenly and really than `does any other group of        them and of helping them in their natural life.
 churches, because they have heard the truth that our           Undersigned's consistory and congregation are
 God reigneth! They speak, in these letters, of OUR          given much for these brethren and sisters in Jamaica.
 Mission Board, OUR Synod because they believe that!         They are giving two whole months of the services of
 As an institute we may stand far removed from them          their pastor, even though he has been in their midst
 - although the decisions of our Mission Board and           only two' months, in order that he may serve those
 Synod show a deep sympathy and love for them-but            whom the congregation has never seen nor met. And
 organically we are one with them in the Body of Christ.     Hudsonville's consistory and congregation gave up the
 And our labors in their midst have made them believe        services of their very capable and respected elder, Mr.
 that we are one, and that color, race and nationality to    Harry Zwak. Such deeds do not go unrewarded. May
 do not count in this respect. One Lord, one baptism,        our covenant God prosperrhe labor in Jamaica and bring
 one faith, one God and Father of all, one Spirit - and      us back to our congregations for them to share with us
 do not forget now ONE TRUTH, or one doctrine -              the benefits and the joy of that gospel of peace.

 TRYING THE  SPIRITS-

              Dispensationalism and
                                               the Christian Under Law

                                               by Rev. R. C.  Havbach

        We have pointed out that the law of God from the     a discussion covering the whole field of sin, of the
 beginning of history was the standard by which men          providential government of God, and of man's relation
 were to live, and that before the law of Moses was          to Him, to avoid all reference to the law if the law,had
 revealed.      Very early in history Job knew the.law.      then been known  (SRB, p. 569) But unquestionably the
-But .C. I. Scofield  denies that "the law had then, been    law had been known then as any "discussion covering
 known.,' Says he: "It would have been impossible, in        the wholecfield  of sin" could,not possibly ensue. without


                                              THE STAND&D BEARER


reference to the law. Therefore, Scofield errs, holding       will therefore point to, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye
that this book "avoids all reference to the law," since       also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ
it "was certainly written before the giving of the law        . ..But now we are delivered from thelaw" (Rom. 7:4, 6)
(ibid.)." We saw how faulty this thinking is in view of       and to this, "For I through the law died to the law."
the fact that Israel had the law before it was formally       (Gal. 2:19) Passages like these are supposed to show
given on tables of stone at Sinai(Ex. 13:9; 16:4, 28, 29).    that the law has nothing to do with the Christian and
Besides, the book of Job makes frequent reference to          the Christian has nothing to do with the law. But these
the law of God! This is evident in Job's confession of        very words of Scripture so appealed to flatly deny what
his  transgressions   (31:33), which he did not hide as       would be maintained by them, namely, that none but the
Adam. It being true that "where no law is, there is no        nation of Israel were under the moral law. Why were
transgression," (Rom. 45) then the law must have been         Roman (Gentile) Christians "delivered from the law"
revealed to Job. Iniquity is also an evil Job confessed,      if they were never under it? They had never been
but he also denied certain forms of iniquity of which he      placed under the ceremonial law. But the moral law,
was not guilty (Job 31:3, 11, 28). The N.T. explains          taken in its largest extent, was manifested to all man-
iniquity to be lawlessness, as a comparison of Ps. 32:        kind, whether Jew or Gentile, so that the will of God
2 with Rom. 4:7 (Gk.) will show. But how could Job            was not utterly unknown (Rom. 1:19, ASV). To have
speak of crimes of lawlessness deserving of punish-           died to the law and been delivered from it is a refer-
ment, not only by earthly judges, but by the Judge, if        ence to its penalty, not to its precepts. In the context
the law of God did not appear until the day of Moses?         of this chapter Paul refers to the moral law exclusively,
But since God's judgment and justice were known (8:3;         and testifies that in it he delights (7:22).
37:23), then His law must have been known. Job in that           "The Gentiles...have not the law." (Rom. 2:14) "Sin
early era learned his high principles of righteousness        shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under
from no other source than the moral law of God! This          the law, but under grace." (6:14) "To them that are
is literally stated in the book, Job maintaining, "I have     without law, as without law (being not without law to
not concealed the words of the Holy One," (6:10)              God, but under the law to Christ), that I might gain
"neither :have I gone back from the commandment of            them that are without law." (I Cor. 9:21) What is this
His  lips;/1 have esteemed the words of His mouth more        that we read that the Christian is "not under the law"
than my necessary food." (23:12) Job also was coun-           yet is "under the law"? In the sense intended in
selled, "Receive, I pray thee, the Zaw from His mouth,        Romans 6, even the O.T. saints-were not under the
and lay up His words in thine heart," (22:22)                 law.      We are not under the law as represented by
   Now we go on to only briefly deal with the dispen-         Adam the' first. For we are delivered from the law
sational error that the moral law was given only to the       as to its curse (Gal. 3:13), but not as to its require-
nation of Israel. For we have already shown to some           ment .    We are delivered from the law as to its con-
length from Scripture that the law was in force well          demning power (Rom. 3:19), but not as to its precepts
before there was a Jewish nation. Let one more plain          (Ps. 119:93).     The Gentiles were without law in the
Scripture suffice. "Now we know what things soever            sense that they had no written revelation from God,
:he law saith, it saith to them that are under the law:       and never had the ceremonial law imposed on or even
,that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may       suggested to them. When Paul was among them, he did
become guilty before God." (Rom.  3:19) The law is            not conform to the Jewish ceremonial law. In this sense
represented as speaking. It "saith," not "said"; that         he was without law. But at all times did he conform
is, it is always in inspired utterance, continually com-      to the moral law of God. He never acted as without
manding and prohibiting. It is directed to those under        law to God, for he was under the law to Christ. When
it, and they are "every mouth," "all the world."              among Jews, he did not mind conforming to their cere-
Guilty and condemned before the law is all the world          monial law, as no principle was involved. But when
because the whole world is responsible for keeping the        among Gentile Christians, he refused conformity to
law. Here is a blanket condemnation of the whole              such regulations, even for an hour. The whole human
human race, none excepted. On what basis? on that of          race had the law from the beginning, but transgressed.
the law; and therefore the universal condemnation             Also "they knew God," (Rom. 1:21) and so had the truth
stands, because the law stands over "all the world."          (and therefore the law: Ps. 119:142), but heldit  down in
   More particularly, we want to examine the error of         unrighteousness (v. 18)' because they did not like to
Dispensationalism which teaches that Christians are           retain God in their knowledge (v. 28).
not under the law in any sense, that it is not their only        When we take a calm look at the Ten Command-
infallible rule of faith and conduct.       Perhaps this      ments, is it not evident, that whether Christian or not,
series on Dispensationalism will provide either directly      it is right to have no other god but God? Is it not in
or indirectly some enlightenment which will dispel the        harmony with grace that the Christian may make no
mists of confusion these errors bring andcause to hang        graven image or bow down to one? Is it below the
over the minds of many for years. In that case, it is         spirit of the Gospel to prohibit the taking of God's name
our duty as a teacher of the Word to "take up the             in vain? Is it legalism to require the keeping of the
stumblingblock. out of the way of My people." (Isa.           Sabbath day holy? .Has the law to honor parents been
57:14)                                                        cancelled out, of the epistles? Do not the laws prohib-
   Naturally;dispensationalists.  have pet texts they like    iting murder, adultery, stealing and coveting commend
to quote in support of their antinomian theories. They        themselves to the conscience of every honest man? If


444                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


one does'not have the same attitude as David had to the            Word of our God endureth forever, which means the
law of God in Psalm 119, is he not an enemy to God?                O.T. as much as the, N.T., the law as much as the
Yes, and to one's own flesh and blood, and to the state            Gospel.      Christ came not to annul the law, but to
as well;                                                           magnify it and make it honorable.
       This attitude Jesus Himself had. He never taught                No one can deny that the Psalmist had marvelous
that the law was to be set aside, or that its perfect              God-given insight into the death of Christ, but he also
standard was to be lowered. He assured the new cove-               saw that this saving death wouldinno wise repeal God's
nant church, "Think not that I am come to destroy the              law. "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteous-
law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to              ness, and Thy law is the truth. The righteousness of
fulfill. For verily I say unto you, til heaven and earth           Thy testimonies is everlasting. Concerning Thy tes-
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from             timonies, I have known of old that Thou hast founded
the law, till all be fulfilled." (Mt. 5:17, 18) Christ is          them for ever. Thy Word is true from the beginning,
the great prophet of the law, but that does not elimi-             and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth
nate Him as the greatest preacher of divine grace.      For        forever  (Ps.  119:142, 144, 152, 160).        All His com-
grace does not abrogate the law. Neither does faith,               mandments are sure: they stand fast forever and ever."
for "by faith we establish the law." (Rom. 3:31) Grace             (111:7, 8) Our Lord manifested such a holy jealousy
and law are aspects of the truth which have their                  over His holy law that He not only warned that "who-
different emphases, but are nevertheless in perfect                soever therefore shall break one of these least com-
agreement. It is a mistake to think the two are avowed             mandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called
enemies. The idea destroys the unity of the Word of                leastinthe kingdom of heaven." (Mt. 5:19) but also that
God.      Moses, the O.T. mediator of the law, demon-              "the Lord sitteth King forever" (Ps. 29:lO) and will
strated the blessed consonance between law and grace               therefore execute justice against those who will not be
when he offered sacrifice and sprinkled the blood of               ruled by His law: "But those Mine enemies, which
the covenant on the book of the law and upon the                   would not that I should reign over them bring hither,
covenant people! The shed blood of Christ perfectly                and slay them before Me." (Lk. 19:27) For the mean-.
harmonizes the law with grace, because the pierced                 ing of "shall be called least in the kingdom," see
hand of Christ upholds the law.            There is no con-        Isa.  9:14-16, and try reading the verses in their
flict between Moses and Christ.            Jesus also taught       reverse order. But from the above Lucan passage we
here that the law is both immutable and eternal.                   learn the true character of regeneration and conver-
Heaven and earth do not abide  sempev  idem;  they                 sion, a change from a lawless rebel to a loving bond-
pass away.        But the law is unchangeable and per-             slave, one who says, "I delight in the law of God after
petual. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the            the inward man." (Rom. 7:22)



A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-


                   David and the Piece  of  Skirt

                                                   by Rev. B.  Woudenbevg


                     And the men of  David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said
                  unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest  do to
                  him as it  shall  seem  good unto thee.       Then David a.`yose, and cut  off the  skirt of
                  Saul's robe privily.
                     And it  came  to pass afterward, that David's heart  smote  him, because he had
                  cut off Saul's skirt.
                     And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto  my
                  master,  the LORD's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing  hehad
                  cut off Saul's skirt.

       To Saul it must have appeared as nothing less than          He loved.     For the first time, it appeared as though j
what would be called today a plain case of "rotten                 Saul had David shut up in an inescapable trap. All that
luck." To David and to us who observe in faith from                rem,ained was for him to close in and stamp out that /
history's sideline, it was a clear case of God's                   curse which David had become to his life. But it was
providence overshadowing and keeping a servant whom                not to be. In the last moment, a messenger appeared


                                                THESTANDARDBEARER                                                 445

to inform Saul that the Philistines had invaded the land.       How long the search continued, we do not know; but
There was no choice left but to hasten to that front,        it happened one day as Saul was tramping through a
while David was left free to flee. As it had been from       hot, dusty valley that he came to a group of deserted
the time of Babel on, the strife of the nations had been     sheep pens which at times were used by shepherds
used again for the purpose of sparing one of God's           who grazed their sheep in the area. They were con-
elect.                                                       veniently located near to some caves in the hillside
   The relief that David obtained, however, was only         where the shepherds could themselves live during the
temporary. No sooner had Saul driven the Philistines         times that they spent in the district.      To Saul the
back behind their own borders than he returned to the        sudden appearance of those caves so conveniently
wilderness to take up his pursuit of David. David and        located seemed most fortunate. The afternoon was
his men had time only to locate andestablish for them-       hot and the search so far had proved quite.futile. The
selves a more suitable hiding place. But this time the       only cool place one could find anywhere about was in
place which they did find was much more suited for           caverns such as these. A short nap in one of these
their needs. In the wilderness of Engedi there were          caves would no doubt go unnoticed by the other men
numerous caves that went back into the limestone cliffs,     and would be most refreshing for him. Quickly Saul
some of them very far. From their entrances one could        slipped into the mouth of the nearest one and went to
hardly determine how deep these caverns were, how            sleep.
large their capacity was, nor if anything was in them           Little did Saul realize how the providence of God
or not. One such cave David located, which, although         had once again guided his step. For the cave in which
very ordinary appearing at its entrance, was able to         Saul now slept was one of those that went deep into the
shelter all of his company of men and keep them safely       hillside to open up into a vast cavern - it was the very
hidden in its remote recesses. From the cavern's             one in which David and his men were now hiding. Each
entrance, it was quite impossible to tell that it was any    move that Saul made was carefully watched by many
different from countless others in the area.                 attentive eyes. He had been seen already when first he
   The most amazing fact was, though, that through           entered this valley by the guards of David stationed at
this all David had not become bitter toward his per-         the cavern's mouth. Only when Saul's footsteps turned
secutor.    He did feel badly about the actions and          directly to their cave itself had they backed up into the
attitude of Saul, of course; and we know from the            darker recesses to watch while with supressed glee a
Psalms that he felt very deeply the injustice of that        message was quickly sent to David to inform him of
which he had to suffer. He even realized that the rea-       the good fortune that had come his way. Soon, much
son for Saul's actions was to be found in the fact that      sooner than had been expected, David would be able to
he was trying to prevent David from obtaining that           sit upon the throne of Israel - so it seemed to the men
which God had ordained for him to have, the very             that carried the report. There was nothing now that
throne of Israel itself.    Yet through it all, he could     could prevent David from ending his enemy's life.
not come to really hate Saul personally and to want any      "Behold," they exuberantly whispered in his ear, "The
revenge. Through long years of instruction and ded-          day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will
ication in faith, he had come to recognize in respectful     deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest
awe all those who had been appointed by God to serve         do to him as it shall seem good unto thee."
in the rule of Israel.      Even though he had received         Little did the men realize it, but their words struck
from the Lord the promise that he would himself some         deep and painfully into David's heart. If there was one
day sit upon the throne, he felt no immediate desire to      thing that he had always feared, it was the possibility
obtain it. He was quite satisfied, if only he might, lto     that some day that he might find himself under the
serve faithfully in the capacity of a humble servant         necessity of fighting against his own countrymen, and
until such a time as the Lord should see well to give        especially of inflicting harm directly upon the royal
to him a higher place.       Thus, even after all he had     family of Saul.     He could not forget that the king of
gone through at the hand of Saul, there was nothing          Israel was appointed by God and must be respected as
that he would have desired more than to be reconciled        God Himself.       Again and again he prayed to God to
to his king. Surely he could find in his heart not the       prevent a direct conflict between his forces and those
least desire to hurt him. This became quite evident          of Saul, lest he should find himself under the necessity
there in that cave at Engedi.                                of inflicting harm upon the people of God. Now as he
   Coming back as he did to continue his pursuit of          crouched in the back of that cave watching the sleeping
David, Saul found himself quite at a loss to know just       Saul, he was only too thankful that Saul was unaware of
where to go. He knew the general area inwhich David          their presence, and he was satisfied to leave it at that.
had to be, but of the specific location he could find no        It  was evident, however, that David's men were 16;.
trace. But Saul was determined, even to the point of         To them the presence of Saul was as a sign from God
taking three thousand of his choice men and sending          that the time had come for David to strike back. They
them out to search the land in quest of David. In fact,      would never be satisfied if David merely let Saul depart
so heavily did this whole matter weigh upon the mind         again without doing anything at all.      And, as David
of King Saul that he himself joined this party of            thought about it, it struck him that maybe some good
searchers to tramp through the hot and dry valleys of        use could be made of this opportunity after all, maybe
that wilderness region in search of some indication of       he could use it to prove to Saul once and for all how
where David and his men had gone.                            completely one-sided and unjustified was his hatred of


446                                             THESTANDARDBEARER


David. Slowly and silently David arose, tookhis  sword,           day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill
and crept toward the sleeping king while his men with             thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not
bated breath eagerly watched his every move. But                  put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the
David's intent was far from what theywere  anticipating.          Lord's anointed. Moreover, my father, see, yea, see
Coming to the prostrate king, David took his sword only           the skirt of thy robe in my hand: for in that I cut off the
to reach down and cut a small swatch of cloth from the            skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know thou and see
edge of the royal robe.          That was all, and with the       that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine
ppece of cloth in his hand David retreated to the back            hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou
of the cave again.         Yet, even as he did so, David's        huntest my soul to take, it. The LORD judge between
conscience began to pain him. Somehow there was                   me and thee, and the LORD avenge me of thee: but
something symbolic of rebellion in wilfully damaging              mine hand shall not be upon thee. As saith the proverb
the royal robe of the king. His action has been impul-            of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked;
sive, and now that it was done he knew it was wrong.              but mine hand shall not be upon thee. After whom dost
       No sooner had David returned to the back of the            thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea. The LORD
cave, however, than it became evident how completely              therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and
different was his thinking from that of his men. They             see, and please my cause, and deliver me out of thine
were' utterly dismayed by the triviality of David's               hand."
gesture.      Here was surely an opportunity which would             Nothing could have hurt Saul more than these words
never be repeated.         What reason could there be for         of David and the deed which proved them. Suddenly
failing to put an end to this meaningless, wicked con-            there was no more pretense, no more hiding; all the
flict? Surely, if anyone deserved to die at David's               wickedness of his heart stood exposed. As accustomed
hand, Saul was the one.. Or at least he could be taken            as Saul was to denying the truth, he stood now as
as a hostage until some fair and permanent guarantee              though naked in his shame. The words of David were
of safety would be given. And, of course, from the                as coals of fire upon his head so that with flushed and
point, of view of all human logic, the men were quite             completely unnatural humility he could only think to
right. But with David there was something deeper and              answer, "Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast
more decisive than mere logic; it was the way of faith            rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
in the will of God. David was left with no choice but             And thou has shewed this day how that thou hast dealt
to use his authority to still the restiveness of his men.         well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had de-
With a finality that forbade any further debate, he said,         livered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not. For
"The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my              if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away?
master, the LORD's anointed, to stretch forth mine                wherefore the LORD reward thee good for that thou
hand against. him, seeing he is the anointed of the               has done unto me this day. And now, behold, I know
LORD."                                                            well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom
   Nevertheless, David was not as yet through with the            of Israel shall be established in thine hand. Swear now
matter. Still there lingered in the back of his heart the        therefore .unto me by the LORD, that thou wilt not cut
hope that something might be done to heal the relation-           off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my
ship between him and Saul; at least, he was deter-                name out of my father's house." These were hard
mined to do all that `he could to bring this `about.              words for Saul, the most painful he could ever be
Patiently he waited until, Saul. awoke and left the cave,         asked to utter, and the pain of them even the willing
then, he followed. Coming to the opening of the cave he           promise of David could not alleviate. All he had ever
called to the departing Saul, "My lord the king," and            found worthy of living for was his own pride, and now
when Saul turned he bowed himself to the ground in a              he stood humbled. For the moment there was nothing
gesture of .humble submission. Then, before Saul had             more that he could do than turn from the mouth of that
a chance to grasp the meaning of it all, he added,                cave and call his forces home. But the pain of that
"Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, Behold,             moment would never forsake him. Because of it he
David. seeketh thy hurt? Behold, this day thine eyes             would come to hate David even more bitterly than he
have seen how that the LORD had delivered thee to                had before.



              To suffer with Christ is a great blessing. For, first .of all, the very consciousness that
         we are deemed worthy, together with all the saints, to suffer in His behalf and for righteous-
         ness' sake, affords us unspeakable joy and profound peace. Secondly, there is a present fruit
            that is reaped in the way of this suffering: for tribulation worketh patience, and patience the
            approved state, and the approved state hope, and hope maketh not ashamed! And, finally, there
            is at the end of this road of suffering for Christ's sake, - and mark you well: at the end ,of no
            other road, - the crown of life, the glor,y .with Christ! And the sufferings of this present time
            are, not worthy to be compared with that glory. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is
            your reward in heaven!                                                                                       _/
                                                               -H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p, 105


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          447




   ALL AROUND  US-

                                Ecumenism and Mergers
                               Controversy on Abortion

                                                        by Prof.  H.  Hank0


ECUMENISM AND MERGERS                                                  What would be the purpose for creating such an
   The time of Synods and Church Assemblies is once                association7 The answer given includes the following
again almost past.          While a host of decisions on a         specific points:
variety of subjects were taken, ecumenism dominated
the discussions of the broadest assemblies of the                         . ..to coordinate evangelistic and missionary effort
nation's churches. A survey of what happened includes                  nore effectively.. . .
                                                                          Evangelicals will benefit greatly by getting together
the following.                                                         for prayer, for worship, for interchange of ideas, and
   - Christianity  Today has proposed and is pushing                   for fellowship.... Evangelicals working together can test,
hard for a union of evangelicals in a new ecumenical                   new ideas, develop a needed sense of community, and
movement.         This proposal, rising out of last year's             show the world more clearly than ever before what they
Berlin Congress on Evangelism, is not specifically                     believe in and what steps they intend to take to imple-
aimed at the formation of a new denomination to com-                   ment their visions.
pete with the COCU talks (cf. below), but is rather                       . . ..Evangelical unity would lead to involvement in
aimed at greater cooperation between evangelicals in                   depth of' service.... Evangelicals ought to be making a
various areas of church work. In a recent editorial                    far greater impact on` communications, in the arts, in'
                                                                       the inner city, in the small towns and rural areas, and
the following comments were' made:                                     among minority groups.. . .
       Our editorial (a former editorial proposing this                   . ..a compelling reason why evangelicals must .co-
   alliance of evangelicals) specifically said that the call           operate is that the Holy Spirit works most mightily
   for evangelical cooperation did not envision an organi-             where believers are gathered together  in one accord.
   zational counterpart or competitor of the conciliar                 There were no, party labels on the lapels of the be-
   movement.        Yet the promotion of evangelical dis-              lievers at Pentecost.        There were no tribal axes to
   tinctives surely would conflict with certain conciliar              grind when the Paraclete came down in power. There
   aims.     In some areas, however, evangelicals and                  were diversities of gifts and understanding; yet the
   conciliarists might. have similar objectives. Evangel-              original churchmen took their stand together upon the
   ical unity cannot be buiit negatively on the basis of               great facts of the Christian revelation and proclaimed
   either separation or the complaints of disgruntled                  them boldly to a needy and alienated world. They
   former "ecumaniacs.".It  must be positive.                          inscribed. their convictions on this kind of a doctrinal  :
                                                                       charter, and so (must we.
   Going on to discuss the number of evangelicals`who
would potentially figure in such a plan, the editorial                 All this is somewhat nebulous and fuzzy. Perhaps
goes on to say.                                                    it can be no different at this point. But what needs to
                                            .                      be done  first of all, is to discuss thoroughly doctrinal
       The potential for evangelical cooperation is nu-            differences which separate evangelicals.             It is not'
    merically staggering. The National Council of Churches         enough to propose. unity on the `basis of belief in the
    lists  42,000,OOO  persons in its member churches.
    Nearly 3,000,OOO  of these are in the Eastern Orthodox         "fundamentals" of the Christian faith. There are other
    and Polish National Catholic Churches,  so. that the           important differences which are of a confessional nature
    council's Protestant representation is about  39,000,OOO.      which must be resolved: differences in views of the
    But Protestants in the United States now number over           millennium, differences in the idea of the kingdom of
    69,000,OOO. Most of those unaligned with the NCC are           God, differences in the all-important subject of the
    theologically conservative, while at least one-third of        application of the blessings of salvation-many evanga
   the NCC constituency is also considered conservative.           icals are thoroughly Arminian, differences in the
   The total number of evangelicals, in fact, is estimated         doctrine of the atonement. The question must also be
    at more than 45,000,000:  13,000,000  in the NCC; 2,500,       answered: Will evangelicals be willing to discuss the
   000 in the National Association of Evangeljcals;. 1,000, '
   000 in the ACCC; and 29,000,000  unaligned.           This      unique Refovmed heritage of the truth? These are not
   `means that if evangelicals ever band together, they            peripheral topics which can be ignored; these are
   will outnumber the present NCC constituency. At most            creedal  : matters which must be resolved if the creeds
   the non-evangelical wing' of Protestants in the  NCC.           are still to serve their purpose as forms of unity.               !
   totals,  26,000,OOO..                                               It might be argued that no denominational union is


448                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

being proposed; that the remarks above are therefore          participation involves. Some argue that participation
irrelevant.     But this is not true. Unity in the work of    means that the Southern Presbyterians have really cast
the kingdom must be based upon unity in the truth or          their lot with this proposed 25,000,OOO  member church.
the work will flounder.                                       Others argue that participation means no such thing,
   What will come of this remains to be seen.                 but that the Church has committed herself to nothing
       -While the Gevefovmeevde  Kevken in the Nether-        until a formal plan of union is proposed and submitted
lands have decided that there is no obstacle to mem-          for a vote to the presbyteries of the Southern Presby-
bership in the World Council of Churches, they have           terian Church.
not yet joined while they await the opinions of their            But this latter argument is evidently a ploy designed
fellow Reformed Churches. Three particular Synods             to beguile those opposed to participation in COCU. The
in the Netherlands (Friesland South, Gelderland and           fact of the matter seems to be that the leaders of COCU
Groningen) have asked the General Synod not to join.          are determined to press ahead for merger between the
But apparently none of the Particular Synods. had             denominations involved even before a formal plan of
principial objections.      According to the RES News-        union is drawn up. The opinion is that first the churches
bulletin, one. did not want the denomination to join for      must unite to form a new denomination, and then the
fear of destroying cooperation with other Reformed            churches together can draw up their plan of union.
Church bodies. Gelderland did not want to join thinking       This is all strange procedure, but the idea is that a
that to send observers was sufficient. And Groningen          final constitution will be deferred for a generation or
wanted opportunity for the churches to get used to the        two and that a formal plan of union will be postponed
idea first.      The general Synod will meet later this       till 1970, or 1980, or later -that is, indefinitely. The
summer.                                                       result is that, in the meantime, the participating
       -The Christian Reformed Church, at its Synod last      churches of COCU are already merging their boards,
June, decided against approving of membership in the          agencies, programs and mission work. And a merger
WCC. The study committee appointed last year was              will come about in fact before the member churches
split on the issue.        The majority of the committee      ever get an opportunity to vote on it.
(whose report was substantially adopted by Synod) had            This is very deceptive and the Reformed Church
very principial reasons for advising against joining.         had better make up its collective mind very shortly.
The minority did not want to join at the present, but         It is just possible that it will become a part of COCU
wwnted Synod to express that there was no basic rea-          by a very devious and deceptive method and lose
son for withholding membership. Yet this strong stand         entirely what little Reformed witness it has left.
was weakened somewhat by another decision to send
observers to the Fourth Assembly of the WCC meeting           CONTROVERSY ON ABORTION
at Uppsala in 1968.                                              The rightness of abortion has become a deeply
   --The union talks between the Presbyterian Church          controversial issue. Legally, in this country, abortion
US (Southern) and the Reformed Church in Americaare           is not allowed except in cases when the life of the
somewhat more complicated. A committee of 24 has              mother depends upon it.        But, in fact, an estimated
been studying merger for several years now. And both          one million illegal abortions are performed every
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church US            year. The state of Colorado was the first to alter this
and the Synod of the Reformed Church in America               law; it has now made abortions legal in three instances:
decided by large majorities to continue the Committee         1) where pregnancies resulted from rape or incest;
of 24. In fact, the committee was given instructions          2) where a pregnancy threatens grave damage to a
to present both churches with a specific plan of union        mother's physical or mental health; 3) where a preg-
next year.       This is a large step in the direction of     nancy is likely to result in the birth of a child with
merger.        If the plan is received by both major as-      mental or physical defects.
semblies next year, it will be submitted to the churches        .There is a strong movement in this country to make
for approval. Approval necessary to put the merger            the laws even more liberal. This movement is closely
in effect will require a favorable vote by 3/4 of the         tied up with the fear of the population explosion and
Southern Presbyterian presbyteries and by 2/3 of the          with the social problems which arise from unwanted
classes of the Reformed Church. The merger then               children.    But the movement is directed towards
would be completed by 1969.                                   making abortions available' legally to anyone who
   The complication in these merger talks arises out          desires it for any reason whatsoever.
of the decision' (taken last year) of the Southern               The churches are caught up in the controversy.
Presbyterians to join the COCU talks (Consultation on         The Roman. Catholic Church has (at least officially)
Church Union, originally called the "Blake-Pike Plan").       maintained its historic stand that any abortion is a
At their last Synod,. the RCA decided against joining         violation of the sixth commandment: "Thou shalt not
these talks, although the vote was close: 140-128. But        kill." But the voices within the Romish Church which
the Southern Presbyterians decided to continue as             disagree with this official stand are becoming louder.
participants. So now there are merger talks going on          Protestants are divided .deeply on the matter: gener-
between two denominations, one of which has joined            ally the more liberal they are, the  ,more  favorable
COCU, the other of which has decided not to join. The         attitude they take towards legalized abortion.
trouble is that there is some difference of opinion              But it is all part of the general movement in this j
among Southern Presbyterians concerning just what this        and foreign countries towards moral anarchy. Those


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       449


who are pushing the hardest for legalized abortion are          wife although not yet married. These could be dissolved
the same ones who have favored contraception as a               at any time.         Of course, the couple would have to
method of family planning. And these same ones are              promise to practice birth control.- But it is hoped that
not going to be content with legalized abortion. The            this would alleviate the problem of divorce and broken
next step is going to be some form of total family              homes.
control.    Already there is talk (Interior Secretary
Stewart Udall speaking in Denver and Joseph Spenger                 And the day is coming too when this will be accepted
from Duke University) of passing legislation on a               practice in this country.
federal level which would financially penalize those                Such is the fruit of hatred of God's law. God's law,
who have more than three children and giving financial          it is said, is nothing but an outdated system of laws
rewards to married couples who have none. And the               which were of some value to nations in earlier years,
day will surely come when this becomes law.                     but they are of no value in our enlightened times. All
   As if all this were not enough, leaders of Christian         ob'jective  moral law is to be discarded. A new code of
churches have been recently promoting what they call            ethics is needed and no rules of behavior are required
"trial marriages". In harmony with the general ac-              by our times. And this new code of ethics is based upon
ceptance of the "new morality" or "situation ethics,"           the passing whims of man. But the result is a growth
as it has recently been called, these men are urging            in immorality and sexual depravity such as this world
that the act of marriage be divided into several stages.        has never seen. In the midst of such a generation, the
One stage would be a "recognized premarriage" in                church is called to keep herself unspotted from the
which a young couple would live together as man and             world.


CONTENDING FOR THE  FAITH-


                                 The Doctrine of Sin
                                   The First Period, 80-250 A.D.

                                               Effects of  the Fall

                                                     by Rev.  H. Veldman

   We concluded our preceding article with a quotation                    1 am of opinion, indeed, that the same course of
from Irenaeus' Writings against Heresies. Of  Iren-                reasoning must be understood to apply to other natural
aeus, Hagenbach writes as follows, Vol. I, 167:                    movements, as those of covetousness,  or  of anger, or
                                                                   of sorrow, or of all those generally which through the
      According to Duncker, the doctrine of original sin           vice of intemperance exceed the natural bounds of
   and hereditary evil is so fully developed in the writings       moderation.       There are therefore manifest reasons
 of Irenaeus,  "that the characteristic features  of  the          for hold the opinion, that as in good things the human
   westem type of doctrine may %e distinctly vecognized.tr         will is of itself too weak to accomplish any good (for
   Irenaeus indeed asserts that man, freely yielding to            it is by divine help that it is brought to perfection in
   the voice of the tempter, has become a child, disciple,         everything); so also, in things of an opposite nature
   and servant of the devil, etc. He also thinks that, in          we receive certain initial elements, and, as `it -w.ere,
   consequence of the sin of Adam, men are already in              seeds of sins, from those things which we use agree-
   a state of guilt.     On the question whether Irenaeus          ably to nature; but when we have indulged them beyond
   understands by that death which we have inherited,              what is proper, and have not resisted the first move-
   merely physical death (V. 1, 3 and other passages),             ments to intemperance, then the hostile power, seizing
   see Duncker, 1. c.                                              the occasion of this first transgression, incites and
   Origin, by insisting upon the freedom of the human              presses us hard in every way, and furnishing us human
will, forms a strong contrast with Augustine. He also              beings with occasions and beginnings of sins, which
                                                                   these hostile powers spread far and wide, and, if pos-
maintains that concupiscence is not reckoned as sin,               sible, beyond all limits.
so long as it has not ripened  into.purpose (here we are
able to recognize the Roman Catholic position on this              Origin, however,  also seems to teach that sin is
subject; - Rome maintains that evil desires are sin only        not merely reckoned to be sin when ripened into
when carried out and practiced - H.V.)  guilt arises only       purpose, as when he writes in the following paragraph:
when we yield to `it. In his De Principiis, III, II, 2, he                That there are certain sins, however, which do not
writes:                                                            proceed from the opposing powers, but take their


450                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


   beginnings from the natural movements of the body,                made in the image of God, pure and holy, and fell by
  is manifestly declared by the Apostle Paul in the                  his own guilt and the temptation of Satan who himself
   passage: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the            fell from his original state. But the extent of sin and
       Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the          the consequences of the fall were not fully discussed
   one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that            before the Pelagian controversy in the fifth century.
   ye would." If, then, the flesh lust against the Spirit,           The same is true of the metaphysical problem con-
       and the Spirit against the flesh, we have occasionally        cerning the origin of the human soul. Yet three theories
 .. to wrestle against flesh and blood, i.e., as being men,          appear already in germ.
       and walking according to the flesh, and not capable of           Tertullian is the author of tvaducianism, which
   .being tempted by greater than human temptations.                 derives soul and body from the parents through the
   In the above passage Origin writes  that there are                process of generation.     It assumes that God's crea-
certain sins which do not proceed from the opposing                  tion de nihilo (from nothing - H.V.) was finished on the
powers, hence outside of us, but take their beginnings               sixth day, and that Adam's soul was endowed with the
from the natural movements of the body, therefore                    power of reproducing itself in individual souls, just as
                                                                     the first created seed in the vegetable world has the
within us.                                                           power of reproduction in its own kind. Most Western
   On the other hand, Origin also formally adopts the                divines followed Tertullian in this theory because it
idea of original sin, by asserting that the human soul               most easily explains the propagation of original sin by
does not come into the world in a state of innocence,                generation, but it materializes sin which originates in
because it has already sinned in aformer  state. Never-              the mind. Adam had fallen inwardly by doubt and dis-
theless, subsequent times, especially after Jerome have              obedience before he ate of the forbidden fruit.
seen in Origin the precursor of Pelagius.                               The Aristotelian theory of  creationism  traces the
       According to Tertullian, the soul itself is pro-              origin of each individual soul to a direct agency of
pagated with all its defects, as matter is propagated.               God and assumes a subsequent corruption of the soul.
                                                                     by its contact with the body, but destroys the organic
Tertullian speaks of this in his Treatise on the Soul.               unity of soul and body, and derives sin from the
He writes in chapter 40:                                             material part. It was, advocated by Eastern devines,
          Every soul, then, by reason of its birth, has its          and by Jerome in the West. Augustine wavered between
   nature in Adam until it is born again in`christ; more-            the two theories, and the church has never decided the
       over, it is unclean all the while that it remains with-       question.
       out this regeneration; and because unclean, it is actively       The third theory, that of  #we-existence,  was taught
       sinful, and suffuses even the flesh (by reason of their       by Origin, as before by Plato and Philo. It assumes
       conjunction) with its own shame.                              the pre-historic existence and fall of every human
   And in chapter 39 of this same treatise Tertullian                being,  .and thus accounts for original sin and individual
speaks of the corruption of the human soul:                          guilt; but as it has no support in Scripture or human
                                                                     consciousness - except in an ideal sense - it was con-
          All these endowments of the soul which are bestowed        demned under Justinian as one of the Origenistic
       on it at birth are. still obscured and depraved by the        heresies. Nevertheless it has been revived from time
       malignant being who, in the beginning, regarded them          to time as an isolated speculative opinion.
       with envious eye, so that they are never seen in their           The cause of the Christian faith demanded the as-
       spontaneous action; nor are they administered as they         sertion both of man's need of redemption, against
       ought to be. For to what individual of the human race         Epicurean levity and Stoical self-sufficency, and man's
   will not the evil spirit cleave, ready to entrap their            capacity for redemption, against the Gnostic and  Man-
       souls from the very portal of their birth, at which he        ichaean idea of the intrinsic evil of nature, and against
       is invited to be  pres.ent in all those superstitious         every form of fatalism.
   processes which accompany childbearing?              Thus it         The Greek fathers, especially the Alexandrian, are
  comes to pass that all men are brought to the birth                very strenuous for the freedom of the will, as the
   with idolatry for the midwife, whilst the very wombs              ground of the accountability and the whole moral
   that bear them, still bound with the fillets that have            nature of man, and as indispensable to the distinction
   been wreathed before the idols, declare their offspring           of virtue and vice. It was impaired and weakened by
   to be consecrated to demons.                                      the fall, but not destroyed. In the case of Origin free-
   For the rest, as far as Tertullian is concerned,                  dom of choice is the main pillar of his theological
                                                                     system. Irenaeus and Hippolytus cannot conceive of
Hagenbach writes as foilows:                                         man without the two inseparable predicates of intelli-
          That, e.g., Tertullian was far from imputing original      gence and freedom. And Tertullian asserts espressly,
       sin to- children as real sin, may be seen from his re-        against  Marcion  and Hermogenes, free will as one of
       markable expression concerning the baptism of infants;        the innate properties of the soul, like its derivation
       . . ..His disciple Cyprian also acknowledges inherent         from God, immortality, instinct of dominion, andpower
       depravity, and defends infant baptism on  this ground,        of dievination. On the other side, however, Irenaeus,
       but yet only to purify infants from a foreign guilt which     by his Pauline doctrine of the casual connection of the
       is imputed to them, but not from any guilt which is           original sin of Adam with the sinfulness of the whole
       properly their own.                                           race, and especially Tertullian, by his view of heredi-
                                                                     tary sin and its propagation by generation, looked
   We conclude our discussion of the doctrine of sin                 towards the Augustinian system which the greatest of
during the early period, 80-250 A.D. with a quotation                the  Latin fathers developed'in his controversy with the
from the History of the Christian .Church by .Philip                 Pelagian heresy, and `which exerted such a powerful
Schaff, pages 541-543:                                               influence  upon  the Reformers, but had no effect what-
                                                                     ever on the Oriental church and was practically dis-
          It. was the universal faith of the church that man was     owned in  part by the church of Rome.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      451

   So we can see that the groundwork is laid for the          of the human will. Sentiments were expressed to the
struggle that would unfold in the early church of the         effect that man was either good or evil as he was
New Dispensation between the forces that would defend         taught and received instruction. Men, therefore, became
the goodness of the natural man and those who would           corrupt because of the influence of outward circum-
adhere to the Scriptural doctrine that man is conceived       stances upon them. And this, we know, is nothing less
and born dead in sins and in trespasses. The opponents        than the heresy of Pelagianism. Of course, the heresy
in this struggle would be Pelagius and Augustine. But         of Pelagianism is inherent in man's human nature. It
the seeds for the pelagian heresy were already laid in        is a doctrine that appeals to the natural man. But, to
the ages prior to the historical appearance of these          this struggle, between pelagianism and the Scriptural
two men. Although the church of God did recognize' the        doctrine of the absolute bondage of the human heart
sin of Adam and the fall of the human race because of         and mind and will we will call attention, the Lord will-
Adam's sin, it did not express clearly on the doctrine        ing, in subsequent articles.
of sin. They were inclined to emphasize the freedom




 THE CHURCH AT  WORSHIP-




                           The Office of the Deacon

                                               by Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg


   The second part of the Form for the Ordination of          agement of the earthly possessions of the church. Need-
Elders and Deacons deals with the office of the deacon.       less to say, both of these views are in error, and we
This Form is rather brief, dealing with just two              must emphasize and maintain, in practice as well as
matters. First of all the origin and institution of the       in theory, that the office of the deacon is a ministry
office is recorded, and this is followed by a brief           in which is reflected the priestly functions of Christ
description of the office itself. TO these matters w.e        Himself. It is a service of mercy, a spiritual dispens-
will return presently, but let us first' make some            ing of-the riches of grace, and only when the diaconate
general observations.                                         so functions does it fulfill its instituted purpose.
   The term diakonos (deacon) denotes "a servant, an             T. Schafer, in The New Schaff-HevzogEncyclopedia,
attendant, a minister." In its generic sense it is used       writes:
in Scripture of all ministers of the gospel. We may,             "After the departure of the apostles, during the
for example, confer such passages as I Thess.  3:2,           mysterious period between 70 and 150 A.D., where
I Cor. 3:5, II Cor. 6:4, 11:23, Col. 1:7, 4:7, I Tim. 4:6.    information is so scant, that change in the ecclesias-
In Romans 13:4 it is also used of civil magistrates.          tical organization must have taken place which is found
Only in Acts 6, Phil. l.:l and I Tim.. 3:2, 8, 12 is the      pretty generally established toward the close of the
term used in the direct or technical sense to denote a        second century. The Didache  knows only two classes
particular class of congregational officers who are           of officers for the local churches,  .bishops and  dea-
distinct from the .presbyter-bishops  (elders). There is      `cons; they were to be elected by the congregations,
then nothing in the term that lends support to the view       and are to receive honor `together with the prophets
that this office in the church is to be regarded as           and teacher.' Ignatius mentions deacons as a neces-
inferior or subordinate to that of the elders and             sary part of the governing body of the local church.
ministers.      There was a time in the history of the        With him the bishops are raised above their fellow
church in which this view was rather commonly held,           presbyters, and later  ,they were regarded as successors
and even in our day there are often indications in the        of the apostles; the presbyters; at first simply pastors
church that we have not yet been completely weaned of         and teachers, were clothed with sacerdotal dignity,
this notion.     By some the office of deacon is looked       which in the New Testament `appears as the common
upon as a sort. of stepping stone to that of elder. By        property of all, Christians; and the .deacons  became
others it is regarded as no more than a position or           Levites, subject to the priests. They are often com-
office in which one is entrusted with the care and man-       pared to the Levites of the OldTestament.  These three


 452                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


 officers constituted the three clerical orders in dis-                         The Origin  of the Office
tinction from the laity. An act of ordination marked
the entr ante . No one couId become a bishop without             The view of the origin of the office of the deacon
 passing first through the two lower orders; but in           as expressed in our Ordination Form is a common
 some cases a distinguished layman, as Cyprian or             one. In this Form we read:
 Ambrose, was elected bishop by the voice of the                 "Of the origin and institution of their office we may
 wopk and hurried through the three ordinations.              read, Acts 6, where we find that the apostles them-
 The subdeacon was later associated with the deacon           selves did in the beginning serve the poor, `At whose
 and was declared a member of the `major orders' by           feet was brought the price of the things that were sold:
 Innocent III. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church and         and distribution was made unto every man, according
the canon law have never formally decided whether the         as he had need. But afterwards, when a murmuring
 episcopate is a distinct order or not. The Council of        arose, because the widows of the Grecians were
 Trent did not decide the question, although it speaks of     neglected in the daily ministrations,' men were chosen
 the hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons. The          (by the advice of the apostles) who should make the
 schoolmen, including Peter Lombard, Hugo of St.              service of the poor their peculiar business, to the end
Victor, Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventura say again              that the apostles might continually give themselves to
 and again that the episcopate is not a distinct order,       prayer, and to the ministry of the Word."
but an office or function. They regarded the presby-             The Ordination Form then draws this `conclusion:
ters, deacons, and subdeacons as constituting the three       "And this has been continued from that time forward
major orders. The prevailing view today in the Roman          in the Church, as appears from Rom. 12, where the
Catholic Church, if not the universal one, is that the       apostle, speaking of this office, saith, `he that giveth,
 episcopate is a distinct order and that the subdeaconate     let him do it with simplicity.' And1 Cor. 12:28  speaking
 is not." (Pages 370, 371, Vol. III)                          of helps, he means those, who are appointed in the
                                                              Church to help and assist the poor and indigent in
    The same author also writes: "In the Reformed             time of need."
churches the apostolic diaconate was revived, as far             With this view Lightfoot also agrees in his com-
as circumstances would permit, with different degrees         mentary on Acts 6, and in his interpretation of Philip-
of success. In the Reformation of the Church of Hesse         pians he makes the observation that "the office (of
(1526) it was prescribed that each pastor should have         deacons). grew out of a special emergency in the con-
at least three deacons as assistants in the care of the       gregation at Jerusalem."
poor.     The Church of Base1 in 1529 made a similar             In the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia this view of the
provision. Calvin regards the diaconate as one of the         origin of the office is also held. We quote: "As related
indispensable offices of the Church, and the care .of the     in Acts 6:1-6, the office grew out of a special emer-
poor as their proper duty (Institutes, Bk. IV.,.Chaps.       gency in the congregation of Jerusalem in cons  e-
3, 9).    The Reformed confessions acknowledge this           quence of the complaint of the.Hellenists,  or Greek Jews,
office (Conf. Gallicana, Art; XXIX; Cqnf. Belgica, Art.       against the Hebrews, or Palestinian Jews, that their
XXX and XxX1). In the Dutch and German Reformed              widows were neglected in the daily ministration at the
churches the deacons are `to collect and to distribute        common love-feasts.         Hence the apostles, who had
the alms and other contributions for the relief of the       hitherto themselves attended to this duty, instructed
poor, or the necessities of the congregation, and'to         the congregation to elect from their midst seven
provide for the .support  of the ministry of the Gospel.'    brethren, -and ordained them by prayer and thelaying
The Presbyterian Church in the United States of              on of hands. -The diaconate, therefore, like the  pres-
America teaches, in its form of government (Chapt.           `bytero-episcopate, grew out of the apostolic office,
VI): `The Scriptures clearly point out deacons as            which at first embraced all the functions and duties of
distinct officers in the church, whose business it is to     the `ministry - the ministry of tables and of the word.
take care of-the poor;  and to distribute among them the     Christ chose apostles only, and left them to divide
collections which may be raised for their use. To            their labor under the guidance -of His Spirit, with prop-
them, also, may be properly committed the manage-            er regard- to times and circumstances, and to found
ment of the `temporal affairs of the church.' (In ac-        such additional offices in the Church as were useful
,cordance with this principle, deacons are anormalpart       and necessary." (Pg. 370)
:,of the machinery of -the local churches and receive            Not all, however, are agreed with this view. For
ordination, though they are not members of the church        example,. W. Heidel;in the International Bible Encyclo-
session.)" (Ibed, Pgs.. 371, 372)                            paedia;`has  this to say:
                                                                 "Many have sought the origin of, the diaconate in
   It may then safely be affirmed that in the church.        the institution of the Seven at Jerdsale'm (Acts 6),
there is a place for the office of deacon. That office       and this view was countenanced by many of the church
answers to a very rea.l.need as much as does the office      Fathers. The Seven were appointed to `serve tables,'
of the elder. That need is not the same and neither are      in  -order  to permit the Twelve to `continue steadfastly
the offices the-same. They-are distinct but also equal       in prayer, and in the ministry of the word.' They are
ministrations to the spiritual as well as to the temporal    not called deacons (diakonoi), and the qualifications
needs of the church. The office of the deacon-certainly      required- are not the same. as those prescribed by
implies instruction as well as bodily relief.                Paul in I Timothy 3;8-12;  furthermore, Stephen-appears


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    453


in Acts preeminently as a preacher, and Philip as an           foreshadowed in the various agencies for the dispensing
evangelist. Paul clearly recognizes women as deacon-           of alms and the care of the poor of the church instituted
esses, but will not permit a woman to teach (I Tim.            in various churches at an earlier date."
2:12). The obvious conclusion is that the Seven may               Whether then the diaconate was instituted in Acts 6
be called the first deacons only in the sense that they        or not, in our judgment, must remain an open question.
were the earliest recorded helpers of the Twelve as            There is not sufficient evidence in Scripture to sub-
directors of the church, and that they served in the           stantiate either position. Even the statement in our
capacity, among others, of specially appointed minis-          Ordination Form that "this has been continued from
trants to the poor." (Vol. II, pg. 800)                        that time forward in the Church, as appears from
   The same author, commenting on Philippians l:l,             Romans 12...and I Cor. 12:28," lacks proof. There is
writes: "Here then we find mention of `deacons' in a           nothing here that rules out the possibility that the
way to suggest a formal diaconate; but the want of             office mentioned in these two texts is of a later origin.
definition as to their qualifications and duties renders       Neither is the determination of the exact historical
it impossible to affirm with certainty the existence of        origin of this office a crucial matter. The important
the office."                                                   thing is that according to the Scriptures there is
   It would be unfair to leave the impression, in light        sufficient evidence to sanction the  existance of the
of the above, that this author then denies the existence       diaconate as a particular office in the church. The
of the diaconate in the church. That this is not so is         office has an important and necessary place in the
evident from his concluding statement which reads:             church.     This is true in spite of the fact that in
"We conclude, therefore, that the Seven and Phoebedid          Ephesians 4:ll deacons are not mentioned. When the
not exercise the diaconate in a technical sense, which         office originated then is not important but the  fact  that
appears first certainly in I Timothy 3, glthough it is         it has been instituted and is sanctioned by the Word of
not improbably recognized in Philippians l:l, and was          God itself is significant.


 EXAMINING  ECUMENICALISM-



                "Fiddling While Rome Burns"

                                                  by Rev. G. Van Baven

      If the world's problems are to be faced responsibly,     by all manner of evil and corruption - while refusing to
   there must be cooperation economically, politically,        join that one organization through which there would
   educationally, and scientifically. This few will deny.      seem to be the only hope of "putting out the fire?"
   But also ecclesiastically! Christians from everywhere       That is a terrible charge, if true.
   need to meet and talk and learn from one another. To
   to anything less is to exceed the sin of Nero. He only      THE W. C. C. DISCUSSION
   fiddled while a city burned. Today the world's on fire!
   Because it is, churches need to seek one another in a          Why does there arise within the ChristianReformed
   significant  worldwide ecclesiastical community. For        Church now a debate about the W.C.C.? The present
   these are not ordinary days. There is more to do than       discussion begins because of a decision of the Gere-
   we have ever done before.                                   formeerde Kerken in the Netherlands. Those churches
                                                               adopted a position that there are no principle objections
   So wrote the Rev. Jacob Eppinga in the Bannevof             that a church of reformed persuasion should join the
April 28, 1967 in an article entitled: "WCC? Yes."             World Council of Churches. At the same time, that
Eppinga attempts to show why the Christian Reformed            denomination requested answers from member  denom;
Churches must join the W.C.C.              One receives the    inations of the Reformed Ecumenical Synod concerning
impression that Eppinga regards failure to join this           this stand. In response to this, the Synod of 1966 of the
"worthwhile" organization to be worse than the sin of          C.R.C. appointed a committee to formulate an answer
that godless Nero who supposedly cared not at all that         for Synod's adoption in 1967. From the 1966 Acts of
Rome was being destroyed by fire - on the contrary,            Synod I quote the following (pp. 59-60):
he enjoyed it. Is he accusing the Christian Reformed                  B. Historical Synopsis (Acts of Synod, 1962, pp.
Churches of committing such terrible sin at this time?             392-393). From 1914 to 1924 the Christian Reformed
Is the C.R.C. (and our own churches too) committing                Church was affiliated with the Federal Council of
the terrible sin of watching the world.being  destroyed            Churches. In 1924 Synod voted to withdraw on the fol-


454                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


       lowing grounds: 1) Ecclesiastical alliances between        committee appointed at the last Synod was to  define
       orthodox and liberals are contrary to God's Word.          that position. That is, this committee was not to debate
       2) Liberalism is strongly in evidence in the Federal       or question the position taken by the C.R.C., they were
 Council. 3) The Federal Council has broad programs               not called to re-consider the position, but simply to
   in industrial, national and international affairs which
   do not belong to the proper work of the Church as an           define  it.    That must mean that the committee was
       organization.                                              called to review all pertinent former decisions, to
          In more recent years the official attention of Synod    formulate these in a single statement for the approval
   has been drawn to the World Council of Churches                of the Synod of 1967, and present this as answer to the
   largely through the actions taken by the Reformed              stand of the Gereformeerde Kerken.
       Ecumenical Synod, whichmade pronouncements in 1949,            Nevertheless, there have been many attempts in
       1953, and 1959, and again in 1963. Presently one mem-      the past year not to present a possible answer to the
   ber of the R.E.S. is affiliated with the W.C.C. (Indo-         Gereformeerde Kerken, but to show why the C.R.C.
   nesia) and the Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands         should join the W.C.C. This is very disturbing.
   have announced that they have no principial  objection to
   membership in the W.C.C. In a number of instances              To join....
   the Synod of our Churches has shown to be in sub-
       stantial agreement with the R.E.S.`s position regarding        Several arguments (old ones, repeatedly offered)
       the World Council of Churches.                             are given in favor of union with the W.C.C. Below I
          C. Recommendations:                                     will summarize these as presented in the Bannev of
          1. Synod appoint a special committee including          April 28, 1967 by Rev. J. Eppinga and in the Fedeva-
   members of the standing Committee on Inter-Church              tion Messenger of March 1967 by Dr. J. Kromminga
Relations to                                                      and Dr. D. Holwerda.
          a) define our position with respect to the World            First, the nature of the Church (it must be one) "is
       Council of Churches                                        the first consideration for the establishment of, or if
          b) prepare a statement which could serve as our
   reply to the resolution of the Gereformeerde Kerken            established, affiliation with, a significant worldwide
          c) report to the Synod of 1967, if at all possible.     ecclesiastical community." (Eppinga). Or again: "The
          Grounds:                                                unity of the church is, of course, spiritual in essence;
          a. Synod has never explicitly defined its position.     but this spiritual unity must express itself in visible
          b. The Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands          forms (as Jesus' unity with the Father was visible in
       are awaiting our reaction to their decisions, before       his person and work). Otherwise the life of the church
   they take any further action.                                  cannot function as a sign to the world. This unity is
          c. In order to promote a helpful confrontation at       not primarily, or even necessarily, organizational; yet
 -- the meeting of the R.E.S, in 1968, our position should
   be articulated and published in 1967.                          it does not preclude a manifestation also on the level
                                            -Adopted.             of organization." (Holwerda). These are old argu-
                                                                  ments which, incidentally, could be used to support
   The above decision is, evidently, the occasion for             involvement with something like COCU too.
considerable discussion in the Christian Reformed                     Secondly, "the unity of the Church is intended to be
Church whether or not it, should join the W.C.C. Of               a source of mutual blessing for the various members
course, that was not the question at all. Certain                 of the Church." (Holwerda). One must be willing and
"liberals" (if I may term them such) in the C.R.C.                able to make use of the many Spirit-given gifts found
have, made this the subject of discussion in their                in other denominations-and therefore must seek some
churches and the "moderates" have taken it upon                   organization where this can be done. The W.C.C. "fills
themselves to enter into this debate.                             the bill."
   First, it must be born in mind that the C.R.C. has                Thirdly, because of the present unrest, poverty,
a very definite stand against membership in the W.C.C.            race problems, population explosion, etc., there must
At the last Synod a committee was appointed to "define            be some sort of co-operation between churches in order
our position," but it is very evident that the C.R.C. had         that through united action these problems may be dealt
a position:long  before 1966 over against the W.C.C. In           with.     This too points the church to the one large
1924 the C.R.C. withdrew as member of the Federal                 protestant organization where this is possible: the
Council of Churches ( a forerunner of the National                W.C.C.
Council of Churches) on some very cogent grounds
(see quotation above). These same grounds apply with              . ..oY not to join.
even more force today with respect to membership in                  But arguments, often repeated before, have been
the W.C.C. But. in addition to this, the C.R .C. Synods           offered against joining the W.C.C. The Rev. E. Brad-
have adopted decisions of the Reformed Ecumenical                 ford presents some ofthese in the Bannerof  April 28,
Synods which opposed (on good grounds) membership                 1967. Others are given in various other articles and
in the W.C.C.           -At various other times the Synod of      letters written in the Banner/and  other magazines.
the C.R.C. has made decisions against membership in                  First reason for continuing opposition to this or-
such church councils which include liberal churches.              ganization is the question whether the W.C.C. is a
So the question is not: what position must the C.R.C.             church or super-church. At present it is not. Never-
take toward the W.C.C.? They have a very clear-cut                theless, Bradford points out, the W.C.C. is headed in
position.                                                         that direction. He rightly insists that the W.C.C. is
   Secondly, .it is evident then that the duty of the             not the organization in which the unity of the church
                                                                  can find expression.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   455

   Secondly, Bradford points to the "neoorthodoxy"                change are strongly blowing regarding this matter too.
of the W X.C. and emphasizes that the faithful church             The same Dr. John Kromminga who wrote some twelve
can not participate in that. He says, "The Council                years ago, ". ..the confessional churches certainly
statements represent typical neoorthodox or Barthian              ought to seek unity; but the question is very much in
theology.       Accepting the method and conclusions of           point whether the World Council of Churches is the
higher criticism, neoorthodoxy (and the W.C.C.) does              organization through which that unity ought to be
not regard the Bible as objective, infallible  word-              sought;" now writes, "The Bible, the creeds, the
revelation, but rather as a human record of search                position of the Christian Reformed Church (as seen in
for and encounter with God.            The Bible is said to       a report adopted by Synod in 1944), and the world
become the Word of God as one experiences encounter               situation all commit us to concern for the other
with God. How can revelation be a private, subjective             Christians and the other Churches of the world. The
matter and at the same time provide a solid basis for             question must then be asked, `If not the World Council,
resolving differences ?"                                          then what ?' How is our concern to be manifested and
   He is right. And many, many other arguments have               expressed? How are we to show that we believe in one
been,, and can be, given to show that it is wrong to              holy catholic and apostolic Church?           Are we our
belong to the W.C.C.                                              brother's keeper?" (The first quotation is from the
   But will the C.R.C. decide to join the W.C.C.? I               Banned-, April 28, 1967; the second from the Fedeva-
doubt it-at least for the present.  But the winds of              tion Messengh, March, 1967.)



                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                           inform the clerk of the Loveland consistory of their
The Ladies Society of the  Edgerton  Protestant Reform-           need.
ed Church extends its heartfelt sympathy to Rev. and                                  Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
Mrs. G. Lanting and family in the recent passing of
their Mother and Grandmother,
                   MRS. JENNIE, RUTGERS
May the bereaved be comforted in the word of God
found in Psalm 116:15  "Precious in the sight of the                                    ANNIVERSARY
Lord is the death of His saints".                                 On July 28, 1967, our beloved parents,
                     Mrs. G. Broekhouse, Vice Pres.                            MR. AND MRS. DICK KOOIENGA
                     Mrs. A. Ver Hey, Sec'y.                      commemorated their 40th wedding anniversary. We
                                                                  give thanks to our covenant God for sparing them for
                                                                  each other and us these many years. Our earnest.
                                                                  prayer is that they may continue to experience God's
                                                                  loving kindness in their remaining years.
                                                                           Their children:
                                                                                     Mr. and Mrs. Robert Miedema
                            CLASSIS WEST                                            Mr. and Mrs. Earl Dykstra
Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches                                     Mr. and Mrs. Roger Kooienga
will meet in Loveland, Colorado on September 20, 1967                               Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Dykstra
at 9:00 A.M.           "                                                            Mr. and Mrs. Donald Sal1
   All material for the Agenda must be in the hands of                               Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kooienga
the Stated Clerk thirty days before Classis convenes,                               Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Dykstra
that is, August 21. Delegates in need of lodging should                                  and 31 grand children



                Now, Christ is no more personally in th$ world. He was crucified and was raised from the
             dead, and is exalted to the highest glory at the right hand of God. However, He is very really
             in His Church, in His saints, in whom He dwells by His Spirit, and whom He calls and instructs
             through His Word. Through them He still represents and contends for the cause of God in the
             world. He becomes manifest in and through them. And so, by His grace, believers represent
             the cause of Christ. `- And if.you suffer in the behalf of Christ and for His sake, it is this fact,
             that Christ becomes revealed in you, your walk and confession, in this world, that is the occa-
             sion of your suffering. You suffer literally because of the person of Christ. It is Christ that
             is hated- by the world. It is Christ they want to fill with their reproach. They really want to
             kill Christ and empty the vials of their hatred over His headi And since they cannot reach Him
             personally any more, seeing He is in glory, they hate and persecute those that represent Him,
             in whom He becomes manifest in the world.-H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," pp. 101, 102


456                                          THESTANDARDBEARER


                                       NEWS FROM OUR  CHURC#ES--

                                            July 15, 1967
       Rev. C. Ha&o,  of Redlands, has received the call-    Heys is active in conducting a course in sermonizing
from our church in South Holland; Hull's congregation        to a class of some twenty Ministers and Elders. Rev.
has called Rev. G. Vanden  Berg, of Oak Lawn; Randolph       Heys' correspondence course has been taken up by
has called Candidate D. Kuiper from a trio which             Rev. C. Hanko, to which Rev. Elliott referedin a recent
included Revs. C. Hanko and G. Vanden Berg; and,             letter as follows: "We are surely satisfied with the
Forbes had named the following trio: Revs.  R. C.            doctrine and teaching of Rev. C. Hanko on the same
Harbach and G. Vanden  Berg and Candidate D. Kuiper,         basic teachings of Rev. Heys. We of the Protestant
with the Candidate receiving the call.                       Reformed Churches of Jamaica are growing daily in
                           ***                               the faith, for God has promised to add to His Church,
   The Outing of the Protestant Reformed Young Peo-          and new converts are coming day by day." May the
ple's Convention will be held in Hull Park and Newton        blessing of our God rest upon the labors of our "Mis-
Hills. Candidate D. Kuiper will be the speaker.              sionaries" in their short stay there.
                           * * *                                                      *  * *
       Rev. Woudenberg's "Studies in Biblical Doctrine"         One of Synod's decisions was to instruct theMission
project is going apace.       Volunteers who help in the     Board to conduct another Lecture Series this winter in
preparation and mailing of these sheets worked at an         the Grand Rapids area.       This will be accomplished
accelerated pace during the month prior to the pastor's      through a committee drawn from the various churches
vacation. Recently a reader from Grand Rapids wrote:         in the area.
"I am very appreciative of the Doctrine Series. I do                                  *  *  *
some teaching in the adult Bible Class in my church             Rev. Kortering began the annual Family Visitation
and find the questions thought provoking. I also find the    in his new charge during the month of June, before
doctrine to be sound and Biblical to my liking. Thank        vacation time prevents a day-to-day scheduling.
you and bless you in your ministry."                                                  * * *
                           *  * *                               Bulletin Quote (Oak Lawn): "Even though the tongue
   Rev. and Mrs. C. Hanko have returned to Redlands          weighs practically nothing, it is surprising how few
and the pastor has plunged into his work trying to catch     persons are able to hold it."
up and get back into routine. His summer "vacation"                                   * *  *
will include Church Visitation and preaching in Lynden          The 1967-1968 drive for our High School netted
in August. He, like all the ministers in the outlying        $26,000.00  in cash and pledges. The Board's "thank
churches, mix work with pleasure: church work. and           you" said, "The Board thanks all those who took part
vacation.                                                    in this drive, especially the collectors and captains and
                           ***                               all who contributed their time and money, and also
   This notice appeared in the June 25 bulletin of Red-      their prayers without which our high school could never
lands' church: "The Young People's Society will `have        hope to be realized."
their annual outing this Saturday, July 1, and go skiing                              * * *
to Lake Elsinor." You may be sure that the "Red-                To the sick and sorrowing and the shut-ins who find
landers" know if that sport is to be enjoyed on water        it difficult to read Psalm 23 with pleasure we give this
or on the snow-covered mountain slopes.                      little gem found in First Church's bulletin:
                           ***                                  In pastures green? Not always;! sometimes He
   Rev. Heys and Elder Zwak have arrived in Jamaica             Who knows best, in kindness leadeth me
and are making good use of their twomonth  stay. They           in weary ways, where heavy shadows be.
have over 300 Bibles and about 100 Psalters to dis-             So, whether on the hill-tops high and fair
tribute besides the distribution of the beneficence of          I dwell, or in the sunless valleys, where
the people of our churches whose combined offering              The shadows lie, what matter? He is there.
will alleviate the needs of food, clothing, medical sup-                              -Barry
plies, and repairs to the churches of the Island, Rev.          . . . .see you in church                        J.M.F.


