                                         he

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     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: Exhorted Unto Faithfulness.

                   Editorials: Calvinistic, Premillennial, and Dispensational?
                              As To A Common Order Of Worship

                              As To Movie Attendance

                   "And Islands of the Sea"

                   All Around Us: Conditional Reprobation
                                    The Mideast Crisis
I                  David and  Nabal


                                                 Volume XLIII/ Numbev20/ September  1, 1967


458                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER

                                                                                                                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER

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Meditation  -
       Exhorted Unto Faithfulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458                            Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
             Rev.  j. Kortering                                                                                                      Editor-in-Chiefi Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
Editorials  -                                                                                                                        Department Editors: Rev. David J. Engelsma, Mr. JohnM.  Faber,
       Calvinistic, Premillennial, and Dispensational? . . . . . . . . . 461                                                            Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hat&o,  Rev. Robert C.
             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                       Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George
       As To A Common Order Of Worship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `... 462                                                C. Lubbers, Rev. Marinus Schipper,  Rev. Gise J. Van Baren,
             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                       Rev. -Gerald Vanden  Berg, Rev. Herman Veldman, Rev.
       AS  To Movie Attendance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463                        Bernard Woudenberg
             Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                    Editorial  Office: Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
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    MEDIlATION-

                                                      Exhorted Unto Faithfulness
                                                                                                                  by Rev. J. Kovtering

                                            "But continue thou in the things which thou hast leamzed and hast beenassuved of
                                    knowing of whom thou hast leavned them; and that from a child thou hast known the
                                    holy  Scviptuves,  which  aye able  td make thee wise unto salvation  through  faith in
                                    Christ  Jesus. "                                                                                                             II Tim.  3:14, 15

       We need this exhortation.                                                                                                    forsake them.          There  .are all kinds of temptations
       There lurks within us the human inclination to for-                                                                          round about us that would encourage us to turn away
sake the things we have learned. These things that we                                                                               from the truths of the Scriptures and to follow after
have learned are disagreeable to the flesh; and  when-                                                                              the folly of men. Our young people face these  tempta-
ever we follow our carnal desires, we will most surely                                                                              tions when the prospect of marriage is before them, if


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


only the future husband or wife doesn't want to confess         Over against such iniquity Paul emphasizes in this
the same truths of the Word of God. It's terribly            letter to Timothy and to all God's people, "But continue
tempting to marry anyway and leave the church. We            thou in the things thou has learned".        Emphatically
face this whenever our faith is tested and we have to        Paul will tell us we have not learned open rebellion,
choose between the treasures of the world and its way        nor to be lovers of pleasure, nor to lead captive silly
of life and the hardships of the people of God and the       women, nor to be evil seducers, but we have learned
narrow place of the Christian in the world. It's easier      the truths of the Scriptures. These Scriptures were
for the flesh to join the godless labor union and live       given by inspiration of God and through that miracu-
in financial security than to refuse such membership         lous working God has revealed Himself to us. We have
and live with less income or even struggle to keep a         learned that God is a sovereign God Who created
daily job. The temptation to forsake the clear instruc-      heaven and earth and upholds all things by His provi-
tion of Scripture for worldly pleasure is always great       dence. We have learned from the `Scriptures that God
no matter how old we are.                                    is jealous. of His love and directs it to His people in
   We must realize how important the things we have          Christ.    Man deserves no blessings of God, for he is
learned really are. Only then will be by the grace of        conceived and born in sin and increases his debt daily.
God earnestly continue in them no matter what the            Christ alone is the ground of our salvation, for He
cost. Then we will see that the only course of wisdom        bore the curse, due to us for our sins and satisfied the
is to continue in them and that it is folly, yea even        righteousness of God. Having redeemed us from the
spiritual self-destruction, to forsake them.                 curse of the law Jesus Christ calls us by the power of
   What are the things we have learned?                      the gospel and through the inner working of the Holy
   The first word of our text indicates that there is a      Spirit raises us from the dead and infuses in us the
contrast between the things we learned and the things        breath of life. This same Jesus is coming again upon
practiced by those who do not believe the Word of God.       the clouds of heaven to make all things new, to establish
That "But" packs a tremendous force.  Inthe  preceed-        the final, everlasting dwelling place in heavenly glory
ing verses Paul has been describing to Timothy how           and to cast all the unrepentant wicked into everlasting
terribly the natural man lives. Listen, "This know           destruction.
also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.          Having learned the doctrines of the Word of God we
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,       have also learned how to apply them to our daily living.
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,        Since we are saved by sovereign grace and called out of
unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection,  truce-       the darkness into the light, it follows that our life is
breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers     to be in conformity with the purpose that God has
of those that are good, Traitors heady, high-minded,         established.     We recognize the law that God has
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having          established and believe that if we are to live in peace
a form of godliness but denying the power thereof:           with God and our neighbor, we must live within the
from such turn away. For of this sort are they which         sphere of divine law. We are to love God and the neigh-
creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden        bor for God's sake.          Instead of rebellion we have
with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning         learned obedience; instead of lust, we have learned
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."       holiness, instead of a superficial religion we have
verses l-7.        In the immediately  preceeding verses     learned the true -religion which emphasizes the power
Paul referred to those in the church that would be           of God unto salvation.
influenced by sin and cause persecution, "but evil              Paul in addressing this epistle to Timothy reminds
men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, de-              him that he has learned the Holy Scriptures from a
ceiving and being deceived."                                 child.     He had been taught these things. With this
   Those last days of which Paul speaks are our days.        learning Timothy had been able to perceive the truth
One with any degree of spiritual sensitivity knows all       of Scripture and had been given the grace to under-
too well that it has gotten worse and worse. Lawless-        stand them.      He knew what was right and what was
ness abounds on every side, boycotts, strikes, riots,        wrong. And this is true for most of us. Having been
public demonstrations, and disobedience to those in          born and raised, in the church we also have learned the
authority.     Our world may well be classified as plea-     Scriptures. We have a goodly inheritance passed down
sure mad.        Today one measures his success in his       to us as we stand in the glorious Reformed line of the
daily occupation by the few hours he has to work.            covenant.        -
With an abundance of leisure time, the natural man              Not  only,  have we learned the truths of Scripture,
increases in iniquity and thereby becomes a lover of         but we also have become assured of them. This is
pleasure more than a lover of God. The license for           still stronger. This is more than an intellectual know-
gross immorality is being publicly granted even by           ing of the mind; this is very clearly a confirming of
many who fly under the banner of the "church". They          that which has been learned by the will, so that the
have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.         person who has learned it also has the conviction that
The day is here when. the faithful in Christ Jesus are       it is right.          This assurance is two-fold. We are
not safe, but become the objects of persecution and          assured that the things we have learned from our
hatred.       The faithful church of Christ is constantly    youth agree fully with the Scriptures and are based
accused of bigotry and narrow mindedness and thus            upon it. This is important! Unless we have the con-
considered an obstacle to worldly "progress".                viction that what we believe and how we live is really


460                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


Scriptural, we can never know whether it is right or          imagine that it is for the sake of our parents, teachers,
wrong.       The Holy Scriptures are the only divinely        or preachers that we should remain faithful to the
revealed truths and they alone are able to make one           things learned; in the deepest sense Christ Himself has
wise unto salvation. Hence the child of God longs to          taught us. The exalted Christ has received all power
have the conviction that what he believes is in harmony       and authorizes parents in the home, teachers in the
.with what God has revealed. In the second place, we          school, ministers in the church to act as His ambas-
have the assurance that the truths revealed in Scripture      sadors to instruct His Word. Hence if we consider
speak not only to others, but also to each of us. We          Who it is that instructed us we must conclude that
believe that not only there is a God, but this God is oulr    Christ has done this; and He alone is the way, the truth,
God in Jesus Christ. We have the assurance that OUT           and the life.
sins are covered by the blood of Christ and that there-          The second reason is that only those things that
fore we also have part in the hope that maketh not            are in harmony with Scripture are able to make us
ashamed.                                                      wise unto salvation.        The wicked is ever, "learning
   Hence the injunction comes to us, "Continue thou in        and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth".
those things".       You know by faith what is right and      This is folly!     There is only one state that is truly
true, you have the conviction that that knowledge is          joyful, and that is the state of salvation. Within the
Scriptural; and because it is Scriptural you personally       state of salvation we are free from the burden of our
partake in it.     Now do not depart from it, do not cast     guilt and instead enjoy the blessedness of being right-
it aside, continue in it, think upon it, follow after it,     eous in Christ. Instead of being under the dominion of
grow in it more and more until the day of Christ.             sin and brought deeper into death, the child of God
   You ask, why is this important? Why should we              who is saved is in principle already delivered from the
continue to be faithful in our confession of the Scrip-       corrupting power of sin and receives the grace to
tures as we have learned them and as they are taught          repent of evil and seek earnestly to do the things
in our churches? Why shouldn't we forsake them for            pleasing in God's sight.
something else?                                                  This requires wisdom. There must be a way that
       Paul gave Timothy two reasons, both of which apply     leads us into this joyful state. And that way is the Word
equally well to us today.                                     of God.      The more we hold to the doctrines of the
       The first was, "knowing of whom thou hast learned      Scripture the more joyful we are; the more we walk
them".       Paul referred of course to Timothy's grand-      in harmony with the will of God themore  joyful we are.
mother Lois and his mother Eunice. Since his father           Hence the Scriptures are so important for us. The joy
was a Greek, it appears that he did not take part in his      of salvation is not centered in man, but in God. We
religious training.       From childhood's early years        desire above all else that God's name be praised. We
Timothy was recipient of these glorious truths. He            have learned how to do that, for the Scriptures have
undoubtedly attended the  rabinical school at Derbe;          pointed that out to us. Hence if we forsake the truths
even Paul on his first missionary journey beheld in           we have learned from Christ we  forfit  in that measure
Timothy an -"unfeigned faith". Subsequently, Timothy          the joy of His salvation. When the joy of salvation is
was tutored by Paul himself while he traveled with him        gone, God is no longer acknowledged as God.
on the missionary journies. Much of this applies to us           Continue therefore in the things that you have
also.      Most of us were born within the sphere of the      learned!
covenant and from infancy on were taught to sing the             May nothing detract us from this faithfulness. As
songs of Zion and memorize the Scriptures and to              the world gets worse and worse in these perilous
pray. This is true in the sphere of the home, the school,     times, our carnal flesh is tempted more and more.
and the church. The business of all three spheres is          May God give us grace to continue. Do not forsake
to teach the Scriptures.                                      this truth because you place greater value upon a hus-
                                                              band or wife who doesn't love this Word of God. Do
   Why should this be reason for not forsaking? Par-          not say that bread and butter is more important than
ents are instructors, teachers take the place ofparents       this truth. Do not run away from the pure preaching
in the school, and ministers and elders instruct in the       because you don't like the strict emphasis of the Word
church.      Why should this fact that  they  taught us be    of God. .
reason for our continuing in the things in which they            Continue! Search the Scriptures, read diligently and
instructed us. First, they have been faithful teachers. It    prayerfully the Word of God, that its rays may enlighten
is a rare gift today to have teachers that love the Word      us in the midst of the darkness of sin, till we shall
of God and teach in harmony with it. This is reason           enter into the everlasting day.
to consider the things taught; they have been faithful to
the Scriptures because our instructors loved the Word
of God.       What's more, they have labored with love                           SCHOOL OPENING
seeking our spiritual welfare. We may not cast aside             The 1967-1968 term of the Theological School  ofthe
lightly the truths we have learned; for our parents,          Protestant Reformed Churches will begin, D.V., on
teachers, and ministers have labored faithfully with          Wednesday, September  6,  at 9:00 A.M., at which time
tears and prayers guiding us into the paths of truth and      opening exercises will be conducted. We commend
holiness.                                                     the seminary and its labors to the prayers of our
   But, there is an even deeper reason. We need not           churches.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         461


EDITORIAL-

         Calvinistic, Premillennial, and Dispensational?

                                                 by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema


       In the July 1 issue of our  Standard  Beaver  p. 421,        Precisely at this crucial point, in the fourth place,
the Rev. Harbach suggests that I could perhaps give an           Dr. Chafer's theology is found wanting. Calvinism and
evaluation of the theology of Lewis Sperry Chafer with           dispensationalism are in their essence mutually exclu-
respect to the question whether or not it is Calvinistic.        sive.       Here is an important point.       Very often the
As he surmises, we do indeed have Chafer's "Syste-               Calvinistic insistence upon the sovereignty of God, and
matic Theology" in our seminary library; and therefore           specifically upon sovereign predestination and sovereign
I am able to give an answer to this question.                    grace, is emphasized as constituting an indispensable
       Dr. Chafer's "Systematic Theology" is a very              element of Calvinism. Now this is true, and I would be
extensive work of eight volumes; and it would be                 the last to deny it. What is often overlooked, however,
impossible to give a detailed review and summary in              and what must be characterized as a twin truth of
these columns. Nor is this necessary. I will confine             Calvinism, if not an even more underlying truth, is the
myself to the specific question.                                 fact that Reformed theology is  federal theology, cove-
       In the first place, this claim of being Calvinistic is    nant theology. It is with respect to the latter truth that
found in a biographical sketch written by Dr. C.  F.             Chafer deviates from Calvinism fundamentally, and that
Lincoln, also of Dallas Theological Seminary, and found          for the very reason that he is a deliberate and thorough-
in Volume VIII. We find there this statement: "Dr.               going dispensationalist. And it is for this basic reason
Chafer himself said that `the very fact that I did not           and because Chafer's entire theology  proceeds  con-
study a prescribed course in theology made it possible           sciously from a dispensationalist viewpoint that I would
for me to approach the subject with an unprejudiced              deny that his theology may be called Calvinistic.
mind and to be concerned only with what the Bible                   Finally, we may confront the question whether Dr.
actually teaches.'        This independent research has          Chafer's theology gives evidence of being  non-calvin-
resulted in this work which is unabridged, Calvinistic,          istic in concrete instances. My answer is affirmative.
premillennial, and dispensational." (pp. 5 and 6)                   As a first item, I would point to the fact that Dr.
       In the second place, the claim that Dr. Chafer's          Chafer, in characteristic dispensationalist fashion,
theology is premillennial and dispensational is cer-             holds to two elections,  - an election of Israel and an
tainly true. One does noo have to study this "Syste-             election of the church. (Vol. VII, "Doctrinal Summari-
matic Theology" very long before he discovers that it            zation, " pp. 132-138).     Now this is a decidedly  anti-
is,      in fact,    a thorough-going dispensationalistic        Calvinistic view.       For proof of this I will cite that
theology.      It was the avowed purpose of Dr. Chafer to        thoroughly Calvinistic creed, the Canons of Dordrecht,
fill what he believed was a lack in the field of theology,       I, A, 8:
namely, to write a dogmatics which was both unabridged                    There are not various decrees of election, but one
and dispensational.        This purpose, I would say, he             and the same decree respecting all those who shall be
achieved completely. Not only is there  dispensation-                saved, both under the Old and New Testament: since
alism in Chafer's theology, but dispensationalism  pev-              the scripture declares the good pleasure, purpose and
meates  his entire theology.                                         counsel of the divine will to be one, according to which
       In the third place, there are `without doubt some            he hath chosen us from eternity, both to grace and
Calvinistic  elements  (I prefer to say  Reformed ele-              glory, to salvation and the way of salvation, which he
ments.)  in Dr. Chafer's theology. I need not go into               hath ordained that we should walk therein.
detail as to these elements. For the question is not                As a second item, also stemming directly from his
whether there are elements of Calvinism present in               dispensationalism and its corruption of the Scriptural
Chafer's theology, but whether his very theology is              truth of God's eternal covenant of grace, I would point
Calvinistic. There is, indeed, adifference. I may have           to Chafer's denial of infant baptism.            This is, of
many elements of an automobile; but if an indispens-             course, characteristically dispensationalist; it is also
able element like the engine or the transmission is              closely connected with the fact that Baptists are usually
missing, it can hardly be said that I have an automo-            dispensationalist.
bile.     Or I may have many elements of a tree; but if             As a third item,  - and here the relation to Dr.
the very life of that tree is missing, it can hardly be          Chafer's dispensationalism is not at once clear,  - I
said that I have a tree. Thus, a theology may have               would point to his denial, mild though it may be, of the
some, even many, elements of Calvinism; but if that              thoroughly Reformed doctrine of limited atonement.
theology is not essentially Calvinistic, -that is, if one           Without doubt many more specific departures could
or more indispensable elements are absent,  - it can             be itemized, most of which stem from Chafer's  dis-
hardly be called a .Calvinistic theology.                        pensationalist view. Let these, however, suffice.


462                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


   The above remarks lead me to a more general ob-               misled on this score. For if not explicitly, then im-
servation concerning this entire matter. Not infre-              plicitly, there  is, behind the baptistic views of such a
quently we read and hear of so-called Calvinistic                theology a denial of the one and eternal covenant of
Baptists. These are Baptists who strive, or claim'to             grace which is intrinsically dispensationalist. Baptist
strive, to maintain the truths of sovereign grace.               theology is not federal, or covenant, theology. For the
Undoubtedly it is a cause for joy, in this day of Armin-         same reason, I believe, it has been historically impos-
ianism gone wild, to come into contact with those who            sible to remain Baptist and to remain Calvinistic as to
desire to maintain the truth of salvation by sovereign           the truth of sovereign grace. That accounts also for
grace only.                                                      the fact that most Baptists today are also Arminian.
   It is another question entirely, however, whether                The importance of the Reformed truth of God's
such Baptists are indeed Calvinistic, or whether the             eternal covenant of grace with His people is indeed
name  Calvinist  applied to a Baptist is after all a             great.      This truth is basic. Let us appreciate it and
misnomer.        As Reformed people, we should not be            hold it fast, both in doctrine and in life!




         As To A Common Order Of Worship

                                                by  Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema


       Since I am doing a bit of catching up in the editorial    nor merely because a certain change strikes our fancy
department, I take this opportunity to reflect on some           or sentimentally appeals to us, while there is no
remarks on the above subject made by brother Frank               intelligent reason for it, nor merely out of a desire to
Van  Baren  in his letter in the July issue (cf. p. 420).        imitate.     In this connection, it should certainly be kept
I make these remarks in the hope of stimulating further          in mind that our order of worship has a rich historical
discussion.                                                      background, one that dates back to Reformation times;
       First of all, I think brother Van  Baren  is referring    and usually when one investigates that background, he
not to our liturgical forms, but to the order of worship         discovers that Reformed principles of worship are
in our denomination. To my knowledge, there is no                very much involved also. Yet I dare say that some of
variation in our churches as to our liturgical forms,            our consistories could not even find in their minutes a
except, perhaps, that usage in our churches differs as           formally adopted order of worship; their order has
to dividing the Form for the Lord's Supper or abbrevi-           simply grown up and become established through usage
ating it in a second communion service. Nor may there            and perhaps never receives any direct attention until
be variation as to these liturgical forms. Their use is,         someone suggests a change.
according to our Church Order, binding. What the                    In the fourth place, brother Van Baren  suggests the
brother had in mind was the variation in the order of            possibility of a synodically appointed liturgy committee.
worship which there is among our congregations.                  This is no insignificant suggestion.           Our present
       Secondly, I think it is correct to say that we are        Liturgy Committee is not concerned with the order of
finding a greater diversity in this respect in our               worship; its mandate is chiefly to correct the transla-
churches.       As one who has the opportunity to be a           tion of our creeds and our liturgical forms. I would
guest preacher in our Michigan  - Illinois  - Wisconsin          suggest that there are questions to be faced with
churches from  time.to time, I know this by experience.          re,spect  to this proposal. There is not only the ques-
It has even happened upon occasion that I have for-              tion of whether and in how far uniformity in our order
gotten whether a certain congregation has an organ               of worship is desirable; but there is also the question
offertory or a singing offertory, because our churches           as to whether this matter lies properly in the province
are not uniform in this regard.            This is only one      of synod, as well as the related question of the degree
example.       Our churches differ as to several other           of congregational autonomy which our churches have in
details of the order of worship. Probably the greatest           this regard.
diversity at present is to be found in South Holland,
where an almost completely new order was recently                   Then, of course, there are all kinds of questions
introduced.                                                      which may be asked about specific elements in our
       In the third place, I believe that brother Van  Baren     order of worship, - beginning with the opening doxology
points to a factor which should not be overlooked. It is         which some of our churches have, but which some do
this: whatever order of worship our congregations                not have.
have, that order should have a sound basis both                     Perhaps both the editor of "The Church at Worship"
principally and historically. In other words, we should          and our readers have a further contribution to make on
not introduce changes merely for the sake of variety,            this subject.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    463





                             As To Movie Attendance

                                               by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

   Also in brother Van  Baren's  contribution reference          4) Now what are our objections to the movie? And
is made to the movie question and to recent editorial         are these objections a matter of mere logic, reasoning,
comment on it. The brother raises some questions              sound sense; or are they a matter of the ethical prin-
which are worth considering and, I believe, in need of        ciples of Holy Scripture? If by "textualproof" brother
clarification.    After reflecting on his contribution and    Van  Baren,  or anyone else, wants a literal injunction
after consulting my recent editorials on this subject, I      of Scripture, "Thou shalt not attend the movie," he is
make the following comments:                                  doomed to disappointment.        The Scriptures do not
    1) It is indeed true that our churches have no            engage in such legalism and spelling out of precept
synodical decision on movie attendance. Whether any           upon precept and line upon line. The Scriptures do not
local consistory has a decision, I am not in a position       do this in any  area of our life. Rather do they spell out
to say. This does not mean, however, that my article          the spiritual, ethical principles which must guide our
of March 15, "In Support of Movies" was a mere                life in all its facets.     And it is in the light of these
personal opinion.        It means that the article was not    principles that the Christian must also view the matter
expressive of an explicit denominational stand. As to         of the movie.
the weight of that article, I would say rather that it had       In this connection, in the first place, if we consider
all the weight of the authority of Scripture behind it.       the movie  mate&ally,   i.e., from the point of view of its
And that should speak loudly to the Christian!                contents, there really is no question as to whether it is
    2) I wish to clarify the issue, which I had thought       Christian or antichristian. All one has to do is consult
was already clear. When I speak of movie attendance,          the theater page in the daily newspaper with the ques-
I am not referring merely to motion pictures. There           tion in mind, "To what do all these ads appeal?" The
is no sin in a motion picture as such; the movie camera       answer is extremely obvious to him who has eyes to
is a very ingenious and useful invention. And if brother      see: they appeal to the lust of the flesh and the lust of
Van  Baren  means by "certain travel and adventure            the eyes and the vainglory of life. If, therefore, I would
movies" motion pictures of travel and adventure,              preach on a passage like I John  2:15, 16, I would
whether taken by professional or amateur photog-              certainly include in the homiletical application of that
raphers, then it certainly may be granted that such           text the warning against movie attendance. Or if I
movies can be both instructive and entertaining and           preached on Psalm  119:37, "Turn away mine eyes from
are not necessarily of the spirit of antichrist. When I       beholding vanities; and quicken thou me in thy way," I
speak of movies, however,  - and I thought there was          would certainly include, among other things, the movie
rather general agreement on that score,  -I am refer-         among those "vanities."
ring to dramatic productions on the stage or on the              In the second place,  - considering the movie from
motion picture screen. These, I believe, are without          the point of view of its sou'vce, - what must be the con-
exception not lawful entertainment for a Christian.           clusion of the Christian? Also this is not a difficult
    3) Let there be no misunderstanding on the score          question.        Whether that source is,  geographicalIy
of Christian liberty. For one thing,  wemust surely not       speaking, Hollywood or some other movie production
restrict Christian liberty to the area of the so-called       center (for example, in Europe), we all know (whether
adiaphova,  or indifferent things, things which are in        as a practical matter we are willing to recognize and
themselves neither good nor evil. Christian liberty is        face up to the fact is another question), -but we all
a broader concept. It is the freedom of the regenerated       know that the movie has its source in the foul fountain
and sanctified man of God in Christ according to which        of the world.         Now what is the spiritual, ethical
he willingly and out of the principle of the love of God      principle here? It is this: a corrupt tree cannot bring
in his heart lives and walks in conformity with the will      forth good fruit.       In other words, the Christian is
and precepts of the God of his salvation, as revealed         on the very face of it simply "kidding" himself when
in His Word. It is precisely my contention that such a        he goes to the theater seeking spiritually sound enter-
walk in Christian liberty will mean  that.the  child of       tainment for himself as a regenerated child of God.
God willingly and out of the principle of the love of         It is patently impossible for him to find it in the
God, desirous to conform his walk to the precepts of          theater because the very source is corrupt. Of course,
the Lord, will spurn the movie as a mode of entertain-        if you begin to philosophize on the basis of a so-called
ment.    And it is precisely my contention that when the      common grace that some good can come out of the
Christian, who ought to walk in Christian liberty, seeks      world and out of the natural man, then you can begin to
his entertainment in the movies, he is changing his           justify what comes out of  the. world in the way of
liberty into license.                                         theatrical productions also. It is precisely then that


464                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


you begin to have all kinds of problems as to which are          Christian Reformed Church with respect to the issues
good, legitimate movies and which are bad. Then you              which led to our being cast out. The movie issue as it
must begin to set up official or unofficial boards of            is currently troubling the conscience and the life of the
censorship to pass judgment on the movies. Then at               Christian Reformed Church is a direct and practical
your Christian colleges you must have a faculty-stu-             outgrowth of the error of common grace. This is plain
dent committee to determine which films are going to             from the decision of 1966 which I quoted in an earlier
be shown on the campus. Then, too, you get tensions              article.     For this reason, in part, I called attention to
between faculty and students as to who will have the             it.      In the second place, I do this for the instruction
greatest voice in such a board of censorship. This is            and warning of our own Protestant Reformed people.
what has happened at Calvin College especially in the            And I believe our pulpits should do this also.
past year. And it is rather peculiar that while the 1966                First of all, I believe that as a practical issue in
decision of the Christian Reformed Synod appealed                one's world-and-life view such a matter as the movie
supposedly to Christian liberty in regard to the                 points up dramatically the devastating practical results
(euphemistically denominated) "film arts," the result,           of the common grace theory,  - a theory against which
unless they want to let the bars down completely, is             our Protestant Reformed people must be warned and the
not less legalism, but more.                                     evils of which they must see.
       In the third place,  - and this is my most basic ob-             Secondly, I believe that our people should not only
jection,  - the fundamental ethical error of the movie           theoretically be a people of the antithesis and an  anti-
(understood in the sense of dramatic productions por-            common grace people. But they must be such practi-
trayed on the motion picture screen) is that the dra-            cally also. It will not do to be doctrinally opposed to
matic production is always the lie, the living lie. In fact,     the theory of common grace, and meanwhile in practical
the more the actors can succeed in lying, the more               life to live out of common grace principles. Doctrine
successful they are considered to be. To be successful           and life belong together.         Our life must seal our
actors they must not be themselves, but they must as             doctrine and adorn it.
much as possible be the characters they are portray-                    Thirdly, I am cognizant of the fact that movie
ing.     And the audience, to be successfully entertained,       attendance (and in this I include movie attendance via
must be made to live along as much as possible in that           the private screen on television) is not  amere theoret-
same world of the lie. The result when holy things are           ical evil among our people.        When I was formerly an
dramatized is blasphemy; and the result when sinful              active pastor in a congregation, it was always a source
things are dramatized is a compounding of the sin. And           of sad disappointment to me that so few of our young
surely, it is not a question for a Christian whether             people could testify, when asked at confession of faith,
lying can be in harmony with the precepts of his God?            that they had not indulged in the corruptions of the
       Finally, in this connection let me remark that in         movie. I have no reason to believe that my experience
the March 15 article cited I was not busy setting forth          was unique in that regard.          And with the advent of
positively my  principial objections  tomovie attendance.        television, I verily believe that the evil of movie
I was engaged polemically against Dr. John Bratt's               attendance is greater than ever.
use of fragment of a text in support of his so-called
"principle of discrimination" with respect to Holly-                    For these reasons I believe that instruction and
wood movies.                                                     warning are timely. I do not believe in legalism. I
       5) Why do I. and why do and should our churches           would not care to have our young people stay away
inveigh against movie attendance? There are many                 from movies merely because "the church"  says they
good reasons for this. And the fact that there may be            must stay away, and certainly not merely because I
other evil practices against which our churches do or            say so.       They must be warned against this evil, and
do not speak out strongly has nothing to do with                 they must indeed be instructed to walk in the liberty
speaking out strongly on this subject. As far as the             wherewith Christ hath made them free, -with God's
Standard   Bearev  is concerned, a not insignificant part        Word as a lamp unto their feet and a light upon their
of its task to continue to be a testimony toward the             path.




                . ..Must not also today the faithful, that do not hide their light, and refuse to have fellowship
            with the unfruitful works of darkness and to put on another yoke with the unbeliever, suffer
            reproach, mockery and `shame?        Are we, too, not frequently confronted with the alternative of
            suffering the loss of position and name, of a job and our business, unless we will deny our
            faith, and become amalgamated with the ungodly world? And what is our choice? Listen: the
             choice of him that lives by grace is to suffer in the behalf of Christ! To choose the world, its
            name and glory, its treasures and pleasures, our job and position, even our life, is, to say the
            least, not to live by grace. For it is given you of grace, not only to believe in Him, but also to
             suffer for His sake1
                                                                -H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p. 104


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     465



  FROM HOLY  WRIT-

                                     Book of Hebrews

                                              H e b r e w s   3:5-E

                                                  by Rev. G. Lubbers


THE BASIC ARGUMENT AND                                        the living God. To prevent such apostasy in the saints
WARNING IN TZIS SECTION                                       there  is- need of the means-  -of--g-race;-the-means  of
   In the foregoing verses the writer had contrasted          exhortation and careful mutual regard toward one
the greatest from among men in the Old Testament,             another.     We are to exhort one another daily, while it
Moses, with the greatest of the New Testament, the            is called "To day."
,Christ of `God.    Each was great in his own rank and           In the argument of the writer in this section we see
place in God's house, the church of the living God.           the reality of what the' fathers called the sin of separat-
Moses was great as a servant; Christ was great as a           ing what God has in His wisdom most intimately
Son and Builder of the house. Is He not the Apostle and       joined together. The fathers hold that if we separate
High Priest of our profession? Are we not, in Him,            the perseverance of the saints from the exhortations of
partakers of the heavenly calling? Are we not holy            the Word, we tempt God in the church. This writer
brethren in Him?                                              remembers  .too painfully that not so many years ago
   The answer to this question is yes and no! As far          there were some who walked this slippery path, when
as the elect of God are concerned, the answer is yes !        they echoed and reechoed loudly the slogan: do not tell
However, this is not evident to and in the elect, unless      God's people what to do! God's people walk in the ways
they walk in the perseverance of the saints, and they         of the Lord spontaneously, so they said! Why? Be-
show in their lives the evidence of election- the             cause they are Spirit-led and Spirit-filled! Dangerous
infallible fruits of God's elective grace. The crowning       talk! Practically it leads (led?) to the carelessness of
fruit of election is perseverance! And perseverance           the life of the antinomist, a trifling with the grace of
is made up experientially of walking in heeding the           election.    Such do not desire to  .be admonished by the
"Voice" of God in many "To day" situations. Ever we           law of God as the rule for their life of thankfulness
walk in perseverance by walking in what is called "To         and daily conversion. They need not the precepts of
day."    The non-elect do not walk in perseverance            the Gospel! Ah, they pretend to be above and beyond
because they never walked in true faith in Christ at          the need of the admonitions of the Gospel, and they do
all! They are not in Christ, are no partakers of Him          not give heed to each other lest there be an evil heart
and all His benefits, and, therefore, they will become        of unbelief in their midst. On the contrary: they allege
embittered by and by, be offended and hardened by the         that the elect do not need admonitions, and the repro-
rigor of the journey to Canaan above, and harden              bate don't profit by them- anyway!
their heart, as did Israel in the wilderness in the              Nevertheless, we shall by God's grace adhere  tothe
provocation, in the day of Israel's tempting God in the       sound words of admonition, and give heed to the basic
wilderness ! Ever again the mixed multitude and the           warning and argument of the writer to the Hebrews ! Is
reprobate Israel will murmur against God's covenant           not all Scripture given by inspiration, and profitable
dealings, trials and judgments which the redeemed             also for reproof and  correction~in righteousness, that
experience in this world. The righteous must enter            the man of God be thoroughly equipped unto all good
into the kingdom through much tribulation. And blessed        works? (II Timothy  3:16 f.f.)
is he who is not offended at the ways of the most High!
   Since only those who hold fast to the `confidence          THE CRISP QUOTATION FROM PSALM 95.7-U
and rejoicing of hope firm to the end are the house of        (He brews 3: 7-11)
God, we are to give all diligence to make our calling            There is an expression of  extrem.e urgency in
and election sure. Wherefore we are to take heed lest         Psalm  95:1-6. The urgency is expressed in the words
there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief to fall       "0 come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a
away from the living God.                                     joyful noise unto the rock of our  salvation...Let  us
   It is our conviction that the KJV is correct in placing    come before His presence with thanksgiving... 0 come,
the quotation from Psalm  95:7-11 (Hebrews 3:7-11) in         let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the
parentheses. The injunction is, therefore, that we take       LORD, our maker." Thus also here  inHebrews  3:7-U
heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief.    there is an urgent calling to worship God in Christ.
There is somuchin this present evil world which would         Already in verse 1 we hear this urgent exhortation:
draw us away from, and cause us to apostatize from            "Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our  profes-


      466                                                                THESTANDARDBEARER


      sion.;. take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you                            to enter into the promised land. In that great apostasy
      an evil heart of unbelief... . but exhort one another                               of Israel some six hundred thousand men of war died
      daily, while it is called To day."                                                  in the wilderness, from twenty years old and upwards.
                This urgency is not merely of human invention; it                         Thus did the Holy Ghost record this history through
      did not originate in the heart of prophets and bards-.                              David for our instruction and warning; yea, thus did this
      It is not merely an excited or a devoted David who thus                             Word of God resound in the ears of the Hebrew  chris-
      speaks, but it is God Himself who thus speaks to us in                              tians.
      Psalm  95:7-11.                          It was the Holy Ghost who speaks in           Yes, we need this word of warning. For God does
      and through a David. (Hebrews  4:7) Let us, even while                              not come to us with a special and individual revelation
      we are reading this essay, feel this urgency of God's                               from heaven to tell us that we are personally elected
      "Voice." to us, giving instant and continuous heed to                               of Him; that we are engraved in the palms of His
      the same.                           When God speaks to us in the Gospel, we         hands. Nor are we favored with a trip into the inner
      are no mere spectators, nor do we simply listen to                                  sanctuary of God to see whether our name is written
      what others have heard Him say and now relate to us.                                in the Lamb's Book of Life; nor are we permitted to
      When God speaks, all hear, whether they heed the Word                               curiously pry into the secret will of God and counsel of
      of  `God.  .or not! May we say and confess: to me also, to                          our redemption.          Thus God does not ordain that we
      .me also, -the Word comes. Speak, Lord, thy servant                                 shall make our calling and election sure. Nay, we
      heareth! Let us say this prayerfully before the face of                             receive such assurance of election in various degrees
      God.                                                                                and in due time by observing in ourselves with a
      There is a. certain emphasis in this quotation  - the                               spiritual joy and holy pleasure the infallible fruits of
      emphasis of God's "Voice" itself. It is the oft repeated                            election.    These fruits are wrought by the Holy Spirit
      "harden. not your hearts," a warning against being                                  in our hearts by the Gospel, and they are pointed out to
      hardened-through the deceitfulness of sin. This hard-                               us in the Word, such as, true faith in Christ, filial
      ening  ,is the moral process from evil to worse. It is                              fear, a godly sorrow for sin, a hungering and thirsting
      the process of the sin of unbelief against the clear                                after righteousness. Thus we preach the doctrine of
      testimony of God's Word  - His voice, clear and strong,                             election for our profit, for the comfort of the godly,
      as.  it is accompanied by the testimony of the Holy                                 without vainly attempting to investigate the secret ways
      Ghost:-in the- heart of all who hear the Gospel, whether                            of the most High! (Canons of Dordt, First Head of
      this be in the wilderness of Sinai, or from the  pulpit of                          Doctrine, Article  ,12, 15).
      some:  -little country. church in a Western prairie-land  1                            Our confessions are in agreement with this crisp
      This:.process.  reveals itself in the hardening of the                              quotation in Hebrews 3:7-11 taken from Psalm 95:7-11.
      heart which expresses itself in contention with God on                              God works the grace of obedience and perseverance in
      the: part of the sinner, of tempting God to wrath and                               the faith, through admonitions, warnings and threaten-
      fury-by. ascribing evil to the most High! It is really the                          ings.     Wherefore, Today, if ye hear his voice, harden
      sin  :against the Holy Ghost, and ultimately an open                                not your hearts.. . !
      falling away  ~-from the living God as revealed in His
      Word,-' His -Voice !                         Such a hardened sinner says: I         THE  T&AYC~NCEPTOFPSALM~~:~AS
      have- no -desire to walk in the ways of the LORD.                                   QUOTEDINHEBREWS(Hebvews3:7,   13,15;4:7)
             : Here :we come to that point where we feel the force                            We notice that, in the quotation from Psalm  95:7,
      ofthe  quotation of Psalm 95, do we not? We stand here                              the first term is "To day." It is an adverb of time,
      in the either-or.                           Either we shall more and more           and it expresses a certain urgency which will allow
      come and worship the LORD, our Maker, and bow down                                  for no procrastination on the part of those who are
      to  Him,.we shall kneel before Him, even as He came to                              called to the worship of the Lord.          In the Hebrew
      stand -before  us' in the face of Jesus Christ, partakers                           language the term for To day is "Ha Yom," the day.
      of the -heavenly calling, or we shall gradually lose                                The Greek translation is "Hemeera." The term "TO
      delight  `in the church of God, as those who "hear the                              day" is used here throughout indistinctionfrom yester-
      Word -and -anon: with joy receive it," according to Jesus'                          day and from the endless future. We are no longer in
      word  .in the  ,parable,  the parable of the sower. (Mat-                           yesterday,  .and we are not yet in tomorrow. The only
      thew  13:20) Hence, the writer to the Hebrews cites                                 time allotted us to serve the Lord is "today."
      for our warning and admonition the frightful example                                   The writer to the Hebrews makes a special use of
      of the unbelief of Israel in the desert, and how they                               this term "To day," both in this Chapter and in the
      were condemned to die in the wilderness and forbidden                               next.     We notice this peculiar usage of the term in



      .                 _       `
                                     :
           .\;`.,l                        It.  .is,immeasurably  better and preferable to suffer and remain on the side of righteousness,
                         ^-. Christ;. God, than to avoid suffering by denying the name of our Lord, and choosing for our-
                              . . selves, the way of the flesh and of the world. When we face the alternative of an ethical,
                               `spiritual evil or suffering for righteousness' sake, it is infinitely to be preferred to choose the
1               .-:.
_-                      :' latter than to commit the former.
                                .
                 ~.                                                                      -H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p. 99


                                               THESTANDARDBEARBR                                                                                                               467


verse 13, where we read, "But exhort one another              basic concept of Scripture, rich in meaning; that it is
daily, while it is called To day." In verse 15 we read,       of great significance for our understanding of the
"While it is  said; To day if ye will hear his voice,         thrust of the exhortation that we do not harden our
harden not your hearts." In Chapter  4:7 the term "To         hearts as in the provocation. The writer to the He-
day" is contrasted with an earlier period in the life of      brews distinguishes. the "day" of Israel's being in the
God's church. It is the contrast between the time of          desert and their finally entering into the promised land
David and the time of Joshua at the time of Israel's          under Joshua from the later "day" of David, as well as
inheriting the land.                                          from that much later "day," wherein a better "Rest;"
   From this usage of the term we may conclude that            a Sabbath remaineth for the children of God in the New
the term "To day" refers to an epoch-period in God's           Dispensation. "To day" therefore refers to the pecu-
church.     It ought to be quite clear that the term "To      liar dispensation of God in which any given saint  liveis
day' ' is not a mere adverb of time, but rather is a          in the history of  God?s  covenant.                                                                   ,,--  `:-


                                                                                                                   :
         IN HIS FEAR-                                                                                                                                                                I'

                                                                                                                                                       _      _      _         _
                                                                                                                                                              .r                            ._
                                                                                                                                                 -                  _  :  2
                          ""And Islands Of The Sea" .                                                                                       -I.. ~7.1  .-
                                                                                                                                                                               ^
                                                                                                                                                              .-





                                                                                                                                                .,,                       I..
                                                                                                       .     .          :.
                                                    byRev.J. A. Heys                                         -                      -                                                i.


   At this writing we are on the largest of those islands     practices. Nothing is farther  from'thet.ruthYA~marked
in the Caribbean Sea which formerly were called the           development of sin, and not  a-  `fcommon-  grace'!.   re:
British West Indies. And although we are only 90 miles        straint of sin, may be noted :here `after a short-Labseiice
from the southern border of Cuba and some 400 miles           of only two years. The change  .is simply unbelievable.
from Miami and the southern coast of Florida, we are          Gone especially is the Sabbath  observanceland rever-
in an entirely different country with an entirely differ-     ence that characterized this island  of:-the   sea; Far
ent way of life.                                              more rapidly than in the  corn-munities:  where in the
   Christianity  and.the  church has come to this island,     States our churches are found has- the  .quietness and
even as the prophecy was given in Psalm  72:10, "The          holiness of the Sabbath disappeared,  to. be  replaced'by
kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents;      the most open desecration and indifference;-.  I-                                                       -  -
the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts." Of this              Before we had been on the  "islanda~week we-were
we are also reminded in the  versification  found in our      also alerted to the fact that  them"God.is  dead!`?heresy
Psalter,                                                      had also lifted up its proud-head here, and-the blasphe-
           "The desert lands to Him shall bow,                mous statement  -was well  .known:in' these  parts;--  We
            And all the islands of the sea;                   heard the Jamaican Chorus which was `designed to
            And kings with gifts shall pay their vow,         counteract this vile doctrine in song; The song:which:we
            His enemies shall bend the knee."                 heard was this:
   From out of Asia and the land of Palestine Chris-                    "Don't try to tell  me.that' God is  dead,-. :
tianity spread into Europe, and then from- Tarshish                       He  woke.me  up-this  kor.nihg..  -:I  .:  ..  I-.  .-                                                             i
(Spain and those regions) it spread over the ocean to         ,.       Don'ttry  to tell-me. It .is no lie  :  `-                                                                   : .-
all of its islands. North and South America may be in         :        He.  lives  within   my  heart..                       _  -.  ..I  k  `~  _                   -.  :  L
this sense called islands.. From the viewpoint of the                     He opened  up..my blinded eye                                         :                   '
Old Testament psalmist, who considered Spain to be the              .:  -And   s e t   me-onmy.way;.   .   .   ..-.  -~                               :                   ".`-`
end of the world,  - and so did all men till Columbus                  :. Don't try to tell me  that-God  is-dead;                                            .--
proved the world to be round  - anything beyond the                  -I just talked with Him today.":                                     -                   1.                      :
western shores of Europe was an island of the sea                   =-As -to-the  work,_we  .may report-that ElderZwakand
that stretched out into the unknown regions beyond the        undersigned-: have been kept busy and will be able to
eye of man. In due process of time the truth of God's         judge. the fruits `of  our- labors better at a later date.
Word came to this island, and sincere children of God         We  would-  -like' to  ,-revie-w somewhat our calendar with
are to be found upon it; and faith in Christ is definitely    you `and point -out `a .few incidents to keep you informed
here.                                                         of what,is  being.done,  ---
   However, one makes a serious mistake if one thinks         -' -After  3- hours  and.  46. minutes of flying time from
that an island isolated in the sea, far removed from the      Chicago's0'Hare;Field; we arrived safely and on time
mainland of not only Asia but also of Europe and of           at- the  Monte&   B.ay airport and were greeted there by
America, is  cutt off from false doctrines and from evil      Rev, Frame and his "son", Rev. Ruddock, and Elder


468                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


Ritchie, who had driven in from Lucea that morning.          went after a hurried lunch of sandwiches which we had
After arranging for the car which we rented for the          taken along, the text of the sermon was II peter  3:9,
duration of our stay here, we obtained lodging for the       "For the Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
night. We had spoken for a cottage which we planned          as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to
to rent, but it was occupied until Thursday noon. On         us-ward, not willing that any (of us) should perish, but
Wednesday we travelled to Lucea with a view to the           that all (of us) should come to repentance."
service there that evening at First Hill, and we began          The following Sunday  - after a service Tuesday
to get our legs and feet and backs in shape for the          night (Fourth of July in the States, but here just
very necessary hill climbing that this work demands.         another day) at Mt. Salem and Wednesday night at
There_is..a_reason  why all these churches are so far        Latium  - we preached in Cambridge, which is one of
of%the=beatenpathand-so  frequently perched high on a        Rev. Elliott's churches and Sunday, the 16th of July,
hill.  X-is  amatter  of finances, and the lower lots are    we had three services, a morning and late afternoon
far more expensive. For the strong, muscular legs of         service at Friendship-Hill, which is Rev. Ruddock's
the Jamaicans these hills present no problem.                church, and an -evening service at Mt. Salem. As to
   That evening, June 28, we preached to a very              that Fourth of July service at Mt. Salem, the preaching
attentive audience, choosing for our text the words of       did not begin till  lo:30 that night. Time on this island
the psalmist in Psalm  89:15, "Blessed is the people         is simply something to ignore! It is judged-or mis-
that know the joyful sound: they shall  walk;0  Lord, in     judged-by the position of the sun, and watches and
the light of thy countenance." And we have reason to         clocks are a rare item among the people with whom we
believe that this congregation at Lucea, First Hill, not     deal.
only heard the joyful sound but also knows it.                  That first Sunday we arrived in time toget in on the
   On Thursday we returned to Montego Bay and set-           closing of the Sunday School and we heard the children
tled in our place of residence, unpacked our clothing        recite their memory verse which was Matthew  18:3,
and bought our groceries in quite a different "Super         "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and
Market" from what is our usual custom. It took longer        become as little children, ye shall not enter into the
as well, since we had to look carefully at each item         kingdom of heaven."         We were quite interested in
with its marking in pounds, shillings and pence. As          listening as Rev. Frame drilled with questions until he
far as canned goods is concerned, the difference is not      got his answers.      "What must happen before we can
too great, many American brands being found on the           believe?    What must be there before we can be con-
shelf. Fruit, of course, is abundant and by nature sweet     verted?"     At last he got his answer, "We must be
because it is tree ripened.                                  born again."
   On Friday we went to visit the church at Mt. Salem,          At Friendship Hill we heard a rather cute way of
which is a suburb of Montego Bay, and here it is that we     saying the truth that we are saved by grace and not by
began to hold our classes of instruction for the minis-      works, that we cannot save ourselves and must rely
ters in the Protestant Reformed Churches of Jamaica.         wholely on Christ.      The statement in the peculiar,
We also travelled,up into the hills and into the interior    short way of the Jamaicans to express themselves is
of the island to Latium (pronounced "Lashum." And,           this, "Self is failure!"
by the way, Lucea is pronounced "Lucy," and Jamaica              "School" is being held every week and the "stu-
has only three syllables and is properly pronounced as       dents" give evidence of eagerness to learn, although
"Ja-may-ca")       and were refreshed with glasses           the heat is no help, nor the humidity, nor the noise -we
of coconut "jell," or water, as we call it, supplied by      intend to change the place of meeting this week -and
Elder  Spence and his wife. Saturday, of course, was         the Reformed faith is so different from all that they
spent in preparing for preaching twice in Rev. Frame's       have heard and been taught before. God's Spirit must
churches.                                                    apply it and give light and understanding. We depend
   We say, churches, because in the morning we had a         upon Him for fruit upon our labors.         But we at. the
service in Lucea, First Hill Church, and in late after-      moment do believe that the truth which we emphasize
noon .one at. Johnsontown, which is one mile east of         every school day is not only understood but received by
Lucea.    The climb up to this church, although a little     faith, namely, that God is GOD; and all our doctrine
shorter than at Lucea, is as far as the last part is         must declare this or we are not in harmony with the
concerned much steeper. The text of the morning's            testimony of Scripture. We strive to teach and show
sermon was Matthew  11:30, "For my yoke is easy and          that all five points of Calvinism say this and  that. this
my burden is light." `And in Johnsontown, where we           is what we must always say in all of our preaching.

                                         ATTENTION: R.F.P.A. MEMBERS
                               Annual meeting of the Reformed Free Publishing
                               Association will be held, Thursday, Sept. 21, D.V., in
                               the Southeast Protestant Reformed Church, at 8:OOp.m.
                               Rev. J. Kortering will be the speaker. Three Board
                               members are to be elected from the following nomina-
                               tion: George De Vries, D. Kooienga, G. Schimmel,
                               H.  Kamphuis,  H. Velthouse, and R. Teitsma.
                                                       The R.F.P.A. Board


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    469'



    THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP-


                               The Office of the Deacon

                                                 by Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg


   In our last article we emphasized  .that the deacon's       It is said that as late as the eighteenth century a
office, apart from the question whether or not Acts 6          Lutheran pastor, visiting in the Netherlands, expressed
records its historical origin, is divinely instituted and      his amazement at and appreciation for what the  Re--
has the sanction of the Word of God. Christ will have          formed churches did through their diaconates for the
deacons in His church as well as elders and ministers          alleviation of the poor - something which he could find.
of the' Word.      The church that has no diaconate, or        nowhere in his own church. Deterioration, however,
where. the diaconate fails to function according to the        has crept in from time to time.         Many diaconates
mandate and calling of God's Word, suffers a very              seemingly are more interested in maintaining sizable
serious lack of something that is essential to her             endowments than in helping the distressed,. And not
existence.     The church cannot completely consummate         infrequently where the- poor are helped, it is done  in-
her calling without the labor of the deacons.                  an offensive way. There is abundant room to review
   It is important that the members of the church              the functions of this office carefully and the time is
understand this. One is easily left with the impression        now to make the necessary amends.
that office-bearers and members alike in our days think            The times in which we live are marked by  unpre--
of deacons merely as some sort of financial agents of          cedented  material prosperity and the number of needy
the church.      They are to gather the funds, chief of        has in consequence been reduced. Besides, unemploy-.
which in the minds of many are the budget contributions        ment and medical insurance, together with old-age
for the running expenses of the church. Of these funds         pensions and a variety of retirement plans for the
they are the custodians, and it often seems that their         average laborer, have become the order of the day.
responsibility ceases with their maintaining the general       The chief purpose of the diaconate is forgotten and in
fund of the church in good order. Others tend to regard        many instances where there is evidence of need, aid
the deacons as some kind of assistants to the ministers        by the deacons is even scorned. This is a most un-
and elders. This is especially true in the Episcopal           happy circumstance.        Apart from the question of
and Roman Catholic churches where deacons do not               where the blame for all this must be placed, it is time
engage in the work of mercy but rather, as assistants          that the church confronts the reality and takes positive
to the clergy, are called to exercise themselves in            steps to renovate `the diaconate.     Even though there
various details pertaining to the worship.          To the     may be no  real  needy in  a  certain congregation  for  a
deacons are assigned  all. kinds of menial tasks, with         time, the ministry of mercy must go on. Such a church
the result that their unique calling is either obscured        has a God-given duty to assist sister-congregations
or forgotten.                                                  where many may be feeling the pinch of poverty.
   Reformed churches are not entirely free from this           Reports of situations of dire need throughout the
tragic error.     Although at the time of the 16th century     church and world should not leave the hearts of those
reformation and for some time after it was the Re-              called to minister Christ's mercy cold and indifferent,
formed churches that seemed to grasp the necessity             but should stir the hearts of both deacons and congre-
and importance of restoring all the offices. of the            gations to bring liberal alms. When there was `no need'
church to their rightful dignity according to the Word         in Galatia, Macedonia, and Corinth, these churches.
of God, the offices were not always properly main-             were expressly commanded by God through Paul to
tained. Calvin stressed the ministry of mercy as an            bring their gifts for the saints in  Judea. The principle
integral part of the life of the Christian church. He           of this action remains unchanged to the present time
claimed to find warrant for two types of deacons; those         and any church that flouts this principle will suffer
who devoted themselves exclusively to the care of the          tragic spiritual repercussions.
poor and those who ministered to the sick. That much               If then the diaconate is to be maintained according'
emphasis was laid on the latter is understandable,              to the ordinances of God's Word, we must emphasize
when we remember the comparatively poor medical                first of all the care of the needy. Then we show that
facilities which obtained not only in Geneva but through-      we truly believe the Savior's word that we have them
out- Europe in his day. If deacons did not minister to          always with us. This emphasis, then, is also the' central
the sick and the dying,  the'y were often forgotten            point of significance in the description of the office of
entirely.                                                       deacons as found in our installation form. This form
   For a long time the  diaconal office was held in high        speaks of the office as consisting of two functions. We
honor in all the French and  DutchCalvinistic  churches.        quote:


470                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


           . ..that they in the first place collect and preserve     wise when one member suffers or is in want, the whole
       with the greatest fidelity and diligence, the  alms and       body of saints should grieve with him. The spirit of
       goods which are given to the poor; yea, to do their           looking after, not the things of self, but the things of
       utmost endeavors, that many good means be procured            others must prevail in the communion of the saints.
       for the relief of the poor...
          The second part of their office consists in distribu-      (Phil.  2)  Without it the practice of Christian mercy
       tion, wherein are not only required discretion and pru-       becomes obsolete.
       dence to bestow the alms only on objects of charity,              Now this unity can be and is expressed in various
       but also cheerfulness and simplicity to assist the poor       ways with which we are not at present concerned. Our
       with compassion and hearty affection; as the apostle          pqrpose here is to point out that the spiritual unity of
       requires, Romans, Chapter 12; and II Corinthians,             the church is expressed in her offerings for charity.
       Chapter 9. From which end it is very beneficial, that         Alms-giving is an integral and essential part of wor-
       they do not only administer relief to the poor and            ship and without this the diaconate cannot properly
       indigent with external gifts, but also with comfortable       function. The church must, then, in the second place,
       words from Scripture.                                         understand the meaning of charity and must restore
       We note here that the installation form says nothing          to its rightful place, the spiritual practice of alms-
about the deacons collecting monies for the general                  giving.
operation of the church. In every church these matters                   Can the claim that also in our churches there is
are entrusted to the care of the deacons. We are not                 room for improvement be disputed?           Some tend to
now objecting to this practice, but we are pointing out              look at the worship service on Sunday as merely
that this work is not the essence of their office. When              a preaching service.     Now we do not minimize the
the deacons of a church do this and only this, they are              importance of the preaching in worship, but we must
not fulfilling the responsibilities of the office to which           insist that worship consists of the bringing of praise
Christ calls them. Until this is understood, there is                and homage to the Lord as well as hearing what He has
little, if any, hope or possibility of restoring the office          to say to us through His Spirit and Word. These two
of the diaconate to its proper place in the church.                  aspects of worship must be kept in proper balance.
Deacons are ministers of mercy, and with the work                        Others consider the limitation of responsibility of
of mercy they must be primarily concerned. Their                     giving to the Lord's cause the paying of the weekly
specific work is to collect alms and properly to distrib-            budget. Again it may be said that certainly it is impor-
ute these alms to the needy.                                         tant that the needs for the upkeep and maintenance of
   That this is not always done is not to be blamed on               the church be met; but this must not overshadow and
the deacons alone. The deterioration of this office is               obscure the important responsibility of giving alms.
properly the responsibility of the entire congregation.              Likewise it must be remembered that paying one's
And although there are undoubtedly many things that                  budget and even contributing to missions, Christian
contribute to this, we will single out especially two                education and other special causes is not an alms.
important factors in this article. In the first place, if            Alms-giving is an essential part of worship andwithout
the office of mercy is to function in the church, she                it the diaconate simply cannot function.
must live in the conscious awareness of her spiritual                    In many churches the offering for benevolence is
unity.       The confession, "I believe one holy catholic            no longer held in the high esteem which once character-
church", must be more than empty words. This state-                  ized it. Indications are that in some instances these
ment, uttered by believers throughout the centuries,                 offerings are received only once a month, and it is
must remind  US  of our basic spiritual unity in Christ              ,said that there have been churches in the past in which
Jesus. The church does not consist of a certain number               it was customary to receive an offering for the poor
of people, each living his own little life of comparative            only at the time of the Lord's Supper. When these
isolation and unconcern for others. Individualism in                 practices are questioned, the answer is generally that
the church of Christ stands condemned. God's people                  offerings for these causes are no longer needed because
are one family, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus               the congregation has no poor.
Christ.      When, therefore, one member rejoices, there                 Although  .our Church Order nowhere explicitly de-
is occasion for the whole family to be glad; and like-               mands the receiving of an offering for benevolence


                  .  ..to suffer in the behalf of  .Christ also implies the idea of suffering for the advantage and
             benefit of Christ. Christ must be revealed. His name may not remain hid, but must be made
             manifest. The glory and beauty of His power and grace must be fully shown forth and declared
             in all the world, and that, not only in order that His Church may be gathered, and His kingdom
             may be extended, but also in order that the world may be condemned, and the unfruitful works
             of darkness may be rebuked. This cause believers must serve. And to serve this cause they
             must suffer, in order that the measure of iniquity may be filled, sin may become fully manifest
             as enmity against God, and the evil world may become ripe for the day of the revelation of the
             righteous judgment of God. Because of Christ, but also in the interest of the cause of Christ,
             it is given to the saints in this world to suffer for His sake.
                                                                    -H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p. 102


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          471


each Lord's Day, the importance of the  matters  dannot                of the  poov, as becomes a Christian." (Italics mine)
be questioned. The  deacons  are required to care for                  Is there then not something lacking in the worship
the poor, and to do this they must be provided with                 that fails  ro provide rhe opportunity to fulfill this
means. Inquiry is made into this matter at each meet-               important part of our religion? Must not the church
ing of  Classis  as well as at the time of Church Visita-           restore the offering for charity to its rightful place in
tion.    But most important of all, the answer given to             our services?         Alms must be provided so that the
the question concerning the fourth commandment in                   diaconates can properly function.' However,  rhis raises
Lord's Day XXXVIII of our Heidelberg Catechism                      one important question. What about the church  thar is
indicates plainly that at least one offering each Lord's            itself the  object of charity, unable to provide its own
Day for benevolence is required by our Reformed                     essentials? Mtisr not charity begin at home? Is it the
religion.      Concerning the observance of the Sabbath             obligation of such needy churches to use their own
the Catechism states:                                               benevolence first; to take more offerings for the poor
         First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools     which then would be used for self-support instead of
   be  .maintained;  and that I, especially on the Sabbath,         being subsidized denominationally? Can a church that
   that is, the day of rest, diligently attend the church of        is not self-supporting really exercise benevolence out-
   God, to learn God's Word, to use the sacraments, to              side of her own sphere? And, ifnot,  what is .the function
    call publicly upon the Lord, and  contribute to the  -relief    of the diaconate in such churches?


AU AROUND  US-


               Conditional Reprobation

                                                               The Mideast Crisis

                                                          by Pvof. H. Hanko


CONDITIONAL REPROBATION                                                 eternity while the other (man's choices) belongs to the
    It  is often  lamented that- in the Christian Reformed              category of time.
Church the doctrine of eternal and unconditional repro-                        We must be concerned that we do not impose our
bation is no more taught. While this is clearly the                     own logic on the Scriptures on the one hand and that
truth of Scripture and, indeed, the specific and un-                    we observe the boundaries of the Bible on the other.
                                                                               If we were to take the doctrine of election and apply
deniable teaching of Calvin, it is almost totally ignored               stern logic to it, we would posit the cold judgment that
today even in churches which claim to stand in the                      back in eternity God chose some to be saved and in a
tradition of the Reformer of Geneva.             An instance of         paraliel decree chose some to be damned.
this denial recently appeared in  The  Banner.            In his               But the Bible does not proceed in that fashion. It
column "The Question Box", Rev.  Bratt has the fol-                     teaches that man is saved in the electing grace of
lowing. We quote the article in full.                                   God. God chose him to salvation from before the foun-
                                                                        dation of the world. No credit for this can be ascribed
         A Michigan Men's Society, discussing Malachi  1:2,             to man.        Salvation rests on the eternal love of God.
    3, and Romans  9:10-14, arrived, as might be expected,              That is one set of teachings.
    at a parting of the ways as far as interpretation is                       The other is that the wrath of God rests on the
    concerned.      The majority held that God hated Esau               sinner because of his sin.          Damnation is based on
    prior to his earthly existence, and the minority held               human sin. (The fact that God hated Esau is, signifi-
    that God hated him because of his disreputable life.                cantly enough, not stated in the Genesis record but long
    They ask: "Whose side do you take? What do you                      after Esau had left the human scene.) The lost will
    believe to be the right position?"                                  locate his perdition  in his rejection of the Christ. The
         Answer: I side with the minority. The other posi-              redeemed will say, "I'm here because God saved me,"
    tion lands you in the bog of fatalism.                              while the lost will say, "I'm here because I deserve
         Implicit in the question is the very difficult matter          this punishment."
    of the conjunction of God's election of man and of                         The Men's Society that sent in the question would
    man's full responsibility for what he does. Both are                do well to take a close look at the Canons of Dort in
    clearly taught in the Scriptures and therefore, despite             this regard. The Conclusions are very emphatic. They
    our inability to harmonize them, must be firmly main-               state that the teaching "that God, by a mere arbitrary
    tained.     Furthermore, as I mentioned in a related                act of his will, without the least respect or view to any
    article some time ago, what complicates this issue is               sin, has predestinated the greatest part of the world to
    that the one factor (election) belongs to the category of           eternal damnation and has created them for this very


472                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


      purpose; (and) that in the same manner in which elec-                we may learn to acquiesce in the.bare  and simple good
      tion is the fountain and cause of faith and good works,              pleasure of God, Paul withdraws us from this view,
       reprobation is the cause of unbelief and impiety. . . the           until he has established this doctrine, -that God has a
       Reformed Churches not  only do not acknowledge but                  sufficiently just reason for electing and for reprobating,
:      even detest with their whole soul." (cf. also Canons I,             in his own will.
      5; III-IV,  9  and the  Institutes of the Christian Religion,
      III, 8, 23.)                                                         The editor of this Commentary, evidentlynot agree-
      Now it is true that our Canons, in  the.Conclusion,              ing with Calvin on this point, adds in a footnote:
say precisely what the quote above includes. Never-                            Archbishop  Usher  asks this `question, "Did God,
theless, Rev. Bratt is mis-applying the Canons'badly                       before he made man, determine to save some and re-
when he quotes them in support of his view of condi-                       ject others?" To this he gives this answer, -"Yes,
tional reprobation.           The fact is that the Canons are              surely; before they had done either good or evil, God
-denying that the Reformed Churches teach that  in  the                    in his eternal counsel set them apart." It is the same
same manner  as election is the fountain and cause of                      sentiment that is announced here by Calvin.        But to
.faith and good works, reprobation is the cause of                         deduce it from what is said of Jacob and Esau, does
unbelief and impiety. In other words, they are denying                     not seem legitimate, . . .
that the Reformed faith teaches that God's decree of                       A little further, Calvin writes:
reprobation is the cause of the sin of man. They are
insisting that this is not the Reformed faith, nor is it                       False  then is the dogma, and contrary to God's
the truth of Scripture, The Reformed Churches until                        word, -that God elects or rejects, as he foresees each
                                                                           to be worthy or unworthy of his favour.
today have concurred in this. But from this it must
not (and cannot) be deduced that our fathers maintained                    All these quotations could be multiplied from Cal-
a  conditional  reprobation so that unbelief and impiety               vin's writings  - also from his  Institutes  where, among
in the wicked is the cause or basis of God's eternal                   other comments on this doctrine, Calvin defines pre-
decree.          This is what Rev. Bratt wants when he says            destination in these words:
that God did not hate Esau until after he sinned.- This                        Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by
is at variance with Scripture and with the Reformed                        which he has determined in himself, what he would have
faith.                                                                     to become of every individual of mankind. For they
      It is true that this is an  ,exceedingly  difficult prob-         are not  all created with a similar destiny; but eternal
lem  - one surely; that is, for us, insoluble. But Rev.                    life is foreordained for some, and eternal damnation
Bratt's advice should then surely be followed:  ". . . we                  for others. Every man, therefore, being created for
must observe the boundaries of the Bible . .  e  ." And                    one or the other of these ends, we say, he is pre-
the Bible teaches that also the decree of reprobation is                   destinated either to life or to death.
sovereign'and  unconditional.                                              Hence, in order to define the relation between the
      I cannot find the reference in Calvin's  Institutes              sovereign decree of reprobation and the sin of man,
which the author mentions. (Perhaps this is due to the                 Reformed writers have avoided the error condemned
fact that I have a different edition thanhe does; mine is              by our Canons in the Conclusion, but have likewise
the Allen translation published by Eerdmans.) But                      condemned the error of conditional reprobation. They
quotations can be made from Calvin's writings which                    have rather chosen to speak of reprobation as  in the
specifically condemn conditional reprobation and                       way  of  sin.     It is evident that the expression "in the
emphasize its sovereign character.                                     way of" does not say a great deal. But here is where
      In Calvin's treatise "The Eternal Predestination of              we must follow where Scripture leads and stop where
God'.' in which Calvin answers the heresies of Pigbius,                Scripture stops. But to adopt conditional reprobation
he writes, commenting on Romans  9:22, 23:                             is to ignore Scripture's plain statements, to deny the
          .Now  if this being  "afoye   pvegaaved unto glory" is       truth of God's absolute sovereignty, and to pave the way
      peculiar  .and special to the elect, it evidently follows        for conditional election as well and a complete denial
      that the  rest,  the non-elect, were equally "fitted to          of predestination.
      destruction," because, being left to their own nature,           THE MID-EAST CRISIS AND PREMILLENNIALISM
      they were thereby devoted already to certain destruc-
      tion. That they were "fitted to destruction" by  their               Since the establishment of the nation of Israel as an
      `own wickedness  is an idea so silly that it needs no            independent country, those addicted to the theory of
      notice.      It is indeed true that  the. reprobate procure      pre-millennialism have found support for their views
      to themselves the wrath of God, and that they daily              in this historical fact. With the recent war between
     hasten on the falling of its weight upontheir own heads.
      But it must be confessed by all that the apostle is here         Israel and the Arabs and the Israeli conquest of Jeru-
      treating of that difference made between the elect and           salem, the claim is once again heard that Scriptural
      the reprobate, which proceeds from the alone secret              prophecies are being fulfilled by these events. An
      will and purpose of God.  (Calvinrs Calvinism,  trans-           example of this is to be found in the writings of L.
      lated by Henry Cole, Eerdmans,  1956.)                           Nelson Bell who in his column "A Layman And His
                                                                       Faith" in 
      Or again, in his commentary on Romans  9:11, Calvi                                Christianity Today  writes an article from
                                                                       which we take the following:
writes:
           It is indeed true, that the proximate  causeof  repro-             That  for the first time in more than 2,000 years
       bation is the curse we all inherit from Adam; yet, that          Jerusalem is now completely in the hands of the Jews


                                                  THE STANDARb BEARER                                                                                                    473


   gives a student of the Bible a thrill and a renewed                     Nations.           From that time,  Jews  began to settle in Pal-
   faith in the accuracy and validity of the Bible.                        estine and reclaim the wasteland. The Arabs took a
       The Jews as a "separate" people demonstrate a                       dim view of this and resisted this takeover. The result
   mystery and a hope. Their continuance as a people
   in the midst of all other nations is itself a miracle.                  was that the British temporarily halted immigration
   The cohesiveness of these Jews is demonstrated by                       officially, although many Jews continued to come to
   the fact that at least ninety-six countries are  repre-                 Canaan secretly worried lest they  be  denied a home-
   sented in Israel today -from the ends of the earth, but                 land. The Jews fought with the Allies in World War II,
   Jews all.                                                               and, as a reward the British Government asked the
       . . . . the events in the Middle East certainly fit  -              United Nations in 1947 to solve the problem of Pales-
   at least in some measure  - into the picture revealed in                tine, but in favor of the Jews. Under pressure from
   the Scriptures. If we say, as the Arabs do, that Israel                 the Jews, the United Nations decided todivide  Palestine
   has no right to exist, we may prove blind to her pecu-
   liar destiny under the providence of God.                               between Jews and Arabs and internationalize the city of
       ". . . . prophecy has come true. A flag of Zion                     Jerusalem.               Israel agreed to this division, but the
   floats over Jerusalem for the first time since the                      Arabs never did, and thousands of them were dis-
   Romans leveled the holy city 1900 years ago.                            possessed.               In May of 1948 the British mandate in
       It is a thrilling thing to see a segment of prophecy                P a l e s t i n e   e n d e d ,   t h e   B r i t i s h   l e f t   t h e   l a n d ,   a n d   t h e
   being fulfilled  I                                                      Zionists proclaimed the new state of Israel. This is
   Apart from the exegetical question involved in the                      where things stood until the Jews conquered new lands
premillennialist's  view_s,  there are a couple of serious                 in the recent war.
mistakes involved here.                                                          Because the legal status of the nation is in con-
   In the first place, this position is based upon a                       siderable doubt, those who find in all this -the fulfill-
logical error  called  Petitio  Pyincipii   or "begging the                ment of prophecy prefer to establish Israel's claim to
question" or "reasoning in a circle." The argument                         Palestine on the words of Scripture. But it is at this
goes something like this. The Israelis have a right to                     point that the argument breaks down. For isolated and
the land of Canaan because Scripture gives them this                       mis-interpreted texts in Scripture cannot both be the
rightful claim. There are prophecies, so it is argued,                     justification for the establishment of the nation of
which specifically mention that Israel shall some day                      Israel and serve as texts which are now supposedly
receive Canaan again for her inheritance. Now that the                     being fulfilled in these recent events.
Israelis are in possession of Canaan (and particularly                           In the second  piace, it is not so sure that even the
of Jerusalem), we have the obvious fulfillment of                          misinterpretation of these texts is being fulfilled. I am
Scripture in these events in the Mid-East.                                 told that  80% of the Jews in Palestine are purely
   These are the facts of history. When the Romans                         secular; i.e., those who are without any religion what-
conquered Palestine and destroyed Jerusalem, most of                       soever.          The remaining 20% are orthodox Jews, i.e.,
the Jews fled the land. This marked the end of Israel                      those who still attempt to maintain the Phariseeistic
as a nation. In the 600s A.D., the Arabs conquered the                     interpretation of the Mosaic law. This hardly sounds
land and have inhabited it ever since-except for a
brief period during the time of the Crusades of the 11th                   like the nation of Israel spoken of by the  pre-millen-
                                                                           nialists.
Century.     In the First World War, the British drove
out the Turks and established some sort of rule there.                          The conclusion is that, rather than finding in these
In 1917 the British statesman and Zionist Jew, Chaim                       events a fulfillment of prophecy, we must rather inter-
Weizmann, persuaded the British Government to issue                        pret the efforts of men to establish aseparate nation of
a `statement favoring the establishment of a Jewish                        Israel as being based upon  _ a misinterpretation of
national home in Palestine. This statement, called the                     prophecy and as the result of the desire of the Jews
"Balfour Declaration", was approved by the League of                       for a homeland of their own.


CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-

                                 The Doctrine of Sin
                               The Second Period,  -250-730 A.D.

                                           T h e   D o c t r i n e   o f   S i n   i n   G e n e r a l


                                                          by Rev. H. Veldman

   This second period, 250-730 A.D., is characterized                      waged during this period. In fact, one may well  ques-
chiefly by the Pelagian controversy. To be sure, this                      tion whether it may be called the chief controversy.
Pelagian controversy is not the only struggle that was                     The Pelagian struggle was waged in the Latin or  west-


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


ern part of the church.          But there were also mighty        truths and was more inclined to maintain the freedom
struggles waged in the Greek or eastern segment of the             of the will.    Indeed also the Greek fathers admitted
church.    There the battle was joined in connection with          that the fall of Adam entailed many evil results for
the doctrine of the Trinity and the  Personof the Christ,          his posterity, such as the corruptibility and mortality
the truth  of the one divine Person of the Christ in two           of the body, the suffering and misery of this present
natures, the human and the-divine.  Infact, the struggle           time and also ethical deterioration.       But the total
involving the Trinity and the Person of the Christ was             depravity of the human nature as a result of Adam's
                                                                   sin was, to put it mildly, forgotten. This is even true
the first gigantic battle which was waged by the  church           of such men as Gregory of Nazianzus who is some-
of God in the new dispensation.          And the leading ex-       times said to have been most nearly in agreement with
ponents in this Christological and Trinitarian contro-             the viewpoint of Augustine. Athanasius maintained the
versy were Arius and Athanasius.           However, we are         freedom of the will of man to choose the good as well
now discussing the doctrine of sin, and this struggle              as the evil. He even mentioned the possibility that some
which is known as the Pelagian controversy was waged               of the saints were born entirely without sin. Of
principally in the Latin or western part of the church.            Chrysostom we do not even expect that he had much
   Before discussing this important development in the             sympathy for such truths as man's depravity and the
history of doctrine, it is well to call attention to the           bondage of the will as a result of Adam's sin. He was
                                                                   too much of a morality preacher.
doctrine of sin in general and the events which led to                                                    Cyril also enter-
                                                                   tained the notion that we are born without sin and that
the Pelagian controversy. In this struggle for the truth           man became sinful only through the deeds determined
of the Word of God, the two great antagonists, we as               upon by a free will. Of course, we must not lose sight
all know, are Pelagius and Augustine.          We will have        of the fact that in this early period the anthropological
opportunity, in subsequent articles,  to give a brief              questions had not been developed. The entire attention
sketch of the lives of these two men. Augustine's view             of the church had been concentrated upon the theological
of the doctrine of sin and grace, and also of the doctrine         and christological problems. The fact remains, how-
of predestination, and his own personal experiences                ever, that much more emphasis was laid upon these
are vitally connected.     This  .also  applies to Pelagius.       truths by the Western Church. This is true especially
                                                                   of the time immediately preceding the Pelagian con-
And  we  all understand, of course, that this Pelagian             troversy.    Augustine had been taught by Ambrose that
controversy is of the greatest significance for the church         we all sinned in the first man and he appeals to Psalm
of God throughout the ages.                                        515  in support of the truth that ail men are born under
   In his introductory remarks on this subject of the              sin and that the ethical evil and corruption of the
doctrine of sin in general during this second period,              nature must be traced even to the conception. How-
Hagenbach writes as follows (Vol.  I, 290-291):                    ever, the lines were not sharply drawn until God
                                                                   raised up the British monk Pelagius and through him
       Concerning the nature of sin, the generally received        compelled the fathers, especially Augustine to con-
   opinion was, that it has its seat in the will of man, and       centrate all their attention upon the Biblical teaching
   stands in the most intimate connection with his moral           concerning the natural man.
   freedom. Augustine  himself defended this doctrine (at
   least in his earlier writings), which was opposed to the     CONSEQUENCES OF THE FIRST SIN,
   Manichean notion, that evil is inherent in matter.           AND FREEDOM OF THE WILL
   Lactantius,  on the contrary, manifested a strong leaning    (According to the theologians  of  the  Greek  Chumh)
   towards Manicheism by designating the body as the seat
   and organ of sin. The ascetic practices then so com-         Hagenbach writes, Vol. I, 293, and we quote:
   mon, sufficiently indicate that the church tacitly ap-
   proved of this view.  Athanasius  regarded sin as some-            Even those theologians who kept themselves free
   thing negative, and believed it to consist in the blind-        from the influence of the Augustinian system, held that
   ness and indolence of man, which' prevent him from              the sin of Adam was followed by disrastrous effects
   elevating himself to God. Similar (negative) definitions        upon the human race, but restricted these evils (as the
 .- were given  by Basil the  Great  and  Gyegovy  of Nyssa.       fathers of the preceding period had done) to the
   But sin was most frequently looked upon as opposition           mortality of the body, the hardships and miseries of
   to the law of God, and rebellion against his holy will,         life, also admitting that that the moral powers of  ma:
   analogous to the sin of Adam, which was now generally           had been enfeebled by the fall.         Thus  GYe.&ovy   of
   viewed as an historical fact (contrary to the allegorical       Nazianzum  in particular (to whom Augustine appealed
   interpretation of Origen).                                      in preference to all others) maintained, that both the
                                                                   vous and the  psuchee  (mind and soul  - H.V.) have been
   Rev. H. Hoeksema, writing on this subject in his                considerably impaired by sin, and regarded the per-
History of Dogma, writes as follows (pages 39-41):                 version of the religious consciousness seen inidolatry,
                                                                   which. previous teachers had ascribed to the influence
      Under this head (the anthropological controversies  -        of demons, as an inevitable effect of the first sin. But
   H.V.) we may remark, in general, that there was a               he was far from asserting the total depravity of man-
   considerable difference between the Eastern and the             kind, and the entire loss of free will. On the contrary,
   Western Church `in regard to the, doctrine of man.              the doctrine of the freedom of the will continued to be
   Especially with respect to the emphasis that was being          distinctly maintained by the Greek church.  Athanasius
   placed on some elements of the locus of Anthropology.           himself, the father of orthodoxy, maintained in the
   The Eastern Church, although it cannot be said that             strongest terms that man has the ability of choosing
   such elements as the total depravity of the human               good as well as evil, and even allowed exceptions from
   nature, original sin, and the bondage of the will; were         original sin, alleging that several individuals, who lived
   denied, nevertheless laid very little stress upon these        prior to the appearance of Christ, were free from it.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 475


   Cyyil  of  Jerusalem   also assumed that the life of man      of Nyssa also takes for granted a universal bias to sin,
   begins in a state of innocence, and that sin enters  only     but he finds no sin in infants. This latter thought is, of
   with the use of free will.       Similar view were enter-     course, very similar to the heresy of Pelagianism,
   tained by  Efihvam the  Syyian,  GYegovy   of Nyssa, Basil    namely that all men are born inherently good, and that
   the  Great, and others.         Chvysostom, whose whole
   tendency was of a practical and moral kind, insisted          the original sin of Adam did not affect the human race.
   most of all upon the liberty of man and his moral  self-      And this, of course, is directly in conflict with the
   determination, and passed a severe censure upon those         Word of God, which teaches us that we are  conceived
   who endeavored  to  excuse their own defects by ascribing     and  born  dead in sins and in trespasses. And we all
   the origin of sin to the fall of Adam.                        know the language of our Reformed Confessions in
   Gregory of Nazianzum is compared by a certain                 regard to this matter, as also beautifully stated in our
Ullmann. And the latter writes: "Gregory by no means             Baptism Form.
taught the doctrines afterwards propounded by Pelagius              Chrysostom, it is asserted, was so zealous for
and his followers; but if all his sentiments be duly             morality, that he must have considered it a point of
considered, it will be found that he is far more of a            special importance to deprive men of every ground or
Pelagian than of an Augustinian." Of course, we must             excuse for the neglect of moral efforts. His practical
bear in mind that the freedom of the will was em-                sphere of labor in the cities of Antioch and Constan-
phasized especially in the Eastern Church, and that over         tinople gave a still greater impulse to this tendency.
against heresies that would reduce man to a stock and            For in these large capitals he met with many who
block. We must always be careful that, fighting one type         sought to attribute their want of Christian activity to
of heresy, we do not fall into the extreme of another            the defects of human nature, and the power of Satan or
deviation of the truth.                                          of fate. But Chrysostom also urged quite as strongly
   That the doctrine of the freedom of the will continued        the existence of depravity in opposition to a false moral
to be distinctly maintained by the Greek (Eastern)               pride.
church appears from a statement attributed to a                     From the above it is evident that the power of sin,
Methodius, that man does not possess the power either            as held forth in the Holy Scriptures, was defined very
of having desires, or of not having them, but he is at           vaguely in the early centuries of the new dispensation.
liberty either to gratify them or not gratifythem. This          On the one hand, the depravity of the human nature was
could mean that, although man does not have the power            not denied.      However, on the other hand, it is also
to convert himself and God must begin His work of                clear that the awful power of sin was not clearly
grace in him, he does have the liberty to continue in            understood and set forth during that early period of
the way of sanctification. Scripture, of course, declares        the church. The connection between the sin of Adam
that the Lord not only begins the work of salvation in           and the subsequent corruption of the human race
us but also completes it until the day of our Lord Jesus         certainly did not receive the emphasis which Scripture
Christ.                                                          lays upon it.     This was not fully developed until the
   Basil the Great must have delivered a discourse,              Pelagian controversy.     And it is Augustine, who him-
the authenticity of which was denied, but againdefended          self was led by God in the deep way of sin and grace,
in later times. In this discourse, although admitting            who emphasized the corruption of mankind, and that
the depravity of mankind, he asserted that human                 the sin and guilt of our first parents in Paradise were
liberty and divine grace must cooperate. And Gregory             transmitted to all their posterity.


    A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-


                                      David and  Nabal

                                                    by Rev. B. Woudenbevg

                     And  Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the
                 son of Jesse? theve be many servants now a days that  break away every man from
                 his  mas  tev.
                     Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed  fov my
                 sheavevs,   andgive it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?...
                     And it came to pass about ten  days  after, the  Lord smote  Nabal, thathedied.
                                                                                    I Samuel 25:10, 11, 38

    At last the time had returned once again when it             had withdrawn in confusion and shame blurting forth so
appeared quite safe for David to pass wherever he                very uncharacteristically the acknowledgement of his
might desire to go in the land of Israel. Before his             own sin. There was no reason to believe any more,
undeniable kindness in sparing the life of Saul, the king        therefore, that Saul would interfere with him wherever


476                                         THESTANDARDBEARER


he went. Yet David remained very much unsure. He             Nabal's men were in need of any aid. The result was
had seen too much of the vicissitudes of the king to         a prosperity for  Nabal  far beyond any previous experi-
rest his life on any momentary promise that came from        ence.
his lips. For the time being he thought it much safer           But  Nabal  was a selfish and very wicked man.
to remain in the comparative safety of the  Judean  hills    Having what he did at any one moment, his mind could
rather than attempting to return to life in the populated    think only of how he could keep it and increase it still
cities. Even when the news was brought to him that his       more.       Apart from this his whole nature was quite
old teacher and friend Samuel had died, as much as he        incapable of functioning.    Particularly foreign to him
would have liked to have joined the mourners before          was any feeling of gratitude or sympathy for his fellow
his grave, discretion told him that it was better not,       man. Thus it came that weeks and months passed by
lest the attention which he would surely arouse might        without one word of recognition for David from  NabaI.
again serve to cast down the king into another one of        Above all, there was no expression at all from  Nabal
his dark and moody fits of jealousy and hatred. Rather,      as to his willingness to pay David and his men for the
he merely satisfied himself with passing on to a little      innumerable services which they had rendered. For
less desolate portion of the wilderness.                     David, it presented an extremely difficult and embar-
   Through this all, moreover, David was not one to          rassing situation. He was not a man who found it easy
remain inactive.    He was not one who found himself         to impose himself upon others, and he found it embar-
able to sit around doing nothing. His time had to be         rassing to have to beg anyone for anything even when
used profitably, which for him  meant,*that  it had to be    he clearly had it coming. Nevertheless, the needs of
used in the service of the nation and the people whom        such a large company of men were great; and they could
he loved. Neither did he lack for opportunity. It was        not go on long without due return in food and other needs
an undisciplined age in which he lived, and there was        for the labors which they provided. Finally, therefore,
no greater danger that threatened those that lived with-     David determined to send a group of young men to
out the protection of city walls than that of roaming        Nabal  to remind him of their needs and the benefits
robbers and marauding bands of enemies. A wealthy            which had come to him through their presence in the
man with a goodly number of servants might be able           land.
to keep his own home safely; but those who remained             It appeared that the time was ideal for such a
unprotected out in the fields were considered fair game      request.     It was the time of the shearing of sheep, by
for all.    It was here that David and his men proved        far the most jovial time of  all the year in lands where
particularly helpful. Their force was large enough and       sheep were kept. Wool was their greatest cash crop,
their men experienced enough that they could repel1 a        and when it was gathered the prosperity of the coming
force of any size that might try to ravage the land; and     year was guaranteed. It was the season of feasting and
they did exactly that too. It must surely have been a        good will and kindness to all men. The very sheep
new and wonderful thing for the inhabitants of the ter-      shearing camp itself was like a great festival at which
ritories into which David came. For the first time,          everyone was welcome to join in the festivities. Thus
they found themselves protected from all their enemies.      it appeared to David most appropriate that he, having
Every robber was duly punished, every enemy was              contributed so much to Nabal's prosperity for this year,
immediately driven back; even the wild animals of the        should send a delegation to the shearing camp asking
hills were slain and kept under control by David's           that they too be remembered and be allowed to share in
hunting parties: and through it all, because David's         some of the fruits of theseason. Ten of his finest young
men were men of righteousness and faith in God, never        men were chosen to fill out this delegation.
once did they themselves think to plunder or steal or           Coming to the camp of  Nabal, the words which
do harm to any man.       In gratitude, the people were      David's young men were instructed to speak were as
usually more than willing to pay for the services of         mild and polite as possible. They in themselves re-
David's men with gifts of food and clothing which they       flected clearly that these were not wild, undisciplined
needed if they were to live.                                 and lawless men, but men of true character and
   Not always, however, did it work out so well, as is       righteousness.     The words they spoke to  Nabal  were
brought out for us by the history of Nabal  the Maonite.     these, "Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine
   It came about after the death of Samuel, when David       house, and peace be unto  all that thou hast. And now I
moved into the district of Paran, that he first came'into    have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds
contact with the possessions of  Nabal.  Nabal was an        which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there
extremely wealthy man with many servants and great           ought missing unto them, and the while they were in
flocks of sheep and herds of cattle. He was exactly          Carmel.      Ask the young men, and they will shew thee.
the kind of man who benefited the most from the pres-        Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes:
ence of David's force within the territory. No sooner        for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatso-
had David moved into this area than  NabaI  ,began  to       ever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy
prosper as he had never prospered before. One of the         son David."
regular, anticipated expenses of his business was the           But the  .fact that  Nabal had heretofore ignored David
continual loss of sheep and cattle to marauding forces       and his men was far from an oversight on his part. He
of all kinds; and now suddenly this was stopped. David's     knew full well what David's men had done, and he knew
men were everywhere throughout the territory to pro-         the reward that was due them. But his only concern
tect them from evil and to lend a helping hand whenever      had been with how this payment could be avoided, and


                                             THESTANDARDBEARER


he had decided that the best would be to feign that he        maid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the
knew nothing at all about David and what he had done.         words of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee,
His reply to David's men constituted the height of all        regard this man of Belial, even  Nabal: for as his name
rudeness; for he answered with a tone of scorn, "Who          is, so is he;  Nabal  is his name, and folly is with him:
is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many          but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord,
servants now a days that break away every man from            whom thou didst send.      Now therefore, my lord, as
his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water,         the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord
and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and          hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and
give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?"            from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let
   Utterly taken back, disgusted and dismayed, and not        thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be
knowing what they could answer to words as rude and           as  Nabal. And now this blessing which thine handmaid
uncouth as these, the ten young men turned away from          hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the
Nabal  and hurried back to David to tell him what Nabal       young men that follow my lord. I pray thee, forgive
had said. But with David there was no such stunned            the trespass of thine handmaid: for the Lord will
uncertainty.    Here was not just a disdaining of all of      certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord
the efforts his men had expended in  Nabal's behalf,          fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been
here was a direct affront to their righteousness and          found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is risen to pur-
integrity, to their right of existence within the nation.     sue thee, and `to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord
Quickly he acted, commanding four hundred of his men          shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy
to take up their swords and follow him.                       God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he
   Surely at that point things would have gone very           sling out, as out of the middle of a sling. And it shall
badly with Nabal  had it not been that one of his servants    come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord
went immediately to his wife and said, "Behold, David         according to all the good that he hathspoken concerning
sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our           thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel;
master; and he railed on them. But the men were very          that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor  offence of
good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we         heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood
any thing, as long as we were conversant with them,           causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but
when we were in the fields: they were a wall unto us          when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then
both by night and day, all the while we w.ere with them       remember thine handmaid."
keeping the sheep. Now therefore know and consider
what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our            David recognized the beauty of a truly virtuous wo-
master, and against  all his household; for he is such a      man, and his answer was accordingly, "Blessed be the
son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him."               Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet
   For all of  Nabal's pride and foolishness, his wife        me: and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou,
Abigail was a woman of discretion and great faith.            which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood,
Immediately she understood the critical nature of the         and from avenging myself with thine own hand. For in
situation, and gathering together a large supply of food      very deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth which hath
and wine she set out herself to intercept David. Through      kept me back from hurting thee...." So He received
many years of marriage, she had become accustomed             her gift, and so he dismissed her with the words, "Go
to the foolishness of her husband and to making rec-          up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to
ompense for it without his knowledge.        Even more,       thy voice, and have accepted thy person'."
she knew about David and understood the blessing of              But God was not through with Nabal. That night yet
God that was with him. She couldunderstand his anger;         he feasted and drank in hedonistic revelry; but with
but also for his own sake it was best that he should be       the coming of morning his wife told him of the danger
kept from seeking vengeance beyond his right. And so          that had come so close to touching his life. Even more,
it was that when she came to David, she threw herself         with that there came upon him from the Lord that same
to the ground before him and gave forth with a most           spirit of depression that Saul had known. Only  Nabal
beautiful speech. She said, to David, "Upon me, my            had not the strength to bear it and within ten days `he .
lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine hand-       died.



                They were "tortured, not accepting deliverance." It was thus that the martyrs of the early
           church chose to suffer with Christ. They were placed before the alternative of being dumped
           alive into a seething caldron of boiling oil, or making a bow as a sign of worship to Caesar.
           And it often was made extremely easy for them, so easy that in our day we would probably
           discover a thousand reasons why we would be allowed to choose the latter. They were per-
           mitted to maintain their confession that Christ is Lord, if only by a slight bow to the image
           of Caesar they would admit that the Roman emperor was also Lord. But in the behalf of
           Christ they deliberately chose the awful death in the seething caldron, not accepting deliver-
           ance, insisting that Christ is the Lord alone !
                                                              -H. Hoeksema, "The Wonder of Grace," p. 103


478                                                        THESTANDARDBEARER


 The Church Between The Temple and Mosque
               Faith and  Then physical World
                       Heaven: A Place, A City, A Home
                                        Theology of the English Reformers
                                                       Christian Reflections
                                                                     Religion and The Schools

THE      CHURCH       BETWEEN THE                      FAITH AND THE PHYSICAL WORLD:               HEAVEN: A PLACE, ACITY,  AHOME,
TEMPLE AND MOSQUE, by  J.  I-I.                        A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW, by David              by Edward M. Bounds; Baker Book
Bavinck; Eerdmans Publishing Com-                      L. Dye; Eerdmans Publishing Company,        House, 1966; 151 pp., $2.50.
pany, 1966; 206 pp., $2.65 (paper).                    1966, 214 pp., $2.95 (paper).
                                                                                                      The author of this book lived from
  Dr. Bavinck was missionary to                          The purpose of the author in writing       1835 to 1913 and was a minister in
Indonesia for twenty years before he                   this book is stated in his Introduction:    the southern part of the country. This
occupied the chair of missions at the                  "Our purpose here is to show how to         book is therefore a reprint. Rather
Free University of Amsterdam from                      develop a consistent, comprehensive         than being an exegetical study of the
1939 to his death in 1965. In this book                world view and how to use it in inter-      Scriptural concept of heaven, it is
he has provided a very interesting and,                preting data. Since it is a Christian       intended as a devotional book primarily.
in some respects, important book about                 world view, it deals significantly with     It is designed to bring the child of
the relation between the Christian re-                 man's relationship with God; it is          God to a contemplation of the blessed-
ligion and pagan religions  - partic-                  truly Christian in acknowledging the        ness of heaven and to stir within him
ularly Hinduism, Buddhism and  Islam-                  divine authority of Jesus Christ. Since     longing for his final destination. For
i s m . The strength of the book lies in               it is a world. view, it attempts to         those who enjoy devotional literature,
its evaluation of pagan religions and in               account consistently for the data of the    the book will be good reading.
the unique claim the Christian religion                physical universe, i.e., the observable                              Prof. H. Hanko
has over- against them. He has some                    phenomena described by scientific
very important remarks to make con-                    methods. It does not compete with the
cerning the method of mission work.                    valid application of these methods, but
among these pagan religions.                           rather it uses them.      Further, since
   However, there are also important                   it is a comprehensive world view, it        THE THEOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH
points of disagreement. The author                     is flexible enough to  accomodate  data     REFORMERS, by Philip E. Hughes;
has adopted, to some extent, the posi-                 yet to be discovered, without modifi-       Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1966;  $5~.95,
tion that God has, through general                     cation of its essential nature."            283 pp.
revelation, prepared the heathen for                     This is an ambitious project, and
the preaching of the gospel. This is                   not very successfully accomplished..          The author has already given us a
based on the author's interpretation                   The deepest error of the book is the        valuable book in "The Register of the
of Romans  1:18ff.  With this I cannot                 isolation of science (as knowledge of       Company of Pastors of Geneva in the
possibly agree, and find in it a very                  the observable) from the Christian          Time of Calvin."      This book too is
dangerous error, since it leads in-                    faith; i.e., the author insists on a        extremely worthwhile.     In it he treats
evitably to some form of syncretism.                   neutrality of scientific data.      From    the theology of the early English Re-
The author repudiates all syncretism,                  this he proceeds to find two standards      formers such as Cranmer,  Latimer,
but cannot escape the logical con-                     of truth: Scripture and scientific data.    Ridley, etc.    But he lets them speak
clusions of his own position. He                       The result of this is that he adopts        for themselves, adding very little com-
speaks of God "struggling" with pagan                  completely biological evolution, denies     ment  of his own.    Hence the book  is
man through general revelation.                        the fall, a universal flood, the miracle    filled with important quotations from
  Briefly I make mention of  thefollow-                of Bable, and attempts to explain many      the writings of these men. He deals
ing questions also which arose in my                   miracles from a natural point of view.      with seven subjects: Holy Scripture,
mind. Does the author want to main-                      While the author wants two standards      Justification, Sanctification, Preaching
tain some form of evolution of religion?               of truth (Scripture and science), it        and Worship, Ministry, The Sacra-
Some statements suggest that he does.                  soon becomes apparent that he is            ments, Church and State. The book is.
His exegesis of  -Remans  1 seems in                   willing to reject the clear testimony       a remarkable demonstration of the how
some     instances    t o   b e   u n d e r   t h e    of Scripture if it conflicts, in his        near to the truth of Scripture these
influence of Freudian psychology. And                  opinion, with science.                      early English reformers stood even
he tends toward a strangely mystical                     The book is quite technical in places     though it was not until later that the
(almost occult) conception of the Chris-               and difficult for one not versed in the     Reformation in England came under the
tian faith.                                            fields of science to understand.            dominating influence of Calvin. The
  However, the book is worth reading.                                            Prof. H. Hanko    book is a valuable addition to the
It is recommended to anyone interested                                                             library of anyone interested in Ref-
in the work of missions among those                                                                ormation theology and is heartily
who live in paganism.                                                                              recommended:
                            Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                  Prof. H. Hanko


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               479


CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS, C. S.                   to which readers of Lewis have  be-           mans Publishing Company, 1966; 46 pp.,
Lewis; Eerdmans Publishing Company,            come accustomed. It has penetrating            $.75 (paper).
1967; 176 pp., $3.95.                          insights into manyperplexingproblems
                                               facing the Christian in his calling in           This little booklet is a "Reformed
  This book by the well-known English          the world. It casts fresh light  onmany        Journal Monograph" a printing in
author is a collection of speeches and         difficult questions  - his analysis of        slightly altered form of articles which
magazine articles, many of which are           modern, liberal Biblical scholarship is        originally appeared in The Reformed
published for, the first time. The sub-        especially worthwhile. Yet at the same         Journal. The book discusses the place
jects ranged from "The Christian and           time, while one is  pleasedwithLewis's        of education in our pluralistic society.
Literature" through "The Problem of            conservatism, he is also alarmed by           The three chapters are entitled: The
Petitionary Prayer" to "Christian              how far Lewis can drift away at times         Pluralistic Society; Religion and the
`Problems in the Space-Age." Because           from Scriptural orthodoxy. The book is        Public School; The Place `of the  Non-
of the wide diversity of subjects, it is       a must for all fans of Lewis.                 Public Religious School in American
impossible to give anything like a com-                                Prof. H. Hanko        Society. An interesting and informa-
prehensive review. Suffice it to say                                                         tive booklet worth the money to anyone
that it is well worth the reading. It          RELIGION AND THE SCHOOLS, by                  interested in Christian education.
contains Lewis's own incisive writings         Nicholas  Wolterstorff,  Wm. B.  Eerd-                                  Prof. H. Hanko



                         IN MEMORI~                                               RESOL UTION OF SYMPATHY
After fifty years of a happy marriage the Lord took                  The Consistory of the Hope Protestant Reformed
away  from us on July 24, 1967 our dear wife, mother,                Church extends its sympathy to its fellow  office-
grandmother, and great-grandmother,                                  bearer, Elder John  Kalsbeekj  Senior and family in the
                MRS. JENNIE VELTHOUSE                                death of his mother
at the age of 86 years.                                                                    MRS. ANNA DE JONG
   May the Lord comfort and strengthen us in the faith,              and we also rejoice with them in the assurance that
knowing that when the earthly house of this tabernacle               she has gone to be with her Lord in glory.
is dissolved, we have a house of God, not built with                     "And whosoever liveth and believeth in me  shall
hands, eternal in the heavens.                                       never die". John 11:26  (a).
                   John Velthouse                                                          Rev. J. Kortering, Pres.
                   Mr. and Mrs. Henry Velthouse                                          _ Dewey Engelsma, Clerk
                           3 grandchildren
                           1 great-grand daughter

                                                                                   RESOL UTION OF SYMPATHY
                         IN MEMORIAM                                 The  Ladies'.Society  of the Oak Lawn Protestant Re-
On July  16, 1967, it pleased our heavenly Father to                 formed Church expresses its sympathy to themembers
take up in glory our Mother, Grandmother, and  great-                of the family of
grandmother,                                                                             MRS. JENNIE RUTGERS
                         JENNIE RUTGERS                              whom the Lord was pleased to call into eternal rest on
at the age of 74 years.                                              July 17, 1967. With them we can also rejoice in the
    "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of               assurance that "when the earthly house of this taber-
His saints". Psalm  116:lS                                           nacle is dissolved, we have a building, not made with
                   Mr. and Mrs. Harry. Rutgers                       hands, eternal in the heavens." (II Cor.  5:l)
                   Mr. Jacob Fischer                                       The Ladies' Society of the Oak Lawn
                   Mr. and Mrs. Henry Zandstra                             Protestant Reformed Church
                   Rev. and Mrs. George Lanting                            Mrs. C. Haak, Ass't. Sec.Treas.
                   Mr. and Mrs. Jake Regnerus
                   Mr. and Mrs. George Vroom
                   Mr. and Mrs. Martin De Vries                                   RESOL UTION OF SYMPATHY
                   Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Buiter
                           37 Grandchildren                          The Priscilla Society of the First Protestant Reformed
                            4 Great-grandchildren                    Church herewith expresses its sincere sympathy, to
                                                                     Mrs. Charles Emaus and Mrs. Tom Van Eenenaam in
                                                                     the loss of their father and father-in-law, respectively,
                                                                                  MR. EDWARD VAN EENENAAM
Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed Churches                    "In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my
will meet in Loveland, Colorado on September 20, 1967                strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at
at 9:00 a.m.        Delegates in need of lodging should              all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him:
inform the clerk of the Loveland consistory of their                 God is a refuge for us". Psalm  62:7 and 8.               r
need.                                                                                      Mrs. J. Oomkes, Pres.
                          Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk                                Mrs. R. Kamminga, Vice-Sec'y.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


                                     NEWS FROM OUR  CHURCHES-
                                                      0

                                         August 15, 1967    "Do you know: why the kingdom of  anti-Christ  will
   Rev.  G;  Vanden, Berg declined the call he had re-      surely fail?     What really constitutes the power of
ceived from Hull, Iowa, and Rev. C. Hanko also de-          preaching? Why the Reformed Creeds are so easily
clined the call he was considering from South Holland,      cast aside in our day? What position does the Reformed
Ill. Hull has subsequently named a trio consisting of       Ecumenical Synod take regarding labor unions? How
the Revs. C. Hanko and G. Lubbers and Candidate D.          would you criticize the  Scofield Bible? What is wrong
Kuiper, and extended the call to Rev. Hanko.                with young people dancing? Was there a law of God
   Candidate Kuiper has received calls from both            before Sinai? What transpired at the  graduationexcer-
Isabel and Forbes, our Dakota churches, and is also         sises of Candidate D. Kuiper? If you read your latest
considering one that has come to him from Randolph,         issue of the  Standard  Beaver  carefully you will find
Wis.                                                        the-answers in detail. Let us study to make ourselves
                           * 8  *                           approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be
   The `Beacon Lights Singspiration Committee was           ashamed."
concerned about the size and enthusiasm of the crowds                                   ***
that came, out to their  hymnsings- and  .did something         And we ask you readers of the last page of our
about it.      They advertised the Pre-convention  Sing-    magazine: Can you answer the above questions whose
spiration in all the area bulletins extensively and         answers are found on the  other pages of the July 1
strikingly.    Their specific aim was to show the young     issue?
people that they were supported in the fellowship of                                    *  *  B
the saints as, they left for Hull, Iowa, and the people         Redlands' bulletins reveal that the summer brings
responded with fervor. The `Csing" was held in Hope         many visitors      to their services from our other  I
Church Aug. 13 and the church was filled to overflowing.    churches.    The congregation of  Redlands did not have
The people overflowed into all the aisles on folding        to entertain fears due to riots such as plagued Grand
chairs hastily brought up from the basement when the        ' Rapids and many other large cities this summer but
last stragglers arrived from Grand Rapids and Holland.      they did live through an arson scare-two old churches
Besides the usual group singing three special numbers       in the heart of the city went up in smoke and a Catholic
were prepared for variety. A male quartette, a  saxa-       school burned up the next day-which led to having a
phone solo rounded out the program in a very pleasing       police guard in their church for a week because that
way. The quartette consisted of Bob Velthouse, Don          building was  "suspect"*       Their once beautiful neigh-
Jonker, Gary Bylsma and Jim Huizenga, accompanied           borhood is rapidly declining and is the major reason
by Mary Kregel. Mary Klop was the violinist and her         for purchasing new church and school property else-
accompanist was Anita Clason, both of  I<alamazoo.          where.
The saxaphonist was a future (in about five years)                                      ***
conventioneer, a young lad by the name of Bruce Lub-            Lynden's July 2 bulletin called for volunteers to
bers whose mother accompanied him at the piano.             assemble the materials just received to make their
This was the first time a violin and a saxaphone were       long awaited banquet tables; the same bulletin carried
heard at one of these gatherings, and was probably the      a "thank you" from a lady in  Tuscan, Arizona for the
first time that only two  and  a half  stanzas were sung    "Studies in Biblical Doctrine" that she finds "very
of a four stanza song. The song director was Gerald         interesting and instructive and  a  very great help to
Kuiper; Mark Hoeksema opened the meeting, and Rev.          m e ".
Kortering led in the closing prayer committing the                                      * * *
covenant young people to our Covenant God. One of the          First Church of Grand Rapids scheduled a special
obvious reasons that such a large crowd could come          congregational meeting to elect and elder and a deacon
out for this gathering was the fact that the audience       to fill the unexpired terms of an elder who resigned
included many youngsters in summer vacation who did         and a deacon (Mr. Fred Hanko) who is moving to Doon,
not have to get. up early the next morning to go to         Iowa to teach in the new Protestant Reformed Christian
school, but it is hoped that future hymnsings may           School there.
continue to rouse the interest of young and old that                                    * * *
they may be as well attended as this Pre-Convention            Oak Lawn's Church Extension Committee has re-
Singspiration of `67.                                       cently published and distributed two more pamphlets,
                           * *  *                           "The Reformed Faith and Arminianism" and, "God's
   The congregation of Hope Church was confronted           Great Love Toward the World".
by the following paragraph in their July 9 bulletin:           . . .see you in church.                         J.M.F.


