                               IIe



                                      earer                              -


A   R E F O R M E D   SEMI-MO&?HLY'MAGAZINE





  IN n-m ISSUE:

              Meditation: Rolling Our Way On Jehovah


              A New Theological Method (see Editorial Department)


              On-Going Reformation


              Geelkerken Exonerated (see All Around Us)
                                                    _ _ _ _ _ _ _   ~._  ~---


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98                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



                                C O N T E N T S                                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER

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      Rolling Our Way On Jehovah D...D...D..O........*.em 98                                         Editor-in-Chiefi  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
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      MEDI7ATION-


                        Rolling Our Way On Jehovah

                                                                             by Rev. M.  Schippev


                                                       Commit  thy  iqay,unto  the  Lovd;   tvust  also in him;
                                                  and he shall  bving it to pass.                             Psalm  37:5.

      Sage counsel is this Word of God1                                                       they know better, and often have to bear the fruits of
      Written by an old man whose years were filled with                                      their misdeeds.              Like the prodigal, when they come to
experience! In Verse 25 David writes: "I have been                                            their senses and have grace to see, they become more
young, and now am old  *.  *" The old adage is  well-                                         ready to admit that they are sorry they did not listen
known:          Age  >speaks  from experience. So often it is                                 to sound advice. Well, the Psalmist was just such an old
the bitter experience of youth that it rashly disregards                                      man       And the entire Psalm bespeaks ripened wisdom
the advice of old age. In short-sightedness they think                                        and autumnal calm of age. The dim eyes have seen


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  99

and survived so much. Therefore what he observes              truth; his crops are rained out or die of thirst. Like
and exhorts demands our eye and ear and heart, that           Job, he is found often on the ash heap; and those who
we may give heed to words of wisdom, instruction,             should come, to bring him comfort only add to his
and comfort. To listen and take heed is true wisdom,          misery.    His way becomes so heavy that he cannot
and leads to peace and tranquility of spirit!                 proceed on it.        To such an one is the exhortation of
    Commit thy way unto the Lord!,                            the text directed.
    That is, roll. thy way on Jehovah! The Holland               Roll your way upon Himl
translation is the correct one:  Wentel uwen weg  op den         You, who are suffering and laden with care and
Heere; i.e., roll your way on the Lord.                       anxiety; you, who seem to have no days of sunshine
    This is, of course, figurative language. A way, in        and gladness; you, who often feel like giving up in
the most literal sense, is a well-beaten path, a road         despair; you, who also realize that your sins are
over which one may travel to reach a certain destina-         great, and the good that you would you do not, and the
tion.    It denotes the course to be used to get to a cer-    evil that you would not that you do; you, who are
tain place. In the figurative sense, one's way is his         weary and heavy laden; you, whose way is too heavy
mode of living, the whole course of his life. It sig-         for you to bear;  - hear the Word of God: Roll that
nifies the manner in which one lives, one's conduct and       way on Jehovah!
behavior, one's lot. It is all that one experiences in           Jehovah, only trust-worthy Object!
this world.      Our whole life is compared to a way; a          Not only is He Lord and Sovereign, but He is also
way, which begins at birth and ends in eternity. It is        the Immutable, Covenant God,  - the faithful "I am
given to us by God. It is given to both saint and sinner      that I am."       He fulfills His promises, and finishes
alike. Man is like a pilgrim; he travels a very definite      what He begins. He never forsakes the righteous; and
way and to a very definite destination. Whether we            though He often chastises those whom He loves, He
are conscious of it or not, we are each one on his own        does so in His unchangeable love. He, Who revealed
way to a certain destiny, and we are always on the way.       Himself in His Son in our nature, and under the Name
    Our way has a two-fold aspect. It, has an outward         Jesus stood before us in the flesh and cried: "Come
manifestation which is motivated and principled by            unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I
an inner propulsion. Outwardly our way is our relation        will give you rest." He, Who cried out: "If any man
to our family, our church, and this world. It includes        thirst, let him come unto me and drink." He, Who
our relation to our work and our recreation. It in-           took the burden of all our guilt, our sicknesses and
cludes our relation to state and government, as well          pains, and carried them, - standing under the wrath of
as our relation to existing circumstances in the mun-         God until it was completely burned  out,-so that peace
dane and even spiritual spheres of life. This outward         as a river could flow unto us. He is Jehovah, upon
manifestation of our way is motivated and propelled           Whom we are exhorted to roll our way.
by our inner walk of life, by our thinking, willing, and         Trust also in Him!
desiring.    One's inner life is displayed in all his out-       Trust not in man whose breath is in his nostrils.
ward relationships.     "As a man thinketh in his heart,      Trust not in organizations and unions of men who can-
so is he." "Out of the heart are all the issues of life."     not really carry your burden. Seek not to roll your
    Now the way concerning which the Psalmist gives           wwy upon your pastor who also is often burdened with
exhortation is not the way of the ungodly, but of the         the way he has to carry; nor upon the church, who,
child of God.     As they are by nature, their way is no      sympathetic though she may be, must also heed the
different than that of the ungodly. But when grace is         exhortation of the text.        No,  - our help is only in
given to them, their way is changed. With the regen-          Jehovah Who made heaven `and earth. We are advised
erated heart the inward way of the godly is dominated         to trust only in Him.
by the love of God.         He desires once more to be           To trust is to rely upon, to confide in one implicitly.
pleasing to God, and to keep His commandments. True,          It is the practical side and principle part of faith. Not
it is only a small beginning of new obedience; never-         only is faith an assured knowledge that all God has
theless there is a different motivating principle. And        revealed to me in His Word is true, but it is also a
this is revealed also in his outward walk of life. He         hearty confidence that He will work all things for my
actually strives to keep the law of God. He fights the        eternal welfare.         0, to be sure, to trust one it is
battle of faith.     He is humble, meek, and lowly in         necessary that you know him.          You do not put your
heart and mind and walk. His way is manifested in             confidence in one whom you do not know. To trust
moral purity, and it ends in peace.                           Jehovah means that you know Him as the God of your
    However, because he is all as described above,            salvation in Christ Jesus. But then you also trust in
his is a way of adversity, of sorrow, and pain. He is         Him you entrust your way completely to Him.
not loved and esteemed in the eyes of men. He is                 That you roll your way on Him, trusting in Him,
vexed not only with the filthy conversation  .of the          implies that He is very near to you. In fact, the text
wicked, but he is also burdened with the knowledge of         suggests that He is at your side, with you on the way.
his own sins and shortcomings. Moreover, he is also           It implies that you want Him to carry your way-because
often pressed down with the extra burdens meted to            you cannot carry it any longer.
him in the providence of God: his sons go to war; he             And He will bring it to pass !
lies on a bed of languishing; he is poor and often               Not only will He carry your way for you, but He


100                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

promise is clear. It signifies that He will work it out      ships, so that we cannot carry the load and are forced
to its very end. He will accomplish it for you. Yes, He      to flee to Him. Most of us remember our childhood
will make your way perfect. Not only will he see to          when winter `came and we saw the first of the fallen
it that your way will run its course, but He has  deter-     snow,       We took a handful and pressed it together to
mi.ned to finish it perfectly. And this, by implication,     make a little ball, and then laid it on top of the snow
brings to you and me a most beautiful truth.                 and began to roll it until it became a huge ball that
   It implies that our way is really His way. In the         we could no longer roll.        So it is in the experience
first place, He planned it in His counsel. Nothing           of life.     We roll our way until we cannot roll it any
comes to us by chance, but all is directed by His hand       farther, and just then the Lord says to us: "Roll it
and goodness. He decided each one's way. He laid it          on Me; and I will bring it to pass."
out for us, and even planned all the obstacles we were          That His may be all the glory!
to meet on that way, Secondly, it implies that He gave          That is the purpose of His promise!
it to US, SO that whenwe  walkour way, we walk His way.         When by and by we come to the end of our way, when
He gave it to us with all that it contains. He therefore     our way is perfected in glory, none of us shall have
knows our way, not only in its beginning, but also in its    room! for boasting `in self.          That somehow by our
entire course and final destination. Thirdly, it im-         patience, endurance, longsuffering, we merited the
plies that we also give it back to Him. He makes it so       crown of glory that fadeth not away.         That somehow
that we cannot carry it, in order that through faith we      the Lord ought to be pleased with us that we did not
may wholly entrust it to Him. Indeed, the beginning,         falter in the way, that courageously we pressed on to
the experience, and the finishing of our way is all His      bring our way to its completion. This will never hap-
work. He is truly the Author and the Finisher of our         pen.
whole life and salvation.                                       Nay, rather, Jehovah will see to it that  all.the
   Objectively He always brings our way to pass. It          glory that shall come .to us at the end of the way shall
is not so that His finishing depends on our rolling,         all be His. Oh, indeed, .we shall come to glory as His
nor is it so that He must wait until we give it back to      counsel directs, but it shall not be that glory which we
Him, If we truly understand the Scriptures, then we          have merited., It shall be His glory in which He has
also understand that nothing of our salvation and the        purposed that we shall be bathed.
realization of our way depends on our will. Rather,             In that glory we will joyfully acknowledge that we
Jehovah works from beginning to end His good plea-           have been saved by grace through faith, and that not of
sure concerning us. It is like the Psalmist expresses        our work, lest any should boast. It is all of Him Who
it in Psalm-73:    "Thou shalt guide me with thy coun-       from everlasting has chosen us in Christ, Who ordain-
sel, and afterward receive me to glory."                     ed and planned our way, Who made that way so difficult
                                                             that we could not do anything but despair, Who directs
   But He also realizes His promise to us in a sub-          us by faith to roll it on Him in order that He might
jective way.     He does not drag us to heaven, as it        complete it and receive all the glory.
were, against our will. Rather, He realizes our way             And so, my brother and sister in affliction, believe
for us through our consciousness, so that we con-            this faithful promise of  Jehovah1
sciously and willingly roll that way upon Him. And              Roll your way upon Him, trusting that He is able
when we are reluctant to roll our way upon Him, as           and willing to bring your way to the glorious end He
so often is the case,  - for we are stubborn and have        has planned for you. Thus you shall experience the
only a small beginning of new obedience, -then He            solid comfort you need in your affliction, and presently
makes our way difficult. He sends to us in His prov-         shall behold the glory of your Redeemer in which glory
idence and in His grace adversities, troubles,  hard-        He has purposed you shall forever share,


EDITORIALS

                The Christian Reformed Synod
                      `                         and the "Dekker Case"
                             A New "Anti-Abstract" Theological Method

                                             by Prof. H.  C. Hoeksema

   In my  l&t  editorial on the Dekker Case Decision,        which Dr. Stob spoke at the August 30 session of the
you will re all, I traced the charge of abstractness         Christian Reformed Synod was accomplished not by
back to The Reformed  Jouwzal,  and, specifically, to        the Holy Spirit, but by  The Refovmed  Jouw~~l,   the
Dr. Henry Stob. It would appear that the miracle of          dangerous voice of a new theology which is sending


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           101
I
     spine- chilling "winds of change" blasting through            so-called neo-orthodox theologians, such as Dr. Karl
     the Christian Reformed Church. Somehow the Chris-             Barth.
     tian Reformed Synod was at long last prevailed upon               What, then, are some of  the- marks of this theo-
     to say the same thing that Dr. Stob said: "Abstract!"         logical method?
        Let me once again caution the reader, on the one              The first that I want to mention is that it is, ac-
     hand, against thinking that I accuse the Christian            cording to its own claim, a new method.
     Reform.ed  Synod of believing and expressing all that             This is not my claim; it is the claim of this new
     Dr. Stob says when he writes about the abstractness           theology itself.        For my part, I am rather certain
     of Prof. Dekker and of the Study Committee. This I            that what we have in this alleged new theology is not
     do not claim.     For the Synod simply used the term          really new at all.         It is something very old that is
     abstract  without further defining it. To say the least,      dressed up in the garb of a new terminology. But I
     however, this is a highly dangerous practice: it  allows      will return to this aspect of the subject later. Just
     everyone the freedom of understanding what he will            now I want to point to the claim of being a new method.
     concerning this charge.      On the other hand, let me          In the quotation from Dr. Stob's editorial made in
     also warn that this charge did not simply fall out of         the last issue of the  Stand&d   Beaver, statements like
     a blue sky. It would be less than realistic to imagine        the following are found:
     this,    As I pointed out last time, the circumstantial
     evidence points a convincing finger of accusation at             . . . And what has become equally plain is  that the
                                                                      scientific  m.sthod which we have customarily employed
     The Reformed  Journal  and at that group of Christian            in our address to theological issues is in need of
     Reformed theologians which is generally thought of as            patient review and revisi.on..  . . but we an ill afford
     protecting and defending Prof. Dekker against charges            now, when we are just peginning to reach out for a new
     of being anti-creedal. And since  The Reformed Jouvnal           and more `biblically  oriented method of theological
     originated this notion of abstractness, and since no             understanding. and construction, to arrest our advance
     other source can be found for this charge, and since             . . . .
     the Synod apparently echoed Dr. Henry Stob's language,                 We are experiencing today a theological renais-
     though it did not further define its use of the term, it         sance. -. But, on the other hand, the Holy Spirit is
     is only logical to assume that the meaning attached to           manifestly renewing the Church's understanding of
     the term by  The Reformed Journal  is the meaning                things divine. New and responsible biblical studies.. s
                                                                      We are beginning to understand. . .
     which will prevail in the mind of the church.
         But this meaning is so very dangerous and destruc-           It is very evident from statements like those
     tive of  all. truly Reformed theology and is already          above that this theology claims,-or shall we say:
     creating such unspeakable theological chaos, both             admits?-to be new. This, by the way, is also evident
     here and in the Netherlands, that I want to take the          from many statements by James  Daane, who, as usual,
     time to expose it and warn against it.                        is right, but dead wrong. The "winds of change" of
        Lest I lose  my readers, let me insert a word of           which he wrote in the July-August, 1966, issue of
     explanation.                                                  The Refovmed  Journal  are the winds of this  self-
        What we are talking about here is the deep, under-         proclaimed new method of theologizing. In fact, James
     lying question of  theological method.  This is an issue      Daane seems to be so enamored of his own new theol-
     which is far greater than the Dekker Case as such. It         ogy that he cannot even be fair and truthful about the
     lies at the root of this case. Professor Dekker him-          theology, method, and exegesis of others. That is why
     self has said little, if anything, about this subject. But    he never fails to misrepresent the theology of Herman
     others, such as Drs. Daane and Stob, havewritten about        Hoeksema, as he does, for example, in the same issue
     it. The question of method concerns not only the doc-         of The Reformed  Journal  in which Dr. Stob writes
     trines of the atonement and the love of God. It concerns      about the new theology.          He forevermore accuses
     all theology. Moreover, the Reformed Churches in the          Herman Hoeksema of simply equating the "world" and
     Netherlands are being troubled not only by some of            the "all men" whom God loved and for whom Christ
     the very `same doctrinal issues as those of the Dekker        died with the elect by "an exegesis in which time and
     Case; they are also being troubled by this allegedly          history were not allowed to interfere." This is a plain
     "new" method. It is this so-called new method that            andunvarnished misrepresentation on Daane'spart; and
     is behind such basic issues `as the doctrine of Scrip-        it is about as far from the truth as he could get. If
     ture, the doctrine of creation (theistic evolution), the      Daane wants a new theology, that is one thing; but
     doctrine of reprobation, the doctrine of hell,-all of         that he cannot even truthfully represent the "old
     which are being challenged in the Netherlands as              theology" is quite another.         Anyone who has ever
     well as in the Reformed community in America. In              read Herman Hoeksema's exegesis of the "world" in
     fact, it is safe to say that the new theological method       John  3:16, for example, knows that he exactly does not
     of which Dr. Henry Stob speaks is not new in the              equate "world" and  "elect," and above all not with
     sense that it is original: it is an imported product,         an exegesis in which time and history have no place,
     imported from the Netherlands, and especially from               But what about this self-proclaimed newness?
     the Free University, and more especially still, from             In the first place, we must remember that all
     Dr. G.  C.. Berkouwer,      And whether it is original        change is not improvement. That is especially true
     with Dr. Berkouwer is at least questionable: the              in theology, and more especially in Reformed theol-
                                                                                 Change, especially in such an important area


202                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


as theological method, should be viewed with extreme             They should tell the churches that they are departing,
caution.       It is rather fashionable, also in the area        and then depart from the church also. It is corrupt
of theology, to picture those who oppose change or               first to- change the theological method and thinking of
who view it with caution as stick-in-the-mud con-                the church and then to attempt to change the confes-
servatives, as the "old guard," who are standing in              sions. This is revolution. Honesty demands that he
the way of progress. Moreover, it may sound  up-to-              who disagrees with the confessions registers a  gY&a-
date, progressive,-maybe I should use that naughty               men,  not that he propagandizes the church to under-
word "relevant'`--to speak of a new and more bib-                mine the confessions.
lically oriented method of theological understanding
and construction, of a theological renaissance, of                  My third and final (for the present issue) observa-
the Holy Spirit's manifestly renewing the Church's               tion is this: the `burden of proof in favor of this new
understanding of things divine, of descending from the           and departing method is on its proponents. Theirs is
cold heights of abstract truth; but these are in them-           the new method. Theirs is also the burden of proof.
selves only high-sounding phrases. And especially if             Moreover, it seems to me that responsible theology
we remember that this change involves the repudiation            would find this burden weighing heavily upon its
of the theological method which has stood the test of            shoulders.       After all, such a thing as theological
centuries and which has brought the Reformed heritage            method is basic. It is at the root of all theology and
to its beautiful expression in our Three Forms of                theologizing.     Are theologians ,-and more seriously
Unity, -then, I say, caution is in order. To say the             still, are the churches,-simply to accept this theology
very least, it remains to be seen whether this change            because it is new? Or are they, perhaps, to accept
is indeed an improvement, a rebirth, a renewal. Be-              it on a trial-and-error basis? Or are they to accept
fore we are swept off our theological feet by the cry            it only because various scholarly and erudite theo-
of progress and by the warning against arresting                 logians acclaim it?       This could be devastating! Nor
advance, and before we are tempted to accept the                 should responsible adherents of the (by contrast) "old"
products of this new method, we should examine the               method of theology allow the burden of proof to be
method itself carefully,                                         shifted to them. Too often this happens. For too long
        That brings me to my second observation, It is           conservative Reformed theology has allowed itself to
this:       the very claim of being new implies the ad-          be put in the unhappy and uncomfortable position of
mission that it is  depavtuve.  It is well to recognize          being solely on the defensive.         We should break
this fact.       These so-called new theologians are de-         loose from that position.       We should go on the of-
parting. They are departing in their method; and they            fensive, and we should do it with a sense of urgency.
are necessarily departing in their theology, the product         We have nothing to be ashamed of and everything to
of that method. Moreover, this means inevitably, as              boast of in the Lord. Our attitude should be that we
I will point out in detail in another connection and in          shun and teach men to shun these innovations in theol-
a later editorial, that they are departing from our              ogy and in theological method like the  plague,-
confessions.        This has already proceeded so far in         unless and until they meet the solemn obligation of
the Netherlands that there is discussion of changing             the burden of proof that is upon them, and meet it with
the confessions, particularly Canons I, 6 and Canons I,          Scripture and the confessions in hand.
1.5.      But such theologians should be open about this.            Such is responsible theology, whether new or old.


             Consistorial Supervision

                                               of Catechetical Instruction

                                           (continued from Nov.  P issue)

                                                  by  Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema

                   THE  ti EA OF SUPER VISION                    There are, however, several important areas in which
        In the light of the data cited previously, we are now    the consistory's supervision is required and also
ready to turn our attention more directly to the duties          fruitful.     If there are times when this supervision
of a consistory with respect to catechetical instruc-            seems to be rather routine, perhaps that is a good
tion.                                                            sign, a sign that the labor of catechetical instruction
        Perhaps it is thought by some that a consistory          is running smoothly, being well-performed and  well-
actually has little to do with. catechetical instruction         received.     This certainly is not a reason to remove or
and that much of what a consistory must do is so                 to relax the supervision; it is, in fact, a reason to
extremely routine that it requires little attention.             continue it carefully and faithfully, routine though it


                                                            THESTANDARDBEARER                                                                            103


 may seem to be. For without such faithful supervision                               fore, to acquaint the catechumens as thoroughly as
 that favorable situation  annot  long continue. But if                              possible with the  facts  of Biblical history in their con-
 that supervision becomes routine in the sense that it                               nection. W-e may also note that in these two courses
 becomes meaningless, becomes a "wax nose," be-                                      there is emphasis on Bible, memory work,--something,
 comes rather careless and is viewed simply as one                                   by the way, on which there is not easily too much em-
.*of those annoying official duties which must be per-                               phasis in our day, and something which bears great
 formed but which could as well be dispensed with; or                                rewards in later life.
 if in its duty of supervision the consistory becomes a                                 For children of the ages of 11 and 12 years old,
 kind of "rubber stamp" for the pastor,-then there is                                there are two courses in Sacred History for Seniors,
 danger.       Routine labors must never be allowed to                               again one based on the Old Testament and one on the
 become routine in that sense. Then they may as well                                 New. And again, these two question-books are accom-
 not be performed.          Elders whose labors become                               panied by two companion workbooks for written work.
 routine in that bad sense are not functioning as faith-                             The purpose of these courses is to provide our  cate-
 ful watchmen. It is well, therefore, that we call atten-                            chumens with an interpretive treatment of Biblical
 tion to several distinct areas in which the donsistory                              history and to emphasize the deeper meaning of this
 must exercise supervision, in order that catechetical                               history as revelation and with respect to the realiza-
 instruction may be properly and faithfully and fruit-                               tion of God's covenant and kingdom.
 fully conducted.                                                                         At this point in the system emphasis begins to be
    In the first place, there is the area of instructional                           laid upon doctrinal instruction. We are a confessional
 materials.     In this connection it should be noted that                           church, and the covenant seed must be instructed to
 we not only have various catechism books which have                                 confess the truth with us; they must therefore learn to
 been synodically prepared and approved; but we have                                 speak the language of our confessions intelligently.
 an entire  system  of instructional materials for the                                    For the ages of 13 and 14 there should be instruc-
 catechism classes in our churches. This system is                                   tion in the knowledge of simple Biblical doctrines, and
 so arranged that when it is followed, our catechumens                               this instruction should be connected as much as
 are thoroughly instructed according to a plan that is                               possible with Bible history. At these ages also there
 adapted to their ages and adapted to the task and                                   must be strong emphasis on memory work. For this
 pqrpose of catechetical instruction as described earlier                            purpose we use the "Heidelberg Catechism for Junior
 in our discussion.                                                                  Catechumens." This is a little book containing thirty'
    Let me outline this system.                                                      lessons, based upon our Heidelberg Catechism. If all
    For children of the ages of  6  to 8 years old, we                               thirty lessons are to be taught in one year, and if, on
 have "Bible Stories For Beginners."                         There are               the average, there is a review, or test, at the end of
 three such books: two devoted to the Old Testament                                  every five lessons, this would require a catechism
 and one to the New Testament, For children of these                                 season of thirty-six weeks. If, however, two weeks
 ages the purpose is that they be taught simple Biblical                             are devoted to each lesson,-something which is not at
 stories, without much attention to time and place and                               all impossible, and which I have found  tobe successful,
 historical connection; and the memory work of these three                           -then fifteen lessons would be taught in thirty weeks,
 books is designed to serve the purpose of such in-                                  plus, possibly, three reviews. A total of thirty-three
 struction.     There are twenty-five lessons in each of                             weeks would be required.                         In the former case, the
 these books; and these lessons, together with five                                  entire book would be covered for two consecutive
 reviews, call for a catechism season of thirty weeks                                years; and naturally these years should not be mere
 for each book.                                                                      repetition.         In the latter case, the pace would be more
    For the ages of  9  and 10, we have two books of                                 leisurely, more attention would be devoted to each
Sacred History for Juniors:               one based on the Old                       lesson, and the entire book would be treated "in depth"
Testament and one on the New Testament. With these                                   over the span of two catechism seasons. We may also
books the catechumens are also required to use work-                                 note that there is no prepared manual of written work
books for written work. The latter material is de-                                   for this course; the assignment of such written work
signed to supplement the memory work. In these two                                   is left to local discretion, as is the preparation of
 courses the emphasis is on consecutive Biblical his-                                notes and outlines on the lessons. There is room for
torical narratives, with emphasis on time and place                                  both kinds of supplementary material in this course.
 and historical connection of events and on division                                      For catechumens of the ages of 15 and 16, there is
into periods. The books are obviously designed, there-                               provided doctrinal instruction with a deeper and broad-



                        .  .  . .Even though   the  calling  takes  place  through   the  preaching   of  the  gospel,  it  is  not
                        that  preaching,   nor  the  preacher, but  Christ  that calls   through  the preaching   and  by His
                        own   Spirit. In  fact,  unless   Christ  Himself  calls   there   is  no  preaching.   Christ,  Who  died
                        and   rose  again,  Who  is  exalted   at  the  right  hand  of  God,   and   received  the  promise  of  the
                        Holy  Ghost,  is  not  only  the  contents   of  the  gospel,  He  is  also  our  chief  Prophet,   Who
                        calls   His  own  unto   salvation   by  His  mighty   Word.   It  is  He  that  gathers   His  Church   out  of
                        the  whole   world,   not  we.
                                                                                H.  Hoeksema,   "The   Wonder   of  Grace,"  p.55


 104                                               THESTANDARDBEAREk

 er explanation of the various doctrines in their con-             nicer in spring, or whether minister or catechumens
 nection with one another, as well as with application             are getting "spring fever,"        The question is not
 to the reality of life. For this purpose the objective,           whether the minister would like to have a little more
 or dogmatic, order is followed, along the lines of our            free time, for whatever may be the reason,  The'con-
 Belgic Confession. The book provided'for this course              trolling question is this: has the course of instruction
 is the "Essentials of Reformed Doctrine." Also in                 been completed7       And it is well for a consistory to
. this  course there are memory work lessons; and each             fix the catechism season in advance.         If 30 class
 lesson is accompanied by various study and discussion             periods are needed, then let the consistory determine
 questions; and again, there is no written work manual             in advance when the season shall begin and when there
 provided, this being left to the instructor's discretion.         shall be a vacation and when the season shall end, in
 There are thirty lessons in this book; and the choice             such a way that each class will be able to finish its
 of plans could be followed, such as is suggested above            work.
for the earlier doctrinal class. Especially in con-                   It must also be remembered that the instructional
 nection with these lessons, however, I personally                 materials themselves are under the jurisdiction of
~ found it very difficult to completely treat one lesson           the consistory.      It is up to them to determine which
 per week; and I believe two class sessions can better             instructional materials shall be used; and it is their
 be devoted to each lesson.                                        responsibility to see that there are good, sound, Re-
        Finally, although  .this is not an integral part of our    formed instructional materials. This is not a matter
 system of instruction, we also have provided a little             of synodical determination and imposition. It is cer-
 book entitled, "Doctrinal Review," which is, as its               tainly true that a consistory will not lightly reject
 name suggests, a refresher or review course in                    the materials which have been prepared for  cateche-
 doctrine, in preparation for the doctrinal examination            tical instruction by our churches in common through
 conducted by the consistory at the occasion of con-               synodical action.      It nevertheless remains true that
fession of faith.                                                  it is the responsibility of the local consistory to
        Now there are certain rather obvious elements in           supervise the instruction in its own congregation;
 connection with the above system which belong to the              and it is the consistory's responsibility and juris-
 consistory's duty of supervision.          We may mention         diction to decide which materials shall be used.
 those of a formal nature, in the first place.                        Another area for consistorial supervision is that
        First of all, it should be plain that for successful       of the catechumens themselves. Are they faithful in
 catechetical instruction a consistory must see to it that         attending their proper classes7 Are they faithful in
 the above course is followed completely and con-                  the learning of their lessons and in study and prep-
 secutively. These books are part of  asystem;  and they           aration of assignments. Frequently matters like this
must not be used on a hit-and-miss basis. If they are              are left solely to the minister, probably until some
not followed consecutively, and if they are not fol-               instance of chronic or gross delinquency appears and
 lowed a cording to the age-groups for which they                  the minister feels obligated to report the matter to
have been designed, then it is perfectly obvious that              the consistory.      We must remember, however, that
 some catechumens are going to miss something some-                matters of this kind lie in the jurisdiction of the
where along the line in the course of their catechetical           elders, The elders must oversee the flock, also the
 instruction.      Not only that, but it is evident also that      lambs and the young sheep. And the elders must act
 it simply will not do to mix the various age-groups:              to encourage faithfulness of parents and children with
for example, to put the juniors and the seniors to-                respect to catechetical instruction.     They, and not
gether, or the beginners and the juniors. The courses              the minister alone, are responsible.
 of instruction for these groups are distinct; and it                 Another area for consistorial supervision is that
is simply impossible, especially in the brief span of              of the quality of the instruction. First of all, there
 a  45-minute  or l-hour period, to treat the lessons              is the question whether the instruction is doctrinally
properly and according to the specific design of the               pure and sound. Usually this is taken for granted; and
 courses for two or more age-groups at once. Nor is                I suppose that sometimes it is thought that just because
it educationally sound. It may seem convenient and                 we have good and sound catechism books, synodically
time-saving, either to minister or to parents. It may              approved, it is also to be taken for granted that the
be very tempting, especially if the classes are small,             instruction will be of high quality. Nevertheless, it
 as is sometimes the case in a smaller congregation.               is wrong merely to take a matter of this kind for
 But it is not proper; it is not good catechetics. And to          granted. Even as the preaching of the Word must be
see that the course of instruction is properly adhered             under consistorial supervision, and even as the elders
to is the consistory's responsibility, and may not and             are called to take the oversight of the Word and
should not be left to the minister's discretion.                   doctrine as far as the preaching is concerned, so it is
        In the second place, it is evident that the com-           their calling with respect to catechetical instruction.
pletion of each of the above courses requires a certain            They are responsible to see that the catechetical in-
number of class periods. The books for catechumens                 struction of the covenant seed is specifically Reformed,
through the age of 12 require a catechism season of                that is, Protestant Reformed, in order that the chil-
 30 weeks; and the books for the older catechumens                 dren and youth of the church may be trained and pre-
 require slightly more  than_ 30 weeks. The controlling            pared to assume their proper place in the midst of


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        105


A CLOUD OF WITNESSES

                         Saul at the Witch of  Endor

                                                       by Rev.  B.  Woudenbevg


                       And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted  me,  to  bring  me  up ? And
                    Saul  answered,  I  am  soYe distressed;  for  the Philistines make  way against  me,
                    and God is  departed   from me,  and  answeveth  me no more,  neither by  prophets,   nay
                    by  dveams:   thevefove I  have called thee, that thou  mayest  make known unto  m  e
                    what I shall do.
                        Then said Samuel, Wherefore then does thou ask  of me, seeing  the LORD is
                    departed  from  thee, and is become thine enemy?
                       And the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by  me:  fov  the LORD  huth   vent the
                    kingdom out  of  thine hand,  CEnd  given  it to thy  neighbouv,
                                                                            -            even to David.
                                                                                                  I Samuel 28:15-l  7

   David's withdrawal into the land of the Philistines                     Even Saul. himself was not able to escape the
had not been good for his spiritual life, but neither was              desperation of that hour. Even though it might have
it for King Saul. It had been hard on Saul knowing that                been thought that he would have come to hate the old
David was roaming freely through the southern portion                  prophet, he had not; he often had thought very bitterly
of his kingdom; but then at least he had been able to                  to.ward him, but hate him he could not. Something
plan and maneuvre trying to capture David and destroy                  within him would not allow it.           From the time that
him.      But now that David had left the boundaries of his            Samuel had first called him aside to anoint him to be
power, he was helpless.. All he could do was sit and                   king, he had looked upon the old prophet as some kind
wait for that final catastrophe when David would take                  of a supernatural power which had to be respected.
over the kingdom; and that was the one thing that Saul                 Samuel, himself, of course, had always stressed that
could not stand, just to sit and wait. It cast him into                he was nothing more than a servant of the God of
spells of ever deeper and deeper depression.                           Israel, and Saul had accordingly conformed himself to
   Those were dark days in Israel. During that time,                   the same way of speaking; but underneath Saul had
Samuel died too, and it seemed that with his passing                   never really found God to be very real for him; it was
the last glimmer of spiritual light had passed away                    finally in Samuel that he felt the real power resided.
from the nation.         For a time, it had appeared that              That was why it had hurt him so badly when finally
things were going to be different and that the darkness                Samuel had turned against him and then away from him
of the days of the judges was passed. Saul in his                      after that battle with the Amalekites. It had struck
earlier days as king, although he could blunder badly,                his heart with cold terror; and yet he had not been
had promised to be a worthwhile king nonetheless.                      able to vent his feelings on the old prophet to pursue
Victory had returned to Israel's army, first under the                 him and persecute him. Once he had discerned David
inspiration of Jonathan, and then even more under                      as his probable successor, he had been able to do that
David.       Had things continued to go in the way that they          to him, and he had too. As far as Samuel was con-
did, Israel would have surely gained recognition among                 cerned, however, Saul always kept secretly stowed
the nations and even become great. But then the wick-                  away in the back of his heart the dream that he would
edness of. Saul's heart had erupted. First he had turned              be able to prove that the prophet had been wrong, so
upon David, driving him out of the palace and finally                 that Samuel would have to come back to him and admit
out of the land.           Even his own son Jonathan was              his mistake and restore to Saul his favor. Then things
shunted aside from all influence in the royal court to                would be well in Israel again, and only then. The
be replaced by advisers who were wicked men. And                      longer Saul thought upon it the more demanding that
now that. Samuel had died; the last spokesman for God                 dream became until at last it seemed to be the  onIy
was gone.          All that remained in `the land was the             thing that mattered any longer. But now Samuel was
dark shadow of Saul's wickedness, the dark cloud of                   dead, and what really was there any longer for which
an evil spirit from the Lord, Samuel had warned them                  Saul could live?
that the king they sought would bring no joy. They had                    Still, even that was not. all. It was not long before
not believed him; but now they knew, and now it was                   the news was brought to Saul that the Philistines were
even too late' for them to go to him to ask what they                 gathering against him to do battle. And this was no
should do. Mixed with a wail of despair, the lamenta-                 ordinary campaign for which they were preparing
tion of Israel for Samuel arose from every corner of                  either.     Ordinarily the Philistines always came to
the land.                                                             meet him at their closest borders along the tribes of


106                                           THESTANDARDBEARER

Benjamin and Judah; but this time they had taken the          a thought which was shocking even to his hardened
trouble of marching way around to the northern part           nature.       He was just thinking once again,. "If only
of Israel where the land was flatter and where large          `Saniiiel were here," when suddenly the thought came
open plains were to be found. This would allow them           to him that maybe he could be gotten, gotten even from
to mount a campaign of truly major proportions. And           the grave. It was a perverse thought, he knew it. It
this was what they had in mind too. It appeared that          was contrary even to everything that he had wanted for
all of the land of the Philistines had mobilized against      himself.       He had always been a man who wanted to
him. Not just one of the kings of the Philistines was         solve his own problems and had never had any sym-
come this time, but all of them from every city, each         pathy for alliances with the world of darkness. From
one with his own army and all joined together into one        the time he had become king, he had been very hard
great, unheard of force. Neither could Saul forget the        upon any one found meddling in the black arts, as
fact that  .David  was now living with the Philistines,       much because he himself thought it unhealthy for the
and maybe he had heard that David was making prep-            nation as because it was contrary to the law of God,
aration. to fight in this battle also. It could only look     But now things had changed.         His own strength had
to him as though David was conspiring with the                proved impossible to save him from an impossible
Philistines. to come, and take over his throne at last        situation, and if strength to save himself must come
in the move that Saul had so long expected. It truly          from the world of darkness, so it would have to be.
seemed that all of the world had joined its forces            Quickly he sent out the order to find someone who
against him.                                                  could commune with the dead.
     Mechanically Saul went about the usual preparations         The distance which they had. to travel wasnot great,
of getting his army ready for battle and marching them        about ten miles to  Endor,  although it was necessary
to  Gilboa  in the area which the Philistines had chosen      to travel by night and under disguise, lest the men
for the battle while his mind played despondently with        should learn of his departure and in order to gain the
thoughts of impending disaster. In all  of&his though,        cooperation of the woman with the familiar spirit who
the anticipation was not nearly as bad as the reality.        had been located. Already Saul was beginning to-feel
It was  .when  he stood on the side of the mountain and       better.     So often in recent days had  .he bemoaned the
looked across at the size of the Philistine army, then        death of Samuel that his mind just presumed that, if
at last he saw how completely impossible his life had         Samuel could be talked to, he would be sure to help
become for him.           Always before, no matter how        him.       Coming to the door of the woman of  Endor,  he
difficult the problem, how deep the despondency, he had       quickiy laid out his desire, saying, "I pray thee,
always managed to believe in the back of his mind             divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me
that somehow he had it within himself to find the an-         him up, whom I shall name unto thee."
swer. But now it was as though his world had come to an          At first the woman was hesitant, replying, "Behold,
end.      What could he possibly do to save himself from      thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off
a l l   t h i s .                                             those that have familiar spirit, and the wizards, out of
     It was a frightful situation. As never before Israel     the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my
needed a leader, and-here he was the leader of Israel         life, to cause me to die?" But Saul was insistent,
and could not so much as think. The only thought that         answering, "As the- LORD liveth, there shall be no
seemed to -go through his mind, and that again and            punishment happen to thee for this thing."
again, was that he needed help, but where was help to            Satisfied that these men were not agents of the
be found. If only Samuel were still living, he would,         court; the woman turned to her incantations. Usually
go to him. Surely he- would not deny help in a situation      it took long minutes and hours of strange contortions
as dire as this. But it didn't do any good. Samuel was        and dark utterances under which everyone fell into
not here, he was dead. He  ,had to find another. Some-        hypnotic trances in which -the line between wish and
one with power like Samuel's.           Frantically, Saul     reality almost seemed to disappear, but now suddenly
called for a priest to come with the Urim. But  Abia-         there arose before the eyes of the woman a figure as
thar the true priest was with David, and the man who          real and yet unworldly as she' had never seen before.
came to him could do nothing.        Again he called for a    In a moment she seemed to grasp the whole situation
prophet in the tradition of S`amuel;~`but again those who     even to the point of recognizing the identity of the king
were brought         to him could say nothing.  _ God had     who sat before her.      Anguished, she cried out,  "Why-
turned his face on him. Saul knew it and cried out in         hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul."
his despair. Only through it all there was one thought           For Saul, who had never mixed with the occult
that never crossed his consciousness, that was a              before, there was no reason to be shocked at results
thought of repentance, the thought that this all `was         so evidently real.       He was only eager to know what
something he had brought upon himself, that he de-            she saw.      Impatiently he replied, "Be not afraid: for
served it. That type of thinking Saul's nature would          what sawest thou?" and the woman said unto Saul,
not allow for. His mind was directed only to how he           "I saw gods ascending out of the earth." But it was
could save his self-respect and pride, not to the             not enough, "What form is he of?" asked Saul, and
sacrifice and destruction of it as is demanded by             she in mortal anguish replied, "And old man  cometh
repentance.                                                   up; and he is covered with a mantle." Then Saul.
     It  was- while Saul was brooding on all this that        saw too, and at the moment he saw he knew no good
suddenly there came to him, like a flash of darkness,         would come of this.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 107


   It was with a stern voice that Samuel spoke to Saul        LORD will  also deliver Israel with thee into the hand
and said, "Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me           of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy
up?"      And so Saul tried to explain, "I am sore dis-       sons -be with me:       the LORD also shall deliver the
tressed; for the Philistines  .make war against me, and       host of Israel into the hand of the  Philistine%" With
God is departed from me, and answereth me no more,            that the figure of Samuel disappeared from sight while
neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have          the legs of Saul crumbled in weakness beneath him.
called thee, and that thou mayest make known unto me
what I shall do."                                                The scene that followed was strange in its irony.
   But with Samuel,. coming as he did in vision from          The woman, used as she was to the strangeness of the
the presence of God, there was no sympathy for the            occult, recovered quickly. Here was for her a true
troubled confusions of sin. Pointedly, he answered,           mark of distinction, the king of Israel had visited her
"Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the LORD          home and joined her in her wickedness. She was deter-
is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?             mined to make the most of it and threw herself into
and the LORD hath done to him, as he spake by me; for         the preparation of the best meal her home could
the LORD hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and         furnish. He had been granted a requested glimpse into
given it to thy neighbour, even to David: because thou        the future, and now the last thing he wanted was food;
obeyedst not the voice of the LORD, nor executedst his        but neither did he have the heart to argue. An utterly
fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD             condemned man, he sat down in the solitude of utter
done this thing unto  ?hee this day.         Moreover, the    hopelessness to eat his last meal.


          IN HIS FEAR-
                                    The Blessed Giver
                                                   (continued)

                                                 by Rev. John A. Heys

   The only way to serve God with the neighbour's             Fourth Heads of Doctrine of the Canons teaches this,
possessions is to leave them in his hand.                     in spite of what many try to make this article say.
   That neighbour may misuse his goods. He may, be            The article speaks of glimmerings of  natural  (under-
a spendthrift and a squanderer of goods. And it is a          scoring is-ours) light in man after the fall "whereby
foregone conclusion that, if he is an unbeliever, he          he retains some knowledge of God, of natural things,
is going to misuse every single material possession           and of the differences between good and evil, and dis-
that God gives him.      He will as we pointed `out last      covers some regard for virtue, good order in society,
time,  .come short of the glory of God with every thing       and for maintaining an orderly external deportment,"
given to him and miss the mark in all his actions. For,       But the article says a whole lot more. Even as far
as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans  8:7, "The             as it was quoted above it gives no proof of the un-
carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject      regenerated man doing anything pleasing in God's
to the law of God, neither indeed can be." And the            sight.     It in no way teaches that the natural man does
carnal mind is the mind wherewith we come into this           to a degree do that which he is called to do. It speaks
world.     The mind of every man born of woman is a           of knowledge of God and of the differences between
carnal mind. The word carnal here  - as will become           good and evil; but it does not say that he is able to
evident to all who know the Latin  - is "fleshly."            choose the good and walk according to' it. He dis-
That is also the `word that Paul uses. It means the           covers some regard for virtue, good order and for
mind which we receive by the first birth, the natural         maintaining an orderly  external  deportment. The idea
mind,     And it is, therefore, the only. mind that is to     is that he knows what is good  fov  mai,,  that decency
be found in the unregenerated. They have only one             and order among men is for man's advantage and safety.
birth and only one mind, the fleshly mind. They,              He has no interest in what is good in God's sight., And
therefore, are not subject to the law of God and indeed       the rest of the article indicates that this is what our
cannot be. Their carnal minds will not-allow them to          fathers meant by the article. "But so far is this light
be anything else but enemies of God. All their goods          of nature from being sufficient to bring him to a saving
they will, then, use in a way that misses the mark of         knowledge of God, and to true conversion, that he is
His service and His glory; and they will come short           incapable of using it  aright, even in things natural and
of that glory.                                                civil.     Nay, further this light such as it is, man in
   Our confessions declare that truth as the proper           various ways renders wholly polluted, and holds it in
interpretation of the teachings of Scripture.        That     unrighteousness, by doing which he becomes inexcus-
oft-quoted and well known 4th Article in the Third and        able before God."


108                                            THESTANDARDBEARER

       It is a foregone conclusion then, that the natural      give Him service and praise and thanksgiving. Hatred
man will misuse all of his goods, And we, by an act            of God, implanted in our hearts through the lie of Satan,
of unbelief, cannot take the possessions of the un-            led man to try to steal from God His glory. We would
believer away from him, against his will and without           be like Him and so steal from Him His position of
his knowledge, in order therewith to serve God. You            being God alone. We wanted His glory; and we ate of
cannot serve God by an act of unbelief. You cannot             the forbidden fruit in the foolish thought that we could
serve Him with sin.           And taking the neighbour's       rob the Most High of His unique position as God alone.
possessions away against his will and without his              And our hatred of our fellowmen also manifests itself
knowledge is sin. It is an act of unbelief. For it is          in taking away rather than in giving. The mind of our
an act wherein we deny (rather than in faith confess)          flesh is enmity against God, but it is also enmity
that God is wise and good and sovereign to distribute          against man.       Not being desirous anymore of giving
His creation to men. We may advise that neighbour              God the service and praise and glory due to His name,
as to how he should use his goods. We may rebuke               we cannot have the desire to give to our fellowmen
him severely for squandering his goods and wasting             in order to serve God and thus please God.,
them on his flesh; but we must leave them in his                  0, indeed, there is so much "charity" in the
hands; and neither by force, stealth or trickery may           world!      There are institutions of "mercy" of the
we take them away from him. If we have stolen his              world as well as of the church. There is so much
goods, under one pretext or another, and have it in            kindness, so many helping hands, social agencies of
our hands, the only  0 way to serve God with it is to          welfare.      There are, apparently, so many blessed
return it to its lawful owner.                                 givers in the world today. (We had better close our
   This, of course, holds also for the employee who            eyes for the moment to the riots that take away by
holds in his hand for use, the goods and possessions           destroying and boldly pilfering in broad daylight
of his employer.        His work requires of him that he       the stores in the area.) But there is so much "good"
drive the employer's truck, run his machine, measure           that sinners do. One would seem to have to state that
out his raw materials, employ his time and often live          there is so much love in the world for man and there-
in his buildings.       And Jesus' words may be para-          fore also for God.
phrased, "Do unto the property of others, their ma-               We do well, therefore, not to be guided by that only
chines and raw materials, as you would have them do            which meets the earthly eye. Our source of informa-
to yours."        Squandering his goods, causing undue         tion and our basis for judgment must be the Word of
wear and tear to his machinery and equipment is                God.      Listen then to that wisest of mortals, Solomon,
stealing as surely as armed robbery. And loafing on            in Proverbs  15:8, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an
the job, letting minute after minute go by while you           abomination to the Lord; but the prayer of the upright
are doing nothing, and then collecting a pay check for         is His delight." Now that sacrifice, mind you, is the
those moments, is also stealing his money from him.            gift of that wicked man unto God. Thus it was with
Whether he knows it or not makes no difference.                Cain as well.      As far as what the fleshly eye can see,
There is a God Who sees it and Who demands faithful-           he brought a gift to God. Often that gift of the ungodly
ness in all things at all times to the employer. And           is of greater material value than that which the per-
why is it that we will work faithfully while the em-           secuted believer can bring. But he brings nothing to
ployer is there to watch us and then will idle away his        God that pleases Him,. It is not simply something in
time as soon as he has gone away? Why is it that we            which God is not interested. It is an abomination to
are more concerned and more fearful of that man than           Him.      He cannot have it before His holy eyes. It fills
of the all-seeing God Whose breath is  in our nostrils?        Him with abhorrence and righteous wrath to see this
It shows how atheistic we all are by nature. We forget         unbeliever bring his sacrifice. Man may give thou-
God so quickly. We have the fear of men rather than            sands to "charity"; but God says of it that it calls for
the fear of God. If only man does not see us in our            thousands of degrees of punishment.
evil, we are satisfied.      And satisfying the living God
and being pleasing in His sight often fades completely            There is also Hebrews  11:6 which sheds light on
from our consciousness and from our will.                      this matter, although it states it more mildly. "For
       Let us not forget that stealing the goods of the        without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he
neighbour in any way whatsoever, whether it be time            that cometh  to God must believe that He is and that He
or a material object, whether it be by trickery or             is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." The
force, whether the neighbour knows it or not, always           @unbeliever .simply does not please God. And he cannot
is not simply an act of hatred towards that neighbour          please God no matter how wonderful his works seem
but is, in the very first place, and always, an act of         to be to man's eyes.       Let us not try to tell God that
hatred against God. If we love God, we will abide in           He does find delight and is pleased by the works of the
His will. If we break His law, it means that we hate           wicked, when He tells us Himself that this is not so.
Him.                                                           In this connection let us also turn to Romans  14:23,
       It is characteristic of love that it gives. It is in    "And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he
the very nature of hatred to take away, The parent             eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is
that loves his child will give and provide, and in times       sin." Is it necessary to state that the unbeliever does
of scarcity will go without himself in order to give to        nothing and can do nothing of faith'? Is he not exactly
                                                               an unbeliever because he has no faith? And if he does


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     109


not and cannot do anything out of faith, he does not and        church world today, were bluntly called works of
cannot please God.                                              iniquity by Christ.
   There is also the Word of Jesus that although some
seemed to be so diligent and faithful in this life and             It is not, therefore, a gift to God. And though it
shall say in the judgment day, "Lord, did we not do             remains a gift to man, it is not one that brings a
this and that in Thy name.. . . ..", Jesus does not simply      blessing to the giver. Only in His fear can we give in a
say, "No, I do not recall.         I have no record of this     way that is pleasing in God's sight and can we refrain
fact." But very positively He says, "Depart from Me.,           from taking from the neighbour his possessions. If
I never knew  youO" And even though they claimed to             all that which we have is the fear of men, we may by
do good, He calls them workers of iniquity. Their               that fear be restrained from taking away his goods,
works that looked so lovely to us and were works of             but we will not please God by our works and receive
the "social gospel" that is lauded so highly in the             a blessing from Him.


     CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH-

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

                                                    The Pelagian Controversy

                                                Life of Augustine (Philip Schaff)

                                                       by Rev. H. Veldman

   We were busy in our preceding article with a                    possible.    He did not indeed enter a cloister, like
description of Augustine's influence upon posterity                Luther, whose conversion in Erfurt was likewise es-
and his relation to Catholicism and Protestantism, as              sentially catholic, but he lived in his house in the
set forth by Philip Schaff in Vol. III of his History of           simplicity of a monk, and made and kept the vow of
the Christian Church. And we noted that this church                voluntary poverty and celibacy.
                                                                      He adopted Cyprian's doctrine of the church, and
father contributed much to the development of the                  completed it in the conflict with Donatism by trans-
doctrinal basis which Catholicism and Protestantism                ferring the predicates of unity, holiness, universality,
hold in common against such radical heresies of                    exclusiveness, and maternity, directly to the actual
antiquity as Manichaeism, Arianism, and Pelagianism.               church of the time, which, with a firm episcopal
Schaff also notes that Augustine is the principal                  organization, an unbroken succession, and the Apostles"
theological creator of the  Latin-Catholic  system as              Creed, triumphantly withstood the eighty or the hun-
distinct from the Greek Catholicism on the one hand,               dred opposing sects in the heretical catalogue of the
and from evangelical Protestantism on the other. We                day, and had its visible centre in Rome. In this chur:h
now continue with this.                                            he had found rescue from the shipwreck of his life,
                                                                   the home of true Christianity, firm ground for his
      His very conversion, in which, besides the Scrip-            thinking,  satisf\action  for his heart, and a commensu-
   tures, the personal intercourse  of the hierarchical            rate field for the .wide range of his powers. The pred-
   Ambrose and the life of the ascetic Anthony had great           icate of infallibility alone he does not plainly bring
   influence, was a transition not from heathenism to              forward; he assumes a progressive correction of
   Christianity (for he was already a Manichaean Chris-            earlier councils by later; and in the Pelagian con-
   tian), but from heresy to the historical, episcopally           troversy he asserts the same independence towards
   organized church, as, for the time, the sole authorized         pope Zosimus, which Cyprian before him had shown
   vehicle of the apostolic Christianity in conflict with          towards pope Stephen in the cant `oversy on heretical
   those sects and parties which more or less assailed             baptism, with the advantage of having the right on his
   the foundations of the gospel. (In this connection, the         side, so that Zosimus found himself compelled to yield
   undersigned would like to make a few remarks. What              to the African church.
   is meant by a "Manichaean Christian?" The writer,
   Philip Schaff, does not say. Augustine was surely con-          We do well to note that -Philip  Schaff writes here in
   verted, not from one form of Christianity to another,        regard to the infallibility of popes. It is obvious that
   but out of sin into grace and into the fellowship of God.    Augustine did not subscribe to the modern Roman
   This conversion occurred when Augustine was ap-              Catholic doctrine of the infallibility of the pope. It is
   proximately thirty years old- H.V.) It was, indeed,
   a full and unconditional surrender of his. mind and          true that this church father maintained the necessity
   heart to God, but it was at the same time a submission       of belonging to the old Catholic church, although we
   of his private judgment to the authority of the church       must bear in mind that this "old Catholic church"
  which led him to the faith of the gospel. In the same         must not be identified with the modern Roman Catholic
   spirit he embraced the ascetic life, without which, ac-      church. But we do well to note that Augustine assumed
   cording to the Catholic principle, ,no high religion is      a corrective correction of earlier councils, and that


110                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER


he `therefore did not subscribe to the theory of their                 ings were directed against the Pelagian Julian and the
infallibility.     And he also asserts the same independ-              Semi-Pelagians in Gaul, who were brought to his
ence towards  pope Zosimus, so that this pope found                  notice by the two friendly laymen, Prosper and Hilary.
himself compelled to yield to the African -church. This                These anti-Pelagian works have wrought mightily, it is
certaimy  means  that this church father did not sub-                  most true, upon the Catholic church, and have held in
scribe to the theory that the popes are infallible.                    check the Pelagianizing tendencies of the hierarchical
                                                                       and monastic system, but they have never passed into
       It is also worthy of note what Schaff writes concern-           its blood and marrow. They waited for a favorable fu-
ing Augustine's view on the sacraments, the sacra-                     ture, and nourished in silence an opposition to the
ment of baptism and that of the Lord's Supper:                         prevailing system.
          He was the first to give a clear and fixed definition           Even in the middle ages the better sects, which
       of the sacrament, as a visible sign of invisible grace,         attempted to simplify, purify, and spiritualize the
       resting on divine appointment; but he knows nothing of          reigning Christianity by return to the Holy Scriptures,
       the number seven; this was a much later enactment.              and the reformers before the Reformation, such as
       In the doctrine of baptism he is entirely Catholic,             Wyclif, Huss, Wessel, resorted most, after the apostle
       though in logical contradiction with his dogma of pre-          Paul, to the bishop of Hippo as the representative of
       destination; but in the doctrine of the holy communion          the doctrine of free grace.
       he stands, like his predecessors, Tertullian and  Cyp-             The Reformers were led by his writings into a
       rian, nearer to the Calvinistic theory of a spiritual          deeper understanding of Paul, and so prepared for
       presence and' fruition of Christ's body and blood. He          their great vocation. No church teacher did so much
                                                                      to mould Luther and Calvin; none furnished them so
       also contributed to promote, at least in his later
 writings, the Catholic faith of miracles, and the wor-               powerful weapons against the dominant Pelagianism
                                                                       and formalism; none is so often quoted by them with
       ship of Mary; though he exempts the Virgin only from           esteem and love.
       actual sin, not from original, and, with all his rever-            All the Reformers in the outset, Melancthon and
       ence for her, never calls her mother of .God.                  Zwingli among them, adopted his denial of free will
       In connection with this reference in the writings of            and his doctrine of predestination, and sometimes
Augustine to Mary, we do well to bear in mind that                    even went beyond him into the abyss of  supralap-
                                                                      sarianism, to cut out the last roots of human merit
this church father did not teaz h what the Roman Cath-                 and boasting.....
olic church later taught of the- worship of Mary. It is
undoubtedly true that Augustine held Mary in very high                We, of course, do not agree with Philip Schaff
esteem, exempting her from actual sin. The Scrip-                  when he speaks of the "abyss" of  supralapsarianism.
tures, we know, nowhere teach this.. Her place in the              We are grateful for the remark that these reformers
Apostles' Creed must not be interpreted in the sense               sometimes went beyond him into the abyss of  supra-
that it emphasizes the high esteem in which she must               lapsarianism,  to cut out the last roots  of  human  me&t
be held, but it must be interpreted as emphasizing                 and boas t&g.     And we know that Augustine not only
that our Lord Jesus Christ was born without  the.will              fought all pelagianism, every concept of the free will
of man, and therefore that He is Immanuel, God with                of the natural sinner but he also championed the truth
us.       The later Roman Catholic doctrine that she is            of Divine predestination, as we hope to see later in
transformed  .into a mother of God, a queen of heaven,             these articles. Only, we wish to make the remark at
an intercessor above all women, a sinlessly holy  co-              this time that the denial of the free will of the sinner
redeemer, etc., is `nowhere taught in the writings of              and predestination are truths that go hand in hand.
Augustine.        He held her in high veneration, but never        If it be true, and it is true, that the natural man cannot
does his -high veneration of her become a worship of               of himself do any good, cannot exert a single effort in
this mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, as He was born               behalf of his own, salvation, then it must also be as
in our flesh'and  blood.                                           clear as the sun in the heavens that it is God Who alone
       Schaff also calls attention to the fact that Augustine      determines his salvation.          If the sinner cannot put
may be  .called  the first forerunner of the Reformation,          forth the first effort, then it is the Lord Who must
He writes concerning this as follows:                              save him, and this implies the truth of sovereign pre-
          But, on the' other hand, Augustine is,`. of all the      destination because then it is the Lord Who determines
  fathers, nearest to evangelical Protestantism, and               in whom He will work His work of salvation.
       may be called, in respect of his doctrine of sin and           We wish to conclude these quotations from Philip
       grace; the first forerunner of the Reformation. The         Schaff with the following:
       Lutheran and Reformed churches have ever conceded
       to him, without scruple, the cognomen of Saint, and                Had he lived (Augustine--H.V.) at the time of the
       claimed him as one of the most enlightened witnesses           Reformation, he would in all probability have taken the
       of the truth and.most  striking examples of the marvel-        lead of the evangelical movement against the prevailing
       lous power of -divine  -grace in the transformation of a       Pelagianism of the Roman church. For we must not
       sinner. It is worthy of mark, that his Pauline `doc-           forget that, notwithstanding their strong affinity,. there
       trines, which are most nearly akin to Protestantism,           is an important difference between Catholicism and
       ,are the later and more m.ature  parts of his system,          Rom,anism or Popery. They sustain a similar relation
       and that just these found great acceptance with the            to each other as the Judaism of the Old Testament
       laity. The Pelagian'controversy, in which he developed         dispensation, which looked to, and prepared the way
 his anthropology, marks the culmination of his  theo-                for, Christianity, and the Judaism after the crucifixion
       logical and ecclesiastical career, and his latest writ-        and after the destruction of Jerusalem, which is


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            111


    antagonistic to Christianity. Catholicism covers the                of the Reformation.     Catholicism is the, strength of
    entire ancient and mediaeval history of the church,                 Romanism, Romanism is the ,weakness of Catholicism.
    and includes the Pauline,  Augustinian, or evangelical              :-Catholicism produced  Jansenism (emphasis, upon  Aug-
    tendencies which increased with the corruptions of the              ustiniarnsm),  Popery  condemned  it.     Popery never
    papacy and the growing. sense of the necessity of a                 forgets and  .never learns anything, and can allow  ho
    "reformation in  capite et membris."         Romanism               change in doctrine (except by way of addition), without
    proper dates from the council of Trent, which gave it               sacrificing its fundamental principle  of' infallibility,
    symbolical expression and anathematized the doctrines                and thus committing adicide.


 PAGES FROM THE PAST-


                             On-Going Reformation

                                                              I  2 I

 (Note:    This is the second installment of a series of          no longer watch and pray; they do not witness and
articles on the above subject.         These articles are         protest. The Church has lost its first love.- No longer
 translations of a series which was written in the                is there a confession before the world, either-by word
 Holland language by the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema                of. mouth or in walk. As a rule, such a lethargy and
 thirty-seven years ago.)                                         falling asleep does not begin with the multitude, but
                                                                  with the leaders. As long as the leaders remain alert
   In this way, first, of all, degeneration and retro-            and receive the grace of the Spirit to lift themselves
 gression take place in the living confession of the              above such a general spirit of indifference and to
 Churches. We do not refer now to the confession as it            protest against it resolutely, God's people do not
 is  officially fixed in certain formulas and as it is            easily fall asleep. But the leaders set the  pacec They
 adopted by the Churches in common, as it constitutes             themselves fall asleep. No longer are they watchmen
 the basis for denominational ties and fellowship, -the           upon the walls of Zion; they give themselves over to a
 confession as it is printed in the back of our Psalter.          iife `of the flesh., How they can enjoy the highest salary,
 No, this is not the first to receive attention. In a             the best place, the least work, the most pleasure in
 certain sense the corruption of this confession is last          the world, - these are  1 the matters which captivate
 in order.       A church does not easily arrive at the           their heart and which occupy them in  their.mutual  dis-
 point of changing and weakening its official confession.         cussions.       Their personal spiritual life is  :impover-
 But we have in mind the living confession of the                 ished,  prayer dies off, their testimony becomes mute,
 Church of Christ in the world, and that too, in word             in their. walk they are attracted by the vainglory of life.
 and in walk.      The Church of Christ must be a con-            And:       "As the .-priest, so the people" is a proverb
 fessing church. That is  its- calling. To canfess the            which is soon. confirmed by reality. This evil takes
 name of the Lord before men is  its- task. Unto that             hold all around them. It reveals itself at every level.
 end the Church is in the world. And the Church must              In the mutual life of the Church personal testimony is
 do this, not first of all by drawing up a set of articles        no longer heard: The things of God's kingdom no
 in which it expresses the content of its faith, but in the       longer attract.        The people come together to enjoy
 living word and  ,in a godly walk:          in a walk in the     ordinary worldly sociability, things of "the most  corn+
 world, but not of the world; in the proclaiming of the           mon grace' `; they talk about the things of the world,
 virtues of  I-Em Who. has called us out of the darkness          m,ake  themselves guilty of backbiting and slander,  play-
 into His marvellous light, and in the  condenmation  of          cards or dance to pass the time away. Once a Sunday
_ the world which lies in darkness. And the Church is             they still go to church if the weather is not too un-
called to do this always and everywhere,  in-the  midst           favorable, but usually it is either too  cold or too hot to  -
 of the church and in the midst of the world, in the              attend twice; and they would prefer to go visiting or
 home and in society, in the factory and in t-he office,          riding instead of attending church. Soon this spirit of
 and in the mutual life of the communionof the brethren.          degeneration reveals itself everywhere. It influences
 This is the Church's confession, which it is called to           the  hotie; it reveals itself in the instruction  iin the
 seal with its life.                    :                         Christian grade school and in the secondary schools;
    It' is at the point of this living. confession that de-       and it comes to manifestation in the social life of. the
 formation first comes, to manifestation. There is an             Christian. One's entire outlook becomes broader; co-
 inner weakening of life.      The carnal element in the          operation becomes possible in everything; and Christ
 Church of Christ begins to rule.  The.others  begin to           .and Belial go hand in hand! The light has been put un-
 weaken and. to become lethargic, to fall asleep; they            der a bushel, and the salt has lost its savor!


112                                             THE STANDARD BEARER

       The living confession of the Church of Christ has        final analysis still want to maintain the confession of
been silenced!                                                  the Churches and to hold fast to it are treated with
 Let synods be convened under such conditions, and              contempt or are cast out.
let these broader gatherings issue precept upon precept            Nor is it different with respect to the administra-
and line upon line.        It is absolutely fruitless. You      tion of the Word and the sacraments. The ministers
*cannot  purify polluted water from a pump by painting          also come forth out of  the' Church. Their preaching
the pump handle I                                               first becomes lifeless and mechanical. It is no longer
       Now it surely lies in the nature of the case that the    a living witness and confession, a matter of the heart.
dying of this living testimony affects the life of the          There is no longer any power in the preaching. Yes,
Church in its institutional manifestation and official          men continue to keep themselves within the confines of
calling, in its official confession, in its worship, its        the confession and of tradition. One cannot exactly
preaching of the Word and administration of the sacra-          say that there is something definitely wrong and
ments, in its discipline and church government.                 heretical proclaimed from the pulpit. But there is
       With the officebearers `matters become increas-          no life in it.      The heart is out of it. The preacher
ingly poor. For even as they as leaders, who neglected          no longer finds his soul's delight in the living proc-
their calling and themselves fell asleep, often are the         lamation of the Word of God. The situation, however,
first cause of apostasy and backsliding, so they them-          cannot remain thus.        For who would be able, week
selves come forth again out of the life of the church. In       after week, year in and year out, to speak of things
that church which fell away, whose confession  became           in which his own heart does not live? They begin to
silent, which left its first love, they are brought up,  -      cast about for something else.        Gradually the Word
instructed in its homes, in its catechism classes, in           of God must make room for the vain philosophy of the
its schools; the spirit of that church they drink in; and       world.      Yes, for a kind of motto a text is selected,
before  1on.g  you get officebearers who are strangers          but only never to be mentioned again in the course of
to the real life of the Church and who are even no              the sermon.        They speak about this and that and
longer acquainted with the tradition of that life.              everything, except about the living and powerful Word
       Thus a condition is gradually created in which the       of the Lord our God which abides forever. And so it
Church can also corrupt its own confession, permit              happens that the Lord comes into that sleeping con-
church discipline to be ome lax, allow church govern-           gregation unnoticed, as a thief in the night, removes
ment to take a hierarchical direction, and change the           the light from the candlestick, and goes on His way,
worship into mere formality.                                    without the congregation even noticing that a judgment
       As far as the established confession of the churches     of God has been executed upon it  I The key power,
is concerned, usually this corruption begins with a             either of the preaching of the Word or of Christian
dry and dead intellectualism. The confessions are still         discipline, is no longer employed; the sacraments are
known.       People study them. They are discussed in           desecrated; and the Church is delivered over to the
societies and in personal conversations. Men speak in           heathen.
imposing language of principles and of maintaining                It need not surprise us that such a Church, dead and
the confession, and then of conquering all spheres of           lifeless and ignorant, also becomes ripe for hier-,
life for Christ. But it is all dead and lifeless, a hollow      archy in its government. The multitude which knows
cry, which also finds no longer any confirmation in             not the law is no longer articulate, no longer concerns
practical life.      The heart is not in it, and men no         itself with the things pertaining to the life of the
longer experience the spiritual power of the confession.        church, and is in fact, accursed. When the synod has
However, such a situation cannot long continue, as              spoken, then this is quite acceptable to them, and
lies in the nature of the case. This reasoning about            they gladly submit themselves to its decisions, even
the confession soon comes to an end. The confession             though they have not the faintest idea of what has been
is no longer investigated: men find such things too             decided.     Papa  d&it,   the pope has spoken: and that is
dull and dry, just as in reality it also had been. A            the end of all contradiction. And the officebearers,
further stage of decline is characterized by a con-             who may not be anything else than disciples of Christ,
tempt, the contempt of ignorance, with respect to the           gladly make use of the opportunity to be lords rather
confession of the Churches. Men are not even able to            than servants, to pluck instead of to feed, to shear the
name the Three Forms of Unity, much less tell you               sheep instead of tending the flock. The congregation
their contents. Whoever would speak yet of the Re-              has despised the truth, has rejected its living con-
formed truth either finds no audience or he is greeted          fession, has learned to love the world, has cast away
with a sympathetic smile as one who is behind the               its spiritual nobility, and has become the prey of
times. A generation arises which, as I once put it in a         wolves 1
sermon in my former congregation, would fail in a                  And so it happens that this spirit of laxity and
kindergarten-examination in the Reformed truth, but             apostasy, this process of deformation, finally is also
which nevertheless, with all its ignorance, begins to           seen in the public worship service. Where the essence
dominate in the Church.                                         is lacking, there the emphasis must be laid more and
       But even this is not the end. The last stage in this     more upon outward form. Where the heart no longer
development is characterized by a deep-seated hatred            beats in the worship service, there the corpse must be
against everything which is specifically Reformed and           made attractive with cosmetics and flowers.           Men
by sharp and bitter opposition. And those who in the            seek after more liturgical form, more beautiful music,


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             i i 3

more artistically gratifying singing.           They demand        the dead corpse of form-worship instead of the  pul-
shorter and shorter sermons, in many churches no                   sating heart of the living fellowship of God with His
longer than ten or fifteen minutes' duration. They                 people' ,in the midst of the congregation. The true
introduce dead formulas of absolution instead of the               church becomes a sham church; the sham church
living preaching of God's Word. Presently they will                becomes false church; the false church prepares the
become ripe again  far the confessional and for  image-            way for the Antichrist. The process of deformation
worship and for the accursed idolatry of the popish                has reached its climax.
mass !
   The ultimate result is that you have  world-con-                    And because the principles, the seeds, of this
formity instead of the living confession of God's                  process of deformation are always present and  operat-
people;  freedom of doctrine and vain philosophy  in-              ing in the Church of the Lord on earth, because no
stead of the powerful and pure proclamation of the                 church is ever free of this leaven, therefore there is
Word of God; hierarchical domineering instead of                   constant need of an on-going reformation of the
the freedom  in- which the congregation must stand;                Churches.


  AU AROUND  US-

                            Geelkerken Exonerated
                                               Other Errors

                                                       by  Pyof. H.  Hank0

   All of the news items included in this column this                   1. that it shares fully the concern of the Synod of
time have to do with events in the Netherlands. The                    Assen 1926 that the authority of Holy Scripture must
last years have seen swift changes in the Netherlands                  be respected by the church.
especially in the Gereformeerde  Kerken;  and these                    2. that it does not consider itself competent to form a
changes have not been good.             The drift is towards           judgment concerning the specific nature of the scrip-
modernism; and it is gaining momentum.                                 tural story in Genesis 2 and 3 that would be suffi-
                                                                       ciently well established to continue to follow the ex-
   The first item of interest is a decision of the                      clusive way in which Synod of Assen 1926 expressed
Gereformeerde  Kerken concerning the "Geellcerken                      itself on the obvious meaning of specific details of
Case."        Our readers will recall that in 1926 at the              this story.
Synod of Assen Dr. Geelkerken was deposed from                         3. that at the. same time, that which is articulated
office for denying the literal interpretation of Genesis               verbally in the Confession of the church concerning
2 and 3. He denied that the tree of the knowledge of                   the origin of sin and the effects of the fall into sin
good and evil and the  tree of life was real; and he                   (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Days 3 and 4 andBelgic
denied that the serpent through which Satan tempted                    Confession Arti les 14 and 15) clearly expresses the
Eve was real.                                                          fundamental meaning which the Scriptures of the Old
   Concerning the action of this year's Synod we quote                 and New Testament (i.a. Romans 5) attribute to this
                                                                       history and therefore should be maintained by the
from the  R.E.S. News Exchange:                                        church as being of essential importance for the proc-
          (Lunteren)    The General Synod of the Reformed              lamation of the gospel.
   Churches in the Netherlands decided in its meeting                         The decision reads:
   here that the chur:h's declaration in 1926 (Assen)                         "that the declaration of the special general synod
   concerning the literal historicity of Genesis 1 and 2 is            held in Assen from January 26 to March 17, 1926:
   no longer binding upon the  :hurches.  In 1926 the                         a. that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the
   church declared that the tree of life, the tree of the              serpent and its speaking and the tree of life, according
   knowledge of good and evil, and the serpent which                   to the obvious intention of Genesis 2 and 3 are to be
   spoke must be understood as "sensuously perceptible                 understood in a real or literal sense and thus as
   entities."      As, a result of the decision, thousands of          sensuously perceptible realities; and
   people left the Reformed churches in the late twenties                     b. that therefore the opinion of Dr. Geelkerken,
   and after the war joined the Netherlands Reformed                   that one could render disputable whether these matters
   Church (Hervormde).                                                 or facts were sensuously perceptible realities without
          While there is now greater freedom in the Reformed           coming in conflict with what is confessed in Articles
   Churches in the Netherlands in the interpretation of                4 and 5 of the Belgic Confession, mllst be rejected,
   the early chapters of Genesis, the Synod specifically               is no longer in force in the churches as a doctrinal
   limited the latitude of view to the bounds set by the               declaration."
   church's confession.       In its decision the Synod de-                   The Synod reached the decision after two full days
   clared:                                                             of discussion by a vote of 64 to 2 with one abstention.


114                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER

       Informatiedienst explained that the difficulty in reach-    of Kuitert and condemns them. Van Riessen points
       ing a decision centered in the fact that while the dele-    out that Kuitert denies the existence of a Paradise
       gates were of the opinion that it was not correct to
       consider a single interpretation of Genesis 2 and 3 as      before the fall, maintains the presence of  death,from
       the only permissible one, (They were agreed that Geel-      the beginning of creation, and insists that the Adam
       kerken ought to be exonerated, H.H.) they feared a          and Eve of Genesis never existed. He explains the
       freedom of doctrine that would be too great. For this       presence of these stories in Scripture by saying that
       reason the Synod's declaration indicates a continuing       Israel knew the myths of its neighbors and reproduced
       adherence to the creed.                                     them in  Gen.,  l-3 which part of the Bible should there-
          The Synod appointed a special committee to propose       fore be called "saga." Praamsma includes a couple
       what should be done with those persons who left the         of quotations from Van Riessen's discussion of  Kuit-
       .Reformed  churches as a result of the 1926 decision.       ert's views:
       (This is indeed, quite a problem, H.H.) This com-
       mittee will report to the Synod when it reconvenes in             Two conclusions are obvious. This theory, being
       January.                                                       a scientific theory, starts with the idea that Gen. l-3
                                                                      is a human testimony and not the Word of God. This
       This is certainly a strange decision- and a decep-             theory concludes that this part of the Bible does not
                                                                      tell what happened, but is the reconstructed folklore
tive one. It ought to be clear to anyone that if the tree             of the neighbors in which only this is reliable that the
of the knowledge of good and evil, the serpent,  and the              God of Israel's covenant is the same God who created
tree of life are not to be understood in the real and                 the world.
literal sense of Scripture, but only in some mythical                     This theology which acts as autonomous science in
sense then the same is true of the fact of the fall of                its relation to the Bible, abandons the authority of
our first parents. It is impossible then to maintain                  Scripture in favor of that of science. It tells us that
that the Scriptural narrative describing the fall into                what is written not is, what it means as we read it, and
sin is a real historical event. It is dishonest and a                 it does not want to elucidate for us what we read; but
camouflage for the Synod piously to assert nonetheless                it wants to m,ake clear to us that God meant some-
that it is remaining true to the creeds. The Heidelberg               thing else than what He cause to be recorded. As a
                                                                      matter of fact Kuitert disclaims the last clause with
Catechism clearly presupposes the literal interpre-                   its serious accusation, because according to his opin-
tation of Genesis 2 and 3 when it explains that the de-               ion only the writers of the Bible wrote the Bible.
pravity of human nature proceeds "from the fall and                      In the theory of Kuitert the Bible as Word of God
disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in                   is altogether out of the question. This part of Genesis
Paradise.,,        (Lord's Day 3.)       The same is true of          is in his opinion the work of the authors of the Bible
Arti le XIV of the Belgic Confession in which the                     with the limited knowledge and historical background
Church confesses concerning the fall: "But being in                   of men in Israel of the 5th century B.C. who pre-
honor, he understood it not, neither knew his excel-                  sumably were not interested in the genesis of the
lency, but willfully subjected himself to sin, and con-               world.
sequently to death, and the curse,  giving  ear  to the               Kuitert refuses to say that Scripture is the founda-
wovds   of  the devil.  For the  commandment  of life,             tion of the Christian faith; rather, he insists that tradi-
which he had  Yeceived,l,   he transgressed and by sin             tion alone an serve as such a foundation. Shades of
separated himself from God D  D . ."                               Rome! Since Scripture has no authority of its own, this
   The door has been opened to all forms of liberalism             has got to be the case. Van Riessen continues con-
and modernism by this decision. Of course, it must be              cerning this point:
remembered that the Synod was forced to face the
decisions of Assen by those within the Church who                        There is therefore no difference in structure (of
have gone far beyond Geelkerken in denying the truth                  revelation) between John, Paul, Augustine and the
of Scripture. (Cf. below.) And, in this respect, Synod                minister who preached last Sunday. The difference in
was at least honest. For if they now tolerate views                   authority is to be found exclusively in being closer
                                                                      to or more remote from the historical fact at stake.
worse than those of Geelkerken, the least they can do                 In this order, therefore, authority generally increases:
is justify him. The Synod of the Christian Reformed                   the minister, Augustine, Paul, John.
Church ought now to do the same with the decisions of                    The Bible is the human confessing response to
their Synod in the Janssen case.                                      God's self-revelation in His contact with the authors
   What now?          Will Synod posthumously give  Geel-             of the Bible.       As such the Bible is not God's Word.
kerken a medal of honor and canonize him as a martyr                  Therefore the tradition takes the place of the Bible,
in the cause of the truth? They should.                               because God's contact with men continues; also in the
                                                                      sermon to which I should listen from now on with more
OTHER ERRORS                                                          reverence than I am accustomed to. But that is an
   That Synod was almost forced to justify Geelkerken                 advantage in Kuitert's opinion, because persons who
                                                                      are not able to handle theology in the proper manner
is evident from the fact that views such as those taught              are neither able to read the Bible in the right manner.
by Dr.  H.  M= Kuitert are tolerated within the Church.
   In a recent issue of  Chuvch  and Nation  Dr. L.                   Such are some of the theological trends in the
Praamsma makes mention of these views of Dr.                       Netherlands.        And, strikingly, Kuitert has recently
Kuitert.      He discusses a book. by Prof. Dr.,  H. Van           been appointed Professor of Systematic Theology at
Riessen in which Dr. Van Riessen describes the views               the Free University of Amsterdam.


                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       115

        In another article in the same issue of  Chz~ch  and                 opinion.      Just read the discussion between Dooyewerd
     Nation, Jac. Guezebroek discusses the question raised                   and Van Peursen. They disagree from beginning to
     in a book by Drs. Puchinger entitled "Is de  Gerefor-                   end, yet, they speak to each other as brothers in an
     meerde Wereld Veranderd?"                  (Did the Reformed            open and Christian way.
     World Change?) Among other things he says:                                 We could learn something f om them.           When I
               In a very talented way Drs. .Puchinger  relates to            read certain pamphlets which are being circulated in
        us interviews with 20 people whose names in the Dutch                Christian Reformed cir:les, and when I see how our
        world of Church and Theology have obtained prom-                     members are "classified" into different "categories,"
        mence..  . .                                                         I cannot help but remember the times before the war
               While reading this book, one cannot help but notice           in Holland, when this same situation existed. The
1       the very unique situation our Old Country finds itself               people in  Holland have changed and are cured from
        in.      You cannot escane the feeling of having come                this.       Yes, they are completely cured from this1 It
        home again and of being, all of a sudden,, in the midst              took some really  bad experiences and some very
        of one large family. A family where all the members                  earnest soul-searching was necessary-but the result
        talk about a problem; a problem which is familiar to                 is gratifying.
        everyone.. . .                                                           I sincerely hope that we will be spared these
               A second impression is: time moves fast.. . . And             terrible experiences; but let us start .now with the
        how ridiculoaly  unimportant certain issues have be-                 soul-searching I
        come, while only a few years ago they managed to                     So this is the conclusion of the matter. Not a swift
        set whole congregations afire I Families were torn                and sharp condemnation of these vicious denials of
        apart and friendships broken because of those issues.
               In every issue I read, Prof. Schilder was called           Scripture,       Rather a general observation: "How nice
        one of the greatest leaders and the struggle started by           it is that brethren can discuss their differences in a
        him was deplored by all. And what about Geelkerken?               fraternal spirit. Would there were  m3re of these in
        The clash of personalities plays an important role in             the Christian Reformed Church."
        almost all church conflicts, although we might not                   And  this is precisely the  s$t5t  of our days of theo-
        want to admit it.. . .                                            logical  apostasy.       The truth of God is not important
               Yes, indeed, the Reformed world has  changed1              any more. What is important is that differences can
               The way of thinking has changed, the opinions have         be discussed even though men destroy the Wordof God.
        changed, the attitude towards each other has changed              The important thing is that men are sitting down
         and the relations between the different churches have            together over a cup of coffee smoking cigars and
         changed.       Big changes have taken place, there is no
        doubt about it!                                                   fraternally discussing the death of God's `truth. How
                . . . While it is still difficult to really assess the    nice to preside over  the. rush of the Church into
        developments in the Netherlands, it certainly is a                modernism and the loss of the heritage of the truth in
        wonderful thing that people can speak so openly with              a brotherly spirit!
         one another and with so much respect for each other's               God save us from such a fraternal spirit,


     THE CHURCH AT WORSHIP-


                            The Concept of Our liturgy

                                                            by Rev. G.  Vunden  Berg

        To our liturgical study belongs all of those things               in defense of retaining the sermon as a part of our
     that are included in our public worship. Some, we                    liturgical study. It may be said that the preaching is a
     wrote in our previous article,  want to exclude from                 very fundamental, if not the most vital part of our
     this study the sermon or the preaching. The argument                 worship.        It is the very core of the meeting of God and
     for this is twofold. First of all this objection points              His people. This does not mean that we are going to
     to the fact that the sermon and  ,preaching  belong to               merge  homeletics  and  liturgies,  nor that we are going
     another theological science called  Homeletics,  and the             to deal with the various  homeletic  questions and prob-
     second argument is that the sermon is non-prescrip-                  lems  ,in this rubric. This is not at all necessary and
     tive,  that is, free according to its form. The preacher             we can very well consider the sermon in relation to
     is not bound in his  fireaching  by a liturgical form. He            our worship without doing this. Furthermore, if there
     does not prepare his sermon, get ecclesiastical ap-                  were validity in the first objection mentioned above, the
     proval on its form and contents, and then read it to the             same would have to apply to several other aspects of
     congregation. He freely prepares his sermon and de-                  our worship.         For example, our prayers in worship
     livers it in his own language and style.-                            would be excluded be  ause they are treated in another


116                                           THESTANDARDBEARER

ing could not be considered as this would be treated          effect upon the latter. Furthermore, during the last
under Psalmody.        And as far as the second argument      twenty centuries the fundamental divergencies that
goes, we must remember that when the minister leads           have broken up the quondam unity of the church are
the congregation in prayer, he is also free with respect      doctrinal, for as Calvin says: "Doctrine is the  soul  of
to his phraseology, language, style and content of the        the church." It follows from the fundamental character
prayers offered. What is, however, more important is          of doctrine that the differences arising in this field
that this freedom is really very limited. It is strictly      must affect the Polity and Government and Liturgy of
a limited, literary freedom. For the rest the preacher        the church materially.       The simple fact is that one
in leading the congregation is fenced in on every side.       woxships as he believes, and what he believes is un-
He is bound to the Scriptures as his source-book; he is       avoidably going to have a  .bearing upon how he wor-
bound to preach from texts of greater or lesser range;        ships.    This simple deduction is historically demon-
he must honor the standards of his church and is ex-          strated as that without going into particulars and with-
pected to construct his sermons according to a definite       out making any detailed applications we may say that
technique, etc.                                               in general history has produced two types of generically
       Thus, in our present study we are going to include     different worship patterns. These are:
all that transpires in the meeting of public worship.             (1) The hierarchical-ritualistic type represented by
Later on we hope to discuss the various elements of           the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches which
this worship, but for the present we must concentrate         are corporatively the Christian churches of antiquity;
on its character. We remember then, as we wrote the           a n d
last time, that Rev. Hoeksema defined public worship             (2) The Protestant-Biblical type, represented by the
as "the meeting of God with His people. God comes             churches of the Reformation.
to His people to have fellowship with them and to bless          Naturally among the latter lies our primary inter-
them.         The church approaches God to serve and to       est. Then it is to be noted that also among the churches
worship Him and to extol His glory." From this it is          of the Reformation there is again a large measure of
evident that two parts may be distinguished in the act        liturgical diversity. Lutheran and Reformed churches,
of worship, "a parte Dei" (God's part) and "a parte           though both principally non-ritualistic, are not equally
ecclesiae." (Church's part) In the former God comes           true to this fundamental position.          The Reformed
to His people to bless them and in the latter, His            Churches, speaking generally, were more consistently
people approach Him to worship Him.                           reformatory in respect to the doctrine, polity and
       What then belongs to that worship? To answer this      worship than the Lutheran Churches. Then too, the
is to delve into the material of our liturgical study.        Anglican Church, though doctrinally protestant, his-
But to do this we must also bear in mind constantly           torically and confessionally is virtually, though not
that the nature of public worship is not missionary or        consistently ritualistic.    And we should not overlook
evangelistic, the purpose of which is the saving of           the Romanizing tendencies in the Protestant Churches
souls.        Our liturgical  practi-es  will naturally be    of our present time.
greatly affected if we hold to this conception of wor-           With a view to this situation it is necessary to
ship.     We remember that the souls that unite in public     qualify  Liturgies  as Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic,
worship are the saints, that is, the people of God with       Lutheran, Anglican, and Reformed, analogously to the
their children, and their purpose in gathering together       qualification of doctrine and Polity. As  amatter of fact
is not to be saved but to unite in public service to          there is no such thing as a simply Christian Church,
glorify God with thanksgiving and joy in an orderly           in&itutio~lly  speaking, The Christian Church one has
manner D        Subordinate to this chief purpose is the      in mind is affiliated with, serves, studies, is neces-
building up and edifying of the saints, the strengthen-       sarily either the one church or the other, but never the
ing and growth of God's people in the knowledge of the        non-existent undivided Christian Church.          Likewise
truth and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That            there is no  Homeletics,  Dogmatics, Polity and partic-
which then is to be introduced into the liturgical prac-      ularly  Liturgies  in  geneml.  Liturgies  is the science of
tices must be conducive to serving that purpose, and          public worship, but a particular study in  Liturgies is
only that which accomplishes this can properly belong         either Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, An-
to our worship. Worship practices of the past as well         glican or Reformed. It need not be added that the Litur-
as the present must be studied with this in mind. The         gics which we are interested in have to do with the Re-
aim of liturgical practices is not to make an external,       formed Churches and, more particularly, the Protest-
emotional impression; to cater to the desires of the          ant Reformed Churches. In this we neither imply nor
flesh; to amuse or entertain, but emphatically to make        express that we are not interested in the public wor-
a lasting spiritual impression and to strengthen faith.       ship of other churches or that this does not deserve
We can only say that we have been to the house of God         some of our attention. It must be observed that cer-
to worship when we have poured out our hearts in              tain aspects of the worship of many Christianchurches
praise. and thanksgiving unto Him and have received           have a great deal in common and that a discussion of
spiritual  edicication.     What takes place in worship       Reformed public worship will prove to be  elucidatory
then must serve to help us attain this objective.             of much in the public worship of other churches. In
   One more thing must be added yet to our concept of         discussing the distinctive features of Reformed wor-
liturgies.       We have in mind that doctrine is vitally     ship it is but natural to refer to the worship of other
related to liturgy; the former having a verypronounced        churches for the purpose of illustration and contrast.


                                                 *
                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      117


And lastly, in the history of Reformed  Liturgies  the              `The first Christians, being members of the Jewish
background and parallel liturgical movements must of             Church, followed naturally the Jewish manner of wor-
necessity be sketched. In this way, though indeed in-            ship.    The services to which they were accustomed
cidentally, Reformed  Liturgies cannot fail to acquaint          were those of the temple and of the synagogue. The
the reader to a considerable extent with the Liturgies           temple service was elaborate, and was for the purpose
of non-Reformed Churches.                                        of worship; the synagogue service was simple and was
                                                                 for the purpose of instruction. The temple contributed
                                                                 to liturgical development the tradition of a noble ser-
                                                                 vice, in a stately building, with vested clergy, with
            THE HISTORY OF  LITURGICS                            prayers accompanied by the symbol of Incense, with
                                                                 praises sung from the book of psalms,. with an altar,
   In sketching the history of  liturgies  we will divide        and with the varied interests and significance of an
the period of the last twenty centuries into several             ordered sequence of feasts and fasts. The fact, how-
                                                                 ever, that the temple was in Jerusalem, and that it
parts.    Although interested mainly in Reformed Litur-          was destroyed and its services ended forever in 70
gics, our starting point will not be the Reformation,            A.D., gave its liturgical pre edents a minor part in
but we will go back to the beginning of the Dispensation,        the making of the primitive Christian devotions. These
considering that the pre-reformation history of Litur-           were patterned mainly upon those of the synagogue.
gics  i s , in a sense, common property and may be               The synagogue was a plain building, having a platform
viewed as introductory to Reformed  Liturgies.  Con-             at the further end. On the platform were sears for
cerning the Ancient Church it may be observed that               church officials, and in the midst was a pulpit. Over
although history was made, it was but scantly recorded.          the pulpit hung an ever-burning lamp, and back of
Dogmas were formulated, but the History of Dogma                 the pulpit, behind a curtain against the wall, was a
was not written.     Similarly Church Polity was con-            chest containing the rolls of the sacred books. The
                                                                 ordinary service began with the Shema, a habitual,
strued, but not scientifically discussed. And, of course,        dally devotion, like the Lord's Praconsisting  of
Public Worship was engaged in and developed, but                 three passages of Scripture, Deut. 6:4-9,  11:13-21;
Liturgies  in any real sense was not cultivated. There           Num. 15:37-41.  After this came the Shemoneth esreh,
were, it is true, beginnings of theological study by             or eighteen benedictions, each with a recurring phrase
Chrysostom in the last part of the 4th century, and              or refrain, followed by an Amen as a congregational
Gregory the Great at the close of the 6th century.               response.    This was succeeded by the first lesson,
These men interested themselves in the study of Pub-             taken from the Law, read in seven parts by seven
lic Worship but even their work in this field was rudi-          readers, each pronouncing a few verses, the verses
mentary.    It is a far cry from their works to a Litur-         being translated into Aramaic, with explanation, com-
                                                                 ment, and application. The second lesson was a single
gics of modern times.                                            reading from the Prophets, translated and explained
   The very early worship of the Christian Church is             as before (Cf. Luke 4:16 sqq.). With a collection for
somewhat described in the following quotation `from              the poor, and a benediction, perhaps with some sing-
Schaff's Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge:                    ing of psalms, the service ended.


     TRYING THE SPIRITS-

                           The Priestly Office of Christ

                                              by Rev. R. C.  Havbach

   "How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?          o f   G o d   (ALts  2:23)" and brought about through the
Christ executeth the office of a priest in His once          instrumentality of "wicked hands." From man's side
offering `Himself a sacrifice without spot to God, to        His death was murder. He was murdered by the Jews
be a reconciliation for the sins of His people; and in       and Gentiles, but they did to Him nothing else than
making continual intercession for them (LC,  44)."           "whatever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before
This function of His  offi e was settled in the secret       to be done," or "foreordained to  =ome to pass (Acts
counsel of God. For He was "set forth (foreordained)         4:27, 28, ASV)." Christ so endured the contradiction of
a propitiation (Rom.  3:25)," an atoning sacrifice, for      sinners against Himself in His priestly office, and it
the sins of His people. This is the first part of His        was all ordered and directed by the decree of God.
priestly office wherein He effects redemption through           The high priest in the Old Testament was "taken
His blood. From all eternity He was foreordained a           from among men," for men were estranged from God
propitiation; He was "verily foreordained before the         and needed reconciliation. Old Covenant priests  .were
foundation of the world ( I Pet.  1:18-20)." "He is the      taken from men for men, for the benefit of men, since
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev.            men,. not God, needed the priesthood. He was ordained
13:8)." His crucifixion and death were centrally em-         in the things pertaining to God in order to place before
braced in the "determinate counsel and foreknowledge         God's people the only atonement, typically, in the death


118                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


of Christ (Heb.  5:l). The priest prevailed with God on      is this -that  the  sacevdotal dignity belongs exclusively
the part of men  .in order to maintain God's covenant        to  Fhvist,   because, by the sacrifice of His death,  He
of friendship with men.                                      has abolished our guilt, and made satisfaction for our
       Christ was called to the office of priest by the      sins...There is no access to God, either for ourselves
highest authority - God. Let no one say that this sub-       or our prayers, unless our Priest sanctify us by taking
ject has no relevancy in a modern age. For there are         away our sins, and obtain for us that grace from which
"priests" everywhere in the most enlightened coun-           we are excluded by the pollution of our vices and
tries.     There are Roman Catholic priests, Orthodox        crimes...Hence it follows that He is an eternal inter-
priests, Anglican priests, Mormonite priests and Bud-        cessor, and that it is by  His  intervention we obtain
dhist priests, to name considerable of them. Man             favor with God..." Then we ourselves, "who are pol-
himself is a "priest." But as fallen and unredeemed,         luted in ourselves, being `made priests' (Rev.  1:6) in
m,an makes himself the great high priest, whereas he         Him offer ourselves and all our services to God, and
wants God to be a little god and lesser priest. But          enter boldly into the heavenly sanctuary, so that the
Christ, the Son of God, did not intrude himself into the     sacrifices of prayers and praise, which proceed from
office of priest. He was called of God to enter it (Heb.     us, are `acceptable,' and `a sweet-smelling savor'
5:5), was installed and  .sworn into it (Prov.  8:23; Ps.    (Eph.  5:2) in the divine presence...Detestable is the
110:4), and that from eternity within the decree of the      invention of those, who, not content with the priesthood
covenant  (Zech.   6:13). Therefore, it is the Son, the      of Christ, have presumed to take upon themselves the
only begotten God (John  1:18, Gk.), who became flesh,       office of sacrificing Him; which is daily attempted
who bears the priestly office with the utmost import-        among the Papists, where the mass is considered as
ance, in the highest dignity, the most indisputable          an immolation of Christ (Calvin's  Institutes,  II,  XV, 6,
,validity and an absolutely unique perpetuity. To this       ital. added)."
divine appointment Christ agreed in the words, "Sacri-          It is from the Epistle to the Hebrews, and there
fice and offering Thou wouldest not" - willed not as the     only in the N.T., that we learn what priesthood intdr-
reality, but only as the figure of the true. For the         venes between us and God, namely Christ's, which
blood of animals offered, by men themselves' sinful,         priesthood was typified by the priestly order of Aaron.'
could not be acceptable to Thee nor atone for sin.           Though He was "an High Priest  after the order of
"But a body hast Thou prepared Me" in the eternal            Melchizedek (Heb.  5:10)," He was not a high priest of
purpose and counsel of God, which I am willing in the        the order of Aaron, neither of the order of Melchizedek,
last days (Heb. 1:2) to assume and offer' to God a           for He was not of any certain human order, nor could
sacrifice, a sweet-smelling savor, for the children          any man or men prefigure, much less, perform that
which God hath given Me  (2:13). Therefore, "Lo, I           which inheres in His office and priesthood. But those
come, to do Thy will, 0 God  (10:7)."                        who are enamored with any of the priesthoods of
       When the O.T. prophesies of a priest and priest-      human order are either ignorant of or deliberately
hood in the future beyond the Aaronic priesthood of          silent as to the content of that Epistle to the Hebrews.
Israel, it presents God as speaking of a singular, ex-          Aaron and Melchizedek both represented Christ
clusive priest-to-come. "I will raise Me up a faithful       typically in His office of priest. The one represented
priest, that shall do according to that which is in Mine     the nature of the function of this office. The other
heart and in My mind:        and I will build Him a sure     represented the dignity of His person in that function.
house (I Sam.. 2:35).",  The character of His priesthood     Aaron, not Melchizedek, offered an atoning sacrifice
would be most singular-royal! For He would be "a             unto God, entered into the Holy of  holies, bore the
priest upon His throne  (Zech.   6:13)." The order of His    names of Israel in the priestly breastplate over his
priesthood  - "forever after the order of Melchizedek        heart, and carried the fragrant incense into the pres-
(P.S.  110:4)." The sacrifice He would offer for sin  -      ence of Jehovah, thus setting forth the redemption
His soul, while the continual work He would carry on-        and the intercession of Christ. Melchizedek was a
intercession for the transgressors, the ones God had         figure of the royal priest, of the priest who was with-
given Him (Isa.  53:10, 12 with John  17:9). In His          out father, without mother, having neither beginning of
0-T. theophanic appearances, He came on the scene            days nor end of life (Heb.  7:3). His priesthood was not
as priest, being, arrayed, as He was then, "clothed          in the  successiqn  of Aaron. That succession was  con:
with linen (Ezek.  9:2; Dn. 10:5)."                          stantly interrupted by death. But Christ  inHis priestly
       "Concerning His priesthood, we have briefly to        order continues forever. in an immutable priesthood
remark, that the end and use of it is, that He may.. .       (7:8, 16, 23, 24). Now that we have a priest after the
render us acceptable to  God-.-That  Christ might per-       order,of Melchizedek, all human priestly orders are
form this office,  `it was necessary for Him to appear       thereby ended, rendered passe, defunct. To revert to
with a sacrifice.      For under the law the priest was      any earthly priesthood is to attempt to rebuild the
not permitted to enter the sanctuary without blood, that     middle wall of partition Christ hath broken down (Eph.
the faithful might know that, notwithstanding the inter-     2:14); is to build again the things the coming of the
position of the priest as an intercessor, yet it was im-     Chris.tian  dispensation destroyed (Gal.  2:18), and so
possible for God to be" satisfied without atonement          become a transgressor; is to return to the weak and
for sins. "This subject': is discussed "at large in the      beggarly' elements, which only subject to bondage (4:9);
Epistle to the Hebrews, from the seventh chapter  al-        is to be fallen from grace  (5:4). We draw nigh to God
most,to  the end of the tenth. But the sum of the whole      by a much better priesthood (Heb. 7:18, 19).


                                                        TIiE STANDARD BEARER                                                            119


   Liberal preachers, and others infatuated with their                   temple of Jerusalem His blood could not be presented.
drivel, appeal to Heb.  8:4 in support of their  imagina-                The  ,real-sacrifice  could not be offered in the shadow-'
tion that Christ was not a priest until after the  ascen-                sanctuary. -%or He was  lra merciful and  faithful High
sion.      "For if He were on earth, He should not be a                  Priest in things pertaining to God to make  reconcilia-
priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts                   tion for the sins of the people  (2:17)," and that  rec-
according to the law." But all this is saying is that if                 onciliation was effected when "we were reconciled to
Christ aspired to an earthly priesthood, He never could                  God by the  death of His Son (Rom. 5:10)." Further, He
have been a priest, for He was of a tribe which had no                   was, in His humiliation, tempted as the great High
right to function in such a priesthood  (7:13,14).  It also              Priest (Heb. 4:  14f).       Also, in the days of His flesh He
is saying that if the entirety of His function in this                   made intercession, prayers and supplication  (5:7). As
glorious office was to be exe uted on earth, He could                    High Priest He offered up the sacrifi  :e of himself
not be a priest, for a king-priest from Judah had no                     (7:26-28;   8:3;  9:14). Certainly Christ entered heaven
legal right into the Holiest; and there in the earthly                   on the ground of His own sacrifice Which He had
                                                                         offered on the altar of Calvary as High Priest  (.9:12).



BOOK  REVIEWS-


                        Evolution and the Modern Christian

                                             The Child's Story Bible

EVOLUTION AND THE MODERN                       theism and Biblical Christianity, on the            Vos's Bible Story Book, known to so
CHRISTIAN by Henry M. Morris;                  other hand, are increasingly being             many parents and children. Several
Baker Book House, Grand Rapids,                denied, ridiculed, or (which is worst of            changes have been made: the language
Mich.; 72 pages (paper); price, $1.00          all) ignored as irrelevant. We urgently             has been brought up to date; recent
                                               need literature which may reach those               archeological discoveries shedding
    Here is a fine little book, written        who are thus influenced, andwhichmay                light on the Biblical account have been
by a scientist who is thoroughly com-          open their minds and hearts to the                  incorporated in the book; new maps
mitted  to the infallible Biblical record      true Biblical cosmology. This small                 and pictures have been prepared
concerning creation.     The author is         book has been prepared with this                    especially for this edition.
one of the few who stands foursquare           one need in mind.                                      On the whole this book is still the
for creation in six literal days and               "This book is intentionally brief in            best Child's Story Bible on the market
who does not hide or compromise his            order to minimize both the cost and the             today; and is therefore heartily re-
belief. It is heart-warming, in an age         time required to read it. It is suffic-             commended to our parents and  chil-
when Reformed men everywhere are               iently non-technical so that no intelli-            dren. However, in the opinion of this
busily propagating various theories of         gent high school or college student                 reviewer, the pictures and maps are
so-called theistic evolution, to read a        should have difficulty in understanding             scarcely an improvement. While the
book of this kind.                             it; but, at the same time, there has                publishers contend that "the pictures
    Of the five chapters in this book          been no attempt to `popularize' its                 endeavor to bring the child into close
(The Meaning of Evolution; Scientific          style     or vocabulary.      The writer            touch with the world of the Bible" they
Weaknesses  of Evolution; The Fossil           respects the intellectual capacity and              are too much like modern art. I doubt        -.
Record; The Case for Creation; Evolu-          integrity of young people too much for              whether children will appreciate them
tion and the Bible), `I personally found       this kind of device."                               either.
the last chapter the most appealing.              While this recommendation does                      One more comment. While indeed
Perhaps others would judge differently.        not mean that I subscribe to every                  a story Bible is ideally suited to lead
    But this is a book which our schools       statement made by the author, I agree               little children into the knowledge of
should order and place in their libr-          with the promotional statement quoted               Scripture, covenant parents ought to
aries .    It is a book which should be        above; and I heartily recommend this                be warned against over use of a story
required reading fo r our junior and           book,  and urge especially that our                 Bible. By this I mean that it is possible
senior high school students. And it is         young  people read it.                              to make such extensive use of the
a book which any of our young people                                               H.&I.           Bible story book that the Bible itself
can easily read in a couple hours.                                                                 is neglected. This shouldnot be. From
On the back cover is this promotional                                                              earliest childhood children should also
statement:                                                                                         become acquainted with the Word of
    "Young people in practically all                                                               God itself and not exclusively with a
public schools today and many of those         THE CHILD'S STORY BIBLE, by                         substitute - no matter how beautiful
in private schools are continuously            Catherine F. Vos; Wm. B. Eerdmans                   and accurate. With this reservation,
and increasingly and insistently being        Publishing Co., 1966; 435 pp. $6.50.                 this new edition of an old favorite is
indoctrinated with the evolutionary                                                                heartily recommended to our people.
philosophy.    The truths of Christian            This is a new edition of Catherine                                        Prof. H. Hanko


120                                             THESTANDARDBEARER


                                     NEWS FROM OUR  CHURCHES-

                                               Nov. 10, 1967    tained in their November meetings, without spoiling
       The celebration of the 450th anniversary of The          the anticipated Thanksgiving Day program scheduled
Reformation was held in First Church in Grand Rapids            for that evening in First Church which will be a
as scheduled. A large crowd came out to hear Prof.              different program with the latest pictures.
H.  C. Hoeksema who spoke on, "Four Hundred Fifty                                        ****,
Years, and Then..  .?" The lecture was, as might be                Rev. Woudenberg's mail thanking him for his
expected, one which captivated the audience in quiet            "Studies in Biblical Doctrine" is coming in from
attention from beginning to the end. Rev. Van  Baren            various quarters. Lately mail has come from Malibu,
led in the opening devotions; Rev. Lubbers, chairman            C&f.; Yucaipi,  Calif.; Gaffney, S.C.; and one from one
.of the steering committee, introduced the speaker,             of the Professors in the  -Rzformed  Theological Semi-
and Rev.  Schipper  led in closing prayer. The audience         nary of Jackson, Miss., who `asked for library copies,
sang two numbers from the Psalter and Martin Luth-              adding," . . . I think this is. an excellent idea to be
er's "A Mighty Fortress is our God," accompanied by             supplying this type of study by mail. I find a great
the pipe organ with Mrs. C. Lubbers at the console. It          hunger on the part of  m.any people for a better under-
was an evening of great value to our own people and             standing of the doctrines of Scripture. I trust that God
those of other churches in attendance in that the               will bless your ministry in your church....."
speaker admonished us to watchfulness without which                                      ****
we will, in these days of "Ecumenism", inevitably                  Hope's Men's Society visited Southeast's Society
lose our Reformed heritage sparked by Luther, strength-         Oct. 30 with Mr. Tilma, of the guest society, giving
ened by Calvin and developed by our forefathers                 an after recess paper on, "Praying in the Spirit."
who were true children of the Reformation. Indeed,              Hudsonville was host to First Church's society re-
listening to this lecture one becomes acutely aware of          cently and Mr. Meulenberg, of First, gave a paper on
the fact that an annual admonition of this nature is            "Self  Dicipline," relating especially to the area of
hardly adequate -the Reformed Church community is               allocating sufficient time for Bible study.
lamentably losing its  destinctiveness.  Will the 451st                                  ***`F
anniversary see the Reformed churches in joint ser-                The Protestant Reformed High School Society's
vices with Lutherans and Roman Catholics (as these              financial report of this Fall revealed that the total
did in  Redlands this year) with choirs joining in song         financial value of the society is  $66,463.55 with under
and members enjoying(?) the sermon and partaking(?)             $11,000 of that represented in the property and over
of the Mass?                                              .     $55,000  in cash.                         1
                          ****                                                           ****
       An October 15 bulletin of Southeast Church ex-              Rev.  C.  Ha&o,  the new "professor" of the Jamaican
pressed, "The Consistory wishes to take this oppor-             Correspondence Course, is very happy to relate that
tunity to thank those responsible for the beautiful con-        his students are doing very well in their studies. On
sistory room and its furnishings. We invite the entire          returning the tapes to their -instructor they often
congregation to view the magnificent improvement to             record messages and parts of their services. On one
our church edifice." And a Redlands' bulletin also              of those tapes Rev.  Hahko heard some of the children
carried a thank you note to one of its members for the          reciting,  from  memory,  the first three articles of our
surprise gift of a new piano, thereby diverting a grow-         Canons! He wonders if any of our children could dupli-
ing "piano fund" to new consistory room furniturQ .             cate that.
                          +***,                                                         ****
       The Eastern Ladies League scheduled a Fall meet-            Sunday, Nov. 5, Rev. Harbach was scheduled for a
ing to be held in First Church featuring Rev. J.  Kor-          Classical appointment in South Holland but he preached
tering as speaker. His speech was titled, "The Great            in Holland instead, exchanging pulpits at Rev. Heys'
Tribulation and the Freedom of Speech."                         request that he might officiate at his son's public
                          ****                                  profession of faith in South Holland.
       The Young People's Societies of Hope Church, in                                  * * * *
a recent meeting, heard and discussed an after recess              Loveland's School's "Ledger" of October featured
paper by Larry Koole on, "Television." Probably                 an editorial by Rev. Engelsma on, "The Reformation
the evils of television will have to be recognized by           and Christian Education"; and, The "Announcer" of
the young people themselves and who will then insist            the Adams St. School had the first installment of an
on strict parental television  supervision.                     editorial by Principal  F. Block on, "Government Aid
                          ****                                  in Education"; und,  SouthHolland's  "Reflector" carried
       The Jamaican trip of Rev. Heys and Elder Zwak            an editorial by Principal  L. Lubbers on- the 450th
has caused reverberations in many places. Among                 anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, with a
others:      The League of Mr. and Mrs. Societies and           cover design of the Castle Church of Wittenburg,
the Adams St. School Mothers' Club were so  enter-              Germany, by J. Kalsbeek.


