                                     he

                              tindard

                                            earer


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





    IN THIS ISSUE:


             Meditation: Jesus, Silent and Speaking

             Sanctified Freedom of Speech

             `"Biblical Ecumenicity" (The Text of an Address)

       _i
             Abner and lshbosheth

             Exposition of Hebrews 6



                                         Volume  XLN/  Number  12/   Mavch 15, 1968


266                                                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


                                                                                                                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

                                                                                                                                      Semi-monthly,  except  monthly during June, July and August.
                                                                                                                                      Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                      C O N T E N T S                                                                               Editor-in-Chiefi  Prof.  H. C. Hoeksema
Meditation -                                                                                                                        Department Editors:  Rev. David J. Engelsma, Mr.  JohnM. Faber,
                                                                                                                                       Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman  Hank% Rev. Robert C.
    Jesus, Silent and Speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266                                             Harhach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George
           Rev. J. Kortering                                                                                                           C. Luhbers, Rev.  Marinus  Schipper, Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren,
                                                                                                                                       R e v .   G e r a l d   Vanden   B e r g ,   R e v .   H e r m a n   Veldman;  R e v .
Editorials -                                                                                                                           Bernard Woudenberg
    Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .          269               Editorial  Office: Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
           Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                           1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E.
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    A New `,`Anti-Abstract" Theological Method .m.O 269                                                                             Chumh News Editor:  Mr. John  M:Faber
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                   MEDITATION-


                                             Jesus, Silent and Speaking

                                                                                                    by Rev. J.  Kovteving


                           But he held his peace and answered nothing. Again the high  priest  asked him, and said
                     unto him,  A& thou the  Christ the Son of the Blessed.7 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall
                     see the Son of man  sittiqq on the  vight hand of  power, and coming in the clouds of heaven
                                                                                                                                                                              Mavk  14:61,  62

   The Preacher said it, "To every thing there is a                                                                              Who could better practice this counsel than our
season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. *. .                                                                        Lord Jesus Chriqt, even as He stood in the midst of
a time to keep silence and a time to speak." ECC.                                                                             his taunting adversaries. We read, "But he held his
3:1, 7.                                                                                                                       peace and answered nothing." Not until the High Priest
   Notice, silence and then speech!                                                                                           placed Jesus under oath and demanded of Him His


                                           THESTANDARDBEARER                                                     267


identity, does He speak in answer to the question, "Art     some interest. If one is innocent he will surely pro-
thou the Christ the Son of the Blessed?" by saying,         duce all the proof and argumentation to substantiate
"I am."                                                     such a fact and plead for his release. Having ob-
    He was obedient even in His silence and in His          served this repeatedly in other prisoners, Caiaphas
speech.                                                     turns to Christ and says, "`Answerest thou nothing?
   And that was the wisdom of God.                          what is it which these witness against thee? But He
   Only the perfect Son of God couldever have held his      held his peace and answered nothing."
peace and said nothing at such an hour. Sinful nature           There can be no question about a possible defense
would have had plenty to say, but the Son of God was        for Christ.    Let no one imagine that Christ had no
silent.                                                     defense, that He considered Himself guilty and worthy
   A brief review of the scene will make this evident.      of death. One can fill pages of evidence to show that
   The Jewish dignitaries had converged under the           all during His life and ministry He never did one thing
cloak of darkness upon the house of Caiaphas. The           that made Him worthy of death. There could be no
Scribes were present, they were the intelligentsia of       lawful charge placed against Him. On the contrary one
the day, the doctors of law, the instructors in their       could also fill pages with evidence that the Jews, and
schools. Most of them were of the sect of the Phari-        more particularly the Sanhedrin, had violated law after
sees.      The Levites were represented, to them had        law in their mock "trial." They had  arrested'Him
been entrusted the consecrated work of the temple.          without warrant, Annas  had engaged in unlawful private
Since they were closely allied with Annas  and Caiaphas     inquiry, the time and place of their meeting was con-
most of them were  Sadducee& We must not forget             trary to law. They had taken a citizen and subjected
the Elders: they were represented in the Sanhedrin          Him to inquiry without first establishing the charge,
because they could be trusted for their wisdom; they        there were present no unbiased witnesses, they de-
were old and experienced; what may have inflamed            cided to establish guilt and execute the sentence on the
brash youth could well be dampened by the Elders.           same day, all violations of the Jewish law. They even
Look closely and you will notice that  intheir composite    sentenced Him to death, an act outside their own juris-
they constitute the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the       diction, for they were subject toRome. The Jews had a
Jews, the church and state united in one "theocracy."       law that if one was unanimously declared guilty, he
    Alas9 they have shed their dignity; by confederating    should be freed for such overwhelming evidence could
together at such an unearthly hour of the night they        only have come about by mistrial.
only reveal that their work cannot stand the light of           Jesus was not silent because He had no argument.
day; it must needs be shrouded by the darkness of the       He could have blistered their ears with railing accusa-
night.     We have a very apt description recorded in       tions 0
James  3:14-16, "But if ye have bitter envyings and             It was time to be silent. According to wisdom that
strife in your hearts,` glory not, and lie not against      is not earthly, sensual, devilish, but heavenly and
the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but       divine, Jesus answered nothing.
is earthly, sensual, devilish.    For where envying and         Nothing determined more effectively the guilt of His
strife is there is confusion and every evil work."          accusers than Christ's own silence. Nothing made it
Envy brooded .in the soul of Judas and it led him to lie    more clear that He was innocent than His own silence.
against the truth. Contracting an illicit agreement for     All the while, during which He said nothing, they were
30 pieces of silver, Judas waited for the opportunity to    forced to produce their own "evidence." This they
complete his part. God however, makes the wisdom of         could not do. Attempts were made, but this produced
the world become foolishness. Contrary to the stipu-        more confusion, for no agreement could be reached.
lations of the agreement, Judas presented Christ to the     There was only one conclusion that could rightfullyfol-
Sanhedrin in the early hours of Friday morning. Now         low the "witnesses" were false, and Jesus was  in-
what were they going to do? They had decided to wait        nocknt.
until after the Passover; it was going to be a quiet            Caiaphas began to -realize this. He sensed that the
affair without any stir. Judas must have convinced the      way things were going they would never conclude this
Jews that it was now or never, for he secured the           trial, and presently dawn would break and expose this
temple guard and with their unnecessary assist of           fracas of justice. His soul was seething with contempt
swords and staves they had brought Jesus to the house       and bitterness welled up within. Finally it spilled over
of `the High Priest. This devilish wisdom produced          when he snarled, "Answerest thou nothing?"
unbelievable confusion. Doctors of the law, Levites,            More silence !
Elders, are seen babbling together trying to assess the         Finally Caiaphas wielded the only weapon which he
situation and agree on one particular charge with which     had by virtue of his office - the oath. According to
they may present Jesus to Pilate as grounds for             Matthew's account we read, "And the high priest said
execution.                                                  unto him, 1 adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell
   It is in the midst of this confusion that finally        us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God."
Caiaphas has taken notice that Jesus is extraordinary           Jesus recognized that Caiaphas, though he prosti-
in His silence. Usually at such a pre-trial the suspect     tuted justice, yet possessed the authority to exact from
takes up the brunt of the argument. After all when          Him an answer. Jesus obeyed those in authority wheth-
one's life is at stake he is at least expected to show      er it was godless Caesar, or apostate Caiaphas. Under


                                                                                                                       I
268                                          THESTANDARDBEARER


oath He bore testimony as to His identity, "I am."          The enmity displayed by the rulers of the Jews is an
   It was time to speak. Heavenly wisdom demanded           eruptive display of what we are inside. Depravity is
this of the obedient servant.                               so dark, the guilt is all on one side, our side.
   Why? Indeed because it was demanded of Him, but              In the midst of so great wickedness, God speaks the
there is much more. Not only must it be established         gospel of mercy  - sovereign mercy, for even the
that He is innocent and His accusers are guilty, they       wicked performed His will. In silence the world be-
must execute their evil intent, they must act according     comes guilty before God, in speech they become so
to their evil design, they must in their guilt kill the     incensed that they nail Him to the cross. The wisdom
innocent, for the Just must die for the unjust.             of God overrules it all, for He loved His enemies, He
   This is divine wisdom. In the midst of confusion         prayed for those who despitefully used Him, He died
and wrangling, Jesus sounded forth in words that har-       with the prayer on His lips, "Father forgive them for
bor no doubt, nor becloud any issue; He told them, "1       they know not what they do." Through this work of
am the Christ the Son of the Living God, and ye shall       the obedient servant we behold the depth of God's
see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power,      mercy. He reached down into the pit of hell and drew
and coming with the clouds of heaven."                      us out.
   Behold Him as He stood in the midst of His ac-               Need we proof of this ?
cusers. He who is the natural Son of God, Who dwelt             A centurion was joined in the execution party. He
in the bosom of the Father before the worlds were           amused himself at the foot of the cross by joining in
framed.    He came in the fullness of time to assume        the gambling. His mouth was stained with derision as
the task of the obedient servant having upon His            he joined in saying, "He saved others, himself he
shoulders our guilt in order that He might carry it all     cannot save." Yet his lips were silenced when God
away. He never faltered a moment. He knew no sin,           spoke at the cross. The darkness, the words of the
but He became sin for us that we might obtain the           Saviour, the earthquake, all brought this centurion to
righteousness of God in Him.                                smite his breast and cry out by grace divine, "Indeed,
   And what does natural man say to such wisdom?            this was the Son of God."
Listen to the words of Caiaphas, "Ye have heard the             This is the power of God unto salvation. Having
blasphemy, what think ye?" The universal answer is,         paid for the sins of those whom the Father had given
"worthy of death." It will not do for us to self-right-     unto Him, He shouted forth triumphantly "It is fin-
eously condemn the Sanhedrin as if we would exalt our-      ished" and gave up the ghost. Even death could have no
selves above them. That they were unworthy cannot           power over Him, for on the third day the righteous
be questioned. So too we would conclude the same for        Father raised Him from the dead and He ascended into
apostate church of our day. Many are the present day        heaven and now reigns over all things, having received
Sanhedrins who coldly calculate the "death of the Son       power to gather His church unto Himself. He shall
of God" by deriding the true gospel and try to make of      come as Judge to destroy His enemies and establish
none effect the blood of the atonement. This is evident     His Kingdom forever.
in the same calculated hatred that broods in the human          Are you part of that church? By nature we are all
soul scheming ways to get rid of the Christ who came        alike - we despise the Son of God, His silence before
to satisfy the righteous wrath of the Holy God. Men         the Sanhedrin made this evident. By nature we nail
prate so freely of the love of God that God's justice is    Him to the cross - His speech before the Sanhedrin
maligned and the cross put to open shame.          ,        evoked this.
                                                                By the power of saving grace we are changed.
   True as this may be, we must look first at our-          When He says, "I am the Christ," we shout forth,
selves. Deeply within our own hearts we see the same        "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God." We
wrath seething and brooding and all too often erupting      acknowledge Him for what He is, that God may be
in rebellion against the holy God. If the Son of God        glorified.
doesn't do what we like, if He doesn't pamper us in our         Silence - speech, the wisdom of God unto salva-
sins, we become so vehement against Him. The mes-           tion.
sage of our text is this, "we are miserably depraved."          Hallelujah, what a Saviour! Great is Jehovah.



                    ATTENTION:                                                      LEAGUE
A Lecture, sponsored by the Protestant Reformed             Attention all members of Men's Societies.
Churches in the Michigan area, is scheduled for                Our Spring Mass meeting will be held D.V., April
Thursday, March 28, at 8:00 p.m., D.V.        Rev. J. A.    lst, at Southeast Protestant Reformed Church. The
Heys will speak on the topic, "The Last Hour", to be        speaker is Rev. Herman Veldman, The Topic: "How
given in First Church of Grand Rapids.                      Will the Unity of the Saints be Realized in the Latter
                                 The Lecture Committee      Days?" Bring yourself and friends. Alvin Rau, Sec'y.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   269



                                      Editor's Notes

                                              by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

    At your editor's request? Prof.  Hank0 submitted         that the witness of our Standard Bearer extends even
the manuscript of his recent lecture on "Biblical            beyond the Reformed community.
Ecumenicity" for publication in our Standard Bearer.                                  ***
Due to the fortunate circumstance that we had some              In a recent editoral  on what here in Michigan has
surplus space in this issue, we are able to present the      been dubbed "Parochiaid" (government aid for private
entire lecture in one issue, rather than ininstallments.     schools), I suggested that the so-called reimbursible
This is recommended reading both for those who heard         subjects would include almost  .any subject except direct
the lecture and for those who were not present.              religion or Bible courses. This was confirmed by a
                         * * *                               later news dispatch, which mentioned a list of subjects
    We take this opportunity to express our Christian        which included English, mathematics, science, Amer-
sympathy to Mr. Peter Wobbema, Jr., in the recent            ican history, government, commercial skills, vocational
death of his father, Peter Wobbema, Sr. May the Lord         training, foreign language, reading, and physical educa-
comfort him in this bereavement. (For the information        tion.
of our readers, the Wobbemas, both father and son,
have for many years been the printers of our magazine.)                               ***
                          ***                                   I repeat my recent appeal for biographicalinforma-
    A recent issue of  Christian News  gave editorial tion, anecdotes, and pictures which any of our members
notice to Prof. Hanko's  comme,nts in  All Around Us         can furnish about the late Rev. Herman Hoeksema.
about the futility of science's efforts to overcome          Preparations for such a biography are in an active
death. Christian News (formerly Lutheran News) is an stage; any helpful materials, especially pre-1930, will
independent Lutheran publication.      Another evidence be appreciated.



    EDITORIALS-


                    A New "Anti- Abstract"

                                                   Theological Method

                                             by  Pvof. H.  C. Hoeksema


   Last time we discussed this subject, attention was        rationalistic, therefore, is bad; and to call a method
called to the fact that the "method of doing theology"       rationalistic is to call it by a badname. I am sure that
proposed by Dr. Henry Stob in the course of his              Dr. Stob will agree with me on that point. He certainly
criticism of the Doctrinal Committee especially, but         did not `mean to say something favorable about the old
also of Prof. Dekker, is Yationalistic. This, we found,      method of theology when he wrote "all of us have in the
was the more striking in the light of the fact that Dr.      past been victimized by what increasingly appears to
Stob complains that the old method of doing theology is      be an abstract and Yationalistic method of doing theol-
abstract and rationalistic.                                  ogy" (italics added). And I certainly do not intend to
   Sound theology, I emphasized, is always rational,         say something favorable about the allegedlynewmethod
that is, reasonable. But to be rationalistic is something    of theology when I call it rationalistic. Theology must
different.    Rationalism makes human reason, the            not be rationalistic, but Biblical, that is, exegetically
human mind, - and that is always the sin.1 human             arrived at. I would expect that Dr. Stob would agree
mind, - the court of appeal, the authority, in forming       with me on this also.
a theology and in determining whether that theology is          I have already pointed out that Dr. Stob's entire
good or bad, sound or unsound, true or false. To be          method of getting rid of the question, "Did Christ die


270                                              THiZ  STANDARD BEARER


for everybody?" is rationalistic, as also that his               good safeguard against rationalism. And one may at
method of simply introducing a new question, which he            least expect that a Reformed man will make an appeal
calls biblical, but which he does not prove to be a              to the very creeds which he believes to be the ex-
biblical question, is rationalistic.                             pression of the truth of the Word of God when he wants
   Let me emphasize, however, that the question posed            to make a pronouncement upon an important question
by Dr. Stob is in itself a perfectly good and legitimate         like, "What is the gospel? What must a man who hears
question. In itself, it is certainly legitimate and Bibli-       the preached gospel believe?" One may expect of a
cal to ask the question: what is every man who hears             Reformed man that he will prove his doctrinal pro-
the preached Gospel - every such man without ex-                 nouncements by saying, "This is what our creeds teach.
ception - called upon to  believe?            Moreover, this     This is the teaching of article so-and-so." Does Dr.
question can certainly be given a Biblical answer                Stob do this? Not with so much as a word. And the
also; and it must be given a Biblical answer by re-              reason, I assure you, is that he cannot do this because
sponsible theology. This is not the point in dispute.            his doctrine in this paragraph is contrary to the con-
What is wrong about Dr. Stob's method is the way in              fessions.
which he raises this question and the cpntext in which              Notice, in the second place, that there is in Dr.
he raises it and the puv-pose for which he raises it.            Stob's answer not the slightest attempt to show that
On these counts Dr. Stob, I contend, is guilty of ration-        what he writes is the direct teaching of Scripture. An
alism.                                                           appeal to the creeds is becoming odious in our day,
   When it comes to the answer to this question, how-            and by many it is considered outdated. Let that be.
ever, Dr. Stob leaves absolutely no doubt as to the              May not one expect that an appeal will be made to
rationalism of his method.                                       Scripture itself when answering such an important
   Let me quote that answer in full, so that all may             question as, "What must a man  believe?"  Even if  I
be able to follow the discussion:                                grant that Dr. Stob considers his answer tobe Biblical,
                                                                 may I not expect that he will articulate, that he will
          What he is called upon to believe is obvious. He is
   called upon to believe that God loves him with a re-          make explicit, the Biblicalness of his answer? When a
   demptive love (the same love by which the elect are           theologian says of other theologians (in this case, both
   effectively redeemed - the divine agape), and he is           the Doctrinal Committee and Prof. Dekker) that they
   called upon to believe that Christ died for him. By           ask the wrong questions and therefore cannot arrive at
   what kind of faith, other than this kind of faith, can        the correct answers, when he charges that they are
   anybody be saved? And is not this faith demanded of           talking in terms of non-biblical categories, when he
   all? Even he who does not believe, even he who be-            makes the claim of reaching out for "a new and mope
   cause of his non-repentance and unbelief never shares         biblically oriented  method of theological understanding
  ' in the salvation wrought by Christ, even he is called        and construction," (italics mine), and when then be is
   upon in the moment of Gospel jwoclamation  to believe         going to answer an important theological question, -
   that he is beloved of God and that Christ paid for all
   his sins.                                                     then, I say, one may expect at least an 
                  What else is the good news that comes to                                                       attemptto . .
   him but this? And what besides the divinely founded           show that the answer is indeed Biblical and that it has
   and authorized "good news" is man-every  man-                 been reached by a more biblically oriented method of
   required to  believe,  accept, endorse, commit himself        theological understanding. Yet in this entire paragraph
   to?      And what, when one is a biblically defined Un-       there is not a single reference to Scripture, nor a
   believer, does one disbelieve except' "good news"?            single quotation from Holy Writ, let alone a `solitary
   And whom does a man  Yeject when he rejects the               bit of exegesis ! I find it impossible to believe that this
   Christ except the mediating, the atoning, the reconcil-       method of theology lives up to its own claim of being
   ing Christ? Whom does he reject other than precisely          "more biblically oriented." On the contrary, if this
   the Redeemer?                                                 bit of Stob's theology is an example of the new theology,
   We are interested in the above answer, remember,              I find here every evidence of rationalism. Moreover, I
from the point of view of method.                                make bold to say that what Dr. Stob here writes  cannot
   And as far as method is concerned, this answer of             be shown to be Scripture's teaching.
Dr.  Stob to his own question is anexample of thorough-             In the third place, and positively, notice that the
going rationalism.                                               method followed here is not only non-confessional
   Notice, in the first place, that there is not the             and non-Biblical, but that it is entirely an appeal to
slightest attempt in the above paragraph to offer proof          Yeason.  Dr. Stob appeals to the  obviousness  of what
from the confessions. I believe that one has a right to          a man must believe. He claims that it is "obvious"
expect such confessional proof from a Reformed man,              that a man is called upon to believe "that God loves
from a man who is committed to the Reformed creeds.              him with a redemptive love" and "that Christ died for
To a Reformed man those confessions are the syste-               him." Mark you well, he does not say, - and as I read
matic expression and formulation of the truths of                him, he does not intend to say, - that this is obvious,
Scripture. A Reformed man goes on the assumption                 i.e., plain, from Scviptuve. Nor does he even attempt
that the doctrine of our confessions is the truth of             to show this. It almost sounds as though he means to
Scripture until it has been demonstrated that there is           say:    "This is self-evident. Anyone can see this."
conflict between Scripture and the confessions. To               But then, in an attempt to bolster this claim, he `veasons.
follow the teaching of the confessions, therefore, is a          He asks several rhetorical questions, questions to


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       271


which the answers are supposed to be plain. Then he          from what he writes about the man who goes lost:
again makes a claim that even the man who goes lost          "even he is called upon in the moment  of,  Gospel
must believe that he is beloved of God and that Christ       proclamat<on to believe that he is beloved of God and
paid  .for all his sins.    And he follows this again-by     that Christ paid for all his sins." And then Stob adds:
several rhetorical questions which are supposed to           "What else is the good news that comes to him but
support his claim.      This, to me, is precisely the        this?" It is plain from these two statements that the
rationalism which Dr. Stob condemns in the old theology.     good news (gospel) is good news also to the reprobate,
It is a reasoning apart from Scripture. It is not Bibli-     to him who "never shares in the salvation wrought by
cally  oriented.  It claims to view Biblical truth from      Christ," that this good news is "this," that he is
the viewpoint of the kerygmatic situation (the preaching     beloved of God and that Christ paid for all his sins.
situation).    But instead of disengaging Biblical truth         And it is no great wonder that Dr. Stob then goes
from the kerygmatic situation (as Stob charges that          on to say in his next paragraph: "It is this, I am sure,
both the committee and Prof. Dekker do), it appears to       that Professor Dekker wished to say, and did in fact
me that he disengages the kerygmatic situation from          say, in the article he published in December of 1962."
Biblical truth.                                              I am constrained to say: "Yes, of course, Dr. Stob.
    But even as rationalism, this answer of Dr. Stob is      But why go the long way around in order to express
a very poor brand of rationalism. For it is guilty of a      your agreement with Prof. Dekker? It would have been
logical fallacy which no true rationalist ought to make,     much simpler to express that agreement directly. And
the fallacy of begging the question, that is, of assuming    it would have been far easier to understand if you had
what ought to be proved.                                     simply stated from the outset: Prof. Dekker is right,
    Notice, in the first place, that when Dr. Stob crit-     and the Doctrinal Committee is wrong."
icizes both Prof. Dekker and the Doctrinal Committee,            Nor is either Dr. Stob's method or the product of
he rules out as insoluble the question, "Did Christ die      that method anything new. It is the same old Arminian
for everybody?" In other words, we cannot answer             argumentation that the foes of the Reformed Faith
this question, according to Stob. We can say neither         followed at the time of the Synod of Dordrecht.  And
that Christ died only for the elect nor that Christ died     it is the same basic Arminianism that underlies the
for all men. Hence, we must not ask such questions           First Point of 1924.      It is this: 1. You cannot have
as, Whom does God love? and, For whom did Christ             general, or promiscuous, preaching without a gospel
die ?                                                        that is grace for all who hear it. 2. The reason for
    Yet, in the second place, when Dr. Stob goes about       statement No. 1 is that you cannot demand (or rather:
answering his own question, "What is every man who           God cannot demand) faith and repentance of anyone for
hears the preached Gospel called upon to believe?" he        whom He does not provide salvation. If a man does
exactly gives to that Gospel the very objective content      not even have a chance to be saved, he cannot be con-
which he says we may not give to it. And he does it by       demned for his unbelief and impenitence. 3. And..you
way of an assumption, by begging the question. For           cannot preach a gospel for all unless God actually loves
what, according to Dr. Stob, is every man who comes          all and Christ actually died for all.
under the preaching called upon to believe? He must              The third of the above propositions was not stated
believe two objective facts: 1) that God loves him with      in 1924. But it was implicit in 1924. And it only re-
a redemptive love; and, 2) that Christ died for him.         mained for Prof. Dekker to express it and for Dr. Stob
These two items, then, according to Stob, constitute         to agree with it.
the preached  Gospel which every man must believe.               But there is nothing basically new about this
In other words, the preacher may and must say to             theology.
every man.2 "God loves you with a redemptive love.              Nor is there basically anything new about Dr. Stob's
Believe that. And Christ died for you. Believe that." method of agreeing with this theology. Perhaps the
Now, certainly, Dr. Stob will agree with me that a           most that can be said is that his is the old rationalism
preacher of the Gospel must not lie. He must speak the       dressed in a new and more deceptive garb.
truth when he preaches the Gospel.         Hence, if the
preacher must say the above to every man, and if he          CONCL USION
must speak the truth and demand of every man to                 At the conclusion of this series about the new
believe, of course, what is true, - then it follows with     theological method, permit me to tie this discussion in
undeniable logic that (on Stob's basis, not mine) it         with our discussion of the synodical  decision in the
must be an objective fact, an objective state of affairs,    Dekker Case. It was the latter which led to our inves-
that God loves every man and Christ died for every           tigation of this method: for the Synod called Prof.
man.                                                         Dekker's statements abstvact. From our lengthy study
    And thus Dr. Stob is right back at the position which    of the origin and meaning of this term, it ought to be
he originally ruled out; but he has reached that position    evident:
merely through an assumption, through a begging of the          1) That while Synod did not define its own term
question with respect to the most fundamental proposi-       abstract, nor state that they meant by it what Dr. Stob
tion in his entire position as stated in the paragraph       means by it, nevertheless the Synod adopted termin-
quoted.                                                      ology employed by the liberal wing in the Christian
    That this is Dr. Stob's position is abundantly plain     Reformed Church, that wing which advocates a new


2i2                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


theology and a new theological method. Again, although         with another one: they should, according to Dr. Stob,
the term  abstract  was left undefined, and although very      have condemned the - Doctrinal Committee for being
likely many delegates did not realize what they were           even more abstract than Prof. Dekker. But perhaps
doing when they accepted this term, nevertheless in            this was too great a miracle even for Dr. Stob to
this very term the advocates of the new theology at            expect.
least succeeded in getting their foot in the ecclesiastical       3) That the deeper implications of the synodical
door.                                                          decision are of even more importance. In this term
   2) That while the synodical decision sounds rather          abstvact  the entire, far-reaching issue of the so-called
mildly condemnatory of Professor Dekker's language or          new theology is at stake. This concerns not only the
manner of expression, an analysis of both the theology         specific issues of the Dekker Case, but allof Reformed
and the method of the "anti-abstract" theologians shows        theology. There seem to be some in the Christian Re-
that they are quite in agreement with Prof. Dekker's           formed Church who see some of the dangers of this new
position. Be it in a left-handed way, essentially Synod        theology and who are very critical of what is taking
upheld Prof. Dekker. They did not condemn his doc-             place in the Netherlands, critical especially of Dr.
trine. They did not even condemn his method. They              Berkouwer, who probably may be called the father of
expressed some mild disapproval of the way in which            this new theology. Perhaps these critics intend in-
Dekker expressed himself. And in doing so, the Synod           directly to criticize the followers of Berkouwer in
adopted the very terminology of those theologians who          their own denomination. If so, they should cease their
are in essential agreement with Prof. Dekker. Inci-            indirectness, and should train their sights on targets
dentally, perhaps this explains in part Prof. Dekker's         nearer home. Besides, journalistic criticism is not
willingness to accept this mild condemnation. It               sufficient; there must be ecclesiastical action.
certainly explains Dr. Stob's satisfaction with the               On my part, however, I believe that the battle was
synodical decision. Remember his miracle? Actually,            lost in August of 1967; and I see no indication that the
of course, Synod should have followed this "miracle"           clock can be or will be turned back.




         THE CHURCH AT  WORSHIP-



                                      Worship Order

                                               by Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg


   The whole Word of God is, of course, applicable to          that if the core of the former is broken, the latter
every facet of the function of the church but, if we may       become completely futile endeavors. Thus we give to
single out the particular Word of God in I Corinthians         the worship of the church a place of primary impor-
14 and apply it specifically to a singular ecclesiastical      tance and properly emphasize the importance of its
function, we would say that it especially applies to the       ovdev.
worship of the church. We refer particularly to the               In discussing the order of worship it is not re-
exhortation in verse 26, "Let all things be done unto          dundant to restate the character and purpose of wor-
edifying," and again to that of verse 40, "let all things      ship. Worship is the meeting of God with His people.
be done decently and in good order."                           God comes to His people to have fellowship with them
   We make this claim not only because in this chap-           and to bless them.     The church approaches God to
ter the apostle is speaking directly of church worship         serve and to worship Him and to extol His glory. This
but because the very nature of public worship demands          also means that it is the worship of God as the God of
that this be given special emphasis. Paul speaks of "the       our salvation in Jesus Christ and through the Spirit.
whole church coming together into one place." This               From this description of worship it follows that its
is to worship God. If then all that is done in and by          purpose may not be characterized as missionary or
this assembly is not carried out in an edifying, decent        evangelistic, i.e., the saving of souls. Those that
and orderly manner, the whole function of the church           unite in public worship are the saints, that is, the
collapses. The inseparable relation between the wor-           people of God with their children. They gather togeth-
ship of the church and all her other functions is such `er in one place to communally glorify God with praise


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     273

and thanksgiving and joy.       Each time God's people          to the exercises performed, the liturgete, though, too,
assemble in worship there is a reverberation from the           the representative of the congregation, is nevertheless
heart of the Psalm of David, "0 magnify the Lord                His servant. And the dominant purpose of worship as
with me, and let us exalt His Name together." (Psalm            the terms worship and eeredienst imply, the praise of
34:3) In the deepest sense of the word this is the              the glory of God and His grace. (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). In
exclusive purpose of worship. All other things are              worship, as in all things, God is the First and the Last.
and must be subservient to this end.                            (Isa. 44:6, Rev. l:ll)."
   It is true, of course, that there is also a secondary               Now this part of God in our worship is very impor-
purpose in worship which may be defined as the build-           tant and we cannot stress that importance enough. We
ing up and edifying of the saints; the strengthening and        proceed then on the assumption that our readers under-
growth of the church in the knowledge and grace of the          stand this because in our future writings we are going
Lord Jesus Christ. But very clearly then, this second-          to concern ourselves almost exclusively with man's
ary purpose serves the first, since the more the                part in worship. This follows from the very nature of
people of God are strengthened in faith and grow in             things.      We are going to deal with the matters that
grace, the better equipped they are to serve and                pertain to our order of worship and, consequently, will
glorify God in and through all things.                          be considering the things, which we, the worshippers,
   From this it becomes e.vident that in worship there          do. When then we also emphasize the importance of
are  two. parts:     a  pa&e  Dei  and  p  puvte  populi  OY    our various acts of worship, it is not that we equate
ecclesiue; that is, a part of God and a part of the             these things with God's part, but always the under-
Church. To remove all possible misunderstanding we              standing is that we can and do participate in these
immediately add that the second part is entirely de-            significant things only by the grace which is given unto
pendent upon the first. The church can and does come            us,
to God to worship Him only when God has come to her                    Several preliminary matters must be considered in
to bless her and to fellowship with her. God is always          connection with a pa&e ecclesiae in public worship.
first. He calls His people to worship and that act on           Rev.  H. Hoeksema makes the statement that, "in
His part is already the impartation of His blessing so          regard to public worship the form and the principles
that to this call His people respond singing:                   of public worship are derived freely from the Word of
  "My heart was glad to hear the welcome sound,                 God." (Liturgies,  pg. 1) This is of fundamental im-
   The call to seek Jehovah's house of prayer;                  portance. If we remember that the purpose in all that
   Our feet are standing here on holy ground,                   we do in our worship is to glorify God and to edify His
   Within thy gates, thou city grand and fair.                  people, we will also consciously realize the necessity
   God's people to Jerusalem repair                             of conforming our practices to the principles of His
   To hear His word and worship Him with praise;                Word. Only those things that conform are conducive to
   The throne of justice stands eternal there,                  this end. The Word of God then is our only standard
   Messiah's throne through endless length of days."            by which our worship practices are to be evaluated..
   This point is emphasized by Dr. Volbeda when he                     In this connection we may also add that our worship
writes as follows: "God naturally takes the initiative.,        conforms to our Church Order and our Confessions.
This comparts with the fact of His priority. (Psalm             This is not contradictory to the foregoing but har-
90:2); but it is grounded particularly in His Inscrut-          monious inasmuch as our Church Order and Confes-
ability and Sovereignty. Since God, agreeably to His            sions are also based on God's Word. We will not take
nature as the infinite God, dwells in eternity and in an        time to demonstrate this now.           However, this is
unapproachable light (Is.  57~15 and I Tim.  6:16) no           important because it determines a particular perspec-
creature can find and investigate God of himself.. . 0..        tive and unqualified usage of these things. They are
But God's initiative is a prerogative that God may              designed to aid us in our worship. The Church Order,
rightly claim no less than a human need that only he            for example, must not be regarded simply as a book
can satisfy. As the Creator and Sustainer of man and            of legalistic rules and regulations which by some
the world, God is invested with absolute, i.e., uncon-          magical formulation is supposed to solve every prob-
ditional and perpetual' sovereignty. The exercise of            lem in the church or bear upon every realistic situa-
His Supremacy has as its natural corollary high honor           tion in life, but rather, in the terms of Dr. A. H. De
and royal majesty. Corresponding to God's sovereignty           Graaff, professor at Trinity Christian College in Palos
is man's obedience and to God's majesty man's obei-             Heights, Illinois, "The church's law must at all times
sance.    It follows from God's majesty that man may            remain. . . s `an instrument of faith for the effectuali-
only approach to God Who drew nigh to him, if, and              zation of the sole authority of Christ Jesus by His
when, God Himself bids him come and extends His                 Word and Spirit.' At no time may the church-order be
gracious welcome.       Entering into God's economic            applied in a formal manner, so that the legal rules
presence is a privilege conferred, not a human right            begin to dominate the activity of faith and destroy the
recognized. This is not due to the fact of sin, but is          bond of love between the `brothers' and `sisters' of
implied in the original constitution of things."                the `household of faith.' The church-order is a very
   He then adds: "In worship the congregation meets             sensitive instrument for the working of God's Word and
at God's behest, He gathers them, They meet on His              must be completely bound by the peculiar nature of the
day, in His House, In His Name. His Word is central             church as a community of faith-and a fellowship of


. 274                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


 believers." (The Educational Ministry Of The Church,         itself everywhere and pervades temporal society in
 pg. 8% 81)                                                   all its structures." Further, "It would therefore be
    From the same source quoted earlier, we.find  the         quite wrong to place the `institute' overagainst or
 following statements of Rev. H. Hoeksema: "Strictly          next to the church as `organism.' The one body of
 speaking, the church that is congregated participates        Christ, the `Organism', expresses itself both in the
 in the entire service. It is not a service of the offici-     `institute' and in the church as `organism,' that is, in all
 ating minister' to which the congregation merely listens,    the other spheres of human life. The `invisible' Church
 as an audience comes to listen to a lecture or to the        as the reborn humanity or the body of Christ is one
 rendering of a program. It is the whole church that          and reveals itself in the entire `visible' church, in the
 worships in every part of the service. `. "                  total life and witness of the people of God, including
    This is something for every individual worshipper         their worship and the organization of the ecclesiasti-
 to seriously consider. He goes to the house of God to        cal offices and services." Then again, "But since this
 actively participate in all that transpires in the wor-      re-formation of all of life can only come about through
 ship service. Each step or element in the procedure          the power of the Word of God, the `institute' can be
 of worship is to build him up in faith and enable him        `nothing more' than an instrument in the service of
 more effectively to glorify God. Though it is certainly      the "organism.' The `institute' can only administer
 his privilege to act in that worship, there is much          the Word of God and the sacraments, but from this
 more to it than this.        There is the highest of all     udministvution one may expect great things."
 responsibilities involved here. He is confronted with a         Public worship in the church then must aim to pre-
 God-given task which he must accomplish and to do            pare and equip each worshipper to lead a God-glorify-
 this he must labor more arduously than he does during        ing life in every sphere in this world. The "what,
 the six days of the week. This is his starting point and     how, why and when" of each phase,of  worship must be
 if he fails here, his labor throughout the week will be      evaluated in that perspective. Spiritual order must
 nothing more than vanity of vanities. In the house of        always have primacy over chronological order. As
 God he cannot idle away the time in sleep. He must           Dr.  De Graaff wrote, "Every service of the church
 exert every faculty of his being in active preparation       must be seen as an instrument of faith for the effect-
 for his calling in all of life to glorify the God of his     uation of the absolute authority of the Word of God.,
 salvation.    Through active participation and fruitful-     Through the administration of the Word and the sacra-
 ness on the part of the congregation does the ministry       ments Christ would build up His body. The special
 of the Church have far reaching effects.                     ecclesiastical offices are the gifts of His Spirit to
    Earlier we quoted Dr. De Graaff. We add here a            equip God's people for work in His service. They are
 few more statements from his book that touch upon            to be conceived of, therefore, as ministries within the
 this point. Firstly, he states that "The Church then         fellowship of believers.       Through proclamation and
 is first of all to be conceived of as the new humanity,      admonition, instruction and guidance, care and assis-
 the people of God, or the body of Christ." He adds           tance, the congregation is to be built up in the faith.
 that, "The Church.. .is found wherever the Christian         In this upbuilding of the faith of the body of Christ the
 attitude to life expresses itself in a temporal form.        ministry of the church finds its inner boundary."
 In its central religious sense the Church manifests          (pg.  82)



  IN HIS  FEAR-


                  Sanctified Freedom of Speech

                                                   by Rev.  J. A. Heys


    These lines can be and are written because in our         which is ours. Because of it we may hold our public
 land we have a certain freedom of speech.                    lectures, have `our divine worship services, teach our
    There is a wholesome benefit for us that we have          children, maintain our own Christian schools and beam
 this freedom.                                                the truth by radio across the miles of our own land and
    Because of it we are free to publish our Standuvd         into foreign lands as well.
 Beaver  and let others know what we believe. Because            And we are not to thank our government and our
 of it we can share with others the heritage of truth         lawmakers for this great privilege. It is a gift of our


                                           THE STA-NDARD BEARER                  -                                  275


covenant God. To Him be the thanks, and in His fear         that enables us to speak freely in a sanctified way.
let us make use of that freedom. He has seen fit, for          Now speech in itself is a wonderful gift of God. It
the present at least, to grant us this liberty; and He      is a faculty that enables us to communicate with each
demands of us that we make proper use- of it. And in        other' and because of this power we can have fellowship
our use of that freedom we are to remember the words        and friendship. And this reaches its highest point of
of James, "For in many things we offend all, If any         development in man. All the beasts of the field and
man offend not in word, the same is perfect, and able       animals of the forest can communicate with eachother.
also to bridle the whole body." (James 3:2) Extreme         Wishes and intentions can be conveyed by sounds. And
caution must be used when we begin to open our              by this kind of sounds they can also communicate to us
mouths and to move our tongues. The ninth command-          in a limited way. The dog may growl and bark his warn-
ment in all its implications and requirements should        ing to us not to come nearer, or to make tracks as fast
be before our consciousness when we put our speech-         as we can, if we do not want to get hurt. He need not
making motor in gear.       Nevertheless, we must be        speak all these words.            He need only give a sound.
thankful to our God that in His counsel we may have         Your own dog may communicate to you by a different
this liberty to speak and write and preach the Word.        sound his hunger, his. discomfort of cold, and by a
   ,We do not by these lines mean to leave the im-          whimper in connection with actions make known to you
pression that this freedom of speech which our govern-      the thorn or sliver stuck in the tender part of his paw
ment at the moment guarantees us is in itself such a        or the like.       The canary or parakeet may speak his
wonderful gift. Nor do we have this freedom of speech       word of greeting when you step in the door. He cannot
in mind when we write of a "Sanctified Freedom of           express sympathy to you, cannot wish you a "Happy
Speech."      The same freedom that gives us all that       Birthday," tell you that the phone has been ringing all
liberty mentioned above also grants the unbeliever the      afternoon or tell you as you leave the house that you
right to propagate his heresies and the worldly philos-     left the car keys on the table, or the house key on the
opher the opportunity and liberty to try to corrupt the     inside, so that you will be lockedoutof your home. But
minds of your and my children. It grants the com-           he can communicate with you on a limited scale and
munist the right to preach his overthrow of our govern-     give you a very limited fellowship.
ment and the adoption of his Marxist revolution and            The same is true of your new born child when you
socialism. And as we again approach another presi-          bring him home from the hospital. By an assortment
dential campaign we are already subjected to so much        of sounds he not only manages to make known to you
slander and evil speaking of men in authority, whom         his likes and dislikes, desires and needs; but he soon
Scripture teaches us to fear and to respect. Men may        begins to lord it over you and make you his servant.
be ridiculed and dishonoured left and right with im-        You can be friendly towards that infant, but you can
punity.     Each must be given his right to speak. And      hardly say then yet that he is friendly to you. You
the last phrase in the Heidelberg Catechism's ex-           can talk to him, but he cannot reveal his soul to you.
planation of the meaning of the ninth commandment           Your communication with him is very limited; and
is thoroughly  rejected. We refer to the phrase, "Also      speaking is very much a one way street. But the
that I defend and promote, as much as I am able, the        potential is there; and in due process of time he is
honour and good character of my neighbour."                 your equal to receive from you all you are able to
   Instead, with covetousness for the office of another,    express, and to express fully to you what he wants to
men will with all.their power and by a rapidly wagging      from his heart.
tongue do all in their power to dishonour and destroy          And friendship and fellowship are the exercise of
the good name of the neighbour.        Let us make the      communication.            Let us go to the other end of that
remark at this juncture that killing, adultery and theft    fragile line of life. Your parents become feeble with
go hand in hand, so that men murder to cover up their       age, have a stroke or two, lie on their beds with little
adultery - remember David - and their theft, or to          more ability than to smile back at you. Hear you, they
make their theft possible. Theft, deceit and covetous-      may yet be able, although you may have to shout. But
ness form another infamous trio.       Deceit, the lie,     contribute anything in the way of speech they cannot
false testimony, corrupt advertising are resorted to        ,anymore, Their life hangs by a very slender thread.
in order to steal the neighbour's goods when we are         And although you visit them regularly and faithfully,
too squeamish or hesitant to use violence and murder.       and lovingly, you have to admit each time when you
And covetousness is what motivates us to steal, to          leave that you have nothing or little of their life and
take away a man's goods or office, or business.             fellowship anymore. And death puts an end to it all.
   And thus, although we may be thankful to our God         Communication is ended and fellowship is terminated.
for freedom to speak and teach and train our covenant          What a power, then, did God create in us making it
seed in the truth, the freedom of speech which He gives     possible for us to have fellowship with each other, to
us through men is not completely a wonderful thing,         teach our children, to share our secrets, to live to-
surely not as commendable as many freely speak their        gether in the joy of each other's fellowship and friend-
piece of defence concerning it. What we wish to con-        ship.
sider with you is a freedom of speech which God gives          But how much more wonderful that He made us so
us through Christ and His sanctifying Spirit. We speak      that we could communicate with Him and He with us !
of a freedom of speech that the Sanctifier gives us, and    How marvellous that He made us so that we could  re-


 276                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


 ceive the revelation of Himself in Christ that He in-                                    *  *  *
 tended to give to us ! His covenant is His relationship         The response to our lines last time re the Jamaican
 of friendship with us in Christ. But what friendship         young men who desired to prepare for the office of
 would we have with Him without that revelation? Even         Minister of the Word of God in their churches was
 Adam in his state of righteousness would have had no         encouraging.     Several expressed their deep interest
 friendship with God without the power of communication       in and even willingness to help support financially the
 whereby and wherein God spoke to him. The revela-,           project of their instruction.          Others who may be
 tion of God in all the creatures was not enough. God         interested can contact the undersigned either at 111
 came Himself and met Adam at the tree of life and            East 22nd Street, Holland, Michigan, 49423 or in care
 communed with him, speaking to him and receiving             of the Standard Beaver, whose address may be found
 Adam's praise.                                               elsewhere on these pages.
    All men are not free, however, to have that covenant         Sunday School superintendents and presidents of
 fellowship with God, because all men are not able to         societies can approach their societies about this matter.
 receive His speech nor to speak the truth with Him.          They can, perhaps, help in the support of the project.
 Many a tongue, and every man's tongue at one time or         We have prayed for years for a mission field and for
 another is wagging in backbiting, slander,       gossip,     years investigated a foreign field, that is, one beyond
 deceit and evil speaking of every sort. We may, as           the borders of our country, And our young people and
 James suggests, be so very careful in regard to murder       children should be trained to have an interest in the
 and adultery. We may abhor theft of every kind and           field which our covenant God has given us. Supporting
 advocate loudly submission to all in authority. But that     or helping to support young men for the office of the
 little member in the mouth, that small muscle that is        ministry in their churches will keep their interest
 yet so powerful, that it will kindle a world of iniquity     alive and give them something tangible for fruit of their
 and cause a world-wide fire of hatred and iniquity, is       collections and efforts.
 so very hard to control. And it gets us into trouble more       Knowing the need and the desire of these young
 often and deeper than the hand, the foot, the eye or the     men, and having been given a rich heritage of truth
 ear.                                                         not only to believe and to enjoy but also to share with
    We wish to say more of this next time and to show         us as much as we can, we ought to consider this : matter
 that we are not free to speak God's praises, are not         before the face of our God.
 free to use that little member in sanctified speech.            It may be possible, and the Mission Board has the
 For the sake of continuity of thought we will leave it- matter under advisement, and the Synod may likewise
 then for the next edition of the Standard Beaver. We         be confronted with this matter in June, that one or two
 have a certain freedom of speech which men grant us          of these young men could be enrolled in our new high
 - at least in our land; and there are lands where            school which is scheduled to open in September.
 speech is bound. But the only freedom of speech that            Shall we further this cause and prepare such young
 counts is that of a tongue that is freed from speaking       men?
 anything but the truth, It is the freedom we shall have         Dare we, in His fear, do anything else when the op-
 in perfection in the new Jerusalem.                          portunity is given us 7




           SPECIAL FEATURE-


                                Biblical Ecumenicity

                                                  by Prof.  H.  Hunk0


 INTRODUCTION                                                 various types of ecumenical endeavor. If the history
    That this subject of "Biblical Ecumenicity" is of         of the church in the world can be described in any
 considerable importance to the Church can. hardly be         given age by its outstanding characteristics, this age
denied.     Its importance is to be found, in the first       would undoubtedly be called "The Age of Ecumenicity."
place, in the fact that no other kind of church news so       For in one respect or another no denomination is
 captures the imagination of church members as the            immune from the march towards church unity. And all


                                                THESTANDARDBEARER                                                       277


of this brings us sharply before ,the question: What             the church under circumstances such as we find today.
must' we do about it? Not simply, what must be our               There are no passages in Scripture which speak
evaluation of the ecumenical moyement? But, what                 explicitly concerning ecumenical endeavors. Never-
responsibility do we have as B part of the church to             theless, the whole subject of ecumenicity revolves
join in this quest for unity?                                    around the more basic subject of the  unity  of the
   In the second place, the importance of this move-             church. Concerning this the Scriptures have a great
ment is to be found in the desire of those most intensely        deal to say. It is important then that we understand
involved to bring the whole church under one ecclesias-          what Scripture means by the unity of the church, so
tical roof.        This is the stated goal of i?he leaders of    that we can properly evaluate modern day ecumenicity
ecumenicity. They will not rest until the fractured and          in the light of this Scriptural truth and find our own
fragmented body of Christendom is united and the                 proper place and role in today's ecclesiastical world.
wounds in the body of Christ healed. This goal, in                      Finally, by way of introduction, we ought also to
many of their public statements, is set forth as the             notice that the ecumenical movement takes on many
most urgent calling of the church today. The following           different forms.       There are movements which are
aptly expresses this goal:                                       attempting to unite all the religions of the world into
         The other aspect of ecumenism is a drive for            one vast organization. This includes not only Roman
   Christian unity which envisages bringing all churches,        Catholicism and Protestantism, but also Judaism,
   including the Roman Catholic, under one ecclesiastical        Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. There are, secondly, organ-
   tent. Here ecumenism reveals its geographical over-           izations which are unions of different denominations
   tones as referring to a worldwide or all-embracing            in which each-individual denomination, while cooperat-
   unity of ecclesiastical structure. This is the main           ing with other denominations, retains its own denom-
   direction ecumenism is taking today, the significant          inational identity. These range all the way from the
   direction.       Ecumenists are no longer content with        more liberal organizations, such as the World Council
   Christian unity as a kind of vapid togetherness among
   creeds. They want to get at the business of merging           of Churches and the National Council of Churches, to
   churches.        Ecumenism among Protestants, (as, for        conservative movements, such as the International
   example, the proposals advanced by Eugene Carson              Council of Christian Churches and the Reformed
   Blake, formerly stated clerk of the United Presby-            Ecumenical Synod.         There are, thirdly, movements
   terian Church in the U.S.A., and now executive secre-         towards institutional `merger in which various denom-
   tary of the World Council of Churches), means the             inations come together into one larger denomination.
   structural joining of various denominations  - even-          These types of ecumenicity also range from the liberal
   tually all denomin3tions. Protestant-Catholic ecumen-         movements, such as the Conversations on ChurchUnion,
   ism is c concerned with the extension of this process in      to more conservative mergers, such as the one now
   the creation of a vast ecclesiastical structure in which      being proposed between the Southern Presbyterians and
   all Christians and their churches would eventually be
   joined. (G. Stanley Lowell, "The EcumenicalMirage,"           the Reformed Church of America.
   Pa  12)                                                              It will of course be impossible to evaluate individ-
                                                                 ually all these individual movements tonight.           We
   No longer can-schism and separatism be tolerated.             shall have to lay down the general principles and leave
No longer will the church be permitted to present any-           the evaluation to your sanctified judgment.
thing but a united front to the world. This, it can                     Bearing these things in mind, I call your attention
readily be seen, touches upon our own life and calling.          to:
We shall have to face the question of what we are going
to do when the pressures of ecumenicity become                          BIBLICAL ECUMENICITY
irresistibly strong.        We shall have to decide before                I. WHAT THE SCRIPTtiRES  TEACH
these days come whether we are going to join these                       II. AN EVALUATION OF MODERN ECUMENICTY
movements or face the grim prospect of being denied                     III. OUR CALLING
the right of existence.
   The subject on which I am to speak is "Biblical               I. WHAT THESCRIPTURESTEACH.
Ecumenicism." There are two points which must be                        While the term "ecumenical" comes from a Greek
made in connection with this subject. In the first place,        word which is used several times in Scripture, its
the phrase "biblical ecumenicism" is really a con-               Scriptural use is of very little use to us in the current
tradiction in terms.         "Ecumenicism" is an  "ism";         discussion. The term is used throughout Scripture as
and an "ism" is always contrary to Scripture. This               meaning "the whole inhabited earth." In this sense
is not to deny that much of the ecumenical movement              it is use@ without any reference to the church.
today is indeed ecumenicism; but we are talking to-                     However, as applying to the unity of the church, the
night about Biblical ecumenicism. This is something              term was used in the sense of the church occupying the
else.         And so, for the sake of accuracy, it would be      whole inhabited earth from very early times. The
better to make our subject Biblical ecumenicity, by              early church, especially from the Fourth Century on,
doing which we already take a stand against the var-             spoke of an ecumenical church which held ecumenical
ious "isms" found in the ecumenical world.                       councils. This was then the Christian Church which
   Secondly, the fact of the matter is that the Bible            was to be found throughout the entire known world and
has very little to say specifically about the calling of         which was both catholic and one. Only when this entire


278                                             THE STANDARD BEAREE


Church was represented at a council meeting could that            This has several important implications.
council be called `!ecumenical."                                    In the first place, the church is the object of eternal
 These connotations of the word have been retained               election.. God chose His church from before the foun-
today. In the strictest sense of the word, ecumenical            dation of the world, and onIy those so chosen by sover-
means a. one-world church.             There may be many         eign determination belong to that church.
aspects of the ecumenical movement which are not                    In the second place, the church is the redeemed
world-wide, but even these are considered ,hesitant              body of Christ. For His church Christ died, because
steps towards the creation of a one-world church.                in His death He made atonement for sin. The church
 For many centuries after Pentecost there was only               is a church only because it is built upon the blood of
one church to be found in the world. There were, of              the cross.
course,  many- off-shoots from this one church; but                 Thirdly, that church is formed in time by the power
they-' were considered sectarian and heretical move-             of irresistible grace. God calls His peopleirresistibly
ments divorced from the life of the true church. The             out of darkness into light,, out of the fellowship of rhe
one `church that existed was what became the Roman               world into the communion of the body of Christ. Those
Catholic Church. This was the only important denom-              who are chosen eternally and redeemed are those who
ination until the time of the great schism in 1054 when          are called into existence as a church in history.
the Church was split into the Western Roman Catholic                Fourthly,,  this church, elect, redeemed and saved
Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church - a split                 shall some day be brought into glory. There shall not
which continues till.today.                                      one elect be missing from that host before the throne.
        .`.                                                      There shall not be any for whom Christ shed His
    This situation continued until the time of the               blood who shall not be gathered there.
Protestant Reformation. It was in the years following               This has several important implications also.
the Reformation' that the church was apparently hope-               The unity of the church is principally a unity of
lessly fragmented.            There  we.re not only national     divine election, of glorious redemption, of irresistible
branches of one particular stream of the Reformation,            grace.     The church. as such, is one. As a spiritual
but .there  were also countless denominations differing          body it is a unity. Every Sunday we confess together:
from each other in fundamental respects..                        "I believe one holy catholic church." On the one hand,
_ -~- It is, this denominational situation which has, in the     this means that the unity of the church is a work of
minds of many, destroyed the unity of the church and             God.      It is not the object of man's efforts. It is not
necessitated the ecumenical movement.               Not only     something attained by human effort. It is God Himself
within the sphere of Protestantism itself must all the           Who establishes the church as a unit!y. And, on the
breaches be bridge; but also the wounds of the Ref-              other hand, this means that no work of man can possibly
ormation  - the break between Protestantism and                  destroy that unity. No earthly powers, no denomina-
Roman ,Catholicism must be healed.            Hence, the goal    tional fracturing can destroy the essential unity of the
of the, ecumenical movement is to restore the unity of           church of Jesus Christ.
t h e - c h u r c h .   ,.                                          Ali this implies that the true unity of the church is
     But  the question which must be answered is: What           a unity which is in Jesus Christ, and that the unity
is theunity  of the church?                                      which the church has in Jesus Christ is a unity effected
But  to. answer this question involves us in yet                 by the Spirit. This is the teaching of all Scripture. I
another. question: What is the church?                           call your. attention to a couple of passages which
     We cannot. enter into this question in detail, but          demonstrate this. There is, first of all, that beautiful
certain important. points have got to be made - points           passage in I Corinthians 12 in which the unity of the
which ares as often as not forgotten in modern ecu-              church is defined in terms of a body. While this is
menical thought,                                                 discussed in great detail by the apostle, the recurrent'
    First  -of all, and fundamentally; the Scriptures            theme is: "For as the body is one, and hath many
emphasize throughout that the .church is the handiwork           members, and all the members of that one body, being
of God through Jesus Christ. There are many figures              many, are one body: so also is Christ." (vs. 12.) The
which Scripture uses to describe the church: it is the           same is true of Ephesians 4:3-13. In the first verses
body of Christ, the temple, of the living God, a royal           of this section we read: "Endeavoring to keep the unity
priesthood; an elect nation, etc. But always it is also          of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body,
emphasized that the church is created by God Himself.            and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your
Our Heidelberg Catechism, e.g., defines the church in            calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and
these words:                                                     Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in
                                                                 you all." And then there is that oft-quoted text in
          what believest thou concerning the "holy catholic
     church;' church of Christ?                                  John 17:21: "That they all may be one; as thou, Father,
       That the -Son of God from the beginning to the end        art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
     of the world, gathers, defends, and preserves to him-       us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."
     self b.y -his Spirit and word, out of the whole human          But it is evident that this unity consists in many
     race, a church chosen to everlasting life, agreeing in      things. The -deepest principle of that unity is Christ
    true faith; and that I am and forever shall remain; a        Himself. The whole church exists in Christ and out of
    living member  thereof.                                      Christ. Her life comes from Christ. Her inheritance


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    279


is given to her of Christ. Her existence in the world        this to the extent that it maintains the confession of
is dependent upon Christ. All she is and has is only         the truth of Scripture, that it faithfully preaches-this
because she belongs to Christ.                               truth. from- her pulpit, that it lives out of the' com-
   Yet the point is precisely that inasmuch as Christ        munion of the saints according to this truth. This unity
is the deepest principle of her unity, this unity:comes      of a congregation,. therefore, is evident in her con-
down to one essential point: unity in the truth.             fession which she makes through the preaching, the
   This is to be expected, for Christ is the full revela-    administration of the, sacraments` and the exercise of
tion of the truth - the truth as it is in God and as it      Christian discipline.
shines in the face of Jesus Christ. This is also em-            But this same unity, expressed in a congregation,
phasized in the texts which we quoted above.                 also comes to manifestation in denominational life when
  . In that beautiful passage of I Corinthians 12, the       several  congregatio>join together for a common
apostle introduces his discussion of the-unity of the        purpose.    But still the principle of that denominational
body of Christ with the important words: "Wherefore I        unity must be in Ghrist and in- the truth of Christ.
give you to understand, that no man speaking by the          Only then will a denomination reveal the unity of the
Spirit of Christ calleth Jesus accursed: and that no         body of Christ. And it is at this point that we enter
mancan say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."       into the area of ecumenicity.
The same is true of the passage in John 17. Indeed
the Lord speaks of the unity of the church; but He           II. AN EVAL UATION OF MODERN ECUMENICITY
emphasizes that this unity is always and only in the         IN THE LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE
truth, just because it is in Christ: "And for their sakes       It is not too difficult to characterize the modern
I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified        ecumenical movement.            Sufficient has been written
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but       about it and by those who are in. the vanguard of the
for them also which shall believe on me through their        movement to judge what the chief characteristics are.
word.... And the glory which thou gavest me I have              It is clear, first of all, that the-first impetus for
given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:        modern ecumenicity came on the mission field. In the
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made             mission work of the church, the church'was embar-
perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou        rassed by the fact that different denominations worked
hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved        in the same mission fields teaching different doctrines
me."        And Paul sums up the true idea of unity in       and therefore competing with each other. Because of
Ephesians 4 when he concludes with the words: "Till          this embarrassment the first ecumenical organiza-
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowl-     tions were mission organizations  - denominations
edge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the         cooperating in the work of spreading the gospel to the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That        unchurched.
we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro,           But the ecumenical movement has not stopped there.
and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the        Especially in the larger ecumenical movements the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they         work of missions hasbe n broadened to include what
lie in wait to deceive."                                     the leaders in this field-`ke to speak of as "service."
   From all of this it is evident that the unity of the                                1&
                                                             It is said that thb church is in the world, placed there
church in Christ is a unity of the truth. Christ is the      by God, to be of service to humanity. And this has
way, the truth, and the life. And it must be understood      determined the direction of much of modern-day
that this truth is exactly the truth of Christ as it is      ecumenicity. And so the present ecumenical movement
recorded in the infallibly inspired Scriptures. Only in      is strongly colored by the call to serve.           This is
this truth can there be unity. Apart from this truth         characteristic especially of such organizations as the
there is no unity at all -- except perhaps the unity of      W.C.C. and the N.C.C. This is the reason why these
the lie.     In this truth the whole church of all ages,     organizations and others like them have entered so
beginning in Paradise and continuing to the present,         forcefully into the areas of race relations, national
finds its unity. In this truth the church in every land      and international politics, social problems of poverty,
and gathered from every nation finds its unity. In this      crime, etc., the opposition to war.
truth the church is one in her Lord and Savior. Thus,           But with this emphasis there has been a corres-
this truth, as it is expressed in the creeds of the          ponding de-emphasis on doctrine. This manifests itself
church, "The. Forms of Unity," `is the basis for all         in several ways. Sometimes doctrine is simply con-
unity also today.                                            sidered irrelevant.      The Executive Committee, for
   I have been speaking up till now of the church in her     example, of the World and Life Movement which pre-
spiritual character as the body of Christ. But this          ceded the W.C.C. pointedly observed in an official
church which is the body of Christ also comes to             policy paper: "Doctrine divides; service unites." Or,
manifestation in the midst of the world in an institu-       again, the doctrinal bases upon which cooperation and
tional form. And in this institutional form the unity of     church merger are founded have been so broad that
the church is also expressed.                                almost any denomination can meet the requirements.
   This takes place, first of all, in the local congre-      This is true of the W.C.C. which has such a broad
gation. Each local congregation is a complete mani-          doctrinal basis that even the Russian Orthodox Church
festation of the whole body of Christ. That is, it is        can belong to this organization and Roman Catholics


280                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


can ponder seriously the value of joining. And this                 Thus the calling of the church is never to engage
same thing is true of the'so-called COCU talks. Doc-             in social action. Her calling is' to preach the gospel,
trine is simply considered irrelevant. When even an              to defend the faith, to bring the glad tidings of the
outspoken heretic of the caliber of Bishop Pike can be           kingdom. If she refuses to do this and turns instead to
found in an ecumenicalmovement embracing the United              social action, she sells her birthright for a mess of
Presbyterian Church, then one wonders whether doc-               pottage. She is no longer even a church; much less does
trine means anything at all. And yet, at the same time,          she have the right to claim to be seeking the unity of
it must be understood that these movements  de-                  the church. The post-millennialism and universalism
emphasize doctrine so completely because they are of             of the ecumenical movement is in direct conflict with
the opinion that doctrine is relative, subject to change,        Scripture; it is a movement aiding and abetting the
adaptable to each new generation. And all because the            cause of Antichrist, is a movement with which the
Scriptures are no longer the absolute standard of all            church cannot cooperate.
truth!                                                              But what about the more conservative organizations
   But with this characteristic comes also another; If           and mergers? I have in mind such organizations as
indeed doctrine is .unimportant, if service is the real          the I.C.C.C., the R.E.S., and mergers among con-
calling of the church, one can readily see that the              servative bodies.
direction in which the church is heading-is the direc-              Even these bodies ,have not entirely escaped the
tion of postmillennialism. They seek a kingdom here              serious errors to be found in the more liberal ecu-
upon earth, a universal church which rules in a, world           menical movements. The I.C.C.C., e.g., is not at all
united in peace and prosperity. And it is precisely              reluctant to engage in battles in the political arena
for this reason that the modern church worldis heading           and to strive, although from a different viewpoint, for
rapidly in the direction of becoming the false prophet           the kind of government it happens to espouse, But of
mentioned in the book of Revelation. There is absolutely         far greater concern is the fact that while this organ-
no question about it but that the church shall presently         ization claims to be conservative, it nevertheless also
join forces with the world-power and become, through             is willing to take under its wing denominations differing
her vain apostasy, the right arm of the Antichrist.              radically on fundamental points of doctrine. And the
                                                                 entire organization `makes no provision for any kind of
G. Stanley Lowell speaks of this in his book quoted              discussion of these differences,  .evidently  considering
above:                                                           them of little or no account.
          (The ecumenical movement) envisages a gigantic            The same thing is true of the Reformed Ecumenical
   religio-political consensus for doing good. They seek         Synod.        While I am firmly convinced that there is
   involvement.      The church of Christ, they tell us,         surely room for such an organization, as it is composed
   cannot stand aloof; it must be `involved' inthis, in that,    in its present form it is very reluctant to discuss  ~
   in everything. These are men who seek involvement             questions of doctrine which divide the denominations
   yvith everything because they themselves have nothing.        which are members. It refuses to deal seriously with
   They spread the church to every secular endeavor
   because they have lost its spiritual dimension. All           the threat of modernism and Arminianism. As these
   they can do is to seek absorption in the temporal             evils of modernism and Arminianism threaten more
   because they have lost their grip on the Eternal. The         and more the Reformed community in, for example,
   ecumenical leadership seeks an alliance with the state        the Gevefovmeevde  Kevken in the Netherlands and the
   because its functions have become no different from           Christian Reformed Church in our own country, it
   those of the state. These leaders want the church to          would seem that unity in the truth demands far more
   undertake everything because they have lost the one           of such an organization than it has up to now produced.
   distinctive thing for which the church exists. They              Besides, it is more than passing strange that the
   have lost the gospel. They have substituted for it an         R  .E .S. is apparently not ecumenical enough to include
   ecumenical mush concocted of a little bit of everything       our Protestant Reformed Churches. And this gives me
   and adding up to nothing.                                     an opportunity to point out that we are, in the sense in
   We need not hesitate to condemn this form of                  which I have described it, thoroughly Reformed and
ecumenicity on the basis of Scripture. It is apparent            thoroughly ecumenical. That is, we are always ready
that the approach is fundamentally wrong. If the unity           to discuss questions of doctrine which divide us from
of the church is principally the unity of the truth as it        other denominations as long as these questions are
is in Christ, then the truthof  Scripture is all important.      discussed on the basis of Scripture.
Then unity can be gained only by growing in the truth.              But if this is not done, these movements fail to
Any movement which ignores the truth or plays it down            bring about the true unity of Christ within even the
is simply a counterfeit movement, a fake ecumenicity,            Reformed church world.
a unity of the lie. True unity can only be gained by
increasing in the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. That           III. WHAT IS OUR CALLING?
is, taking the truth of the confession of the church in             If we' turn now to the question of our calling, it
the past by which we stand with those who are now                becomes quite obvious that our calling is, first of all,
made perfect in the unity of Christ, we go on to                 negative e
develop this truth on the basis of Scripture, ever                  There appears to be no question about it that the
growing and increasing in Jesus Christ.                          ecumenical movement will gain continued impetus.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                281


Scripture itself is clear on this point. This means that        compromise.       But I would warn you that all com-
there will be increased speed in bringing all Protes-           promise in the truth is a devil's compromise! And
tantism together not only, but also all denominations           you may .be. sure that the devil does not concede any-
found in the world. Already Protestantism is courting           thing which is important to him!
Roman Catholicism and Roman Catholicism addresses                   But this does not alter the fact that we also have a
Protestantism as "our brethren." Sooner or later                positive calling.     Basically and fundamentally this
even all the splinter groups and competing organiza-            calling is to grow and increase in the truth of the Word
tions will have to fall into line.         Certainly, to the    of God.     This must be done on the basis of the Con-
extent that their basis is not securely established in          fessions which bind us securely in unity with the
the truth of Scripture, they lack the power to resist           church of the past - the church now in glory. Shall
the siren calls that sound from the leaders in the              we deny the unity we have with saints made perfect
movement*                                                       by sneeringly destroying the faith they loved and for
   Our calling is, therefore, to condemn all this false         which they bled and died? God forbid!
ecumenicityunceasingly and unwearyingly as a perver-                Secondly, our calling is to seek this truth with
sion of the true unity which the church has in Christ.          others who also maintain this historical faith of the
And we must be sure that our condemnation of it is              Church.     Discussion on the basis of Scripture and the
also expressed in our refusal to have anything to do            Confessions is not simply desirable, but also manda-
with it.                                                        tory. We are prepared to engage in such discussions
   Now yet we have the choice of participating or               at any time. And we are prepared to join any organ-
refusing to participate. But presently the many re-             ization which will accomplish this all-important task.
quests which now come to us to join will become                 But yet it must be remembered that such discussion
imperious demands.         There will be a time when we         must be fearless and frank discussion of things which
shall not be given any choice at all. To refuse to jump         now divide us.
into the swelling tides and ride with the rushing cur-              Our goal must certainly therefore be to express the
rents will be to invite ridicule, scorn, and even overt         spiritual unity which we have with all the believing
persecution.      But even then we cannot shrink from our       elect in an institutional unity of the church as it
position, lest we lose our heritage.                            appears in the world. Perhaps we shall not attain this
   This is equally true of what goes today under the            on this side the grave except in that day when the false
name of "dialogue." The very word presupposes that              church rules supreme and the people of God can find
all who engage in dialogue are to some extent right             no ecclesiastical roof at all. But such must neverthe-
and to some extent wrong. The purpose of dialogue               less be our goal.      Our prayers too must be that all
is to find common ground and a basis for union in               God's people may be one in Christ to the glory of God.



   A CLOUD OF  WITNESSES-


                                Abner and Ishbosheth

                                                  by Rev. B.  Woudenbevg


                  But  Abner  the son  of  Nev, captain of Saul's host, took Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and
                brought him ovey to Mahanaim;
                  And made him king  ovey  Gilead, and  oveY the Ashuvites, and  ovey  Jeweel, and  ovey
             Ephvaim, and  ovey Benjamin, and  ovey all  Israel.
                                                                                            II Samuel  2:8, 9

   During the extended period of Saul's spiritual dis-          no longer endure the hatred and wickedness of Saul
integration, he had gradually gathered about him a              and either defected to David or returned to their own
group of wicked and ruthless men. In fact there had             homes. Even Jonathan, Saul's oldest son and the heir
always, been such about Saul, such as Doeg the. Edomite,        apparent to the throne, began to fall more and more
for Saul had never been one to reject a man just for            into the background. Valiant soldier that he was, he
his lack of spiritual concern. It was, however, after           would not and could not be trusted to take part in the
David had been driven from the palace that the power            campaigns against David, so that the only time he came
and influence of these men began to mount. Those who            to stand beside his father was when they went forth to
were spiritual children of God within the palace could          fight with the heathen nations about them. Those who


 222                                         THESTANDARDBEARER


rose. in Saul's esteem were those of ruthless nature          he was not going to try to take the throne by his own
who were perfectly willing to set themselves against          power; it would have to be given him by God. For this
David just as `they did against any other enemy. More-        he Chad waited all of these years, and for this he was
over, as time went on, there was one especially that          going to continue to wait still. They had received him
rose to pre-eminence: that- was Saul's own cousin             willingly as king in Hebron, and he was willing to reign
Abner.    His character was much the same as Saul's           there too; but, if as yet the rest of Israel was not ready
except that he was much less emotional  andmuch more          to receive him to be their ruler, he would wait until
cunning' in his. ways. It was exactly as Jonathan fell        they were. It was this that more than anything else
more and more into the background that he stepped in          left Abner free to do as he chose.
to take his place until gradually he attained to the                  Nevertheless, it was not as though Abner's way was
position as captain of the whole army of Israel. It was       now easy. The fact of the matter was that, although
a position to which he was well adapted and of which          Ishbosheth was in name the king of Israel, there was
he was `ready to take full advantage. In fact, after the      very little of a kingdom over which he actually ruled.
deaths of Saul ,and his two sons in the battle of Gilboah,    The Philistines in the battle of Gilboa had won a dev-
he &as left the only man in Israel with the power and         astating victory.      They had not only invaded but had
ability to act.                                               actually taken over the heart of the nation of Israel
    Being the man that he was, Abner felt immediately         from their own border to the river Jordan. Together
the, need for a quick response to the results of Saul's       with the land of Judah over which David ruled, it left
death. The situation was critical and the danger very         him very little indeed besides the comparatively poor
real that he `should soon lose all of the position and        east bank of the river. For Abner it meant that, if
power which he had built for himself throughthe years.        all of his efforts were to come to anything, he was left
Should a vacuum of power be left `in Israel for even          with no choice but to drive the Philistines back out of
the. shortest duration of time, David was sure to step        the territory that they had taken.
in to fill it; that would leave him out completely. As           It was a hard and difficult task. The forces of the
yet there was` only one thing that might hinder David         Philistines  were strong and  .deeply entrenched while
in- this goal  - that was, the mistrust of the people         the army of Abner had been broken. But the land be-
because of David's defection to the land of the Philis-       longed to Israel and the inhabitants were with them.
tines., Y Although .many could perhaps see why he had         Slowly mile by mile and town by town, they did manage
done it, they still could not look upon it as anything        to push the Philistines back until finally, after five and
less than a sort of treachery; and now while Israel           one half years, it could be said that Isbbosheth was
was still hurting so sorely from the invasion of the          king not just in name but over all of Israel. For Abner
Philistines through the heart of their country, feelings      it was the first step in his overall plan. Next he would
were still running high and were sensitive. David was         have to dispose of David; after that he could do away
going to have-' to do some careful, political  fence-         with Ishbosheth and then he would have the throne of
mending before the people would receive him whole-            Israel for his own.
heartedly as king, and Abner knew that for his own               Even for Abner, however, it was not an easy thing
good'this had to be prevented.                                to try to bring force against another part of the nation
   Very cunningly, Abner knew better than to try to           of Israel. Perhaps it was the memory of the massacre
place himself directly in the way of David. His own           of Benjamin that left too much of an impression upon
claims were no stronger than David's, and he lacked           the nation; but whatever it was, it was not an easy
the popular appeal that David had. Instead, he took           thing to obtain the cooperation of an Israelite against
Ishbosheth, the fourth and most ineffectual son of            his own brethren. Thus almost two years passed by
Saul, brought him to Mahanaim on the east side of             in which Abner tried to obtain for himself some de-
Jordan and there had him proclaimed king. Ishbosheth          cisive advantage; but all that took place was a number
was exactly the kind of man he needed, or, at least,          of minor skirmishes of which only one reached very
so it appeared to. Abner at the moment. He was a              large proportions.
weak and incompetent man to the point that he was                It appears as though this particular incident was
incapable of taking care of himself, much less to rule        fairly early in the reign of David, at least it was prior
over a nation. It meant that he would be completely           to the two year period when Ishbosheth reigned over all
dependent upon Abner  - a figurehead, while Abner did         Israel.      Nevertheless, it was also after Abner had
the actual ruling. And, for a time at least, Abner's          restored a great part of the western bank of the Jordan
conniving did work. Ishbosheth was accepted as the            to his power, for the incident took place in Gibeon, just
successor of Saul by all except the tribe of Judah, and       north of the city of Jerusalem. Abner had.come  from
he was able to do what he wanted through him.                 Mahanaim across the river with the expressed purpose
   In this all,- moreover, Abner held one great advan-        of doing what he could to make inroads in the land of
tage, the unwillingness of David to fight against his         Judah. He had not traveled far within Judah's border,
fellow    Israelites,     and thus his unwillingness to       however, before Joab was there with David's, army
do anything that would interfere with the man-                to meet them.          It -was a tense time for those two
euverings of Abner. From his very first aware-                armies as each was within itself between the desire.
ness that he was appointed *by God to be the ruler            to fight and the fear of going,against their own breth-
of Israel, David had been very determined that
                   _ .                                        ren.       How long this stand off continued we do not


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       283
                                                                                                               . . --

know, but the end result seems to have been'that               captain. But neither, for that matte,",- did Abner try
Abner  and' Joab went down together to the pool of             particularly to escape him. He was a hardened fighter .
Gibeon which stood between the two armies to talk              while this was evidently little more than a child. Even
over the situation.                                            more than this,  ldoking,  -upon him, he thought he
   The plan which they finally hit upon was one quite          recognized his features, so that he asked in a'not un-
commonly used in that day. To us it might appear as            friendly manner, "Art thou Asahel?" And when the
a rather strange plan, and in fact it was workable only        answer was affirmative, he gave him some kind ad-
because of the psychology of battle that prevailed             vice, "Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left,
in that day. To them a war between nations was not a           and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take
matter of months and years; their confidence and               thee his armour." What he was saying in effect was
hopes were pinned upon the outcome of one decisive             that, if Asahel wished a trophy for his first battle, it
battle.     Even more, that one battle was not expected        were wiser for him to take it from someone of his own
to be' extended, but everything was considered to be           age and experience rather than to set his goals upon
`determined .by .the outcome of the first conflict. As         as seasoned a soldier as he. But Asahel was deter-
soon after a battle started as it became evident which         mined and Abner's condescension only made him more
side was winning, .the losers would turn in flight'and         so.
the winners' would pursue to kill as many as possible                 Perplexed and irritated, Abner turned to him again
and to loot the fallen.       Thus it was that at times,       and tried to reason, "Turn thee aside from following
through an interplay which we find hard to under-              me:" he said, "Wherefore should I smite thee to the
stand, it was thought that, rather than expose the             ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy
whole of two            armies    to the dangers of the        brother?" But Asahel would not listen until finally,
original     conflict, this original confrontation was         more in irritation than in anger, Abner took the blunt
confined to a small representative group from each             end of his spear to push the boy away with it. But
side. This is the way it had happened with David and           Abner was strong and the spear not carefully directed.
Goliath, and once the original conflict was decided            It struck Asahel in the soft of his abdomen piercing him
eat h group reacted as was expected, much to the ad-           through completely so that he died.
vantage at least of, the winning side. So Abner and                   Hearing of what had happened, Joab and his older
Joab decided, too, to limit the original conflict to, a        brother, Abishai, took up the pursuit in hot anger until
representative group of twelve from each army. This            evening stopped them at the foot of a hill at Ammah
time, though, it did not work out that well. So evenly         upon which Abner and a great company of his men had
matched were these two groups of choice soldiers               taken up camp for the evening. Even here, though, the
that, when the dust had cleared from their conflict,           cunning of Abner did not depart him. In the night he
all twenty four of them were dead. Nevertheless, it            sent a message to Joab with exactly the right appeal.
was enough to stir up both armies to action, and,              He said, "Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest
forgetting their inhibitions, they closed in upon each         thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end?
other.      Soon, however, it became apparent that the         how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return
Lord was with the army of David, so that Abner's army          from following their brethren?"
turned to flee.'
   But that was not the end of the important events of                Here was an appeal that a true Israelite could not
the day, for the very flight itself had a strange after-       reject, an appeal for mercy upon the members of his
effect that would have deep results in the future. It so       own nation. Not as though Joab did not understand the
happened that one of the participants in the battle was        duplicity of Abner. Bitterly he replied, "AS God liveth,
Joab's younger brother, Asahel. Perhaps, it was his            unless thou hadst spoken (that is, if you had not chal-
first battle, with the result that he was excited to an        lenged us) surely then in the morning the people had
enthusiasm  ,that approached folly.      As the army of        gone up every one from following his brother." It had'
Israel turned to flight, he set his eye upon Abner and         been Abner who had started the whole conflict in the
determined that he was going to obtain the real victory,       first place. But still the appeal was there and. had to
for his people by pursuing Israel's captain to the end.        be heeded.        Lifting his trumpet to his lips Joab
Being young and not inexperienced in running, it was           called back the pursuing forces leaving Abner to re-
not difficult for him to stay close behind the fleeing         turn to his plots and plans in Israel.


                       CL ASSIS EAST                                                    TEACHERS
Classis East will hold its next meeting Wednesday,             Hope Protestant Reformed Christian School is in need
April 3, 1968, in the First Protestant ReformedChurch          of a principal for the 1968-69 school year. If you wish
of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Consistories will please            to be considered for this position, please contact:
consider this an official announcement in the appoint-                                     Mr. Clare Kuiper
ment of their delegates.                                                                   2450 Boulevard Dr., S.W.
                                        M.  Schipper,   SC.                                Wyoming, Michigan 49509


284                                             THE STANDARD BEARER




       ALL- AROUND  US-


                  E c u m e n i c i t y   I n   T h e   N e t h e r l a n d s

                                                     by Prof. H.  Hank0


   A reader of our Standard Bearer  recently gave to                   I have never kept it secret that I am Reformed. But
me a couple of copies of the Dutch paper De Spiegel.               to be Reformed is least of all a recommendation. It is
Evidently this paper has become very interested in                 an obstacle.
ecumenical developments in the Netherlands, especially                     And it is also terribly difficult if people who have
in the Reformed Churches. One issue contained an                   come to the faith, to a new life, to say to them: NOW
interview with a retired minister from the                         you must go to that Reformed Church. Because as a
                                                    Gevefov-       rule they don't feel at home there.
meerde  &&en by the name of Ds. Sillevis Smitt. He                         You may calmly write that I applauded when a short
commented at length on the state of affairs in his own             time ago I read that the Reformed were together, and
denomination and about his feelings towards ecumeni-               openly allowed it to be put in the newspaper that they
city in general and union with Rome in particular. The             had heard that the judgment about the Reformed by
following are some excerpts taken from this interview              those outside the church is belittling. Do you remem-
in.  which Ds. Smitt expresses his views on these                  ber that yet? Now at that time I applauded and said:
questions m                                                        That is the truth. That is the way you must see your-
   After stating that he does not like the word "chris-             self.      Then there is a chance that improvement will
tian" at all, he goes on to say:                                    come.
                                                                   Turning to the Bible he said:
        That is such an odd word. A heathen invented it.
   Christian.. . . .For my part people need not become                     The Bible, of course, is much read in Reformed
   Christians. They must become children of Cod. Man                circles. But whether it is well read, that is another
   must be a child of Cod. And then: the tree is known by           question.. . . You can see and know all kinds of texts of
   its fruits.                                                     the Bible. I would say: The Pharisees and Sadducees
        But yes, I do not want either now to run down               are an eternal warning for us that you must be careful
   christendom entirely, because the abolition of slavery,         for this.
   to mention but one example, after all also took place                   I feel it to be a great temptation that I know so much
   under the influence of Christendom.                              about the Bible. Because to know so much of the Bible
                                                                    could indeed upon occasion be for me a great obstacle
   Turning to other subjects he goes on:                            to knowing the Bible and certainly to obeying that
                                                                    Bible, and humbly living by it.
       If the churches are really serious about the gospel,                It is fortunate that great changes are takingplace in
                                                                    the churches, but I surely want to say to you that if the
  then they will change very quickly. In their organiza-
   tion, their presentation, their entire manner of gather-        pope and the synods do not take care that we come
                                                                    together, then the children must simply see to it, then
   ing together.                                                    they must simply mutually marry. I would wave the
       If they remain as they are, they will not be in a           flag at 
   position to catch the people outside of the church; and                     every  Hervormd-Cereformeerd marriage.
                                                                           The Catholics are in our land closer to us than in
   the number of people outside of the church that is               other lands.       But I am a little afraid to say that be-
   receptive for the Bible is growing steadily larger.              cause then it is as though we are putting a feather in
       The solution'? To be a different quality of chris-           our hat and we as Reformed have done that so often
   tian. And this shall have to reveal itself by removing           that I have a horror of it. This is much more a merit
   the prejudice and the disgrace of ecclesiastical separ-          of the Catholics than of us. With the Catholics there
   ation. For what now is the reason why the Hervormden             is so much care of the sick, so much mercy, so much
   and the Gereformeerden are not together? You have a              piety, 
   sort of strange, crazy inconsistency: the baptism is                        SO  much inclination to sacrifice. It is highly
   indeed acknowledged, but you may not sit at communion            necessary that from that direction also a help be given
                                                                    and a correction be brought about from which we
   with one another. It is not only prejudice and a dis-
   grace, but it has also become a kind of madness that             protestants may profit.
   we are still separate.                                          Several things are apparent from these quotations.
                                                                   In the first place, this minister of the  Gevefov-
   Concerning his own denomination he has some biting           meevde  Kevken is not at all reluctant to throw over-
criticism to make.                                              board the entire Reformed heritage for which his


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         .285


        fathers fought so valiantly. In fact, he is in a hurry to         As explanation for all this he said:
        discard this heritage because he is of the opinion that
        it forms an insurmountable barrier to union with                     I hope I have given the chair of the pope a jerk.
     ~ Rome  - a union which must be realized.                            His fall must become a reality as soon as possible.
           In the second place, he finds all kinds of fault with          I expect that it will take place toward the year 2000.
        his own denomination not only, but also with the                     The ecumenical movement is deceit and foolish-
        distinctive truths of the Church, with the name "Chris-           ness.    Its representatives are going about speaking
                                                                          with the pope. You don't have dealings, do you, with
        tian," and with the Scriptures themselves.                        antichrist?    The pope wants to dominate the church.
           In the third place, it is becoming increasingly ap-            He feels himself to be more than others, but that is
       parent that the real heart of the ecumenical movement              entirely an usurpation of power. He is not more than
,       (in the Netherlands surely, but in this country as well)          an overseer of the Romish Church. And what is the
        is the effort to bring Protestantism and Roman Ca-                Romish Church? At best nothing more than the chris-
       tholicism together.       All other manifestations of the         tian congregation of the city of Rome. The Waldensian
       ecumenical movement and all Church mergers have                    Church there may also call itself the Romish Church.
        as their goal union with the Church of the pope. This             I am overseer of the Reformed church in Hoogeveen.
       is the real goal.                                                  IS the pope therefore more than I? Absolutely not.
                                                                          He may have no power over me; And it is certain
           If this sort of thing is prevalent in the Gevefovme-           that ecumenism will end up in Rome. It must either
        evde Kevken,.  it is more true in the Hevvovmde Kevk.             go along with Rome, or it must tag along behind Rome,
       There the talk has not only been about the desirability            and then we nevertheless are under the yoke of the
        of union with Rome, but something is being done about             pope. And that cannot be. First they must be rid of
       it. In another issue of De Spiegel an interview with a             Mary and of the pope, and then we can talk once yet
        Ds. Taverne was carried. He is apparently a deposed               about  ecumenicity.
       minister of the  Hevvovmde  Kevk  - deposed (if his
       explanation is correct) for criticizing his church. He             While we certainly do not agree with the method of
       became aware of a meeting which was to be held in               criticism which this minister used, the point is that
       the Gyote Kevk of the Hague between members of his              ecumenicity has gone to the extreme in the Nether-
       denomination and Roman Catholics. He evidently in-              lands where the mass is celebrated together between
       tended to distribute some pamphlets at that meeting.            Reformed and Roman Catholic. One wonders how far
       But when he discovered that this meeting was a joint            behind the Reformed Church in this country is.
       celebration of the mass.. . .But let him tell his own
       story and give his justification for his actions.                  NOTES
                                                                          - Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, well-known proponent
              At first I thought that in the Grote Kerk of The         of the power of positive thinking and minister in the
           Hague a eucharistic  congress was going to be held,         Marble Collegiate Church of the Reformed Church in
           such as the papists hold more often. It was the             America could carry his ecumenical vision to such an
           intention that my people were to distribute two thou-       extreme that he preached in the same day a funeral
           sand pamphlets among those present. But when they           sermon for Dr. Daniel A. Poling and Rabbi William E.
           had brought away a program, I saw that this Reformed
           Church was going to be misused for a Romish mass.           Rosenblum. The latter is spiritual head of the Temple
           That went beyond all limits. I decided immediately          Israel congregation (Reform) and a believer in Judaism
           as a protestant to protest once soundly against this.       who flatly denies the divinity of Jesus Christ.
           As a Hervormd minister - I do not acknowledge my              - A laymen's group has withdrawn from the Pres-
           deposition  - I felt myself called and justified in         byterian Church in New Zealand after that denomination,
           Hervormd territory to let my testimony be heard.            in her General  Assembly, upheld Dr. Geerling even
              I walked calmly to the front before the beginning of     though he denied the resurrection of Christ and the
           the service, looked for the so-called altar, but could      immortality of the human soul. The laymen's group
           not find it. I saw two candles on the communion table       hopes to lead all conservative people out of the
           - externals about which the Bible has nothing, and I
          thought : "It is best if I begin with them." I smashed       denomination and preserve a Church in whichthe West-
          them to the ground. One fell in pieces. The janitor          minister Creeds are retained.
          tried to stop,me. He wanted to come to the defense             - Dr. L. S. B. Leakey, world-renowed anthropologist
           of the Romish, who, however, had absolutely no rights       and evolutionist still believes the missing link between
           in that church.     I was a Hervormd minister in a          apes and men will be found. He even predicts that it
           Hervormd church and thus I had rights.         Hence, I     will be found in Egypt's Fayum Valley and that it will
           climbed upon the platform, `and while my followers          be about 35,000,OOO  years old. Of more interest is his
          guarded the steps to prevent my being deprived of the        assertion that anyone who maintains that evolution
           opportunity to speak, I read about the answer to the        contradicts the Bible simply does not know his .Bible.
           80th question of the Heidelberg Catechism, in which it
           is said that the mass is an accursed idolatry. I looked     He sees the evolutionistic development of the planet
          the people straight in the eye and repeated the words        from gas to solid matter and from inorganic matter to
           "accursed idolatry" a couple of times. When I spied         life as being just exactly what Genesis describes. Per-
           one of the ministers of the mass in full garb, I pointed    haps Dr. Leakey ought to consult his Bible again. Yet
           to him and called:       "There stands the accursed         this is precisely the assertion of many church mem-
          idolatry."                                                   bers even in Reformed churches.


      286                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


      FROM HOLY WRIT-

                             The  .Book Of  .Hebrews
                                                      by Rev. G. Lubbers

     Hebrews 6:1-8 (Read  from  your own  Bible)                   heavens; Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our
        Everywhere about us in the realm of nature we see          confession.  "    And, once more, we read in Hebrews
     God's .law of growth and maturity. It is a phenomenon         10:23, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope
     in all the living creature as well as in the plant world.     that it waver not: for he is faithful that promised..."
     We see this in seed-time and in harvest-time. It was          In all these passages we are dealing with what the
     none less than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself Who              readers "profess" concerning Jesus. The same may
     brings forth this truth in the parable on the sower. Not      also be said for such a letter as First John. There too
     all the seed that was sown came to full growth and to         we read repeatedly, "If we say.. . .  ," and, "If we
     maturity. Some fell in stony ground, some fell by the         confess. . . .  " (I John 1~6, 8, 9, 10; 4:19, 20) Hence,
     way side and some fell among the thorns. Only that            the viewpoint is not that of the elect as they are all
     which fell in good ground came to full maturity, the          written in the Lamb's book of life, but rather as the
     fruits, of patience  - a hundredfold, sixtyfold and           Christian here lives under the preaching of the Word,
     thirtyfold to the glory of God.    . .                        walks by faith in the battle, where there is a twofold
        ,The. writer to the Hebrew Christians speaks also of       manifestation of. coming to perfection of faith and of a
     two kinds of earth.in this awesome passage. It is true,       falling away in unbelief, crucifying the Son of ,God
     this, is only used by way of illustration. However, it        afresh to themselves.
     really is an implied parable. He speaks of the earth
     which receives the rain from heaven and the sunshine          THE PERFECTION TOWARD WHICH
     and brings forth thorns and thistles and which is nigh        WE PRESS FORWARD (Hebrews  6:l)
     to .destruction,  and the end is that it is burned. On the       The book of Hebrews is replete with the idea of
     other hand, he also speaks of good earth which brings         pressing on to and arriving at "perfection." The term
     forth fruits and receives the- blessing. Two kinds of         in the Greek is teleioosis. This term does not mean
     earth:, that which is cursed and that which is blessed.       the same thing as holiness, ethical perfection, although
        These are tremendous realities. They are written           these two cannot be separated in the Christian. Yet,
     for our warning and admonition. No one can really             they are rather markedly distinguished. Perfection
     read this passage and not be moved to fear and awe.           looks at the end of the process.          It is the end of a
     This is written for our benefit as the church of Christ.      matter in the same sense that the harvest-time and
     God works grace through admonitions.           (Canons of     the full-harvest is the end of spring and seed-time. It
     Dortj  III, IV, 17) Well may we take the warning and          is the fully developed fruit. It means that what was
     admonition here `expressed to heart: Repeatedly the           potential has become real and actual.
     writer to the Hebrews intersperces his writings with             According to the context, "perfection's here is the
     such warnings. In Hebrews 4:13 he had written, "For           full-orbed understanding of the truth of the Gospel in
     all things are naked and opened before him with whom          Jesus; the full understanding and confession of all that
     we' have to do." Later, in Chapter 10: 26-31, we will         God has spoken in His Son in these last days. It brings
     hear him say, "It is afearful thing to fall into the hands    to mind the beautiful Question and Answer 19 of the
     of the living God."                                           Heidelberg Catechism, where we have the key-words:
      Thus also in this passage from Scripture here in             Revealed  -  proclaimed   -  portrayed   - fulfilled!  And
     Hebrews 6:4-8: "For as touching those who were once           the last of these we must see as the fulfilment of the
I    enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were         former. And when the full implication of this "fulfil-
     made partakers .of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good        ment" in Christ is seen and apprehended by a living
     word of God, and `powers of the age to come, and (then)       faith, then we have arrived at perfection. God will
     fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto          make a perfect work. He will have our works perfect
     repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son         before God.       (Revelation  3:2)    It is interesting to
     of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. 0 -. "           notice how the term to perfect teleiow is applied to
        Thus speaks our text.                                      Christ in the highest and supreme sense as the Son of
        It is well to bear in mind that the text here does         God in the flesh. Thus we read in Hebrews 2:10, "to
     not speak so much from the viewpoint of what the con-         make the captain of our salvation  perfect,   through
     fessing believer really is, as to what he professes  to       suffering." This must refer to his exaltation at the
     be. The viewpoint is that of profession! We have this         right hand of God, far above the angels, to have Name
     repeatedly in this book of Hebrews. We are to con-            above every name, that in the Name of Jesus every
     sider the High Priest of our profession, Jesus Christ.        knee should bow and every tongue should confess that
     (Hebrews  3:l) Again in Hebrews 4:14 we read, "`Having        Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. In this sense
     then a great High Priest, who hath passed through the         Christ is made perfect, and thus He became the author


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      287

of eternal salvation. Thus we understand too that the        PRESSING FOR WARD (Hebvews 6:1-3)
Law made nothing  perfect, but the bringing in of a
better hope did through which we draw nigh to God;              The text here really is in the form `of an exhorta:
(Hebrews 5:9, 7:19) The sacrifices in the Old Testa-         tion. Let us press forward. The verb in the Greek is
ment cannot, as touching the conscience, make the            phevoometha. .A better translation is really, "letus
worshipper perfect. (Hebrews 9:9) However, Christ            be borne forward." Dr. Westcott writes concerning
through one offering hath perfected forever them that        this as follows: "The form of the positive charge is
are sanctified. (Hebrews  10:14) The perfection which        remarkable.        The thought is not primarily of personal
Christ has brought about cannot be changed, added to,        effort `let us go on,' `let us press' (Old Lat. tendamus:
nor detracted from.        To do this is to crucify the      Aug.  Yespiciamus), but of personal surrender to  an.
Christ, the Son of God, afresh to ourselves.                 active influence.       The power is working (Comp. 1:3
   This "perfection" brought about by Christ is the          phevoon ta panta);  we have only to yield ourselves to it
hope which is set before us !                                (camp. Acts XXVII, 15, 17). At the same time the in-
   When Christ was upon earth he was very conscious          fluence and the surrender are continuous  (phevoo;
that He would perfect all things through his death and       metha),  and not (under this aspect) concentrated in
resurrection. Wherefore He says to the Jews in John          one momentary crisis." Hence, this work, at bottom,
5:46, ". . . For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe      is the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts as this
me; for he wrote of (pevi)me." I am most emphatically        manifests itself in our act. Being borne along by the
the subject of Moses' writings. Take Me out of Moses         Spirit of grace we press on to perfection!
writings, and there is none concerning whom he writes.          Here is deep spiritual pedagogy.
He did not write concerning Adam, Henoch, Noah,                 Here is not an appeal to sinful motivation in the
Abraham, or any other of the saints. He wrote of Me          least. Here is an appeal to the new man in Christ in
as the "Seed" which was to come; I am the Mediator           these professing Christians.       True, they had become
into whose hand the fiery oracles were intrusted till        dull of hearing.         They did not have their senses
the time to `come. (Galatians 3119) Wherefore Christ         exercised by the constant use. However, the hope is
can begin with Moses and all the prophets and inter-         that they must yield to the Spirit of grace and knowl-
pret to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning     edge who leads into all the truth. (John 14:26; 16:13)
himself. (Luke 24:27) Small wonder that the hearts           Here is an appeal to the inward impulses of the Holy
of these two travelers to  Emmaus were burning in            Spirit in their hearts. In the Heidelberg Catechism,
them while he opened to them the Scriptures.                 Question 103, we read in part ". . . . . Secondly, that all
   When we come to this "perfection" we are then             the days of my life I cease from my evil works, and
understanding more than the mere a-b-c, the first            yield myself to the Lord, to work by his Holy Spirit in
principles of the oracles of God. We must see and            me: and thus begin in this life the eternal sabbath."
understand more than a child of the Old Testament            (italics added)
dispensation could see under the shadows and types.             In every teaching situation there are three factors:
This was all the type and pattern of the things heavenly.    the teacher, the student and the subject matter. How-
However, we must also see more than the mere first           ever, there is also the matter of proper motivation.
words of Christ which we learn in the Catechism Class.       Now,  such motivation can be simply worldly motivation
We must see and understand the deeper implications           in learning. What a tremendous motivation in learning
of the Old Testament types and shadows as fulfilled in       and science was brought about in the United States when
Christ. We must, too, come to the full realization of        Russia launched their first satellite around the world.
the "perfection" wherewith Christ was perfected, so          It was the motivation to excel as a nation, or even the
that He could bring many sons to glory.                      motivation of survival in the race for power and
   Not only is Christ perfected!                             supremacy.         Now here too the writer would insert
   We too must be perfected with the perfection where-       motivation for these sluggish and dull hearers to press
with Christ is perfected, and must grow and come to          forward. It is the motivation of attaining to the "per-
the perfect man. (Ephesians 4:13.) The church must           fection" in Christ, and to know that unless we will
become the fullgrown man; unto the measure of the            press on in learning in what we know concerning the
stature of the fulness of Christ she must come.. Then        first principles we shall forget what we have learned,
she shall not be cast to and fro with every wind of          or what is worse lose it through indifference.
doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness after the        Now we will attempt to follow the instruction of the
wiles of error! However, what is true of the entire          writer.
church must also be true of each individual member.             This we shall do if God permit.

                     IN MEMORUM                                                      Mrs. Anna Helder
On Jan. 31, 1968 it pleased the Lord to take unto Him-                               Mr. and Mrs. Jos. Oomkes
self our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-                             Mrs. James Westenberg
grandfather,                                                                         Mr. and Mrs. Howard Deur
                                                                                     Mr. and Mrs. Herman Hoogewind
                     JOHN HELDER
at the age of 86 years.                                                                  10 Grandchildren and
                                                                                            4 Great-Grandchildren


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    288

                                     NEWS FROM OUR  CHURCHES-
                                      February 23, 1968     noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received
   The Beacon Lights February Hymn-sing was held            the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the
in Southwest Church and drew a pew-filling, aisle-          Scriptures daily whether these things were so,' "
stuffing crowd of enthusiastic singers.. Jim Schipper       quoting from Acts 17.
led the "sing" in his usual jovial manner, lifting the                                *  * *
spirits of the people to a rafter-ringing response to          Hull has called Rev. Decker to be their minister.
his direction. A sixteen voice segment of Adams St,         And when you read this (written 25 days before pub-
School choir rendered a few numbers; Mrs. Phil              lication) you also will know what Rev. Decke?s reply
Lotterman and Kathy Clawson gave an organ-piano             to Hull was.
duet and also accompanied the singing. Ken Kuiper                                     * *  *
gave a reading which revealed his responses in an              The Federation Board invited the area young people
imaginary debate with an unbelieving acquaintance who       to a toboggan party at Hula Heights for the evening of
challenged his faith. From all reports, this was a very     February 22. This ad mentioned the  fee, fun, food,  and
satisfying hymn-singwhich brought the Lord's Day to a       fellowihip,  but couldn't have mentioned the  knee-out-
fitting close.                                              of-joint to be suffered by Ron Yonkers at the bottom of
                         * * *                              the hill! That George Washington's birthday celebra-
   Because he was a delegate to Classis West, which         tion will probably be best remembered by the jaunt to
would meet the first week in March, Rev. C. Hanko, of       the hospital emergency room to re-locate the dis-
Redlands, Calif., planned to preach in Hull, to lecture     located joint. Some fin! Some fee!
i n   Doon, and to conduct church visitation in the                                   * * *
churches. The lecture was sponsored by Doon's School           The Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of Hope Church re-
Board, and the announced topic was "Training Our            cently enjoyed some slides of the Island of Guam,
Children."                                                  shown by Mr. and Mrs. Quenga, who are teachers in
                         * * *                              Hope School.     Mr. Quenga is a native of Guam, and
   Lynden's congregation was happy to witness the           Mrs. Guenga taught school there for some time, and is
public confession of faith of three of their members        fully acquainted with the country and its people. In the
in the afternoon of February 18.                            school's "Highlights" Mr. Quenga has a contribution
                         * * *                              in which he tells about the Island and records some of
   Southwest's congregation approved a consistory-          his impressions of his new environment. It is too long
proposed repair and remodel project and a new heating       to be inserted in this column, but we wish you could
unit to be installed in the basement. Their hard-of -       all read his reflections on parent-controlled schools;
hearing members have also been supplied with some           he relates that the primary consideration why their
seven hearing-aid outlets in three rows of seats. Their     family moved to the mainland was their son's educa-
Mr. De Kraker was prepared to give instruction for          tion. His concluding thoughts were of "their precious
their use to those requesting it.                           son, for soon the time will come when his little face,
                         * * *                              with its dark almond-shaped eyes, will appear along
   Because of a badly disrupted work schedule due to        with the others to claim his right to these covenant
the long session of Classis East, many pulpit exchanges     blessings, even though his coming was from far across
were arranged. The Revs. Lubbers, Heys, and  Har-           the sea."
bath made a three-way switch, and Revs. Veldman and                                  * * *
Kortering traded their posts for one service.
                        ;k *  *                                The other school papers, Adams St. "Announcer,"
   All of our bulletins revealed the fact that we were      South Holland's "Reflector," and Loveland's "Ledger"
privileged to share Edgerton's burden in maintaining        have all come to our desk and are excellent contri-
their own school.     This was indeed a privilege, and      butions to the reading material coming into our homes.
the great need was supported while heeding the ad-          It would be extremely difficult to award first prize to
monition, `$share ye one another's burdens."                any one of these if such a contest were ever held.
                        * * *                               They are all tops !
   The Mission Board of our churches has requested                                    * * *
Southeast's consistory to release Rev. Schipper for            Lynden's little flock does not boast a janitor. All the
four weeks so that he may return to labor in Pella,         male members are so described - even the minister
Iowa. This request was granted, which necessitated a        takes his turn to clean the church. Clearly the social
cancellation of their pastor's classical appointments to    strata of Lynden is singular!
South Holland, as well as supply of both the latter and                               *  * *
of Southeast's pulpit by the Seminary.                         Quiet Thought: "Christ has gone to prepare heaven
                        * * *                               for us and has sent the Holy Ghost to prepare us for
   Oak Lawn's Adult Bible Study Class, in their bul-        heaven."
letin announcement, made this request, "Let us strive                                 *  * *
to follow the example of the Bereans who were `more            . . . see you in church.                          JMF


