                              he



                                     earer


A  REF'ORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY  MAGAZINE





  IN THIS ISSUE:


       Meditation: Wrestling With God

       Editorial: Our Most Basic  Immediate  Need

      That Awful  If.

       Exposition of Hebrews 6





                                   Volume  XLN/   Number  15/ May 1, 1968


338                                                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


Meditation -                                                                                                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
 Wrestling With God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..m................. 338                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August.
          Rev. J. Kortering                                                                                                               Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
Editorials -
   Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                          340    Editor-in-Chiefi  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
           Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                         Department Editors: Rev. David J. Engelsma, Mr. JohnM.  Faber,
   Our Most Basic Immediate Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341                                                                   Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. Robert C.
           Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                            Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George
                                                                                                                                           C. Lubbers, Rev. Marinus Schipper,  Rev. Gise J. Van Baren,
A Cloud of Witnesses -                                                                                                                     Rev. Gerald  Vanden  Berg, Rev. Herman Veldman, Rev.
   Abner's Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                           344       Bernard Woudenberg
           Rev. B. Woudenberg                                                                                                           Editorial  Office: Prof. H.  c. Hoeksema
Trying The Spirits -                                                                                                                                        1842 Plymouth Terrace, S.E.
   The Obedience of Christ . . . ..Q...D................... 346                                                                                             Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
           Rev. R. C. Harbach                                                                                                           Church  News Editor: Mr. John M. Faber
All Around Us -                                                                                                                                                 1123 Cooper Ave., S.E.
   A Word Concerning The Assasination                                                                                                                           Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
           of Dr. King                                                                                                                  Editorial Policy:  Every editor is solely responsible for the
    E c u m e n i c t y                                                                                                                    contents of his own articles. Contributions of general interest.
   The Pill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                348       from our readers and questions for the Question-Box De-
           Prof. H. Hanko                                                                                                                  partment are welcome.         Contributions will be limited to
Special Feature  -                                                                                                                         approximately 300 words and must be neatly written or
    That Awful If . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                        350       typewritten.     Copy deadlines are the first and the fifteenth
                                                                                                                                           of the month.      All communications relative to the contents
           Rev. J. A. Heys                                                                                                                 should be sent to  :he editorial office.
From Holy Writ _-                                                                                                                       Business Office: Mr. James Dykstra, Bus. Mgr.
    The Book of Hebrews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353                                                             1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
           Rev. G. Lubbers                                                                                                                                  Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
Pages From The Past -                                                                                                                   Subscription Policy: Subscription price, $5.00 per year. Unless
    Believers and Their Seed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355                                                   a definite request for discontinuance is received, it is assumed
           Rev. Herman Hoeksema                                                                                                            that the subscriber wishes the subscription to continue without
Contending For The Faith -                                                                                                                 the formality of a renewal order and he will be billed for
    The Doctrine of Sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..t.... 357                                              renewal. If you have a change of address; please notify the
           Rev. H. Veldman                                                                                                                 Business Office as early as possible in order to avoid the
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Book Reviews  -
    Creative Minds in Contemporary Theology                                                                                             Advertising Policy:  The  Standevd Bearer does not accept  com-
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           Practice of Preaching) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359                                                resolutions will be placed for a $2.`Ub-fee.  These should be
           Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                                                                                            sent to the Business Office and should be accompanied by the
News From Our Churches  -                                                                                                                  $2.00 fee. Deadline for announcements is the 5th or the 20th
           Mr. J. M. Faber                                                                                                       360       of the month, previous to publication on the 15th or the 1st
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       M E D I T A T I O N -

                                                                   Wrestling With God
                                                                                                                  by Rev. J.  Kovteving

                              And Jacob was left alone; and  theve wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day.
                       And when he saw that he  prevailed  not against him he touched the hollow of his thigh; and
                       the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he  wrestled  with him...And he said, Let me
                       go,  fov the day bveaketh.                                              And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me...And
                       he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,  for I  have seen
                        God face to face, and my life is  pyesevved.                                                                                                         Gen.  32:24-30
       And Jacob was left alone.                                                                                                            Have you been to this school lately? If you have,
       There wrestled a man with him.                                                                                                   you understand what it means to see God face to face
       And he blessed him there.                                                                                                        and have your life preserved.                  .From an outward,
       This is God's system of pedagogy: alone, wrestling,                                                                              natural point of view these are frightening moments.
blessed!                                                                                                                                It is the most terrifying experience for the child of God


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    339


to be left alone and to wrestle with God.                       Jacob fell on his knees. To God he directed his
   A dark corridor leads to the arena of this wrestling      prayer. He poured out the anguish of his soul, for he
match:                                                       was "greatly afraid and distressed." The corridor
   Sleepless nights when the conscience is seared with       that led to the arena was indeed dark.
pangs of guilt over sins committed.                             We ask, why was the chromatic hue so black?
   Long, lonely hours when the stillness of the night           In the deepest sense his problem was spiritual. God
is broken by the groans and sighs of the suffering.          had promised him a safe return. The covenant God,
   Hot tears of anguish that flow from a soul that           the God of his father and grandfather had said, I will
throbs with the sorrows of death.                            deal well with thee, I will surely do thee good and make
   Ears bruised with the deafening roar of battle            thy seed as the sand of the sea.
followed by a stillness that is smeared with blood.             Here comes. Esau with a band of soldiers1 What
   Anxious souls cut deeply by the barbs of strife,          more can he expect but to be exterminated by the flash
disappointments, unfulfilled ambitions, lost friends,        of the sword? He could already hear the insane shriek
and seemingly total failure.                                 of soldiers satiating their thirst for blood by plunging
   Indeed, it is a dark corridor that leads to the           their swords into his wives and children. How would
wrestling match.                                             God reckon this with His promise? What of the cove-
   It was that way for Jacob too.                            nant? What of the cause of the church?
   Listen to him as he enters this corridor, "0 God of          "0 God of my father Abraham...1 am not worthy...
my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac....1 am        deliver me  !"
not worthy of the least of all themercies, and of all the       You have had the same kind of problem very often,
truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant....            haven't you? The night seems so black, the cause of
Deliver me, I pray thee !"                                   Christ seems so helpless that it appears hopeless.
   We would almost pity poor Jacob, he appears               Sometimes the corridor is very long and it is always
broken, torn by inner strife, all things seem to be          black. From our human point of view it seems as if
against him. He has just become two bands. He had            our personal faith is about to be jeopardized, or the
feared the worse, it seemed as if defeat was imminent,       covenant of God seems to be brought to nought in our
Esau was coming and that with 400 men!                       families, or the forces of evil seem to swoop down
   It was only 20 years before that Jacob had contrived      upon the church and are about to destroy it. Our
with his mother Rebekah to obtain the birthright             struggle is like Jacob's, how will God.allow  this, the
blessing from his blind father Isaac. Having the goats       God of our fathers, the covenant God who has promised
hair tied to his arms and neck, while he carried in his      that there shall be found faith upon the earth when our
hands the savory meat of the freshly prepared morsel         Lord Jesus Christ returns.
of meat, he had bowed before his father and exultingly          The dark corridor leads to the arena. God answers
said, "I am Esau, thy first born, bless me!" The con-        our plaintive cry.
sequences of this brought Jacob to the lonely crags of          A man began to wrestle with Jacob.
Bethel, where  God_ came to the sole wayfarer and               It is not important whether Jacob thought this man
assured him that He would be with him'and bring him          was -Esau or not. The fact remains that out of the dark
back to the land of Canaan. Encouraged by the sight of       a man came forward and began to fight with Jacob.
the angels and promise of Jehovah, Jacob pressed `on         Jacob had separated his present for Esau and in-
to Padanaram.       There he stayed for twenty years,        structed his servants to tell Esau they were for him.
fourteen of which were spent as payment for Leah and         These in turn were followed by the droves of animals
Rachel and the remaining six for wages. Called by            and at the end of the procession was his beloved Rachel.
God to return, Jacob loaded his possessions on the           He alone remained on the northern shore of the Jabbok.
beasts of burden and took with him his two wives and         Suddenly out of the darkness this man grabbed him. We
two concubines who together bore him twelve sons and         must not blame Jacob for having hallucinations brought
one daughter. Withhis servants, theymanagedto guide          on by an anxiety syndrome. Neither is the presence of
the caravan southward to Canaan.                             this man simply a visionary encounter. A real man
   But Jacob became concerned. One question leaped           with flesh and blood grabbed Jacob and engaged in an
irrepressibly before his consciousness, Esau, what           actual physical encounter.
about him?    Had the passing of time dulled the keen           They fought until daybreak and neither prevailed.
edge of bitter revenge? Would he yet carry out his           It is not so, that one was a great deal stronger than the
threat to kill Jacob? There was one way to be sure.          other and thus arose unscathed above his prostrate
Jacob sent a delegation of servants to inform Esau           victim. Both had sweated and strained, but none had
that he need not be afraid, for Jacob's return to Canaan     won.
would pose no threat to Esau's security. Even though            At daybreak a change came.
Jacob had secured the birthright blessing, he was not           The man touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh.
coming now to take from Esau his possessions or                 It left him a cripple.
claim them as his own. He wanted Esau to know that              It brought a change. Jacob forsook fighting with his
he had plenty of his own.                                    fists, he fell to his knees and clinging to the man cried
   The report came back, "Esau is coming, and that           out, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me!"
with 400 men!"                                                  Christ drew Jacob into the arena. The answer to


340                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


his urgent prayer came in the form of this wrestling         sight, is frequently wrong.        Our ideas of how the
match. God was teaching Jacob deep spiritual lessons         church should operate and what God should do in and
which we also must learn through wrestling with God.         thru His church, are so often foolish. Whatever is of
   When the man touched his thigh, Jacob's heart was         man, of the flesh, is against Christ.         We must be
touched.      It was then that he saw that he fought not     stripped in the arena, we must see ourselves as nothing
against flesh and blood, but "God face toface" and that      and unworthy before God. The arm offlesh cannot gain
in human flesh which is Jesus Christ. Christ of the Old      the victory.
Testament came to Jacob.          He has the answer to          There is only one way, we must cling,to  Christ! We
spiritual problems.                                          must learn to take our problems to God in prayer
   And what was that answer?                                 through Jesus Christ. We must open the Scriptures
   Jacob had relied upon his own fallible human              and find the answer to our problems there. Even as
strength.     Like an adder striking its victim he had       Jacob, we cry to God in the name of Christ, "Bless
turned upon his fainting brother, "Sell me thy birth-        me."        Forgiveness, strength, courage, and wisdom
right and I will give thee of the pottage." Plotting         flow from the throne,.  of grace through our Lord Jesus
through mean deception he had wrested the birthright         Christ.
from the lips of his blind father. Provoked by the              "And he blessed him there."
capricious ways- of his Uncle Laban, he refused to be           What is thy name?          Jacob.    Thy name shall be
content with Leah whom God had thrust into his bosom,        called no more Jacob but Israel, for as a prince hast
but he bargained for Rachel besides. Wantingly he            thou power with God and man and hast prevailed.
stooped to the gutter with his reeds in order that his          Jacob - supplanter.
livestock might abound. Ah, indeed, this is Jacob with          Now, Israel - conqueror.
all his clever schemes.                                         The encounter with Christ produces a marvelous
   What did it accomplish? Esau is coming and that           change.       Indeed, "He halted upon his thigh." He
with 400 men. He had fought, but did not prevail.            wasn't in much shape to face Esati and his 400 men
   The arm of flesh can never accomplish victory in          from a physical point of view, yet by faith he faced
the battle of faith.     Jacob had to become a cripple       him and God brought him safely to Bethel where he
before he could properly face Esau. We have to see           fulfilled his vow.
this for ourselves as well.                                     Pupils that are drawn into God's school learn this
   The long dark corridor brings one to the encounter        precious lesson. The cry, "Deliver me" is answered,
with God. Stripped of all human vanity, we are brought       "Israel  - Power with God!"
by Christ to see the true perspective of the battle of          Let's turn away from the frail arm of flesh.
faith. How shall we be preserved? How shall the only            Let's cling by faith to Jesus Christ and cry out,
covenant God of heaven and earth realize His covenant?       "Bless me."
   Not by human strength, not by God being dependent            By this strength we too are able to face life and
upon man, not through clever strategems or com-              prevail.      No matter how great the trial, no matter
promise.                                                     how dark the corridor, no matter how strong the
   The touch of Christ brought Jacob to his knees and        enemies appear, this we know, God has promised to
instead of fighting Him, he threw his arms around Him        be our God and the God of our children. He hears our
and would not let Him go. In that humble posture he          every cry and will surely give us the final victory in
cried out, "I will not let thee go except thou bless me."    the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
   Let's learn this lesson with Jacob. Drawn into this          Nothing shall separate us from the love of God
arena with him we wrestle with God. By the touch of          which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is blessed
His grace in our hearts we come to see ourselves as          indeed.
nothing. By nature we fight against Christ. Our great           May God touch our hearts  so' that we cling to
ideas and aspirations are so wrong. What we think is         Christ.
the only way by which our lives can be useful in God's          Then the peace of victory is ours. God is faithful.


            EDITORIAl.S-
                                          Editor's Notes

                                             by  Pvof. H. C. Hoeksema

   From several correspondents I have received re-           on this was so scanty that I elected to wait until I could
minders that in the new law concerning Social Security       gain more complete information. As yet I do not have
coverage of clergymen there is also an exemption             much more information, but I will continue trying to
provision.    I was aware of this at the time I wrote my     obtain it.      At the moment, the following will have to
editorial on the subject, but the available information      suffice: 1) "For taxable years ending after December


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        341


1967, income' from the ministry will be covered unless        text of a recent address by Rev. J. A. Heys at a Young
the clergyman files an application for exemption and a        People's Mass Meeting. Perhaps it is superfluous to
statement that he is opposed to receiving social              add that we did not intentionally "scoop' BeaconLights
security benefits (or other public insurance), based on       on this.       The author graciously offered this article
services as a clergyman, by reason of religious               for publication in the Standard Bearer, and we publish
principle or conscience." (Quoted from a bulletin             it on the assumption that both young andold may indeed
received from Congressman Gerald R. Ford)                     benefit from it.                       c
   2) It is not yet clear what would constitute a legiti-
mate ground for exemption. There is some question,                                        *  *  *
for example, whether Article 13 of the Church Order,             Beginning in this issue under the department "Pages
which makes it the duty of the churches to "provide           From The Past" there will appear my translation of a
honorably for them (retired ministers) in their need,"        very valuable Dutch brochure by the late Rev. Herman
would be legitimate ground.         Investigation is being    Hoeksema entitled, "De Geloovigen en Hun Zaad,"
made on this score.                                           ("Believers And Their Seed"). This brochure, though
   3) In case exemption is not possible, the following        somewhat "dated" and though, as might be expected,
information is also pertinent: a) For purposes of             also polemical, offers a clear exposition of the entire
Social Security, rental allowances or the rental value        concept of the covenant and of the place of the children
of a parsonage must also be included under earnings.          of believers in the covenant.               We hope that many
b) The rate for self-employed people (under which             readers who can no longer read Dutch will benefit from
clergymen are included) is 6.4 per cent for 1967-68,          this translation of a booklet which has already gone
and 6.9 per cent for 1969-70; and this rate is supposed       through two editions in the Dutch language. With the
to increase gradually until 1987 to 7.9 per cent.             exception of the addition of chapter headings, and cer-
   4) I have also been told that there is still ample         tain changes necessary to the production of smooth but
time to file an application for exemption should such         accurate translation, the material is presented un-
be legitimate.                                                changed. I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness in this
                         *  *  *                              translation to an earlier manuscript-translation of the
   For the time being, at least, the department "The          Rev. G. Lubbers, from which I gained much valuable
Church At Worship" will not be appearing in our               assistance.
magazine, due to a resignation-with-immediate-effect                                      ***
by contributing editor Rev. G.  Vanden Berg. Disap-              Though a bit later than originally planned, my
pointment over this resignation does not preclude our         pamphlet entitled "A Testimony and Appeal concerning
expression of thanks for the many faithful labors of the      the `Dekker Case' Decisions of the Christian Reformed
brother in behalf of our Standard Beaver.                     Synod of 1967" has now come from the press. Copies
                        * * *                                 may be obtained by writing to Rev. M. Schipper,  1543
   We welcome as a special feature in this issue the          Cambridge Ave., SE., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506.


                  Our Most Basic Immediate Need

                                               by  Pyof. H. C. Hoeksema

   If anyone were to ask me what is the biggest need          Loyd.      Nor am I unmindful of the fact that there is but
and the biggest problem which our churches face and           One Who can (and Who will, I am confident) supply our
which our coming synod will face, I would reply without       need: on the contrary, this is the basic premise of my
a second's hesitation: OUT severe man-power shortage.         essay, and let it not be forgotten that this need will be
   Understand, I do not speak of this man-power               supplied only in the way of unceasing prayer. At the
shortage in the carnal sense.        I cannot join in the     same time, let it not be forgotten that the Lord our
raucous cry for men that has frequently been raised           God never treats His people and His church as stocks
in the church, as though the cause of God's church is         and blocks. He uses means. The Lord is not going to
dependent upon men and upon mere numbers of men,              drop ministers into our midst suspended from para-
and as though possibly men may go lost through the            chutes.      He will raise them up from among us, call
church's failure to send forth sufficient laborers into       them out of the bosom of the churches, cause our
the fields. Nor, in fact, do I wish this editorial to be      churches and our homes to beget them and bring them
understood as a mere plea for men. Perhaps it might           up and train them.
be better to speak in this connection of the shortage of         For this reason I write these lines, not only to lay
servant-power.    For, certainly, what we need is not         these matters before the brethren who will be delegates
mere men, but  men  of  God, dedicated, faithful, hard-       to our coming synod, but to lay them before the
working, well-trained, well-equipped  servants  of  the       churches and our people.


342                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


   For I am of the conviction that this is indeed our        erly be accomplished only by correspondence courses.
largest problem, that, in fact, it will loomup to trouble    There is obvious need of consolidation and organization.
our synod at more than one point in its deliberations.       There is need for guidance and assistance, not only
I hesitate to use the word "emergency," for I am             money-wise but in the actual work of planning and
inclined to shy away from emergency:psychology. But          construction, with respect to their building needs. There
let me then use the word "urgent." For I am convinced        is need for systematization and guidance with respect
that we must take this problem very seriously, probably      to the work of benevolence among our Jamaican breth-
more seriously than we have taken it heretofore. And         ren and sisters.
we must, by the grace of God and in the confidence of           All of this points to one thing: we need men on the
our .calling as churches, attempt more concretely to         island of Jamaica, men from our churches, and soon.
solve it.                                                      -Certainly, our aim is that the churches in Jamaica
   For the labors of our churches must go on. They           shall be independent.      They shall lead their own
must not only go on, but they must increase. I am as         ecclesiastical life and govern their own ecclesiastical
convinced of this as I am convinced that our Protestant      affairs.    They shall be the Protestant       Reformed
Reformed Churches hold the truth of God's Word, the          Churches of Jamaica. And this means ultimately, of
heritage once delivered unto the saints, purely. I am as     course, that they shall, so to speak, be self-sustaining
certain of this as I am certain that our churches by the     as far as their ministry is concerned. Their ministers
grace of God represent the purest manifestation of           must come from their own midst. But this is ultimate.
Christ's church in the midst of the world. I am as           I am speaking of the immediate need. Then I say that
concerned about this as I am aware that on every hand        we have the aim that these churches shall be PYotestunt
today the church is departing rapidly, almost pell-mell,     Reformed. This we must take seriously, and certainly
from the paths of God's Word, and that therefore we as       not in the sense that we have this Jamaica-project and
churches have the calling to "blow the trumpet in Zion       support it out of a certain vain-glory, so that we can
and sound an alarm." And I am in as dead earnest             boast perhaps that we have an exotic mission program.
about this as I am impressed by the testimony of the         And from all that I have heard and read of the Jamaica-
signs of the times that the time is short, and that we       work there is from that point of view a sore need, a
must labor while it is day, before the night comes in        crying need, for good, sound, thorough, patient instruc-
which no man can work. There is much to be done.             tion in the truth, the same truth that is so dear to us,
There may well be less time to labor than many of us         before the Jamaican churches will be ready to exist
imagine. And the laborers are but few.                       indigenously. This is the most important and immediate
                                                             need. And this says nothing yet about the guidance that
THE PROBLEM                                                  is necessary with respect to the material needs of the
                                                             people there, a guidance which can hardly be efficiently
   Permit me to point up the problem.                        accomplished from Grand Rapids.
    First of all, there is Jamaica.                             This phase of the problem I would sum up by sug-
   The situation, I think, is obvious. Anyone in our         gesting that we need a minimum of two, perhaps three,
Mission Board and anyone who has followed the periodic       men who can take up residence in Jamaica for a long
reports of our Jamaica work must be painfully aware          time. We need at least one missionary-minister who
of it.       Several years ago already the Lord began to     will preach to and instruct the people, but who will
open a door for us on that island of the sea. Our            concentrate especially on instructing the Jamaican
churches responded, not only officially but organically.     ministers. We need either another missionary-minister
I think it cannot be gainsaid  that our people have "had     who will co-labor with him; or as a temporary measure
a heart" for the work in Jamaica, and rightly so. To         we need an elder who will assist the missionary;
the best of our limited ability our churches have labored    Possibly the latter could also labor with respect to the
there. From time to time men have .been sent there           material needs and problems of the churches there.
for brief periods and have labored intensively while         But perhaps it would be better if we could send a lay-
there. Moreover, even when it was impossible to have         volunteer for a comparatively long period, - a man
laborers on the island, the work has been continued          knowledgeable in building and construction and a man
through correspondence and through literature and            capable in business affairs.
through tapes, and especially during the last two years         Secondly, there. is our mission program, - no, let
through the correspondence courses prepared by Revs.         me say: our mission calling,  - here at home. It is
Heys and C. Hanko. And also with respect to the work         well-known that for some years now we have been
of benevolence and the problem of the Jamaicans' without a home missionary.                    But for one thing, the
places of : worship,
              I         our churches have made valiant       statement still stands in the Preamble of the Consti-
attempts to be of assistance. But what is sorely needed      tution of The Mission Committee, "However, we are
is men who can labor at length and on the spot, men          convinced that our present duty lies primarily in the
who for an extended period can devote all their time         field of church extension and church reformation"
and labors to the work there. There is great need of         This is the position of our churches. And I believe
preaching and instruction among the people at large.         that this position is correct. Sometimes it is suggested
There is an extremely pressing need for instruction of       that the prospects for this home mission work are
the Jamaican ministers, something which cannot  prop-        poor, that the fruits are meager, that the labor is


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     343


well-nigh hopeless, and that therefore it is both im-. love and hold fast to the faith of the gospel, in the face
possible and rather useless to call a home missionary.          of a common and powerful enemy, the antichristian
I disagree.     First of all, I would emphasize that we         church! And I am of the conviction that we as churches
must not take a utilitarian approach to the work. Our           must sound the alarm and call them out and help them
calling is like that of the prophets of old: to proclaim        to find safe ecclesiastical shelter.        It may be dis-
God's Word "whether they hear or whether they for-              couraging and difficult labor indeed. But since when
bear."      In the second place, I point to the fact that in    has the Lord promised His faithful church an easy way
recent years we have not put forth a consistent and             in the world? Rise up, and let us labor!
prolonged effort in this direction, for the simple rea-            And what shall we say as to theneed in this regard?
son that we have had no home missionary. Our labors             Officially and by ecclesiastical decision, we need one,
have been rather sporadic. This lack of a missionary            just one, home missionary.          Time was when our
has also been a deterrent in carrying out to any large          churches felt that we should send missionaries two
degree the plans which were prepared and adopted by             and two.     This is surely the Scriptural ideal. Per-
our synod a few years ago. In the third place, I may            sonally, I have no doubt that right now two men could
point to the fact that there have been in recent years          be kept more than busy in the home mission labors of
in connection with the labors that have been put forth,         our churches. But let us leave it at the minimum for
both officially and unofficially, increasing signs of           the present: just one!
interest in some areas and increasing signs that there             In the third place, there is the situation in the home
are those who look toward our churches to carry the             churches. There are, first of all, our several vacant
banner of the Reformed faith in this day of apostasy.           churches. Not only are those churches aware of the
Frankly, I do not look for any large and far-reaching           need most directly; but also both classes can only be
reformation in our times; I am inclined to think that           painfully aware of this problem, for time and again they
the times are too late for that. Nor do I labor under           must wrestle with the problems of a classical appoint-
the illusion that we can go out and perform home                ment schedule for vacant flocks that are in some cases
mission work as in former years and perhaps organize            far distant from neighboring churches. Then there is
churches rapidly. The situation is different; the labor         the very real fact - and the brethren know that I do not
must needs be different. It will probably have to be            write this to shelve them before their time - the very
slow, very patient, plodding labor; and frequently it will      real fact that we have at present five ministers who
be discouraging because of apparent meager fruits.              are in or near their sixties, men, too, who have been
In the fourth place, as to a field, I would remark that         through the stuvm und dvang of our previous ecclesias-
possibly the field is there but we do not have our eyes         tical history.    They have only a few more years to
open to it, at least not sufficiently. No, I may not be         labor, at best; and that is saying nothing about that
able to point to specific fields of labor, although the         always real possibility that one of them or one of any
call from specific areas may yet come before we even            of our ministers may suddenly be removed from his
have a missionary in the field. But is it not possible          labors through sickness or accident.. Besides this,
that the Lord is pointing us to an open door exactly            there is the fact that our present available man-power
in the reality of the widespread and appalling apostasy         must needs be spread very thinly in the manifold
of our day, an apostasy that is more and more leaving           labors, both official and unofficial, of our churches.
our little denomination as lonely witnesses of the truth        Committee members for standing committees, writers
of God's Word? When you take stock of that apostasy,            for  our  Beacon Lights  and  Standard  Bearer,  speakers
and when you take stock of the fact that such apostasy          for our Reformed Witness Hour, speakers for myriad
is increasingly smiting as a dread blight churches              other occasions, writers of Reformed literature, - all
close to our own as well as those more distant, and             these must be always be recruited from thin ranks,
when you consider the fact that there must be in many           which means that their available energies must in turn
places a remnant, be it a small remnant, who love the           be distributed among many necessary labors.
Reformed faith and who are grieved and pine away in                All this I write not to complain; for there is no
their souls because of the rapid and wanton departure           reason to complain.       Nor do I write it in a spirit of
from the faith, do you not earnestly long that our              pessimism. For such pessimism, I believe, is wrong.
churches would have the men and the means to go with            I write it so that we may all consider the problem, and
a zeal to let our witness to the Reformed faith of our          so that our churches may see the very urgent need that
fathers, the precious God-given heritage that is ours,          will face our synod at many a turn in its deliberations.
be spread far and wide, yea, be shouted from the house-         They will think and probably say more than once: "If
tops?     Do you not feel Zion's urgent calling to "Cry         only we had more men..."
aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and            For the situation is this, that right now, only in
shew my people their transgression, and the house of            order to meet our immediate needs, we could use a half
Jacob their sins?" Will you not say with the prophet of         dozen faithful laborers. And in the very near future,
old, "For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for         even before a new recruit could complete 4 years of
Jerusalem's sake I will not rest?' The time is fast             college and 3 years of seminary, we could well need
coming when the remnant of the faithful people of God           a dozen men only to meet current needs, let alone
must huddle together, not in any spirit of broad ecu-           new ones.
menism, but as those of like precious faith, as those who                                                (to be continued)


344                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



    A   C L O U D   O F   WITNESSES-


                                      Abner's Death

                                                by Rev. B. Woudenbevg


               And the king lamented  ovey  Abner, and said, Died  Ablzev  as a fool dieth?
                Thy hands  were not bound,  nooy  thy feet put into fetters: as  a  man  falleth  before wicked
             men, so fallest  thou. And all the people wept again over him.                II Samuel  3:33,  34


   For David the making of peace with Abner was a              because in the final analysis he could not himself
matter of unmitigated joy. Not only had he always had          always be so coolly calculated and logical, with the
the highest regard for Abner as his own former                 result that he often felt himself to be less decisive and
captain under Saul, but Abner had brought to him again         effective . It was not, of course, that on the battlefield
his first wife Michal, and there was now the promise           he could not be fully as courageous as a man like Joab
of bringing all of Israel together under his rule without      and as effective a tactician.        There the enemy was
any further bloodshed or war. With all sincerity David         clearly drawn and David could not be excelled. Neither
had greeted Abner in Hebron, had feasted him and his           was it that, when David stood before an instance of
companions with a royal feast, and had sent them again         moral wrong and wickedness, he could not be completely
upon their way in peace. The only thing that David had         final and unwavering in his judgment. It was just that
failed to consider was Joab, the captain of his own            besides this all and through this all, he, David, always
army in the field.                                             remained so completely a man, warm in all of his
   At the time that all of these negotiations had been         feelings and kind in all of his sympathies. This was
going' on between Abner and David, Joab had indeed             true so especially when it came to his brethren after
been out in the fields pursuing the troops of Israel's         the flesh, his fellow members in their chosen nation.
enemies.     It had been a highly successful-foray,and         In their sorrows, he grieved with them; in their
Joab had returned with high spirits and a great amount         burdens, he longed to help them; in their weaknesses
of spoil.    But then he was told about Abner. With            and temptations and guilts, he could not forget that he
shocked incredulity, he could hardly believe it when it        was a sinner like them. One thing in life was finally
was said to him, "Abner the son of Ner came to the             always much more compelling to David than personal
king and he hath sent him away, and he is gone in              conquest and victory, that was the deep spiritualdesire
peace."                                                        to show in his life the spiritual virtues of kindness,
   Joab was a man of quite different cut than was              love and forgiveness. To him always more. important
David. Although both of them were great soldiers and           than any other consideration was the glory of his God
men of war, that was the extent of their similarities.         and the welfare of God's people. It was because of this
Beyond that there was only difference.                         that David was finally a much greater person and much
   Joab was by every measure the professional sol-             more really a leader than a man like Joab ever could
dier, and cold, calcdlated logic was the strength upon         be.      And yet, in the tenderness of his sympathy and
which he thrived. To him everything stood out in clear         understanding, David oft times found himself hesitant
contrast, white against black, good against bad, friend        and indecisive.     Those were the days when he found
against enemy: there was no in between. To him life            himself looking upon the cool, decisive logic of Joab
was a very simple matter of determining who the                with a feeling of almost jealous admiration.
enemy was and moving against him with all of the                      This all formed the reason, therefore, that when
strength that one could muster. It was the singular            Abner came to David offering to forget the past and
code of his existence, and it made him extremely               work together with David in the future, David was
effective as a warrior and a general. Once he had              more than willing to receive him.-& him the prac-
marked .a man or a force as his enemy, he set out to           tice of forgiveness was a very-- real possibility,
destroy him or them with cool precision, unhampered            especially when it could serve to heal that deep wound
by any personal feelings or reservations. Emotional            that cut through the nation of Israel without further
hesitancy or indecision had no place in his way of             bloodshed or battle. But when Joab heard of it, it was
thinking.                                                      something quite different. To him, Abner was simply
   In a person of this kind, there was something that          and finally the enemy, and that was all there was to it.
moved David to a feeling of awe and admiration, and            He was the man who had fought against David and also
this was true especially in Joab.         It was, perhaps,     led others to do it; for this there could be no forgive-


                                            THESTANDARDBEARER                                                      345


ness, only judgment. Moreover, Joab was able to see          but also his brother Abishai waiting for him at the
something in Abner that David was quite incapable of         `gate. If the appearance of the two young men standing
understanding  - he saw in Abner a man cool and cal-         together reminded him at all of that still younger
culating, just like he was himself, who never did any-       brother, Asahel, whom he had been forced to dispense
thing out of mere goodness but only because he was           with at  Gibeon, it was only for a passing moment.
sure that in the end it would work out to his own            Abner was a man of greatest self-confidence, used to
advantage.     And besides, Joab could not forget that       being in charge of every situation, and little did he
Abner was the one who had killed his younger brother,        realize how completely this young man Joab was of the
Asahel.     But more than anything else, Joab realized       same determination. When, therefore, Joab motioned
that there simply was not room for both himself and          him aside into the privacy of the shadows beside the
Abner in the presence of David. They were too much           gate, he had no hesitancy in going. Thus it was that
the same cut and fiber, men who each in his own way          there in the shadows, Joab drew his sword, thrust out,
had to dominate. And the likelihood was that, if Abner       and Abner lay dead beside him.
was ever allowed to take a place in the court of David,         The shock with which the news of what had happened
he would press his advantage of age and of having once       came to David was almost unbelievable. Here when at
been David's own. commander until gradually Joab would       long last it seemed that the whole of Israel was going
be supplanted by him as the head of the real power of        to be brought smoothly and without trouble under his
Israel, the army. It all made the whole situation in-        dominion, the whole thing came crashing down about
tolerable. The moment Joab heard what had happened,          him.    Abner, after all, was known to be the leading
he was aroused to a pitch of furious indignation.            power in all of the tribes outside of Judah, and here he
Plunging into the presence of the king, and without          was dead, slain by the captain of David's own army.
gesture of respect or introduction, he demanded,             How could anyone help blaming David himself for
"What hast thou done? behold, Abner came unto thee;          having done it. But, even more than that, there was
why is it that thou hast sent him away, and he is quite      the utter repugnance of the manner in which this had
gone ?     Thou knowest Abner the son of Ner, that he        been brought about by Joab, his captain. Here was
came to deceive thee, and to know thy going out and thy      falsehood, here was the lie, here was betrayed con-
coming in, and to know all that thou doest."                 fidence, here was nothing less than murder and as-
   The approach of Joab was surely crude and rude            sassination. David's whole nature reacted against it
and an inexcusable affront to the dignity of a king; but     with moral indignation. But what was he to do about
David knew his captain, he had fought often with him         it? Justice, of course, demanded that life should be
by his side and they had slept together in the caves         paid for with life and Joab's life should have been
of the earth. He really had not hope, nor even any real      required of him.     But this was Joab, David's right-
desire that Joab would ever greet him withanything but       hand man, the one who had fought by his side through
the intimacy of old friends.      It only made him feel      so many battles, the man who had risked his life in
badly that Joab could never conceive of the possibility      David's behalf repeatedly, David's companion and
that a former enemy might repent and be received             friend. He simply couldn't do it.
again as a friend, particularly when that person was            For David there was only one alternative, that was
one like Abner who had fought so long and so valiantly       to renounce all personal responsibility for what had
for the cause of Israel. Moreover, neither could he,         happened completely; and so he did. There, publicly
David, consider himself entirely without guilt in the        in the court, he spoke for all to hear and said, "I and
whole matter, for had not he taken his men out of the        my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD for ever
land of Israel and made friends with Israel's most           for the blood of Abner the son of Ner: let it rest on the
bitter enemies, the Philistines? Might it not be that        head of Joab, and on all his father's house; and let
this long hesitancy of Abner to recognize David as           there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an
Israel's true king was merely a reflection on the depth      issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or
of this, his own offense? But this kind of thinking he       that falleth on the sword, or that lacketh bread."
knew was foreign to Joab; he would never understand.            Even this was not enough, however; it was necessary
The best that David could try to do was to assure Joab       that Joab should not go without punishment; and there
things would all work out for the best in the end.           was one thing that would be almost as severe to him
   Joab, however, was not a man to be put off with such      as death itself - that was, the demand of public
vague hopes and promises. He was a man of action;            humiliation and repentance. And so it was this that
and, leaving the presence of David, he knew there was        David required. Calling Joab to him in the presence
no time to be lost. Quickly he called his swiftest and       of all the people, he commanded. him together with the
most trusted messenger to hurry after Abner and call         people, "Rend your clothes, and gird you with sack-
him back to Hebron.                                          cloth, and mourn before Abner." And this time Joab
   No doubt it was an inconvenience, if not an irritation    knew there could be no argument. Faithful soldier that
for Abner to be called such a long way back to Hebron.       he was, he obeyed the king's commandment as contrary
Nevertheless, he knew that for the success of his plans      as it was to his whole nature.
it would be necessary for him to humor, at least for            But even that was not enough. David would also
the time being, this young captain of David's army,          show the personal regard which he had for Abner.
Joab. Coming back to the city, he found not only Joab        Personally he followed the bier of Abner to its grave,


346                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


and as he went he wept saying, "Died Abner as a fool             But David himself had begun to feel his great
dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into        weakness, his helplessness before Joab the son of
fetters: as a man, so fellest thou." Neither would he         Zeruiah. It was when he returned to the privacy of
all of that day be comforted, but when they urged food        his own home to his personal servants that night that
upon him answered, "So do God to me, and more also,           he admitted it. To them he said, "Know ye not that
if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down"        there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in
   The sincerity of David was beyond question: and the        Israel?" but then he went on to say in addition, "And
message it brought to the people was as effective as          I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these
anything Abner could have done for him in life. All of        men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me: the LORD
the people united behind him as one person; for it was        shall reward the doer of evil according to his wicked-
in his tears more than in his strength that they saw          ness."
the proof of a true king.

 TRYING THE  SPIRITS-

                       The Obedience of Christ

                                               by Rev.  R. C.  Havbach

                 .
   It would not be possible to think of Christ in His         does what is his duty to do. Fulfilling his duties does
death on the cross as having done but one thing for US,       not earn him the right to, or qualify him for the recep-
namely, to have paid the just penalty of our sin. He          tion of, eternal life. That would have to be purely the
did much more than that. If all He had done by His            reward of grace. After the fall, he. still lived under
death was nothing more than to pay the penalty due            the demand of perpetual obedience, only that obedience
against man's sin,. where would man be? He would              conceived of now not personally rendered (that no
certainly not be back where Adam was when he was in           longer being possible), but as representatively fulfilled
the state of rectitude where he daily paid God the debt       in and by Christ. Christ was his only hope.
of obedience he owed Him. For Adam had fallen and                Christ not only had to pay the penalty of Adam's sin
had brought moral and spiritual ruin upon himself and         and the penalty of all our sins, but He had to bear those
on all mankind. So that since the fall of man, he has         sins and take them away- if man was to be left any
beenincapable of any good and prone in all wickedness.        hope at all. The Lord had not only to pay the penalty
Since then he has been unable to render obedience to          of the law, but also to keep the demand of the law. He
the law of God.       If then he were absolved from the       came into the world to save us from our sins as well
penalty of the law and nothing more, he would still be a      as from wrath. That He did by His death, but also by
sinner before the law, helpless to keep it? never keeping     it He purchased for its beneficiaries a perfect right-
it, but always breaking and dishonoring it. At the same       eousness, so that gifted and clothed with His righteous-
time he would never be called to account for any falling      ness they are in the sight of God as righteous as He,
short of God's glory or His law, since he is delivered        and cannot, as Adam could have before the fall, become
from its penalty. If that were all Christ did for us in       unrighteous.      His death then raises us out of our
His death, then we would not be saved from our sins,.         spiritual death to a position higher than Adam ever
but in our sins.      Nor would God be in an honorable        had.      Eternal life never could have been possessed
position.     For His law would not be magnified. Man         for the rendering of perfect obedience. Obedience is
would be delivered from wrath, but not gifted with            that which. a servant owes his sovereign.          Giving
eternal life, and in no position to obtain eternal life.      faithfully what is owed cannot in any way entail eternal
For sin must be removed before eternal life can be            life. But if a representative could not only pay what
bestowed. There man would be in no danger of punish-          was owed, but in doing so pay a price of infinite value
ment, but would be besmirched with the defiling effects       and worth so that there would be purchasing power
of sin.      He would never be cleansed from an "evil         sufficient to procure eternal life, then his clients would
conscience." (Heb. 10:22) He would be worse'off than          become heirs of eternal .life. This Christ did. He by
Adam ever was.        For after the fall, Adam had the        His perfect obedience merited, won and bestowed
sacrifice, the altar, the coats of skins and, so, restored    eternal life on them.
fellowship with God. Adam had lived under the divine             Reformed theology has distinguished this saving
demand of perfect obedience, which he personally              work of Christ's obedience as His passive obedience
rendered. But even this perfect obedience of his had          and His active obedience. According to the former,
no reward such as eternal life pronounced upon it.            He suffered in our pl-ace as our Representative, and
Adam was a friend and servant of God. A servant only          so paid the penalty for us. According to the. latter, He


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  347

perfectly kept the requirement of the law, so that His        Father should be overcome. The cross, if man will
death would be a sacrifice acceptable and sufficient to       only contemplate it, will have such a persuasive in-
purchase eternal life. But though we may make this            fluence on him. In keeping with this thinking of the
distinction, we cannot think of Christ's active obedience     world, the one who died on the cross was not true God,
as separate from His passive obedience. We cannot             and did not need to be, in fact, that would only be a
limit His active obedience to His life' and His passive       hindrance, putting him that much farther from us. He
obedience to His death. For His whole life was also           was a third party (cp. Russellism, where Christ is
one of passive obedience, all through it all enduring         neither God nor man, but a third something to reconcile
suffering and humiliation. Furthermore His death was          both!) who by his, supreme example of self-sacrifice
not entirely a passive obedience, but also an active          would show the way (cp. Christian Science's view that
obedience, the apex of His active obedience offered to        Christ is not the. Way, but merely the way-shower!) for
divine justice. Since then His perfect, perpetual and         man to get back to God. If man will only get inspired
representative obedience is indivisible, every event of       by that example he will discover that he has attained
His life was both active and passive obedience, and           to the higher life of the sons of God. The cross be-
every aspect of His death was both passive and active         comes to him the pathway leading from moral decrepi-
obedience.    All .of His life was a keeping of the law of    tude to moral integrity.
God, a vicarious law-keeping.        Some have strongly          Many of the religious books on the market and many
objected to the idea of a "vicarious law-keeping."            of the modern religionists speak very freely about the
Modernists do, because they see how it is so insepar-         cross of Christ. But is not the view of the cross they
ably related to vicarious atonement, which they cannot        present that just set forth above? They will readily
stand. But the Antinomian also objects to the term as         say that His death was redemptive, just as they will
a piece of legalism.       Yet it cannot be denied that       say that Jesus was divine. They say that Jesus was
Christ's life and death were a law-keeping; not a law-        divine because man is divine. So theysay  that Christ's
keeping for himself, but for those He came to save. If        cross is our cross, and so his sufferings were re-
there is no vicarious law-keeping, then there is only         demptive. For after all, our sufferings are also re-
one other form of law-keeping left, and that is personal      demptive. Christ shows the way of redemptive suffer-
law-keeping, which, for fallen man, is a hopeless case        ing. Many follow in his traintopurchase to themselves
as to `its ever, by him, being accomplished. He must          the good degree of a life elevated above poverty,
then have a representative law-keeping, for the law           sordidness and strife.      This is also the religion of
cannot be set aside; it must be satisfied, established        our politicians from the president on down.
and honored. Because of our sins we could never make             This is the modern and prevailing view of the
that satisfaction.    Because of our sins we deserve          cross  - merely an example of a general principle of
eternal death, but do not die that death, since Jesus         self sacrifice meant to be patterned after in individual
died that death in our place.                                 instances of practice. Salvation then is walking in the
   But the popular religion of the day in the world is        way of the cross, so conceived. This means, of course,
that of Pelagianism, the philosophy of humanism, the          that it is not Christ's cross that saves us, but our
religion of the "man on the street." According to it,         cross. Christ's cross has power to influence to walk
Christ's death has a moral influence on mankind.              in the way of it, but it is our cross that has power to
Every man has a spark of divinity in him, is by crea-         save once we walk in that way. Then it is not Christ's
tion and nature a child of God, but that spark needs to       walking in the way of the cross, but ours which ulti-
be fanned into flame, and the wandering child needs to        mately saves us. The blood of Christ does not save a
return to his heavenly Father. By an act of his own           man. It simply arouses him so that he may get busy
will he had strayed from his Father, and by an act of         and save himself. Disguised with familiar Christian
his own will he must return. Butwhat shall induce him         terminology, and decked out in modern attire, it is
to take steps to return? Everything from God's side is        nevertheless the old Pelagianism and the old moral
open for him to make such a return. Only his own              influence theory of the atonement.
follies have clogged the way. He could hurdle these              The governmental theory is no better. It is hardly
barriers if he could be made to see again that God is         more than another form of the moral influence theory.
still his Father, still loves him, and is always more         It holds that the cross of Christ was not necessary
ready to forgive than man is to be forgiven. Then man         to satisfy the offended, eternal justice of God. It was
would be restored to the favor of his Father and the          necessary that good order in the world be preserved.
joys of his Father's house.                                   Sinners must not get the idea that they can sin and riot
   What is it which really gets to man so that he will        with impunity. If men go on in violence and corruption
return to the Father, His house and the benefits of           unrestrained, the world will go to pieces morally and.
sonship? He must look at the cross of Christ, exposing        physically. That would not be for the greatest good of
himself to its influences.       Jesus was a son of God;      the ,greatest number. So God set up the cross to teach
indeed, because he was such a unique exemplar, he             that sin is with Him a serious matter, to show what
could even be called the son of God. When he went so          sin deserves, and what He could justly do to the sinner.
far as to die on the cross there was revealed the high-       Thus the cross is meant to act as a restraint on sin so
est manifestation of God's love for a wayward humanity.       that the world may be preserved. This enables God to
Feel the impact of that love and all opposition to the        offer salvation on much easier terms than on that of


348                                        THE STANDARD BEARER


perfect obedience.        He offers it on the terms of      the justice of God, deny that justice demands punish-
"faith." Then "faith" will look at the cross, see what      ment of sin (a very prevalent dream today!), deny the
man deserves, what God could have done to him, and so       holiness of God, and deny the love of God which went
be moved to quit the life that disturbs the proper          to such cost as to make the body and soul of His Son a
government of God's world. Such philosophizings deny        sacrifice for the sin of His people.


 AM  A R O U N D   U S -

                    A Word Concerning the Assasination of Dr. King

                                       Ecumenicity

                                                                 The Pill

                                                 by  Pvof.  H.  Hank0

A WORD CONCERNING  THE                                      murder. There ought never to be a single voice raised
ASSASINATION OF DR. KING                                    in defense of this monstrous crime. But the violence
   I write this on the day of the funeral of Martin         he himself stirred up engulfed him at last. And it
Luther King Jr.                                             threatens to engulf the land.
   The eulogies have now all been spoken.         Many          It is, I suppose, called non-violence which Martin
statements of public confession of sin- the sin which       Luther King preached because this kind of violence had
supposedly brought on this act of violence  - have been     the protection of the laws of the land. Even as these
written and will continue to be written. Pledges are        same laws have, in times past, protected the striker
still being made in the halls of government and in the      in the union; even as lately they have begun to protect
pulpits of the land that the ideals for which he fought     the criminal; so also they protected demonstrations
and died will live on. The flags still fly at half-mast.    and various forms of civil disobedience. But this only
The word "martyr" hangs heavy in the air. But vio-          spells out to what extent the state no longer fulfills
lence swirls through the cities of the land and the         her God-given responsibility to "punish evil doers and
death-toll mounts. Arson, murder, pillage and rapine        praise them that do well." It is exactly the opposite
burst out to engulf the country.                            which we find in this perverse generation. The evil
   Not many apparently will go along with it, but the       doer is protected, and the innocent are left without
words most fitting to the occasion are the words of         rights. The government has abdicated in no small way
the Lord Jesus: "All that take the sword shall perish       her responsible position under Christ. When violence
with the sword."                                            breaks out no one ought to be surprised. It is a pre-
   Martin Luther King claimed to be an apostle of non-      dictable consequence.
violence.       And most apparently agree. He is being          There is a Psalm we sing which speaks of this:
hailed as such today. But the fact remains that he had              When rulers walk in darkness
taken the sword in his hands.       He claimed to be a                   When judges truth forsake,
preacher, but he refused to preach the gospel. He                   The cornerstones are crumbled,
preferred the sword. He had taken the sword of civil                     The firm foundations shake.
disobedience and used it himself to defy, and teach             And the churches of the land follow. Not the liberal
others to defy, laws with which he did not agree. He        and modern churches only  - the ones which have
had taken the sword of demonstrations andmarches and        adopted a social gospel. But the more conservative
sit-ins - the sword of coercion and forceful persuasion     churches, those which stand in the Reformed tradition.
to gain the goals which he sought. And the result was       They have been speaking strangely of a comparison
that wherever he went, violence followed in his wake.       between Martin Luther King and Moses: both led a
He was pastor to no flock. He brought not the gospel of     people out of bondage; both saw the vision of a promised
Jesus Christ. He spoke of power as the legitimate and       land; both died without having entered. Is this kind of
necessary weapon to gain his ends. He fought with the       perversion of Scripture to be the last word of the
sword. Now he has died with the sword. And a nation,        church?
used to the power of the sword, hypocritically mourns           The Word of God must speak to us. And above all
his passing.                                                it says to them who have ears to hear: "submit your-
   The murder of Dr. King was brutal and wanton. It         selves toevery  ordinance of manfor the Lord's sake...."
was a terrible violation of the law of God. It can be       We cannot allow the lawlessness of the age bring us
called by no other name than murder - cold-blooded          into contempt of those in authority. In bowing before


                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  349


the law of the land we bow before our sovereign King        of the "Liberal-Conservative" split in the membership
Jesus Christ Whose footsteps we hear nowinthe events        of both denominations. That these two groups are at
of history, whose sovereign rule shall bring His            odds cannot be denied. What effect this will have on
eternal kingdom which presently we shall inherit.           the merger remains to be seen.

ECUMENICTY                                                     Only a few weeks ago delegates to the seventh
                                                            annual COCU (Consultations. on Church Union) meeting
   We have before us several news items of an ecu-          finished their work. COCU now includes ten different
menical character which give some indication of the         denominations and will form, if a united church is
progress being made in various ecumenical endeavors.        finally the result, one denomination of 25.5 million
   From the RES Newsletter we learn that plans for          protestants. The ten denominations include the follow-
the merger of the Presbyterian Church US (Southern)         ing churches: African Methodist Episcopal, African
and the Reformed Church of America are proceeding.          Methodist Episcopal Zion, Christian Methodist Epis-
From the February 14-16 meeting of the "Joint Com-          copal, Disciples of Christ, Evangelical United Brethren,
mittee of Twenty-Four" has come provisions of a             Methodist, Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (Southern),
church political nature which will,be presented to the      Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., Protestant Epis-
next General Assembly Meeting of the Southern Pres-         copal Church and United Church of Christ. The talks
byterians and the next General Synod of the Reformed        were begun with the proposal for such a union made
Church for approval. These two broadest assemblies          by Eugene Carson Blake in the church of Bishop James
will both meet June' 6-12, the former at Montreat,          Pike.
North Carolina; the latter at Ann Arbor, Michigan.             Last year there was some discouragement among
Some of the changes proposed include:                       the delegates because it seemed that union was far off
   - A provision giving each presbytery in the newly        and perhaps even unobtainable. The movement seemed
united Church one voting unit for every one thousand        to be floundering. The talk was to consummate union
members or less. `Now each presbytery or classis has        without a formal plan; but many were opposed. But the
one vote regardless of its size in affairs of the whole     spirit has changed., Many are growing impatient at
Church, If, under the new plan, a presbytery or classis     delay and will not wait very much longer for the'slow
has fifty thousand members it would receivefiftyvotes.      processes of ecclesiastical machinery and for all the
   - One of the first tasks of the new General Assembly     picayune bickering of leaders over fine points. So now
will be to redraw the boundaries of all presbyteries        optimism has replaced pessimism and there is a re-
and regional synods so that they will be "equitable in      newed determination to press on. The Committee set a
size, based on regional interests and needs as well as      deadline of two years to come up with a specific plan
geographic considerations."                                 for union.      There are hopes even that it can all be
   -To be retained in the new Church would be the           done in one year.
practice of having one governing body in each congre-          But whether a specific plan is made or not, union
gation.    This governing body would be called a con-       is proceeding.       While the leaders dally the local
sistory and would be composed of pastors, associate         churches of the denominations involved have begun to
pastors and elders.                                         attain unity among themselves. They are no longer
   - Elders would be elected from the membership of         living separately; they are achieving their own form of
the local congregations which would open the door to        cooperation.
the election of women into this office. This is now            These local churches are already sharing each
practiced in the Southern Presbyterian Church but not       other's ministries. They are exchanging pulpits and
yet in the Reformed.                                        working amongst themselves to combine services and
   If these plans are approved next June by the two         worship. They are joining in various endeavors. They
broadest assemblies of the two denominations, the           are forming united programs of social action. They
matter will be returned for voting to the seventy-nine      are cooperating where once they were competing in
presbyteries of the Southern Presbyterian Church and        church extension.       They are working together in
to the forty-five classes of the Reformed Church. If        missions.       They are developing joint programs of
three-fourths of the former and two-thirds of thelatter     theological training, development of educational ma-
approve the plan, it will return to the two broadest        terials and relationships with non-ecclesiastical or-
assemblies in 1969. If final approval is gained in 1969,    ganizations.
the union will be effected in 1970 by a joint meeting of       Besides, actual merger is in some instances taking
the two ,broadest  assemblies.                              place on the congregational level while the leaders
   There are a couple of problems which remain un-          ponder their problems higherup in the church's struc-
solved. One is the participation of the Southern Pres-      ture.
byterians in the COCU talks. (cf. below) For one               In other words, union is proceeding whether there
thing, these COCU talks have gone on record as              is actually a plan or not, whether the leaders are
favoring some kind of organization which includes           agreeing or not.
bishops. The Reformed Church has not yet expressed             That therefore this will someday become a reality
itself on this matter.                                      seems to be a certainty. And yet even such a broad
   For another thing there is the unresolved problem        ecumenical step as this is but a relatively small step


                                                    2
II 350                                          THE STANDARD BEARER
    in the grander vision of the ecumenical leaders. Al-            THE PILL
    ready some are-speaking of COCU as being a first step
    towards an international denomination embracing Prot-               An interesting news items appeared in Christianity
    estantism over the whole world.        And this, in turn,       Tod.ay. We quote it in part.
    will be in preparation for the day when final union with               After surveying the evidence, Child and Family
    Roman Catholicism is attained.                                     magazine, edited by physicians, concludes in its cur-
       The ecumenical leaders will not rest until a one-                rent issue that the birth-control pill is "the most
    world church is attained.                                           dangerous drug ever introduced for use by the healthy
                                                                        in respect to lethality and major complications."
                                                                           Many of the six million American women on the
                             ***                                        Pill, the report says, suffer such side effects as
       Dr. H. M. Kuitert, from the Geveformeerde  Kevhen                strokes, liver disease, migraine, depression, embol-
   in the yetherlands,  has once again spoken out on his                isms, and failing eyesight. It has been implicated in
   views of merger with Roman Catholicism. Theseviews                   cases of sterility. Deaths attributed to its use exceed
    of his are discussed in a recent issue of                           the death rate for polio during the years when it was
                                                  Tot Vyijheid          considered a major health hazard.
    Geroepen. He is quoted as saying that he firmly be-                    Dr. Herbert Ratner, public-health director in Oak
    lieves that if the true unity of the Christian Church is            Park, Illinois, who recently became the magazine's
   to be attained, Roman Catholicism will have to be                    editor, is no champion of the Roman Catholic view of
    brought into union with Protestantism. To these he                  contraception. In fact, he charges that the net effect
    has no objection. The thought doesnot  disturb him. He              of the Pill has been that "the middle and upper classes
    sees Rome as the church with the oldest rights; he                  of the United States were seduced away from well-
    believes that the institution of the papacy is not by any           established and safe means of birth control...."
   means an insurmountable obstacle to union; it is his                We are aware that the problem of birth-control is
   personal conviction that if Pope John XXIII was still            very much more complex than the question of the health
   pope he would have no objection to acknowledging him             of those who use it.       There are very real spiritual
    as God's representative upon earth.                             questions whit h arise here. It is not our intention to
       When a man in Dr. Kuitert's influential position             go into this question now. We onlywant to call attention
    and with his Calvinistic and Reformed background can            to the fact that when man attempts to interfere. with
    go as far as this in denying all the Protestant and             basic life processes he is bound to suffer the conse-
    Calvin Reformation stood for, one wonders what has              quences.    This sort of thing must be shunned by the
   become of the Church in these troubled times.                    people of God.



            SPECIAL  FEATURE-


                                           That Awful If

                                                         by Rev. J. A.  Heys


   Speech delivered at the Young People's Society Mass              origin, Easter,  .or the more spiritual name Resuwection
   meeting Easter Sunday afternoon, April 14, 1968 at               Day - which, of course, I prefer - we in no way change
   Hope Church                                                      the wonder and beauty and glory of the event that we
                                                                    celebrate on this day. By our name we may ignore and
       One of the worldly wise men of this earth once               deny that truth of the day, but we cannot take it away
   said that a rose by any other name is just as fragrant           and destroy it. For that reason also I can never get
   and beautiful.    Probably I am not quoting him liter-           excited about the complaint that Xmas is such a wicked
   ally, but that was the idea of his words. And this is            name for Christmas. I know that X is the symbol of
   true.    The names which we give to objects do not               the unknown quantity in algebra; and we surely do not
   determine their essence and nature, their character-             want to express that we do not know whose birthday
   istics and appearances. And when we change the name              Christmas is. If that is the derivation of the word, I
   of a creature, we do not. change the essence and                 abhore it. But I also know that X is the first letter of
   characteristics of that creature. A rose when called             the Greek name for Christ, namely, Xyistos. And to
   a dandelion is still the samenowerwiththe same shape             me Xmas then is a contraction of  Christmas. But I
   and beauty.                                                      do not like that name either. Christmas is no better
       And today, whether we use that name of. heathenish           than Xmas. For Christmas means'christ's Mass and


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   351


is of Roman Catholic origin. In neither case, however,           But what if they are correct?
do we destroy the truth .of Christmas by the name we             What if Christ was not raised from. the dead by
use.                                                          God? That is the question here. In verse 14 Paul
   But all this is to prepare you and to beg .of you not      asks from the viewpoint of Christ Himself. If He did
to judge my speech by the title that I have chosen, nor       not rise by His own power, then our preaching is vain
by the three sub-points under which I plan to treat it.       and man's faith in Christ is vain. But here he looks
Often a speech - and that holds true also for a sermon        at it from the viewpoint of God's dealings with Christ.
- is better than its title or theme. Sometimes it             Remember two things here: God sent Him to the cross
works the other way so that the only good part of the         as our covenant Head. Pilate put a sign up over the
sermon or speech is the theme. But my title this time         cross in ridicule and to get even with the Jews who
is rather odd sounding; and the three points may sound        pulled one over on him. But God used Pilate to point
rather odd to you as well. My title is, "That Awful If";      out that The King of the spiritual Jews, the King of the
and under it I want to ask three questions: "If What?",       Church, was hanging here for the sins of His people to
` `Then What?", and "Now What?"                               remove them forever. Just read II Corinthians 5121.
                                                              God made Him to be sin for us. And then also Colos-
IF WHAT?                                                      sians 2:14 where Paul says that the handwriting of
   I have in mind the words of Paul in I Corinthians          ordinances which was against us was nailed to that
15:17, "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain;      cross, when Christ bearing our guilt was nailed to the
ye are yet in your sins." And I would remind you that         tree. Remember then, also, that there God poured out
from the day that He arose from the dead, men have            all of the vials of His wrath against our sin. God
denied His resurrection.          The Roman soldiers, as      poured out all the fire of hell upon His head for our
hired by the chief priests, spread that lie from that         sins ! God forsook Him, and God punished Him there
day onward. They knew better. The grave was open              for our sins.
for them to see that He was not there. They had seen             What if Christ failed in His attempt to remove
the angel who rolled away the stone; at least the             these sins by suffering that punishment? What if His
soldiers did, and they told the chief priests. It was         promise to the penitent thief is not true? What if God
not a case of not knowing the truth. It seldom is that.       did not receive His spirit which He commended to Him
But it definitely was a case of not loving the truth that     in His last words upon that cross ?
they knew. And the silliness, the utter folly, of their          Consider seriously the fact that if He is not raised
lie is so plain that a child can see it. If they were         by God, then He is still under punishment for our sins.
asleep, how could they be sure that the disciples did         It is not a case of Christ failing to remove our sins
this? And what is more - there is that angle that they        after a.heroic attempt, and then going Himself with His
had in their sinful unbelief overlooked - what if He          spirit to heaven without us. Having come as our Head
would suddenly appear, as actually He did five times          and taken our guilt upon Himself, having been made
that very day?                                                sin for us, and then failing to remove these sins, He
   From that day on men have denied the resurrection          is STILL under the punishment of them. If He is not
in one way or in another. On Mars Hill the Athenians          alive with body and soul today in glory, then God was
laughed at Paul for preaching this resurrection. King         not satisfied with what He did. Then the death of His
Festus told Paul that his much learning had made him          body is punishment upon Him which God has not ye-
mad, when Paul preached that resurrection before him.         moved.    If Christ be not raised, He FAILED! Stand
And today in our sophisticated--and t`cultured" age           then before this awful if! Ask yourselves the question:
men do not come out so bluntly but instead consede            What if Christ be not raised? What an awful if!
that He lives in our lives and as His teachings are
followed by His Church today.           It is, for  them,%    -THEN WHAT?
spiritual resurrection but not a resurrection of His             Then our faith is vain.
body. And many-in the church world hold to this same             And Paul is speaking here of faith in Christ as the
lie. We may also expect. this to grow very rapidly in         Saviour. That faith is vain. It is empty. It is unprof-
the years ahead, and there are clear signs that we will       itable. It does you no good.        There is absolutely no
see this in circles very close to us, in future gener-        value in that faith at all. For faith is trust in Christ.
ations at least.    For when worshippers of science           It is holding on to Him with heart and mind and ex-
so-called submit all of Scripture to the scientist, so-       pecting full salvation from Him. 1 ask you what good
called, in order. to determine whether the Genesis            a flat spare tire is in the trunk of your car, when you
story is true, whether we have to have a Theistic             go out on a trip. I had an experience like that some
evolution and the like, they will have to come to the         years ago. Our trust in a worthless. object revealed
scientist, so-called, also as far as the virgin birth of      a faith that is vain, empty, worthless. Two of us came
Christ is  concerned,-,md His resurrection from the           from the Chicago area to Grand Rapids early in the
dead. And the scientist, so&called, will assure them          morning for a meeting, and the gas tank was rather
that both of these are absol;lielyimpossible  and have        low but seemed full enough to promise an arrival there
never happened.. Surely a man with such a spear wound         by the time that the gasoline stations were open in the
in -His side and with all that loss of blood cannot after     morning. Our faith, however, was in a one gallon can
three days come back,to life !                                of gas in the `back of the station wagon. Sure enough,


 352                                         THE STANDARD BEARER

between Zeeland and Hudsonville the car began to chug         put out the fire of hell for our sins that God poured
and to sputter and then came to a halt. But that gallon       out on Him. He drank the cup so that there is not the
of gas was back there! 0, no.! The.boys of the driver         slightest trace of its content left. "It is finished!"
had used its contents for the lawnmower and had said          And we are no longer in our sins but in Christ and in
nothing about it!    Our faith was vain. We were yet          His righteousness.
stalled and helpless to go on with the car. If Christ be         Therefore we are heirs of God and joint heirs with
not raised from the dead, our faith will not do that          Christ of all the glories of a kingdom of heaven.
which we expect it to do. Our faith is in Christ; and if      Higher we are now than Adam and Eve in their right-
He be not raised, He is not able to do what we expect         eousness and glory. More glorious we are now than
Him to do. And so our faith in Him is worthless. We           the righteous and holy angels, for. they now are our
have faith in a hopeless cause. We are holding on by          servants, sent to minister to those who are heirs of
faith to the wrong thing and to the wrong person.             salvation.    Hebrews 1:14. Closer to God we will be
   This is true because we are yet in our sins. Our           than they ever could be. We shall taste and see that
faith may assure us that they are all gone. But the           God is good more richly than they.
hard, cold fact is that we are yet in our sins. This             And our faith is now a very wonderful possession.
means that we are still in their guilt. We are still in       It holds on to something very precious and is a very
their state of- condemnation. It means that they have         precious gift from God. There will be a period of time
not been lifted from off us in the slightest sense. It        when we will be ridiculed for believing in Christ and
means that all that which Christ did on the cross has         His resurrection. We will be laughed at for our hope.
absolutely no value for us at all.                            And the days before us may be dreadful days of per-
   Therefore, if Christ be not raised, we are all going       secution for this faith. But the unbeliever will be put
to go to hell! Let me make it more emphatic, because          to shame, not the believer. The unbelievers are in
that is the awfulness of this if. If Christ be not raised,    for an awful shock when they close their eyes in the
then we `are going to meet Christ there in hell and see       sleep of death and suddenly stand before this Christ
Him in the awful torment of God's wrath as our would-         Whom they now believe is dead. The same is true of
be Saviour Who failed! If he be not raised, then He has       those who boldly say that God is dead. What an awfully
sinned Himself. If Christ be not raised, then He spread       rude awaking when suddenly they stand before the
some awful untruths and preached a series of false            LIVING GOD!
doctrines. He made some vain and sinful boasts and               But we can close our eyes in death and find more
deceived a host of people with His false doctrines. He        joy than we now see by that very profitable and worth-
gave many vain hopes. If God did not raise Him from           while faith in Christ. We will not stand before God as
the dead, then we will suffer everlasting shame with          with a flat, spare tire or an empty gas tank and gas
Him, and He with us.                                          can. We will be holding on to an almighty and ever-
   He and His people are inseparable. what happens            lasting Saviour Who will carry us to an endless life
to Him happens to them. If He is raised, we are raised        of bliss and glory. Since Christ is raised by God from
with Him. See Colossians 3:l. If He does not take away        the dead, our faith is a wonderful power; and a life
our sins, He still has them on His own shoulders; and         of joy and gladness is ours without end.
there is nothing that a righteous God can do to the              Let us say it positively, then: SINCE Christ IS
Head of an unrighteous people, whose sins have- not           raised from the dead, our faith is a precious gift from
been paid for in full, than to continue to afflict and        God; and by it we have that sweet peace of mind that
punish this Head of that wicked people. If He be not          our sins are all blotted out; and weshall be with Christ
raised, then we are losers, awful losers; but Christ          in heavenly glory.
Himself is also a loser and a most disappointed would-
be Saviour. And all the souls of the saints from Abel            The Northwest Iowa Protestant Reformed Christian
onward must be cast out of heaven!                            School is in need of a teacher for grades one through
NOW WHAT?                                                     four for the 1968-1969 School Year. Anyone interested
                                                              in this position, please apply to
   But now is Christ risen from the dead and become                           Mr. Gerald Van Den Top
the firstfruits of them that sleep. Now we are perfectly                       R.R. 1
righteous in Christ. Before God we  donot have a single                        Rock Rapids, Iowa 51246
sin. God beholds no iniquity in us and sees absolutely
no perverseness in us.     His judgment from the throne
is constantly, "Not Guilty!" And God, looking down
from heaven upon us with that risen and glorified Son            Hope Prot. Ref. Christian School is in need of a
at His right hand, says of us that we are beautiful, as       principal for the 1968-69 school year. If you wish to
beautiful as His own Son. For God always sees us in           be considered for this position, please contact:
Him and judges us as members of His body. He says                            Mr. Clare Kuipper
Himself in Romans  11:16, "For if the firstfruit be                          2450 Boulevard Dr., S.W.
holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so                     Wyoming, Michigan 49509
are the branches." Christ is not in hell. As our Head                        Phone: 534-0098
He made atonement and took away all of our sins. He


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      353




 F R O M   H O L Y   WRIT-

                            The Book  Of  Hebrews
                                                   by Rev. G. Lubbevs



ENLIGHTENED  - YET FALL ASIDE  (Hebrews 6:4-6)                  Writ which we ought to consider briefly.           In Luke
    Here we come to the difficult part of the text. The         11:34-36 we read from the lips of Jesus "The light
difficulty is not that the terms are not clear in the           of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is
text.     Rather the difficulty is that the text seems to       single, thy whole body shall be full of light; but when
teach truths which are contradictory to other clear             thine eye is evil, thy body shall be full of darkness.
teachings and doctrines of the Holy Scriptures. The             Take heed  therefore  that the light that is in thee be not
text seems to teach a falling away of saints, that is, of       aWkmss  .    If thy whole body be therefore full of light,
those who once were true children of God. If this               having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as
should be the teaching here it would imply that it is           when the bright shining of the candle doth give thee
possible to have been a true child of God, to have been         light. ' ' We have singled out a key sentence in the above
a possessor of true faith in Christ, and still to perish        quotation by italicizing it. There is such a thing as
everlastingly in outer darkness of hell!                        the "light in us" to be "darkness." Evidently there
    Since we adhere to the principle that-dogmaticsmay          is a distinction between natural light and enlighten-
not rule over exegesis; that our dogmatic and con-              ment which is psychological, and the enlightenment
fessional bias may not influence our interpretation, we         which is spiritual-ethical enlightenment whereby we
cannot simply appeal to the confessions to interpret            have a saving knowledge of God. Christ speaks of the
this text. We will need to interpret Scripture in the           fact that there is an inner duplicity in those who have
light of Scripture.                                             the mere psychical enlightenment. They are children
    Our first observation is concerning the term "those         of darkness which they are naturally enlightened. With
who were once enlightened." What is the meaning of              this accords the teaching of our Lord in Matthew 6:23b
the term "enlightened?" The verb in the Greek text              "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how
is "phootizoo." The aorist passive participle is used:          great is that darkness!"       Hence, we must have the
"tous  apax phootisthentas" - the once enlightened              single eye. We need the spiritual simplicity, truthful-
ones o     They are looked at as a class of people in           ness and uprightness of heart which loves the truth
distinction from those who were not enlightened. They           and hates the lie. And, again, we should notice what
were once and for all enlightened. This enlightenment           we read in John 1:9 "That was the true (real) light
will never be taken from them, and it cannot be re-             which etiighteneth  every man coming into the world."
peated. The aorist tense points up the point action.            It is this light which comes from the Logos in the
It states the once and for all fact as a fact. It is not        things made which enlightens "men." Apart from this
the tense which indicates completed enlightenment up            enlightenment they could not be sinners, who hate the
to the present as one might expect in the case of those         light and do not come to the light because that their
who have a saving knowledge of God in Christ. The               works are evil.      These are they who keep the truth
term "enlightened" is used by the writer also in                down in unrighteousness in unrepentance, and treasure
Hebrews 10:32, where we read, "But call to mind the             to themselves wrath in the day of wrath and of the just
former days in which ye were illuminated (enlightened),         judgment of God. (Romans 1:18,21;  2:1-2)
ye endured a great fight of afflictions." Here the trans-          There is a sense, therefore, in which the Bible
lation in the KJV of the text suggests that this is an          speaks of enlightenment which is tantamount to the
enlightenment in a saving sense of inward, spiritual            external calling of the Gospel. We hasten to add that
illumination in the sense of which Paul speaks of it in         this "external" calling must not be misunderstood as
Ephesians 1:18. ". . . the eyes of your understanding           it often evidently is. Too often the eternal calling is
(heart) being enlightened: that ye may know what is the         viewed as simply referring to the preaching of the
hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory        gospel as it merely enters into the ear, so to speak.
of his inheritance in the saints ..a. " In this latter pas -    What is forgotten is, that, according to the parable of
sage the apostle is clearly speaking of the saving illu-        the sower in Matthew 13, the seed which is sown by the
mination, the inward calling as this accompanies' the           wayside really fell into the "heart" of the hearers
preaching of the gospel. It is evidently true that the          under the preaching; it is true not in a saving sense,
Bible uses the term to "enlighten" in more than one             but in such a sense that these hearers had to react in
sense and application of the term.                              a spiritual-ethical response. Their response was that,
   This is evident from various passages of Holy                they, under the impulses of Satan's work, reject the



                                                                                                              L


354                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


gospel. However, let, it not be overlooked that this is        gift. They are keenly aware that to enter the kingdom
a rejection from the heart. It is a willful rejection          means that they must repent from their sins, and serve
because those rejecting know what they are rejecting;          God with undivided heart. They take a little of it in
they reject from the "heart" which had been naturally          their mouth, they taste that it is good, but their hearts
enlightened. There must have been an operation .of the         are evil and they reject it.
Spirit even here giving them to understand in a natural
way the meaning of the Gospel. Do we not read here in             In the second place is mentioned, that they are en-
Matthew  13:19  ". . .then  cometh  the wicked one, and        lightened, and, therefore, are such as who have become
catcheth away  fhat which was sown in his  heart."             partakers of the `Holy Ghost.         Now, what does this
Surely they did understand this with their natural             mean? Does this mean that they "received" the Holy
understanding.        However, spiritually they did not        Ghost, whom the  ."world" is not able to receive?'
understand. That is what Jesus means when he says              Does it mean that they Yeceived  Christ and all his
"When one heareth the word of the kingdom and u&ev-            benefits of the Spirit by a true faith? Evidently not!
standeth  it not..."      In a word, the light that was in     Sometimes the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit in the
them is darkness. The external calling, too, enlight-          tense as he testifies in connection with the preached
ened them "so that by hearing ye shall hear, and shall         Word.      We referred to this earlier in this essay.
not understand;  and seeing ye shall see and shall not         Particularly, because, in the next phrase mention is
perceive."        It is that which Isaiah speaks of in the     made of "having tasted the -good wovd  of God," we hold
sixth Chapter, where he asks: "Lord, how long? And             that here the becoming partaker of the Holy Spirit must
he answered, until their cities be wasted...." It is           refer to the enlightenment of the Spirit by which they
the Word of God to Isaiah which said "Go and tell this         understood with their natural understanding the heaven-
people, Hear ye indeed but understand not; and see ye          ly gift of salvation.       They knew that  they must be
indeed but perceive not. Make the heart of this people         sorry for their sins, but they knew not subjectively  how
fat, and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes;            to be sorry for their sins. They did not enter into the
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,       rest! The text puts this in the fact tense. They weye
and understand with their heart, and convert and be            made  such partakers. It is a fact of experience and
healed."                                                       history with such. They did not make themselves such
   Such is the external calling which is accompanied           partakers. That too was outside of their ability. They
by the Spirit in a non-saving sense of the term!               were mqde partakers. That was part of the "having
   The light that is in them is darkness!                      been enlightened." That they are pavtakevs is not the
   How great is that darkness !                                same as  that they had "fellowship" with the Holy
   In the light of the foregoing we are able to under-         Spirit.    It was not with the person of the Spirit that
stand that implications of the term "Those who have            they had fellowship, but they shared with others in the
once been enlightened." These are not sinners who              benefits of the preaching, its instruction, etc. In the
perish without law, but they are those who are judged          days of the apostles this could refer to the charismatic
by the law and the prophets: they are those who have           gifts in the church:        healing, prophesying, tongues,
known the way and do not walk in the same. They are            exhortation, teaching and admonition. In these they
reprobate, hardened sinners, who hate the light. The           shared.       It is a disconcerting thought, but it is true.
god of this age hath blinded their hearts.                     One can even have been a preacher of these heavenly
                                                               realities, felt their power and beauty, be a castaway! !
   For the writer to the Hebrews makes a few more              Many first shall be the last, and last shall be first.
instructive remarks concerning these who were once             Paul does not boast that he preached this gospel. He
"enlightened."                                                 is less than the least of all saints ! He rejoices not in
                                                               thathe speaks more tongues than any man, and proph-
   In the first place: they have tasted of the heavenly        esies more than all.          He rejoiced in the words: I
gift. They are in this respect different from those who        have kept the faith, I have run the race, and for me is
never heard the gospel, and never lived amongst the            laid away a crown of life! No mere partaker of gifts,
people of God. The heavenly gift is emphatically the           but fellowship in Christ is blessed!
heavenly gift. The Greek construction is "of the gift,
of the heavenly!" It is the salvation in Christ to which          That being made a partaker of the Holy Ghost can-
the writer here refers. The term is here "doorea";             not refer to actual receiving of the benefits of the Spirit
it is pure gift. It is without merit. Besides, it is a         in a saving sense in the text is also evident from the
gift which is  heavenZy.       It is that which is the very    meaning of the term "metochous."             This term is
essence of the Mystery of the kingdom of heaven. This          distinguished from "koinonos" in that the latter sug-
gift is evidently the fulness of grace in Christ. The          gests personal fellowship, while the former describes
gift of God is eternal life. This is what God hath re-         participation in some common blessing or privilege,
vealed unto us in His Son. Of this they "tasted." The          or thelike.  (See Westcott in loco) Wherefore the being
idea of tasted is not so much that of nourishment as to        made a partaker of the Holy Ghost simply refers to the
power to discern and become aware of its inner nature.         natural participation in the benefits of Christ, the gifts
The term taste is derived from: tasten, of taxave - to         in the church without spiritual participation unto
touch. These ascertained the heavenly flavor of this           salvation.


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   355



      PAGES FROM  IHE  PAST-

                          Believers and Their Seed

                                            by Rev.  Hevman Hoeksema

FOREWORD                                                     occupy in God's covenant. It is true indeed that various
   In that part of the Form for the Administration of        questioners view the matter about which they desire
Baptism to Infants of Believers in which a word of           more light from various viewpoints. One inquires about
admonition is directed to the parents who present their      infant baptism and desires a clear demonstration of its
children for baptism in the midst of the congregation it     Biblical ground. Another is concerned about the ques-
is said that "baptism is an ordinance of God, to seal        tion of the salvation of children who die in infancy.
unto us and to our seed His covenant." Moreover, it is       Still another seeks an explanation of the well-known
emphasized that baptism "must be used for that end,          word of David spoken at the occasion of the death of
and not out of custom or superstition."                      his little child.     And a fourth questioner earnestly
   It lies in the nature of the case, therefore,' that if    desires more light on the meaning of God's covenant in
the congregation of Jesus Christ is to live out of that      general. However, it is easy to see that basically all
faith when she receives Holy Baptism for herself and         these questions may be reduced to this: what is the
her seed, then it is and remains a prime requisite that      place of the seed of believers in God's covenant?
she should understand the truth concerning that cove-           Now for a Reformed man the question concerning
nant of the Lord her God. The doctrine of the covenant       God's covenant with us and our children is very im-
is a basic truth of our Reformed faith. According as         portant.    If from this viewpoint we would speak of a
God's people better understand His covenant, in its          Jachin and Boaz in the temple of the truth of God, then
essence and its historical development in the genera-        we certainly should not speak, as did Prof. Van Andel
tions of believers, so they will stand more firmly in        somewhere, of the doctrine of Common Grace and the
the truth, and so the danger will be lessened that they      doctrine of Particular Grace; but we should indeed
will be carried about by every wind of doctrine.             speak of the truth of God's Sovereign Grace, on the one
Especially in our country and in our day there are           hand, and, on the other hand, of the truth of God's
many currents which would carry us away from the             Covenant. This is not to say that among our people the
truth of God if we are not founded in the truth of God's     question concerning believers and their seed in the
covenant.     Many errors, among which not the least         covenant of God is always raised because of its doc-
dangerous is that of Premillennialism, are exactly           trinal importance.      This is precisely not the case.
characterized by the fact that they either do not under-     Much rather is this question for them a decidedly
stand or do not take into account or reject God's            practical one. An answer is sought especially to the
covenant, and thereby arrive at a conception of Israel       question of the salvation of children of the covenant
and the Church as separate entities, at a separation of      who die in infancy.       Are the children of believing
the old and the new dispensations, a view which blinds       parents who die in their infancy, whom the Lord takes
the eyes of God's people for the riches of Scripture in      away before they arrive at the years of discretion, to
connection with the organic development of things.           be accounted as saved, yes or no? Much of what has
Hence, it is important that our people indeed do not         been written and spoken about this question in the past
use baptism out of custom or superstition, but out of        arose out of this practical question concerning the
a clear and firm faith in the eternal covenant of God.       salvation of the children of believers,. There are even
   The following pages intend to serve the purpose of        those who insist very strongly on having a positive
instruction in the doctrine of the covenant. The con-        answer to this question. For them the doctrine of God's
tents of this little book were offered earlier to our        covenant depends on the answer to this question. They
people in the form of aseries of articles in the-Standard    go along with you when you develop the doctrine of the
Beaver.      No changes have been made in the original       covenant, even as to the details. But when you reach
articles. May the Lord bless this publication unto the       the question concerning the salvation of the children of
establishment of the readers in the truth of His faithful    believers,  - and you come to that question inevitably,
covenant.                                                    - and should you be inclined to give a hesitant or even
                                             The Author      a negative answer, should you want to say that from
                                                             the truth of God's covenant in the line of generations it
CHAPTER I                                                    does not necessarily follow that all the fleshly children
THE COVENANT PROBLEM                                         of believing parents are saved, - then they do as the
                                                             Friesian king of whom the story is told that he was
   Questions arise repeatedly in connection with the         standing with one foot in the water of baptism when he
place which our children, the children of believers,         suddenly asked the missionary whether his parents


356                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


were saved and had entered heaven: upon receiving a            baptism, and they listen mechanically to the Baptism
negative answer to his question, he withdrew his foot          Form.    But with earnest-minded souls things cannot
from the water and refused to be baptized. Now all             long continue thus.     They must give account of the
this is quite understandable. The question concerning          truth. Suddenly, in one way or another, they come to
the salvation of children who die in infancy is naturally      face the serious question of infant baptism. And to
a deeply moving question. It is a matter of common             their own dismay they come to the realization that they
knowledge and of every-day experience that there is a          have really never given account to themselves of the
very large number of children who are taken away by            meaning and the ground for the baptism of infants in
the Lord in their childhood, especially in their early         the church of God. And if then there comes no light,
childhood.      And the salvation of those children is a       the so sorely desired light, - light that can truly be
matter close to the heart of their parents. This un-           called light, light from the Scriptures, - then the only
doubtedly explains why the question of God's covenant          result is that such earnest-minded souls, rather than
always and again arises from the viewpoint of this             do violence to their own consciences, affiliate with one
question. Nevertheless this is regrettable. Oftentimes         or another Baptistic denomination. They are lost for
in this manner the discussion of God's covenant has            the Reformed truth, and they have forfeited one of the
degenerated into a discussion concerning the seed of           most precious truths of the confession. That this is
the covenant and then has turned especially upon that          indeed no abstract portrayal but concrete reality is
question of their salvation. A question of relatively          the lesson of history and of every-day experience.
little dogmatical worth was thus changed into the chief        There are many in the Reformed churches who .still
question.     The result has been that the truth of God's      walk about with the question in their souls: how are
covenant has also been impoverished and adulterated            we to conceive of God's covenant with respect to our
through this exclusive focussing upon that one point.          children? There are many who remainin the Reformed
                                                               churches but who by conviction are wholly baptist. And
   This does not change the fact that the covenant idea        there are not a few also who openly join with the
is indeed very really one of the most important                baptists and break with the Reformed churches. It is
doctrines in the confession of the Reformed churches,          therefore of the greatest importance that also in regard
and rightly so. This doctrine is really more character-        to this point we again understand our confession, and
istically Reformed than the doctrine of election. De-          that we comprehend and develop the Scriptural idea
parture from the Reformed truth usually also takes             with respect to believers and their seed in God's
place with respect to either or both of these doctrines.       covenant. Why are the children of believers in God's
One begins to do violence to the doctrine of God's             covenant ?    In what sense are they in that covenant?
Sovereign Grace and departs in the direction of Ar-            Must we also in the sphere of God's covenant still
minianism; or one no longer understands God's covenant         distinguish between a two-fold seed? Or are all the
with His people, and he begins to depart toward a              children, head for head, to be mentioned in one breath
Baptistic position.     The latter is, of course, easier       as covenant children? What is really God's covenant,
according as the church is less thoroughly undergirded         and what is the significance of it for our seed? To
in the truth of God. People decline in the knowledge of        these and other, related questions we must be prepared
God's Word. They do not really understand their own            to give an answer which rests upon God's Word and
confession any longer. For a time they live from habit         which is therefore able to satisfy. And therefore we
and .custom.      They still present their children for        wish to devote a few chapters to this subject.



             Order  Your  Copy Of  The  Booklef


                       "The Five Points of Calvinism"

                                                         Enclose $1, and send your order to:

                                                                              Rev. M. Schipper
                                                                              1.543 Cambridge, S.E.
                                                                              Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506


                                                   THESTANDRRDBEARER                                                            357


 CONTENDING FOR THE  FAITH-

                                      The Doctrine of Sin
                                     The Second Period  - 250-730 AD

                                            The Pelagian Controversy

                                            The Augustinian System



                                                         by Rev.  H.  Veldman


   In our preceding article, we called attention, in               but afterwards in heavenly perfection.
connection with Augustine's conception of sin, that this
renowned church father, among other things, maintained             ADAM'S FALL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
that man's freedom of choice applies only to Adam as
before the fall; since his fall, man no longer has this                Augustine's conception of the fall of Adam differs
freedom of choice, to be able to choose the good. Before           radically from that of Pelagius. Pelagius, as we noted
we call attention to Augustine's conception of the fall            when we called attention to his conception of sin,
of man and its consequences, as set forth by Philip                destitute of all idea of the organic wholeness of the
Schaff in his History of the Christian Church, we must             race or of human nature, viewed Adam merely as an
note that whereof Augustine speaks most frequently                 isolated individual; he gave him no representative
and most fondly. Vol. III, 823:                                    place, and therefore his acts no bearing beyond him-
                                                                   self.,     The Scriptures are surely plain on this point.
      Finally Augustine speaks most frequently and most            We read in Romans 5:12: "Wherefore, as by one inan
   fondly of the highest freedom, the free  self-decision  or      sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so
   self-determination  of the will towards the good and            death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
   holy, the blessed freedom of the children of God; which         Augustine's conception of the fall of man is, we under-
   still includes, it is true, in this earthly life, the possi-    stand, so much deeper and more profound. Concerning
   bility of sinning, but becomes in heaven the image of the       this, Philip Schaff writes:
   divine freedom, a felix necessitas boni, and cannot,
   because it will not, sin. It is the exact opposite of the                 To understand Augustine's doctrine of the fall of
   duva necessitas                                                     man, we must remember, first of all, that he starts
                        mali in the state of sin. It is not a
   faculty possessed in common by all rational minds, but              with the idea of the organic unity of the human race,
   the highest stage of moral development, confined to                 and with the profound parallel of Paul between the first
   true Christians.       This freedom Augustine finds ex-             and the second Adam; that he views the first man not
   pressed in that word of our Lord: "If the Son shall                merely as an individual, but at the same time as the
   make you free, ye shall be free indeed." It does not               progenitor and representative of the whole race,
   dispense with grace, but is generated by it; the more               standing to natural mankind in the same relation as
   grace, the more freedom. The will is free in propor-               that of Christ to redeemed and regenerate mankind. The
   tion as it is healthy, and healthy in proportion as it             history of the fall, recorded in a manner at once pro-
   moves in the element of its true life, in God, and obeys           found and childlike in the third chapter of Genesis,
   Him of its own spontaneous impulse. To serve God is                has, therefore, universal significance. In Adam human
   the true freedom.                                                  nature fell, and therefore all, who have inherited that
                                                                      nature from him, who were in him as the fruit in the
   In these words `Augustine champions the Scriptural                  germ, and who have grown up, as it were, one person
truth of the true freedom, true only of the people of                  with him.
God. Freedom of the will, the freedom to be able to do                       But Augustine did not stop with the very just idea of
both, to choose the good and the evil, was applicable                  an organic connection of the human race, and of the sin
only to Adam while in the state of rectitude. Since the                of Adam with original sin; he also supposed a sort of
                                                                       pre-existence of alI the posterity of Adam in himself,
entrance of sin into the world, man lost this freedom of               so that they actually and personally sinned in him,
the will. The natural man is free only to do the evil,                 though not, indeed, with individual consciousness. Since
and the child of God is free only to do the good. This                we were, at the time of the fall, "in lumbis Adami,"
ability to choose the good is true here only in principle,            the sin of Adam is "jure seminationis et gernima-


358                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


    tionis," our sin and guilt, and physical death is a                  The fall of Adam appears the greater, and the more
    penalty even upon infant children, as if: was a penalty           worthy of punishment, if we consider, first, the height
    upon Ada% The posterity of Adam therefore suffer                  he occupied, the divine image in which he was created;
    punishment not for the sin of another, but for the sin            then, the simplicity of the commandment, and ease of
    which they themselves committed in Adam.. This view,            obeying it, in, the abundance of all manner of fruits in
    as we shall see farther on, Augustine founds upon a               paradise; and finally, the sanction of the most terrible
    false interpretation of Romans  5:12.                             punishment from his Creator and greatest- Benefactor.
    When d&ing with the problem of sin and the de-                       Thus Augustine goes behind the appearance to the
pravity of the human race, we are always confronted                   substance; below the surface to the deeper truth. He
                                                                      does not stop with the outward act, but looks chiefly at
by the question as to the conception and birth of each                the disposition which lies at its root.
individual child, particularly of the soul. We cannot at
this time enter into a detailed discussion of this prob-              Schaff's presentation of Augustine's conception of
lem. But. concerning this question, Rev.  H. Hoeksema              the consequences of sin is, we believe, very informa-
in his explanation of Lord's Day III, Vol. I, 154, writes          tive and instructive:
as follows :                                                             The CONSEQUENCES of the primal sin, both for
        In the past: there were three explanations of this            Adam and for his posterity, are, in Augustine's view,
    problem.           The first is known as the theory of pre-       comprehensive and terrible in proportion to the hein-
    existentianism,  and held that all the souls were actually        ousness of the sin itself. And all these consequences
    created in Adam, and that therefore, all human in-                are at the same time punishments from the righteous
    dividuals really sinned in our first: father and in him           God, who has, by one and the same law, joined reward
    became corrupt. This appears to have beenthe  view of             with obedience and penalty ,with sin.         They are all
    Augustine, a view that was really based on a mistaken             comprehended under  deatll, in its widest sense; as
    explanation of Rom. 5:12: "for that all have sinned."             Paul says: "The wages of sin is death"; and in Gen.
    He interpreted that clause in the sense that is given to          2:17 we are to understand the threatened death, all evil
    it in the Dutch translation: "in welken allen  gezondigd          both to body and to soul.
    hebben."           But rhis cannot possibly be the correct           Augustine particularizes the consequences of sin
    rendering of the original. It: does not justify the trans-        under seven heads; the first four being negative, the
    lation "in whom all have sinned," but very definitely             others positive:
    must be rendered: "for that" or "because all have                    1. L.oss of the freedom of choice, which consisted in
    sinned."      But this theory never found much support            a positive inclination and love to the good, with the
    among theologians, as might be expected. Apart from               implied possibility of sin. In place of this freedom has
    the fact that it finds no support in Scripture, it meets          come the hard necessity of sinning, bondage to evil.
    with too many difficulties and is really an impossible            "The will, which, aided by grace, would have become
    philosophical conception.                                         a source of good, became to Adam, in his apostasy
    Two other explanations have been given of this                    from God, a source of evil."
problem. They are known as traducianism and crea-                        2.  Obstruction  of  knowledge.     Man was originally
                                                                      able to learn everything easily, without labor, and to
tionism. Rev. Hoeksema also calls attentions to these                 understand everything aright.         Bul: now the mind is
"explanations" in his work on the Heidelberg Cate-                    beclouded, and knowledge can be acquired and imparted
chism. And Schaff states, in the quotation we quoted from             only in the sweat of the face.
his history of the Christian Church, that Augustine also                 3. Loss of the grace of God. which enabled man to.
supposed a sort of pre-existence of all the posterity of              perform  the good which his freedom willed, and to
Adam in himself, basing it upon a faulty interpretation               persevere therein. By not: willing, man forfeited his
of Rom. 5:12.                                                         ability, and now, though he would do good, he cannot.
    Following upon this, Schaff calls attention to Augus-            (this probably does not' mean  that Augustine actually
tine's view of the fall of Adam, and he writes:                       taught that man, in his sin, would do good. - H.V.)
                                                                         4. Loss of paradise. The earth now lies under the
        The original state of man included the possibility of         curse of God: it brings forth thorns and thistles, and
    sinning, and this was the imperfect-ion of that state.            in the sweat of his face man must eat his bread.
    This possibility became reality.  Why it should have              Concerning this "loss of Paradise," Rev. Hoeksema
    been realized, is incomprehensible; since evil never
    has, like good, a sufficient reason. It is irrationality       writes in his Dogmatics that there is certainly an act
    itself. Augustine fixes an immense gulf between the            of salvation in man's expulsion from paradise. After
    primitive state and the state of sin. But: when thought        noting that the words, "man is become like one of us,"
    has accomplished this adventurous leap, it finds  his          must not be understood as irony, he writes:
    system coherent throughout.                                           And the rest of the text inverse22 certainly implies
    Augustine then sets forth that Adam did not fall                  that by continued contact with and eating of the tree of
with temptation from another. The essence of the sin                  life the earthly life of Adam and Eve would have been
of Adam consisted not in the eating of the fruit; for                 perpetuated even in their fallen state. There is, there-
this was in itself neither wrong nor harmful; but in                  fore, certainly  an act of salvation in man's expulsion
                                                                      from paradise. Eating of the tree would have resulted
disobedience  to the command of God. And he declares                  in a perpetuation of the state of death. In Christ,
that the root of sin was pride, self-seeking, the craving             however, Who is the resurrection and the life, temporal
of the will to forsake God. Hereupon Schaff writes the                death is become the servant of the elect, to open a
f o l l o w i n g :                                                   passage into eternal life and glory.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           359


BOOK  REV/E  WS-                    Creative Minds in Contemporary Theology
   by Prof. H. C. Hoeksema                                              Homiletics
CREATIVE MINDS IN CONTEMPO-                 ologians and their theology, tedious        into the depths or shallows of his own
RARY THEOLOGY, Philip E. Hughes,            as the task may be, he must go to the       thought.    This might lead, under the
Editor; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publ. Co.,          sources and read, study, and evaluate       most favorable conditions, to a scrip-
Grand Rapids, Mich. 488 pages; price,       for himself.                                tural but not to a textual sermon, and
$6.95                                          This book is recommended; but the        is out of keeping with the purpose the
                                            reader must not swallow all that is         text is intended to serve. Instead of
   The claim of the dust- jacket on this    offered.                                    this, the text must rather be the source
book is that "This symposium is de-                                                     of the contents of the sermon, from
signed to provide an introduction to        HOMILETICS (A MANUAL OF THE                 which all its thoughts flow, so that the
the thought of some of the religious        THEORY          AND     PRACTICE OF         preacher draws from nothing else, is
thinkers who have made an impact on         PREACHING), by M. Reu; Baker Book           guided by nothing else, imparts to his
Christian theology in the twentieth         House, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 639          congregation nothing else.        His text
century."      To this end fourteen so-     pages, $5.95.                               must be for him beginning, middle
called "creative minds" are treated                                                     and end, and. whatever does not grow
in this book. Among them are Karl              This is a volume in Baker's Limit-       out of his text, be it ever so fine and
,Barth,  G. C. Berkouwer, Emil Brun-        ed Editions Library, a publishing proj-     true, biblical and edifying, must be
ner, Rudolf Bultmann, Herman  Dooye-        ect which features some other worth-        ruthlessly excluded.      This does not
Weerd, and Paul Tillich, to mention         while reprints.        The volume under     mean that the text may not be related
 a few more familiar. names. Each           review is a reprint of a work first         to, or illustrated by, other parts of
essay is written by a different author,     published in 1922.       The author was     the Bible. This, on the contrary, is
one who is supposed to be thoroughly        professor of practical theology at          highly necessary; for the individual
familiar with the works of the man          Wartburg  Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.          text is an integral part of the whole of
about whom he writes. Each essay               This book is not written for popu-`      Scripture. But it must be insisted that
contains a biographical sketch, first       iar consumption; it is a text-book          whatever is gathe'red from the rest of
of all.      This is an informative and     which features a thorough treatment of      Scripture, to explain and illustrate the
valuable part of each essay. Secondly,      the subject of homiletics, and as such      individual text, can only serve as aid
each essay contains an exposition of        it is aimed especially at seminary          to the exposition and application of the
the main concepts and contributions of      students and preachers.                     latter, and can have no other purpose
the theologian discussed.       This is        The author is a Lutheran, and his        than to magnify and impress upon the
necessarily abbreviated, of course.         Lutheranism not unexpectedly shines         congregation the text itself. Nor does
And, thirdly, each essay presents an        through at various points in the book.      this mean that the life of the congrega-
evaluation.                                 Besides, I would not agree with him         tion may not be referred to in the
   A book of this kind is interesting,      in regard to many technical or scien-       sermon. On the contrary, it is an im-
and, to an extent, helpful. Neverthe-       tific points of homiletics; for example,    portant and eminently proper require-
less, its value is very limited. First      the section on various kinds of sermon      ment, that the preacher take into con-
of all, the exposition offered is neces-    propositions is not to my liking. '         sideration the circle of ideas, the
sarily brief, too brief. Secondly, the         But in a day when very few good          judgments, emotions, experiences, and
reader necessarily sees through the         books on homiletics are published, it       all the various needs of his people, in
eyes of the particular scholar who          is refreshing to find a book as thorough    order that his sermon may come home
writes about each theologian.       One     and as sound as this one. Agreement         to their business and-bosoms and in-
sees       Barth through the eyes of        is not a prerequisite to reaping bene-      fluence them for good.' But the indi-
Bromiley, Berkouwer through the eyes        fits from a book of this kind. In the       vidual text must decide as to the
of Lewis Smedes, and  Brunner  through      future I expect to assign this book to      manner in which this is to be done."
the eyes of Paul. Schrotenboer. The         our seminary students as collateral         pp. 317, 318.
same is true of the evaluation of each      reading in our homiletics course; and          This is sound language, and would
of these fourteen theologians. If the       I think our mature ministers might          there were more preachers today who
exposition is accurate and the evalua-      have their homiletical thinking and         followed this counsel.
tion is correct, fine. But who is to        practice refreshed by reading this book        And so is this language concerning
know?  Is the essayist objective? Is        critically also.                            the application of the sermon sound:
he a disciple of the man about whom            Here is a sample of the author's         "The application dare not, however, be
he writes, and therefore sympathetic        thinking on the relation of the text to     anything alien imported into the text,
to him, or is he an opponent and a          the sermon, and I like, this kind of        as though the preacher' needed to add
severe critic7 This, you will under-        thinking: "Whatever the text that has       to the contents of the text something
stand, makes a world of difference. It      been chosen it must come to its full        of his own. He must, on the contrary,
would make a world of difference,           rights in  t!he sermon.     The sermon      take the Word of God, whose meaning
for example, whether James  Daane  or       dare not deal with matters that have        in the past he has ascertained, set it
I would expound and evaluate the the-       nothing to do with the text; that would     unaltered and unabridged, with all its
ology of Herman Hoeksema. Hence,            be to turn a word of God into a lying       winsomeness and all its severity, in
more than a mere introduction, and          signboard, to use it as a mere stopgap      the midst of the present, and let it say
a very limited one, this book cannot        or superficial adornment. Nor dare          to the men of today what it said to the
be. I immediately sense that Bromiley       the text become merely a motto or           men of the past." pp. 361,362.
is too sympathetic toward Barth, and        title of the sermon, or serve as apoint        Baker Book House is to be con-
that Smedes is too enamored of  Ber-        of departure from which the preacher        gratulated on this reprint. It is a
kouwer.                                     advances to the elaboration of his own      valuable addition to the library of any
   After all, if one would study the-       ideas, the springboard for a plunge         seminarian or minister.


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360                                           THE  STANDARD  BEARER


                                      N E W S   F R O M   6UR  CHURCHES-

                                             April 10, 1968        Oh,  what  could  out Mission Committee do with a
   The last lecture of this winter's series was held in        medical  missionary  in Jamaica!
First Church March 28. Rev. J. A. Heys of Holland                                            *  *  *
was the speaker and the topic was, "The Last Hour."               A debating team from Michigan met with the young
In contemplating this Hour the speaker explained the-          people of Oak Lawn March 24 and discussed the chal-
meaning of the term, showed the part we are to play            lenge, "Reformation in the Protestant Reformed
in it, and found no little comfort in the fact that this       Churches - Why!"
Hour is in the hands of the Timeless Timekeeper, and                                         * *  *
the end of the Hour will be for us the time to enter the          Holland's congregation recently welcomed into their
timeless Day in the beauty and bliss of God's Pres-            fellowship a family - father, mother, and five daughters
ence.                                                          - from a Christian Reformed Church in Zeeland.
   The weather was perfect to draw a good crowd                                              * *  *
filling the main floor quite solidly. Rev. H. Veldman             Our High School Board, in a Newsletter of April 7,
led in opening devotions, and Rev. J. Kortering closed         rejoiced in the fact that teacher personnel has been
with prayer. The organist was the same as for all the          recruited with our existing Christian school losing but
lectures, Mrs. C. Lubbers, but the organ was not the           one to this staff. Less than a week after-the Society
same. To make way for their newly purchased organ,             meeting the contractors were pouring cement for
this one is in the final stages of dis-mantling and only       footings and wall of the building. The Newsletter said
about one third of the pipes were usable, but the              in part, "It seems they didn't have patience to wait for
audience were lusty singers and were carried along             groundbreaking ceremonies. Rightly so! Now if  .we
quite well with the crippled instrument under the skill-       can talk them into a 20 minute coffee-break on the 20th
ful fingers of a good organist.                                of April, we plan on having a Corner-Stone Laying
                            * * *                              ceremony! The contractors are the Newhof Associates;
   The Eastern Mens' League met in Southeast Church            the Newhof brothers have always been members of our
April 1 with Rev. H. Veldman as speaker. He answered           First Church in Grand Rapids. The staff will include,
the question, "How will the unity of the saints be             Mr. Roland Petersen, Administrator and part-time
realized in the Latter Days?" Mr. Ted Engelsma,                teacher, Miss A. Lubbers, Mrs. I. Quenga, Mr. D.
president of the League, led in devotions and intro-           Korhorn, Mr. C. Reitsma and Mr. V`. Huber. Our new
duced the speaker. Two young ladies, Ellen Kregel              high school is indeed taking shape !
and Brenda Rietema, favored the men with an organ-                                           * * *
piano duet, a variation built on the hymn, "Christ is             The Scholarship Fund of the Federation of Young
Risen." After recess business was conducted, ques-             People's Societies is one project that always needs
tions were answered, and Mr. D. Meulenberg led in a            remembering by our people. All contributions to this
prayer of thanksgiving.                                        worthy cause are to be sent to Donald J. Faber, 1123
                            * *  *                             Cooper Ave. S.E. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507; ap-
   The Junior Young People of First Church met with            plications for scholarships must be sent to Prof. H.
Hope's Young People in joint session recently. The             Hanko, 4665 Ju-Lee-On S.W. Grand Rapids, Michigan
after recess discussion was on, "The Signs of the Last         49504.    This Fund supports any young people who
Times." Have you noticed the ever recurrent interest           intend to enter the teaching profession with a'scholar-
in the Second Coming of our Lord shown in the above            ship stipend. Surely this is a worthy cause, you will
meetings centered around the precursory signs of that          agree.
last event on God's time-clock?                                                              ***
                            * *  *                                Mr. Tom Elzinga, from our Holland Church, has a
   A male quartet of Redland's church was featured at          very interesting hobby: that of furnishing past Standard
a hymnsing, sponsored by the Salem Circle, in the              Bearers  to people asking for them. Recently a contact
local C.R 0 Church.        Their own auditorium was the        of his from New Jersey wrote that they were present-
setting for the Easter Cantata rendered by the Choral          ing their 21 year old son a graduation gift of fourteen
Society.                                                       bound volumes of the Standard Beaver. The current
                            * * *                              issues are being sent to him at college. They add that
   Southwest congregation was treated to a letter from         their younger son will inherit their bound volumes in
Dick and Doris Kreuzer found in the bulletin racks.            course of time. Mr. Elzinga has built shelves in his
Mr. Kreuzer, we understand, is a medical student               basement so that he can from them loan out any back
interning in Africa, working in the Sudan Interior             number of our magazine for a specified time. He also
Mission. His tour of duty will soon be over; he wrote,         has made a complete index of Scripture texts treated,
"We hope to share with you in detail some of the ex-           on those pages in the past. The owner of bound volumes
periences and impressions upon our return. The Lord            can enhance their value by a great deal with a copy of
willing, we will see you all in church June 2 at the           that index for a ready reference to their contents.
latest. Until then, we have several Reformed Witness              Rev. R. Decker has .received  the call from our South
Hour sermons to nourish us and remind us what a priv-          Holland congregation.
ilege and' a precious heritage is ours `as Protestant                                        **+
Reformed Christians;".                                            . . . see you in church                       J.M.F.


