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A  REF'ORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY  MAGAZINE


IN THIS ISSUE


   Meditation:
         The Resurrection of the Dry Bones


   Editorial:
         The Erring Views of Dr. H. M. Kuitert  (2)


   In Memoriam - The Rev. Gerrit Vos

   "The Dutch Meet Dixie"

   Blest With Hunger
                                 Volume XLIV / Number 20 / Sept. 1, 1968


458                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER




                             CONTENTS:                                                                        THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                                                                          Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August.
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       The Resurrection of the Dry Bones . . . . . . . . . .458                   -Editor-in-Chief:   Prof.  H.  C.  Hoeksema

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       The Erring Views of Dr. Kuitert (2) . . . . . . . . . .461                    Kortering, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Marinus Schipper,  Rev. Gise J.
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Meditation
                                        The Resurrection of the Dry' Bones
                                                                      Rev. J. Kortering

                                              "Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are
                                           the whole house of Israel: behold they say, Our bones
                                          are dried and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our
                                          parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them,  Thus
                                           saith the Lord God; Behold 0 my people, I will open
                                          your graves and cause you to come up out of your
                                          graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. . . . then
                                           shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it and
                                           performed it saith the Lord. "
                                                                                                  Ezekiel 37:11-14


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 459



  The valley was strewn with dry bones.                        of God were indeed troubled. They cast backward a
  They were very dry.                                          haggard glance of despair. Jerusalem, the city set upon a
  The Prophet Ezekiel was led by the Spirit to observe         hill, was destroyed. The gates were burned, the walls
them. God performed a mighty work upon them, He                were broken down, the houses were plundered, the
raised them up, so that they lived and stood up upon           inhabitants taken away to a strange land. Still worse, the
their feet, an exceeding great army.                           temple was destroyed. The Most Holy Place was
  This event had historical significance for Israel.           profaned, for the treasures of the house of God fattened
  Ezekiel was a prophet of God sent to proclaim the            the coffers of infidels. These lonely saints sat upon the
good news of the gospel to the captives in Babylon. The        hills of Babylon filled with sorrow. The Babylonians
Kingdom of Israel had already been taken captive. This         taunted them by requesting them to sing some of Zion's
had been followed shortly by an attack upon the cities         songs, but they answered, "How can we sing the Lord's
of Judah under the leadership of the Assyrian captain,         songs in a strange land?" Their bones were dried up, the
Sennacherib. In this assault, Sennacherib took about           cause of the Lord seemed doomed, the seed of the
200,000 of the inhabitants of Judah into Babylon.              woman was overcome, they pined beneath the oppres-
Among these captives were Ezekiel and Daniel. Daniel           sor's heel. The hope of Israel seemed lost, for Christ
was taken to the capital city, Babylon, while Ezekiel          could not be born in Babylon.
was taken to the rural country in the vicinity of the            Yet, we must ask a penetrating question, why were
River Chebar.                                                  they taken to Babylon? Surely it was not due to the fact
  The first part of Ezekiel's prophecy concerned itself        that Nebuchadnezzar had a stronger army than Israel,
with the warning that unless Judah repent from its sins        for had not the Lord fought the battles of Israel by few?
of idolatry, God would surely send the enemy to                Neither could the answer be that God had forsaken His
destroy it. While Ezekiel was sounding forth this              people, for He is not a God like the idols of the heathen
prophetic warning in Babylon, Jeremiah was pro-                that may be pre-occupied or distracted thus allowing the
claiming an identical gospel to the inhabitants of             surprise attack. His eyes are ever upon His own and His
Jerusalem. In fact, the first 32 chapters of Ezekiel are       ears are open to their cries. The answer must be found
very similar to the prophecy of Jeremiah. Even as these        in Israel, she had sinned! God was dealing with Israel in
servants of God had warned, Nebuchadnezzar came                the way of correction. He had sent Nebuchadnezzar as
against Jerusalem 11 years later and destroyed the city.       the hand of chastisement which would lead Israel to
Under his leadership the remainder of the Kingdom of           spiritual renewal in the way of repentance of sin.
Judah was laid waste and the people taken to Babylon.            This God demonstrated to Ezekiel through the vision.
  The faithfulness of Jehovah to His faltering people is         God resurrects sinners from the dead. He lifts them
demonstrated so beautifully in the words of this text. It      out of their spiritual graves and brings them to the
would seem that after such faithlessness, God's word to        promised land.
Israel would be that of hopeless condemnation. Surely            This is clearly shown by 3 distinct stages presented in
God could have sent the Prophet Ezekiel to declare, "I         the vision.
told you so! This is what you have coming, 0 Israel,             The first is described in verses l-3. Ezekiel had to
now I will utterly destroy you from the face of the            observe that the valley was filled with bones of fallen
earth." However, God is longsuffering toward  His              soldiers. This portrayed the true spiritual condition of
people. Therefore He sent the Prophet Ezekiel to bring         Israel as she is by nature and as God sees her. These very
another word to the captives, a gospel that concerned          dry bones cry aloud the truth of total depravity and
itself with the promise that God would accomplish His          human inability to save. According to Malachi, "For
desired end through the way of captivity, He would lead        behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and
His people to repentance and thus bring them back              all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be
again to the promised land.                                    stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up."
  The vision of the dry bones demonstrated this so             Ezekiel saw this very really, he. saw the evidence of
graphically.                                                   God's wrath upon sin. This applies no less to this
  The prophet was taken to a large open valley. Before         present dispensation. God has no mercy, love, or grace
him was the ghastly display of bones. Skeletons of fallen      for the wicked. Even man's great dreams and mighty
soldiers, disconnected bones were lying on the ground,         attempts to establish a society of man gives evidence not
exceeding dry. This was a picture of Israel. "Son of           of divine favor, but wrath. Before God, man is nothing
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel, behold         more than dry bones, consumed by His wrath.
they say, our bones are dried, our hope is lost: we are          The second aspect of the vision is recorded in verses
cut off for our parts." Israel, referred to here, is not to    4-6. Ezekiel as God's agent was commanded to prophesy
be distinguished from Judah, rather Israel here is the         directly to the bones that' they hear the word of the
true seed of the woman, the true name of Jacob the             Lord. Upon hearing that word they suddenly began to
father of the 12 tribes. He had declared, "I have seen         move, each bone connecting to its proper counterpart,
God face to face and my life is preserved." These people       receiving muscles, flesh, and skin. At, this stage they


460                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


were still lying down on the ground, for breath was not        resurrection that transpires through the preaching.
yet in them. They had the potential of life, but did not       Christ by His Spirit pricks that heart which is re-
experience it. This conveys the beautiful truth that God       generated and through this prick causes it to open up
is indeed the God of our salvation, By the wonder of His       and thus emit the graces of God in Christ. The love of
regeneration, He implants in each of His own children          God, mercy of God, and power of God flow forth from
the principle of life. Regeneration is the placing of the      the opened heart and this in turn affects the mind to
seed of the new man in the hearts of the elect. By this        assent to the truth, activates the will to desire to live the
act, God directly provides them with the. potential of         truth, and causes the child of God to respond in true joy
life which precedes the actual experience of it.               of salvation.
  The final stage of the vision is describe-d in verses 9        This is God's work. The Spirit asked Ezekiel, "Can
and 10. Here Ezekiel must prophesy to the wind to              these bones live?" His answer, "Lord God, thou
breathe upon these bodies and give them life, with the         knowest." From the point of view of Ezekiel the
result that they arise upon their feet, ready to march.        prophet, it was impossible. No minister can "win souls
This portrays in the vision the actual call of God which       for Christ." `Did those bones cooperate in their resurrec-
brings the living response of faith. Through the preach-       tion? The thought is foolish. Likewise there is not and
ing of the gospel God calls forth His own unto a living        there can not be cooperation between Christ and the
relationship of friendship with Him.                           sinner in the salvation of his soul. Man at best is nothing
  If we view this vision in its totality, we cannot help       but dry bones! The only life that can come forth from
concluding that the grand theme is that God surely saves       dry bones is the infused life from the living God through
His people. Ezekiel must not be afraid that suddenly           Christ who is THE Life.
God has become helpless and that the cause of Israel is          This is the comfort for the church. Ezekiel must
lost. Not in the least, for God saves and He does that         preach this gospel of peace. As far as lsrael was
sovereignly.                                                   concerned her cause appeared hopeless. Swallowed up in
  We learn from this vision that God performs His work         the obscure confines of Babylon, it seemed as if the
in the hearts of each one of His own. This becomes plain       cause of Christ was defeated. What alone could allay the
from the relationship between the second and third             fears of the people of God? This, salvation is of the
stages in the vision. Regeneration precedes the calling.       Lord! What He begins He also performs even unto the
When Christ finished His mediatorial work and made             end. He resurrects from the dead and those whom He
complete satisfaction for the sins of His own, He              resurrects are surely made alive and kept alive unto the
ascended into heaven. Through His Spirit He directs the        end.
preaching of the gospel. It is His will that some                Hence the assuring promise, "I will open your
reprobate do not even hear the word, it is also His will       graves." This means that God will surely give to His
that some hear it and this hearing contributes to the          people the grace to repent of their sins and turn from
development of their sin. Principally however, the             them Ezekiel and the church of all ages must know that
preaching is directed to the elect and redeemed people         God changes stubborn hearts, and He will do that in all
of Go,d. Now notice carefully that this word is not            those who are precious in His sight. He will bring them
directed to the natural man who is yet in his sin; rather      to their knees and cause them to cry out for mercy.
it is directed to the regenerated child of God who is             In that way God also promised, "Ye shall know that I
prepared by God for the preaching of the gospel.               am the Lord." `Obviously this means not only that they
Ezekiel had to prophesy to the wind to breathe in the          know that God exists, not only that God is the only
nostrils of those bodies that were prepared for this           God, but especially that the God of all salvation is
breath. So Christ also directs the call of His gospel to       worthy to be feared! We must turn from our evil way
His regenerated children. This tells us then that since the    and walk in His commandments for God's sake, in order
gospel is not directed to the natural man, the effective-      that the glory of our salvation will be His alone.
ness of the gospel is not dependent upon natural means.           Then we can understand that these soldiers were
It is not the logic of the gospel as it .appeals to natural    ready to walk back to Canaan. This typically repre-
man that brings about conversion. It is not the                sented God's elect returning to God's place of fellow-
persuasiveness of argumentation that moves the will of         ship which in the highest sense of the word is heaven.
the natural man. Nor is it the tempo of human                     Nothing can possibly keep God's inheritance from
emotionalism that activates the christian to cry out, "I       that desired and promised end.
believe." Rather, it is the work of Christ whereby He             When the cause of the church appears dark, we, too,
calls to conscious expression that which He already            must remember that salvation is of the Lord; He shall
performed before the encounter of the preaching.               surely perform it.
  Scripture explains this beautifully. The preaching is           Nothing can frustrate that work.
described as the "sword of the Spirit." When the word is          To be saved is to be saved indeed. To God be the
preached, we read that hearts are "pricked." This results      glory!
in the "opening" of the heart. This is the mighty


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   461



Editoria 1

                    The  Erring  Views  of  Dr.  H.M.  Kuitert  (2)

                                               ProJ: H.C. Hoeksema


An Account of Dr. Kuitert's Lecture on the Genesis            follow, nevertheless were far too brief and scant to
Question  (continued)                                         constitute a treatment of the doctrine of Scripture or
  In the August issue I reported briefly about Dr.            even of the implications of Kuitert's view of Genesis for
Kuitert's view of the proper exegesis of Genesis l-3.         the doctrine of Scripture. One really would have to
  The second division of his lecture dealt with the           study Berkouwer in order to understand at all fully
implications of Kuitert's view for the doctrine of            Kuitert's view of Scripture. But let me mention a few
Scripture, and about this I now report.                       items. In the first place, he was extremely critical of
  Again, however, I must interject the remark that            what he called the traditional view of Scripture. But in
Kuitert's treatment of this subject was anything but          his criticism he never defined the so-called traditional
scholarly, even apart from the fact that it was anything      view. He did give indications that what he was criticizing
but Scriptural and Reformed. One would, even from the         was not the traditional view, but a caricature of it. Thus,
point of view of formal scholarship, expect better things     for example, he mentioned that inspiration does not
from the famous Free University. This should be evident       mean that something drops out of the blue. Not only is
on the very surface. For who would dream of dealing           this suggestion a caricature of the traditional view, but it
with such an important subject as the doctrine of             is a crude and irreverent one. I know of no traditional
Scripture and its authority in connection with the entire     view which represents inspiration as something dropping
Genesis-question in the short space of one-third of a         out of the blue. I do know of an inspiration according
45-minute lecture, and then, too, would attempt to            to which holy men of God spake as they were moved by
present and support a radically divergent view, besides?      the Holy Spirit. And I do know of "all Scripture" being
I cannot refrain from suggesting that the very attempt        "God-breathed" or "given by inspiration of God." In
was rather foolhardy.                                         this same connection Kuitert accused the traditional
  At the same time, Dr. Kuitert succeeded in making           view of not doing justice to the human factor in
known his fundamental approach to Scripture and his           Scripture, and he claimed that orthodoxy has always
attitude toward what he termed the traditional view of        wanted to keep that human factor as small as possible.
Scripture. He also illustrated the boldness with which        They had to acknowledge that human factor, but they
these new theologians are setting forth their position.       wanted to keep it small. They did not know what to do
They seem to feel secure in their position, to have the       with the human factor. In contrast, Kuitert's presenta-
confidence that they can get away with what they say          tion of Genesis does justice to this human factor, he
without penalty.                                              claims. Further, Kuitert charged the traditional concep-
  What were Kuitert's claims in this connection?              tion with a wrong view of the authority of Scripture,
  In the first place, he claimed that his alleged exegesis    with a conception of authority which is in conflict with
(I say "alleged" because it was no exegesis at all) of        the real authority of Scripture. He accuses the tradi-
Genesis takes the "human element" in Scripture into           tional view of always wanting to derive certainty from
account. In the second place, in close connection with        Scripture, with holding that the Bible must give faith its
this, he claimed that he did not want to abandon the          foundation. He maintained that we must break through
authority of Scripture, but only a certain conception of      this certainty structure. Christ, he said, is the ground of
that authority, namely, what he called the traditional        faith. What must be emphasized is the content of the
conception of that authority. In the third place, he          Bible, not its inspiredness apart from the content. He
made it plain that he wants to adopt in toto the view of      emphasized again and again, both in his lecture and in
Dr. Berkouwer on Holy Scripture. He had high praise           his replies to questions, his opposition to the idea of a
for Berkouwer's recent volumes on Scripture and               formal authority of Scripture. In reply to one critical
especially for Berkouwer's views on perspicuity, recom-       question as to perspicuity in connection with his
mending Berkouwer to all and claiming that these were         presentation of Genesis, he gave no answer, but in
the best volumes Berkouwer has yet written. Along             glowing terms recommended Berkouwer. In response to
these lines, he made several remarks which, while they        another question, he boldly stated that Moses did not
point to the fundamental course which Kuitert wants to        write Genesis. In fact, he scoffed at the very idea that


462                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



anyone would believe this today. Again, in response to          happened. These are the implications of Kuitert's
another question, he made the bold statement that there         statement. There was something. Something happened;
is no guarantee that the Bible is the Word of God. In           But it is'anyone's guess what it was that happened. Your
response to a question whether Acts 1 must be read in           guess, in fact, is as good as Kuitert's.
the same way as Genesis 1, he said that the whole Bible           It was at this juncture, in the second place, that "the
must not be read figuratively. There are some figurative        cat came out of the bag" as far as Kuitert's view of
parts, some folk stories (a la Koole), and some historical      Scripture and his motivation and starting-point are
parts (as Acts 1); but even this is not historical in the       concerned. For he stated that theology must "face the
o r d i n a r y   s e n s e .                                   facts, face the data." It must confront the historical and
        All of these remarks must be understood in the          scientific data. "You cannot talk the fossils out of
context of the fact that Kuitert adopts Berkouwer's             existence," he said. It is perfectly obvious, therefore,
view of Scripture and will speak of authority not in any        that it is this alleged scientific and historical data which
objective sense, but only in connection with the                constitutes Kuitert's authority over against the author-
correlativity of faith and the message of the gospel.           ity of Scripture, and which moves him not only to
Ultimately this is subjectivism. And it is this  subjec-        revamp all of dogmatics but also to "exegete" Genesis
tivism which allows a man like Kuitert to make of               1-3. in such a way that it fits in with this alleged
Genesis what his imagination leads him to make of it, and       historical and scientific data.
to go picking and choosing through Scripture what he              In the third place, although chronologically this came
will believe and what he will not believe. It is principally    a little later in his speech, Kuitert accuses what he calls
the subjectivism of the higher critic, who exalts the           traditional dogmatics of being unable to connect crea-
authority of his own mind and reason above the                  tion and Christ. He made reference to the fact that
authority of God and His Word. The insidious part of it         Barth in his dogmatics ties creation and Christ together;
is that Kuitert presents all these ideas as a supposedly        but he made the very bold claim that the Christian
Reformed theologian. And the ironic part is that he             church never knew what to do with passages like
charges the so-called traditional view with harboring           Ephesians 1 and Colossians 1: 15, ff. For the beneffit of
residues of rationalistic tendencies. It reminds one very       the reader, let me quote the passages in question. In
graphically of what the apostle Paul writes about having        Ephesians 1: 9, 10 we read: "Having made known unto
a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, II          us the mystery of his will, according to his good
Timothy 3:5.                                                    pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the
        But I must continue my report before engaging in        dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather
further criticism.                                              together in one all things in Christ, both  which are in
It was especially in the third main division of his             heaven, and which are on earth; even in him." But
lecture that the radical character of Kuitert's erring views    especially did Kuitert refer several times to Colossians 1:
came to the fore. Here it became evident that what              15-19: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the
Kuitert aims at is the destruction of all that has ever         firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things
been Reformed in dogmatics. He aims at a complete               created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible
revamping of dogmatics. Moreover, he is completely              and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
frank about this; he makes absolutely no effort to hide         principalities, or powers: all things were created by him,
:+
Il..                                                            and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all
        First of all, he very bluntly stated that his view      things consist. And he is the head of the body, the
involved entirely new insights and far-reaching implica-        church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
tions for dogmatics over against the traditional view. By       dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.
the traditional view Kuitert means the  creation-fall-          For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness
redemption scheme. This, according to Kuitert, we must          dwell." Kuitert made reference to the fact that some
get rid of. There must be a complete re-orientation of          have explained Colossians 1 as referring simply to the
dogmatics. Dogmatics has been built up on a creation-           Second Person of the Trinity as such, while Paul was
fall-redemption scheme; but today we know that this             evidently speaking of the role of Christ in creation. But
was not a historical pattern. There was no such thing as        he emphatically insisted that the Christian church, our
a paradise situation. Mark what this means! There was           Reformed fathers included, never knew what to do with
no creation as Genesis describes it. There was no garden.       passages like these and that they failed to connect Christ
There were no trees. There was no Adam and no Eve.              and creation. And, of course, the obvious implication
There was no Satan and no serpent. There was no                 was that this was due to the fact that they held the
temptation and no fall. There was no God Who came               traditional view of Genesis and the traditional creation-
and rescued Adam and Eve from the depth of their fall           fall-redemption scheme in dogmatics.
and made known to them the promise of Genesis 3 : 15.             I will not comment on this point now, but will return
All this is not a matter of history; and the account of         to it in my criticism later.
Genesis is not a report of what happened and how it               Finally, if you ask whether Dr. Kuitert attempted to


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  463


furnish anything positive concerning the dogmatical            according to Kuitert, but he was very vague on this and
implications of his view, the answer is that he did, but       did not offer any clear explanation of the place of the
that he was very vague as to any details. He maintained        cross in his view. During the question period he
that the creation story of Genesis is interpretive. It is a    conceded that terms like "expiation" and "propitia-
"teaching model." We must unravel it from the histori-         tion" must not be left out because they are Biblical
cal. If we want to use the model of Genesis l-3 today,         terms. He claimed to believe these terms too. But he did
we must not use it  as  an account of how things               not explain what place they had in his view, and he
happened. Nor must we speak with Barth of "saga:" We           quickly added that they were not the only words about
must see it as a teaching model. How can this model be         Christ in the Bible.
used? Can the creation story be told as the story of              Dr. Kuitert summed up this part of  his speech by
development, of evolution (here for the first time he          stating that there are many problems left with regard to
used the term "evolution")? Yes; we can apply it as            the development of the dogmatical implications of his
follows. First of all, we must learn to see the whole of       view. And he concluded by speaking in vague gener-
our history as the course of God's action. God the             alities of a panorama unfolding and of life becoming
Creator is not something of the past, but He has to do         meaningful under this view.
with the present and the future. Secondly, sin is the             Thus, briefly, Dr. Kuitert presented his views. As I
negative, the "contra." It is regression, reversion to what    said before, I have prepared this account only from my
we ought not to be. Note, by the way, that this is the         own notes, taken hastily during the lecture. In the
language of evolutionism. In the question period Kuitert       nature of the case, I was unable to write down all the
was very vague and evasive when he was asked from              details, especially since Dr. Kuitert spoke rather rapidly
what position we have first progressed if sin is reversion     and because his English was very difficult to catch
and regression. Thirdly, Christ nullifies that regression.     sometimes. Nevertheless, I am certain that I have
He deflects what interferes with history. He completes         presented the thrust of his remarks accurately.
the development. He is the measure of creation as                 A critical evaluation of this address and related
history, as progress. A cross of Christ is necessary,          matters will follow.


All Around  C's

                        THE WORLD COUNCIL AT UPPSALA

                                                   Pro5 H. Hanko

  It was, according to all reports, a drab and colorless       Martin Luther King, Jr. He addressed the council on its
meeting. There was little new, little that had not been        theme: "Behold I make all things new." But the speaker
said before and probably said better, little advance in        as well as the Council as a whole made it very clear that
the cause of world-wide ecumenicity. There would be            all things must be made new by man and not by Christ.
little point in reporting on it except that The World          They reiterated their firm conviction that this newness
Council of Churches has become an issue within the             of all things would come about through world revolu-
churches of the Reformed tradition. At present the             tion and through finding solutions to the world's
Gereformeerde Kerken in the Netherlands have decided           problems, in order to usher in a utopia of the earth. All
that, while they will not join for the present, there is no    the speeches and papers pointed in this direction.
real reason why they cannot join. And the Christian              Some of the more interesting examples:
Reformed Church, although they have repudiated mem-              James Baldwin, the negro American novelist, ad-
bership in the WCC, sent observers to this year's meeting      dressed the assembly on the problem of the races. He
in Uppsala, Sweden.                                            told the delegates that the churches had betrayed black
  The meeting lasted for sixteen days and the Council          Christians; that "the destruction of the Christian church
listened to no less than 75 speeches and attempted to          as it is today may not only be necessary but desirable";
digest about 10 tons of mimeographed reports and               that "the church began in revolution and will probably
statements.                                                    have to  .be reborn in revolution." Although he is an
  The opening address to the 750 delegates was made            agnostic, his views were quite generally acceptable to
by Dr. D. T.  Niles, a universalist of the Methodist           the Council.' He spoke in defense of Stokely Carmichael
Church. He was substituting for the murdered Dr.               and insisted that black power advocates were not as


464                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



dangerous as many whites in the United States and            had various observers present at Uppsala, but no formal
South Africa.                                                plans for union could yet be made. Jesuit Roberto Tucci
  In another speech, Barbara Ward, a British economist,      addressed the Council but said that psychological and
proposed a world tax of one per cent of the gross            practical obstacles bar a union in the immediate future.
national product of each nation to help the poor and         He did propose that the WCC and the Vatican jointly
hungry nations.                                              study the advantages and disadvantages of Roman
  As far as decisions were concerned,. social issues         Catholic membership in the WCC. This proposal was
almost completely dominated the assembly. The dele-          endorsed by the delegates and nine Roman Catholic
gates approved of the principle of selective conscien-       theologians were appointed to the World Council's staff.
tious objection and-urged nations to adopt proposals for       Strangely enough it was the Russian delegates,
a Peace Corps as an alternative to military service. The     branded by many as being Communist agents within the
American delegates, some 200 strong, voiced their            World Council, who complained most loudly about the
support of four men (including Dr. Benjamin Speck and        lack of theological concern in the assembly. The
Rev. William Slone Coffin Jr.) who have been found           well-known Metropolitan Nikodim opposed a Western
guilty by the courts for violating the Selective Service     proposal for broadening "Marxist-Christian dialogue" on
laws by aiding men in escaping the draft. By doing this      the grounds: "How can there be dialogue when the basic
the delegates supported the principle of civil disobe-       beliefs of one are denied by the other?" A delegate of
dience at any time a man disagrees with a particular law.    the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of
  The Council also once more demanded that Commu-            America expressed disappointment and disillusionment
nist China be admitted to the United Nations. The            that there was almost no theological discussion at the
delegates did not vote outright for a proposal which         Council. And it was the Orthodox bloc which voted for
condemned American Vietnam policies, but it did adopt        a conservative (by council standards) report on the
a resolution calling for immediate and unconditional         reforming of Christian liturgy.
cessation of the bombing of North Vietnam by Ameri-            How anyone who has the love of the Church of Christ
can planes. And it made a plea to both sides in the          in his heart can imagine that this organization is
conflict to end their military activities.                   representative of the unity of the body of Christ is an
  The question of union with Rome was also high on           insoluble mystery. The WCC is a powerful, noisy, and
the agenda. The recent papal "confession of faith" (Cf.      influential representative of apostate Christianity and
below) cast a shadow over this part of the proceedings,      dreadful omen of the role which the apostate church
but the Council moved ahead in the only way possible         shall play in the future.
under the circumstances. The Roman Catholic Church

                                  POPE PAUL'S CONSERVATISM
       If Pope John XXIII opened the windows of the          Church has held to, but which are coming increasingly
Roman Catholic Church to the winds of change, Pope           under attack. He followed chiefly the general outline of
Paul is determined to slam them shut once again. At the      the Apostle's Creed, but directed his remarks especially
continuation of the Vatican Council meeting over which       to those who, within his own church, have shown a
Pope Paul presided after the death of his predecessor, it    strong desire to go in the way of modem theological
was supposed that Paul might follow the example of           liberalism.
John - although many suspected that the vigor of John           In doing all this he filled the liberals within his own
would be lost. They have been badly disappointed.            church and ecumenical leaders of Protestantism with
   Two recent events have demonstrated this.                 dismay. It was generally interpreted as an attempt to
   Marking the end of the Roman Catholic Year of             keep the Romish Church bound up in the traditions of
Faith, the Pope addressed some remarks to his church         the past and to protect the church from the threat of
concerning the faith of the church in this age. In           renewal and possible union with Protestantism.
affirming the position he occupies as successor of Peter,       Then, in the early part of August, the Pope added
he used these statements to make "a profession of faith,     insult to injury when he came out with his decisions on
pronounce a creed which, without being `strictly             the question of birth control. This question had
speaking a dogmatic definition, repeats in substance,        assumed increasing importance in the church, and the
with some developments called for by the spiritual           pope had appointed a commission to study the matter
condition of our time, the Creed of Nicea, the creed of      in the light of modem contraceptive developments. This
the immortal tradition of the Holy Church of God."           commission worked for three years and presented their
  Paul insisted on his own authoritative position in the     opinions. It is reported that the recommendations of the
church as Vicar of Christ and used this position to          commission were that the traditional stand of the
reaffirm some traditional doctrines which the Romish         Romish Church be altered, the stand that the use of all


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     465
                                                                                                                            -

contraceptive devices is a violation of natural law and is      theologian has described the situation as "a crisis of
therefore a "mortal sin." Essentially the commission            conscience" to which the people should not be sub-
wanted to make the use of contraceptives a matter of            jected.
conscience. But Paul rejected out of hand the advice of            But even many clergy and theologians in this country
his commission and reaffirmed in the strongest possible         and in Europe were shocked and dismayed. Already in
language the traditional stand of the Church. He insisted       Europe a committee of clergymen is sending a Protest to
that this was the stand of the church in the past, that         the p'ope and in it firmly insists on their right to dissent.
there were no reasons for altering it, that this was the        In this country too many clergy are already assuring
position of the church today, and that all members of           their troubled parishioners that they have every inten-
his church must adhere to this pronouncement of the             tion of disregarding the pope's position.
pope who speaks as the Vicar of Christ, that failure to do         And so the question really comes down to one of tine
so will involve one in mortal sin. The encyclical in which      authority of the church. Many leaders in the Roman
this position was set forth fell short of an infallible pro-    Catholic Church thought that this question had been
nouncement of the pope speaking  ex  cathedra,   but all        decided when the last Vatican Council defined, appar-
the authority of the papal chair lies behind it nonethe-        ently with Paul's approval, the extent of papal authority
less. Paul addressed himself to his own members, to             and transferred much of it to the church's bishops. But
governments around the world urging them to cease               now Paul is flying in the face of these decisions and
taking an active role in birth control programs and to          pulling the reins of absolute authority out of the hands
scientists to whom he assigned the task of making the           of the lesser clergy and grasping them firmly with his
rhythm method (approved by the Romish Church) a                 own. It is this which troubles Roman Catholics most
scientifically safe method of birth control.                    deeply. They do not want an autocratic pope who can
       His pronouncements aroused a storm of protest. So        speak and expect the whole church to bow in humble
much so that Paul called a special "press conference" to        submission and admiration.
tell the world and his church how much suffering the               It is difficult to tell who will prevail for the present.
decision had caused him but how deeply he felt about            There are enough clergy who disagree to make this issue
it.                                                             of birth control the focal point of the struggle for
       It is estimated that as high as 60% of Roman Catholic    authority. Some are already talking about the possibility
married couples make use of artificial birth control            of schism in the ranks of Roman Catholicism. But Paul
devices. And most of them are not about to bow before           is old. He may be able to close the windows in the
the latest papal pronouncement. But this puts them in a         church part way and keep out the winds of change. But
most serious dilemma. A mortal sin is a serious matter          others will. follow. The windows will be thrown opeti.
and will have to be confessed in the confessional. Many         once again. The pressures of union with Protestantism
are hoping that priests who disagree with the stand of          are too great from both sides to be resisted perma-
the pope simply will not ask questions concerning this          nently.
matter of those who appear in the confessional; but one



Trying the Spirits


                                     The  Rea//y NEW Morality?

                                                  Rev. R.C. Harbach


       Modem liberal religion is a philosophy of ethics and      ethical problems of the present life. God and the world
morality. In fact, liberal interpretation makes ethics and       to come are matters of personal  opmon. Man's chief
morals of central importance in the shade of which               end is to increase in the knowledge of love and the
stands religion, faith and practice. The biblical and            practice of right.
theological religion of redemption is reduced to a social           This modem thought is a form of pantheism, the idea
ethic, with Jesus Christ the paragon of ethicists. Not the       that all men are divine, and God is present in and
saving power of God, but the spiritual competence of             identified with the whole world. Pantheism, because it is
man is the important element in the modem gospel. It             a naturalistic philosophy, secularizes all of life, even
propagates a social gospel which concerns itself with the        secularizes God, so that it is a kind of religious atheism.


466                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


Then since God is everything and everything is God,            period, the famous Dr. Howard A. Kelly expressed
there is no' such thing as morality or sin. The present        concern over man's "moral bankruptcy . . . the minimiz-
craze for liquor, lust and LSD, given a religious facade,      ing the value of human life, the pleasure mad habits of
is claimed to be man's new quest for God; sin is a             otir people, and the ever increasing amount of dis-
groping for God. The voice of atheism and man's natural        honesty . . . the inevitable . . . immorality of the sexes
urges are the voice of God in the soul. Drunkenness,           and its consequent train of diseases. . . Thank God
sexual promiscuity and "trips" on exotic drugs are             these terrible diseases are not quite so universal in
expressions of man's right of self-indulgence in search        America as on the continent of Europe, but they are
for the more abundant life. Hippyism is a brave effort to      bad enough." (ibid.) But today, where the USA is only a
expand the soul, blaze a trail through unexplored              few years behind aping Europe in certain evils, it takes
regions, and attain exciting new experiences. The sloppy       the lead in making other evils the fashion. New York's
attire, the unkempt appearance and the attendant life of       Rabbi Wise said fifty-four years ago, "Nearly all men
debauchery are a quest for life, a quest for God. Where        and women were shocked when the wretched modem
there is, all too often, deviation from pure "flower           dances were perpetuated for the first time." Dr. John
power" to ugliness, dinginess, horror and murder,              Haynes Holmes, a leading liberal minister in 1920 said,
trampling on the good, the true and the beautiful, man's       "Dancing today, even among our so called `best people,'
reeking, bloody footsteps only mark a blundering trend         is indecent . . . We noticed all kinds of dances and
toward God. If Paul were here he would say that such           postures which, . .,. in the New York slum districts
questing for "God" is no more than a sacrificing to            . . . chaperons . . . forbid as immoral. Nowhere in our
demons. And if Isaiah were here he would call it a             social life today is there such evidences of degeneracy
making a covenant with death.                                  as" (with) "the dance. . . The music is barbaric, the
   Since modern thought denies the infallible, verbal,         dressing immodest and the dances brutally sexual."
plenary inspiration of Holy Scripture, there is for            What he also said then of the BrOadway stage could also
liberalism no absolute standard of truth, neither in           just as warrantably be said of today's television. It "is
doctrine nor in life. The Bible and the system of truth        crowded with women who are actresses only in the
derived therefrom, and all concepts of morality, are but       sense that they are willing to expose their nakedness to
the result of man's thinking. There is therefore no            the public gaze, and with men whose only qualifications
objective rule for right and wrong. Back in 1915, Dr.          are the ability to tell a dirty joke in a dirty way." The
James H. Tufts, head of the department of philosophy           following is also from 1920. Would it more pointedly
in the University of Chicago, said, "The newer ethics is       apply to the theater, the movie or television? "Marital
itself yet uncertain . . . It does not know exactly what       infidelity has always been a `legitimate' dramatic
justice is." (The Biblical World, p. 13) Neither did Plato,    motive, but formerly it was suggested, not shown.
as his Republic reveals. Nor does modern man, from the         Today it is given to us in full detail, and our authors and
Hippies to the religious liberals. `There is none that         producers have come to look upon seduction and rape
understandeth, they are all gone out of the way."              as perfectly legitimate material for frank depiction
  Moral principles, it is claimed, are not developed from      before miscellaneous audiences." The world swills all
divine revelation, but are mere products of evolution,         this in the name of art.
and so are in continual flux. Part of the evolutionary           Religious liberalism used to say that there is no
development of man's morality is his abrogation or             religion but morality. Then religion was displaced with
changing of existing rules- of ethics. The law of God is a     humanistic ethics, and now both are substituted for a
product of the human mind, and so may be broken or             "new" morality. Another liberal religious writer com-
ignored. The result is a trend back to savagery. Where         plained that "the authority of the message is gone; we
religious liberalism used to advocate Jesus as a leading       are left without any authority, religion is adrift and
moral exemplar, now it advocates, "Indulge your                optimism is pure speculation. We are hastening through
instincts." The "truth" is only a pragmatic slogging           our modern liberalism into conditions of religious
along in the rut of contemporary expediencies, is but a        dissolution." Another liberal professor adjudged that
do-it-yourself manufacture as one stumbles along. The          "we are fast drifting into a cultured paganism. - In fifty
worst kind of so called realism invades the magazines,         years crime has increased four hundred percent. Some-
paperbacks, novels, high school and college required           thing must be done to underpin the virtues of our
reading, lecture halls, movies, theater and TV. So that        people." Now, forty-eight years later, ours is not a
three' great evils prevail, fraud, immorality and violence.    Christian nation, but one of "cultured paganism,"
Back in 1920, Philadelphia's Rabbi Krauskopf said,             (al though paganism, not heathenism, was always
"Many who are pleasure mad and indulge in the social           cultured) with crime still increasing, and modem liber-
depravities of today -know that their excesses and             alism pouring oil on the fires by encouraging civil
indecencies and immoralities  are iniquitous, but they         disobedience.
have no longer the will power to withstand them."                In that same 1920 an eyewitness of  Socialisti in
(Modern Religious Liberalism, Horsch, 12 1) In this same       Australia related how the advantages of legislation for


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                467


the benefit of women and children were realized,. the          f&ce has merely been transferred. But this does not in
long-sought eight-hour day installed, the labor party in       any way help the growth of new spiritual forces among
power, and everything then expected to be happy and            us. The rectification of wrong can  only come through
beautiful in a socialist state. But "in the streets of         the development of our spiritual forces." `(ital., RCH)
Sydney I saw more drunken men and women than I ever            Advocates of the American social gospel have long
saw in Chicago, and the whole community was getting            claimed it impossible to be a Christian in a  non-
the . . . something-for-nothing attitude. Why, you could       socialized commonwealth. But the Communist  Go&i
see whole groups stand in line on Saturday afternoon           has testified that Socialism and Communism produce
waiting to bet a portion of their week's wages in              the exact opposite of anything Christian.
government protected lotteries. A greater illegitimate           "T. Robert Ingram writes in The World under God's
birth rate prevails there  thali in any `other nation of       Law (39): `There is the recent expose in Congress of the
which we have record, and a lower general birth rate in        list of reading material approved by the National
the cities than of any nation of which we have record.         Council of Churches, which included books so obscene
Why? Material prosperity. Seven million people fringed         that the offending material was not even read aloud in
around an area as large as the United States."                 the House of Representatives. What ever may have been
  Maxim  Go&i, one of the world's leading Com-                 the explanation, it is an unshakable fact that the
munists, revolutionary protagonist, donor of Gorki             National Council of Churches gave religious sanction to
Awards to best Communist revolutionary authors in the          the distribution of lascivious literature." (Baal or God,
U.S., wrote, "What alarms me most is the fact that the         334)
social revolution does  not  bring with it any sign of           The New Morality is not really new. It can be traced
spiritual regeneration among men. It does not seem to          iack to the line of Cain. For "the thing that hath been,
be making men more honest. It is  not  lifting their           it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that
self-esteem nor the moral value of their labor . . . one       which shall be done: and there is no new thing under
does not notice among the masses that the revolution           the sun. IS there any thing whereof it may be said, `See!
has lifted or quickened their social conscience. Human         This is new!`? it hath been already of old time, which
life is appraised just as cheaply as it was before. The        was before us." (Eccles. 1:9,10) Not new, but certainly
habits of the old regime are not disappearing. The new         much more advanced in the complexities of evil since its
authorities are just as brutal as the old ones were and, in    beginning, even of the beginning of its American form at
the bargain, their manners are worse. The new officials        the turn of the century. For prodf, read in Herman  J.
permit themselves to be bribed just as easily, and they        Otten's BaaZ or God the chapter on The Law of God.
send men to prison in herds as the old did, Physical



In His Fear

                                      Blest With Hunger

                                                  Rev. John A. Heys


   To be hungry is one thing.                                  blessedness of the new Jerusalem is such that its
   To go away hungry is another.                               inhabitants shall not hunger any more.
   Jesus said, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst           But is it not true even in our natural life that hunger
after righteousness; for they shall be filled." Matthew        is a good sign? A mother notices something is wrong
5: 5 And the glory of the new Jerusalem is described in        with her child when that child no longer has any hunger.
Revelation 7:  15,16  in the words, "Therefore are they        A healthy child has a strong appetite and seems to be
before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night          hungry all the time. Hunger is the desire and the
in His temple: -and He that sitteth on the throne shall        awareness of a need for food. Blessed are they that are
dwell among'them: They shall hunger no more, neither           aware of the need of the righteousness of Christ: for
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor      they shall be filled. Sad is the condition of those who
any heat.-"                                                    know not this need, who know not their misery, their
   Blessed . . are they that hunger. . . . And yet the         unrighteousness before God, and know not the joyful


468                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


sound of the gospel. Blessed.are they that hunger with        these five points. They had not forgotten, and enjoyed
desire also for the Word of God, for they shall not go        seeing the tulips. Electricity is to be found only in the
away hungry. There will be hunger in the Holy City in         Port Maria and Lucea church, So in Islington we were
the sense that there will be the awareness of and desire      given the use of a Baptist church; and in Reading,
for spiritual food. There will be no hunger in the sense      Lacovia, before a Wednesday evening service, we plan to
that any in that city shall go away hungry.                   make use of a school. Even then we are experiencing
   We would do well to examine our spiritual appetite         some difficulty because of the power shortage here in
both for righteousness and for the Bread of life. We may      Jamaica. The papers furnish a schedule of what hours
find that we are not too healthy spiritually and are quite    the power will be shut off; but this schedule is only
content to go away hungry, that is, go away empty of          another matter in Jamaica to disregard. It is not adhered
the  blessegs of God's kingdom. We may find that we           to with any certainty. This was no small source of
are too eager for the things of this world, so that we        inconvenience for us at first. For our first two weeks
have no time even and room for the spiritual.                 were spent in three cottages that had electric stoves; and
   At the moment we are with many who are blest with          we had to get used to candle light by nightfall - which
hunger. Ildeed, here on the island of Jamaica they also       here is 7: 15 P.M.  - and to having our dinner partly
hunger for earthly bread and go away hungry. Although         cooked or just started only to have to improvise with
there are signs of some improvement in living conditions      something cold. But now we are settled under a
of the brethren and sisters of the churches of Revs.          different arrangement in the same place which we had
Elliott, Frame and Ruddock, the need is still evident         last year, which was not available before, and we cook
and great. Many know what it is to go away hungry for         with gas. And upon returning home we probably will
the needs of this life. And this concerns us. We have         have a good picture of our breakfast cook, Mr. Feenstra,
expressed to each other our compassion for them. They         preparing our pancakes. He really does know how.
are to be pitied when they go away hungry. But we               Our first Sunday we spent with Rev. Elliott at Mahoe
must not have one smallest part of pity for them in           - a two hours drive from Islington. And that was a real
regard to their hunger for the truth.  Illstead we repeat     mountain drive. We thought last year that we had
the words of Jesus, Blessed they are in their hunger for      climbed the steepest; but this one takes all the skill and
righteousness and for Christ Who is their righteousness.      experience of one accustomed to mountain driving. We
They do not go away hungry; and they have again this          did it without incident and are thankful that the
year confessed that they are richly fed with the truth,       concern whose car we rented last year reserved for us
which they have learned to call, "The Reformed Faith."        this year a brand new Ford Cortina that had only 240
  We left for Jamaica  - Mr. and Mrs. Thys Feenstra,          miles on it when we took possession. It is a joy to drive
my wife and I  - June 25 and began our labors with a          it on these narrow and steep roads. Here again in Mahoe
service at First Hill, Lucea, Wednesday evening, June 26.     the Word was received by eager and attentive ears.
For the hungry souls assembled the Bread of Life, as it       Wednesday evening was spent at Port Maria and Thurs-
is found in Isaiah 40: 1,2, was broken that night.            day evening at Buff Bay.  Mahoe is up the mountains
  They ate that spiritual food and went away satisfied.       from Buff Bay and required footpower mountain
And we left with a sense of thankfulness that once again      climbing as well as auto power. Sunday, July 7 was set
we might present the Word to them as they had never           aside for a morning service at Reading, West Lacovia and
heard it before they came in contact with our churches.       an evening service up the mountains again on a very
It is July 15 today, and in a span of less than three         rough road to Northhampton Mountain. This was again
weeks we have preached 11 times, met with three               a very full day. For we left here at 8 A.M. for a two
groups - from Port Maria and Islington on the eastern         hour drive to Reading, had our morning service, retumed
end of the island to Lucea on the west to show them           to our car for a packed lunch, and then returned for an
some colored slides which we took of them last year,          afiernoon meeting at  whicli  we first played a tape of
and of American scenes, especially from our home              rxeetings  of the Mission Committee members, which
town, Holland, Michigan, according to promise. Two            they had prepared at our last meeting before we left for
years ago we began to conduct b correspondence course         Jamaica. The people were glad for this personal touch
with these brethren and sisters on this island and            and contact with our people whom they had not yet
introduced to them the five points of Calvinism, using        met. Smiles were also to be seen when the voice of Mr.
the word T U L I P to help them remember the first            Meulenberg, whom they did meet face to face some
letter of each point and thus the five points themselves.     years ago, came to their ears from the recdrder. We then
They were eager to see what a real tulip looked like.         sat down with them  - rather than to preach to them
And last year we took pictures along to show them, but        from the pulpit  - and gathered them around us to
were unable to rent or use a projector. So this time we       discuss Psalm 23. To us this gave a new and wonderful
took along the excess baggage of our projector and            feeling of unity with them in the truth but also of
showed them tulips of many kinds and colors and used          thankfulness for the opportunity to discuss God's Word
these pictures to remind them of the truth expressed in       with them. We used the catechetical approach of


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 4.69


questioning them and answering their questions in              many more Psalters are needed; and gradually they do
regard to the text, applying their answers to their life.      add a new, song. Some of the numbers they do sing are
We did this the three Sundays thus far; and these              10; 161 with their own tune, 200, 221, 278, 381, 383
Jamaican brethren and sisters also seemed to enjoy this        and 408. We try in our sermons to refer to the truths in
form of instruction very much. And they know their             these Psalter numbers, for we feel here too that we have
Bible! Make no mistake about that. That also is our            a point of contact, and an opportunity to give further
point. of contact with them. Just begin to quote a text        instruction and explanation.
in a' sermon, and they will quote the rest'with you. This        Our schedule for the week ahead calls for preaching
is invaluable for instruction. You can forget your             at Mt. Lebanon Wednesday evening and Shrewsbury
outline and explain to them what they themselves are           Thursday evening. The rest of the week we expect to be
quoting with you.                                              busy with the shipment of clothing that is due to arrive
  That they hunger for the truth - not because they do         between July 11 and 16. We need not go to Kingston
not know their Bible but because they desire the richer        for this and thus our preaching schedule will not be
presentation of that truth, the Gospel as it is in Christ -    disrupted by these necessary but mundane things. We
is evident from how they follow you. The group at              expect to have it shipped by rail to Montego Bay where
Reading followed us to Northhampton Mt. And to our             we can be present when customs examines it and then
consternation but also pleasant surprise they were at          distribute it to the three groups of churches. The three
Lucea this last Sunday, leaving at 5 in the morning and        ministers can dome to Montego Bay and arrangement
returning back at 9 to be home about 11 P.M. You               for trucks can be made for the local areas.
cannot fill their desire for the truth. They do not walk         The time does not drag but has flown by thus far and
away as those .who have no more appetite. They ask for         we expect the last two thirds of our stay to be the same.
more.                                                          There is much instruction that can yet be given. The
  July 10 - 0 yes let it be pointed out that the service       surface has only been scratched. Especially as far as the
at Buff Bay was on the Fourth of July, an ordinary day         children are concerned there is a tremendous field here
here and no holiday, but a different Fourth from vrihat        for giving instruction in the truth which we have been
we would have had on that holiday in the States - we           blessed to know and enjoy all these years. This is even
were at Johnsontown and Thursday at Waterworks.                true of the children in the hills who do not belong to
Sunday we were at Lucea and experienced another of             the churches of Revs. Elliott, Frame and Ruddock. And
these torrential rains. It delayed our Psalter sing which      we have been contacted `by two ministers of other
the Hope Heralds prepared for these brethren and sisters       groups who attended our services about closer affiliation
and our discussion of Psalm 23 in Lucea. But it did cool       with us. A school established here on the island would
off our day as well as give the fields some much needed        be attended not only but be a blessing to these people
moisture.                                                      of another color and race who have the same God and
  There is, we believe, a marked improvement in the            Lord and salvation.
Psalter singing since the last shipment of Psalters. But


Examining  Ecumenicalism


                      "THE DUTCH MEET DIXIE"(I1)

                                                  Rev. G. Van Baren


   The proposed plan of union between the Reformed             those in the Reformed Church in America who also
Church in America and the Presbyterian Church in the           firmly believe this. In a radio interview over WFUR in
United States (Southern Presbyterian) is a rather              Grand Rapids, the Rev. Gordon Girod of the Seventh
lengthy doctrine of some 97 pages. For those interested,       Reformed Church in that city stated that there are
this plan of union in booklet form is available in             Reformed churches in the Midwest that have already
Presbyterian or Reformed Church Book Stores for 25~.           decided that they can not go along with any merger
I would point out in this and subsequent articles various      even for the one-year requirement of the merger
features in this proposed union which certainly could          proposal.
not be acceptable to any truly Reformed man. There are           Apart from the question whether these two  de-


470                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



nominations maintain the same basic Calvin&tic doctri-                 vides adequate procedural safeguards, when the Pres-
nal confession, the proposed plan of union is itself                   bytery finds that the interest of the Church im-
unacceptable to the Reformed Christian.                                peratively demands such dissolution.
                                                                          (10) To control the location of new churches and
                                                                       of churches desiring to move to new locations.
Hierarchical church govevnmen  t                                          (11) To take special oversight of churches without
                                                                       Pastors, and appoint a Minister of the Presbytery to
  There are presently men and ministers in the Re-                     preside over the Consistory in such churches.
formed Church who continue to hold to the funda-                          (12) To receive under its care Candidates for the
mental truths of the Reformed Confessions  - even                      Ministry.
though the denomination as a whole has, to a large                        (13) To ordain, receive, dismiss, install, remove, and
degree, departed from these. Such men remain within                    judge Ministers.
the Reformed denomination because, they contend,                          (14) To establish the pastoral relationship; and to
each local church remains fairly autonomous. A local                   dissolve it at the request of one or both parties, or,
church can refuse to go along with such decisions of the               when it finds that the purity and peace of the Church
                                                                       imperatively demand it, following hearing which pro-
Synod with which it can not agree. However, the                        vides procedural safeguards as in cases of process . . . .
proposed plan of union places the power and authority                     (15) To set apart Ministers as Teachers, Evangelists,
in the higher bodies  - and the local consistory must                  and in other works proper to the ministry.
submit. It is this feature which many in the Reformed                     (16) To require Ministers to devote themselves
Church find very objectionable. Some instances of this                 diligently to their sacred calling and to censure the
follow:                                                                delinquent.
  A minister, according to the present practice in                        (17) To devise measures for the enlargement of the
Presbyterian churches, will be considered a member of                  Church within its bounds.
the Presbytery (equivalent to our Classis) rather than of                 (18) To condemn erroneous opinions which injure
the local consistory, and is accountable to it.                        the purity or peace of the Church.
                                                                          (19) To encourage whatever pertains to the spiritual
          15-2. A minister shall hold his membership in the            welfare of the churches under its care.
       Presbytery where his work is located, unless there are             (20) To institute and superintend the agencies
       reasons satisfactory to his Presbytery why he should            necessary for its work.
       not do so. The Presbytery may give a Minister                      (21) To appoint Commissioners to the General
       permission to labor outside its geographical bounds
       and in work not under its jurisdiction; but no Minister         Assembly.
       shall engage in work which is within the bounds of and             (22) To overture the Synod or the Assembly for
       which falls properly under the jurisdiction of another          such measures as may be of common advantage to the
       Presbytery without its consent.                                 whole Church.
  The power of the Presbytery is also set forth in                   Now a careful study of the above would reveal, of
paragraph 15.8 :                                                   course, that many of the "powers" of the Presbytery
                                                                   will be similar to those which a  Classis normally
          The Presbytery has power:
          (1) To receive and decide references, appeals and        exercises. However, there are also many "powers" which
       complaints brought before it according to constitu-         the Reformed man has always maintained are to be
       tional procedures.                                          rightly exercised only by -the Consistory. Particularly it
          (2) To assume original jurisdiction in cases in which    is to be noted that the Presbytery assumes the right of
       a Session cannot exercise its authority.                    initiating discipline of members, ministers, and churches
          (3) To review the records of Consistories, redress       within its jurisdiction. It has the "power" also of seeing
       whatever they may have done contrary to order, and          to it that "lawful injunctions of the higher courts are
       take effectual care that they observe the Constitution      obeyed." Such a "power" would not bode well for a
       of the Church.                                              local church, for instance, which can not for conscience
          (4) To see that the lawful injunctions of the higher     sake make use of some of the liberal and modernistic
       courts are obeyed.                                          Sunday School materials presently produced within
          (5) To visit churches for the purpose of inquiring
       into and redressing the evils that may have arisen in       these two denominations.
       them. When necessary for the welfare of the Church,           The denomination also claims the property of a local
       the Presbytery may dissolve the active relationship         church if such church decides to withdraw from the
       between an Elder and the church, provided there has         denomination:
       been a hearing which affords procedural safeguards as              6.6. . . .If a particular church withdraws from the
       in cases-of process . . . . .    -                              communion and discipline of the Presbyterian Re-
          (6) To unite or divide churches, at the request of           formed Church in America, or if a church is dissolved
       the members thereof.                                            by the Presbytery, or if a church otherwise ceases to
        (7) To organize new churches.                                  exist, those ,who -hold the. title to the property shall
          (8) To receive and dismiss churches.                         deliver, convey and transfer to the Presbytery of which
          (9) To dissolve. churches, after hearing which pro-          the church was a member, or to the authorized agents


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        4.7 1
--

        of the Presbytery, all property of the church; and the        follo%4ng, certain stipulations listed in the plan of union.
        receipt and acquittance of the Presbytery, or its proper      I would assume that the  purppse of this. one-year
        representatives, shall be a full and complete discharge       enforced union would be to give -all the churches and
        of all liabilities of such persons holding the property of    membership of these churches an dpportunity to observe
        the church. The Presbytery receiving such property            the new denomination in action for one year. Possibly,
        shall apply the same or the proceeds thereof for the          too, a one-year "cooling off' period would reduce the
        purposes of the Church at its discretion.                     possibility of large numbers of churches forsaking the
      It `might be noted,  however, that provision is made            new denomination.
for any dissenting congregation to remove itself from
the new denomination within a specified time without                    At the last Synod and General Assembly an amend-
the penalty of loss of property. The procedure to be                  ment was also offered and adopted which provides for a
followed is very precisely outlined. The decision states              guarantee for escape later if this new denomination
in part:                                                              should subsequently decide to merge with other
          Article 1'7. Withdrawal Provision - Congregation            denominations. There were. those in the Reformed
       and Property.                                                  Church who expressed misgivings concerning the present
          It is agreed as a part of the Plan of Union between         discussions carried on in the Consultation for Church
       the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian            Union of which the Southern Presbyterian Church is a
       Church in the United States, for the purposes of this          part. Therefore the following amendment was also
       union alone, that any particular church under the              adopted:
       jurisdiction of either body may petition the General                  In the event of the union of the Presbyterian
       Assembly of the Presbyterian Reformed Church in                    Reformed Church in America with any other
       America for leave to withdraw from the Presbyterian                ecclesiastical body, adequate provision shall be made in
       Reformed Church in America with its property, but                  any plan of union to permit the withdrawal from the
       only after full and complete compliance with the                   union of any congregation of the Presbyterian Re-
       following procedure:                                               formed Church in America with its property in such
          17.01. No particular church shall take any action               manner and such procedures as shall be equitable.
       regarding such petition to withdraw before the first, or .'        Equitable provisions regarding ministers desiring to
       after the second anniversary of the effective date of              withdraw from such new denomination shall also be
       the union, except as hereinafter provided in case of               made.
       reversal on appeal.                                              In  a subsequent article I hope to point out other
      According to this provision,  all churches of both              unacceptable provisions (for any Reformed person)
denominations would be obliged to remain in the united                which will become effective if this plan of union is
church for  a period of one year. Then for a one year                 finally adopted.
period any church can remove itself from the union by





                               In Memoriam

                               Reverend Gerrit Vos,

                              1894-1968, Called Home





      When asked by the editor of our  Standard Bearer  to            student at that time in our seminary. I  dso  met him
write this obituary article in memory of our late Rev.                several times at our home in Chicago during those early
Vos, I consented gladly. It was more than forty years                 years of our churches.
ago that I met Rev. Vos for the first time. He  `was a                   Rev. Vos- was ordained in September of 1927. He


472                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


served the following churches: Sioux Center, Iowa;                status in 1966. Our hearts were saddened when he was
Hu ds o nville, Michigan; Redlands, California; and               compelled to lay down his work. How often he was
Edgerton, Minnesota. He served our Hudsonville church             asked to continue his labors in our churches at least to
twice, his second term of service there following his             some extent. But his answer was always negative.
ministry in Edgerton in the years 1948 to 1966, and his              In addition to his own physical troubles, he was also
first ministry there extending from 1929 to 1932. He              burdened at home. We now refer to the condition of his
became minister emeritus in 1966. Rev. Vos died at the            beloved wife. For many years she has suffered because
age of 73. The reason why he served the church in Sioux           of many infirmities and miseries. He felt very keenly
Center only two years, from 1927 to 1929, was because,            that it was his calling to care for her who had always
although ordained in 1927, he returned to Michigan in             stood so faithfully at his side. This explains why he
1929 in order to finish his schooling in our seminary.            hardly ever attended our worship services. These appear-
During those early years of our churches' existence               ances at our worship services were-limited to the times
there was a crying need for ministers, and Rev. Vos was           when we celebrated the Lord's Supper. For the rest, he
pressed into service before he had finished his schooling         listened to our services in his home.
at our seminary.                                                     Rev. Vos is no longer with us. When the writer of
  Rev. Vos was unique in his preaching and teaching.              these lines received the news of his death the Tuesday
The remark has often been made, "There is only one                morning of July 23, he could hardly believe it. The
Rev. Vos!" How true is this statement! Many of us will            deceased had been involved in a car accident some
remember the unique style of the meditations which he             weeks prior to his death, but he died because of his
wrote for our  Standard Bearer,  When the late Rev.               heart condition. The undersigned led the funeral service
Hoeksema became sick in 1947 and was forced to lay                in the church where he had preached so many years, and
down some of his activities, Rev. Vos was appointed to            Rev. Lubbers led the service at the grave. The funeral
write the meditations. He performed this task nobly,              message was based on Luke 18: 13, "God be merciful to
and his meditations were always enjoyed. But Rev.                 me a sinner." This was at Rev. Vos's personal request.
Vos's contributions to our magazine began many years              He had emphasized more than once that if anything
earlier; he was one of the first associate editors of the         characterized his life, it was the truth that he was in
Standard Bearer.  For many years in this capacity he              himself a hopelessly lost sinner, saved only because of
wrote on the Psalms in the Holland language. His style            the wonderful mercies of our covenant God.
and mannerisms were peculiarly his own.                              Rev. Vos is no longer with us. However, he will not
  He knew and loved the Reformed truth. Ordained a                be forgotten by us, especially not by those who knew
minister of the gospel in 1927, he was 32 years old               him intimately and personally. We all feel his loss. It is
when he became a minister of the Word of God. Of him              true that he had not been active in the activities of our
it may therefore be said that he lived through the years          churches since 1966; but he and his labors among us will
of 1920 through 1924, the years which form the                    not soon be forgotten. He now lives and has received his
background of the history of our churches. He was                 reward, bestowed upon him and upon all God's people
always faithful and true to the truth which our churches          in His sovereign grace. May the God of all mercy
proclaim and which we know to be according to the                 comfort his widow and family according to and in
Word of God. He understood that truth and surely loved            harmony with His Word and promise. And may his
it with all his heart. He was also a guiding light at our         departure remind us of the truth that life is as a dream
ecclesiastical assemblies, at classical and synodical meet-       when it is past, that we may labor while it is day, before
ings. How often it occurred that we looked to him to              the night cometh when no man can work. And may the
formulate motions and lead us through many problems               Lord give us grace to say with the apostle Paul: "For we
and difficulties!                                                 know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
  Rev. Vos had not been in the best of health for many            dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made
years. It was thirteen and a half years ago that he had           with hands, eternal in the heavens." And may we as
his first heart attack. However, he continued his                 churches continue to be faithful in the proclamation of
activities in our church of Hudsonville and in among our          the truth, only because of the God of our salvation Who
churches. Finally he was forced to accept emeritus                is "merciful to me, the sinner."         Rev. H. Veldman

             ATTENTION!              Effective Immediately, the business office of the Standard Bearer
                                     will be:
                                                               The Standard Bearer,
                                                               Mr. H. Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.
                                                               P.O. Box 6064
                                                               Grand Rapids,  Mich. 49506.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    473


Contributions

                                A Letter From New Jersey

Rev. H.C. Hoeksema
Editor of The Standard Bearer                                  d. All those who are teaching at Calvin College and
Dear Brother in Christ:                                      Seminary be forbidden from all teaching contrary to
  As a true Calvinist committed to our Reformed faith,       Holy Scripture, such as present day tendencies regarding
I am deeply disturbed by what happened at the 1968           infallibility of Scripture and a form of theistic evolution
Synod of the Christian  Reformed Church meeting at           which will destroy our historically established Reformed
Grand Rapids, Michigan this June. Its decisions were         faith and doctrine.
characterized by (1) increased compromise on doctrinal         Two significant decisions were made by Synod on
defection; and (2) increased ecumenical and social           ecumenical and social involvement:
involvement.                                                   (1) Denial of a request by the Tiv Church of Nigeria,
  In the area of doctrinal defection there was a refusal     Africa (scene of CRC mission) for a Reformed mis-
to make doctrinal pronouncements and the following           sionary seminary for the training of their ministers.
overtures were denied:                                       Instead Synod chose to support the ecumenical existing
  a. Appoint a committee to study in the light of            Theological College of Northern Nigeria. This action
Scripture and the creeds the teachings made publicly by      could ruin the Reformed witness of the flourishing Tiv
some professors and instructors in the Gereformeerde         Church. Which together with sending observers to the
Kerken van Nederland, such as the denial of infallibility    World Council general assembly at Uppsala, Sweden is a
of Scripture by Drs.. Ridderbos and Berkouwer and, the       definite step by the CRC to increased ecumenical
1967 Lunteren Synod repudiation of the 1926 Synod of         involvement.
Assen, which upheld the historicity of the Genesis             (2) Social involvement on the race issue. Synod made
record.                                                      seven strong deliverances on racism with the proviso
  b. Clarify the Church's teaching on limited atonement      that those found guilty of racist practices be dealt with
by referring the churches to the Compendium of               ."according to the provisions of the Church Order
Christian Religion (approved by the Synod of  1957),         regarding Admonition and Discipline." In other words,
Question and Answer 41, which reads, "For whom did           penalties are to be invoked for infractions of the social
Christ die? Christ died for all those whom God in            gospel, but not for the true gospel.
sovereign grace has chosen to be His people." Instead          The Orthodox Presbyterian fraternal delegate to the
Synod's compromising 1967 decision in the case of            CRC 1968 Synod assured them we need the CRC's
Professor Harold Dekker was reaffirmed.                      heritage of the past, but warned of the dangerous
  c. Discipline a Calvin College instructor of theology      ecumenical encroachments on the world scene. One
and religion, who in a sermon on Matthew 25: 3 l-46          thing is sure. We do not need the foregoing type trends
stated that the basis for our judgment and salvation is      so sadly evident in the CRC.
determined by our works (Social welfare) and that                                   Yours ever valiant for truth,
faith, orthodoxy, piety and obedience are not essential.
This man was white-washed and reappointed as in-                                    William A. De Jonge,
structor.                                                                           Montclair, New Jersey



From Our Mission Board

                                           Mission News

                           i                       Rev, J. Kortering

   It is both stimulating and heart warming for members      the foreground annually at the time of Synod when the
of the Mission Committee to observe how important the        work done in the past year is discussed and evaluated
work of missions in our churches really is. This comes to    ,and new mandates are given with a view to future


474                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


labors. Much time was spent at Synod in considering          selves, we have to secure the land on which these
this calling which we have. Many lively discussions          buildings either already are or will be constructed. Since
concentrated upon our work and what must be done.            Jamaica is an emerging country, just developing its
This is encouraging for the Mission Committee not only,      economic resources, many of the formal aspects of
but for all our members, for this indicates that the         property rights, especially as it relates to the hill
concern of the  churches  rests in this important work.      country, are also being developed. There are approxi-
The labors of our Mission Committee must be re-              mately 15 to 20 relatively small congregations affiliated
membered in our daily and congregational prayers, that       with the Protestant Reformed Churches of Jamaica. Our
the truth of the gospel may go forth in power under the      emissaries have established contact with a retired judge
blessing of our covenant God.                                who is willing to handle the legal aspects of securing the
  Our first committee meeting after Synod was held on        properties of these churches. The cost of this amounts
June 19. This meeting reflected a new zeal and firm          to approximately 80 to 100 dollars for each church.
resolve to carry on the work. The officers elected were      This points out the need for careful study before
Rev. M. Schipper - President, Rev. H. Veldman - Vice         decisions are taken by the Mission Committee. We have
President, Rev. G. Van Baren - Secretary, and Rev. G.        about  $1,500.00 in the church building fund, this
Lubbers-- Vice Secretary. The committee is composed          having been raised to date by collections taken in our
of the following members besides the officers: Revs. J.      churches. If there is no possibility of consolidating these
Heys, J. Kortering, and Elders J. Kalsbeek, D. Kooienga,     churches into larger congregations, something which still
and: .H. Meulenberg. Elder J. M. Faber was also elected      has to be determined, the entire amount could be used
by Synod, but he informed the committee that since he        up simply in the securing of property from a legal point
is already serving the churches in a large capacity, he      of view without using any in actual construction. Since
was unable to serve on this committee. The following         we have limited means, perhaps the wisest method
subcommittees were appointed, Finance Committee: H.          would be to secure certain strategically located prop-
Meulenberg and D. Kooienga; Radio Committee: J.              erties and use some of the money to improve the
Kortering and J. Kalsbeek; Jamaica Committee: J. Heys,       buildings already constructed on them and increase this
G. Lubbers, D. Kooienga, and H. Meulenberg; and the          as the imoney becomes available. Since Synod decided to
New Policy Committee: H. Veldman, G. Van Baren, M.           request the churches to take up, once again, four
Schipper, and J. Kalsbeek.                                   collections this year for the building needs, it must
  Synod approved the sending of Rev. J. Heys and Mr.         become apparent to all of us that this need is great.
T. Feenstra of our Redlands congregation to Jamaica to       Properly constructed government approved buildings are
labor there for approximately 8 weeks. A few finishing       essential to the very existence of these congregations.
details were completed at this meeting, including the          Synod also decided to instruct First Church to call a
extending of our official greetings through our              missionary for the specific field of Jamaica. In carrying
emissaries and each committee member had the oppor-          out this decision, the Mission Committee has submitted
tunity to extend personal greetings via the tape recorder    a gross list to First Church from which a trio will be
which Rev. Heys took with him to the meeting. These          made and the Lord willing a missionary called. This
brethren and their wives arrived safely- in Jamaica on       gross list includes the following ministers: D. Engelsma,
June 25.                                                     C. Hanko, R. Harbach, J. Heys, G. Lubbers, M.
  Details of their labors on the island will come from       Schipper, and B. Woudenberg. The need for a mission-
them. According to plans, Rev. Heys looked forward to        ary to labor there full time is great, and our prayers
spending time with the ministers and congregations,          must also arise to God that He will fill this need in His
each in his own location. Last summer the ministers          good time.
came together in a central location for certain hours of       While First Church proceeds to call a missionary, the
formal class study; this summer he planned to work           Mission Committee is also instructed to contact each
with them in their own areas and thus allow a closer         consistory for a two-fold reason. The first is to
fellowship with the members of the churches. By this he      determine whether their minister would be available for
will be able to know more specifically the spiritual         going to Jamaica for a period of 6 months to a year to
needs and on what level we have to work with the             labor there. The second is whether they have any elders
people. It is a true source of gratitude that there is a     or ex-elders who would be available to assist the
good working relationship between the ministers and          minister for a like period of time. The purpose of this is
their congregations and our "missionary pastors" who         that in event no minister accepts the call to labor in
labor there.                                                 Jamaica, that later this year or earlier next year a
  Mr. Feenstra, a builder, has the difficult task of         minister and an elder can be sent to labor for a period of
appraising the church buildings and with Rev. Heys           6 months to a year. All this emphasizes the conviction
making recommendations as to what must be done to            that we need men for personal labor on the island.
help them. Synod took cognizance of the fact that              Details concerning the benevolence expended upon
before much money be spent on the buildings them-
                       .                                     the needy on the island will more than likely be


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          475


furnished by the Hudsonville deacons. There was                          coordination of radio broadcasting, distribution of
approximately  $3,000.00 available for this need and it                  literature, lecturing, and personal contacts, much careful
also appears that this will be more than spent for aiding                study and ground work has to be done.
the poor and sick. The deacons of Southeast church                  i      Synod also felt this need for extending our witness
have completed the clothing drive and shipped a good                     into "virgin" territory and therefore increased the
quantity of used clothing to Jamaica. At this writing                    budget for the radio broadcasting to  $9,000.00 and
word has not been received on the arrival; the estimated                 provided monies for expenses incurred in pamphlet
receiving date however would bring it to the island well                 distribution and travel. The Mission Committee has
within the time span for our emissaries to supervise in                  authorized the Literature Publication and Distribution
its distribution. Even in this we are reminded that the                  Committee to publish and distribute a tract written by
words of Christ, "the poor ye have always with you" are                  Rev. C. Hanko on the subject, "What is truly  Re-
still true for us as churches.                                           formed."
  An important part of the Mission Committee's                             In comparison to the activities of churches swallowed
activities also centers in the work of church extension.                 up in the ecumenical movement, these labors are
Thorough reports were received concerning the work                       pitifully small. No doubt we all at times even feel
done in northwest Iowa - Edgerton, Minnesota area as i frustrated by our inadequacy in performing the work of
well as the Pella, Iowa area. We are repeatedly reminded i church extension and missions. Yet, we must always
that there are many children of God outside our keep before our minds the true perspective of faith. The
churches who with us are sincerely concerned with the                    preaching of the gospel and the witness to the truth of
apostasy that is sweeping over the churches in America.                  God's unchangeable word is not determined by man nor
Our Synod of 1965 decided that our approach in                           by human circumstances. As churches we hold high the
lending a guiding hand in the midst of this confusion                    banner of the truth of God's absolute sovereignity.
and darkness must be systematic and organized. This                      While we see around us the inroads of Arminianism and
contact is to be made in two areas, first, in those areas                Modernism being dug into the moral fibre of the
in which we already have a church or churches, and                       reformed community, we must not ourselves falter
secondly, in new areas where as yet we do not have a                     beneath the banner of truth. God forbid that we deem it
Protestant Reformed congregation. Essential to the                       too heavy a banner to carry.
success of any effort put forth in areas in which we have                  Rather let us all take courage that the work of
churches is the cooperation of these churches. We must                   gathering the church is in truth the work of our exalted
not view the Mission Committee as some super-body                        King and High Priest Jesus Christ. Since He does not
who will take over the work of church extension.                         work apart from His church, but through His church, we
Rather the committee has the unique position to                          must rest assured that His word never returns unto Him
cooperate with and assist the local congregation. Past                   void. God will use it to the gathering of His own unto
experience shows that this works out very well. Pella is a               Himself and the leaving without excuse those who
small congregation, and through the means of radio                       willfully walk in apostasy and unbelief.
broadcasting public lectures, and the personal labors of                   There is need for ambassadors of Christ. We may be
Rev.  Schipper and others, wider contact has been                        thankful to God that He has provided us with seven
established with concerned people in that area. The                      young men who aspire to the ministry in our churches
Mission Committee has decided to continue this assist                    and will be studying in our Theological School this fall
by sending either Rev. Kortering or Rev. Veldman to                      D.V. This too we believe is an answer to our many
labor there for 4 Sundays, beginning September 15. The                   prayers that God send us laborers to enter into the field
lecture committee of the congregations of Hull, Doon,                    white already unto harvest.
and  Edgerton reports that they also plan to conduct                       Just as important is the need for the people of God to
more lectures in that area in addition to the sending out                be spiritually minded. The church that sends forth
of printed material and the radio broadcast.                             ambassadors must be the living expression of the body
  Our concern is not limited however, simply to those                    of Jesus Christ. Those who are outside of the body of
areas in which we already have churches. We must also                    Christ must see in the members who are already part of
reach out into new areas. Still being considered are the                 that body, that being one with them is most desirable
contacts that have been made in the eastern part of our                  for the salvation of their own souls and the glory of
country, the New Jersey and Pennsylvania area. Of                        God.
interest is our recent decision to contact the Consistory                  May God give each one of us faithfulness in our
of Redlands, requesting them to advise concerning the                    respective places in His church, that Zion may be
Bellflower  - Artesia and  Ripon, California area. Since                 gathered.
doing effective work in any of these `areas involves a
          But how do we know that God speaks to us personally? The answer is: ke speaks to us by His Spirit and thus
          applies the Word of the gospel to us personally, calling us evermore out of darkness to His marvellous light, and
          witnessing with our spirit that we are the sons of God. Rom. 8: 16.
                                                                                 - H. Hoeksema, "l'ke Wonder of Grace, "p. 120


476                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER



A  Cibud of Witnesses


                           B R I N G I N G   T H E   A R K   T O   J E R U S A L E M

                                                     Rev. B. Woudenberg


                                   And David arose, and went with all the people that
                                 were with him from Baale of Judah, to bring up from
                                 thence the ark of God, whose name is called by the
                                 name of the LORD of hosts, that dwelleth between the
                                 cherubims. . . .
                                   And they brought in the ark of the LORD, and set it
                                 in his place, in the midst .of the tabernacle that David
                                 had pitched  for  it: and David offered burnt offerings
                                 and peace offerings before the LORD. II Samuel 6-2, 1.7

  From the days when David had first roamed the land            hearts, until, that is, the wrath of Saul fell upon the
of Israel as a soldier of Saul's army, his attention had        house of Ahimelech for the assistance which they had
been attracted to that great city of the Jebusites named        given to David. Once again the tabernacle had been
Jerusalem. Here was a city in the very center of the            taken up and moved, this time to  Gibeon, with the
nation so inpenetrable that to that day they had not            result that the worship of God was maintained only in a
been able to dislodge the very limited forces of the            still more restricted form. Well did the Psalmist later
Jebusites from it. Instinctively he had been drawn to           sing,  Psalm  78:60,61, "He forsook the tabernacle of
look upon the city as an ideal location for the capital of      Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; and
their nation, and, even more, as a wonderful setting for        delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into
the tabernacle of their God. Thus one of his first moves        the enemy's hand."
after being fully established as king over all Israel was to       In spite of this, however, David did not think it well
move in upon the city and take it for his own. Almost           to take the original tabernacle and move it to Jerusalem.
miraculously through the heroism of Joab this was very          Possibly it was because he feared leaving the wrong
quickly done.                                                   impression by taking a building as historically important
  Into the city David moved to establish his home and           as the tabernacle of Moses out of one of the other tribes
his palace there, and at the same time he commanded             into a city found within the territory of his own tribe;
that a new tent should be constructed for the worship           and besides this he no doubt already had within the
of God in that same city. Actually the proper worship           back of his mind plans to build a temple for the keeping
of God had been falling into greater and greater disarray       of the covenant ark. Thus he merely ordered that a new
ever since. the children of Israel had entered the land of      tent should be built as a temporary residing place for
Canaan and especially since the Philistines had taken the       the ark and, calling the representatives of Israel together,
ark from the army of Israel at the battle of Ebenezer. In       spoke to them as follows, "if it seem. good unto you,
the earlier period it had been primarily a matter of            and that it be of the LORD our God, let us send abroad
neglect and spiritual decline in the life of Israel; but        unto our brethren every where, that are left in all the
when the Phi&tines  had won the battle of Ebenezer it           land of Israel, and with them also to the priests and
appears that they had also continued to march into              Levites which are in their cities and suburbs, that they
Shiloh itself where the tabernacle was located and              may gather themselves unto us: and let us bring again
rendered it desolate (See Psalm  78:60-64; Jeremiah             the ark of our God to us: for we enquired not at it in
7: 12-14). Although the tent itself was spared, it no           the days of Saul." (I Chronicles 13: 2,3).
longer had seemed safe or wise to leave it there, and so          By both the representatives of the people and by the
it was moved on to Nob. Greatly reduced from its glory,         people themselves this desire of David was met with
particularly because the ark of the covenant was no             great enthusiasm To those who were true worshippers
more to be found within it, the tabernacle and its              of God and understood welI the ways of Jehovah with
worship was nonetheless maintained for those few in             His people, it meant that at last the favor of the Lord
Israel who still sought the worship of God with all their       was fully returned to their nation and the time of


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   4.77


forgiveness for all of their past wickedness was to be        who were accordingly quite unafraid of it.
fulfilled. And then there were many others too, con-            How many there might have actually been there that
stituting no doubt the vast majority of the nation, who       day who realized how far this manner of carrying the
had very little comprehension of the real spiritual           ark was from the manner specified in the law we do not
importance of this event but who, nonetheless backed          know. Surely there must have been some, even if but a
the move of David with enthusiasm because they had            few, well enough versed in the traditions of Israel to
become enamoured of this their new king and whatever          know that this was not the way it was supposed to be,
he suggested seemed good.                                     and it is hard to imagine that David was not one of
  Nowhere was this message received with greater              them. But what was one to do when all the preparations
excitement, however, than in Kirjathjearim, and partic-       were complete; and the possibility of causing offense
ularly within the house of Abinadab there. At last it         was too great. With his implied consent that great
appeared that they were to receive some recognition for       company of Israel set out with all eyes upon that holy
keeping the ark of the covenant for these past seventy        ark which set there for all to see upon this new cart.
years. It was not that they had considered the ark to be        Actually, besides the fact that it was contrary to the
of such special importance during that time. In fact, it      law of God, the transportation of the ark by means of a
may well have been that their reason for receiving the        cart was quite inept and impractical. The roads of Israel,
ark in the first place was merely because they were less      and especially those which led through the hill country
fearful than most; and someone had to take it in after        surrounding Jerusalem, were little more than well worn
the terrible destruction which had fallen upon                foot paths which could become very narrow and rough
Bethshemesh after its people had presumed to handle           when the going became hard. The result was that very
the ark with their hands and even look into it. Few had       soon the cart upon which the ark rode began to bounce
wanted the ark after. that, but the people of                 and tip very badly once they had moved outside of the
Kirjathjearim had dared to take it in, so that for seventy    streets of the city. But to the sons of Abinadab, Uzzah
years it had stood practically unnoticed and uncared for      and Ahio, this presented no great problem. Already as
in the house of Abinadab. But now, one no less than the       children they had often touched the ark when it was
king himself had brought it to popular attention again,       still in their own home. They had no particular fear, or
and the people of Kirjathjearim were ready to take            respect for it either. At the moment the cart began to
advantage of the attention they were to receive. In fact,     tip too badly, Uzzah merely reached out his hand to the
they took it upon themselves to make the preparations         ark to steady it so that it might not fall. But there was a
for the transportation of this prized possession from         difference. The longsuffering of God toward the dis-
their town to the new capital city, Jerusalem.                respect and indifference reflected in this action once
  It was an immense gathering of people that came to          again had gone beyond that which He could endure.
Kirjathjearim, or Baale of Judah as it was called at that     There, before the eyes of all and as a lesson to them,
time, to bring forth the ark into the royal city. With        Uzzah was struck dead in a moment.
David's official company alone there were no less than          The people were amazed and dumbfounded. For the
30,000 chosen soldiers together with a great company          most  .part they did not understand what had happened
of musicians and many others while the size of the            or why. David really knew; but he was angry to think
throng of ordinary people who came to watch, we can           that the Lord should so disrupt this great and  well-
only imagine. The romance and excitement of the event         intentioned ceremony. Rebelliously, he called the whole
had moved the whole nation until people came from             move to a halt, commanded that the ark should be
every corner to see and watch, while to the minority of       placed in a nearby house, that of Obededom the Gittite,
people who really understood, it was like a spiritual         and returned to his home disappointed and hurting.
pilgrimage.                                                     Three months passed by before the heart of David
  When at last the great, festive throng arrived at their     gradually returned to a more proper and humble
village, the people of Baale were ready. With imagina-        understanding of this event. They were not uneventful
tion they had prepared for the transportation of the ark      months, for during this time David was called upon to
to Jerusalem. Rather than going back to the law for           turn back two attacks of the Philistine army. But God
their instructions, they had thought it most appropriate      was with him and gave him a glorious victory, making
if `they would merely carry through upon the manner of        evident that He had not forsaken His people completely.
transportation first used for the ark by the  Philistines     Finally, there also came to David a report that God was
when- they had returned to Israel. Carefully they had         blessing the house of Obededom with whom the ark was
built a whole new cart of new wood in the latest style of     being kept. The result was that once again David
the day, a most appropriate means of transportation, it       determined to go and finish bringing the ark to
seemed to them, reflecting their concern for this great       Jerusalem as he had planned.
ceremony. Then upon the cart they placed two men,               Once again it was a great multitude that went along
Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, men who had             to complete this transfer, only this time the crowd was
grown to maturity under the same roof as the ark and          missing many who before had been interested only in


478                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


the festivity of the occasion and the whole attitude was        The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the
much more subdued and much more reverent than it                      world, and they that dwell therein.
had been at first. The way of the Lord's lesson had been        For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established
painful and shocking, but it had been extremely                       it upon the floods.
effective in bringing through to the people that this was       Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who
no mere ordinary box which was carried: it was the ark                shall stand in his holy place?
of the covenant through which in typical form God               He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath
dwelt in the midst of His people. It was a foretaste of               not lifted up his soul unto vanity, and sworn
God's mercy for His people such as would be realized                  deceitfully.
only in its final form through the coming of Jesus Christ       He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and
to His people.                                                        righteousness from the God of his salvation.
  The new respect which the people felt for the ark of          This is the generation of them that seek him, that
the covenant was now evident throughout the great                     seek thy face, 0 Jacob.
ceremony. No longer was there any wooden cart in                Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye
imitation of the heathen, now the ark was borne upon                  everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come
the shoulders of the Levites as God in his law                        in.
commanded. Again, no sooner had they gone six paces             Who is this Ring of glory? The LORD strong and
than they stopped to offer sacrifices in acknowledgment               mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
of their own sin and unworthiness. But still the                Lift you your heads, 0 ye gates; even lift them up, ye
ceremony was not without joy, only now the joy was of                 everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come
a deeper spiritual tone than before. Leading the ark                  in.
came the king and about it and behind it were the               Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is
musicians and singers and all of the people. It is thought            the Ring of glory.
that as they approached the great city Jerusalem and          What more fitting figure could there be of Christ
began to ascend its slopes, that there went up from the       entering the New Jerusalem with all those who con-
lips of the people the words of the 24th Psalm especially     stitute the true Israel according to the election of our
written by David,                                             God.



                                         B O O K   R E V I E W

                                                      Pro5  H. Hanko

THE GREAT LIGHT, Luther and Reformation; by                   sketchily. But for interesting and informative reading
James Atkinson; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Com-               the book is hard to beat.
pany, 1968; 287 pp., $4.00.                                     One serious typographical error is an error on the
                                                              cover which reads: "Volume I: A.D. 1 to 800." This is
  This  .is Volume IV in the series on Church History         the second time the printers have made this error in this
entitled "The Advance of Christianity Through The             series. It is really inexcusable.              ):
Centuries." The series is edited by Prof. F. F. Bruce.          The book is highly recommended and our readers
This volume, as its title indicates, deals with the           are urged to purchase it.
Reformation, including the reformation in Germany,
Switzerland, England and Scotland.
  We have reviewed other volumes of this series in The
Standard Bearer  and need not enter into a detailed
review of the present work. We have found the entire
series to be an excellent work of considerable scholar-                        ANNUAL R.F.P.A. MEETING
ship. It is easy to read and makes the work valuable to
those without theological training and without extensive          The annual meeting of the Reformed Free Publish-
study in the field of Church History.                         ing Association is to be held Sept. 26 at 8 o'clock in our
  The book deals extensively with Luther's spiritual          Hope church.
and doctrinal development although it gives too impor-            Only once per year let us all attend this meeting.
tant a role to Luther in the Reformation. Consequently
the Calvin&tic aspect of the Reformation is treated too                      The Board (Sec. G. Pipe)


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  479


The Hope Prot. Ref. Christian School needs 1 Junior            The Heidelberg Catechism Books by Rev. H. Hoeksema
High Teacher for the 1968-69 School year. A teacher            have recently been marked down! ! Special prices are:
that could fill a part-time position would also be             Vol. I       In The Midst of Death               Lord's Day  l-4 $2.00
considered. If you can fill this need, please contact:         Vol. III     The Death of the Son of God         Lord's Day 11-16         2.00
                        Mr. Clare Kuiper                       Vol. IV The Lord of Glory                        Lord's Day 17-20         2.00
                        2450 Boulevard Dr., S.W.               Vol. V       Abundant Mercy                      Lord's Day 21-24         2.00
                        Wyoming, Michigan 49509                Vol. VIII Love The Lord Thy God                  Lord's Day 32-38         2.50
                                                               Vol. IX      Love Thy Neighbor for God's Sake    Lord's Day 39-44         2.00
                        LE 4-0098                              Vol. x       The Perfect Prayer                  Lord's Day 45-52         2.50
                                                                                                                Total.. . . . . . . . . $15.00
                                                               Sale Price of Complete set of Seven Books                              $12.00
                        IN MEMORIAM
Early Tuesday morning, July 23, our heavenly Father            Order from the Reformed Witness Hour
called home His servant, our husband, father, grand-                     P.O. Box 1230
father and great-grandfather                                             Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501                        Oscar Faber
                   REV. GERRIT VOS                                                                   Publicity & Book Committee
We are comforted in the knowledge that he was assured
of his salvation and that our heavenly Father doeth all
things well.                                                                              ANNIVERSARY
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His
saints." Ps. 116: 15                                           On September 27, 1968 our parents
Christina Vos                                                                 MR. & MRS. PETER DECKER, JR.
John & Nellis Poelstra and Family                              expect to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. We,
Pieter & Yvonne Vos and Family                                 their children, are thankful to our Covenant God for all
Ben and Marily Zandstra and Family                             He gave us through them. It is our prayer that in their
                                                               remaining days they may experience the continued
                                                               blessing of our God. "The Lord shall bless thee out of
                                                               Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                    -    days of thy life." Psalm 128:5
The Consistory of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed              Rev. & Mrs. Robert D. Decker
Church wishes to express its sincere and heartfelt                Mr. & Mrs. Carl Potjer
sympathy to Mrs. Vos and her family in the recent loss            Doris Ann Decker
of their husband, father and grandfather, at the age of           James E. Decker
73 years.                                                                  3 grandchildren
                 REVEREND GERRIT VOS
Their loss is also our loss and the loss of all our
churches. We acknowledge gratefully to the Lord his            Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
leadership and guidance in the many years he served us         meet, Lord willing, on Wednesday, September 4, at the
and our churches. May the Lord comfort the bereaved            Protestant Reformed Church of Edgerton, Minnesota.
in harmony with His Word and lead us to look forward           Classis ,will convene at 9:00 A.M.
to that glory into which he also entered. Matt.  25:34.
                         Rev. H. Veldman, Pres.                Delegates in need of lodging are to inform the clerk of
                         J.C. Lubbers, Clerk                   the Edger-ton consistory of their need.
                                                                                           Rev. David J. Engelsma, Stated Clerk
                                                                                           Classis West.
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
The undersigned, societies of our Hudsonville Protestant                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
Reformed Church, wish to express their sincere and             The Board of the Adams Street Protestant Reformed
heartfelt sympathy to Mrs. Vos and her family in their         Christian School hereby expresses its sincere sympathy
loss of husband, father and grandfather,                       to our fellow board member, Mr. Wm. Corson, in the
                REVEREND GERRIT VOS                            passing of his mother,
His leadership in our church will be long remembered.                                  MRS. TENA CORSON
May the Lord comfort the bereaved according to His             Rom.  8:28 "And we know that all things work to-
Word, and may we be prompted to work while it is day           gether for good to them that love God, to them that are
before the night cometh in which no man can work.              the called according to his purpose".
The Societies of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed                                          K. Bylsma, President
Church                                                                                        R.W. Pastoor, Secretary


480                                            THE STANDARD BEARER

                                   News  Fro15 Our Churches
                                          August 14,1968     new Wicks organ furnished the accompaniment, and for
  Candidate Richard Moore accepted the call he had           the offertory they played a beautiful duo arrangement
received from our church in Isabel, South Dakota,            of  Psalm 23. Before closing the meeting with prayer
providing that congregation with its first minister since    Rev. Van Baren invited all those present to come out for
their organization. Rev. Lubbers, of Southwest Church,       the Mass Meeting to be held Friday evening, and to the
declined the call he was considering, which he had           Convention Hymn-sing the next Sunday evening.
received from Hull, Iowa. South Holland has named                                      ******
another trio, consisting of the Revs. C. Hanko, M.
Schipper and G. Van Baren.                                     Though  Redlands had a taped message from Mr.
                        ******                               Feenstra, and Holland had one from Rev. Heys, the only
                                                             "news" we can give you at this late date is this bulletin
  The success of the discussion-group meeting in First       news item dated July 21: "During the first two weeks in
Church was reflected in this announcement: At the            Jamaica Rev. Heys preached nine times, two of those
special meeting after the service last Sunday evening        times were way up in the hills where he had not been
those present enthusiastically approved the suggestion       before. His schedule called for preaching in Rev.
of continuing the discussion group meetings at the rate      Frame's church ten times, in Rev. Elliott's eleven times
of one per month. The meetings are scheduled for the         and in Rev. Ruddick's nine times. Rev. a'nd Mrs. Heys
second Sunday of each month. You are requested to            and Mr. and Mrs. Feenstra slept in five different places
take this into account in arranging your date schedule,      the first five nights, but are now settled "at home" for
or rearranging this where necessary.                         the duration. Their small rented car, with a cartop
                       ******                                carrier is able to carry four suitcases, two tape recorders
  From our Randolph, Wis. church we learn that two of        and two accordions, the last mentioned a gift from
their young men made public confession of their faith        friends in the States. They found no appreciable
Aug. 4; and, that the young people have underwritten         progress in church building, but noted a great improve-
the re-upholstering of the 140 seats in the auditorium,      ment in the singing of the Psalter songs. The Hope
with several of the men of the congregation doing the        Heralds, from Grand Rapids, have recorded several
upholstering; and, that volunteer labor also accounted       Psalter numbers for the Jamaicans which should help
for making repairs on the pastor's garage, and the           them learn the tunes, and the accordions will also begin
application of a fresh coat of paint on the parsonage.       to serve this need. The bales of clothing were expected
Randolph has scheduled their 25th Anniversary celebra-       in Kingston on the 13th of July and would be shipped
tion to be held Aug. 24 at Fond du Lac County Park           by rail to Montego Bay where distribution would be
with a dinner, program, etc., and special commemora-         made." The next news of this venture will probably be
tive services Sunday, Aug. 25, with two of their former      heard from the emissaries themselves as they relate their
ministers conducting those services. They promised           adventures to our church people.
accommodations for their friends in our denomination                               .******
who would come out to share with them this joyful
occasion.                                                      The people of Loveland's congregation are enjoying
                      *  *  *.*  .*  *                       the new seats recently installed in the auditorium. The
  Rev. G. Vos, Emeritus minister of Hudsonville, Mich.       Aug. 4 bulletin thanked the willing workers who did the
entered into his heavenly rest Tuesday, July 23. Funeral     work.
services were held in the church Friday, July 26, with                                ******
the Revs. H. Veldman and G. Lubbers officiating.               The last church picnic scheduled in our denomination
                       ******                                is probably Lynden's, which is to be held on Labor Day.
  The Pre-Convention Hymn-sing, sponsored by the                                       ******
staff of  Beacon Lights  was held in First Church and
drew a splendid crowd of enthusiastic singers. Ron Van         Our own High School will open its doors to an
.Overloop opened the meeting with prayer, and intro-         enrollment of about 63 students. The Reference Library
duced the song leader, `Arnold Dykstra. Mr. Dykstra          is being catalogued; the Mothers' Circle has donated an
divided the song selections into two groups, The             overhead projector for classroom use and also furnished
Greatness of God in creation, and, the Greatness of God      a  Therm0 Fax copier for office use. Other volunteer
in our salvation. Special numbers included a tenor solo      supporters have promised furnishings for the teacher's
by Gary Bylsma; a violin solo by Mary  Klop, and a           lounge, landscaping, and brick-laying for the brick sign
trumpet solo by John Hoekstra. Randy Meyer, of the           in front of the school. September of 1968 will indeed be
host society, gave a brief run-down of the activities        a highlight in our history, for now our ministers will be
planned for the conventioneers, and it sounded like a        able to get all their education from kindergarten up
full schedule, brim-full of physical and spiritual exer-     under Protestant Reformed educators!
cises. Ellen Kregel at the piano and Mary Kregel at the         . . . . . see you in church                      J.M.F.


