                               he

                      tandard

                                     earer


A  REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY  MAGAZINE




IN THIS ISSUE:


      Meditation-

           Encouragement for the Distressed

      A Campus Movement

      Jonah's Preaching To Nineveh

      The Fervency of Faith

      "The Dutch  Meet Dixie"





                                       Volume XL V/Number 3/Nov. 1, 1968


50                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


                              CONTENTS:                                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                           Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August.
Meditation --                                                                              Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, inc.
      I'ncouragcment for the Distressed . . . . . . . . . . . .  .50                Editor-in-Chief: Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

Editorials --                                                                       Department' Editors:  Mr. John M. Faber, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof.
                                                                                       Herman Hanko, Rev. Robert C. Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys,  R,ev. Jay
      Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53         Kortering, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Marinus  Schipper,  Rev. Gise J.
      The Erring Views of Dr. Kuitert  (6) . . . . . . . . . . . .53                   Van  Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg
      Kuitert Like Barth?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56        Editorial Office:  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
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           MfiDITA  T/ON



                                   Encouragement For The` Distressed

                                                                     Rev. M. Schippcv


                                            "But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. "
                                                                                               I Samuel 30: 6b.


      Like a precious jewel found in the quagmire of                                    Set as a beautiful contrast!
distresses is this instructive notation of God's Word in                                "And David was greatly distressed," so we read in the
the context which describes perhaps the darkest hour in                              first part of the verse. "But David encouraged himself in
David's earthly experience!                                                          the Lord his God," so the verse concludes.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  51



  To see the beauty of this contrast, we would do well,       ceeding great when his own men rose up against him
first of all, to take note of the perplexing circumstances    threatening to stone him because they considered him
surrounding this child of God. Observe why David was          responsible for the grief they suffered at the hands of
so greatly distressed.                                        the Amalekites in the loss of their families. Mutiny
   In his flight from king Saul, David with six hundred       broke loose  - a dangerous situation among such a
rough men sought refuge in the country of the                 company of ruffians  - and they had made up their
Philistines. David had concluded that if it were known        mind to do away with David. The translation: "And
to Saul that he had abandoned his own country Saul            David was greatly distressed," hardly expresses the
would no longer pursue him. Consequently David and            thought of the original Hebrew text, which uses a word
his men and all that he had came to Achish, the son of        which much more dramatically describes David's plight.
the king of Gath. And Achish gave to David the city of        It means that David was so pressed in as it were in a vise
Ziklag to dwell in. Here for a year and four months           that he could hardly breathe. His distress was so great
David and those with him found grace in the eyes of           that he hardly knew where to turn. The walls of his
Achish. This favorable attitude of Achish was especially      predicament were about to collapse upon him.
confirmed when David, under the pretense that he was            But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God!
fighting against his own countrymen in the south of             Indeed, a beautiful contrast!
Judah, actually invaded the camp of the Amalekites to           Here is one of the many eloquent "buts" of the Bible.
destroy them and others who dwelt in the land given to        On the one hand are the calamitous walls of loss,
Judah by lot. David smote the land, leaving none to live,     treachery, and apparently cruel death about to smash
and carried away a great spoil. Returning from this raid,     down upon him; and opposed to all this, the brief,
Achish inquired of David where he had been and what           contrasting, and spiritual clause: "But David encouraged
he had done. The answer that David  .gave left no doubt       himself in the Lord his God."
in the mind of Achish that David had made himself to            0, how awfully black and dismal, how hopelessly
be abhorred by his own people, and that, therefore,           dispairing the situation would have been were it to be
David would become servant to Achish forever.                 viewed only with the eyes of carnal flesh. Viewing it
   Then we learn that the Philistines planned to make         from this prospect, would it not have been reasonable
war against Israel. Achish informed David and his men         for him to have drawn his wits together, and to have
that they would have to accompany him into battle.            called to his men to hear him out? Would we not, having
However, when the Philistines had gathered their armies       been placed in a similar situation, have pleaded with
at Aphek, the lords of the Philistines discovered that        these ruffians not to lose their senses, and to see that
David and his men were with Achish in the rear.               they as well as David were guilty of arousing the dander
Therefore did they inquire of Achish how these                of the Amalekites? for they as well as David found
Hebrews were here in the army of the Philistines. Achish      delight in sacking their cities. Would it not defy all
sought to defend the presence of David and his men on         decency and order for these men to assess only their
the grounds that they had defected from the Israelites,       own loss and not see that David's loss was as great?
and proved their allegiance to the Philistines when David     None of these, questions seem to have been raised. No
and his men had conducted a raid in the land of Judah.        discussion whatever followed the mean threat of David's
But the princes of the Philistines would hear none of it,     men. David, so we are informed, simply laid his case
believing that David and his company could be their           before the Lord his God, and left it there.
adversary in battle. They therefore demanded that               God, dear reader, has a way of bringing his child into
Achish send David and his men back to Ziklag. Achish,         such a place of utter dispair that there is only one way
having failed to persuade them concerning David, could        of escape  - that is, into His loving arms!
only  acquiese  and bow to the wishes of the lords of the       Notice  - David  enc0urage.d himself! The word
Philistines. David, therefore, was told  to'- retreat to      translated "encouraged" in our English version comes
Ziklag.                                                       from a word which means originally: to tie fast, to bind
   Then the calamities began to fall on David!                bonds strongly, to hold fast, and thence: to strengthen,
   Coming to Ziklag he and his men discovered that in         to confirm. And in the peculiar tense in which it is used
the meantime the Amalekites had invaded the land of           here it means to establish oneself, to shew oneself
the Philistines in the south and completely destroyed         strong. In one word David made himself consciously to
Ziklag, burning the city and carrying off the women and       be tied to his God so that he was able to stand firmly,
children as captives, including David's two wives,            unmoveably in the present situation. Now that is
Ah&am and Abigail. It was a raid no doubt intended            exactly what faith does. We have said it often, and have
to be in retaliation for what David had done to the           heard it said again and again, that faith is a certain
Amalekites as described above.                                spiritual knowledge and a hearty confidence. These are
   Then was David greatly distressed!                         faith's chief elements. Faith knows its object with an
   For not only were his dear ones missing and those of       assured spiritual knowledge, and ties itself to that object
the men with him, but David's distress became ex-             with hearty confidence and trust. And faith is a gracious


52                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


gift of God. David did not possess it of himself, it was        body; he was rich in his God. While death stared him in
given to him of grace. But God gives this grace and             the face, he could confidently exclaim; I will fear no
causes it to become operative in his child in such a way        evil, for I am hidden in Thee, the Lord my God.
that His child actively -loses himself in his God. It             Here, then, 0 child of God, who is faced with
expresses itself. `in the same way the Heidelberg               poverty, the loss of all things, the blasting of all earthly
Catechism answers the question: What is thy only                hopes, lying on the extremity of danger, caught as it
comfort in life and death? I am not my own, but belong          were in the shades of death, is encouragement for the
with body and soul, in life and death to my faithful            distressed: The Lord Jehovah is my God!
Saviour. When the child of God is so convinced that he            But David would not, nor would any child of God for
is  so. perfectly possessed by his Saviour, he no longer        that matter, encourage himself in Jehovah his God, were
needs to fret what will happen to him. It is his Saviour's      it not that God had first given him reason to believe that
business to care for His own. And He does!                      those confiding in Him shall not be put to shame.
      Encouraged himself in the Lord, that is, Jehovah his        Jehovah, a faithful God!
God! Jehovah, the I AM THAT I AM, the Eternal,                    He is the God of our salvation!
Independent, Unchangeable, Covenant God. Jehovah is               He proved His faithfulness to His people by the giving
God's name in which He revealed Himself to His people           of  I&s only begotten unto death for them. In the Person
as to none other. In that name He ties Himself to His           of His Son in our nature, He delivered His own from
covenant friends in an inseparable bond of friendship.          eternal death and misery. He stood under the out-
And the bonds of this covenant relation wherewith He            pouring of His own wrath which was due to us until the
ties Himself to His people He draws them to Himself in          vials of that wrath were emptied, until there was no
such a way that they also consciously cleave unto Him.          more wrath remaining, and in its place beamed the holy
So that both in the words "encouraged" and "Jehovah"            sunlight of our justification. He received the Spirit
we see realistically tightened the bands of living friend-      without measure, and  was'enabled to apply unto  us  the
ship between God and His friend David. David may to             benefits of His saving work, and that in such a way that
all intents and purposes have lost all his friends, but         we can taste His saving grace, and everlasting mercy.
there was for him in his God a Friend that sticketh             Also He received power to direct all things according to
closer than a brother.                                          the counsel of the living God that all things work
      Jehovah his God!                                          together for our good. And again and again in the
      The Almighty One Who had redeemed him from the            experience of the child of God He makes the way so
devil and the po-wer of eternal death. By whose power           heavy for His child that he must roll it on Him. (Psalm
and providential direction even the present evils that          37:5).
threatened His servant were so controlled that the only           Indeed, David would not have encouraged himself
refuge this child of God knew was his God. Thus taking          now in Jehovah his God if this had been the only time
inventory of the situation in quiet meditation, submit-         Jehovah had proved Himself a worthy object of trust.'
ting it to his God in  humble,reliance, and laying hold on      Witness the times when this child of God is distraught
Jehovah's precious promises, David could stand firmly,          because of the knowledge of his sin, and how Jehovah
unmoved, in bold confidence while the shades of sudden          comes to him through the prophet to call him to
cruel death appeared to be drawn about him. It would            repentance. Witness when he is confronted with the
be one thing to dogmatically speak of the God of                giant, while Saul and the armies of Israel cower in fear,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is an indubitable,             how God was his salvation. See him in the desert fleeing
gospel truth, of course. But it is a wholly different thing     from his son Absalom, and his companions fearfully
to say: Jehovah, my God! It is one thing to repeat the          asking the question: Who shall show us any good? and
words of the Saviour: "For God so loved the world that          David says: I will both lay me down in peace and sleep,
He gave His only begotten Son, etc." But it is something        for Thou Jehovah makest me to lie down in safety.
else to say with Paul: "Who loved me and gave Himself           Surely Jehovah, the God of his salvation had proved
for me." Or, again, "Whose I am, and Whom I serve."             Himself to be a sun and shield, his defense in the day of
The reference, therefore, in the expression: Jehovah his        trouble.
God, is not some dogmatic, divine object of worship               In this light we can understand the calmness, the
peculiar to the children of Israel, though indeed Jehovah       fearless spirit of this child of God in his darkest hour.
was the God of Israel. But the expression sets before us          And the Holy Spirit Who saw to it that the words of
the personal, spiritual, experiential, worshipful, loving       our text should forever be preserved in the annals of
relation between God and His beloved child, and that            Holy Writ, exhorts you and me whose way so often
between that loved one and his God. While David lost all        becomes exceeding dark to find our encouragement in
his possessions, his wives, his children, his home, so that     an implicit trust in Him Who is the God of our salvation.
all that was left to him was the clothes that covered his

                            A lie is like a snowball: the longer you roll it the bigger it grows.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    53



   Editorials

                                             EDITOR'S NOTES

   The reader will notice that some of our regular              the treasurer's report one cannot fail to note the faithful
departments are missing from time to time. This is              financial support from our various congregations. But
intentional. We are trying to furnish a greater variety of      did you also notice the large amount of individual gifts?
material by two means: occasionally including special           I happen to know that among these were two gifts of
features, and introducing some new departments. This            appreciation of $100 each from a faithful reader in New
also gives the various department editors a "breather"          Jersey. An example to emulate!
now and then. In this issue we have another new
department: Rev. Harbach's  Studies in Depth.  This will                                  *  8  *
replace his  Trying The Spirits.  In this rubric he               I have been asked to forward to our readers the
will furnish us with the results of his research into           Board's sincere thanks for the 40 gift subscriptions
various movements and organizations in the ecclesiasti-         which were sent in recently in response to the little
cal and religious world, some of them familiar, some of         campaign carried in the summer issues. The Board is
them less familiar, and will also favor us with his critical    already making use of these gifts in an effort to extend
e v a l u a t i o n s .                                         our witness. It is hoped that ways and means can be
                              * *  *                            found to do more, much more, of this kind of thing.
   In this issue you will also find the annual reports of                                 Q  *  *
the Secretary and the Treasurer of the Reformed Free              In this `issue you will also find Rev. Kortering's
Publishing Association. Encouraging in the secretary's          address to  the annual meeting of the  R.F.P.A., "The
report is the information that we have again had a net          Fervency of Faith." Be sure to read it, and be inspired
increase in subscribers during the past volume-year. In         as we who were present at the meeting were!





                           The  Erring  Views  of  Dr.  H.M.  Kuitert  I61

                                                  ProJ: H. C. Hoeksema



Evaluation of Kuitert's View of Scripture (continued)           is terminology like the above which has made it
   In my last article on this subject I suggested that the      extremely difficult for some to cope with Kuitert's
answer to Dr. Kuitert's argument concerning the  so-            position. But there are other items which should be kept
called "human element" in Scripture and in the pro-             in mind in this connection. First of all, we may
duction of Holy Scripture lies in a proper understanding        recognize the fact that in some instances this language
of what is known as "organic inspiration." And I                has been used with every good intention. It was not
promised to develop this suggestion. To the fulfillment         used with the purpose in view of attacking the truths of
of this promise I now address myself.                           inspiration, infallibility, and authority, but to defend
   A few preliminary remarks are necessary, first of all.       them and to find some kind of dogmatical approach to a
   In the first place, there is the matter of terminology       proper and legitimate formulation and expression of
that has grown up around the wonder of inspiration.             these truths. It was recognized that inspiration was not
There are terms like "the human element" and "the               mechanical and that those holy men whom the Holy
divine element" in Scripture; or "the human factor" and         Spirit employed to speak and write the Word of God
"the divine factor" in the writing of Scripture; or again,      were not mere stenographers or tape recorders, who had
"the Primary author" and "the secondary authors" of             no personal part or interest in that which they spoke or
Scripture. I have already suggested my own displeasure          wrote. Not only do revelation and inspiration imply in
with such terminology, and have also pointed out that it        general that the Word of God is spoken and written in


54                                               THE STANDARD BEARER


human, finite, earthly language; but they also include           is that you definitely begin to look in Scripture for the
the wide variety of individual differences of time and           divine part, or element, which must be separated from
place and circumstances and personality and back-                and distilled out of the human part or element. The
ground and style which anyone can recognize when he              same is true of the expressions "Primary Author"
reads the Bible. Isaiah is different than Moses; John is         and "secondary authors." One of the difficulties is
different than Peter; Luke is different than Matthew;            that a secondary author is nevertheless an author;
Solomon is different than David. And historically, some          and if he is an author, then you may again distinguish
of the terminology mentioned above was employed in               in the Bible between the Word of God, the "Primary
order to give due recognition and expression to these            Author," and the word of man, the "secondary author."
differences.                                                     But what becomes, then, of the confession that the
      Now what shall we say about this?                          Bible is solely the Word of God? It is compromised,
      For one thing, we may recognize the fact that this         willy-nilly. Another difficulty connected with such
terminology has not always been used with evil inten-            terminology is that no matter how great you make
tions, as well as the fact that in so far as this is the sole    the capital "P" and no matter how small you  Jnake
meaning of this terminology it is perfectly innocent and         the lower case "s," the difference is only relative,
legitimate. I have no doubt that one could quote more            and the authors remain authors. This is the kind
than one Reformed writer who has used such termi-                of difficulty that Dr. Kuitert and others capitalize upon,
nology and who held one hundred per cent to the truth            so that they claim that they may and do legitimately
concerning Scripture, who with every fiber of his being          and within the framework of a belief in inspiration "do
denied that the Bible is anything but the Word of God.           justice to" the so-called "human element" in Scripture.
      For another, we ought to recognize the fact that the         Hence, with respect to all of these expressions we
danger of a theory of mechanical inspiration is largely, if      must be very careful. As soon as you in any sense make
not altogether, imaginary. Even though there have been           Scripture an admixture, rather than solely the Word of
theologians who have upon occasion used language                 God, you are in fundamental trouble. It is far safer to
which sounded a bit mechanistic, historically there has          discard all these terms. And not only is it safer,  -
been no theologian of repute in the main-line of                 because, after all, the mere consideration of safety may
theology who held to mechanical inspiration. This                not constitute a decisive argument,  - but it is Scrip-
danger is about like the danger of anyone making of              tural. We must remember that the Bible never presents
man a stock and block in salvation. The danger itself is         itself as anything other than the Word of God, even
imaginary; it arises only in the minds of the adversaries        when it recognizes that this revelation of God came to
of sovereign grace. It is a far greater danger that some         us through men and in the course of the history of men
will attempt to adjust and accommodate the doctrine of           and of mankind. Always Scripture comes with the
sovereign grace in order to avoid the charge. But, for           simple, unargued assumption that it is the Word of God,
this very reason, it is also rather unnecessary to devise        that therefore it is to be believed without reservation or
and adopt terminology which will supposedly protect us           condition, leaving no room for challenge or question
from the charge of believing in mechanical inspiration;          whether it is true or in how far it is true. Mind you, this
and it is certainly, from a positive point of view,              is the position of Scripture itself  even though and even
unnecessary to adopt this terminology in order to give           when Scripture itself recognizes that as the  Word-of-
expression to the fact that the Lord employed men with           God-written it has come into existence through men and
all their individual characteristics to write His Word.          in the course  of  human history, with all that this
      Thirdly, we should note that, in spite of whatever         implies.  Whatever, therefore, you may try to say
good intentions lie behind it, and however sincere may           dogmatically about the  "is" in the proposition "Holy
be the effort in this terminology to approach certain            Scripture is the Word of God," it must be kept within
truths involved in inspiration, the terminology is very          these confines. That "is" may not be so tampered with
seriously defective. It is not accurate. It does not             and "interpreted" that the proposition itself is des-
express what ought to be expressed. And it leaves                troyed or made to read, "Holy Scripture is partly the
impressions which ought not to be left. Take the term            Word of God, but partly the word of man."
"human element," for example. The good intention is                In this connection, in the fourth place, let me call
undoubtedly to give expression to the idea that the              attention to the fact that while our Belgic Confession
Lord employed the words and style and circumstances              employs none of this terminology, it nevertheless makes
of men to produce the Scriptures. The defect of the              a very significant and adequate statement on this
term is that it leaves the impression that there is a part       subject, and does so with reference to a very striking
of Scripture which is human, rather than divine. The             statement of Scripture itself. I refer to Article 3 and its
same is true of the expression "human factor." It is an          reference to II Peter 1: 19-21:
expression which leaves the definite impression that                    We confess that this Word of God was not sent, nor
God and men cooperated, constituted two factors, in                  delivered by the will of man, but that holy men of
the writing of Scripture. The result of such terminology             God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                              55


       the apostle Peter s&h. And that afterwards God, from       wrote with all of their individual characteristics and
       a special care, which he has for us and our salvation,     circumstances coming into action when they spoke and
       commanded his servants, the prophets and apostles, to      wrote, and that too, in such a way that these individual
       commit his revealed word to writing; and he himself        characteristics and circumstances become a part of the
       wrote with his own finger, the two tables of the law.      fabric of Scripture and so that we cannot fail to
       Therefore we call such writings holy and divine            distinguish'the writings of Paul from those of John, for
       Scriptures.                                                example. And yet the Bible itself says: "Prophecy came
      The entire Scripture passage referred to in the above       not in old time by the will of man." What an amazing
article is as follows: "We have also a more sure word of          statement! And it becomes still more amazing in the
prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as              light of the fact that in one breath the same Scripture
unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day          asserts that holy men of God  spake.  Mind you, they
dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing              were not mere microphones and amplifiers of the Holy
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any           Spirit. They  spake.  Or again: they spake. But never-
private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old          theless prophecy came not by the will of man!
time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as                Obviously we stand face to face here with a most
they were moved by the Holy Ghost."                               marvelous and mysterious wonder! And whatever we
      Now it is not my intention to enter into this article of    may attempt to say about this wonder, we must be
our Confession in all its details. I wrote about this rather      careful that we do not sully and besmirch and cover up,
extensively a few years ago in my commentary on this              or even theologically destroy, this wonder by contra-
article in the  Standard Beaver.  But let me point out the        dicting one term of it.
following:                                                           It is in this context that we speak of  organic
                                                                  inspiration.
      1) Not only does the Confession not employ any of              What is implied in this organic inspiration I will
the terminology cited earlier, but there is not even the          briefly set forth in the following propositions, further
slightest hint at such terms. It speaks only of "this Word        comment on which will have to wait until the next
of God" and of "holy and divine Scriptures," even                 issue.
though it is obviously cognizant of the fact that God
used "his servants, the prophets and apostles, to commit             1) God conceived sovereignly and from eternity of
his revealed word to writing."                                    the whole of Scripture, in all its parts and its inter-
                                                                  relationships, as the written revelation of Himself, with
      2) The Confession speaks not only of inspiration            Christ as the heart and center of that entire revelation.
from the positive point of view, but, following Scrip-               2) God from eternity and sovereignly conceived of
ture, makes a most amazing negative statement:
"                                                                 and determined upon special organs of Christ's body,
     . . . this Word of God was not sent, nor delivered by
the will of man . . .  " The Bible's literal statement here        organs of inspiration, and ordained all the details of
                                                                  their personality, character, talents, -education, mode of
is: "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man."                                                           thinking, style of writing, personal experiences, and
                                                                  historical circumstances in such a way that they were
      On the one hand, this statement is very simple and           from eternity prepared to be fit instruments of divine
clear, almost to the point that you would overlook its            inspiration, each in his own place in the organism of
simplicity of meaning: would we not be inclined to say,            Scripture.
"Why, of course not! how could  God's  Word  be sent or              3) The Holy Spirit, and that too, as the Spirit of
delivered by the will of man?" Here is the  es,sence of            Christ, called these divinely ordained organs of inspira-
simplicity. God's Word is  God's  Word, not man's; and if          tion into existence in time, forming them and preparing
it is to be God's Word, then it cannot possibly be sent or         them, both naturally and spiritually, for their divinely
delivered by the will of man: it must be by the will of            ordained place and task in committing God's revealed
God. If it originates with man and is sent and delivered           Word to writing.
by man's will, then it can no more be the Word of God.
Moreover, certainly the will is a fundamental factor in              4) The same Spirit also inspired, moved, illumined,
any question of authorship. Could you imagine an                   guided, and actually caused these human instruments,
author whose will was not a factor in the book of which            thus ordained, prepared, and called, to speak and to
he was the author? How, then, if the Word of God was               write infallibly God's own Word.
not sent or delivered by the will of man, if the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man,  - how is it                Thus the Scriptures and the human instruments were
possible to speak of any man as an author of Scripture?            all of God, a wonderwork of divine grace, ordaining,
                                                                   preparing, moving, guiding, so that His people might
      On the other hand, consider the boldness of this             have the complete and rich revelation of Christ, the
 statement. Men spoke. Men wrote. They spoke and                   Eternal Word of God.


r

     56                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


                                               Kuitert Like Barth?

                                                       P~oj: H.C. Hoeksema

           In connection with the current discussion about the     Volume 38 of the  Standard Beaver,  my eye fell on an
     views of Dr. Kuitert and other theologians in the             editorial about Barth's view of election and reprobation
     Netherlands, now and then someone will talk about the         which was written in connection with Barth's visit to
     influence of contemporary German' theology and theo-          this country and his appearance at the University of
     logians upon these theologians of the Reformed                Chicago. At that time there was a panel discussion at
     Churches in the Netherlands. This is, of course, a            Rockefeller Chapel in which Barth participated; and in
     legitimate aspect of the discussion. And it is always         the course of this discussion, the subject of Holy
     proper to trace such connections and similarities, and to     Scripture also came under consideration. As I read what
     judge and condemn a certain theology or theological           Barth was reported to have said at that time, I was
     position on the ground of its likeness to and connection      immediately struck by the similarity  - to my mind, not
     with a theology which is commonly recognized as being         an incidental, but a basic similarity  - between the views
     bad. In other words, if one can make Kuitert out to be a      of Barth and Kuitert.
     bed-fellow of Barth, this is not exactly a recommenda-          Here is the paragraph in which Barth's statement
     tion for Kuitert.                                             appears (Vol. 38, p. 388):
           One must, however, be careful about this. Such            "In a panel discussion at the Rockefeller chapel as it
     theological classifications must not be made on the basis     was reported in one of the Chicago papers, the question
     of some totally incidental emphasis or some merely            was asked Barth how he would justify his `appeal to
     apparent and wholly imaginary likeness. Such a pro-           Scripture as the objective Word of God with his
     cedure can result in some very strange bed-fellows. For       admission that Scripture is sullied by errors, theological
     example, once upon a time someone attempted to put            as well as historical.' Barth answered: `The Bible has
     Herman Hoeksema and Karl Barth in the same theologi-          proven and will continue to prove itself as the true and
     cal bed, quite mistakenly: they certainly belong in           fitting instrument to point men to God. The Bible,
     altogether separate chambers in any theological dormi-        being a human instrument, is bound by the temporal use
     tory.                                                         of nature, history and ideas. Just so far, the Bible is not
           But what about Kuitert and German neo-modernist (I      sinless, like Jesus Christ himself, and not infallible like
     do not like the term "neo-orthodox") theology?                God. No wonder that even from the viewpoint of world
           It is not my purpose to enter into detail about this    views and concepts of other ages the question may arise
     question. This would take us too far afield in our            whether or not we have problems of certain tensions,
     discussion.                                                   contradictions, and, if you prefer the term,  errors.  '  "
           However, while I was looking for something else in



     Special Feature

                                           The Fervency of Faith
                                                        Rev. f. Kortering

           Familiarity breeds contempt.                            "It's the same old stuff." In this attitude one of two
           That's an old adage which has been handed down          things happens, they either become active in changing
     from generation to generation. It also is a truism.           the old into something new, or they repudiate the Word
     Sometimes we experience this in relation to our work:         of God altogether.
     we just get sick and tired of the same old thing. If we          Such a one is at the bottom of the spiritual ladder. He
     eat the same food all the time, it nauseates us. This         is on the last rung before jumping off.
     accounts for our changing world.                                 The other extreme is the child of God who is fervent
           It is a sad fact that this same attitude sometimes      in faith. He stands at the top of the spiritual ladder; the
     drives members of the church to cry out for the "new,"        love of God pulsates through his heart. He is filled with
     the different; they grow contemptuous with that with          holy awe as he contemplates the wonder of the
     which they are the most familiar. These kind of people        revelation of God. He is thrilled with the knowledge of
     go to church and leave the house of God muttering,            the Word of God. His life becomes an expression of


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    57



gratitude to God for His tender mercy.                          to find a different "diet." God has provided one food
  In between these two extremes is a third position. It         which is all sufficient. If we grow dissatisfied with that
is  labelled lethargy. Such a one is spiritually lazy; often    food and eat at the table of unbelieving philosophy or
times he just drifts along with the people of God, not          science and find that more delectable than the Word of
really knowing why it is so. The danger of this spiritual       God, we will surely suffer a heart attack. We will soon
condition is that such a person is slipping down the            discover that the truths of the Word are easily dis-
spiritual ladder. He is headed in the direction of              posable. Our hearts will weaken and not beat with the
contempt.                                                       love of God and love for His Word; rather we will try to
  I would like to consider this spiritual condition with        tear it apart, spend our time finding "errors" and
you. The purpose is not to berate or to bemoan the fact         changing His message entirely. The inevitable result will
that we often find ourselves in this spiritual lethargy.        be lethargy and then contempt.
Such an approach would only hasten the process of                 The second cause for this spiritual disease is that a
decline. Rather, let's try to diagnose the ailment,             foreign material is introduced into our spiritual blood
consider the cure, and with the help of God realize that        stream. In the case of our physical heart, this is caused
if` we find ourselves slipping to the bottom of the             by thrombosis; a blood clot will bring an attack. It is no
spiritual ladder, we direct our attention to the top and        different spiritually. Christ expressed it this way,
seek the fervency of faith.                                     "Where your treasure is, there will your heart, be also."
  The first step in the cure of any disease is to               If we place greater value on the perishable things of life,
recognize that we are sick. To achieve this end, we must        e.g. our material possessions, our place of honor among
spend a moment in trying to understand the symptoms             men, our seeking after pleasures, the inevitable end will
of the disease called lethargy. This disease is peculiar to     also be lethargy toward God and His Word and this leads
children of God. The world of unbelievers cannot                to contempt.
contact it for they are spiritually dead. In no sense of          The third cause is that of increased pressure. We
the word can we say that the reprobate have a spiritual         know that it is absolutely essential that the pressure in
disease,  they are spiritually  dead.  Their hearts are         our circulatory system be maintained at the right level,
hardened against God and they hate all that God says            an increase will also  ,bring an "attack." This we
and .does.                                                      experience spiritually as well. Often times our calling as
  The child of God however, possesses a new heart.              children of God brings us into opposition with the
Being regenerated by the Spirit, he receives a heart of         world. We realize that we cannot love God  and  love the
flesh. God fills this heart with His love and by the            world. When we encounter opposition, sometimes in the
impulse of heart-beats filled with the love of God the          form of mockery, other times in the form of harassment
child of God exercises faith. The love of God affects his       and ostracism, our blood pressure rises. We become
mind and will by influencing it, governing it, and              spiritually afraid and rebellious and in the midst of our
directing it back to God. In this love of God, the child        battle weary life we begin to grow cold toward God. We
of God rejoices in the Word of God, loves his spiritual         ask, why must the battle be so long and intense.
brethren, seeks unity in the bond of truth.                     Sometimes we even say that it is futile. We question our
  Lethargy is a disease of the heart. It suffers an arrest,     Captain and  .His strategy and imagine that we could do
its spiritual muscles become stiff, it ceases to beat with      better if only He would turn it over to us. When this
warmpth and vigor. Consequently the child of God's              pride presses upon our hearts, we grow indifferent to
entire religious outlook is affected. He loses the "first       the cause of the church; sometimes we become bitter,
love." His religious life becomes a mere formality, his         and lethargy-leads to contempt.
prayer life seems cold and God seems far away. The                What then is the cure?
communion of the saints loses its appeal, the Word of             Since this disease is of a spiritual nature, the cure can
God seems irrelevant.                                           and must come only from God who holds the hearts of
  What causes this disease?                                     His people in His own hand. Only too often we realize
  Applying the analogy of the physical heart, we can            we cannot change the spiritual condition of ourselves or
adduce three causes.                                            our brothers and sisters. The only cure for lethargy is a
  First, the heart may suffer an attack due to lack of          transfusion of the love of God into our hearts. This He
oxygen. Oxygen is nutrition for the heart; it keeps the         gives by means of His Word and Spirit. The more our
tissues and muscles alive and functioning. A lack of it         hearts are filled with the love of God the more fervent
brings heart damage and eventual death. Similarly, our          our faith becomes. When the love of God is in our hearts
spiritual heart needs nutrition. We need the only oxygen        they pant after the living God.
which God in love provides, viz, the preaching of the             This -fervency of faith is expressed in three distinct
Word and sacraments. God communicates His love to us            ways.
through the means of grace. If we grow indifferent  .to           First, we rejoice in the God of our salvation. When
these means and neglect them, we will surely suffer an          the heart of the child of God is infused with the love of
attack of lethargy. The same thing holds true if  we. try       God he personally rejoices in the wonder that God has


58                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


saved him. He never wearies of crying out with praise to         by communicating to him the Word of God. It is
God acknowledging that salvation is His work from                through this means that those who have not the love of
beginning to end. In the depth of humility He gladly             God will find occasion to hate us by despising the Word
accords to God the honor due to His name. Hence His              we bring. We must expect to encounter them both
life's motto is:  Soli Deo Gloria.                               outside the church and within the church. The fervency
      Secondly, a heart that beats with the love of God          of faith must not be deterred by opposition, it must be
acknowledges by faith that the Word of God is indeed             quickened. In the love of God we cannot keep silence,
the Word of God and not man's word concerning God.               we must needs speak. Through this means God gathers
It is in this light that we must understand all present day      His church unto Himself.
attacks upon the Bible. Today, men protest to the high              This is why we are enthused about the Standard
heavens how much they love God and how they                      Bearer. Out of the fervency of faith, quickened by the
understand properly the concept of the love of God               love of God in our hearts, we find it a joy to be busy in
while they militate against the Word of God. No one can          writing, publishing, distributing, and reading this
truly say he loves God while taking the Word of God              periodical.
and trampling it into the dust and subjecting it to the             In our generation, the Word of God is subtly
bar of human reason and science. One who truly loves             attacked. This attack is not only coming our way  from
God will love the Word God has given us. It is childlike         the unbelieving world, it is coming from what calls itself
faith that is fervent faith. We bow before, no other             the church, even the reformed church. Are we going to
authority than that of the Word of God. As we search             sit back and let men undermine the Word of God? Are
the Scriptures, we come to a deeper understanding of             we going to sit back and let our spiritual brethren be
the truth. We are grateful that we may join the church           deceived?
of all ages and confess the truth of God's absolute                Not if we love God.
sovereignty, man's total depravity, of unconditional               Not if we have the love of God in our hearts and have
election, of a definite atonement by the blood of Jesus          the gift of fervent faith.
Christ, of grace that is powerful to save, and the sure            When God's name is taken in vain, and that is what is
destiny of all God's elect in the blessedness of life            being done when the Word if called a myth and a lot of
everlasting. The fervency of faith does not try to               other things, we may not sit idly by, we must needs
undermine these truths; it rejoices in propagating them.         speak out. We must expose the lie. We must call our
One filled with the love of God does not try to separate         spiritual brethren to stand with us upon the only sure
himself from the heritage God has given to the church            foundation, the Word of God.
by the Spirit, rather He loves the reformed confessions             This is a wonderful task. It takes a great deal of work,
and holds them heavenward as a banner under which all            it takes time and patience, it requires a deep faith in
the children of God-who share like faith may gather.             God that He guide the word that is printed, directing it
      This leads us to the third expression of this fervency,    so that it may strike at the inmost heart of His people
viz., a recognition that God has blessed us with these           and bring the response of fervent faith. Even  .the
gifts for a purpose. We may not be satisfied that we and         mockers must be left without excuse.
our children are recipients of this faith. The love of God         May our God bless us as we work to this end, that His
in our hearts causes us to reach out to our spiritual            name be glorified in the salvation of His church.
brethren. If we truly love God, the fervency of faith will         May He cure us of our lethargy and by His love
also cause us to love our brethren. There is no more             provide us with fervent faith.
intimate way to express our love to our neighbor than



                                      Annual Reports of the R.F.P.A.
                                           ANNUAL SECRETARY'S REPORT

      It is again true that we as members of  the, R.F.P.A.      closing in on so many sides today.
must say "Ebenezer," for hitherto has the Lord helped               Shortly after our annual meeting last year, we were
us in completing the 44th year of publishing the                 notified by our printer that the cost of material and
Standard Bearer.                                                 labor made it necessary for him to increase the cost of
      Consideration should be given to our editors who           printing and mailing the  Standard Beaver  by $75 per
have been on schedule, and who have kept us well                 issue beginning Jan. 1, 1968. This increase caused
informed of the present activities and doctrinal truths ,        concern among the board members, who, after sending
and errors in the church-world of today. Their articles          our letters to our consistories for financial assistance,
strengthen and confirm in that battle of faith which is          .finally  notified our subscribers that it was necessary to


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               59



increase the subscription price from $5 to $7 per year.                 distributed. We have also been notified that the first 19
We should remember that the additional $2 per sub-                      volumes are available from one of our former members.
scription will  oniy  cover the increased cost, and that                  The revised constitution, which was brought up to
50% of our total income must come from gifts and                        date at our last meeting, is now available to our
collections.                                                            members.
  This past year our distribution has increased from                      Mr. James Dykstra, who has faithfully served as
1284 to 1323. There were 90 new subscribers and 62                      business manager the past eight and a half years,
cancellations. It may be well to note that the new                      notified the board that he did not intend to continue as
subscribers in the past year were from outside our                      manager. After some discussion, the board has decided
denomination.                                                           to ask Mr. Henry Vander Wal to become business
  The breakdown on the distribution is as follows:                      manager, and he is already acting in this capacity.
address plates, 1093; mission and Jamaica, 80; stock and                  A final item is that more than 35 gift subscriptions
bound volumes, 110; and mailing margin, 50.                             were sent in by our people who responded to the notice
  The M.I.E. committee is at present working with the                   printed in the Standard Bearer.
Mission Committee, who have submitted some 125                            May our God strengthen us in this calling, that His
names of prospective subscribers who will be sent                       wondrous works may be declared abroad and His
sample copies and gift subscriptions. The Book Commit-                  kingdom may come, to the glory of His name.
tee had 85 volumes, plus 3 partial sets, bound and                                                                       G. Pipe, Sec'y


                                     ANNUAL TREASURER'S REPORT RFPA
                                                                   -
                                                  Sept. 1, 1967         Sept. 1, 1968

Balance on Hand September 1, 1967                    1,536.64           Oaklawn P.R. Church                                        43.87
Receipts                                                                Randolph P.R. Church                                       42.95
 Subscriptions                    4,682.40                              Redlands P.R. Church                                     133.30
 Membership Dues                     134.00                             Southeast P.R. Church                                   212.30
 Gifts                           .5,206.90                              So. Holland P.R. Church                                 266.59
 Announcements                       136.00                             S.W. Prot. Ref. Church                                   140.39
 Bound Volumes                     7 5 5 . 0 0                          Eastern Ladies League                                      82.05
                                                                        First Ch. Sr. Mr. & Mrs.                                   30.00
Total Receipts For Year          10,914.30          10,914.30           First Ch. Priscilla  Sot.                                  65.00
Total Receipts                                      12,450.94           First Ch. Ladies Aid  Sot.                                100.00
                                                                        Hope-Jr. Mr.  & Mrs.  Sot.                                 25.00
Disbursements                                                           Hope Ch. Men's  Sot.                                       10.00
 Wobbema Printing Co.             9,691.38                              Hudsonville Men's  Sot.                                    13.77
 Holland Bookbinding                 399.75                             South Holland Ladies Aid                                   25.00
 James Dykstra  - Token Gift         300.00.                            Individuals                                            1,066.75
 Miscellaneous                       163 41
                                     L
                                                                        Total                                                  5,206.90
Total Disbursements              10,554.54          10,554.54
                                                                                                                      Rich Bos  - Treas.
Balance on Hand Sept. 1, 1968                        1,896.40
                                                                          Annual Treasurer's Report: Permanent Committee
Gifts                                                                   for Publication of Protestant Reformed Literature:
Doon P.R. Church                                       107.05                    $2,717.42           Balance on Deposit Sept.  1, 1967
Edgerton P.R. Church                                    34.14                          119.20        Interest on Money in bank
First P.R. Church G.R.                               1,201.31                       2,836.62
Forbes P.R. Church                                      27.00                       1,406.79         Received from sale of books
Holland P.R. Church                                     78.00                       4,243.41
Hope P.R. Church                                       368.8 1                         24.00         Paid out for P.O. Box rental
Hudsonvihe P.R. Church                                 877.85                    $4,219.41           Balance on Deposit in bank
Hull P.R. Church                                       101.89                                        Sept. 5, 1968
Isabel P.R. Church                                      39.27                    1000 Books were printed
Kalamazoo P.R. Church                                   53.20                    =Books have been sold
Loveland P.R. Church                                    18.90                     375 Books left to be sold
.Lynden P.R. Church                                     42.51                                                   Tom Newhof  - Treas.


I    60                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


     From Holy Writ

                                                       The Book of Hebrews
                                                                              Rev. G. Lubbers

                        Hebrews 7:1-3 (continued)                                          archetype which is in the Son of God in the flesh. As
      MADE LIKE UNTO THE SON OF GOD (Verse 3b)                                             such this priesthood had no "beginning of days nor end
           Only the Son of God has a priesthood which is not                               of life."
      dependent on father, mother, genealogy and limited to a                                 It ought to be noticed by us that the phrase just
      certain tribe in Israel. The Son of God is the eternal                               mentioned is a very significant one. The not having
      Son, the only begotten Son of God, co-equal with the                                 beginning of days refers to the pre-existence of the Son
      Father and with the Holy Ghost. He is very God of God,                               and of His priesthood in the counsel of peace; His goings
      untreated, before all worlds. He was in the beginning,                               forth are from of old, from eternity. (Micah 5: 2) He is
      and all things were made by Him. (Hebrews  1:2, 3) He is                             the Lamb that is slain from the foundations of the
      above angels and men. He alone, after He had brought                                 earth. (Revelation  13:8) In that sense the priesthood
      about the purification of our sins by Himself, could sit                             had no beginning of days. And it has no end of life, that
      down on the right hand of the majesty of God on high.                                is, it continues forever into the ages to come. It is the
      Often this truth that the High `Priest, who we have, is                              true priesthood, which will fully come to  manifestatison
      the Son of God is emphasized here in the book of                                     in the heavens. Surely, this priesthood reaches back into
      Hebrews. (Hebrews 1: 2, 5, 8; 2: 6, 10; 3: 6; 4: 14, etc.)                           the eternity of God's plan and forward unto the
           Melchizedek was made like unto this Son of God. The                             ceaseless unfolding of the same in this age and in the
      entire likeness of his priesthood was fashioned after                                ages to come! (Ephesians  2:7)
      Christ. The likeness was taken  from  the Son! The Greek                                Indeed, the priesthood according to Melchizedek
      participle  "aphoomoioomenos"  emphasizes that the Son                               gives us a strong consolation and hope within the vail!
      is the original type and that the very likeness, the very                            THE GREATNESS OF MELCHIZEDEK VERSUS
      essence of Melchizedek's priesthood was taken from and                               LEVI'S PRIESTHOOD (Hebrews  7:4-l 0. Read from
      corresponded exactly to that of the priesthood of the                                own Bible)
      eternal Son of God! Christ is the original priesthood and                               We are to "consider" how great this man was. How
      Melchizedek is a copy. He is a copy in a far greater sense                           are we to do this? Surely, not by some vain speculation
      than was the priesthood after the order of Aaron. Is it                              and theorization. The "theory" of which the writer
      not a wonderful work and design of God that some five                                speaks is that of comparing Scripture with Scripture
      hundred years before Aaron's priesthood at Sinai God                                 according to sound principles of interpretation. This
      had already given a clear example of Christ's abiding                                means take your Bible in hand and follow the teacher
      priesthood in Melchizedek? To emphasize this the entire                              here. To do this we must remind ourselves that we are
      Bible does not tell us one thing about this man's father,                            not to be mental and spiritual dullards, but to have our
      mother, nor about his genealogical background, but                                   senses  exercized by the use of them. (Hebrews 5: 14)
      simply shows us his priesthood as a earthy copy of the                               Perhaps we shall then more meaningfully be engaged in
      heavenly original.                                                                   beholding a few more of the glories of the sanctuary of
           Since Melchizedek's priesthood is not dependent                                 heaven, and catch its light-beams as they shine upon our
      upon parenthood, but is a copy of the priesthood of                                  inquisitive and interested eye from the sacred pages!
      Christ, it is a priesthood which abides forever. The term                              The writer says "Now consider how great this man
      h e r e   i n   t h e   G r e e k   f o r   Yabideth  f o r e v e r " r e a l l y    was. . . " The writer has reference to this Melchizedek,
      emphasizes that it carries through  - from age to age. It                            particularly to his majesty as king-priest as this appears
      is not one which is terminated by the death of the                                   from the Sacred record in Genesis 14: 18-20. There we
     , priest. Since we read nothing of Melchizedek's death in                             read,  `And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth
      Scripture the writer to the Hebrews can point out that                               bread and wine: and he was a priest of the most high
      in Scripture we do not read that this priesthood of                                  God. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of
      Melchizedek ceased in any sense. The form of the                                     the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And
      expression here in the Greek is found again in Hebrews                               blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered
      10:  1, 12, 14. The phrase simply marks the fact that                                thine enemies into thine hand. And he gave him tithes
      there was no interruption of Melchizedek's priesthood.1                              ofall.. . ."
     Nevertheless,         it points to .the higher reality of the                           This is the passage of the Scriptures which the writer

     (1)  eis  to dieenekes "the phrase does not describe absolute                         no limit is marked negatively or positively, and the phrase simply
     perpetuity, duration without end, but duration continued under                        excludes interruption in Melchizedek's tenure of office. No man
     the conditions implied or expressed in a particular case . . . Here                   takes it from Him . . ." Westcott, page 174.


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      61


would have us consider. We must continually gaze on             indicated that  all  belonged to Melchizedek. It was, all
this passage, contemplate its meaning, and thus consider        laid at his feet. So it is with Levi; Levi-Aaron laid all at
the sense of the Holy Spirit as set forth by the writer to      the feet of the King-Priest, Christ. He is Lord of lords
the Hebrews. Not to do  this we let these things slip           and King of kings!
through our fingers. For the Word is here, too,                   The third matter, which we must duly consider in the
profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruc-      greatness of this man is that in the one case tithes are
tion in righteousness. And there are certain cardinal           received/ by  men who die,  while on the other hand the
points in the Genesis record which must be considered,          tithes are received by him concerning whom it is
which all indicate the  "greatness",of  "this man."             testified that  he lives!  Yes, "there" in the Old Testa-
  First of all, we ought to notice the blessing which           ment dispensation the character of the priest was that
Melchizedek utters upon Abram. He utters this blessing          they were but mortal men. They died! And "here" in
as a priest of the Most High. Yes, it was a blessing at a       the New Testament we have a priest who says: I AM the
very crucial and historic moment. Abram is returning            resurrection and the life. I live, therefore, ye shall live.
from the slaughter of the kings. He had slaughtered             What a difference!
them in the name of the Most High. And he had lifted              This is a point which the writer will delineate upon in
up his hand unto Jehovah, God Most High, the  possesor          the succeeding verses. For the present we do well to
of heaven and earth. (Genesis  14:22) He had sworn by           consider this greatness as revealed to us in the Genesis
Jehovah and slaughtered the kings. And now he is                record and as interpreted for us by the Spirit in the
himself blessed by Melchizedek. He, Abraham, heir of            writer to the Hebrews. Such is not mere theory, but it is
the world, is blessed of this man, a king in Salem. For         interpreting Scripture in the light of Scripture, and as
the Most High is He who divided the nations their               the logical Word made flesh!
inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, and            THE  NECESSITY  OF A DIFFERENT PRIESTHOOD
set the bounds of the people according to the children          (Hebrews 7:11-14)
of Israel.  (Deut:32:8;  Acts  17:26)                             The writer to the Hebrews  c.ontinues  this theme of
  From this the writer draws an inference. He infers the        the greatness of the priesthood of Melchizedek in this
greatness by an implied syllogism or form of reasoning          section (read from your own Bible). He now takes up
and proof. This proof is as follows; 1. The lesser is ever      his point of departure from the position that the true
blessed by the greater. 2. Melchizedek is said to have          priesthood must bring about "perfection." Obviously
blessed Abraham who had the promises 3. Hence:                  the priesthood of Aaron had not brought about the
Melchizedek is clearly indicated to be superior even to         perfection for which a priesthood is intended. Writes
Abraham in his official capacity. This latter indicates         our text: "If perfection were by the levitical priesthood
that Melchizedek's priesthood is made like unto the             - what further need was there that another priest should
Son of God, for only he can bless Abraham and give              rise  after.the order of Melchizedek, and not be called .
him the promises. This is cogent proof for any  Bible-          after the order of Aaron?"
believer. He that does not believe the Scriptures will            This is a significant question, indeed. It is a question
needs pervert all of the Word of God to his own destruc-        with an implied answer. The answer is "none." If
tion.                                                           perfection were by that priesthood which continued up
  The second matter to duly consider concerning the             till the rending of the vail in the temple, then surely the
greatness of Melchizedek is that he received tithes from        coming of another priesthood would forever be un-
Abraham. (Verse 8) Now, what is so remarkable about             necessary.
this? In this we see that this Melchizedek is so much             The conditional sentence here is "If therefore perfec-
greater in his priesthood than is the priesthood of Levi        tion were by the Levitical priesthood. . .  " It is a
according to the order of Aaron. 0, to be sure, Levi was        conditional sentence expressing something contrary to
not yet born at this time when Abram returned from              fact. The Levitical priesthood  c.ould not and did not
the slaughter of the kings. Fact is, that Isaac too was         perfect anything. It did not bring about the  purificatilon
still in his father's loins. There was not yet any: Isaac  -    from sin, and it did not write the law in the hearts of
Jacob - `Levi  - Aaron. That would be five hundred              God's people. Fact is, it was inherently of such a nature
years later. However, the writer would have us observe a        that it called for ,a different kind of priesthood to rise in
fine point of this superior priesthood of  Christ-              its stead. This was not accidental; it belonged to the
Melchizedek. It is that Levi is  under  Melchizedek,            very nature and genius of the Levitical priesthood. God
inferior in rank, while according to the law they are           never intended that this priesthood should bring the
above the people; from whom they receive tithes. In the         church to perfection and to the glory of the heavenly
heirarchy of Israel they are near the top of the pyramid,       tabernacle, But the very purpose of the Levitical
but the entire pyramid of the law and the shadows is far        priesthood was that another priesthood should rise,
inferior to the priesthood of Christ-Melchizedek. For           which -even historically had been revealed before, on
Levi gives tithes to Melchizedek, the chief of the spoils       earth, in the days already of Abraham. It is the priest-
at that. And this tenth which Abraham gave really               hood according to the order of Melchizedek.


62                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER


A  Clond of Witnesses

                                                   David's Adultery

                                                      B. Woudenberg

                                   And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David
                                arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the
                                king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman
                                washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to
                                look upon . . .
                                   And David sent messengers, and took her; and she
                                came in unto him, and he lay with her;  for  she was
                                purified from her uncleanness: and she returned unto
                                her house.
                                   And the woman conceived, and sent and told David,
                                and said, I am with child.
                                                                       II Samuel 11:2, 4, 5

      To the accusers of the woman taken in adultery Jesus      our sin and confess it, just as David did.  It  is  that  which
answered, "He that is without sin among you, let him            makes the difference.
first cast a stone at her." Thereupon we read that the            Of this we may be sure, the fall of David into sin is
accusers left her "beginning at the eldest, even unto the       not something that came about in a moment. Outwardly
last." In former years Rev. Gerrit Vos used to reflect          it might appear that way. There was after all that
upon this passage by observing that the reason why the          moment when he thought to lust after her in sinful
eldest left first was that older men are more sinful than       desire, that moment when he gave way to his carnal
are young. It is a proposition against which young men,         desire to have her in adultery. The thing is though that
aware of their own impulsive sinfulness, are inclined to        there were many other times in David's life when these
argue, but one against which old men in their depth of          same inclinations would have been adamantly resisted
experience are silent. Surely, when we examine the life         and the very thought would have aroused him to shame.
of King David, it would appear to bear this out.                But the time had come when the spiritual strength of
      David undoubtedly stands upon the pages of Scrip-         David's life was no longer increasing; rather it had fallen
ture as one of the most impressive and appealing men in         into a serious decline until he no longer retained the
the history of the church of God, a wonderful mixture           strength to resist even his basest desire. It was a spiritual
of gentleness and courage, humility and authority,              decline so great that only one thing would be able to stir
joined together in the power of a firm and unwavering           him, and that was to be led into temptation so that at
faith. One can not help but be drawn to him even in             his own fall he might come to see how truly helpless he
spite of the centuries and centuries of time that have          was without the sustaining grace of God. That was how
intervened. The thing is though, that when one  thinks of       it happened.
him in this way, it is of him in his youth and not in his         In a way, perhaps, it was a natural result of coming
adulthood, of him as a courageous young shepherd and            into the position of king over Israel. David found
warrior, not as the great king. The reason is, perhaps,         himself eventually the  victim of his own success and
because across the face of his adulthood life there rests a     prosperity. As long as he had been young, alone, and
great scar, an event one wishes could be forgotten, a           oppressed by forces greater than his own, his complete
great and terrible sin. The atheist loves to reflect upon it    dependence upon God had been a day by day reality
and throw it in the believer's face. Here is the proof that     with his obligations to God always before his mind.
the children of God are no better than anyone else. And         Even after he first became king, the vast numbers and
they think that they have gained a point, because what          power of his enemies brought him in prayer before God
they say is really true. And because of this we can be          again and again while the weight of his new and heavy
thankful for the complete honesty with which the Scrip-         responsibilities reminded him always of his own weak-
tures record the lives of the saints. There is no effort to     ness in life. But at last the time came when his armies
gloss them over and make them appear better than they           had proved themselves to be the indisputable rulers of
really are. The fact is that the people of God are not          the world as they knew it. Wherever they went they
better than others, the Scriptures leave this without ques-     conquered, and no one was able to resist their power. It
tion. It is just that we in God's grace are brought to see      made of David the acclaimed hero of the world that no


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                63


one dared to speak against. To him there poured in from         in those days after his army had departed. His usual
all corners of the world a new wealth such as the world         companions were gone, and those who remained behind
had never seen before, some of it the booty of battle,          were not such as could fill his life. Accustomed to
some of it tribute forced by his armies, some of it             having him gone on the battlefield, the government of
willing bribes from those who thought to win his favor          the land somehow went on without needing his atten-
- but a wealth beyond measure nonetheless. For David,           tion. David had little more to do than to sleep and
however, it was more of a temptation than a blessing,           follow his passing whims. So it was that one evening
and a temptation which he was incapable of resisting.           David arose from a long afternoon nap and went up to
The time came when it appeared that his army was well           the roof of the palace overlooking the city. It was by far
enough trained that it seemed quite capable of function-        the most delightful part of the day with the cool
ing without him. With a man like Joab to lead it, David         evening breezes passing over the city and particularly
saw no reason why he should not allow the army to go            across the roof of the palace that rose in dominance
out by itself while he remained behind to rest, relax,          above everything else. From his vantage point David
and enjoy some of the prosperity which he had brought           looked down upon and about the city, when suddenly
to his country. So it was that when once again that             his eyes fell upon a neighbor woman he had never seen
season came about in which kings were accustomed to             before. Thinking herself safely hidden behind the walls
go out to battle, David sent his army without him to            of her garden, she was washing herself and had
lead it while he remained in Jerusalem to enjoy himself         undressed partially or wholly  ,to do so. She was a
and seek some leisure.                                          beautiful woman and in these unusual circumstances
  This, however, was not the only aspect entering into          quickly aroused the feelings and  intreats  of the king in
David's fall. His was a day in which rulers and kings           her. All through the night the king could not forget this
commonly demonstrated their greatness, power and                attractive woman he had looked upon, and the next
wealth by the number of wives which they kept. The              morning he sent out an inquiry as to who she might be.
greater the number of such wives, the more beautiful              The answer was no doubt disappointing, for the
their appearance, and the higher their birth, the more          woman was not, as he had hoped, a single woman who
highly respected the king was supposed to be. It was a          could be taken into his harem, but a married woman,
very evil tendency with many serious implications. It           the wife' of one Uriah a Hittite and member of the royal
was a danger against which the law of God had warned            army. Still David could not forget the woman whose
those who were to be kings in Israel, Deuteronomy               name he now knew to be Bathsheba. Possibly she was
17: 17, "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that       lonely as he was, her husband being away with the
his heart turn not away." But it was a warning to which         army; and what harm could come from offering a few
neither David nor his son gave heed, and for both of            hours of entertainment, a meal and some quiet conversa-
them it was their downfall.                                     tion. David may well have thought his purposes quite
  The weakness of David had appeared already at his             pure when he sent out the invitation to Bathsheba to
first marriage to Michal the daughter of Saul. It was a         come to him in the palace, a mere matter of kindness
marriage of expediency by which David was joined to             and hospitality to the wife of one of his faithful
the royal family; but it was not in the end a  .happy           soldiers.
marriage and brought into the home of David a great               As far as Bathsheba was concerned, the invitation
deal of grief. Michal did not follow David into his             from David must have come totally unexpected. Neither
banishment, with the result that when Abigail, the              was it one, coming as it did from the king himself, that
widow of  Nabal, struck his fancy he married her also.          could lightly be refused. Only after she had come to the
Not long after this he married another wife also, and as        palace, perhaps, did she discover that the purposes were
time went on he married still more. David fell into the         purely social and not legal. Left as she was alone with
evil habit which was customary to all the great men of          another man, she must have felt her first feelings of guilt
his age, whenever a young woman would strike his                and uneasiness. It was not a place for her, a married
fancy, he would use his power and authority to take her         woman, to be; and it would have been better to have
and make her his wife. It only meant in the end, though,        excused herself. But this was the king; and besides,
that David had no true wife, no woman with whom he              David was by every measure a gracious host and an
could share his life and love completely as a reflection        attractive person. To be sure such close  associatign
of God's love and faithfulness to His church. David, by         between people of the opposite sex and not married to
wilfully following his every inclination and using his          each other was quite contrary to the customs of the
authority to satisfy his carnal desires, was depriving          day; and both must have felt the precariousness of what
himself of the greatest means of human support and              they were doing. But both were interesting and gracious
encouragement that a man can have. Having many,                 people so that very soon they found themselves com-
David in effect had no wife with whom he could truly            pletely engrossed in each other. But the course of nature
share his life, so that he was left in loneliness.              had been set in motion, and before long their intimacies
   It was perhaps this loneliness that overwhelmed David        had become greater than either could resist. What


64                                                      TH-E STANDARD BEARER


followed was not any longer what could be explained.                oppression of guilt. Then came the weeks of fear and
away as innocent and both knew it. What had appeared                dawning awareness, and that secret message to David.
a pleasure for a moment left them at their departure                There was to be no forgetting, no escape; Bathsheba had
overshadowed with a deep and dismaying cloud of guilt               conceived. Their sin, the sin of David the great king was
resting upon their souls. Theirs was the anguish of guilt           about to be exposed for all to see.
and of shame which only those who have followed                       David was indeed the favored of the Lord. He had
adultery can ever know.                                             lived before the face of his God and had been blessed.
      Neither was God, who alone with David and  Bath-              But to him it must also become evident as well as to
sheba knew the darkness of that hour, about to let it be            everyone else, and to us too; David's greatness was not
forgotten. First there were those hours and days in                 because he was better, not because he was in any way
which each, both the man and the woman, struggled in                free from the power of sin; but only a matter of
loneliness with their own minds trying to explain away              sovereign good-pleasure and grace.
what they had done, trying to relieve that terrible


Contending for the Faith


                                          THE DOCTRINE OF SIN
                                            The Second Period- 250-730 A.D.

                                                 The Pelagian Controversy

                                                     Semi  - Pelagianism

                                                            Rev. HVeldman

      We remarked at the close of our preceding article that             down to 495, and attributed Augustine's doctrine of
the Augustinian and Scriptural doctrine of sin and grace                 predestination to his itch for writing (so, Augustine's
is never popular. We may recall that Cassian, the                        doctrine as emphasizing the truth of predestination
founder and abbot of the monastery of Massilia, stood                    was attributed simply to Augustine's desire for writing
at the head of the Semi-Pelagian party. A certain Prosper                - H.V.); Arnobius the younger; and the much dis-
Aquitanus, an  Augustinian divine and poet, wrote a                      cussed anonymous tract Praedestinatus (about 460),
book against this Cassian, and he also composed a long                   which, by gross exaggeration, and by an unwarranted
                                                                         imputation of logical results which Augustine had
poem in  defence of Augustine and his system. But, the                   expressly forestalled, placed the doctrine of predesti-
Semi-Pelagian doctrine was the more popular and made                     nation in an odious light, and then refuted it (how
great progress in France. We were to call attention to                   often this is done today: first make a caricature of the
this development in this article.                                        doctrine of `predestination, and then refute it - H.V.).
      Gf interest is what Philip  Schaff writes about this in                The author of the Praedestinatus says, that a treatise
his History of the Christian Church, Vol. III, 862 f.f:                  had fallen into his hands, which fraudulently bore
          "But the Semi-Pelagian doctrine was the more                   upon its face the name of the orthodox teacher
       -popular, and made great progress in France. Its                  Augustine, in order to smuggle in, under a Catholic
       principal advocates after Cassian are the following: the          name, a blasphemous dogma, pernicious to the faith.
       presbyter-monk Vincentius of Lerinum, author of the               On this account he had undertaken to transcribe and
        Commonitorium,  in which he developed the true                   to refute this work. The treatise itself consists of three
       catholic test of doctrine, the threefold consensus, in            books; the first, following Augustine's book,  De
        covert antagonism to the novel doctrines of Augustin-            haeuesibus, gives a description of ninety heresies from
       ianism (about 434); Faustus, bishop of  Phegium                   Simon  Magus down to the time of the author, and
       (Riez), who at the council of Arles (475) refuted the             brings up, as the last of them, the doctrine of a double
       hyper-Augustinian  presbyter  Lucidus, and was com-               predestination, as a doctrine which makes God the
       missioned by the council to write a work upon the                 author of evil, and renders all the moral endeavors of
       grace of God and human freedom (notice how soon                   men fruitless; the second book is the pseudo-.
       after Augustine's death, relatively speaking, a hyper             Augustinian treatise upon this ninetieth heresy, but is
       Augustinian was already refuted at a church council -             apparently merely a Semi-Pelagian caricature by the
       H.V.); Gemradius, presbyter at Marseilles (died after             same author; the third book contains the refutation of
       495), who continued the biographical work of Jerome,              the thus travestied pseudo-Augustinian doctrine of


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        65     ~I

    predestination, employing the usual Semi-Pelagian argu-       of doing anv good. but it is also stated that the human
                                                                           I
                                                                                 ..-
                                                                                            ,
    ments.                                                        understanding cannot fathom the depths of the wisdom
       A counterpart to this treatise is found in an also         of the Lord. The teaching is developed and set forth that
    anonymous work, which endeavors to commend                    God desires the salvation of all men. And as far as the
    Augustinianism by mitigation, in the same degree that         problem is concerned concerning infants who die every
    the Praedestinatus endeavors to stultify it by exag-          year without being baptized and without the opportu-
    geration. It has been ascribed to Pope Leo I (dies 461)
    of whom it would not be unworthy; but it cannot be            nity of coming to the knowledge of salvation, this
    supposed that the work of so distinguished a man              presented a problem which could not be solved. It is
    could have remained anomymous. The author avoids              also striking that it was also during this period that men
    even the term pvaedistinatio,  and teaches expressly,         spoke of a general and a special grace of God. The
    that Christ died for all men and would have all to be         general grace of God came to man through the external
    saved; thus rejecting the Augustinian particularism.          revelation in nature, the law and the gospel. So, already
    But, on the other hand, he also rejects the  Semi-            in this period they spoke of the gospel as a proof for the.
    Pelagian principles, and asserts the utter inability of       general grace of God. This, of course, can mean only
    the natural man to do good. He unhesitatingly sets            one thing, and that is that God would save all men
    grace above the human will, and represents the whole          through the preaching of the gospel. And then they
    life of faith, from beginning to end, as a work of            spoke of a particular or special grace of God which
    unmerited grace. He develops the three thoughts, that         effects  conversidn and regeneration by an inward
    God desires the salvation of all men; that no one is
    saved by his own merits, but by grace; and that the           impartation of  savmg power, and which is only be-
    human understanding cannot fathom the depths of               stowed upon those who are saved. And we do well to
    divine wisdom. We must trust in the righteousness of          note that this distinction between a general and a special
    God. Every one of the damned suffers only the                 grace of God was the presentation of the Semi-Pelagians
    righteous punishment of his sins; while no saint can          and of those who opposed the Augustinian system. It is
    boast himself in his merits, since it is only of pure         certainly true that the groundwork had been laid for the
    grace that he is saved. But how is it with the great          Council of Orange in 529 which sealed the victory of
    multitude of infants that die every year without              Semi-Augustinianism.
    baptism, and without opportunity of coming to the
    knowledge of salvation? The author feels this dif-            VICTOR Y OF SEMI-A  UG  USTINIANISM. COUNCIL
    ficulty, without, however, being able to solve it. He         OF ORANGE, A.D. 529
    calls to his help the representative character of parents,      Concerning this Svnod of Orange,  Schaff writes as
    and dilutes the Augustinian doctrine of original sin to       follows, Vol.iII, 865 -f. f. :
    the negative conception of a mere defect of good,                    But these synods (at Aries in 472 and at Lyons in
    which, of course, also reduces the idea of hereditary              475) were only provincial, and were the cause of a
    guilt and the damnation of unbaptized children. He                 schism. In North Africa and in Rome the Augustinian
    distinguishes between a general grace which comes to               system of doctrine, though in a somewhat softened
    man through the external revelation in nature, law,                form attained the ascendency. In the decree by Pope
    and gospel, and a special grace, which effects conver-             Gelasius in 496 the writings of Augustine and Prosper
    sion and regeneration by an inward impartation of                  Aquitanus are placed among books ecclesiastically
    saving power, and which is only bestowed on those                  sanctioned, those of Cassian and Faustus of Rheium
    that are saved.                                                    among the apocryphal or forbidden. Even in Gaul it
       Semi-Pelagianism prevailed in Gaul for several de-              found in the beginning of the sixth century very
    cades. Under the head of Faustus of Rhegium it gained              capable and distinguished advocates, especially in
    the victory in two synods, at Arles in 472 and at                  Avitus, archbishop of Vienne  (490-523),  and  Cae-
    Lyons in 475, where Augustine's doctrine of predesti-              sarius, archbishop of Arles (502-542). Associated with
    nation was condemned, though without mention of his                these was Fulgentius of Ruspe (died 533) in the name
    name.                                                              of the sixty African bishops banished by the Vandals
  And so the groundwork is laid for the Council of                     and then living in Sardinia.
Orange in A.D. 529. We may note the following. The                       The controversy was stirred up anew by the
doctrine of Augustine, setting forth the Scriptural truths             Scythian monks, who in their zeal for the  Mono-
of man's being saved solely by grace and the absolutely                physite theopaschitism, abhorred everything con-
sovereign character of Divine predestination was sub-                  nected with Nestorianism, and urged first pope Hor-
jected to severe criticism almost immediately upon the                 misdas, and then with better success the exiled African
death of this church father. A caricature is drawn of the              bishops, to procure the condemnation of  Semi-
                                                                       Pelagianism.
doctrine of predestination in which that doctrine is                     These transactions terminated at length in the
presented as making God the author of evil and                         triumph of a moderate Augustinianism, or of what
rendering all moral endeavors of men fruitless. The                    might be called Semi-Augusti nianism, in distinction
teaching was set forth that Christ died for all men and                from Semi-Pelagianism. At the synod of Orange
that He would have all men be saved. It is true that they              (Arausio) in the year 529, at which Caesarius of Arles
would hold to the teaching that man is utterly incapable               was leader, the Semi-Pelagian system, yet without


i 66                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER


         mention of its adherents, was condemned in twenty-                reason many historians have the impression, and leave
         five chapers or canons, and the Augustinian doctrine              the impression, that this synod represents a last victory
         of sin and grace was approved, without fhe doctrine of            for the Augustinian conception of predestination and
         absolute or particularistic predestination. A similar             sovereign grace. This last, however, is not the case. The
         result was reached at a synod of Valence (Valencia),               synod left much rather the impression that it was
         held the same year, but otherwise unknown.                        afraid of the strict Augustinian principles. His doctrine
            The synod of Orange, for its Augustiuian decisions             certainly was not maintained by the synod. On the one
         in anthropology and soteriology, is of great impor-               hand, and indeed rather inconsistently, the synod
         tance. But as the chapters contain many repetitions               maintained the total incapability of man to do any
          (mostly from the Bible and the works of Augustine,               good, over against the Semi-Pelagians. But, on the
         and  his followers, it  will  ,suffice to give extracts           other hand, it denied the infallible and irresistible
         containing in a positive form the most important                  operation of sovereign grace. In fact, as far as
         propositions.                                                     predestination is concerned, the synod was satisfied
        T o   t h i s   synod we hope to call attention in  a              simply to express that a predestination unto evil is to
  subsequent article. However, of this synod the Rev. H.                   be condemned; in other words, it must have nothing of
  Hoeksema writes as follows:                                              sovereign reprobation.
            The synod is especially known because of its                 However, the Lord willing, we will call attention to
         consistent condemnation of Semi-Pelagianism. For this         this synod and its decisions in a later article.


  The Lord  Gave The Word . . ,  PS.  62x-11

                                    Jonah's Preaching To Nineveh
                                                               Rev. C. Hanko

        When we speak of mission labors in the old dispensa-           before me." This call to go to Nineveh struck Jonah
  tion, or the spread of the Gospel beyond the pale of                 with all its implications. Jonah realized at once that
  Israel, we quite naturally think of Jonah and his message            what the Lord said was true; Nineveh was a very wicked
  to Nineveh, upon' which Nineveh repented. Therefore                  city. In chapter  3:8 even the king of Nineveh speaks of
  we pause a moment to consider this unique missionary                 the fact that every one is guilty of "an evil way," and
  venture of the  Old Testament.                                       that"violence is in their hands." This can only mean that
        Let us just briefly call to mind some of the detail of         Nineveh was guilty of base idolatry, lawlessness, oppres-
  Jonah's  preaching and Nineveh's repentance upon that                sion, and bloodshed. Stealing and plunder, whoredoms
  preaching.                                                           and witchcrafts, cunning deceit and treachery were
        Nineveh was a large city of about sixty miles in               among their sins, as is mentioned in Nahum 3 : 1. Yet the
  circumference with a total population of six or seven                Lord sends Jonah to preach to that wicked city, whose
  thousand people. Jonah 1: 2;  3:3; 4: 11. This was the               wickedness arose before Him even to heaven. It is true
  capital of Assyria, the arch-enemy of the Kingdom of                 that the prophet must preach against the wickedness
  Israel at that time. It was the world power of that day,             there and announce the judgments of the living God
  only to be compared to Babylon, the Medo-Persian                     from heaven against them. He is told to say: "Yet forty
  kingdom, the Macedonian empire, and the Roman                        days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed." Nothing more.
  empire. It was, so to speak, the world that threatened to            But even Jonah realizes that it is not God's purpose
  overthrow the  church.                                               merely to announce that God's judgment will soon fall
        Jonah was called to be a  pr0phe.t among the people of         upon that city. Jehovah has a positive purpose in
  Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II. (II Kings  14:25).           sending His word of judgment to them, because His
  This was,  therefore, the time of Israel's decline, when             mercy will be revealed even there. (Jonah  4:2) The Lord
  idolatry and all its accompanying evils were prevalent in            intended that there should be repentance and salvation
  Israel. The Lord was angry with the ten tribes and was               as fruit upon the preaching of the prophet of Israel.
  about to give them over into the hands of Assyria, their                And the Lord did bring repentance to Nineveh. We
  arch-enemy, to be scattered among the nations of the                 read in Jonah  3:5  :"So the people believed God, and
  world.                                                               proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the
        At this particular time the word of the Lord came to           greatest of them even to the least of them." This can
  Jonah, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,               only mean that there was a genuine repentance in this
  and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up                  heathen capital. Many of the inhabitants from the


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        67


mighty princes down to the lowly servants became              his God will bring His judgment upon them. And we can
aware of their sins as guilt before the living God, were      be sure that Jonah in his state of mind added nothing
deeply sorry for their sins, and turned to the Lord in        more to his proclamation than the simple and concise
heart-felt repentance. They believed that God was just        statement: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be
in destroying them and pleaded for His mercy. 3: 10.          overthrown!"
Jesus confirms this in Matthew  12:41,  where He warns          And yet "the men of Nineveh repented at the
the Jews of His day, "The men of Nineveh shall rise up        preaching of Jonas." If what we read in the Book of
in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it;       Jonah is not sufficient to convince us that this was a
because they repented at the preaching of Jonas."             genuine repentance, we do have the words of Jesus to
Surely the men of Nineveh would never sit with Christ         confirm it. The objection would certainly be raised in
and His saints to judge the world if their repentance         our day that Jonah was a very poor missionary, entirely
were not sincere.                                             devoid of real missionary zeal. But the objection would
  The result was that Nineveh was not destroyed after         also be raised that his message was certainly a poor
forty days. The Lord gathered His elect remnant out of        psychological approach, upon which no one could
that city and gave them time to bring forth fruits            expect any positive fruit. Nothing whatever was said
worthy of repentance.        Later Nahum once more            about God's love, much less about a love of God for all
announces the judgment of God upon this bloody city,          men. No effort was made to try to show that God
which gives us reason to believe that the entire city did     indeed wants all men to be saved and extends His
not repent and that the people once more became               invitation to all. Here was no "altar-call," no plea for a
corrupted, so that not long after it was destroyed. We        decision for Christ. Simply nothing that is  considere(d so
can also mention that during that time Assyria turned         essential for proper mission work upon which we may
against the Kingdom of Israel and scattered them to the       expect fruits of repentance and salvation.
ends of the earth. II Kings  17:5, 6.                           Now it must be granted at once that Jonah certainly
  Jesus tells the evil and adulterous generation of His       did not say all that might have been said. The Gospel is
day, which demands of Him a sign to prove that He is          more than a mere announcement of impending judg-
indeed the Christ, that no sign will be given them but        ment or of God's wrath against the guilty sinner. The
the sign of the prophet Jonah. "For as Jonas was three        Gospel is also a call to repentance with the assurance
days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the      that God receives contrite sinners and forgives their sins,
Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart        bestowing on them all the blessings of salvation. Jesus,
of the earth." Matthew  12:39,  40. From this we may          for example, says: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and
conclude that Nineveh was a picture of the ingathering        are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
of the Gentiles in the new dispensation. After Christ's         But before we criticize the message of Jonah let us
rejection by the Jews, which resulted in His death and        beware lest we criticize God. God, after all, laid the
resurrection, Israel as a nation would be destroyed, but      words on Jonah's lips. And even Jonah realized when he
God would turn to the Gentiles to gather His own unto         went to Nineveh that these words were to be proclaimed
Himself. This is entirely in harmony with the prophecies      because God is a gracious God, and merciful, slow to
of the Old Testament and of Jesus Himself. Therefore          anger, and  .of great. kindness, and repents of evil.  (4.: 2).
Nineveh with its little children and much cattle (see         But also the people of Nineveh realized that this
chapter 4) is a sign of the complete renewal of all things    message might well have come as a word. of warning and
by the ingathering of the church. When God brings His         a call to repentance. GOD, after all, was working in the
elect into glory all things are made new. The  world  is      hearts of His elect in that great world city. GOD had His
saved; only the reprobate chaff is cast out. "For God so      own in that city and was calling them out before the
loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,          city itself would be destroyed. And God knows the best
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but        approach, knows also how to use His own word to
have everlasting life."                                       serve His eternal purpose. So that the conversion of the
 What can hardly pass unnoticed in this prophecy of           men of Nineveh is a strong evidence of the fact that
Jonah is the message which the Lord gives him to              salvation is always only of the Lord. There is nothing of
proclaim to the Ninevites. Jonah is told only to              man in it. We are saved by grace alone.
proclaim to them that in forty days the city will be             But what  im@essesus most of all in this prophecy is
destroyed. He is not told to call the people to               the attitude of the unwilling prophet toward his calling
repentance. He is not instructed to -warn them that           to preach the Gospel to the Ninevites. He is not at all
unless they repent they will be destroyed. He is merely       pleased with his commission to go out as missionary to
told to announce the impending judgment of God upon           this heathen land. He even struggles to get away, and
them. No, he is not even instructed to inform them of         when he preaches he does so with the hope that the
Israel's God as the only true and living God Who has the      people will not repent. He waits to see whether they will
power to destroy. He must come in the name of his God         be destroyed, and is angry when the Lord shows them
to this heathen people and tell them that in forty days       mercy. It is only after a bitter struggle that he finally is


68                                              TH.E STANDARD BEARER


silent. The book of Jonah ends with the word of the            because they had forsaken the living God, how could
Lord on which Jonah makes no further comment. He               the Christ be born if the "church" perishes. And
bows before the sovereign will and purpose of the Most         although he might grant that God could very well have
H i g h .                                                      his elect in Nineveh, which must be saved, how could
      But it took quite a bit to bring Jonah to that point.    God's promise to Abraham be realized as long as the
At first he ran away, as if he could run away from God.        Christ had not yet come. For Christ must be born of
He meets God in the storm and realizes that the Lord is        Abraham.
indeed following him. He experiences divine mercy                We must certainly consider Jonah in the light of his
when God miraculously prepares a fish that swallows            times. For many centuries God had gathered His church
him up. He is rescued from the depths of hell to go to         from the natural descendants of Abraham, that is, the
Nineveh and fulfill His calling. Even then He cannot           Jews. God's covenant had been confined within the
understand the ways of the Lord. We may well consider          narrow limits of national Israel. The few who were
him a prophet with a serious problem. He had hoped for         gathered from without, such as Rahab and Ruth, were
Nineveh's overthrow and he sees their repentance.              engrafted into Israel. But now the Lord shows His
      For all this Jonah had been severely maligned and        promise of future things to come; the ingathering of the
criticized. Nor may we ignore the fact that he was such        Gentiles after Israel as nation has become fully apostate
an unwilling instrument in God's hand. Much less may           by rejecting the Christ. But Jonah was born, as it were,
we condone  .his actions and complaints. But we must           before his time. He could not understand his own
remember that the Almighty was angry with Jonah and            prophecy. But then we must also remember that Peter
yet showed amazing patience with him. We also must             could not understand the vision of the unclean beasts
certainly attempt to understand his problem as best we         until it was interpreted for him. And that was after
can.                                                           Pentecost and the cross and the outpouring of the
      And then we must immediately consider that Jonah         Spirit. Let us not be too severe in criticizing Jonah.
did love God and did love God's cause upon the earth.            But above all, let us see the wonder of God's grace.
He was not impelled by a mere patriotism for Israel as a       For salvation is of the Lord. That is evident from the
nation, but was motivated by His love for the people of        Book of Jonah. And it is by that same wonder of grace
God. It is especially for that reason that Jonah could         that we also are brought into the covenant.
not understand why he should be drawn away from the                 When the Lord shall count the nations,
Kingdom of Israel to preach to Israel's arch-enemy                         Sons and daughters He shall see.
Assyria. He sees Nineveh spared only to destroy the                 Born to endless life in Zion,
Kingdom of Israel. Even though the prophet should                          And their joyful song shall be,
grant that Israel deserved God's righteous judgment                 "Blessed Zion, all our fountains are in thee."


Studies in Depth
                                A CAMPUS MOVEMENT
                                                 Rev. Robert C. Havbach


      A rather recent religious movement is the  Campus        term itself, and Billy Graham, the neo-evangelical
Crusade for Christ, International,  with headquarters in       evangelist. Other supporting names appear, such as, Bob
San Bernardino, California. To draw a comparison, the          Pierce, Oswald J. Smith, Wilbur M. Smith, Clyde
organization is somewhat in the line of Child                  Narramore, Mark 0. Hatfield and Walter H. Judd.
Evangelism, Youth for Christ or the Billy Graham                 Advertized as "a student Christian movement
Crusade. Therefore, while neither in the modernist nor         designed to present the message of Jesus Christ to
the liberal side of the ecclesiastical field, its proper       collegians throughout the United States and the world,"
sphere is not within the Reformed perimeter, much less         it aims "to mold the destiny of tomorrow's world" or to
in that of Fundamentalist circles. It is a branch of           "help change the world" by introducing men to Christ.
Neo-evangelicalism.     Its official magazine quarterly,       "Changed lives equal a changed world." This line of
` `Collegiate Challenge," may carry an occasional              thought is especially intended to be appealing to the
abridged article from that neo-evangelical publication,        ecclesiastically liberal side of society which has always
Christianity Today.  The advisory board of the crusade         been more or less "post-millennial" in outlook, that is,
boasts such names as Harold John Ockenga, said to be           the progress of the "gospel" will gradually permeate and
`he father of neo-evangelicalism,  1 and inventor of the       conquer every area of life, until the kingdom of God


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                          69



becomes visibly apparent and so readied for the coming             experience, a verse of Scripture, etc.,  wl+ch sounds like
of its King. It would appear from "Crusade" literature             Buchmanism's (Moral Re-Armament) "sharing"  ritual.2
that "the world" in general means whatever the in-                 Other strange terminology of this collegian cult includes
dividual connected with the movement wants it to                   such frequent expressions as "the witnessing ex-
mean, and in particular iefers to the world of mankind.            perience," "testimony" (a t erm used -over against
According to Scripture, the term "world" is rather                 "preachimony"), "action group, "yielded Christian,"
complex, having about nine different shades of meaning,            "spiritual Christian," "carnal Christian," "helping to
three of which appear within the compass of one verse,             change the world," and "man is continually trying to
John 1: 10. There it is said that "the world was made by           reach God." New converts are taught to confess in
Him." But that world since the Fall has been subjected             prayer, "I have been in control of my own life." (This in
to vanity, imprisoned in the bondage of corruption, and            the face of Acts 17:  28!) Such is a sample of the working
so groans and travails in pain under the burden of that            jargon of these crusaders, who, by the way, advise their
enslavement without deliverance until the Lord Jesus               membership, "don't use Christian jargon. Words such as
Christ visibly and bodily appears in our atmosphere to             `saved, ' `convicted, ' `converted' and `sin' do not com-
bring about the redemption of our bodies and the                   municate truth to the average non-Christian . . .  " Why
glorious liberty of the sons of God (Rom. 8`: 18-23). The          then, under the crusade's Law Number Two, is Romans
world will not be changed for the better until He comes            6:23 carried before the world, "the wages of  sin  is
(II Pet. 3: 1 O-l 3). It is regrettable to tears that the Billy    death!" Why advise, "Share the message of Christ," only
Graham set does not see this.                                      to add, "Don't use Christian jargon!" One also comes
   The philosophy of Campus Crusade, if indeed it may              across such a  la Graham expressions as, "Man has the
be called that, lies in the emplacement of "a strong               power of free will, the power to say `Yes' or `No' to
wholesome emphasis on the authority of the Scriptures,             God." God then waits upon, man, the deciding  factlor as
the living Christ, the importance of the church and the            to whether His  or the devil's will be done. God "waits to
adventure of discipleship." One may read all the                   sit upon the throne of your life, but you must invite
brochures and descriptive literature of this movement in           Him in to your life. No one can be a Christian without
examination of that "philosophy" and find it to have no            surrender of the [RCH: would-be autonomous] will to
more depth than this trite, frothy "backcover"                     Christ."
language. In connection with this "wholesome emphasis                 This language, exotic to the older generation, to a
on the authority of Scripture," one does not find any              biblical vocabulary, and probably deemed, "relevant" by
such emphasis as "that they are from God," hence                   the collegiate caste, is intended to convey basically two
"divine Scriptures," thus distinguished from all                   ideas, that of "conversion" (to use Christian jargon) and
apocryphal books (which have neither "power",                      that of "Christian living." Not close, however, does  this
"efficacy" nor "authority"), nor the wholesome state-              c o m e   t o   w h a t   t h e   R e f o r m e d   k n o w   a s   " t h e   trie'
ment that the written Word of God is the only infallible           conversion of man to God and the manner thereof." For
rule -of faith. (Belgic Confession, II-VII). Nor is "the           conversion "is not to be ascribed to the proper exercise                                    ,
.living Christ"  `or "the church" any where near defined           of free will . . . but it must be wholly ascribed to God                                    I
or delineated with even an approach to the Scriptural              who has chosen His own from eternity in Christ, so he
beauty and clarity of a Guido de Bres (BC, X,                      confers on them faith and repentance, rescues  the&
XXVII-XXIX).                                                       from the power of darkness, and translates them into
   The strategy of this collegiate salvation army is to            His marvelous light; (they therefore) may glory not in
present "the message of Christ" (a term in preference to           themselves, but in the Lord" (Canons. III, IV, 10).
"the gospel" which makes the  offence of the cross to              Conversion is experienced by the elect, because God
cease) on campus "through team meetings and Bible                  "works in them true conversion." This He does by
studies in fraternities, sororities, dormitories and other         causing the  gospel  (Christian jargon) to be preached to
living groups . . . through films . . . records, athletic          them,  -by powerfully illuminating their minds by His
teams, breakfasts and literature." The results of this             Holy Spirit. In fact, prior to this efficacious act of God,
crusade are that "many thousands of students. . . have             He regenerates by pervading the inmost recesses of the
committed their lives to" Christ, and "hundreds of these           man, opening his closed and softening his hardened
are engaged in taking Christ to the world." The crusade            heart, so infusing new qualities into his will, which
goal is "to present the message of Christ to the                   heretofore dead, He quickens, actuates and strengthens,
collegians of the world in order to bring each student to          so that the man then may come to  Him and believe in
a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ and commitment                Him (ibid., 9).
to Him as Saviour and Lord." This strategy consists of                 Then the movement teaches that each new convert
hammering away .at "the Four Spiritual Laws" and "the              won through personal witnessing to the truth of Christ
Ten Basic Steps," which sound like Buddhism's "Four                must be brought to the possession of Christian
Noble Truths" and its "Noble Eightfold Path." Constant             assurance. This is done through the following rationali-
reference is made to "sharing", sharing a testimony, an            zation process. He is asked,  "Have you invited Christ                                 /


70                                             THE STANDARD  BEA,RER


into. your life?" The necessity of doing this must be         grace. The priest will instruct you in exactly all the
impressed on the seeker with some such advice as, "He         ritual, custom, ceremony, penance,  et cetera,  that must
will not force himself upon us; we must invite Him in to      be performed for salvation. When you have performed
our life to be Saviour and Lord."' Then, "Were you            all that, the priest will then inform you that you (and  Jze
sincere about your accepting the Lord's invitation to         must so inform you, or you cannot) now possess true
you?" referring to, "Behold, I stand at the door and          grace. Here assurance is not something which comes as a
knock; if any man. . . open the door, I will come             free gift of grace from the Holy Spirit through the
in . .  ." So, "where is Christ right now? He said He         Scriptures opened to the opened heart. No, assurance is,
would come into your life. Would He mislead you?              as the literature noted above reveals, something one man
Then  ,where is He at this moment?" After the answer          gives to another.  You,  as a "personal worker" or
desired is extorted: "in my heart," the inquisition           Christian who "witnesses for Christ," can "give
continues, "On what authority do you know this?" The          assurance" to any convert to Christ who has met His
answer here fished for and hoped shall be forthcoming         "conditions." This is certainly a far cry from the
is, "Why, I know it because God has promised it in His        Christian doctrine of assurance  3 as outlined in the
Word, and I have met the conditions demanded by               Westminster Confession and its beautiful chapter XVIII.
Him." Then the counsellor points out to the new               Even more beautiful, and more comprehensively de-
convert just what has happened to him since he                veloped, is the doctrine of assurance as set down in the
"decided to accept Christ." The Lord has saved him and        Canons of Dort, V, articles I-XV, especially articles
come into his heart. He is now a child of God. At this        IX-XIV, and in the immediately following Rejections of
moment he' begins the great "adventure" of the Chris-         Errors, I-IX, especially articles V and VI.4 What a
tian life. The next step  ,is to have a word of prayer        "crusader," who wields but a spike of straw, finding too
together where the convert may pray a prayer pre-             "heavy" that right good Westminster blade or the
scribed, or one of his own, thanking God for what he          Jerusalem steel of Dort!
has done. Thanksgiving is  .an act of faith. Faith pleases
God. It is good to do this because it is pleasing to God.     ISee The Standard Bearer, vol. 41, No. 12, March 15, 1965, p.
Assurance may also follow from the confidence which           271, article:  Neo-Evangelicalism.
flows from this act. This is a sample, literally, of
Campus Crusade "evangelism." In another installment,          2The Standard Bearer, Vol. 42, No. 8, Jan. 15, 1966, p. 178,
the Lord willing, it must be shown how superficial and        article:  Buchmanism.
dangerous this invitation system is. Pity the person who      3See Beacon Lights, Feb., Apr., May, Jun.-Jul., Aug.-Sept., Oct.,
cannot see it is all the-most sickening Arminianism from      1967, series on Assurance.
beginning to end!
      All this rigmarole amounts to a kind of "Protestant"    4The Three Forms of Unity: The Heidelberg Catechism, The
Roman Catholicism, if such a thing can be imagined!           Belgic Confession, The Canons of Dort Together With the
The Christian witness or counsellor becomes' a                Athanasian Creed, Nicene Creed (paper,' 53 pp., 3.5~ ea. Order
sacerdotal functionary, a "priest" who extracts an            from R.C. Harbach, 1226 Pinehurst Blvd., Kalamazoo, Mich.
"auricular confession" and imposes a prescribed course        49007).
the subject must meekly follow to be a recipient of


Examining  Ecumebicalism

                            "THE DUTCH MEET DIXIE"(II1)
                                                   Rev. G. Van Buren

      We have been considering the proposed union of the      with you in this article.
Reformed Church in America with  the. Presbyterian            The office within the new church
Church in the United, States (Southern Presbyterian).            The plan for proposed union eliminates the office of
Last time we pointed out one feature of the proposed          deacon completely. The plan, evidently, is  .that the
union which is greatly feared by conservative men in the      ministers and elders, with some assistance from com-
Reformed Church: its obvious hierarchy. This in itself        passionate people of the congregation, will perform this
would be sufficient reason for rejecting the entire plan.     function of the diaconate. We read:
      But other reasons for  .rejecting the proposed union               14-17. The Consistory may select and appoint other
have also been offered. Several of these I would consider           compassionate persons of the congregation to assist


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      71     '


    the Elders in ministering to the sick, to the aged, to     tegrity. Of interest in this case is not only the proposal,
    widows, to orphans, to prisoners, and to others in any     but the amendment which was made. The original reads:
     distress or need.                                                The Constitution of the Presbyterian Reformed
  Rather obviously the authors of the plan of union did            Church in America consists of: (1) its doctrinal
not regard Acts 6 as the beginning of the office of the            Standards which are in the Confession of Faith of the
deacon. The office itself is considered as optional  - and         Presbyterian Church in the United States (which has
for the new church unnecessary. Possibly, too, this                grown out of the Westminster Confession) with the
action reflects the obvious fact that the government to a          Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Belgic Confession,
large degree has assumed responsibility for the care of            the Heidelberg Catechism with its Compendium, the
the poor and needy  - hence, the church does not need              Canons of the Synod of Dort, the Apostles' Creed, the
the diacondte anymore. The elders can take care of                 Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed; together with
                                                                   (2) the Book of Church Order, which comprises the
those few instances where the church must provide for              Form of Government, the Rules of Discipline, and the
the poor.                                                          Directory for the Worship of God and for the Work of
  However, this omission is very serious. When the                 the Church.
Word of God so obviously has pointed us to the                   The above was amended and approved as follows:
institution of the office of deacon, the church may not              Delete "Larger and" line four (in original docu-
simply eliminate that position. The calling of the church          ment).
ought rather to be to examine itself carefully to find out           Delete "the Canons of the Synod of  Dart" line five
where it has failed if it is true that the office of deacon        (original document).
is superfluous today.                                                Add following sentence at conclusion of paragraph:
  A second feature of the proposed plan of union is the            "The Larger Catechism and the Canons of the Synod
approval of women officebearers. The Southern                      of Dort are respected parts of our historical inheri-
Presbyterian Church has earlier approved the idea of               tance but are not parts of our doctrinal standards."
women functioning in the office. And although the                It does not take one long to determine why there was
Reformed Church does not presently allow women to              approval of omitting the Canons of Dort. In fact, in the
serve in the ministry of the Word, repeated and                Presbyterian Journal  of June 26, 1968 presents the
continuing attempts have been made in that denomina-           following explanation given by the Rev. Marion A.
tion to allow for this. Now the new plan of union does         Boggs of Asheville, N.C.:
specifically permit women to serve in any of the offices             Explaining to the Assembly, as a member of the
within the church.                                                 Committee of 24, why the Larger Catechism has been
                                                                   dropped from the Plan of Union with the Reformed
       9-2. The whole polity of the Church consists of (1)         Church in America: "Some of our best and most
    doctrine, including worship and the administration of          respected theologians strongly objected to the extreme
    the Sacraments, (2) government, including discipline,          Calvinism in the Canons of Dort (also removed from
    and (3) the Church's ministry of witness and service.          the constitution of the proposed Church). Similarly,
    For ordering the life of his Church, Christ, according         some of the theologians in the R.C.A. protested the
    to the New Testament, has given his Church certain             Larger Catechism. The request on which we acted in
    offices, among which are the office of the Minister of         this matter came from the  Classis of South Grand
    the Word and Sacraments, and the office of the Elder.          Rapids."
    These are the ordinary offices, to be continued
    perpetually in the Church. Church officers shall be          It is obvious that the new denomination, if it should
 chosen from the members of the church in full                 materialize, will not be founded upon the "extreme
    communion who have attained the age of twenty-one          Calvinism in the Canons of Dort." In fact,  the. new
    years, but no congregation or court shall be required      denomination would likely be a mixture of modernism
    to elect or ordain women as Church officers.               and the old Arminianism which is condemned by the
  The above paragraph, without specifically mentioning         Canons.
it, allows for the ordination of women into office too. It                                                    (to be continued)
does allow the final decision to rest with the local
congregation or court. Repeatedly in the past the error
of having women serve as officebearers within the
church has been shown. Scripture does not allow this.                               IN MEMORIAM
The eagerness to change' what Scripture teaches on this
score is one of the marks of an apostatizing church of         Early Sunday morning, Sept. 23, our Heavenly Father
our day.                                                       called home unto Himself, into His blessed and heavenly
                                                               fellowship, my beloved wife,
The confessions of the church                                             MRS. HENDRIKA VAN DER MOLEN.
 In any church union it is important to know what the          "For we know that if our earthly house of this
confessions of the new church will be. There is in the         tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
adopted confessions some indication whether the                house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
merged church intends to maintain its doctrinal  in-                                                                2 Cor.  5:l


72                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


                                  News  -From Our Churches
                 REPORT OF  CLASSIS EAST                               appointment, with Rev. G.  Vanden Berg the appointee.
                       October 2, 1968                                 They are scheduling special collections for the building
                       at Hope Church                                  fund which will provide the means to give the audito-
      Rev. M. Schipper presided over the opening devo-                 rium a new, clean look.  Doon's congregation witnessed
tions. After the credentials were read and accepted, he                the public confession of faith ,of two men in the
pronounced the  Classis properly constituted. All the                  morning service, and the sacrament of Baptism was
churches were represented by two delegates each.                       administered to three infants in the afternoon service.
      Rev.  G.C Lubbers then took the chair, while Rev.                The next Sunday we were privileged to join the
Schipper recorded the minutes. This was a delightfully                 congregation at Loveland in their worship services
brief meeting of  Classis, our work being finished by                  morning and evening. It was a genuine pleasure to see
11:45 A.M. in time to enjoy a deliciously prepared                     them in (their) church.
dinner by the ladies of our Hope Church. The routine                                              ***
reports of the Stated Clerk and the Classical Committee                  The Western Ladies League Fall meeting- was sched-
were read and filed for information.                                   uled to be held Oct. 3 in Edgerton, Minn. with  Rev.,R.
      Classis West requested help in supplying their pulpits,          Decker as speaker. His topic was "Scriptural  Ecumeni-
and  Classis adopted the following schedule for the next               city," based on Ephesians 4.
six months:                                                                                       *  *  *
                                                                 .-
      SOUTH HOLLAND: Oct. 6  - R.C. Harbach Oct. 13  -                   Another Western activity announced in Hull's bulletin
G. Van  Baren Oct. 20  - M. Schipper Oct. 27  - G.                     was the Annual Meeting of The Reformed Action
Lubbers Nov. 3  - J. Kortering Nov. 10  - R.C. Harbach                 Society Sept. 30 in Edgerton. Rev. G.  Vanden Berg, of
Nov. 17 - M. Schipper Nov. 24 - G. Van Baren Dec. 1 - J.               Oak Lawn, was slated to give a lecture at that time.
                                                                                                  * * *
Kortering Dec. 8 - M. Schipper Dec. 15  - G. Lubbers
Dec. 22  - J. Heys Dec. 29  - H. Veldman Jan. 5  - J.                    Loveland's School "Ledger" for September carried an
Kortering Jan. 12  - G. Lubbers Jan. 19  - M. Schipper Jan.            editorial by Prof. H. Hanko, which was a condensation
26  - G. Van  Baren Feb. 2  - J. Kortering Feb. 9  - G.                of a lecture given at an earlier date. A visit to the school
Lubbers Feb. 16  - M. Schipper Feb. 23  - G. Van  Baren                revealed some penmanship specimens pinned on the
Mar. 2  - J. Kortering Mar. 9  - G. Lubbers Mar. 16  - J.              wall  upside  ~down. One of the sixth graders, Laurel
Heys Mar. 23  - G. Van  Baren Mar. 30  - H. Veldman.                   Buiter, explained in the  Ledger  that this was designed to
      HULL: Oct. 27 and Nov.  3'- J.  Heys,Jan. 26 and Feb.            "see if the slant were even." Miss Beverly Hoekstra is
2  - R.C. Harbach.                                                     the new teacher, and a few minutes in her presence is
      In regard to a request from  Classis West that one of            enough to be infected by her vibrant enthusiasm for her
their churches be granted the privilege of requesting                  work.                      *  *  *
collections in the churches,  .of  Classis East,  Classis
decided to inform the Stated Clerk of  Classis West that                 From the first bulletin to arrive. at our desk  from
the normal procedure for seeking collections is through                Isabel we learn that their parsonage has been lowered to
the Synod.                                                             a more stable foundation; a fence has been erected that
      Two letters were read reflecting on past decisions of            neatly sets off the church property; seven trees have
Classis on which  Classis took action accordingly.                     been planted, and fill-dirt has been hauled in to level the
      Classis decided  to, meet next time on the second                foundation for the addition to the parsonage. `Evidently
Wednesday of January in Southeast Church.                              the men of the congregation are endeavoring to  mat'ch
      Questions of Art. 41 of the Church Order were asked              the ardor that their pastor displays.. Rev. C. Hanko, in
and `answered satisfactorily. After  Classis decided  to               his report of his combined church  visiting-lecturing-
adjourn, brother T. Engelsma closed the meeting with                   installation-trip wrote that "the exuberant joy of Isabel
thanks to God.                                                         was invigorating".         *  *  *
                                           M. Schipper, S.C.
                            *  *  c                                      The Office Bearers' Conference held in Hope Church
                                                                       Oct. 1 featured a talk by Rev.' J.A. Heys on, "The
      At a September congregational meeting Hull chose                 Problems and Potential of our Jamaican Mission Field."
Rev. C. Hanko to receive their call to'come over to help               Those in attendance were overheard to say that this was
them. The trio also included the Revs. R.C. Harbach and                one of the best conferences they could remember. Rev.
B. Woudenberg.              ***                                        Heys is planning an illustrated (200 pictures) lecture on
                                                                       Thanksgiving Day dealing with our friends in Jamaica.
 Usually our news items are gleaned from bulletins                     Watch for the Mission Committee's announcement
received through the mails, but we found the September                 regarding this program.
22 bulletins of Hull and of  Doon in the racks while
visiting there. Hull's pulpit was supplied by classical                . . . see you in church                             J.M.F.


