                                               tandard
                            .  -
               .:
                `-.d.  1


                                                (\    `~earer
                                                        b

~
  A  REFORMED.  SEMI-MONTHLY  MAGAZINE
                                         -.




     In  This Issue                 _


            Meditation:
                Humbled' Unto Death

            Editorials:
                Physician, Heal Thyself !
                What Is Necessary For Reformation?

            All Around `Us:
                The Trend of Modern Education
                A Different View of Martin Luther King

          The Veneration Gap  `.
               (See: Ia His Fear)
                                                         Volume XLVI/Mumber  I2 /March I5,1970


266                                                       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.
   Humbled Unto Death . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                  Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                            . . .  366
                                                                      A           Editor-m-Chief: Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

Editorials  -                                                                     Department  Editors::  Mr. Donald Doezema, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof.
                                                                                  Herman Hanko, Rev. Robert C. Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev.  c)ay
   Physician, Heal Thyself! . . . . . . . . . . . .         . . .  268            Kortering, Rev. George- C. Lubbers, Rev. Marinus Schipper, Rev.  Gise J.
   What Is Necessary For Reformation? . . .                           770         Van  Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg
                                                            . .  ..I
   Have You Returned Your Survey?. .  ../. . . .            . .  ..773...
                                                                .L                Editorial Office:  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
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   The Veneration Gap . . .  : . . . . . . .                . . .  775
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Meditation

                                  H u m
                                             . b l e d   U n t o   Death-  .   -.
                                                                           .;                         .                             i
                                                             Rev. M. Schipper

                 "And being found in j&ion as a man, he humbled himelj; aAd became obe.dien t m to
            death, even the death of the cross. " :.             .                                                                       :
                                                                                                             .,         .I     P h i l i p p i a n s   2:8
                                                                                                               -,..      `.
   Obedient He became!                                                                 heeded and obeyed is a command which insists on
   Obedient unto death, even the death of the cross!                                   obedience.
   That He became obedient implies that He was sub-                                      Of  thjs obedience to command  th$ Saviour was
ject to command.  The term "obedient" comes from a                                     always  dee'ply conscious. As we have already observed,
word which means literally: to give ear, to heed, and                                  at the age  .of  twelves He MUST  :be. about His Father's
thus, to  ,obey..  But-.this  presupposes that that which is                           business. When He is thirty and ready to begin His


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    267



public ministry, He MUST go' to the Jordan and the tion for the Son  of.God. Those who hold this view lose
baptism of John in order that all righteousness might sight of the fact that the Saviour now in the state of
be fulfilled. When His hour is come that His chief exaltation possesses the same human nature and this
mediatorial work must be accomplished, He MUST go can hardly be said to be humiliation.
to Gethesemane where He prays  .that He may perform           Nay, rather, the emptying of Himself and the humi-
the will of God faithfully unto the end. And when He liation He endured at His birth is to be seen in the facts
walks the  via  dolorosa,  the way of sorrows, to the hill that He, the Lord of heaven and as the Head and
of the. skull and His death on the accursed tree, we see Mediator of His people, assumed their position under
the completed act.                                         the law and judgment of God. Through the incarnation
   0, indeed, He was under commandment!                    the Son of God was born under the law. Through the
   In the volume of the book it was written of Him incarnation He, Who is Lord, became servant. Through
that He should come to do all the Father's will. For the incarnation He entered our state of guilt and con-
His Father's business He had been set apart in the demnation -where it was possible for all the vials of
counsel of peace. For this business He was sent into God's holy wrath to be poured out over His sacred
the world to assume our nature, in order that in that head in our stead. In the incarnation He assumed the
nature as the last Adam He may perform the will of human nature, not as Adam possessed it  inthe state of
God perfectly unto the end. That He was precisely righteousness before the fall, but after the fall  -
under the commandment to lay down His life for His namely, a weakened human nature. This was the begin-
sheep, and that He was fully conscious of such a ning of His humiliation.
command, He Himself declared when He said: "There-          Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Him-
fore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my self!
life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from        Indeed, He was in a position to become very great!
me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it Was  .He not in the form of God while He was also in
down; and  I, have power to take it again. This com- the form of a servant? Was He not in a position to
mandment have I received of my Father."                    make for Himself a name? Did He not have power to
  What then precisely was the commandment?                 call down the angels of heaven to fight for Him and
   That He should lay down His life. Or, according to through them to overcome all His enemies? And by His
our text, that He humble Himself unto death.               power to perform miracles  - to give sight to the blind,
  Attention should be given to that expression:            to cleanse disease, to, raise the dead, to feed the  multi:
"UNTO death." Death is the extreme limit unto which tude, to cast out devils  - could He not have taken over
He must be obedient. It would not be sufficient that the entire world and brought all nations to His feet?
He express His mere willingness to die; but He must go Was He not in the position, like the first Adam, to
all the way, not shrinking even from death. He must be conceive the thought that He would like to be equal
obedient until death overtakes Him, even the death of with God?
the cross.                                                    But never did this thought arise in His soul! Never
  Humbled unto death!                                      did He entertain the idea of being  equal,with God, but
  Awful humiliation!                                       always only His humble servant. Though at times He
  Into the state of humiliation He entered when He, allowed flashes of His divinity to be seen in the won-
Who is in the form of God, made Himself of no              ders He performed, and even in the garden of  Gethsem-
reputation, emptied Himself, and took on Him the ane He allowed that divinity to pierce through His
form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.     humanity so that His enemies fell to ground and be-
His humiliation began already when the Son of God came like dead men, nevertheless, He did not use these
assumed the human nature in His lowly birth.               powers to enhance His stature; but appearing in the
  That He emptied Himself, however, cannot mean, as fashion of a man, He humbled Himself. He emptied
it is maintained by some, that He temporarily ceased Himself of all power, honor, and glory, which He had
to be divine and became only human. This would deny and could have increased, and humbled Himself unto
the truth that the divine nature is unchangeable, as death  - even the death of the cross.
well as the truth that the Son of God remains in the         Ignominious death!
form of God during His stay upon earth. Though it is         Death of the accursed!
true that this form of God is hidden behind the veil of      Such it was from the point of view of the world
His flesh, Scripture shows how He allowed His divinity which was instrumental in His death.
to shine through this veil in the wonders He per-            Indeed, He was despised and rejected of men! That
formed, which divinity is acclaimed by those who saw He was so treated by men, implied, in the first place,
Him, so that they were pressed to exclaim: "My Lord that He was well-known by them. He did not dwell on
and my God!"                                               the periphery of the world and in obscurity, but in the
  Nor can we agree with those who maintain that the        center, where all the world could and did observe Him.
assumption of the human nature was in itself humilia- This implies, in the second place, that in a certain sense


268                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



He appeared unto them with a definite claim. He was tion imposed upon Him by God, He goes as the Lamb
rejected and despised not for what He had done, but           to the slaughter, and He opened not His mouth.
for who He was and claimed to be  - because He said                  But then we have not fully explained the humilia-
He was the Christ, the Son of God. And the whole              tion.
world rejected Him  - even His own. For when He                      He humbled Himself?
came to His own they received Him not. No man                        As the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief,
would have anything to do with Him. He was ruth-              this was His fashion, His outward appearance; His humil-
lessly cast out.                                              iation was not only thrust upon Him by the world and
  The world reckons Him with the transgressors. Not by His God, but in the fashion of a man He assumed
simply is that world satisfied to do away with Him, so the position of a servant and as obedient servant He
that He no longer. crosses their pathway; but that            humbled  HimselL  Subjectively He made it His business
world was determined to heap upon Him all the dis-            not to exalt Himself, but the very opposite  - to walk
grace they were capable of demonstrating. He must die the way of humiliation unto its extremity  - death.
the death of the cross as an accursed thing. But that                Amazing obedience!
was not all.                                                         "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I  .lay
  From the point of view of God He was also judged             down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh
worthy of death: The cross was no accident  - it was          it from me, but I lay it down of myself . . . This
foreordained. God reckoned Him among `the trans-              commandment have I received of my Father."
gressors. Christ was delivered to the death of the cross             How often men planned and even attempted to take
not. only by wicked men, but by the determinate               His life! Their plans and their endeavor always failed;
.counsel and foreknowledge of God..                            because His hour'was not yet come, and because, not
  The cross is symbol of the curse. For "Cursed is            they might take it from Him, but He must lay it down
everyone that hangeth on a tree." And death on the             of Himself. Not as a suicide, who has no other end in
cross is `an accursed death. When God, therefore, as- view than to express his dissatisfaction with life and
signed His Son; found in fashion as a man, to that            the desire to bring it to a disastrous end. Not so did He
cross, He made Him to become the bearer of the curse           lay down His life. But there was purpose in His death,
- the curse due to us. "Cursed is everyone that  con- in the laying down of His life.
tinueth not in all things which  `are written in the book            Atoning purpose!
of the law to do them." This is God's sentence upon                  He must die for the satisfaction of the sin and guilt
sinners, and this sentence He pronounced over Christ.          of His people. His life's blood He must pour out to pay
  There He hanged, as  -it- were, between earth and
heaven. Cast out of the earth, and not wanted by               the penalty of' their guilt. Only so could they have
                                                               their debt blotted out before God's tribunal. Moreover,
heaven.  b, the ignominy. and shame that was heaped            He must die in such a way and with such a death that
upon His sacred head! In our stead He willingly sub-           has so much value that He may live again  - that He
jected Himself, humbled Himself to the extremity of            may take up that life again. This power, as obedient
the cross-death, the accursed death. And God was servant He possessed and also displayed. Unless His
pleased to abandon His Son so  `that He feels this             obedience unto death was crowned with resurrection
forsakenness in His own soul, and the cry is pressed           life it would avail nothing in removing the guilt of His
out  ,of Him: "My God, my God, `why hast thou for-             people, in obtaining forgiveness and justification for
saken me?? This was the death of the cross. Not, first
of all, that physical death which He also endured? but         them. This resurrection was  His,proof of perfect obedi-
more particularly death in its real essence  - to be           ence, and our proof of our perfect justification.
separated from God. That was the awful extremity                     Thanks be unto  God~for such an obedient Saviour!
unto which He  was. humbled. In the humiliation that                 Unto all eternity let the redeemed church say:
was heaped upon Him by the world and in the  humilia-               Amen!
                                                             -/I

Editorials.

                               .Physician,  Heal Thyself!
                                              Pro5 H. C. Hoeksema

   Sometimes it is well-nigh impossible to believe that        written it, that they believe what they write, or that
certain persons writewhat they write, or, if they have         they even seriously and carefully analyze what they


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      269



w r i t e .                                                     reason, in the third place, I find it difficult to, believe
  Thus it is with Dr. Jerome De Jong's miniature                that De Jong has even seriously and carefully analyzed
tirade in  Missionary Monthly  (March, 1970, pp. 73, his own writing. If he had done so, he would have
74) under the title, "The Conservatives' Edge On The            come to the  same'conclusion which I reached in the
Holy Spirit," with the sub-title, "About Campus                 title of `this editorial, `"Physician, heal thyself!"
Crusade." In this little article, which is very little about      The trouble is, it seems to me, that Dr. De Jong has
Campus Crusade and very much a venting of his wrath a fixation.
against critics of Campus Crusade, Mr. De Jong                     Sometimes I think he has a fixation about playing
inveighs against our Rev. Harbach and  The Standard nurse-maid or baby-sitter. For he seems to enjoy
Bearer,  as well as against a Dr. Charles Woodbridge and finding bed-fellows for others,  - especially, it seems,
Christim  Beacon,  and even slightly against Rev. Wm. for  The Standard Bearer  and its Protestant Reformed
Heynen, who wrote on Campus Crusade in  The                     writers. (The reader will perhaps recall that he once
Baimer.   The latter, however, was apparently too long upon a time tried to put me to bed with Bob Jones,
ago; and so Rev: Heynen and  The Banner  are for- too.) Now let me assure  Mr: De Jong, once for all, that
gotten, after- brief mention, in the De Jong's article.         The Standard Bearer  is in need of neither a baby-sitter
Besides, it would not be very good diplomacy to criti-          or a bed-fellow: not the former, because  The Standard
cize  The Banner in Missionary Monthly, would it?               Bearer  is of  .age, and not the latter because it has the
  By his own admission in the article, Pastor De Jong's         warmth and fellowship of all who are Reformed, and
original purpose was  ."to observe how Campus Crusade that too, in a comfortable and roomy  - that is, a
looks to me"' But he became side-tracked. In fact, he           Reformed  - bed. But if I may turn psycho-analyst for
really never got on the track again. For the entire first       a moment, what might be the cause of Dr. De Jong's
half of his article is a polemic against critics of Campus      fixation about bed-fellows? Is his deepest problem,
Crusade in which he never discusses Campus Crusade perhaps, the fact that he himself has some rather
whatsoever. And in the second half of his article Mr.           strange bed-fellows, and that too, within his own de-
De Jong writes only three brief paragraphs which                nomination of the Reformed Church in America?
might at all be said to contain his observations about          Surely, I need not enumerate the various kinds of
Campus Crusade, while he continues in  -an equal                bed-fellows which Dr. De Jong has in the RCA bed.
number of paragraphs to spew out vitriolic criticism            But I would- repeat, "Physician, heal thyself, if thou
against critics of Campus Crusade.                              wouldest be free from this bed-fellow fixation!"
  Now I find all this difficult to believe. To begin with         Nevertheless, I  do- not think this is Dr. De Jong's
Rev. Harbach's rather calm and well-documented series deepest problem.
of articles about Campus Crusade, I find it difficult to          For he has another fixation, a more serious one.
believe that Dr. De Jong even writes what he writes. De         This is a fixation about wild, non-ecclesiastical,
Jong `is, of course, at liberty to disagree with -Pastor Arminian movements. They are, it seems, special pets
Harbach. But he does not have to get up a head of of Jerome De Jong. He frets and fumes when the Billy
steam about it. Why does he not follow Mr. Harbach's            Graham movement is criticized, as we well know. And
example and furnish us with a calm and  well- now it appears that Campus Crusade is also a De Jong
documented defense of Campus Crusade, based, of pet; he reacts sharply and has a long memory when it is
course, on Scripture and the Reformed confessions? criticized. Or is the problem this, perhaps, that Dr. De
Secondly, I find it difficult to believe that De Jong           Jong has a fixation about  critics,  especially Reformed
himself believes what he has written. I find it difficult       critics, of these Arminian movements?
to believe `that De Jong believes that Harbach equates            In the first place, of course, Dr. De Jong proceeds
human. responsibility with free will, for example; and on the assumption that these movements are a "work
my reason is that it is plain as the sun in the heavens of God." Twice he refers to Campus Crusade as such.
from what Rev. Harbach writes that this is not true. I          Now this is exactly a begging of the question. De Jong
find it difficult to believe that De Jong believes that         assumes that which must be proved. Certainly, instead
innuendo about  The Standard Bearer  and  Christian             of engaging in a tirade, De Jong would do much better
Beacon  being bed-fellows; and my reason is that it is to engage in a calm, well-reasoned, well-documented
plain as the sun in the heavens that  Christian Beacon is analysis of Campus Crusade,  - either to prove that the
of the same Arminian character  as, Campus Crusade,             movement is not Arminian, or to prove that  Armini-
while De Jong knows very well that  The Standard anism is indeed a work of God. But he ought not to
Bearer  is a staunch foe of all Arminianism. But above assume that which needs proof. And of real, solid
all, I find it difficult to believe that De Jong himself proof there is nothing in his entire article.
believes that Rev. Harbach has committed the un-                  Then, in the second  .place, with an appeal to
pardonable sin, as De Jong accuses him; and my reason           Matthew 12: 3 l-32, which speaks- of the sin against the
is that De Jong first sounds a. warning that other              Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin of attributing the
writers should not fall into the same error. For this           work of the Holy Spirit to the devil,, De Jong lays the


270                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



heavy charge against critics of Campus Crusade that                Edge On The Holy Spirit"?
they are guilty of this very thing. Writes he:                       And yet, in the third place, Dr. De Jong concludes
         -Before I discuss the matter of Campus Crusade,           his article with the following:
       there is a passage in the Bible I would like to bring to           I plead with all critics. Before you criticize a work
       the attention of all critics of this movement. It is             of God because of jealousy on your part or  guilt
       Matthew 12:31-32.  It is the famous passage of the sin          please. consider Matthew 12:31-32. I conclude by
       against the Holy Spirit set in the context of those             taking Dr. Woodbridge's statement as my own: I
       who evaluated the work of the Lord Jesus as that of              denounce every obvious affront to the dignity of the
       being the work of the devil. It must be very clear,              Son of God! This, gentlemen, you who severely criti-
       therefore, that this passage certainly means, in part,          cize Campus Crusade have done!
       that it is unpardonable to call that which is of the
       Holy Spirit something devilish and blasphemous! I              To this I add: Physician, heal thyself!
       would not want to stand in the unhappy position of             Your name, physician, is "Reformed." Those whom
       the writers to whom I have referred (Dr. Woodbridge,        you criticize (as far as  The Standard Bearer  is con-
       Rev. Harbach, and Rev. Heynen, HCH) of calling an           cerned) are also Reformed. We are Reformed according
       evident work of God the work of the devil. Jesus'           to the testimony of those who cast us out. And all our
       severest critics were the most learned theologians!         critics  have- through the years had a good many bad
       Paul himself makes it clear that "no man can say that       things to say about us; but they have never said we are
       Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost."                   not Reformed; and they certainly have not been able
  Now as far as I can read Rev. Harbach's writings, he             to show that we are not Reformed. I believe  - and you
certainly accused not a single individual of the Campus            are supposed to believe, according to your name  - that
Crusade movement of committing the unpardonable sin,.              the Reformed faith and the Reformed cause are the
but he criticizes the  tenets  and the  method  of Campus          evident work of God. And yet, when a Reformed man
Crusade severely, but with good documentation. It is               on a Reformed basis criticizes what is obviously and, I
not my purpose to defend Dr. Woodbridge; but even in               dare say, even admittedly, an Arminian movement,
the quotation which Dr. De Jong makes from him I                   you rush to print with not an iota of proof and accuse
cannot read that he charges Campus Crusade or its                  him of committing the sin against the Holy Ghost.
leaders with the unpardonable sin. And if  my. memory                 Physician, follow your own advice: for you plead
serves me correctly, the Rev. Wm. Heynen did not do                with  all critics, do you not? "Before you criticize a
so in his critique  in The Banner.  Yet Dr. De Jong can            work of God . . . please consider Matthew  12:3 l-32."
level this heavy charge against critics of Campus                    abut this will not solve your problem, Dr. De Jong. I
Crusade. What must one think when a supposedly                     seriously urge you to make up your mind once, and act
Reformed man, instead of following the course of calm              accordingly. Cut out all these general mouthings about
debate and discussion on the basis of Scripture and the            "evangelical Christianity" and complicating things
confessions, hurls a charge like this against another              theologically and making the old-fashioned gospel
Reformed man? One thing is certain: it  makes. debate              more simple, etc. You should make up your mind
of the issue impossible and futile, both for De Jong               whether you want to be Reformed or Arminian. If
and for the objects of his criticism. For how futile it is         Arminianism is an evident work of God, then abandon
to debate with one of whom you are convinced that he               the name "Reformed" which you now bear. If the
has committed the unpardonable sin: he can neither be              Reformed faith is the evident work of God, then
brought to repentance nor to forgiveness. And how                  abandon your fixation about these Arminian move-
spiritually impossible it `is to debate with one who               ments. You see, according to our confessions the two
charges you with the unpardonable sin: for he con-                 are not compatible. And it is always a puzzle' to me
siders all your debate as having its origin in the devil.          that a man who bears the name "Reformed" can be as
And is this-not exactly the thrust of De Jong's rather             vitriolic as you are over against Reformed foes of
sarcastic title above his article, "The Conservatives' Arminianism.



            What Is Necessary For Reformation?
   What are rather popularly known as  liberal-versus-             Christian Reformed Church especially in recent years
conservative tensions are present almost everywhere                has felt these tensions: in general,  Torch and Trumpet
today among churches of the Reformed and  Presby-                  has been recognized as a mildly conservative voice in
terian family. The `Reformed Church in America has                 the CRC for several years, while  The Reformed Journal
known  such! tensions'for a long time already, and more            has gotten the reputation of being the voice of the
recently they  :have apparently become stronger. The               ultra-liberals; and among the laymen,  the. Association


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    271



of Christian Reformed Laymen has more recently                necessary on the part of such a reforming movement in
come to the fore as a group of critical conservatives.        order to bring about a reformation?
The Southern Presbyterian Church has experienced the             One of the first requirements is that those who aim
same tensions. In that denomination  The Presbyterian         at reformation be  committed to reformation.  I mean,
Journal  is a recognized conservative voice; and besides, first of all, that they must be  actively  committed to
also the laymen who are concerned about liberal trends        reformation. Not infrequently there are those who are
have organized to express their concern. The same is          dissatisfied with the  status  quo in their denomination
true in the Netherlands. In the  Gereformeevde  Kerken,       and who are alarmed at the growth of liberalism and
where a radical form of liberalism has come into              the increase in the influence of the liberals, but who
power, there is the Society of the Alarmed Ones               are not actively committed to reformation. They hope
( Vevon  trusten),    and there is the increasingly out-      that someone will do something, but they do nothing
spoken and critical paper,  Waavheid en Eenheid  (Truth themselves. They complain about various events, and
and Unity). Also in the churches in New Zealand and           may even complain publicly to an extent, but their
Australia (both Reformed and Presbyterian) these              commitment goes no farther than voicing dis-
same tensions are present. There are those who are            satisfaction. Frequently, some distrubing event may
concerned about the rise of the so-called "new theo-          take place in the life of their church, some conservative
logy" in their midst. A Reformed and Presbyterian             leader may be maltreated-by the liberal machine, or
Fellowship of Australasia has been organized, and they        some liberal leader may express himself in an especially
have also begun to publish a little paper called  Re- heterodox manner; and these crypto-conservatives
formed Guardian,  in order to sound the alarm among voice the hope that "now at last something might
their brethren. Sometimes these conservative groups in        happen" or that "this just might be the last straw, the
various denominations have some contact with one              straw that breaks the camel's back." Well, reformations
another and seek fellowship and support in one an-            don't just "happen," but they are brought about
other. Recently, for example, there seems to be a             through active commitment. And to expect reforma-
tendency of some conservatives in the Christian Re-           tion to take place without such active commitment is
formed Church to seek the fellowship of conservatives         indeed to grasp for straws. Secondly, by commitment
in the Southern Presbyterian Church.                          to reformation I mean a wholehearted commitment to
   I would not venture to predict what might be the           reformation  as such,  to reformation no matter what it
outcome of the various struggles which are going on in        may involve, to reformation without looking at the
these denominations. All of these groups, I suppose,          consequences, without looking at the cost, without
have, in general, the aim of "saving" their denomina-         looking at numbers, to reformation whether it can be
tions, or at least of salvaging out of them whatever          accomplished  within  the church or whether it can only
there is to be salvaged. In a way, they all have  veforma-    be accomplished by  separation.  Study any genuine
tion  as their aim, though to what extent they aim at reform movement in the history of the church, and
reformation  - whether, for example, they aim at re-          you will discover that those involved were characterized
formation even if this involves separation  - is, to say      by such a commitment. They insisted upon and sought
the least, not clear. But it is not my purpose to             reformation,    and they did so without fearful  ques-
prophesy concerning these movements and their ulti-           tionings as to the cost and the consequences. They
mate success or failure, though, for various reasons, I       went "right on"! They were devoted to principle,
am not optimistic about them, and certainly not  opti-,       and they acted always in a manner consistent with the
mistic as to the possibility of a large and strongly! principle to whichthey were devoted. This was charac-
Reformed group emerging from any one of the denom-            teristic of a Luther and of a Calvin, for example, in the
inations involved or from several of them together. I         great reformation of the sixteenth century. And it has
can conceive of it that things might so develop that          always been one of the requisites of reformation.
those who wish to be truly Reformed would be thrown              A second requirement is that those who aim at
together by force of circumstances some day; and I            reformation must be more than "anti-" in their aim. It
would both recommend this and welcome it. But I am            is characteristic, of course, of all reformation that it is
not optimistic about the size of the genuinely Re-            occasioned by the presence of various ills in the
formed remnant today. I see no reason to be opti-             church; and those who aim at reformation desire to
mistic. But this is not of great importance; and I, for       correct those evils, to remove them. And from this
one, am not interested in counting noses.                     point of view, there is always an "anti-" side to any
   What is necessary, however, for reformation? This is reformation movement. No one will deny that in the
an important question for all those movements which           churches today there are many disturbing factors and
aim at reformation. And while this question may be            decisions and trends about which to be "anti-" and
asked from various points of view, and accordingly            against which the various reform-movements warn, in
have various answers, I intend the question now from          some- instances rather vociferously. And this is neces-
the point of view of any reforming movement. What is          sary! It is necessary to sound the trumpet and to blow


272                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



the alarm in Zion.                                               and in their opposition to those who attack the infal-
       But to be "anti-" is not sufficient. For one thing, it    libility and authority of Holy Scripture. But this unity
is purely negative, reactionary; and no movement can is not a positive unity on the basis of the truth as a
exist on negations  .and live by reaction only. It has           whole. It will in due time become manifest again that
sometimes been  .said that our Protestant Reformed               Arminianism is incipiently the same modernism to
Churches were purely reactionary, that they  were a              which evolutionism is devoted; or it will become plain
denomination which. was  only"atiti-common-grace." that while Arminianism supposedly  wants to  insist on
That we are, indeed, anti-common-grace is correct. But           the authority of the Word of God, it does not  want to
we are much more than that; and the failure to see               bow before that authority with respect to its own
the latter, the failure to see that we are not only              Arminian tenets.
an "anti-" denomination, accounts  fdr the mistaken                 This is important, it is something to watch with
predictions of those who always prophesied an early              respect to various reform movements. today. On the
death for the Protestant Reformed Churches.                      surface of things, it  may seem as though these move-
Besides, a movement which is  so,lely  "Bnti-" will eventu-      ments, judging from their attacks on liberalism, are
ally wake up to the fact `that it is not all unified at to       valiant for the truth. And sometimes, indeed, it is
what it positively stands for. It is very well possible          difficult to make a judgment for the simple reason that
for a reform movement to be an admixture of various              their attention is so  much devoted to polemics, to
elements which are anti-this or anti-that. And in a way,         attacks upon and exposes of various heresies in the
these various elements are in agreement on what they             churches, that it is  diffcult to  gain.any full picture of
are against. They have, it seems, a common  eneFy.               where such a movement stands from a positive point of
And in the face of that common enemy  a;?d common                view. But once in a while writings of a more positive
danger, they unite. But when the common danger has               nature will appear, or there will be indications of a lack
been faced and overconie and there is no more enemy              of opposition to or even of positive support for various
to fight, they discover that they are in disagreement            causes, which give rise to doubts as to the sound and
among themselves as to those things for which they               thorough and positive commitment of that very reform
stand positively.                                                movement which might be vociferous. in its opposition
   Thus, for example, there may  be. many today who              to the heresies of liberalism and the new theology. It
in the various denominations suffering from  liberal-            will become. manifest, for example, that conservative
conservative tensions are  against  evolutionism,  -against      Presbyterians are after all only broadly evangelical, not
the social gospel,  against  tieo-orthodox theology, etc.        truly Presbyterian. Or it will become plain that those
But if you inquire into the other  queStion,  the ques-          who are much opposed to some of the practical fruits
tion  df what they are  fop,  you disdover that such a           of the common grace theory nevertheless will not cease
movement is after all a grand mixture, that it is greatly        to embrace common grace itself. Or it will become
divided internally as to important aspects of the truth,         plain that those Reformed people who strongly oppose
and that it can only be considered a united movement             the so-called new theology can nevertheless recom-
on the basis of some broad common denominator such               mend and support the Billy Graham crusade move-
as evangelicalism or fundamentalism, that as a move-             ment. To my consternation, I  receiltly noticed that
ment it is like a large umbrella.                                this was the case with  Waavlzeid  en. Eenheid,  for ex-
  Now what is wrong with such a situation?                       ample, in the Netherlands. How it is possible for Re-
   Not only is it, as a movement, purely negative. But           formed men, men who claim to be concerned about
`it is not really committed. to reformation. One will            the denial of the Reformed truth in the  Gevefoymeevde
soon discover that there are those within the move-              Kevken,   to turn right around and support and  recdm-
ment who are in favor of reformation  - up to a point.           mend the Billy Graham movement, which is, at  v&y
But there is really no such thing as  reformation-up-to-         best, thoroughly Arminian,  - that is a conundrum to
a-point. Principally, reformation is an all-or-nothing           me. But it also raises grave doubts  in, my soul as to the
activity. The reason is that the truth of the gospel is          strength of such a reform movement and its willingness
one. It is not a mere composite of many truths, but to go in the direction of genuine reformation.
an organic whole: For this reason, when reformatory                 All of which brings me to mention a third requisite
action takes place which is largely negative and  reac- for reformation, namely, a wholehearted and positive
tionary, those involved will soon discover  - if they            commitment to the truth of Scripture and the Re-
have only been united against certain common enemies             formed creeds.  This, after all, is the crux of the matter.
and errors  - that in their new and supposedly purified          Where there is a genuine fait&commitment  to our
movement they are not only not positively united, but            Reformed heritage, so that what is expressed in the
also that they' have in their midst the seeds of new             creeds is the faith of our hearts and our lives, and so
departures  .and divisions. In a sense, for example, it          that what the creeds express is the object of our love,
would be  co.nceivable that Reformed and  `Arminians             - there, -and there only, is there any real hope of
would be united in their opposition to evolutionism              reformation.


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      273


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Contending for the. Faith

                                       THE DOCTRINE OF SIN
                                              PROTESTANT DOCTRINE OF SIN
                                                  THE REFORMED SYMBOLS

                                                          Rev. H. Veldman

  At the  co&lusion  of our preceding  &idle we had                    walk in their .own way," Acts 14: 16. And: "And
quoted Art. IV of the Rejection of Errors of Heads III                 they (Paul and his -companions) having been for-
and IV of the Canons of  Dordtr&l$. In this article the                bidden of the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia,
fathers set forth, clearly and unequivocally, the  Armin-            , and when they were come over against Mysia, they
ian conception of the goodness  pf the natural man.                    assayed to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit suffered
This error of the Remonstrants is not unknown to us:                   them not, Acts 16:6, 7.
man can at least desire his own salvation. He can                   In  conn'ection with this article, we do well to call
hunger and thirst after righteousness. And therefore he attention to three things. First, here the term "com-
can also long to be delivered out of his misery. And  we mon grace" occurs. This is the only place in all our
know how this same error is proclaimed today from Reformed confessions where this term appears. And
what are supposed to be Reformed pulpits. How often this certainly proves that  .it is not  true  that this view
do we not hear nowadays that all  ,men are thirsty,               was. supported by the fathers, as  it. is  .generally  sup-
weary and heavy-laden. In this article the fathers refute ported today in the Reformed church world. This,
this, declaring that every imagination of the thoughts mind you, is the only place where the term "common
of man's heart is only evil continually, and that hunger grace" appears in all our confessions. And we do well
and thirst are peculiar to the regenerate.                        to remember that the fathers were certainly familiar
Article V reads:                                                  with the term. This appears from the fact that they
       Who teach: That the corrupt and natural man can            laid it in the mouths of the Remonstrants. But we do
    so well use the common grace (by which they under-            well to bear in mind that they laid it in  the mouths of
    stand the light of nature), or, thk gifts still left him      the  Remonstrants.  The. fact that they do not mention
    after the fall, that he-can gradually gain by their good      it anywhere in all the confessions surely indicates that
    use a greater, viz., the evangelical or saving g;ace and      the use of the term did not enthuse them. But this is
    salvation itself. And that in this way God on His part.       not  all: Being familiar with the term, they were also
    shows Himself -ready to reveal Christ unto all men,
    since, He applieS to all sufficiently and efficiently the     familiar with the use of it by the Arminians. Today the
    means necessary.to conversion. For the experience of          conception of "common grace" means that the natural
    all ages and the Scriptures do both testify that this is      man can do much good-in the sight of the Lord, that
    untrue. "He showeth His,  Word.unto Jacob, His                man did not become completely corrupt when Adam
    statutes and His ordinancei unto Israel. He bath not          fell; inasmuch as the Lord, by the operation of  ,His
    dealt so with any natiqn:  and as for His ordinances,         grace, checked sin so that man retained some of his
    they have not known. them," Ps. .147:19,  20. "Who            original gifts and  wa's enabled by the Lord to do much
    in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to        in things civil that was pleasing in  the. sight of the


274                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER



Lord. "Common  Giace," therefore, extols the good-                and against the Lord. And, incidentally, we may also
ness of the natural sinner. However, this goodness of add that Adam was the only man who ever had a free
the natural man is clearly denied by the fathers in the           will. The lost sinner has a will that can will only the
Canons of Dordt. We will have opportunity to call                 evil, whereas the redeemed and  perfect saint has a will
attention to this. This is surely not the fathers' con-           that can do only the good. But of interest to us in this
ception of the power of sin and corruption.                       article is its description of what happened to Adam
       Secondly, notice that the fathers in this article          through the fall. First, he revolted from God. turned
repudiate what was expressed in the Three Points of               his back upon the living God. Secondly, he forfeited
1924, particularly Point I. In Point I the Christian              these excellent gifts. These gifts are mentioned in the
Reformed Church declared that the Lord is gracious in             first part of this article. Mind you, he lost these
the gospel to all that hear it, that the preaching of the         excellent gifts. There remained therefore nothing of his
gospel is therefore an offer of salvation to all its              knowledge, righteousness and holiness. And, in the
hearers. According to this article the Arminians taught           third place, we do well to note what actually happened
that God on His part shows Himself ready to reveal                to him. He entailed upon himself blindness of mind,
Christ unto all men, since He applies to all sufficiently         horrible darkness, vanity and perverseness of judgment,
and efficiently the means necessary to conversion. The            becarrie wicked, rebellious, and obdurate in heart and
fathers surely deny this in the clearest language. Quot-          will, and impure in his affections. One can hardly paint
ing the Scriptures, they clearly show that the Lord               a darker picture of the natural man. And  nowhere.do
showed His Word unto Jacob, and His statutes and                  we read in our Confessions that this was changed
commandments unto Israel, that the, Lord  suffered.,$l            through an operation of common grace. How complete
the nations to walk in their own way, and that Paul               is the depravity of Adam as a consequence of his fall!
and his companions were forbidden of the Holy Spirit              This description is surely complete!
to speak the word in Asia. This reminds us of a                      Article II-reads as follows:
comment by Calvin in connection with  1 Tim.  2:4,                       Man after the fall begat children in his own like-
"Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto                  ness. A corrupt stock produced a corrupt offspring.
the knowledge of the truth." That reformer asks why                   Hence all the posterity of Adam, Christ only ex-
                                                                      cepted, have derived corruption from their original
the Lord, if He would have all be saved and come to                   parent, not by imitation, as the Pelagians of old
the knowledge of the truth (every man, head for head),                asserted, but by the propagation of a vicious nature.
did not provide all men then with the knowledge of                   In this article the fathers treat the corruption of the
salvation. This same thought is expressed by the                  e.ntire human race in the first man. Adam was the
fathers in this fifth article of the-Rejection of Errors in       bearer of the entire human nature. As he became
Heads III and IV. This is exactly the thrust of their             through the fall, so also all his posterity became.
quotation of these particular passages.                              In the first-place, this article sets forth the judicial
       We now turn our attention to the doctrine of sin as        ground of this. According to this article, this takes
set forth by our fathers in the Canons of Dordrecht in            place in consequence of the just judgment of God:
the positive sense of the word. These positive articles           This reference to the just judgment  bf God is omitted
are recorded in Heads III and IV of these  Canons.  We            in the English translation of this article. Adam stood in
will call  attehtion to Articles 1 through 4.                     God's covenant as our representative  ,head. His guilt is
       Article I reads as follows:                                therefore also the-guilt of all his posterity. The punish-
           Man was originally formed after the image of God.      ment of sin is death, and to this death belongs also the
        His understanding was adorned with a true and saving
        knowledge of his Creator, and of spiritual things; his    depravity in which all men are born.
        heart and will were upright; all his affections pure;        Secondly, the article calls attention to the manner
        and the whole man was holy: but revolting from God        of this corruption of the entire human race. We read
        by the instigation of the devil, and abusing the free-    that  .a11 the  p'osterity. of Adam, Christ  -dnly excluded,
        dom of his own will, he forfeited these excellent         have derived this corruption not by imitation. This is
        gifts; and on the contrary entailed on himself blind-     the error of the Pelagians. They denied original sin,
        ness of mind, horrible darkness, vanity and perverse-     guilt and. pollution, `and maintained that we derive
        ness of judgment, became wicked, rebellious, and          corruption by imitation. The fathers, however, teach
        obdurate in heart and will, and impure in his affec-      that all'inen are corrupt by propagation. Man brings
        Cons.                                                     forth, the human nature. We have derived our corrup-
       In this first article of the Third and Fourth' Heads,      tion from our original parent. The fathers, therefore,
the fathers first call attention to man's original crea-          connect man's vicious nature directly with Adam, the
tion -and the, manner of his fall. We will merely note            father of the entire human race.
that this article- speaks `of Adam's free  kill. This `does          Article III reads:      .
not mean that Adam was a neutral being. On the                           Therefore all men are conceived in sin, and by
contrary, he  was created good and holy. But the ex-                   nature children of wrath, incapable of saving good,
pression does mean that he could -choose for the evil                  prone to evil, dead in sin, and in bondage thereto,


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                               275



     and without the regenerating grace of the Holy             inclined indeed to all evil, but that he does not always
     Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to return to     do evil. But the meaning is that his very nature is
     God, to reform the depravity of their nature, nor to       entirely inclined, bent, toward evil, and that he there-
     dispose themselves to reformation. -                       fore can never do any good. Of course, every man does
   First, according to this article, man  iS not only born not commit every evil, but it must surely be main-
in sin but also conceived in sin. Hence, this terrible          tained that every natural man does surely  alway's com-
depravity does not begin at our birth but already at mit evil. Then, this article asserts that man is dead in
our conception.                                                 sin. He is dead as far as the doing of any good is
   Secondly, notice how man, according to this article, concerned,. but he is very much alive as far as walking
actually is. He is incapable of saving good. This does in iniquity is concerned. And finally we read that he is
not mean that man is capable of another kind of good, in bondage thereto. He is a slave of sin. He can never
a sort of civil good which would be good in the sight of        do anything else than sin. Of course, this does not
the Lord. But the Arminians taught that the sinner was mean that he is a stock and block, that he ever sins
capable of saving good. Therefore the fathers declare against his will. But, although a willing sinner, he
that man  is'incapable of saving good. Moreover, he is always remains a slave of sin. He sins willingly, but his
prone to evil. Also this expression is weakened in our will is in bondage. He can never will otherwise than to
present day. Toddy it is said that, although man is sin.
prone to evil, this means that the natural man is


 In His Fear

                                  The Veneration Gap
                                                       Rev. John A. Heys

   By changing one letter of a word you can often               ond childhood" and a gap again begins to appear. A
change the meaning so much that there is day and                serious stroke that silences the tongue, or makes it
night difference between the original word and your             useless as a means of communication', widens'the gap
new word.  Take the word night itself for example. One          even more. Ultimately the grave removes the one from
little change of the first letter, and you have light,          the other generation, and a final gap appears.
which is night and day difference from night.                      God ordained it that way. And it is by His wise
   So much is being said in these days of the genera-           counsel that the child does not come into this world as
tion gap that to speak of a veneration gap leaves the           the equal of his parent. Many forms of lower life have
impression that one has misspoken when the word                 no such gap, and others have it very briefly. The
should be generation gap. But changing the word to              disease germs that multiply so rapidly, that divide and
veneration does not however make a night and day                multiply, are equal in their devastating effects upon
difference. It is exactly in the matter of veneration           our bodies with their "parents," all at the same time.
that the present generation departs so clearly from             The young of the wild beasts mature very rapidly, and
generations that have gone by and no longer are upon            soon are equal fighters with their forebears. The off-
this earth. The present generation, and now we are              spring of man, the highest of all God's earthly crea-
speaking about the generation of the children of the            tures, takes the longest to attain to the strength and
world and not of the church, is characterized by such a         development that his parent had at the time of this
lack of veneration that we deem it fitting to say a few         child's birth. A rather strange quirk, is it not? in the
things about this matter.                                       so-called process of evolution that this "higher" crea-
   As far as the "generation gap" is concerned, let us          ture gets a set-back in this respect of the time it takes
understand that it is a normal thing that there is a gap        for him to mature. But we are speaking of veneration
between the generations. And we speak then of a gap             in the younger generation at this time, and we will let
that does not necessarily imply sin. Of course there is a       the evolutionist puzzle his mind about that other
gap between the parents and their newborn babe. That            "problem."
gap will close somewhat as the child grows. Parents and            But, as we were stating, the child develops physi-
child will soon be able to communicate. Not infre-              cally and mentally at a rather slow pace. There is
quently does it happen that later on father and son set         bound to be a gap then between the knowledge and
up business together as equal partners. But there also          wisdom of the older generation and of the coming
comes a time when the parents enter into their "sec-            generation. And all too frequently parents are not able


276                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



to see any more with the eyes of the child, and thus to       by reason of strength for fourscore years. But consider
view matters as they saw them in their childhood days;        that today we have these amazing means of communi-
and they are harsh and provoke to wrath when there is         cation whereby one man's influence can be UNI-
no need for it. Often the tension of the day, as well as      VERSAL! Take television, for example, with its net-
the cares of the family, bear down upon the parent,           work features that are by communication satellite
and he withdraws from his child, or bruskly brushes his       beamed even to other countries. Besides we have all
questions and attention away. This, of course, is wrong       these books which can be written, printed in several
and creates a generation gap where there  ought'not be        languages, and remain long after the  authoi-`s  death to
one. Undersigned often has to struggle with a  God-           corrupt the minds of many future generations. We do
created generation gap in `the course of  giving instruc- have a situation very similar to that of the days of
tion in one morning to three successive groups of Noah; and the world is rapidly becoming ripe for
children that fall into the six through eight, nine and       another and the final judgment.
ten, and eleven and twelve year level. An adjustment             And we must add to this the Word of God that gives
has to be made each time, especially- to get down to          warning of more terrible days ahead. Rebellion is to be
the level of the six through eight year old children. It      seen everywhere today in every sphere of life. The
takes extra preparation to close this gap of this genera-     younger generation has seen it in the older generations
tion and to present the truth on their level.                 and liked what they saw. The rebellion of the strikes in
       Of course when we speak of a generation gap today,     the field of labor have not gone unnoticed by the
we are not thinking of that normal generation gap that        youth of the land. They saw something they could
God `created, and which we can never change. But the          borrow for their revolt in the colleges. And a  yippee
generation gap that is spoken of today is exactly one in      recently boldly, in an interview, boasted of having
which there is a veneration gap. Modern youth in the          shown contempt of the court that tried him because of
world rebels against all that which the generation of his     deeds of violence. How do we explain it? Let the
parents and their parents stand for  and established.         wisest of. mortals tell  US. Had we heeded his word, we
Youth does not respect the  labours and toils  of the         would not be in the explosive situation in which we
former generations. They have no qualms about defy- now find ourselves. This is what Solomon said in
ing all the old order and of demonstrating for what           Ecclesiastes 8: 1 1, "Because sentence against an evil
they, in their immature thinking, demand as the right         work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of
way.                                                          the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Does
       Now we must remember that this is to be expected,      that not hit the nail right on the head? And still there
and that it cannot be any other way, according to the         are those who decry capital punishment for the mur-
Word of God. We had to come to the days which we              derer, even though this same Word of God demands it.
now see; and  we better expect worse conditions in the        There is no respect for the courts, because the courts
future. God's Word says so, as we will presently point        will not execute speedily the workers of  evil., The
out to you. But consider at the moment that from the          criminal receives a more tender treatment than his
very beginning there has been a continuous development victim. And when the police `try to do their duty, there
of sin, and that every generation carries that sin a          are hundreds  ,and thousands who have no respect for
degree further. This plays a vital role in the generation     the God-ordained offices in the State and cry  cruelty
gap today that is bigger than we have ever seen it            and injustice. What can we in such a situation expect in
before. Mere children dare to do such  .drastic deeds,        the future?
deeds from which adults shrank in awful horror in                The fifth commandment stands as a bulwark to-
years gone by, that we need but compare this with             wards the other five that follow. And when all honour,
only a few generations back, and we see that there  is.a      respect and veneration of those whom God has placed
development of sin that threatens our whole society in        over us disappear, then the sins of murder, adultery,
this very day.                                                theft, deceit and evil covetousness are going to abound.
       The ripe old ages of men before the flood served to    And if our children are not taught in the home to
make a very rapid development of sin, so rapid that in        honour father and mother for God's sake, they will not
about 1,500 years the world  was' ready for the judg-         know it in Church and State. Then you can expect
ment of the flood. Men lived long and were able to            riots, revolt, rebellion and revolution. We have sown
develop in their sins. Death did not cut them short in        the wind and are reaping the whirlwind.
their improving of the sin-skills. Likewise they lived           Our children  ,are' growing up in this lawless age. And
long enough to teach their evil practices to many             rebellion looks good to them, that is,  to their flesh,
younger men, and to several generations of men. And           you may be sure. We as parents and office bearers in
before we leave this matter, let it be pointed out to us      God's Church had better take extra pains to teach
as  .a serious warning, that the same conditions  .exist      them law and order in love. We had better be very
today in a somewhat altered form., Men do not live            careful that we as parents and office bearers do not
more than the proverbial threescore years and ten, or         become pampering, "peace" loving iinitators of Eli,


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    277



whose children receive nothing more than a  plea  from         contempt of court, and  nothing, absolutely nothing is
us when they rise up in rebellion and flaunt the law of        done about this open, bold challenge to the laws and
God.                                                           courts of our land. We are fast approaching the days of
   There is another pointed warning in the Word of             widespread if not national anarchy. The veneration gap
God that shows us what this veneration gap will pro-           indeed is a law and order gap. Since the days when
duce. We read in Psalm  11:3, "If the foundations be           violence and riot in the  sitdown strikes allowed men to
destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Men are ex-             hold and destroy factories and property with  im-
actly by their lawlessness and riots destroying the            punity,.this evil has spread to every area of life, and we
foundations. When the fifth commandment is flaunted,           aYe reaping the whirlwind. The haryest, sad to say, is
and when men practice lawlessness and disorder, the            far from complete.
very foundation of government is attacked. If  .then, as          Let us teach our children, the generation of the sons
is the case today, those who  are.there to uphold-that         of God, in His fear. -Let  .us teach them to be good
foundation and to demand respect as well as to punish          citizens for God's sake. And let us beware lest an
the lawless fail to do so, the righteous can do nothing.       underground church spring up also in our midst, be-
But that is stating it negatively and from one point of        cause  we have not taught them veneration, respect for
view. Then the unrighteous will have free sway and             the offices and for the Word of God. If we attack that
continue until they have destroyed all government. We          Word, and allow our professors to attack its  infal-
will get back to the days of the Judges when every man         libilty, we too will reap the whirlwind in our churches.
did that which was right in his own eyes.                      If we set an example for. them in strikes and riots in
   Unless our leaders wake up SOON, the crumbling              the field of  labour, we must not be surprised to see
foundations will- be a complete rubble heap, and woe           them learn their lessons well and push us out of our
to the righteous in our land! It is bad enough now             offices in the church, and even out of our churches.
when murderers are treated with tender loving care,            Sin breeds sin. It  camiot be otherwise. Let there be no
and the abused are refused their rights because there          veneration gap in our families  .and churches. But let us
might be infringement upon the "rights" of the mur-            strive for an ever increasing gap between us and our
derer.  `As  we'stated, a  yippee leader can openly confess    children and SIN!
with bold pride that he defied and deliberately showed


From Holy Writ

                          Exphnation of Matt. 11: -20-24;.
                                     Luke IO: 13-16 (cont.),

                                                    Rev. G. Lubbers

  There is something dark and hidden in the saying of            At first glance one might receive the impression, or
Jesus concerning both Sodom and Tyre and Sidon                 draw the  coriClusion  that `Jesus insinuates here or
when he upbraids the cities in which his mightiest             teaches by implication that these- evil cities; Sodom
works had been performed. The fact is that Jesus says          and Tyre, are less  .hard in heart by nature than the
concerning Sodom, that had the works been done in              inhabitants of the Galilean cities; that it is easier to
Sddom which were performed in Capernaum it                     bring these to repentance than it is to bring the people
(Sodom) would have still been standing as a city  iv           of Capernaum to repentance.. Now this is neither
Jesus' day. In that case fire would not have come down         taught directly in the text, nor is this the  implicatitin.
from heaven as it did  .in the days of Abraham and Lot         Besides; this would conflict with the plain teaching of
to destroy this evil city with its inhabitants. Tyre and       Scripture that both Jew and Greek are all under sin.
Sidon are still standing as evil cities in Jesus' day, but     There is  `no difference. All dead in trespasses  +`d sins.
they have not repented in sack-cloth and ashes. Had              In order` to give an  explana'tion here  gome have
these works  been, done in  TyrB and Sidon which were          attempted to  meet: this `difficulty by  stating that there
done in Chorazin and Bethsaida these cities would long         were  .no elect in Sodom (there were not even. ten
ago have rtpented in sack-cloth and ashes as did the           righteous men) neither were' there any  elect in Tyre.
people of Nineveh in the days of Jonah.                        But had there been  t&i elect there then God would
  How can this be explained?                                   have shown. his mighty works in Sodom, too, as he did


278                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



in Israel; these ten, this remnant according to election,     between the chaff and the wheat in their very life and
would have' been sufficient reason for God to have            manifestation:    f a i t h   an,d  u n b e l i e f .   T h u s   M o s e s
spared   the city of Sodom. And the same reasoning is         preaches in the plains of Moab concerning faith and
then applied to what Jesus says concerning Tyre.              unbelief. And -keeping the latter in mind as to what
  Now there  .is an element of truth in this reasoning. It    would happen when Israel as a nation and theocracy
is true that God has the gospel preached where the            would depart from the Lord, he predicts Israel being
elect saints must be gathered. The Son of God gathers,        carried away  .from the land of their inheritance to
deferids and preserves to himself a  c-hurch elect unto       Babylon. Writes he  ". . . and the whole land thereof is
everlasting  life. When Paul is in Corinth and his life is    brimstone, and salt and burning, that it is not sown,
in danger and his physical welfare is assaulted, then the     nor bareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the
Lord comes to him and says "Fear not, brother Paul,           overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah and
for I have much people in this city." (Acts 18: 10) We        Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and
know that the elective love of God is such that it is the. in his wrath: even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath
basis for preaching, gives direction to the place where       the Lord done this unto this land?"
the preaching must be done, and also is the only                This is the predicted end of Israel as a nation. And
assurance of fruit upon the labors. Thus the doctrine         that "end" is here arrived when Jesus comes in the
of efficacious grace stands. And that element of Scrip- fullness of time. It will be the glory of Israel and the
ture teaching is what is good in the interpretation of light of the nations. John the Baptist came and
the former paragraph. For Jesus teaches the word in           preached the coming of the kingdom, and -the realiza-
Samaria where the fields prove to be white by the pure tion of the covenant in the hearts of the Israel of God.
preaching of the word, and without any sign or miracle But now Moses must be preached here on the door-
being performed.                                              steps of the coming kingdom. John speaks of the axe
  The weakness of this interpretation is that it presup- being laid at the root of the tree. That is the end of
poses that in these cities of Capernaum there were no Israel, also of the Galilee of the nations, the northern
elect people of God, and that there were none who tribes. And to "this generation" Jesus now is preaching
repented from their sins. In all of these cities there        the word. He now will go through a period of final
were those who believed, both under the preaching of warning before he departs for Jerusalem to die on the
John and of Jesus, and turned unto the Lord. There Cross.. He begins to upbraid them. And, thus he utters
was a remnant according to election of grace. Here, threats, warnings and reproofs to Israel  - to bring
too, God has his seven thousand!                              them to repentance, as did John when he said: bring
  We believe that we must arrive at the meaning of forth works meet for repentance.
this statement from a different viewpoint, to wit, that         There may then be an element "hidden" from us in
Sodom would still remain until Jesus' day, had the            this warning. We may not be able to understand it all,
mighty works been performed there. We believe that and rationalize it.' We must not rationalize it away so
we must take our cue from what Moses writes in that the force of the "upbraiding" does not pierce us
Deuteronomy  29:29 "The secret things belong unto in our deepest heart and conscience. We must fear and
the LORD our God: but those things which are re- tremble with a godly fear when we hear these words.
vealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that For they are not written in the Scriptures in vain. We
we may do all the words of this law."                         must not spend all our energy trying to penetrate into
  Now this latter word is very instructive in this con- the deepest secrets of God's depths, which are a
nection of Jesus words concerning Sodom and Tyre.             mighty deep, but exclaim, "0, the depths, both of the
  This is a Scriptural directive here. It is a practical wisdom and of the knowledge of God, how unsearch-
application in Deuteronomy of the spiritual attitude able are his ways, and his paths past tracing out. Out of
which we should assume toward the words of the                him and through him and unto him are all things. To
covenant. Israel as a congregation  is. warned to enter him be glory and power forever." That is Paul's con-
into God's covenant, to believe with the heart and to         clusion when he reads this so-called "Jewish Question"
confess with the mouth. For this commandment is not in Romans 9-l 1. And that should be ours here. For
far from. Israel, it is neither hid nor far off. It is the thus Moses warns us in Deuteronomy 29: 29.
new covenant which -God will make in the latter days,           But what is "revealed" is important. These things
when he will write His covenant in our hearts, so that        belong to us and to our children forever!
we love God's law, and no one shall say, Know the               It is that we may do all the works of this law of the
Lord. Of this Moses speaks in the plains of Moab just new covenant in Christ's blood.
before he dies and before Israel enters into the land of        Christ works in us both to will and to do according
Canaan.                                                       to his good-pleasure. And he used this form of teaching
  But there is a two-fold Israel. There is the Israel of and speaks "Woe" to the cities of Israel. In these
God and the Israel after the flesh. And in view of this streets the "new Covenant" is being revealed. It is the
the word must be preached to make a separation                power of saving grace. The poor have the gospel


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                279



preached to them. And blessed is he who is not of-              John is a Nazarite: He came neither eating nor
fended in such a Christ and covenant.                         drinking. Him they would have play the role of the
  But many were offended. in Capernaum and in  Beth-          Bridegroom, that is of  ,Jesus. Jesus is the Bridegroom.
saida. Fact is, that most of them were, particularly the      Him they would have play the role of John, the  Naza-
theocratic establishment. They were offended at the           rite. Ever they are an evil generation. And this comes
gospel of sovereign grace  and power as this was exhi-        to light. under the preaching. Such these were. And
bited in the mighty works. These mighty works offend-         over against them there are the violent who cause the
ed them. These works offended them as they added to           kingdom to suffer violence. They would enter the
and corroborated the Gospel of God's efficacious              kingdom with holy impatience.
promise to write his law in our hearts.                         NoMi the scene changes. We have referred to this in
  They hated God and they hated his Christ.                   our former article. It is the fulfilment of the wrath of
  They were unbelievers who hated the Gospel.                 God in destroying Israel. As a nation Israel shall be
  And they are warned  in their deepest conscience            destroyed as well as the nations of Sodom and Tyre.
what will befall them in the day of judgment. And             Only it will be worse for them when the books of the
then their attitude toward both John's preaching and          conscience are opened. It will not be well with Sodom
toward Jesus' preaching will be brought to clear light.       which was destroyed with fire and brimstone. Israel,
They will then see themselves as Jesus portrays them as       church members which knew the word, and did not
the children sitting in the market-places and playing         heed it will be destroyed with far more Severe judg-
their games. They play funeral and wedding. With              ment. Nothing will afford any help. They had Moses
Jesus the hearers are like the children that call to their    and the Pi-ophets!
fellows to play funeral. They complain that they have           That must be riveted in our minds and hearts. The
played a doleful, mournful tune, and they have not            revealed things are `for us and our children. and the
cooperated in the game by  lameriting.  And with John         secret things belong unto the Lord.
they are like those who  ivould play wedding. They              And wisdom is justified of her effective manifesta-
pipe and want John to dance. They are very contrary tion in a godly walk!
to the preaching role of both John and Jesus.


Studies in Depth

                   The .Councils of Churches Deception
                                                       -I


                                                  Rev. R.C. Harbach

   The World Council of Churches and the National             An eighth grader  .in the public school could easily be
Council of Churches go to no trouble to appear thor-          fooled into thinking  that the Bible, which may not be
oughly orthodox in theology and point of  vieti. In this      read as the Word of God  Bny more in the public
regard,they make no claim to being anything but scl~oo1s, actually supports socialism, especially when
ecumenical machines of modernism and liberalism. But          appeal is made, for example,' to the parable of the
to day liberalism is practically synonymous with              laborers in the vineyard, Matt. 20, as teaching that all
leftism. Why then do these councils occasionally              laborers should be paid the same pay. This parable is
bother to make a feeble attempt to leave the impres-          said to teach the "social gospel's" collectivistic prin-
sion that either one or both of them are opposed by           ciple of "from each according to his ability, to each
the communists? Recently? the female president-of the         according to his need." But there are two kinds of
National Council of Churches in a TV interview at             laborers in the parable: bargainers, who get only what
Tulsa said that the Communist Party was "against the          they ask for, and trusting ones, who get far more than
National Council of Churches." But, interestingly             that for which they thought of asking. The parable
enough, there is a Christian organization in Tulsa            distinguishes the people of God and mere men of the
which claims to have every official communist news-           world. God's people are. not wage-earners. Those who
paper published since 1960 on file, indexed and cross are, must have justice, so much for so much! No more,
indexed, and that of the many articles on the NCC             no less! Therefore God: is a hirer to mercenaries, a
-appearing in these red newspapers in the last decade,        Rewarder to the trusting! God's people are not slaves,
there is not one that is opposed to the NCC.      .           either, as that idea, too, would deny the parable. For
   An eighth  gm'de Christian school- student can see         slaves do not receive a reward. God's people are His
that there is no Christianity in the WCC or the NCC.          friend-servants who serve out of friendship to the  sov-


     280                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


~    ereign. God. So the parable does not teach equality of Nietzschean God-is-dead religion they have obtained
     conditions and wages to all the workers alike. If it did,        not from atheistic communism. They have rather got-
     then Jesus should have said, not,  as He did, "So the            ten it from their  main source of strength, from the
     last shall be first, and the first last," but, "there will be    capitalist financiers whose will they must do to stay in
     neither first nor last, but all will be alike." The parable      business. When they promise a better standard of liv-
     does not teach "from each according to his ability, to           ing, claim to be working for economic and political
     each according to his need."  ,It teaches that men shall         well-being, they mean that, this shall come about by a
     be given their own proper reward. To each shall be               complete world economic and social development.
     given according to what is  right.  That means that to           There you can see the opiate  of,the people and who
     some, the mercenary, they shall receive reward accord-           produce it. There you  se& the quackery of silly
     ing to their works. The others, the trusting, shall re-          Marxism and godless capitalism. The church councils
     ceive the reward of grace. The first group insisted on           are great Babel-builders, madly busy with extending
     being paid according to the standard of their own                the kingdom of this world. That is the kingdom of
     works. They had bargained and were paid according to             Antichrist. The world court, the world state, the world
     their collective bargaining. They could claim no in-             church, the world community, the world utopia, with
     justice in what they finally received. The others re-            headquarters in the USA, are all antichrist.
     ceived not according to the measure of their work, but              The old, pure-Pelagian line of Fosdickian modernism
     according to the grace of the householder. Men set on            is still with  us  in the  Windbeutel  philosophy of the
     justice do not understand grace. They shall  be, left            councils of churches, which still appeals to a moral
     without grace. Men who want to be limited to justice,            sense in all men. This is not to see man as he really is.
     who would not go beyond justice, shall  have  justice!           Mere fallen man has not and never had any moral
     But communists themselves attack these and similar               sense. Man's moral sense has been debased and de-
     passages as anti-communist. The householder is a land-           praved. Man as he develops, develops in sin. He may by
     owner  - it is "his vineyard." He is a capitalist: he pays       no stretch of the imagination be called the man of
     laborers out of his profits. His business is private enter-      righteousness. Nor is he developing in the direction of
     prise, established on his own private property and               righteousness. In that direction, man shows no devel-
     obtaining workers from the open, free market. His                opment whatsoever. As to civilization, man has always
     vineyard, furthermore, is not a "closed shop"  - no              more or less steadily developed upward to greater  and
     union interfered with the run of business, profits,              more glorious heights. But morally and spiritually man
     salaries, hiring or firing. The communist simply cannot          develops downward, not upward.  .The. Apostle Paul
     accept this parable. Take the parable of the man with a          calls man at his best the man of sin. As such, he is
     hundred sheep who lost-one of them. The communist                motivated not by the mystery of godliness, but by the
     will tell you that no man has a right to have a hundred          mystery of lawlessness. It is' that mystery of lawless-
     sheep. They, and all property, belong to the quibbutz.           ness which corrupts man and renders him, not the man
     Take the parable of the householder demanding fruit              of morality,  ,but the man of sin. This, the Bible's view
     from his vineyard. The workers of the vineyard refused           of man, and therefore God's view of man, is one of
     to give the fruits of it to the owner..They killed his ser-      hard-core reality. But neither the  p.olitical nor the eccle-
     vants, even his Son, who came to obtain the harvest. The         siastical liberals have been able to face reality. They
     communists will tell you that the husbandmen did                 still believe the hope of the world lies in man. They
     right to rebel. The owner of the vineyard was a land-            still imagine that the seeds of universal peace are some-
     lord, a capitalist, a property-owner, a speculator in free       where  inbedded in man. They fail to notice that the
     enterprise. His property should have been confiscated.           mills of God grind slowly, yet also grind exceedingly
     No, communists themselves do not believe there is any            surely and finely. Therefore, the mystery of lawless-
     communism, but the very opposite, taught in  `the ness itself will crush most barbarously the vain dream
     Bible.                                                           of international peace in this world. For the Gog and
        Christianity is exactly that religion which the lib-          Magog -heathen nation powers are amassing and are
     eral, left-wing ecumenical church councilmen do not              already aimed at both godless capitalism and apostate
     believe. Neither, though they are moving in that direc-          Christendom. Scripture says,  "Wheil they shall say,
     tion of the Roman Catholic Church (and they both                 `Peace and safety', then sudden destruction  cometh
     deserve each other), do  +hey believe in the Romish              upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and
     religion. Like that produced by the French Revolution,           they shall not escape" (I Thess.  5:3). "For they have
     they believe in a civil. religion. That. is a religion of        healed the hurt  ,of the daughter of My people slightly,
     expediency, a pragmatic religion of social schism, class         saying, `Peace! peace!' when there is no peace" (Jer.
     struggle and ecclesiastical hoodlumism. Liberal church-          8: 11). Such words apply to men like Mark Hatfield
     men have not gotten their religion from the Bible, nor           and Billy Graham who continually talk about world
     from the Christian church, much less from the Refor-             peace and an earthly kingdom, yet both know that
     mation. Their "Christian': Agnosticism, their nihilistic         there will be no universal peace in this world, that  .,


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     281



   there will be no peace  uiltil the Prince of peace returns      and in the name of Christ, free to read the Bible,  free
   to establish it, "until He come, whose right it `is"            to preach the gospel. without the branches of  the
   (Ezek.  27:27). Our hope is doomed to despairing dis-           armed forces, free to worship and serve God. as He
   appointment if it be placed in a kingdom of this world          commands, and free to acknowledge the Son of God as
   as dreamed by modern church  cquncilmen. Our only               eternal King in the face of atheist,  l&ddhist and Jew.
   hope must be in that kingdom which is not of this                  It is said that the success of reaching the goal of
    world. That is Christ's eternal kingdom! and His               world community (restoring the Tower of Babel)  &ill
   kingdom is not now from hence!  !&hen it comes, it will         depend  upon  whether men "will accord to the essential
   be visibly and physically established in the heavens and        authority." That means men must be willing to give up
   in the earth, but it will tlien be "the world to come."         their present  constitutidnal  form of government, throw
   Then His kingdom will "break in pieces and consume              overboard all nationalism, and like good slaves put
   all these (other) kingdoms, and it shall stand forever"         their shoulder to the Juggernaut wheel of United Na-
~ ( D n .   2:44).                                                 tions control. The  false  church councils with their false
       The mystery of lawlessness is the great enemy of            gqspel are building Babel, the kingdom of this world.
   mankind. That enemy works toward what men  fondly               especially when they counsel men to "urge their gov-
    dream of as the "one world community." It labors for           ernments to accept the rulings of the International
   the "essential authority". of a United  ,Nations govern-        Court of Justice without reservation." The liberal
   ment of the world and the international court of                church councils are a modern  Sanhedrin serving the
   justice. It was the spirit of Cain as he wandered farther       cast out prince of this world. Its talmudical fancies are
   from God with his city-building,.and of Nimrod after            but the spirit of this world. Truth the world will not
   him, to build a great, universal rallying center where          tolerate. Wild flatteries under the guise  of "social econ-
   men could band together and unite against God as                omy" will be delusive bait with which to bring that
   citizens of a world community. But man was not made             final Antichrist on the scene. Jesus said to the Jews,
   capable of being a citizen of a world community unless          "If another come in his own name, him ye will re-
   capable of being a slave. For then universal slavery to         ceive" (Jn.  5:43). That man who can so impose  upon
   Antichrist would become a reality. Man can be a  slave          the Jews without too much difficulty will be able to
   of a world dictatorship. But he can only be a  citizen  of      deceive the world.
   a free state, where he is free to pray to the true God,


   Examining Ecu menicahn
                                           ~`WORSHIP"
                                                      Rev. G. Van Bnrcw

       The fifth of six reports adopted by the World Coun- We, doubtlessly, have not yet reached  such  an apex of
    cil of Churches in its meeting at  Uhpsala in 1968 is          perfection that every possible change in our  ,`worship
    siniply called "Worship". This is an abbre+iation  of the      service would be for the worse. And in-so-far as the
    original title, "The Worship of God in a  Secular  Age".       document of the W.C.C. points this out, I would agree
    There was, evidently, strong objection by the  more con-       w i t h   i t .
    servative elements upon undue emphasis on a "secular              However, one immediately becomes  suspicidys  of
    theology." The abreviated title represents the com-            the document itself when it is considered in light of
    promise between the liberal- and supposedly conserva-          the theme of the W.C.C.: "Behold, I  .Illake all things
    tive wings of the W.C.C.                                       new." Now a child of God would believe  that this
       The subject  ,of `"worship" is indeed a significant one     theme  refers ultimately to the perfections of the  heav-
    for the church. The  church has' been, and ought to be,        enly, realized when Christ returns. He would confess
    concerned with the proper worship of our God. Nor              that the beginning or principle of this newness already
    has there been a set form for worship which the                belongs to the saints on the earth by virtue of the fact
    churches `through the ages have inflexibly followed.           that he is regenerated by the Spirit.  BUt many in the
    There  .are certain essential elements in all worship, but     W.C.C. do not understand the theme in  tliis way. Many
    the order  ,or arrangement of the worship service has          would regard it as a cry for revolutionary  cha!lge.  One
    varied throughout the centuries. Often, because we are         fears that this is what some had in mind, too,, when the
    creatures of  ,habit and custom, we resist any possible        subject of worship  .was treated. There  ,was obviously
    change  -  .equating  change with  the. sin  of. modernism.    the desire to do away with all the worship forms as


282                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER


these presently exist, and replace them by something                    and his fellow-men, which imprison him in narrow
altogether new and different. Originally, the proposed                  nationalism or arrogant sectarianism, which attack
document on "worship" contained far more radical                        his life through racism or class division, war or op-
statements recommending change than those contained                     pression, famine or disease, poverty or wealth, and
in the document finally adopted. Rev. David L.                          which drive him to cynicism, guilt and despair. When
                                                                        we worship, God shows us that in this battle the final
Edwards, Church of England, comments as follows                         victory belongs to Jesus Christ.
concerning the original draft of the document on                             This may remain an empty statement unless our
worship :                                                               churches reconsider which are the demonic forces to
           More vocal, however, was the protest of the ortho-           be fought today, and what are the opportunities for
        dox churchmen, including the Chairman of the set-               the laity to bring the real struggles and questions of
        tion, against any tendency to surrender the Christian           daily life into worship.
        spiritual tradition to the secularization which was           Notice how that though the name of Christ is used,
        acknowledged to surround all the churches of Europe        man is urged to participate in His  "reconciljng work
        and America. The response of the Orthodox Theolog-          among men." This "reconciling work" is to remove
        ical Society of America to the preliminary draft            some of the evidences and fruits of sin  - but not sin
        criticized that document's "basic deficiency", and         itself. No mention is made at all of sin. Man is simply
        may be quoted. "The root of this deficiency is the
        assumption (common, in fact, to all sections) that         urged to struggle against the "demonic forces" to-
        the `secular age' creates a situation for the Church so    gether with Christ. The worship of the church, accord-
        radically new that an equally radical evaluation of        ing to the report, is to incorporate this idea. The report
        Christianity is necessary which embraces worship,          goes on to explain that this "worship" is being chal-
        unity, spiritual renewal, theological conversation. It     lenged by "secularization" today. This secularization is
        is this assumption that  onZy  a world-centred and         explained thus:
        world-orientated Christianity is possible and permis-                Without attempting a full definition we want to
        sable for Christians today that makes Section V an              stress these two senses: understood positively it can
        unconvincing mixture of arbitrary questions and de-             mean (a) a liberation of culture, scholarly and scien-
        batable definitions." Against this trend the Orthodox           tific investigation, the development of technology
        churchmen reiterated their tradition: "The Liturgy              etc. from control by religious power structures; and
        has always been understood primarily as an act of               (b) the constant reexpression of the Church's liturgy
        withdrawal from the world, the fulfilment of the                and language in the culture in which it lives.
        Church as being in but not of the world."                     The report continues by explaining its idea of the
           The Orthodox were not the only members of the            continuity as well as the change which must be evident
        section at Uppsala who were suspicious of the draft's
        secularizing trend . . .                                   in the worship within the church. It emphasizes the
           At one stage it looked as if no agreement would be      necessity of regular and disciplined prayer and  interces-
        reached between the secularizing radicals and the          .sion by groups, families, and individuals  - all of which
        heavenly conservatives. If an agreement was reached,       is very good. However, it continues by stating, "Since
        it might be an empty compromise. . . .                     the Church should make clear its. solidarity with the
           In the end, however, an agreement was reached           world, corporate worship and personal prayer alike
        among these Christians at Uppsala, and it was an           should draw into themselves, with thanksgiving and
        agreement which included the key passages in the           faith, all the joys and sorrows, the achievements,
        preliminary draft about secularization. This agree-         doubts and frustrations of mankind today." One might
        ment was possible partly because some new points           wonder  if this might not also be construed as a rebuke
        were added in response to needs voiced by African,         upon Christ Himself Who declared in His prayer, "I
        Orthodox, etc; but mainly because the preliminary          pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them
        draft was reduced in length by the omission of ques-       which  thou hast given me, for they are  thine." (John
        tions which seemed too arbitrary, and definition
        which seemed too debatable, and cliches which               17:9)
        seemed too pious.                                             But what changes would this  report,recommend? It
           Some of the secular theology was cut . . .              is rather brief in treating this subject. It suggests, by
       Some of the "secular theology" may have been cut,           way of asking a question, that the traditional might
but much of it obviously still remains in the document             not be too acceptable anymdre:
                                                                             We are bound to ask the churches; whether there
adopted by the W.C.C. The report speaks of a certain                    should not be changes in language, music, vestments,
"crisis of worship  ." In describing that "worship", the                ceremonies, to make worship more intelligible;
report declares:                                                        whether fresh categories of people (industrial work-
           In its worship as surely as in its witness, in the           ers, students, scientists, journalists, etc.) should not
        world, the Church is called to participate fully in             find a place in the churches' prayers; whether lay
        Jesus Christ's reconciling work among men. In wor-              people should not be encouraged to take a greater
        ship we enter God's battle against the demonic forces           share in public worship; whether our forms of wor-
        of this world which alienate man from his creator               ship should not avoid unnecessary repetition, and


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          283


     leave room for silence; whether biblical andliturgical                    As possibilities for consideration in the churches,
     texts should not be so chosen that people are helped                 we suggest: (a) that through team work the congrega-
     to worship with understanding; whether meetings of                   tion be engaged in the preparation and follow-up of
     Christians for prayer in the Eucharist (Holy Com-                    the sermon (this would also help to relate the sermon
     munion, the Lord's Supper) should be confined to                     more closely to daily life); (b) that other forms of
     church buildings or to traditional hours. In the same                presentation be used, such as dialogue, drama, and
     way in personal prayer should we not learn to "pray                  visual arts. More careful use should be made of new
     our lives" in a realistic way?                                       church architecture, decoration, music, etc., to help
   Some concrete suggestions are offered. The report                      modern men to understand the Christian message.
states, "Since the Word of God is the basis of our                      This ought to give some idea of the trend within the
worship, proclamation of the Word is essential." One                  W.C.C. concerning the worship of God. The report
would think that the report emphasizes an important                   shows evidences of the compromises that were made  -
truth: "the proclamation of the Word is essential." We                yet shows unmistakable signs of the attempt to destroy
might agree, insisting that this is the heart of proper               that proper worship of God as He has required this of
public worship of the church. However, the report                     His Church. The report wants nothing of the pure
continues in a way which makes plain that "proclama-                  preaching of the Word  - the'presentation of the atone-
tion of the Word" is not meant in the sense that we                   ment of the cross of Christ. It does want a "proclama-
generally understand this.                                            tion  of the Word" through other means than the
                                                                      preaching. It wants the "church" to participate in the
            The churches have traditionally known and still
     know the power of the preached word to convince                  "reconciling work" of Christ, that is, to remove only
     men. of the call of God to them in their situation.              the outward evidences of the existence of sin.
     Yet, in our day, the sermon as prepared and preached               The report gives some idea of the type of worship
     by one man comes increasingly under question. In                 which likely will exist in the church of the antichrist at
     these circumstances the traditional sermon ought to              the end of time. And it is an additional reason why no
     be supplemented by new means of proclamation.                    truly Reformed church ought to belong to the W.C.C.


All Around Us

                                       The Trend of Modern Education,
                               A Different View Of Martin Luther King

                                                              Prof H. Hanko


THE TREND OF MODERN EDUCATION                                             famous Encrlisli Summerhill school. "`Maintenance of
   A recent article in  Newsweek  described what it                       the building was hard to justify without the idea of a
referred to as a new concept in education  .which,                        more individualized and creative school," said school
hopefully, will resolve many of the problems now                          superintendent Roger Bardwell. More than filling the
facing the nation's public schools. We quote from the                     prescription, the new school opened in September
article.                                                                  `with 175 children, many of them from academic
            There is no principal. Pupils need not attend class.          families at Cornell University or Ithaca College, and
     There are few desks and no neatly stacked textbooks.                 Bardwell's own son was one of the first to enroll in
     The children learn photography and human repro-                      the sixth grade.
     duction, paint prehistoric villages, play chess, nurse                    1n"keeping with the principle - if not the practice
     gerbils' and frolic in the halls. But this is not just               - of "freedom, not license" laid down by Summer-
     another unconventional and expensive private acad-                   hill's founder,. A.S. Neill, mornings at East Hill are
     emy. It is East Hill Elementary School in Ithaca,                    fairly structured. Children choose three-week pro-
     New York, quite possibly the most innovative U.S.                    jects, e.g., preparing a fund:raising photo exhibition,
     Primary school every supported by taxpayers.                        `constructing an Indian village, or reading with
            East Hill is the brainchild of two Ithaca educators,          "golden shapes" - books with large pictures and
     Robert Herse and Dan Lee. Last spring, when the                      works that children memorize and apply to other
     tired old East Hill school building was slated to be                 readings. In the afternoon, they may move freely
     torn down, they mobilized neighborhood parents and                   among such electives as Chinese, German, French or
     petitioned the city's school board for permission to                 Russian, creative writing or mathematics, con-
     transform it into a laboratory for nonregimented,                    structing a clay canoe or, if they choose, simply
     independent primary education modeled after the                      reading.


284                                                THE STANDARD BEARER



           Children often turn to one another for help, and       own inner reserves of power and strength, he would
        one of Herse's dreams is having fifth- and  sixth-        become the ideal man. The figure was often used of a
        graders write texts for the  younger,students.  Pupils    rose. The new born child is a delicate and fragile rose
        are encouraged to make their own choice and to            bud. If left alone, he will unfold and develop into a fra-
        stand up for their rights; a child's word is as re-       grant and beautiful rose. If tampered with, he will be
        spected as any  adult's.  Even the school code applies    irreparably harmed. Thus education had to be suited to
        equally to teachers as well as students, and recently
        several children rebuked teachers for breaking the        this. and the school was only there to provide an envi-
        710  smoking in the classrooms" rule (the teachers        ronment and atmosphere in which the child could de-
        hav&  abstained ever since). And when the student         velop in harmony with his own inner nature.
        government showed favoritism toward several pupils            It appears as if the philosophy behind the new
        not. long ago, the student body voted to end it           school in Ithaca is identical in all respects with this
        without further ado.                                      philosophy. It is an open and blatant denial of the fact
           Naturally, the school's freedom pleases most           that every child is born into the world depraved. He is
        youngsters. "I like it here. You can learn what you       thoroughly corrupt and only inclined to evil. This is
        want to," says Jackie Smith, a lo-year-old blonde.        not fashionable  ddctrine today; but it`is the truth of
        But older pupils and some parents worry about how         the Word of God. If therefore, a child is permitted to
        well the children are being prepared for secondary
        education . . . Bardwell.  hopes, however, that one of    develop according to his own desires and in harmony
        the two new junior highs now being built in Ithaca        with his own inner nature, the consequences are not
        adopts some of East Hill's innovations.                   difficult to predict. It takes little imagination to guess
           "We're not teaching kids how to pass achievement       that the results of such experimenting will be to pro-
        tests," concedes Lee. "Maybe we're away off in left       duce (as  it' did twenty or more  years ago) a crop of
        field here, but we think they will face a better life     intellectual illiterates and a generation which is a law
        after this." . . .                                        u n t o   i t s e l f .
       Now  it may appear  as if all of this is just a rather         With such a view of the nature of the child, it is no
silly experiment in education, interesting, to observe,           wonder that  disciplin.e in a school of this kind is
fun to try, perhaps doomed to failure; but surely not             wholly lacking. The teacher is not authoritative who is
something to get excited about. Quite the contrary is             in the school to demand and expect obedience from
true. If those who are responsible for the erection of a          the child. He is there simply to aid the child in devel-
school of this nature think they are doing something              oping. And the child is really  the. one in a position of
original, they are sadly mistaken. It was not too much            authority.  l!Je is the one who can do the dictating
more than a couple of decades ago when the country                about what shall happen to his own  life: But when a
went through a period in which schools of this nature             morally and spiritually corrupt child does this,  - once
were the popular thing. This was especially true in               again the results  tire not hard to predict.
California. The whole thing at that time was called                   This is also why the  goal of this type of education is
"progressive education". It had disastrous results; and           stated in the article in the way that it is: "We think
the schools of the land have scarcely recovered from              they (the children) will face a better life after this." Is
that noble experiment today. Why these men speak of               this the purpose  of education? Is it even conceivable
innovations is a `bit of a mystery  - unless they have            that ungodly and worldly educators would consider
never studied their "history of education" in college             nothing more than this as the goal? This isn't even wise
and grad school.                                                  according to the standards of human and earthly wis-
       But it  isn? the disastrous results that concern us at     dom.  :
the moment;. it is the basic philosophy behind the                    If this country is going to have to go through
whole `thing. At one time progressive education  way              another educational crisis as it did some twenty years
dominant in pedagogical thinking, there were basic                ago on this very point, the future of this country looks
ideas in the minds of educators  concerhing the nature            dark indeed. How different are our covenantal schools.
of a child and the purpose in educating him. These                Let us never fall prey.. to what our Canons of Dort call
ideas  are apparently at the bottom of the school in              the old Pelagian error resurrected out of hell.
Ithaca, New York.
       Educators who promoted progressive education               A DIFFERENT VIEW OFMARTIN  LUTHER`KING
considered a child to be spiritually, psychologically                 My colleague, Rev. R. Harbach, sent to me a clip-
and intellectually sound at the moment of his birth. If           ping from the December, 1969 issue of  The Cross and
he, in the course of the years, turned out to be delin-           the  Flag  which is worth quoting in this column. It is, in
quent, it was because wrong forces had molded him. In             turn a quote from the New Hampshire  Union Leader
fact, some more liberal educators were of the con-                written by the editor of that paper on the. subject  t`The
sidered opinion that any kind of molding force was                Truth About Martin Luther King". The quote from the
detrimental to the child's development. He was gosd.              Union Leader is as follows:
If left alone to do what he pleased, to develop from his                   It now appears that the government was listening


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             285


     in on the telephone conversations of Martin Luther                     House Speaker John McCormack was informed. This
      King. It appears also that the wire-tapping of this                   briefing caused Speaker McCormack to make exten-
     supposedly "non-violent" black `martyr" was autho-                     sive preparations to defend Washington against King's
     rized by none other than- Robert F. Kennedy, then                      -plans to cause massive disruption.
     attorney general.                                                         Those who heard the playing of the tapes were
         So far, this is of no particular interest because this             shocked at the gutter-type language King used in
     newspaper has long told its readers that M.L. King                     private conversations about the late President John
     was not what he purported to be and that neither                       F. Kennedy. Yet, King? leadership task was to give
     was Bobby Kennedy. That ruthless little individual                     the over-all .movement an acceptable `"image" that
     was quite capable of putting a wire-tap on his own                     would attract millions of Negroes, young people, the
     mother's phone.                                                        poor, the clergy, and those' disenchanted with the
         What is interesting is that partial disclosures reveal             Vietnam War.
     that King was in direct contact with some of the                          Thus has been confirmed completely the concept
     most influential Communist contacts in the United                      of Martin Luther King which this newspaper has
      States. As reported by our Washington columnist,                      relayed to its readers.
     Paul Scott, the FBI has been able to confirm that                         In view of this partial disclosure, this newspaper
      Kremlin agents whose influence extends into the                       feels that it is high time. the FBI be ordered by the
     highest ranks of the Communist Party were King's                       proper authorities to release the entire context of the
      ghost writers and chief advisers on protest strategy.                 King conversations. They should exclude only those
         Martin Luther King .well understood with whom                      parts which would compromise the national security.
     he was dealing, because several pictures taken by the                     It is pathetic to see the people, both black and
      FBI show King meeting Communist operators at one                      white, misled by the publicity and propaganda sur-
      of the major United States airports instead of at his                 rounding M.L. King into believing him to be some-
      office or home.                                                      thing he was not. Such delusions are dangerous to the
         The FBI, according to Scott, ran into the King                     national security.
      connection while `investigating another national                         It is time for the public to be told the truth!
      security case. When King's name was mentioned                       It is difficult to imagine that Martin Luther Ring
      several times by persons under surveillance, it was               has indeed become a martyr to many. And such vener-
      decided to put the civil rights leader under close                ation  is paid him, not only by the blacks whose cause
      observation.                                                      he espoused, but also by the Church, including many
         So alarming was what was learned about King that *             who claim to be Reformed.
                                                                   -


                                          BOOK.REVIEWS'-.                                                              '-

EXPOSITION OF ISAIAH, VOL. I, by H.C. Leupold;                          anyone interested in studying Isaiah. 3)The language is
Baker  Bdak `House,,  .Grand  Rapids,  Mich.;  598 pp.,                 clear and simple, and the commentary is unencum-
$ 7 . 9 5 .                                                             bered by those references to the original which can be
   This is a popular-style, yet rather thorough commen-                 so annoying to the student who has no knowledge of
tary on the first thirty-nine chapters of the Prophecy                  Hebrew.
of Isaiah, written by the well-known Lutheran `Old                        .This recommendation, of course, does not imply
Testament scholar, Dr. H.C. Leupold, professor of Old                   blanket agreement  with3 everything written. This com-
Testament at Capital University Seminary, Columbus,                     mentary, like many, must be used with discretion. In
Ohio.                                                                   my opinion, for. example, the author's Lutheran bias
   To recommend this commentary there are  thefol-                      comes to the fore in his comments on Isaiah 6, vss.
lowing features: l)The author adopts wholeheartedly                     8-13; and I find myself in disagreement with state-
the conservative, not the liberal-critical, view of the                 ments like the following: "There is never anything of
human-writer of this prophecy. Although this volume                     a predestination-chara'cter involved in what befalls a
expounds only the  fir&main section of the prophecy,                    man. But he  .that hardens himself stubbornly and
chapters l-39, Dr. Leupold correctly` holds that `the                   repeatedly, as Pharaoh of `old did, finds a special.kind
entire prophecy is  of, Isaiah. This is  .important. It is              of judgment reserved for him and this judgment is that,
fundamentally impossible to hold to the so-called dual                  in addition to his  ,hardening of himself, he experiences
authorship theory and yet to hold a Scripturally  eor-                  a further hardening from the hands of God."
rect view of this prophecy or of prophecy in general.                     Nevertheless, `I-repeat  .that this is a helpful commen-
2)There.is  a. real attempt to expound the text; and, in                tary, neatly published,. and reasonably priced. If you
general, I believe the author's `attempt is successful.                 wish to add a commentary to your library, here is a
This commentary, therefore, can be very helpful to                      good one.                                                 H.C.H.


286                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



JUS  DI  VINUM,  THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY wlritten in the tradition of conservative Bible scholar-
AND THE DIVINE RIGHT OF CHURCH GOVERN- ship and is highly recommended to our ministers and
MENT; De J.R. Dewitt; J.H. Kok N. V., Karnpen, The teachers. It is also a valuable addition to our school
Netherlarzds; 261 pp.  (papeT), $14.75.                        libraries. Except for a minute quantity of Greek, it is
   The author, with whom I am personally acquainted, eminently readable and can be profitably studied by
is a minister in the Reformed Church in America.               a n y o n e .
Perhaps some of our readers remember him from his                 The life of the apostle Paul is very well done and
involvement in a struggle about the historicity of the         some of the power and grace of the apostle to the
first part of Genesis when he was a pastor in New Gentiles comes across in these pages. The introduction
Jersey,  - a struggle in which he took a very sound and to the epistles is also excellent and the book, while
staunch position. This book is Rev. Dewitt's doctoral discussing questipns of authorship, date and occasion,
thesis, written for the attainment of the degree of gives excellent summaries of the books.
doctor of theology from the Theological School of                 There is one -serious flaw in the book. The author
Kampen, The Netherlands. Incidentally, during his does not give a pioper place to the doctrine of inspira-
sojourn abroad Dr.  Dewitt spent considerable time in tion. In actual fact, it is not even mentioned in the
England, during  which time he also acted as assistant book. The result of it is that  mistaken.`notions creep
pastor at Grove Chapel, where the late Rev. Herman in. For example, the author avers that there were
Hoeksema was once the pulpit guest of Rev. Henry many other epistles written by  Paul (which is perhaps
Atherton's congregation.                                       correct), and that these epistles stand on a par with the
   This thesis is of a church-historical nature. It deals epistles included in the canon. This is highly doubtful.
with a little known aspect of the famous Westminster           But it leads the author  to state that our canon would
Assembly. This assembly is, of course, best remem- have been immeasurably enriched had these other
bered for its Westminster Confession of Faith. But it epistles been preserved. Along the same lines he over-
also struggled to establish a Reformed, or presbyterian, emphasizes the influence of Greek philosophy and
form of church government in England,  - a struggle in poetry upon the style and thought of the apostle and
which it was defeated by Parliament. Dr.  Dewitt in            explains the development of Paul's theology  along the
this thesis presents. a detailed account and analysis of lines of the apostle's personal genius and the general
this struggle. Usually these doctoral theses are rather guidance of the Spirit in the Church as that Spirit
dry reading. And while I would not recommend this operates even today. It is this same erroneous position
one for popular consumption,  I nevertheless found it          of the author which leads him to insist that all the
to be interestingly written and to be replete with             disciples of the Lord, even after Pentecost, had mis-
valuable information and insights, both on church his- taken notions about the time of the Lord's return and
torical and church political matters. The, student of that they had received the-se mistaken notions from the
church history  who.--wishes to study the Westminster Lord Himself Who was confused on the issue.
Assembly would do well to consult this book.                      The author presents Paul as being all but sinless after
   Interesting to me was also the leaflet containing 22 his conversion; and, in the light of this position, inter-
propositions, which, I take it, Dr.  Dewitt had to de-         prets Romans 7: 15-25 as referring to Paul before his
fend at his oral examination. My guess is that the conversion. There are, especially in the material on
defense of these propositions, especially in the present Colossians, strong hints that the author was a univer-
atmosphere in the Netherlands, might have made inter- salist.
esting listening.                                                 There is however, a great deal of valuable material in
   Dr.  Dewitt is to be congratulated on his thesis and the book which can be read with profit.
on the attainment of his degree of Doctor of Theology.                                                               H.H.
                                                     H.C.H.
                       ._                                      THE CASE FOR BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY, by E.
                                                               J.  Cavnell;  Eerdrnans  Publishing Co.,. 1969; 186 pp.,
PAUL AND. HIS EPISTLES, by D.A. Hayes;  Baker $ 3 . 9 5   (paper).
Book House, Grand Rapids; SO8 pp., $6.95.                         E. J.  Carnell, before his early death in 1967, has
   This volume is one of Baker's "Limited Editions been called the most articulate voice of evarigelical
Library". The. "Limited Editions Library" "consists of protestantism. He is indeed an evangelical; perhaps a
reprint editions of  scholariy works in. the field of neo-evangelical  - although such labels are deceptive.
Biblical Theology, History,, and Philosophical litera- This book substantiates the claim that he is very artic-
ture."       '                                                 u l a t e .                                     ._
   The author of the present volume lived in this                 The book is a  .colle&ion of writings which appeared
country during the last half of the last century.              in various church papers and in his books, for he was a
  The book  deals with the life of the apostle Paul and prolific writer and covers a wide field. In the book
is  an isogogical introduction to Paul's epistles. It is       such subjects are dealt with as the ecumenical  move-


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                                                   . .287
                                                                                                .

 ment (much of which he severely criticizes); -liberalism                                                     R ES.OL UTION OF SYMPATHY
 and modernism (the critique  .of which is very  worth-                                   "              `.                       .'
                                                                                 The -Ladies'" Society of the Randolph Protestant
 while reading), an extensive evaluation of  the  theOlOgy                    R f
                                                                               e ormed Church hereby expresses its sympathy to
 of Reinhold  Niebuhr, essays on ethics (dealing mostly                       two of its members, Mrs. Grace Fisher and Mrs. Jean
 with  social problems), a brief discussion of  KarlBarth                     Buteyn in the passing of their husband and father,
 (whom he faults for  ,his subjectivism), and many other                                                               MR: FRANK  J. FIS HER
 subjects of interest.                                                       whom the  Lords called  home'on February 24,  1970;at
   While there is  much.in the book with which we do                          the age of 50 years. May `the bereaved family. be
 not agree (any more than we agree with  .the whole                           comforted with that greatest assurance, that in  life.or
 theology of neo-evangelicalism), the book makes for in death, we are not our own, but belong to our
 interesting, enjoyable and stimulating reading. Whi1e faithful Saviour; Jesus Christ.                                                                                   . .  `.,
 Carnell  is:a very lucid writer, the nature of the subjects                                                                                        Mrs. Ted De Vries, Sec'y.
 treated make this book of value to those who are at                                                                    -
 home in theology and philosophy. Nevertheless some                                       .
 of the chapters are of  intere,st to anyone who enjoys                                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
 reading theological literature.
                                                                    H. H.        The Martha Ladies' Aid of the Huil Protestant Re-
                                                                             formed Church extends sincere sympathy to one  .of the
                                                                             members, Mrs. Frank  .Vogel, in the loss of her infant
 IN  REME&il?RANt?E  OF  ME,  b-y Alexander  Whyte:   wdnds0n
Bakev Book House,  1969;  IO5 pp., $1.50 (paper).                                                                     BRIAN DALE DE  KRDYF
   From  ,Baker's.  "Preaching Help Series" a  book of of Orange City,  Iowa,.who  .died shortly after birth.
eight  serrnons`on  themes related to the celebration of                         May the Lord comfort the sorrowing and grant
 the  Lor.d's Supper by the famous minister of St. them  peace   in  the  knotiledge   that  "All  things,,work
 George, Edinburgh.                                                          t o g e t h e r   f o r   g o o d   t o   t h e m   t h a t   l o v e   God:"
                                                                    H.H,  (Romans  8:28a).
                                                                                                                                             Mrs. Tim Kdoima, Vice Pres.
                                                                                                                        . .                         Mrs. Ted  Hoe,kstra, Sec'y.

                                                                                     .                                          NOTICE'" ! !
                                                                                The Northwest Iowa Protestant Reformed. Christian
                                                                             School is  inneed  .of a teacher for grades 1 to 4 for the
                                                                              1970-71 school year. Please send all inquiries to the
             ".                                                '
                           )]I  .L                                           Secretary, Mr. Henry Hoekstra, Hull, Iowa, 5'1239.
                                                     `
                                                          .

                                                     ,                                                         : L
                                                                                                                               A TTEiTION' ! !
                                                                                All past and present Office Bearers are' urged to
                                                                             attend the  next.`Office  Bearers' Conference?to be. held,
                                                                             the Lord willing, March  .31, 1970; at  8. P.M. -in the
                                                                             Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church.  .Rev. J.
                                                                             Kortering will  :speak- on the topic "In What' Way Can
                                                                             We. Promote Better Cooperation Between Our  Diac-
                                                                                                                                                             .
                                                                             onates?"                                                                              :

                                                                                                     A TTENTION ALL SECRETARIES!
                                                                                 Secretaries of  all  Synodical  Committees.~.are,  re-
                                                                             minded that, all material for the Synodical Agenda
                                                                             must be submitted to  the'tiildersigned on or before
                                                                             April 15 if it is to appear in the Agenda.                                                     "  .,  '
                                                                                                . .                                                                                  .
                                    _     :
               .'                                                                                               .~
                                                                                                     ._ .                                    ;.        .,
                                                                                                ,                                       I
                                                                                                                                . .
                                                                                          %           ,..,                                            Rev,  D: H. Kuiper, S.C.
                                                                             "                                                   . . .                .,;  .I314 North  Mair,S.t.
                   -...                        -                                                                                                                  Pella: Io.wa,15,@  19


I                                                                                                                      c

       288                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



                                     News From Our Churches

                                                March 1, 1970         We would like to thank Rev. R. Decker, of our
          A. congregational  .meeting of our church in  Doon, South Holland Church, for the following information.
       Iowa, was held on February 24 to choose a minister It's made t.6 order for a column of this nature, so we'll
       from the following trio: Rev. M. Schipper,  Rev. G. Van quote it practically verbatini. "Rev. Lubbers and his
       Baren, and Rev. J. Kortering. At the time of this wife came (to South Holland) for an evening to visit
       writing,. the Express  Was  s@l on its way to Grand their son and his wife. It just so happened that our
       Rapids with news concerriing the results. of that Men's and Ladies' societies had their annual combined
       meeting. We try, inour own belated little way, to keep meeting. Instead of having the program we originally
       you informed.                                               planned, (Rev. Decker) suggested that Rev. Lubbers
          A couple of our congregations request ope or two of speak on Jamaica and his recent mission work there.
       the young people to  write the servicemen of their Rev. Lubbers gladly consented, even though he had
       church each week. Our Southeast Church makes it a           not planned to speak. For a solid hour Rev. Lubbers
       family affair.. We read, "Will those families. whose last spoke very movirigly, and in his own unique way about
       naines be& with V and W write to our servicemen this the churches in Jamaica, the people, and the problems.
       month?"                                                     It is impossible to describe in words the effects of that
         Also' from Southeast's bulletin (February 8) L "The speech. The remark heard again and again was `I never
       pastor' will be ,wearing a clerical robe today for the first realized so much was involved in the work there' or `I
       time. We trust that you will agree  ,with him  that, in received a picture of Jamaica which I had not seen
       keeping with the dignity of his office as Minister of the before.' The audience was impressed with .the vastness
       Word, his appearance should formally be com- of the field and its problems. Indeed, we went away.
       mensurate with that dignity."                               knowing a bit more of what the Lord. said when he
         From the February "News Letter" of our Covenant told us: `The fields are ripe for harvest and the laborers
       High School we learn that our school has been the are few.' " Again, thank you very much, Rev. Decker.
       grateful recipient of some sizable @fts from supporters       The Adult Bible Class of our Loveland Congregation
       of Covenant. One of the school's Board members re- has been studying the subject of tongue-speaking. In
       ceived a gift from an unknown Jady who presented it the section of that church's bulletin called "Thoughts
       with  th'e remark, "You are the only Board member. for Contemplation", we fiid this quote  fro& St.
       who does not know me, and I want to remain anony- Augustine concerning that subject: "If then the wit-
       mous,." We are reminded of the words of Christ, "But ness of the presence of the Holy Ghost be not now
       when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what       given through these miracles (tongue-speaking), by
       thy right hand doeth.`?                                     .what is it given, by what does one get to know that he
         Remember that radio broadcast in New Jersey, sup-' has received the Holy Ghost? Let him question`his own
       ported by Southeast Church? Here's some information heart. If he love his brother, the Spirit of God dwelleth
       concerning it from that church's bulletin: "The radio in him."
       tower came down in a sleet storm recently which has           And this one,  yet,~ from Southeast's "Quiet
       impaired the coverage considerably. It will be several Thoughts: " "If you were arrested for being a Christian,
       weeks before this is restored'to normal. There are two      would there be enough evidence to convict you?"
      churches in the East that we know of which are publi-                                                         D.R.D.
       cizing our radio program and encouraging their people
       to listen in and support it. Newspaper advertisements
       have been placed in three strategically located areas
       publicizing our program, and more will follow. So far,
       all of this advertising has been paid for by individuals
       who are interested in us."
         Rev. Heys, as you know, is busy  pn the island of
     . Jamaica. In a recent letter to Rev. Lubbers, he writes,
      `"We are kept busy with the work and house and have
       no time to think of home and tb be lonely. . . . Thus
       far I have preached nine  times and have a rather full
       schedule ahead; but I enjoy that, and look forward to
       preaching engagements and to the .conference  on Tues-
       day with the ministers;" He also wrote  that he had,
       happily, received  .four letters that day. Was one of
       those yours?


