  STANDARD
          BEARER
F- A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE


       What is the implication of the doctrine of vicarious
     atonement and satisfaction? It means:  1.  That sin is guilt,
     liability to punishment, worthiness of God's, wrath and
     damnation. 2. That the justice of God must be satisfied if the
     sinner is ever to be received by God in favor, be freed from
     the power ~of death, and be made worthy of life. 3. That the
    justice of God can only be satisfied by a payment that is
     made for sin, and that this payment must consist in bearing
    the wrath of God and the punishment for sin by an act of
    perfect obedience in love. 4. That, while the sinner can never
    perform this act of perfect obedience and satisfy the justice
    of God, God ordained His only begotten Son to represent
    them as the Christ, and to perform the act of obedience unto
    and in death for them, in their stead. 5. That Christ did just
    this on the cross. He represented us. He was our Vicar. And
    because He  ,was legally before God our Vicar, He was
    able to take our sins, the guilt and responsibility for them,
    upon Himself. And He suffered and died in our stead. He
    fully paid for all our sins. This is simply an objective fact. All
    the guilt of sin of those for whom Christ died on the tree is
    for ever blotted out., Objectively, they whom Christ repre-
    sented on the cross are justified and worthy of eternal life.
    They can never be condemned.
                                           - Herman Hoeksema,
                                  The Triple  Knowledge, I,  540

                                      Volume L, Number 20, September 1, 19747


410                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


MEDITATION


                             The  Falling  Away  Of  Unbelievers

                                                  Rev. M. Schipper


             `(For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly
             gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God,
             and the powers  of the world to come, if  they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
             repentance; seeing they cruCify  to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an
             open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth
             forth herbs meet  for  them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that
             which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be
             burned.  "
                                                                                          Hebrews 6 14-S

  The perseverance of the saints!                                Unbelievers, according to God's intention, will fall
  One of, the most blessed truths of the Holy                 away !
Scriptures!                                                      But are not those described in the text believers?
  Contrary to the abominable philosophy of                    Indeed, they are, says the Arminian. He maintains
Arminianism, which teaches that one can be saved              that if there is any passage in Scripture that teaches
today, and fall from grace tomorrow, the Word of              the falling away of saints, this is it. And if you look at
God throughout proclaims the comforting truth that            this text superficially, so it may appear.
he who is once saved is saved forever.                           They of whom the writer of this epistle speaks are
  It is only the unbeliever who can fall away. And he         evidently those who live within the sphere of the
can do that only when he is born and reared within            Christian Church. They undoubtedly are born in the
the boundaries of the church institute and the                Christian home. They in their infancy receive on their
organic, historical development of the covenant as it         foreheads the sign of God's covenant in baptism.
is realized in the generations of the believers and their     They receive Christian instruction in the home, in the
seed.                                                         church, and possibly even in the Christian school.
                                                              They are catechized in the Christian religion, and are
  This is undoubtedly the gist of the truth that is set       thoroughly acquainted with all the doctrines of
forth in the text to which our attention is now               Scripture. When they come to the years of descretion,
directed.                                                     they make public profession of their faith. They
  The writer of this epistle would have his Christian         partake of all the rights and privileges of the church.
readers make progress in the doctrine of Christ. He           They sit at the table of communion and partake of
laments the fact that they had been dull of hearing;          the organic life of the church, attending societies for
that they were able only to drink milk, when by this          Bible study, participating in the Sunday School, first
time they ought to be eating strong meat. They                as students, then as teachers. They go by the name of
should be leaving the first principles, and going on to       saints. If they walk circumspectly enough, they are
perfection. But the latter is possible only if God            held in esteem, are honored among the membership.
permit. The writer of the epistle surely expected that        They may even be voted into office, becoming elders
God would bless his efforts in instructing the Hebrew         or deacons. If they' have exceptional talents, they
Christians, and that God would give the readers of the        may even be sent off to school to prepare themselves
epistle grace to respond to that instruction; but he          for the office of the ministry.
was also fully aware of the possibility that with                Such are they who are described in the text!
regard to some God would not permit. And he
explains this in our text, as is clearly indicated in the        They appear to, have all the ear-marks of believers!
little conjunction "for".                                        They were once enlightened. This must mean that


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  411


 they were enlightened with gospel knowledge.                  Yet, all the while, they are but mere natural men.
 Intellectually they understood the fundamental
 truths of Scripture. Remember, they were catechized           Simply unbelievers!
 from their youth in all the doctrines of the Word of          They are not regenerated, born again from above.
 God. They know about the doctrine of creation, and          They are not justified in the blood of Christ. They are
 perhaps were well able to defend it over against the        not cleansed by the blood of Christ of which the
 theory of evolution. They know about the doctrine           water of their baptism spoke. They have no grace,
 of the fall of man, and his total depravity. They know      and therefore have no saving faith. The love of God
 about the doctrine of Christ, His divinity, His            has not been shed abroad in their hearts. They have
 incarnation, His suffering, death, and resurrection,       never experienced the saving, efficacious calling of
 and ascension into heaven, and His promised return         the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word.
 upon the clouds of heaven. 0, yes, they are                They are dead in trespasses and sins, incapable of
 thoroughly indoctrinated with all the truths of Holy       doing any good, and inclined to all evil. Indeed, they
 Scripture. They are not pagans, who never heard the        are but mere natural men.
 gospel, the good news of salvation.                           And they fall away!
    They have tasted of the heavenly gift. This cannot         The translation makes it conditional, but the
 mean the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Giver of all the    original text states the fact: "and falling away," or
graces in Christ; for then surely they could never fall     better still, "are fallen away."
 away. But this heavenly gift undoubtedly refers to
Christ. They have met Him either personally in the             But how can one fall away who evidently never
flesh, or in the Word as it was preached to them.           stood? And we reply, surely they never stood in the
They know who He is, what He is, and what He does.          faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Had it
Remarkably the text does not say that this heavenly         been true that they stood in that faith, we repeat, it
gift tasted good to them, which you would expect if         would be utterly impossible that they should fall
they were believers.                                        away from it. Once one is established in that faith, he
    They were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.             remains standing. He cannot fall away. That does not
Again, it is certain that they did not partake of Him       mean that the true believer cannot and perhaps often
as children of God; for then they would be                  does waver in his faith. Every true believer readily
regenerated and saved. But they partook of Him in           confesses that he has his moments of doubts, and that
the sense of His power, whereby there were given            these doubts arise from his `infirmities. The apostle
wisdom and prudence in things natural, civil, and           Peter is a good example of not only the possibility of
religious. They partook of the Spirit of the office,        a believer's fall, but also of how awfully far he can
and had the experience of king Saul, upon whom the          fall. But, as in his case, so is there repentance, and
Spirit of God came to fulfill the duties of his office,     return. The believer can fall, but he cannot fall away.
but which Spirit was taken away from him and given          Only the unbeliever can, and when he dwells in close
to David, a man after God's heart. They were                proximity to the church and the means of grace does
empowered to work miracles, to prophesy, to speak           he always fall away. In that sphere the unbelievers for
in tongues. They were like Judas Iscariot, one of the       a time stand, that is, they participate in all the things
twelve, to whom Christ gave power against unclean           the church has to offer. They come regularly under
spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of        the means of grace, the preaching of the Word and
sickness, and all manner of disease, and who, no            the sacraments. The difference between them and the
doubt, returned, as the seventy later did, and said:        believers is that they have no grace. From that sphere
"Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through          therefore they eventually fall away, i.e., they turn
thy name."                                                  aside, and wander away. And their fall is devastating!
   They have tasted of the good word of God, and the          Mark how the text describes their fall. It is
powers of the world to come. That is, they were             impossible to renew them again unto repentance,
thoroughly acquainted with the contents of the Word         seeing that they are crucifying the Son of God afresh,
of God as that Word had been preached to them.              and exposing Him to public shame. Not, you
They may very well have told the faithful preacher          understand, on the cross once more; for Christ
after the service that he had a very good Reformed          suffered on the cross once for all; He cannot be
sermon. They may even have had a certain temporal           crucified again. But the text emphatically stresses the
pleasure as they heard in the preaching the promises        fact that they crucify Him to themselves. Which
of God concerning the future age. They understood           means that they openly repudiate Him, and ridicule
intellectually what constituted the hope of the             Him as He had been presented to them in the
Christian, so that they were capable of telling others      preaching of the Gospel as they had once clearly,
of it.                                                      intellectually come to know Him.


412                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


  But how could this happen? What could possibly           the church as it comes to manifestation in this world,
be the cause for this awful end?                           God causes the blessed Gospel to be proclaimed. That
  This is explained in the last part of the text: "For     Word, under the blessing of God, causes the believers
the earth which drinketh in the rain, etc."                to come to the saving knowledge of their salvation in
                                                           Christ; while, on the other hand, it brings to
  An illustration is taken from nature.                    manifestation the unbeliever who through the same
  It demonstrates how God also operates in the             Word is made ready for his destruction. This truth is
realm of grace.                                            abundantly demonstrated in Scripture, which
  God sends His rain in sufficient supply to make the      repeatedly declares that the Word of God is both a
green herb to grow for the one who tills the land; and     savor of life unto life as well as a savor of death unto
so there is bread for the sower and eater. However,        death. The emphasis does not fall on the power of
that same rain descends on the thorns and briers, and      man to accept or reject, as the proud doctrine of
causes them also to grow. The latter are not for           Arminianism would maintain; but on God, Who saves
human consumption, but to be rejected, pulled up,          His people and works out in them His saving grace;
and destroyed.                                             and rejects the ungodly, working out in them
                                                           reprobation, and that, too, by the very same means -
  What takes place all the time in creation also takes     the preaching of the Gospel.
place in the sphere of the church, where God causes
the Word of the Gospel to be preached. The same rain          So, indeed, would the writer of the epistle, under
which, on the one hand, caused the green herb to           the blessing of God, bring the saints from the first
grow for food to the sower, on the other hand, also        principles unto perfection. Where God does not bless
causes the obnoxious weeds to grow, which have no          with His saving grace the means, there must of divine
other end than to be destroyed. So in the sphere of        necessity be a falling away of unbelievers.



FEA TURE

                   The AACS And The Kingdom

                                                 ProJ: H. Hanko



  It can hardly be denied, I think, that our subject          In conjunction with this, the movement claims to
tonight is a subject of current issue. The Association     be reformational. However, we must be sure that we
for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship, better       understand what the movement means by the term
known as the AACS, has had, with its headquarters in       "reformational," for it is used by them ambiguously.
Toronto, a great deal of influence especially in this      When most people hear that the movement is
country and in Canada, although its influence is also      reformational, their thoughts almost automatically go
now being extended into lands across the sea. Its          back to the great Protestant Reformation of the 16th
influence has grown particularly through its efforts to    century, and they form the idea in their minds that
establish a university in Toronto and through the          the AACS claims for itself a position according to
flood of literature which flows forth from its presses     which it defends the great principles of the Protestant
in the form of books and pamphlets and speeches,           Reformation. Such, however, is not the case. When
and in the men who become imbued with AACS                 the AACS speaks of being reformational, it does not
principles and who? with vigor and assertiveness, go       have, at least in the first place, reference to the
forth to spread propaganda for this organization. It       Protestant Reformation. But it rather has reference to
has, in the course of its advance in the last decade or    the fact that through its labors it intends and hopes
so, taken over several colleges and Christian schools.     to reform all the present structures of society so that
It has been influential in the formation of a Christian    this present life and its present society may be
political action society. And its views have been          brought under the rule of Christ. Nevertheless their
adopted in the main by a Christian Labor Association       use of the word "reformational" has attracted many.
of Canada.                                                    And it has attracted many because of the fact that,


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 413



with the lack of sound Biblical and Reformed               UNDERLYING IDEAS
preaching in so many of the pulpits in our land, there        In order to understand what view the AACS holds
has been left a void, a spiritual void, in the lives of    concerning the kingdom, it is necessary to have some
many of God's people. And the AACS has rushed in           brief conception of the ideas which underlie their
to fill this void. The AACS in doing this, claims,         thinking in this respect. I have reference particularly
therefore, to be the answer to the humanism and            to the views which the AACS promotes concerning
modernism and liberalism which afflicts our age, and       the idea of the Word of God; and in connection with
which has been the downfall of so many American            that, concerning the idea of the Word of God as it
and Canadian denominations. The AACS sets itself up        stands in relationship to the various spheres of
therefore, as being the guiding star in the firmament      sovereignty in life. This is, I think, an integral part of
of the ecclesiastical skies; and it tells us that,         their whole conception of their calling and task in
following that star, we will be led through the barren     today's world.
wastelands of present-dayecclesiasticallifein
America and in Canada, and we will be led through            When those who promote AACS thoughts speak of
the swirling storms of doctrinal and ecclesiastical        the Word of God, they speak of the Word of God in a
controversy which plague our present age.                  three-fold and sometimes a four-fold sense. They
                                                           speak of the Word of God in the first place as being
   It is impossible for me tonight to go into a            Christ. They call that particular aspect of the Word of
thorough and complete analysis of the entire system        God the Incarnate Word. In the second place, they
of AACS thinking. The movement is founded on a             speak also of the Word of God in the Scriptures. That
philosophy: a philosophy which originated in               Word of God they call the Inscripturated Word. In
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the Free' University        the third place, they speak of the Word of God in the
in particular, and which is a product of the thinking      creation. And this is usually called the Cosmonomic
of Profs. Vollenhoven and Dooyeweerd. To analyze           law idea because it is the Word of God in creation as
the philosophy which underlies this movement would         it is revealed in law spheres. That, in AACS thinking,
require a man with more expertise in philosophy than       is the most important Word of God of all. Some
I have, and would consume in itself more than one          thinkers add yet a fourth Word of God which they
lecture of an hour's length. Besides that, the AACS is     call the kerygmatic Word, by which they simply mean
also an entire world and life view which claims to         the Word of God as it is preached. The difficulty with
encompass in its thinking all that the child of God        this conception of the Word of God is that, as far as I
needs to know to live in the whole of his life             know from my reading of their literature, there is
according to the principles which God `sets forth.         very little, if any, effort put forth to define with
That, too, would require a separate lecture to discuss     precision and clarity the relationships in which these
in all its details.                                        very aspects of the Word of God stand to one
                                                           another. And one gets the impression from reading
   I have chosen, therefore, to concentrate tonight on     their literature that in their discussion of the Word of
one aspect of the AACS thinking, and that is their         God, they compartmentalize that Word. They
views of the kingdom. It seems to me that this lies at     compartmentalize that Word to such an extent that,
the very heart of their thinking. I do not want to         although they speak of the Word in these different
leave the impression with you tonight, however, that       senses, they maintain that each word of God in its
when the AACS speaks of the kingdom that they              own sense stands independent from and unrelated to
have produced in their writings or in their speeches a     the other Words of God.
clear definition of what the kingdom is. They have
not done this. Others have criticized them for this. I       That becomes especially evident when they apply
concur in that criticism. They have been negligent in      their conception of the Word of God to what they
the extreme when they speak almost continuously of         call the spheres of sovereignty in life. The life of man
the kingdom, but when they fail in all they produce        is divided into various spheres: spheres of authority.
to give a clear and decisive definition of what they       One of these spheres is the church. Another sphere is
mean by the kingdom of which they speak so much.           the home. Yet another sphere is the school. Another
There is, however, a certain view of the kingdom           sphere is economic relationships. Another sphere is
implicit in their thinking, and a certain view of the      political relationships. And yet another sphere is
kingdom which is implied in all the causes which they      societal relationships. However, when they discuss the
promote. It is my intention to examine particularly        relationship of the Word of God to these various
that aspect of the question tonight, and that will give    spheres of sovereignty or spheres of authority in life
me an opportunity, at least in part, also to be            they apply a particular Word of God to a particular
somewhat positive and to make a few comments               sphere. For example, the Word of God in the
about the Scriptural conception of the kingporn.           Scriptures, the Inscripturated Word of God as it is


414                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


called, applies especially and primarily, and indeed,         not, what they call, propositional revelation. They
almost exclusively to the sphere of the church. We            mean by that that the Scriptures contain no objective
must be sure that we understand this. It is true that         statements of truth with respect to doctrine and with
some of their writings seem to suggest here and there         respect to morals. I have before me a quotation which
that the Word of God as it is given to us in the              is taken from the book "Understanding the
Scriptures is also applicable to other spheres of life, as    Scriptures," which was co-authored by Drs. De Graaf
for example, Christian labor relations and Christian          and Sierveld. That quotation reads as follows:
schools, etc. But if the Word of God as it is in the                  "What we have to avoid at all costs if Biblical
Scriptures is at all applicable to other spheres of life,         living is to be meaningful living is, on the one hand,
that is, spheres other than the church, it is applicable          to underline the f%ll authority of the Bible, and, on
to these spheres only in an indirect fashion. It is not           the other hand, to reduce the Word of God to a set of
immediately relevant for the life of the child of God             truths, a collection' of infallible propositions. The
as he lives in the spheres of life other than that of the         Bible is not to be read as a collection of propositional
church. And so they take the position that the Word               statements about God and man that we can memorize
of God as it is contained in the Scriptures is given              and master. Neither does it contain general truths
creedal form in the historic creeds of the Protestant             that we could possibly consider apart from their
Reformation. But these creeds, which express in a                 meaning for our lives."
systematic fashion the Word of God which is in the              It is plain from that quotation that the thinkers of
Scriptures, are creeds which are solely the possession        this movement do not want the Scriptures as
of the church. They are relevant for the church only.         objective revelation: objective revelation concerning
They have significance for the church only. They              the truth as it is in God and objective revelation
have no relevance and no significance for the life of         concerning the law of God which He gives as the rule
the child of God in other spheres in'which he walks.          for the conduct of man. This position is substantiated
If you ask what Word of God is particularly                   by other of their writings. It means that the thinkers
applicable to these other spheres of life, the answer         of the AACS reject the authority of Scripture, at least
which is given is this: the Word of God which is              in the sense in which the truth concerning the
applicable in these other spheres is the creational           authority of Scripture has been held by the Church
Word, that is, the Word of God which is in the                beginning with the great reformers, Martin Luther
creation about us, which is the Cosmonomic law idea.          and John Calvin. And it stands to reason that, with
That Word of God must be discovered independently             the rejection of the authority of the Scriptures in the
from the Scriptures by means of philosophy, by                sense in which the Reformers spoke of it and in the
means of the development of a scientific and                  sense in which our creeds speak of it, they reject also
Christian philosophy. Only that Word is applicable            the doctrine of Scripture's infallible inspiration. That
and relevant and significant for the other spheres of         is why Sierveld and De Graaf can write, "we may not
authority in which the Christian walks. And as that           reduce the Word of God to a collection of infallible
Word of God is discovered through the efforts of              propositions." They repudiate the notion of an
Christian philosophers and Christian thinkers, that           infallible Scripture.
Word of God must also be given creedal form; and in             The second corollary which follows from their
giving to that Word of God creedal form, there must be        view of the Word of God has to do with their
drawn up separate creeds: a creed for the school, a           conception of the church. In their thinking they
creed for labor relationships and  `the sphere of             distinguish between Church, with a capital "`C", and
economics, a creed for politics, and perhaps even a           church with a small "3'. Church with a capital "C" is
creed for the home; which creed will in every case            the word which they use to denote the Church as the
express not the Word of God as it appears in the              Body of Christ; or, as some of them put it, the
Scriptures, but will express the Word of God as it is         Church as the Body of Christ which engages in social
discovered by cosmonomic philosophers and as it is            action. Church with a small "c", on the other hand,
developed by Christian philosophy.                            refers particularly to the institute of the church; that
  From that basic position there follow several               is, the church as she is called upon to preach the
important corollaries. In the first place, it stands to       gospel, to administer the sacraments, and to exercise
reason, of course, that a view such as this is going to       the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Concerning the
imply of necessity a particular view of Holy                  church with the small "c" they have very little to say.
Scripture. And it is characteristic, therefore, of AACS       As a matter of fact, the church with a small "c", the
thinkers that the view which they take of Scripture is        church as institute, does not play a major role at all in
less than that view of Scripture which has                    their thinking or in their world and life view. As a
traditionally been held in the Reformed Churches              matter of fact, they tend to de-emphasize the church
from the time of the Reformation. Basic to that view          as institute to such an extent that many of their
of Scripture is the notion that the Scriptures contain        followers come to the point where they openly


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                             415


despise the church institute and show nothing for it          entirely new creed must. be written for the school, a
but contempt. That follows from the fact that the             creed which does not include the teachings of the
church institute is, in their thinking, of one                Scriptures, but a creed which spells out in detail the
importance only. The church institute is, in their way        discovery of philosophers who have studied the
`of thinking, merely the organization which is given          creation ordinances and who have discovered the
the task to inspire certain individuals which come            Word of God in creation as it applies particularly to
under its influence to engage in Christian communal           the sphere of education.
social action. That is all the purpose the church as
institute has. In the book, The Challenge Of The Age,           There is a basic error involved here. I said a few
written by Dr. Hendrik Hart, who teaches philosophy           moments ago that the AACS has never been noted for
at Toronto, we read as follows:                               defining with clarity and precision the relation that
       "yearning to live Biblically in a secular world        exists between, for example, the Word of God in the
    means learning to give full and accurate support to       Scriptures and the Word of God in the creation
    Christian education, Christian political action,          ordinance. That becomes especially apparent here.
    Christian labor activity, Christian everything, and       The Word of God is compartmentalized. And the
    learning to understand the church institute as the        Scriptures are handed to the church. And those who
    organization which is called upon to promote such         engage in Christian education are told: never mind
    support concretely and authoritatively in the name of     the Scriptures. They don't pertain to this area of life.
    Christ."                                                  What pertains to this area of life is an entirely
That is the sole calling of the institute: to promote         different Word of God: the Word of God which is in
such support, that is, support for Christian communal         creation, the Word of God which can be discovered
social action, concretely and authoratively in the            only by trained scientific philosophers. That Word of
name of Christ.                                               God must be explicated. That Word of God must be
  It is no wonder then that some men who follow               put in creedal form. That will then become the basis
this philosophy go so far as to say that the church has       for the Christian School.
really fulfilled her calling in life; she has outgrown her      They forget, or conveniently ignore, or deny the
task. The church has reached the point in the history         fact that while it is indeed true that the Scriptures do
of the world and in the development of Christian              speak of the fact that the creation was formed by the
thought where she has really served her purpose; and          Word of God, and that indeed the creation continues
it would not at all be a scandal or a disaster of any         to exist by the Word of God, that nevertheless sin
kind if the church as institute would simply quietly          came into the world. And the effects of sin were, in
pull up its stakes and fold its tent and steal away. It       the first place, that the Word of God in creation was
would not be missed very much. Hendrik Hart writes            muffled as it were, by the terrible word of the curse
in this same book,, The Challenge Of The Age: "The            as it was pronounced upon the creation by God in
exercise of the faith in the home is of extreme               Paradise. And, in the second place, the entrance of sin
importance and perahps the only means of recovering           into the world had the effect of blinding man so
a life close to the Scriptures." He specifically              completely with spiritual blindness, that he is totally
repudiates the position that it is in the church as           incapable of seeing the Word of God in the creation
institute, in the preaching of the Word of God and in         any longer. It is for that reason that the Lord God
the administration of the sacraments, that a life can         gave to His church and to His people the Scriptures.
be recovered which is close to the Scriptures. The            And He gave to His people the operation of His Spirit
home, he says, can.very well serve that purpose, and          in their hearts whereby their eyes are opened, and
perhaps even better than the church is doing it today.        whereby they are given the spiritual powers to see
  In the third place, the idea of the AACS has                and understand and believe the Scriptures. And then,
important implications and ramifications for                  only through the Word of God in Scripture, is it
Christian covenantal instruction. It is here                  possible even to see the Word of God in creation.
particularly that the thinking of the AACS takes an           Calvin, already, as many of `you know, in his
ominous turn. There are two ideas especially which            "Institutes of the Christian Religion," talked about
are promoted emphatically by AACS thinkers. The               the fact, in a well-known expression, that the
first idea is that the Scriptures are irrelevant, or at       Scriptures are the spectacles which must be worn if
best, indirectly relevant for the Christian school. The       one is to see in any respect the Word of God in the
Christian school must not be based `upon the                  creation. For then, with the spectacles of the
Scriptures. The Christian school must not be based on         Scriptures, one does not see in the creation the Word
the historical Christian creeds. The creeds' are of no        of God which is independent of the Scriptures. Oh,
value, of no worth, of no significance for the school.        no! But he sees through the spectacles of the
The school must be based on the Word of God in the            Scriptures a Word of God that is related to the
creation as it is discovered by philosophers. And an          Scriptures, and dependent upon the Scriptures, and


416                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


substantiated by the Scriptures, so that the two                         "From that it follows that learning to live
together, with the Scriptures as our spectacles, give us              Biblically in our age is first of all, learning to live in
the revelation of God in the face of our Lord Jesus                   terms of organized Christian action. Those who have
Christ as the God of our salvation. That is why                       been confronted with this and still keep stressing the
believing parents have always insisted that the                       principle of the primary need for individualistic
Scriptures and the historic reformed creeds must be                   witness within the secular structures, with
the basis of all Christian instruction.                               reformational responsibility toward the latter, grieve
                                                                      the Holy Spirit and deny the power of the kingdom
  In the second place, the following from what I                      of this world."
have just said, the AACS denies that Christian                    In another place:
covenantal schools are parental schools. There has                       "Now Calvinism has been the first movement of
been an attempt to draw up a creed which can serve                   which we can say with some historical justification
as the basis for Christian education which is an                      that it has seen the universal invitation from the
explication of the creational Word. This is entitled                  gospel. We may say that in the so-called Kuyiperian
"Schools in the Christian Communityf'. It is authored                 tradition the recreative power of Christ has made a
by James H. Olthuis and Bernard Zylstra. In it you                    major breakthrough in western civilization with
will find the following:                                              respect to understanding man's cultural mandate. But
          "It is our conviction that the school as we envisage        that movement also failed. To gain a real foothold in
                                                                      western culture which is completely overpowered by
       it today lies outside the parent's authority in the            the secular grip of humanism takes, I would think,
       home. Parents execute that responsibility by sending           more time than barely 100 years."
       the children to a school, in which educational
       authority is exercised by the team of teachers. From       Now the thrust of the quotation is this: that for all of
       this vantage point the authority of the parents does       the two thousand years of its history, the church of
       not reach into the educational process of the              the New Dispensation has failed to understand her
       schools."                                                  calling. Dr. Abraham Kuyper in the Netherlands at
What must parents do? Well, it is left to them to                 the turn of the century caught a glimpse of it. He was
decide, according to this paper, when the child is too            the first to make a major breakthrough in the
sick to attend school, what clothes it should wear,               understanding of man's cultural mandate. But his
whether corporal punishment is to be allowed, in what             movement also failed. It is left therefore, to
context homework is to be done, etc. That is all.                 reformational thinkers, to Dooyeweerdian
They envisage schools which are not parental, but                 philosophers, to men imbibed with the spirit of the
which are under the authority of teachers who are                 teaching of the AACS, to define for the church at this
experts in their field; and who are, of course, fully             late stage in the New Testament history of the church
embued with cosmonomic philosophy, and who teach                  what the church's calling really is. St. Augustine
children in their fields as experts, as trained                   didn't know; Martin Luther didn't know; John Calvin
pedagogues, as an elite, in the Word of God as we find            didn't know; nor did the church in any of the past
it in the creation, not the Word of God as it is in the           centuries know. It is only today, just a few short
Scriptures. That is devastating. If it ever happens to a          years before the Lord comes back, that suddenly the
Christian school system that that' philosophy is                  church has discovered what her calling really is. There
adopted, that is the end of Christian covenantal                  is a towering arrogance about that, that makes one
education. We believe that the Scriptures enjoin us in            gasp, a conceit underlying that type of thinking
many different ways and in many different passages                which is totally at odds with the Scripture's
that parents, and parents alone, are responsible before           injunction to defend the truth of the Scriptures with
God for the education and instruction of their                    meekness and with fear. There is slander of the
children' as based upon the covenant of grace; and                church of the past, of our fathers who sealed their
that that instruction which parents are enjoined to               testimony with their blood, which no conscientious
give to their children is instruction which is always             and dedicated child of God would ever dare to take
the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of                   upon his lips.
wisdom. That fear of the Lord is in the infallibly                CONCEPTION OF THE KINGDOM
inspired and authoritative Scripture.                               All this forms the basis for their conception of the
  In the fourth place, the Church with a cpaital "C"              kingdom, although, I say again, in the thinking of the
is the important thing. The Church as the body of                 AACS there has never been, so far as I know, an
Christ transcends denominational and congregational               attempt made to  define clearly and with precision
lines. But the Church as the body of Christ is the                what the idea of the kingdom is. Nevertheless, it can
Church particularly which engages in Christian                    be proved from their writings and it can be shown as
communal social action. I quote again from Hendrik                being implicit in their teachings that their view of the
Hart's book:                                                      kingdom is fundamentally post-millennial:


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           417


   There have been in the church two branches of                             doctrinal differences between liberal and conservative
post-millenialism. The one branch is what we can                             post-millennialism, they share this in common: that
probably call the liberal type of post-millennialism.                        the kingdom of Christ is an earthly kingdom and that
This type of post-millennialism is found in practically                      the kingdom of Christ will be realized here on this
all of the modern and liberal churches of America and                        present earth. That they share.
o f   E u r o p e   t o d a y . I t   i s   a   l i b e r a l i s m   o f       That is also AACS thinking. I have before me, for
post-millennial&m which is based upon a confession                           example, a quotation which is taken from a speech
of a universal fatherhood of God and a universal                             given by Dr. McIntrye - not Dr. Carl McIntyre from
brotherhood of man. It is a post-millennial&m which                          Collinswood, N.J.  - but Dr. McIntyre who was
denies in effect all the fundamental doctrines of the                        formerly of Trinity College in Palos Heights, Illinois,
Scriptures, including the infallibility of the                               and who is now teaching in Toronto. The title of his
Scriptures, the miracles, the virgin birth, the bodily                       speech is "The Forgotten Art of World Shaking". He
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And in                           writes :
conjunction with the denial of these miracles, it
denies also the second coming of Christ. It therefore                               "Our association works for nothing less than the
envisions the realization of the kingdom of Christ as                            reformation of learning and in  truth  of North
                                                                                 American culture. As the Lord grants, the ARSS
something which will take place in this present world.                            [which is the former name of the AACS, HH]
And it will take place in this present world by a                                advanced education will send throughout all of North
means of a process of evolution; not by biological                               America the world-shakers and history-makers in
evolution necessarily, although biological evolution is                          every facet of life, Christian men and women who
often taught by these men; but by a process of                                   will turn the world upside down for the Lord God."
economic and social and political and societal                                  That is post-millennialism. It is a very wrong
evolution, whereby society and its structures and its                        conception of the kingdom of Christ. It is  .a wrong
institutions, through a gradual process of evolving,                         conception of the kingdom of Christ because it
become better and better, more and more Christian,                           identifies the kingdom of Christ with this present
until finally all the world becomes indeed a Christian                       world, with its institutions and its structures. It is an
world. It is that kind of a postmillennialism which                          earthly conception of the kingdom. But it is contrary
forms the basis of the call today to get out of the                          to the whole of the Scriptures. It is an evil conception
pews in the church and to get into the market places                         of the kingdom because it falls into the very real
and into the streets. Never mind the preaching, never                        danger of identifying the kingdom of Christ with the
mind the sacraments, never mind arguing and                                  kingdom of Antichrist. We know from Scripture that
debating about abstruse theological points. Get with                         the kingdom of Antichrist, from a worldly point of
it in society; get with it in human race relationships;                      view, will be a very beautiful and delightful kingdom
get with it in solving the problems of poverty; get                          for those who worship the beast. It will be a kingdom
with it in doing all in your power to bring peace upon                       in which Christianity is promulgated, for antichrist
this earth, in solving the political problems on the                         will set himself up, Paul tells us in Thessalonians, in
international frontier. That is the calling of the                           the temple of God, claiming that he is God. It will be
Christian, because only in that way will the kingdom                         a very religious kingdom. When those who seek the
be realized. You know how common that is in                                  kingdom of Christ in this world develop that notion
today's thinking.                                                            they fall into the very serious danger of identifying
   There is also a more conservative branch of                               the kingdom of Christ with the kingdom of the
post-millennialism, a conservative post-millennialism                        Antichrist. Further, it holds before the eyes of the
which does not deny the fundamentals of the                                  people of the kingdom of God a false hope. It holds
Reformed faith, and as a matter of fact, even                                before the eyes of the people of God a very beautiful,
sometimes is fundamentalistic in its belief. Those that                      and a very glorious, and a very happy future. It does
teach this post-millennialism hold that, under the                           not speak of persecution that is coming. It does not
influence and by means of the impact of the Christian                        speak of the fact that those who will not bow before
church, gradually this world will become                                     the image of the beast will be forced to lay down
Christianized to the extent that the Christians will be                      their lives. It does not speak of the fact that the
in the majority and to the extent that the Christians                        church will be persecuted to such an extent that the
will have taken over society's structures and                                saints of God will have to flee to the mountains for
institutions so that they are enabled by means of this                       safety. Oh, no! It holds before the eyes of the people
to realize the kingdom of Christ here upon earth. And                        of God a bright future, a future of hope, a future
when that kingdom of Christ is realized here upon                            filled with the optimism that Christianity will
earth and after it endures for a bit, the Lord Jesus                         someday prevail. And if that sort of notion captures
Christ Himself will come back from heaven to take                            the hearts of God's people, God's people will forget
the kingdom unto Himself. Whatever may be the                                to pray "Thy kingdom come", "Come Lord Jesus,


418                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


y e a co me quickly." Post-millennialism is                 disciples: the kingdom  cometh not by observation;
anti-Scripture and is spiritually dangerous.                the kingdom is within you. It is the sovereign sway of
Nevertheless, that is the conception of the kingdom         the sceptre of the Lord Christ in the hearts of His
as promoted by AACS. And it follows from the                people whereby He rules sovereignly over them, and
whole conception of the AACS that the calling, the          directs their lives as the citizens of His kingdom and
sole calling of the people of God is to engage in           subjects of Him who bow before Him and worship
Christian communal social action, in order that the         Him as Lord Christ. It is a kingdom, therefore, which
world with its institutions and structures may be won       is realized only in the new heavens and in the new
for Christ, and that Christ may, in this present world,     earth. Only then, when Christ comes again to destroy
be Lord of all.                                             forever the kingdoms of this world, only then when
  The Scriptures present quite a different view of the      Christ, as the Rock cut without hands, destroys the
kingdom. The Scriptures emphasize throughout that           image of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar and scatters it
the kingdom is spiritual and heavenly. God, the             as the dust of the ground will the everlasting kingdom
Author of that kingdom, conceived of it in His              of righteousness in which Christ is King be
eternal and unchangable counsel. He conceived of it         established. Then the elect shall reign with Christ as
as the heavenly and spiritual kingdom where Christ,         princes, world without end. But do not look for that
His own Son, the First Begotton from the dead, the          kingdom here in the world; it is not here.
Prince of the Kings of the world, the One in Whom             It is precisely because that kingdom of heaven is
dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, will          spiritual that the calling of the child of God as a
reign as King, as the full expression of the revelation     citizen of that kingdom is so clearly defined. It is not
of the glory of God. That kingdom is so heavenly that       to engage in Christian communal social action.
the citizens of that kingdom go to it only at the             I have repeatedly asked leaders of this movement
moment of death. They inherit that kingdom fully in         in personal conversation to quote me one text in
all its perfection and glory only when Christ comes         Scripture, just one, which enjoins the child of God to
again upon the clouds of heaven to make a new               engage in Christian communal social action. To this
heavens and a new earth and to establish His kingdom        date no one has ever quoted to me such a text. That is
forever and ever. It is a kingdom therefore, which is       perhaps precisely the reason why the AACS bases its
established in the blood of the cross. It is not            philosophy, not upon the Scriptures, but upon the
established by reformational thinking. It is not            creational Word.
established by groups of elite pedagogues who
understand the Cosmonomic law idea. It is not                  I find something entirely different in the
established by Christian communal social action. It is      Scriptures. I find in the Scriptures the teaching that
established in the blood of the cross. And it is            the structures and institutions of society are to be
established in the blood of the cross because in the        under the control of powers of sin almost always in
first place, there Christ grappled with and fought all      the history of the world; that the comer of the world
the powers of darkness who seek to establish the            that the children of God historically occupy in the
kingdom of darkness where God is deposed from His           midst of this creation is a very small corner; that the
throne. Paul speaks of that in the chapter our              church of God, in the words of Isaiah in Isaiah I, is
chairman read. (Col. 2) There on the cross Christ           never very much more than a hut in a garden of
crushed the head of the serpent, and defeated forever       cucumbers, and besieged city, and a very small
his efforts to establish his earthly kingdom. But at the    remnant; and that the creation, the powers of
same time on that cross Christ spilled His own              creation, the inventions of the creation, and the
precious blood as the foundation for the kingdom of         institutions and structures of society are in the hands
heaven because that kingdom of heaven is a kingdom          of the powers of sin, in the hands of the powers of
of the righteousness of God. And  .it is forever a          darkness. That does not mean that this creation is not
kingdom of righteousness, the righteousness which is        God's. Oh, it is. And indeed it is so much God's that
realized only through the blood of Calvary. Those           even while wicked men claim to themselves all this
who belong to that kingdom are the elect. And they          creation and its institutions and society structures to
are not those who enter the kingdom because they            use them in the service of sin, Christ sits on His
are convinced of the truth.of some creational Word or       throne and rules over them, too, sovereignly, so that
Cosmonomic law idea. There are made citizens of the         they cannot do a thing without His will. That is the
kingdom by a transforming wonder of-grace; as Paul          force of Psalm 2, is it not? The heathen raged and the
speaks of it in another part of Colossians: they are        people imagined a vain thing and the kings of the
translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the          earth set themselves against the Lord and against His
kingdom of God's dear Son. That takes place by a            anointed. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh,
wonder of grace according to which the kingdom is           the Lord shall have them in derision! I have set my
established within their hearts. Jesus warns His            king upon my holy hill of Zion! And so much it is


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  419



true that the Lord Christ rules over all ungodly men         thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God
and over all the forces of darkness that He rules in         endures grief, suffering wrongfully." Do not organize
such a way that in their very opposition to Him and          a Christian Labor Association. Live as a citizen of the
in their effort to establish the very kingdom of the         kingdom of heaven, because that is where your
antichrist they serve the purpose of Christ and of           citizenship is.
God, and serve the establishment of the everlasting
kingdom of heaven.                                              The Sermon on the Mount has been called the
  And so the Scriptures take quite a different view of       consitution  of the kingdom of heaven. Find for me, if
the Christian and his calling. If you read the               you can, in the whole of the sermon on the mount in
Scriptures and if the Scriptures penetrate into the          Matthew 5, 6, and 7, one smallest indication that it is
depth of your soul there is one fact above all that          the calling of the church to engage in Christian
cannot help but impress you and sear itself upon your        communal social action. There is none.
conscience: the Word of God simply does not care
about what type of structures and institutions that             At the very heart of the Christian's calling, on the
are current in society. The soldiers from the army of        basis of all that we have said lies this truth: the
Imperial Rome came to John the Baptist: mind you,            Christian as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven is a
soldiers of Rome's army; the legions that had engaged        pilgrim and a stranger in the earth.  That  the
in world conquest; the legions that were responsible         Scriptures talk about again and again and again. He is
for the slaughter of untold thousands; the legions that      a pilgrim in a foreign land; he is a stranger in a place
had put the whole known world under the thumb of             that is not his home. His home is in heaven. And he is
Imperial Rome. They came to John with questions.             a stranger because the powers of darkness rule here in
What must we do? As citizens of the kingdom of               the world. All is under the sovereign control of Jesus
heaven? Did John tell them to become conscientious           Christ. But he does not set his heart on this world,
objectors? Get out of the army? Oh, no! Just stay in         and its institutions, and on this world's betterment,
the army, but do violence to no man neither accuse           and on making this world the kingdom of Christ. Oh,
any falsely and be content with your wages. They             no! He knows that his Lord and his Christ so rules
could be citizens of the kingdom of heaven even in           over ungodly men that their very efforts to establish
the army of Imperial Rome. The Christians of Peter's         the kingdom of darkness must serve the purpose of
day lived in a time when the Emperor of Rome set             the realization of the kingdom of heaven. And so, he
himself up on the throne of God, mind you! He                is a pilgrim; he carries his tent on his back; and each
claimed divinity for himself. What was Peter's advice        night he sets up that tent and he says: "I tarry but a
to the Christians? Organize a separate, group of             night, for I'm a pilgrim here in my Father's world."
political parties? Engage in violent revolution to           And when the morning dawns, with a prayer on his
overthrow such a tyrannical dictator? Who even               lips, he pulls up his stakes, his spiritual stakes of his
persecutes .the church and makes the streets of Rome         spiritual tent, and he packs it on his back and
run red with the blood of martyrs? Oh, no! "Submit           continues his pilgrimage, for he is going to the
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's          destination of his Father's house and of the kingdom
sake, whether it be to the king as supreme or unto           of his Lord Who rules over his life.
governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the
punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them
that do well, for so is the will of God." And it does not      And out of the principle of that pilgrimage arises
happen to make any difference, Scripture says,               his calling in the midst of the world. That calling is
whether the current form of government is a                  this: in the first place to testify in all his life,
monarchy, or a tyranny, or an oligarchy, or a                overagainst the powers of darkness, of the truth of
democracy, of whatever sort. And it does not make            the Word of God. That calling is in the second place,
any difference to you, because you are citizens of the       to seek the kingdom of heaven and, concretely and
kingdom of heaven. You must live in relationship to          specifically that means to seek the kingdom of heaven
every form of government, whatever it may be, as a           as it is manifested here on the earth in the church.
citizen of the kingdom of heaven.                            There you have the manifestation of the kingdom of
                                                             heaven, the church - where the gospel is preached.
  Mind you, that is even true of the institution of          Because it is through the instrumentality of that
slavery. The Scriptures are not even concerned about         church that the saints of the kingdom are called out
whether slavery happens to be the current societal           of darkness into light. It is in the bosom of that
institution. And Peter admonishes those who are              church that the citizens of the kingdom are nourished
citizens of the kingdom of heaven: "Slaves be subject        and fed. It is by means of the preaching that
to your masters with all fear, not only to the good          emanates from that church that the people of God
and gentle but also to the forward, for  this is             are encouraged to pursue their pilgrim's pathway.


420                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


And it is always in that church that is held before the        was said of the patriarchs, and as that is recorded for
eyes of the child of God, the vision of his eternal            us in Hebrews 11: "These all died in faith, not having
destination where someday he shall dwell in the                received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
house of his Father. That church is the center of it.          and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,
That church is the heart. That church is the core of           and confessed that they were pilgrims and strangers
his life, as long as that church preaches faithfully the       on the earth. And they that say such things declare
truth of the Scriptures.                                       plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they
  The AACS wants to take from us the most                      had been mindful of that country from whence they
precious things which we have: our Scriptures, our             came out, they might have had opportunity to have
church, and our covenantal Christian schools; in the           returned. But now they desire a better country, that
name of the kingdom here in the world. Do not let             is, an heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be
that happen.                                                   called their God. For He hath prepared  for them  a
  May it be said of the people of God today too, as it         c i t y . "




                The Standard Bearer
                            In Retrospect

                                                  Rev. G. Van Buren


            So often one' can look back in amazement at the lack of faith he himself has exhibited
         when subsequently God shows how that He provides even more than we had hoped or asked.
         So it was with Covenant Christian High School in Grand Rapids. Many doubted that such a
         project could be realized. It Icost too much money. Not enough of our families were behind
         it. No ideal central location could be found . . . etc. . . . etc. But sooner than most expected,
         and to a degree greater than any expected, God provided. The school is a reality and
         experiences the blessing of our covenant God. And we Protestant Reformed families in the
         greater Grand Rapids area can more properly than ever before see to the instruction of our
        children according to the "aforesaid" doctrines.
            We were reminded of our duty in this respect and pointed to our responsibility in an
         interesting article found  in, the  Standard Bearer  of August 1, 1959. The article is still
         pertinent. And it reminds us'of the proper course we must yet follow by God's grace in order
         to instruct covenant children aright.


                            "Our Own High School - A Necessity"
                                                    Rev. H. Hanko

  I have been asked to write an article for our                inform you of some of their efforts. It was shortly
Standard Bearer on the subject of our own Protestant           after the first of the year that a committee
Reformed Christian High School. This'request did not           voluntarily constituted itself in order to work on this
come to me floating out of the air, so to speak; but it        problem. This committee was and is now composed
was made by a group of men who have already done a             of two lay members from each of our churches in
considerable amount of work in order that our own              Michigan, and has met from time to time in the
high school may become a reality.                              course of the year. They were appointed by no one
  Although I have no personal acquaintance with the            and are answerable to no one, but they are deeply
work of this committee, nevertheless I would like to           interested in our high school movement. It is


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                421


sometimes difficult to know just how to start a             old he may be. But such negative reasons deserve a
movement of this nature, and these men felt that this       secondary place.
way would be the best way. Their purpose is not to             The positive reasons may be familiar to all of you
take the whole matter of a high school into their own       who have given thought at one time or another to our
hands, for this they could not possibly do. But they        educational program, but are nevertheless worth
do intend to be a "steering committee" to start the         reviewing.
movement and give it direction. I am personally not
in a position to inform you of what work they have             We believe that the schools in which our children
done up to this point, but I do know from talking           are taught are extensions of the home. The complex
with one of their members that their goal is a society      culture in which we live and the vast body of
meeting of all men in this area and outside of it. This     knowledge that has been accumulated in the past ages
meeting they hope to call sometime in September at          make it impossible usually for a child to be taught in
which time they intend to present to this society the       the home. So there are schools organized in which
fruit `of their labors and point them to the feasible       teachers are hired to take the place of the parents and
direction in which to go especially in connection with      assume the responsibility for the instruction of the
the host of problems that arise in any such venture.        children.
They hope that at that time a society will be                  Now, it is the deepest desire of the hearts of
definitely organized and that a school board will be        covenant parents to see their children instructed in
elected which can carry on the work that has to be          the truth of God's Word. This truth has entered into
done.                                                       the hearts of the parents themselves; they have
  Now it is time, these men feel, for their work to         learned to love it and cherish it; it is to them a
receive some publicity so that their efforts may be         priceless treasure for which they will sacrifice all, yea
brought before our people. It is time for the               life itself. It is but natural then that these covenant
importance of a high school of our own to be                parents have no deeper desire than to see their
presented to those of you who will in the future            children grow up to love that same truth as they
support the moveml nt
                     19    and send your own children to    come to spiritual maturity. To see one's children
this institution.  i                                        show antipathy to the truth is always very difficult.
                                                            But to conclude that the reason is that we have not
  They have asked the undersigned to emphasize in           been faithful in teaching them is far worse.
this article particularly the necessity of a Protestant
Reformed High School. This implies that in the mind            This is not to say that schools are miniature
of the committee there is really no other choice but        seminaries in which only doctrine is taught, but it is
to have a high school of our own. It is, with them,         saying that the knowledge of God must permeate all
not a question of utility or of the proper time; it is      knowledge of all things before it can ever be said to
not a matter that can be shrugged off indefinitely; it      be knowledge at all. If the study of trees and the
is simply a necessity which must be faced now and           starry heavens, of the earth's crust and the history of
about which something must be done. With this I             the nations is not a study of the knowledge of God,
agree completely.                                           there is no profit in it in this life or in the life to
                                                            come.
  In the briefest sense of the word it is, of course,
true that the reasons why we have elementary schools          But this desire which is undoubtedly found in the
of our own are the same reasons why we must have a          hearts of covenant parents is rooted in a deeper
high school of our own. This is denied by some.             obligation which is given them of God. The children
There is an argument to the effect that our own high        they bring forth are not their own, but are children
school is not necessary at all because of the fact that     whose names are written on the pages of the Book of
our children, once having been trained in elementary        Life with the ink of the blood of the Lamb of God.
schools which are Protestant Reformed, are now able         These children are God's because God has chosen
"to stand on their own feet" and throw off any false        them to be His own and redeemed them in the cross
doctrine that may be presented to them in the               of Calvary. We receive them from Him for a time in
existing high schools. With this argument I cannot          order that we may take them on our knees to teach
possibly agree. Thereason for my disagreement is not        them and lead them by their hands in the way of
primarily that I dobbt the ability of our high school       God's precepts. If our minds wander from this
students to "stand on their own two feet": but rather       fundamental truth, we will lose the courage to
that the need for our own high schools has a more           instruct them in God's fear and our patience with
positive basis and foundation than mere negative            them will wear thin.
criticism; although at the same time I question               So we must have schools where we can fulfill these
whether any man is completely impervious to                 obligations. Certainly we would never take pains in
consistent instruction in false doctrine no matter how      our homes to inculcate into their minds things which


422                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


were repulsive to us. We would never spend time and                              It stands to reason that this is all impossible in the
energy in our home to make sure that our children                              existing schools. This is primarily because of the fact
mastered the fundamentals of errors with which we                              that we cannot maintain control over them by
cannot possibly agree. We would not force them to                              putting our own men in the majority on the boards
learn evolutionism as the truth or Common Grace as                             and staffing the schools with our own teachers. I do
the Word of God in our homes. We should not do it                              not mean to say that we have the right of control, for
in our schools. This is inconceivable. There too, it is                        certainly we are not in the majority in the existing
in reality covenant parents teaching covenant children                         high schools. Nor am I even saying that we have been
although they have delegated the responsibility to                             as faithful as we should in attempting to make our
others.                                                                        voice heard in the existing schools. But apart from all
                                                                               this, it remains a fact that our voices are drowned out
   From this it follows that the ideal situation is to,                        in the clamor of those who are greater in number
have a complete system of education for our children                           than ourselves. The result is that the existing high
beginning with the kindergarten and continuing on                              schools are not above criticism. It stands to reason
through the university. The trouble is that it has                             that the all pervading world and life view of common
happened repeatedly in the past that the church has                            grace will have its deleterious effects on the whole
organized such a system of education only to see it                            body of instruction which is given in them. Given
fall into the hands of those who no longer wish to                             teachers inbued with it and board members building
confess the truth in all its purity. The result is that
the church must start all over once again. And this all                        upon its foundation, it can be no different. This is
                                                                               not merely a matter of formal instruction in the
requires time and money. Nevertheless, this is                                 theory itself, but is on the contrary a matter of
obviously the will of God for our lives, and it is once                        emphasis and approach in any subject of the
again incumbent upon us to see to it that we have
schools of our own.                                                            curriculum. I am not denying them the right to teach
                                                                               in this fashion if such is their conviction, but it is not
   Yet there is another strong positive reason why                             and ought not to be for us.
such schools which we can call our own are a                                     We would not tolerate instruction of this sort in
necessity. This reason is that there is a very definite                        our homes; we may not in our schools.
need to develop a distinctively Reformed approach to                             I am not unaware of the many practical problems
the whole field of education. This has never been                              which arise in connection with a high school of our
completely done. There is little if any attempt in the                         own. There are problems of finances, of teachers, of
existing grade schools, high schools, and colleges to                          curriculums, of providing the necessary plant and
do this. Most generally, pedagogues are content with                           equipment to make our instruction in these schools
what they have which has been in the main developed                            what it should be. I for one feel very strongly that the
by the world and which is changed by them only to                              teaching given should be able to compete successfully
the extent of a Bible lesson. It is not as if we come                          with any high school as far as quality of the
armed with an entirely complete development of the                             instruction is concerned. But these are not problems
fundamental principles of education as we approach a                           which cannot be overcome. A few remarks about
high school of our own, but it is high time this is                            these things would be in order.
done. We need to know and develop the principles
that are the foundation of any Reformed education.                                1) In the first place, the quality of the instruction
We need to develop these principles in the light of our                        is determined primarily by the fact that it should be
own distinctive truth which warrants our existence as                          Christian instruction. I do not mean that a course in
Protestant Reformed Churches. We need a Reformed                               biology must ignore the huge body of facts that have
set of principles of education; a Reformed                                     been accumulated in the past concerning the organic
educational psychology; a Reformed understanding                               part of the creation. But mere mastery of facts in our
of the child which is being instructed and of the best                         days has become a fetish in itself so that instruction is
way to instruct that child. We need to know how the                            Christian in name only. This ought not to be the case
knowledge of God can be imprinted upon and                                     with our schools. And I am quite content to rest in
become the essence of every subject which we teach                             the knowledge that any teacher who is earnestly
in our schools. This can only be done in schools of                            desirous of being a true Christian school teacher and
our own. Within Protestant Reformed schools, given                             not one in name only will see to it that the formal
consecrated school societies and boards and teachers                           and factual aspects of the course are not neglected.
that love the truth with all their hearts, there is the                        This is emphatically the case in our existing schools.
possibility and probability of developing all these                               2) In the second place, the elaborate and often
things for the sake of our children. But the                                   ornate school buildings, the perfectly equipped
i m p o r t a n c e   o f   d o i n g   a l l   t h i s   c a n n o t   b e    laboratories for science courses, the multi-thousand
overemphasized.                                                                dollar gymnasiums are not an essential factor in


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   423


Christian education. They are indeed nice to have,           reward in itself. I am reminded of the words of the
but they are not essential to the school  - to a             prophet Zechariah in 4: 10: "Who hath despised the
Christian  school. No more than a church building            day of small things?"
makes a congregation does a school building make a                 4) These things which are presented above are all
body of pupils or a staff of teachers. Again I am not        well within our means and are goals which can be
making a plea for school to be held in a hovel in the        successfully reached by us now. The movement is
city dump, without chalk or blackboards, without             started, and to procrastinate now will be fatal for our
any equipment which is essential to sound teaching;          entire movement. As churches and as schools we must
but there is room for emphasis on the point that it is       continue to go ahead. The opportunity to do this is
not essential to compete with existing schools public        ours at this time. Let us not shirk our calling at this
or Christian in the erection and equipping of our own        crucial point!
edifice. If we must have the most elaborate and very
best in equipment and facilities, our own school is out            The movement of our churches as a whole and of
of the question. The only thing I insist on is the very      each individual endeavor in particular is a movement
best of school boards and the very best of teachers.         of faith. Without faith in the cause of the Lord we are
And by "best" I mean school board members and                easily tossed about on the stormy seas of the times in
teachers who are dedicated to the cause of Christian         which we live without guidance or goal. But faith
instruction as we understand it. If our parents who          which looks to the future is able to overcome all the
support our schools are dedicated, our schools will          problems that confront us and to establish this vital
have staffs and boards who have this same dedication.        link in our educational program.
  3. We have to make no apologies for our size as                  That there is a necessity for our own high school is
churches nor feel any twinges of embarrassment that          apparent. What is a covenant obligation and necessity
we do not measure up to the standards which the              for us the Lord never makes impossible to perform.
world sets  ~for success. We need not do this as             When He gives us responsibility in His covenant, He
churches; we need not do this when we build our              does not shut the door before us to the fulfillment of
schools. We need feel no compulsion to defend a              thgse responsibilities, but opens the way with
school that is architecturally beautiful and modernly        guidance from on high. All the spiritual qualifications
equipped and capable of offering an elaborate                of a high school are no doubt present with us - we
physical education program in a huge gymnasium, if           have a most blessed truth; we have consecrated
the subjects that are taught are capably taught and if       teachers; we have dedicated men to serve on our
the pupil passing through the doors and walking              boards; it remains to make this a reality. Let us then
down the corridors and finding his seat in the               support the committee which is now working! Let us
classrooms is given instruction in the knowledge of          by all means attend the coming school society
God no matter what subject he may study. The                 meeting! Let us make a high school of our own an
approval of God upon work well done is sufficient            actuality!




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424                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


THE DAY OF SHADOWS



                         The Tower of Confusion

                                               Rev. John A. Heys



   One hundred years after the flood an event took         in regard to the sending of another flood? That would
place according to God's eternal counsel whose effect      not make them any more spiritual than the devil, and
is still with us today. And there is nothing unusual       it does not at all mean that they had any saving faith.
about that. Adam's fall has its spiritual effects upon
the human race from that moment until the very end            And that they did believe God in this respect, that
of time. The physical effects of the flood are still       they were convinced that He would not send another
with us, and we live in quite a different world from       flood, is plain from the very site of the construction
that first world which was destroyed by the flood.         of their city and tower. They set out to build a city
And the confusion of speech, which took place one          with a tower that reaches to heaven. But what folly
hundred years after the flood, is an event that has so     to begin such an ambitious project in the plain of
very much to do with all the history of mankind from       Shinar? They could have saved themselves untold
that day of the confusion of his speech till this very     labour and time by beginning to build on the highest
moment. In fact history could not have produced            mountain. Then, too, they might then have more
what it has, had God not confused man's speech there       hope of building a tower that would reach to heaven
at the tower of Babel. This was a key event in His         and lift them above the waters that covered the
eternal counsel that determined the direction of the       mountains.
development of the whole human race. And it has               No, no, they themselves give an entirely different
great value also for the growth and development of         reason for building the tower, and it is this, "Go to,
the church of God.                                         let us make brick and burn them thoroughly . . . And
  But we had better understand this building of the        they said Go to, let us build us a city and a tower,
tower of Babel as God presents it in Genesis 10 and        whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us
11. And we ought, then, at once to rule out the idea       a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of
that this tower was built as a place of safety and         the earth."
refuge, should God send another flood. Whatever the          To understand this let us first of all take note of
purpose was in building that tower, it certainly was       the fact that one man especially is mentioned among
not to be safe from the waters of another flood.           all the names given of the genealogies of Shem, Ham
  There are two elements in the account of what            and Japheth, and around whom this whole series of
happened in the days of Nimrod and Peleg that at           events revolves. And he is Nimrod, a son of Gush,
once rule out any such idea in the minds of the            who was a son of Ham. Of him we read, "He was a
human race of that day. There is first of all the fact     mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said,
that God Himself gave promise that He would not            Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord."
again destroy the whole world with a flood.                  There have been various interpretations of this
  Now you may argue, that unbelievers would not            statement concerning him that he was "a mighty
believe that promise of God. But that does not hold.       hunter before the Lord." There is difference of
Unbelievers did not believe that the first flood would     opinion as to what kind of hunter he was, and as to
come. Unbelievers will not believe and do not believe      what it means that he was a mighty hunter before
another judgment by fire either. They never believe        Jehovah. And we do not understand this tower of
what they  do not want  to believe. They do want to        Babel unless we have the right answer to these two
believe that there would be no more judgments of           elements in his name.
God upon them: After all even Satan believes that            It is claimed that Nimrod hunted men, was a
there is one God and trembles. Why is it hard to           tyrant, a cruel man who enslaved his fellowmen. This
believe that these unbelievers took God at His Word        need not be the case at all, and it certainly militates


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                425


against the phrase, "mighty hunter before the Lord."        in this mixture the tower was devised and the
Men would hardly add that he was mighty before the          erection of it began. No, in the natural man there is
Lord, if it was this kind of cruel, tyrannical activity     no holiness mixed with a bit of unholiness. There is
that got him his name.                                      not civic     righteousness      mixed    with spiritual
  Rather must we look upon him as a hero - which            unrighteousness. When man. fell, he lost  all his
is also a possible translation of the word mighty.          excellent gifts. He did retain a thinking, willing
Consider that after the' flood men multiplied and           nature. He did not become an irrational, brute beast
grew, but that the animal world, and particularly the       of the field. He remained God's image bearer,
wild beasts that, upon leaving the ark,' became a           although out of that mind and will he lost all power
threat to mankind multiplied and grew at a far more         to think and will correctly, that is, to think and will
rapid rate. A child is born nine months after               as God does, and to think and will as God had created
conception, and then remains a defenseless creature         him.
for many years. The wild beasts bring forth their              He retained some knowledge of God; but so does
young in shorter periods of time, and within a year         the devil. There is no spiritual value in that, otherwise
are not only in full strength but able to multiply and      Satan also has some good work before God. But with
produce another generation of enemies of mankind.           that natural knowledge of God, with those
And Nimrod boldly and successfully set out to kill          glimmerings of natural light man began to confuse all
them off in sufficient numbers that the wild beasts         that which he saw and heard in God's creation. That
receded into the mountains and woods, and the               is what idolatry is: a mixture of the natural
people, who had now for safety as well as for better        knowledge that there is a God, and then worshipping
soil huddled together in the plain of Shinar where          the creature as that God. And all false doctrines
they could seek a measure of safety, began to scatter.      today as well are mixtures of fact and the lie. False
Nimrod became their hero, and they sang of him as           doctrines confess a god; but they design their own
being-a mighty hunter before the Lord.                      god.
  But he was  too  successful. Now men began to                And the confusion that led to the building of the
separate and scatter farther and farther from that          tower of confusion is quite evident in what Scripture
plain of Shinar. And Nimrod, who also' had great            makes known to us. Consider once again that
abilities for organizing and had already established        expression, "Nimrod the mighty hunter before the
and ruled over four cities, had big ambitions about         Lord." This is sheer confusion of thought! Men,
ruling the whole human race. This is evident in that        unbelieving men, said that. In their confused minds
cry that they must not scatter, and that they must          Nimrod was a Godsend, a blessing, yea a gift of
make a name for themselves. This was Nimrod's               JEHOVAH, the Covenant God of His people.
philosophy, and as their hero men also listened to             What a damnable mixture of truth and lie we have
him and quickly consented to a tower that would             here !
serve to keep them one nation under him, even                  Nimrod  - his very name comes from a verb with
though there were separate cities with their kings.         means to rebel - was no willing servant of God. He
Nimrod was to be the king over them all. The tower          was no mighty man of God who,sought the wellbeing
would remind them that they were all one people,            of the Church of God. Had he succeeded, had his
and the city would be the capital city of the world         kingdom been established and had the whole world
empire. Indeed, here we have the first attempt at           actually been united in him, the church would soon
setting up the kingdom of the Antichrist.                   have been killed off, the Christ would not have been
                                                            born and this descendant of Ham would have kept
   But the point we want to make at this time is that       Shem from receiving the covenant blessing. Nor
not only did God come down and confuse man's                would Japheth have any tents wherein to dwell with
speech as punishment upon his sin of building the           Shem in covenant bliss and joy!
tower and the city, not only did God put a stop to
this antichristian activity of the world of ungodly so         But men who were mixed up and confused in their
shortly after the flood, by scattering them by the          thinking called him God's blessing upon them. It was
confusion of their speech; but this whole city and          the social gospel of that day, a salvation that concerns
tower was built because there was already a spiritual       itself with man's material, physical wellbeing and
confusion in  .the heart and mind of man. It was a          needs no cross of Christ or forgiveness of sins for joy
tower of confusion, and not simply a tower that was         and peace. Let this little account here in Genesis 10
                                                            open our eyes and warn us not to follow all those
visited by confusion of speech.                             who claim that their leaders are mighty men of God,
  Now to confuse is to mix, to blend so that things         men of Jehovah. All is not gold that glitters; and all
cannot be distinguished. And the idea is not at all that    are not mighty men of God who are presented as such
mixed in with faith is also a bit of unbelief; and that     and hailed by men to be such.


426                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


  Consider the confusion further in that they say,          something for this life with utter unconcern for sin
"Let us make a name." Well, they had a name; and a          before God and for the glories of  His heavenly
clear, spiritually unmixed and unconfused mind              kingdom.
knows that name. It is, "servant of the Most High." It         Let a word of warning be sounded again against
is, "Steward of God." It is, "God's royal priesthood        following those who have a social gospel and are
called to dedicate and consecrate all to God, to            hailed as mighty men before Jehovah. Let us analyze
multiply, replenish and fill the earth." Nimrod was a       their teachings and claims. Do they seek to glorify
rebel! He led the whole world in a way of rebellion;        God's name, or is it a case of man making a name for
he said by his cry for a name and a tower to unify the      man? Is it humanitarian in the sense of being
people, "We must and will rebel against God's               all-involved and wrapped up in the physical and social
command! That is the good thing for us. We will stay        needs of the human race, and has no atoning death of
together here and unite ourselves for a name  apart         Christ to preach, has no message of forgiveness of sin
from God."                                                  before God and of-being united in the truth of Him
                                                            Who is the Mighty Hunter in that He came to seek
  In their confusion they still use the name of God         and to save that which was lost? A spiritually
while rebelling against Him, while defying Him and          confused mind speaks of God's Love, but has no
while going directly contrary to His command that           room for His holy wrath and for sin!
they subdue the entire earth and be united in the              Spiritual confusion produces the kingdom of the
truth of His Word. This was no attempt to unite and         Antichrist. Be sure that you do not support it and
rally around the church, the body of believers of that      serve its realization. It will fail as did the tower of
day, but around a man who promised their flesh              Babel.



T H E S T R E N G T H O F Y O U T H

                     Spiritual Growth  - The Process
                                                 Rev. J. Kortering

  The subject of spiritual growth focuses our               persons. The proof of spiritual growth is that one is
attention upon the process whereby we become                willing to acknowledge that salvation is God's work
spiritual grown-ups or mature adults in the Lord. This      from beginning to end. A person who is spiritually
is a life-long process which does not reach its             strong confesses that the only hope of his being at
fulfillment in this life, but through death attains its     peace with God is through the blood of Jesus Christ
exalted height in the perfection of the life to come.       who has paid for his sins through His work on the
No matter how old we may be, we must continue to            cross. It follows from this that the purpose of our life
grow spiritually.                                           is not to seek our own pleasure but to serve God and
  Since such growth encompasses the whole of our            glorify Him forever. Spiritual strength is the ability to
life, we do well to ask ourselves what does it mean to      forsake our own will and do the will of our Father
be spiritually strong. What must be the goal for which      Who is in heaven. Attend to I John 1:6,7, "If we say
we strive as people of God?                                 that we have fellowship with  Him and walk in
                                                            darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk
SPIRITUAL STRENGTH                                          in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
  In determining what spiritual strength or maturity        one with another and the blood of Jesus cleanseth
really is, we should consider three things.                 from all sin."
  First, a spiritually strong person is in a right             Secondly, spiritual maturity is distinguished by a
relationship with God. By this we mean that he              proper relationship with our neighbors. This follows
knows that he is spiritually dead in himself and that       as the second table of the law follows the first.
his life with God is a result of God's reaching down        Hence, John adds, "He that saith he is in the light and
and drawing him into His covenant friendship. A sure        hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. He
sign of spiritual immaturity is having the false idea       that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there
that God is obligated to save us because we are good        is no occasion for stumbling in him." I John 29, 10.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 427


This love encompasses every neighbor, our Christian         in His conversation with Nicodemus, "Except a man
brother or sister, and even our enemies. The more we        be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven."
grow spiritually, the more we seek the good of our          This rebirth has its beginning in God's act of
neighbor, we enjoy fellowship within the covenant of        implanting the seed of the new life in our hearts. "Of
grace, we desire to lead the unbeliever into that           His own will begat He us with the Word of truth,"
fellowship. The fruits of the Spirit described in Gal.      James 1: 18. "Being born again, not of corruptible
5:22 are to be directed to our neighbor, "But the           seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God which
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,     liveth and abideth forever," I Peter  1:23. Just as a
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,          baby is conceived in the womb when the ovum is
against such there is no law."                              fertilized, so our hearts need a spiritual seed, a new
  Thirdly, spiritual growth enables us to have the          beginning through the work of the Holy Spirit.
strength to deal with life itself. This follows from the      Through this conception, we are born into
preceding. If we are in a proper relationship with          conscious life with God. The baby conceived in the
God and our neighbors, we will be able to deal with         womb is soon born into the world. He begins to
life's problems. The Bible speaks a great deal about        respond to life, he cries, he eats, he smiles. So the
this. When we are spiritually strong, we are able to        child of God begins to enjoy the new life when he is
deal with the problem of temptation. "Resist the            consciously born into fellowship with God. He knows
devil and he will flee from thee," James 4:7. We will       God, he loves God, he seeks to serve God, all of this
be able to endure persecution. "Blessed are thy that        indicating that he is in truth born of God. Hence we
are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the    read, "Everyone that loveth is born of God," I John
kingdom of heaven," Matt. 5:11, 12. Note carefully,         4:7.
they will be able to say that persecution is  blessed!         At this point, spiritual growth begins and slowly
That takes spiritual maturity. The same holds true for      develops. Such a child of God, whether he is born of
being able to face the trials of life. We must be           God as a child or as an old man, needs spiritual baby
spiritually mature if we are to face hospitalization,       food. "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of
pain, even death itself. We can understand the words        the Word that ye may grow thereby," I Peter  2:2.
of Heb.  12:6, "For  whom, the Lord loveth He               Hence Paul wrote the church at Corinth, "I have fed
chasteneth," only from the vantage point of spiritual       you with milk and not with meat; for hitherto ye
strength, This enables us to bear pain, to be               were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able,"
chronically sick, to face the loneliness of death.          I Cor. 3  :2. When we are spiritual babes, we need
THE PROCESS                                                 spiritual food that we are able to take into our
  It is usually a long road between our being born          spiritual mouth by faith, chew it, swallow it, digest it.
again and our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.          The more we grow, the more meat we will be able to
This road is marked by change, the greatest change          handle.
being from death unto life. As we are born into this           Scripture also mentions that a person who is a
world, we are spiritually dead in sin. The Psalmist         spiritual child, will act like a child in distinction from
declared, "Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin       a mature person. Certain things characterize
did my mother conceive me," Ps. 51:5. By nature we          childishness in our everyday life. A child can easily be
are children of our father the devil, John  8:44. As        persuaded to change his mind. A child is preoccupied
such we are born with Adam's guilt  I which is              with petty things and can "fight over nothing". It is a
sufficient to sentence us to an eternity of divine          simple fact that spiritual growth takes a person
punishment. By virtue of natural conception and             through such a stage. This necessitates a warning,
birth, we are brought into this world with a nature         "That ye henceforth be no more children tossed to
that is prone to hate God and our neighbor. We say          and fro and carried about with every wind of
with Paul, "For that which I do I allow not, for what       doctrine," Eph. 4: 14. Paul, the aged and experienced
I would that do I not, but what I hate, that do I,"         servant of God had to warn Timothy, the young
Rom. 7: 15. If there is to be any spiritual growth, we      newcomer, "But shun profane and vain babblings; for
have to be born again, we need a beginning of a new         they will increase unto more ungodliness," II Tim.
and different kind of life, that which is from above,       2: 16. Part of growing up is being able to ignore
John 3. Because this is true, we can search the             childish spats and to deal with important differences
Scriptures and learn that God describes our spiritual       in a disciplined way.
life as the product of being born again and compares          As a child grows up, he must be entrusted with
our spiritual growth to that of our physical                more responsibility. Soon he demonstrates that he is
development.                                                trustworthy. Part of this is due to the fact that he
  Our spiritual man of God is  conceived  by God            gains understanding. He is able to see life as God has
Himself through His Holy Spirit. Christ mentions this       laid it out and therefore he can deal with the presence


428                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


of sin and temptation. Persecution is viewed as a             The question remains: does that spiritual growth
divine necessity and he understands the  value. of          coincide with our physical? Is it so that we grow
sickness. Until one reaches such a point, he will           spiritually as we grow physically?
struggle like a child who has to live with something he       Here we must be careful not to push a point
doesn't like. A child can kick and scream if he doesn't     beyond'its validity. Generalities are dangerous. It can
get his way. We sometimes act that way spiritually          be witnessed by anyone that there are times when an
before our Father in heaven. Christ told His disciples,     adult is not as spiritually mature as a young person.
"I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye             Age does not have everything to do with growth. The
cannot bear them now," John 16: 12. They could not          same thing is true for a person converted later in life.
perceive them at this point of spiritual growth. Later,     Such a person usually, and again we must be careful
after His suffering and death and especially after the      with generalities, does not attain to the spiritual level
Holy Spirit would be given them, they would grow up         of development as one who may have been brought
and be in a position to receive such teaching.              up within the covenant from infancy on. In some of
  Finally, the Bible also speaks of spiritual               these instances, there may be a flurry of "first love"
adulthood. Such a person can understand profound            but that love must be tested in the crucible of
spiritual truths. He can eat a diet of, meat. His faith,    experience and even opposition.
enables him to bow before truths which are hard to            We may conclude, that within the sphere of the
be understood. Listen to II Peter 3: 15, 16, "And           covenant, spiritual. growth usually coincides with
account that the longsuffering of our Lord is               physical development. As a person gets older and
salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also            matures physically, he also grows spiritually and
according to the wisdom given unto him hath written         becomes wiser in the service of God. "The glory of
unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them     young men is their strength; and the beauty of old
of these things in which are somethings hard to be          men is the gray head," Prov.  20:29. "I have written
understood, which they that are unlearned and               unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is
unstable wrest as they do also the other scriptures,        from the beginning," I John 2: 14.
unto their own destruction." A spiritually mature
person will believe what God says, even though it is          Spiritual growth is a life-long experience. We
hard to comprehend. Similarly, "All Scripture is given      cannot say, "I am grown up." Perfection is the
by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine,       ultimate goal of our spiritual growth, and that will
for reproof, for correction for instruction in              not be realized on this side of the grave. We will
righteousness that the man of God may be perfect,           attain that when we pass through the shadow of
thoroughly furnished unto all good works," II Tim.          death. Just imagine what amount of growing up we
3: 16, 17. The more we grow up, the more we see the         will do when we die. This in itself sounds strange, yet
need of doing God's will which leads unto good              it is true. Through death, we will attain unto the
works. Hence the child of God reaches his chief end,        perfection of our soul, we will leave sin and death
to glorify God in everything he does.                       behind and enter into a greater life of praise and
                                                            service unto God. When our Lord will return and raise
THE DURATION                                                our bodies from the grave, we will then reach that
  We have concluded that the Bible speaks of                perfection God has eternally intended for us. We will
spiritual growth as that of being born, developing,         then be fully mature, each in his own place and
and finally attaining unto manhood. There is a close        degree in the kingdom of heaven.
analogy between our physical growth and our                   We must next consider, D.V., in what ways we
spiritual.                                                  must grow up spiritually.



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                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   429



MISSION CONTRIBUTION



                                  Beautiful Feet Upon
                            The Jamaican Mountains
                                              i (continued from August issue)

                                                  Rev. John A. Heys



 ,Our conference at Lacovia, when the candidates                  regard to all the efforts which our churches have put
preached their sermons, also cleared the air and drew             forth on this island.
the little band of nine churches closer together when                 We can conclude and do conclude with a plea that
the matter of infant baptism was brought on the floor             you remember these brethren and sisters who have
by Rev. Elliott. He firmly declared that infants are              come out of such an entirely different church
not christened and blessed but baptized, that he had              background from ours, and who have so much
baptized a number of children and would  ?zeyel                   wherewith to struggle. Remember them in your
rebaptize them. But he had a question about those                 prayers. Remember particularly the ministers, elders,
who could produce no record of having been baptized               and deacons and then by all means the youthful
in infancy. May they be immersed in the sea or river?             ministers who need courage and light and strength to
His attention was called to the baptism form which                feed the flock and to fight the wolves that want to
states that the "dipping in . . . teaches us . . ." He was        creep in and destroy the flock.
told that we had no principle objection to such
baptism of adults, but that if they were faithful in                  In the days of Noah there were but eight souls who
baptizing infants, the time would come when these                 believed His Word, and God loved that little Church.
immersions would become a very rare thing. A good                 Let us not despise little things in Jamaica but
spirit prevailed at this meeting and prayers were                 remember that God's strength shines forth in our
offered to our covenant God for this foothold which               weakness. Since they are few, there is all the more
He gave us on this sun-kissed island after He had                 reason to pray fervently for them that they be kept
directed our feet to preach upon its mountains some               by that power of the Almighty. Since they are a
eleven or twelve years ago.                                       "handful," we have a calling to help them (not
                                                                  forsake them) as fully as we can with the means God
  Through these six pairs of feet, which the                      gives us.
Scriptures call beautiful in Isaiah  52:7 and Romans
10: 15, the work will now be carried on; and with the
power of God's grace and Spirit there will continue to
be a small witness of the preaching that glorifies God
and confesses Him to be the God that He is: It was at
the ordination of Rev. Kenneth Brown that I
preached on that text of Isaiah 52:7, and those of our                            Know the standard
membership who were ever at Fort Williams, and in
its church, know that there in the literal sense the                                and follow it.
gospel is preached on the mountain top. We pointed
out to the congregation that when they `see Rev.                                           Read the
Brown climb up the path to their humble. building,
the beauty of his feet (because they bring him to                                STANDARD BEARER!
them, and he brings them the gospel as it is in Christ)
must be seen, and for them they must give thanks.
  And now we wait for God to send the early and
the latter rain. We wait to see His good pleasure in


430                                                             THE STANDARD BEARER





                                                           Book Reviews


A LAWYER AMONG THEOLOGIANS,  by Norman                                            POLITICAL EVANGELISM,  by Richard J. Mouw;
Thomas; Eerdmans Publishing Co.; 240 pp., $3.95                                   Eerdmans Publishing Co.,; 111 pp., $1.95 (paper).
(paper). [Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko]                                             [Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko]
                                                                                     The book is a strong plea for evangelicals to engage
   The author of this book is a lawyer. As such, he is                            more actively in politics. In the name of the
amazed at the fact that the views of higher criticism                             Reformed faith, it offers what sometimes approaches
have so readily been accepted within the Church on                                a social gospel.
the flimsiest of evidence  - evidence which would
never stand up in any court of law. It is from this                               THE PRESENCE OF THE FUTURE,  by George
viewpoint that he takes on the higher critics and very                            Eldon Ladd; Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974; 370 pp.,
sharply and critically tears their theories to pieces. He                         $4.50 (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko]
deals especially with the subjects of "The Jesus of                                  After a lengthy discussion concerning the current
H i s t o r y   a n d   t h e   C h r i s t   o f   F a i t h ",   "T h e         debate which revolves around the subject of the
Resurrection", "Sin, Forgiveness and Judgment". The                               kingdom of heaven, the author develops the
book is somewhat hard going unless one has at least a                             conception of the kingdom as found in the Old
passing knowledge of higher criticism, but it is worth                            Testament by promise, as it is fulfilled in the New
the effort. The author writes from a generally                                    Testament and as it will reach its consummation at
conservative position, although we cannot by any                                  the end of the age. Although the book is orientated in
means support every position he takes. The material                               the discussions of higher criticism, it is generally a
of the book was first delivered as a series of lectures                           sound book and worth reading. The vexing problem
at the University of Saskatchewan and the University                              of the nature of the kingdom of Christ is thoroughly
of Emmanuel College, Saskatoon.                                                   faced and treated. Recommended.



                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                       ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENT
    On September 9, 1974, our parents, MR. AND MRS. DONALD  .J.                       On September 11, 1974, our beloved parents, MR. AND  MRS.
KNOPER will commemorate their 25th wedding anniversary. We, their                 OTTO VANDER WOUDE, will commemorate their 50th wedding
children, are grateful to our God for keeping them in His loving care             anniversary. We thank our Heavenly Father for sparing them these
these many years. We pray that God will bless them for the remainder              many years end our prayers are that He will continua to bless them in
of their lives.                                                                   their remaining years together in the assurance that, "Those that be
                                                                                  planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our
                                           Mr. and Mrs. David Vander Kodde        God." (Psalm  92:13).
Grand Rapids, Ml                  John, Linda, Cheryl and Debra Knopar

                                                                                                                              Mr. and Mrs. William Corson
                   RESDLUTIQN OF SYMPATHY                                                                                       Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Bykar
                                                                                                                         Mr. end Mrs. John Vander Woude
   The Consistory of the Protestant Reformed Church of Edgerton,                                                                            13 grandchildren
Minnesota, wishes to express its sympathy to Mr. Arvin Bleyanberg,                Grand Rapids, Ml                                    2 great-grandchildren
deacon, and his family at the passing of their beloved daughter, LEANN
FAY, age 11. We pray that they may find comfort in God's Word  -
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are called according to His purpose."  (Remans
8:28).
                                                       Henry Huisken, Clark                                  MEMORIAM
                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                            The Mary-Martha Circle of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church
    The Martha Ladies Society of the Hull Protestant Reformed Church              extends its Christian sympathy to a faithful member, Mrs. Grace Van
expresses sincere sympathy to its members, Mrs. Peter R. Wastra, Mrs.             Dyken, in the loss of her sister, MRS. CATHERINE SCHAAP.
Tim Kooima, Mrs. William Kooikar and Mrs. Alvin Kooikar in the loss
of their mother and mother-in-law, MRS. NICK  KOOI  KER.                             May she and her family find consolation in the words of Holy
                                                                                  Scripture, especially as found in Romans  14:s  - "For whether we live,
    "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were                we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord;
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands,                whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's".
eternal in the heavens." (II Cor.  5:l)

                                                      Rev. J. Kortering, Pres.                                                        Mrs. C. Westra, Pres.
                                                 Mrs. Ralph  Brumme'l,  Sac'y.                                                         Mrs. G. Pipe, Sec'y.


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER  ._                                                              431
                                                                                     ,..     ".
                                                                                      _               I_
                                                                                                     `6
                                    News From Our  ChurLces

   There are no less than four calls being considered                   on Wed. evenings. The people are interested in
at the time of the writing of the news for this issue.                 learning more about the Canons of Dort, so last Wed.
It's been quite some time, I dare say, since this                      I gave an introductory lecture on the Canons, and
column carried that many at one time. Not only are                     next Wed. will have a lecture on the Sovereignty of
there three churches currently vacant (Edgerton,                       God."
Kalamazoo, and Prospect Park), but also, in
accordance with a decision of the 1974 Synod,                              Rev. Van Overloop, in turn, spent most of July in
Hudsonville has called a second missionary (whose                      Maine. Activities during the first ten days of his stay,
initial field of labor will be in the state of Maine).                 consisted of "four sermons, one catechism class,
                                                                       interviews by three different newspapers (this is free
   Edgerton extended a call to Candidate Slopsema.                     advertising for the group and worship services), and
The trio from Edgerton, in case you're interested,                     nine different personal calls." He reported having met
included also Candidate den Hartog and Rev. Heys.                      with the three families who requested our aid, and
Prospect Park's trio, likewise, included the two                       having "learned to love them in their struggle here."
candidates, along with Rev. Kuiper. The call from                      Further plans included a lecture, to be held "in the
there went to Candidate den Hartog. From a duo                         VFW Hall, where the services are held," and plans "to
consisting of Rev. Moore and Candidate Slopsema,                       look into some radio stations." His first service in
the Kalamazoo congregation elected to call the latter.                 Skowhegan, incidentally, was held in a living room
The trio for missionary consisted of the Revs. Heys,                   (the Hall having been reserved for a wedding
Kuiper, and Miersma. Rev. Kuiper was elected.                          reception). "That," wrote the preacher, "was
                                                                       different."
                             ******                                        Skowhegan, according to Rev. Van Overloop, "is
   Have you been keeping up with the work being                        not a Reformed community. There are Catholic,
carried on in Maine? Perhaps the best informed, are                    Baptist, Methodist and Federated congregations here,
those congregations whose pastors have been released                   but they are thoroughly Arminian, very liberal, and in
to labor there for several weeks. Interesting and                      most cases are better known for their soup suppers
informative letters, at any rate, have been appearing                  and rummage sales, than for their worship services."
in those church bulletins. Much of it is, I think, of                  Contacts made thus far have, apparently, brought
general interest, so I'll lift a few excerpts for use in               little in the way of discernible positive results. But,
the news column.                                                       Rev. Van Overloop adds, we know that "God's Word
                                                                       never returns void and always meets with success."
   Rev. Bekkering, who was in Skowhegan during the                         Rev. Van  Overloop returned to Grand Rapids at
month of June, reported having "conducted services                     the end of July, and work in Maine was picked up
in a rental hall." He noted that "the group is small (3                shortly thereafter by Rev. Lubbers, who will be there,
families, each with 3 members) but they are very                       with his wife, through the month of September. Rev.
lively and interested. They have a mid-week meeting                    Lubbers, you recall, has been granted temporary
                                                                                                                     (continued on back page)


                          ANNUAL MEETING                                            STANDARD BEARER REPRINTS
      The annual meeting of the Reformed Free Publishing                   Our Business Office has a supply of reprints of various articles on
   Association will be held Thursday evening, September  19th, at      Bible Translations, described below. While the supply lasts, these are
   the Southwest Prot. Ref. Church at 8 PM. Nominees for the           free for the asking. Write to Box 6064, Grand Rapids,  Mich. 49506.
   Board, three to be chosen, are Arnold Dykstra, Wm. De Krakker,
   Calvin Kalsbeek, Gerrit Holstege, Harry Zwak and Joe King.             Bib/e Translations  No.  7 contains a critique of two editions of the
   Prof. H. C. Hoeksama will speak to us on our 50 years of            Living New Testament,  namely,  Reach Out  and  The Greatest Is Love.  It
   publication. Plan now to attend this momentous occasion.            was .writtan by the Rev. David Engelsma. This reprint also contains two
                                                                       brief articles by Prof. Herman Hanko which are pertinent to the general
                                                                       subject of Bible versions.

                                                                          Bible Translations  No. 2 is a critique of the ACT version of the
                          SCHOOL OPENING                               Gospel according to John, which was a forerunner of the recently
   The Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches will     published New International Version of the New Testament.
begin its 1974-75 term, D.V., on Wednesday, September 4, at 9 A.M.        Bible Translations  No. 3 deals with the value of the King James
Our churches and people are asked to remember the school and its       Version and also contains an article about the New English Bible.
work in their prayers.                                                 Reprints No. 2 and No. 3 were both written by Prof. Homer C.
                                           - H. C. Hoeksema, Rector    Hoeksema.


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432
                                                                      -

emeritation, and has been declared eligible for a call
in our churches.
                        ******
  In news of a different kind, we. learn that, at a
meeting held on June 20, the  Doon congregation
approved a plan for a new church building. By the
beginning of August, the basement hole was dug and
the footings were poured. "This week," according to
the enthusiastic report of Rev. Moore at that time,
"the basement will be blocked up!" We look forward,
of course, to hearing of further progress in their
construction of "`a new house in which to worship
and glorify God;"'                                             . .
                        ******
  A few weeks back, there was in First Church's
bulletin a paragraph entitled, "From the Standard
Bearer Mailbag." An interested reader from Alberta,
Canada, had submitted paid trial subscriptions for no
less than  thirty  individuals. His letter, quoted in
First's bulletin, began as follows: "Hereby we send
names of 30 people we think should read the
Standard Bearer. Maybe in this way the truth can be
explained to many. We personally enjoy the paper
more and more. We pray that God will bless your
work which you are doing so faithfully and we trust
in His promises."
: From Australia comes an equally gratifying letter,
this one passed on to us by Mr. Vander Wal. We quote
the first paragraph:
  "It has been suggested by our lecturer in Theology
at the John Knox Theological College, Sydney,
Australia (training college of the Presbyterian
Reformed Church)`, that the students should
subscribe to the "Standard Bearer" because of your
informative material: As a student there, I have been
responsible for collecting the subscriptions. I have
also contacted a number of elders before writing to
you, and in all 18 people have indicated they will
subscribe, and have passed their money on to me."
  Our thanks be to God for such evidence that the
Standard Bearer is being read with interest and profit,
by those of like precious faith, not only beyond the
boundaries of our own country, but in lands on the
other side of the globe.,
                                                       D.D.


