     The
STANDARD
     BEARER
-A  REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                          b





     It is ouT firm conviction that Article XIII is an
    adequate  and  beautiful  summary  of  the  truth
    of  Creation  as  revealed  in  Scripture.  Genesis
    does  record  what  actually  happened.  Wit,hout
    shame  we  take  the  creation  account  literally
    and  as  it  stands.  We  do  this  because  we  be-
    1ieve: "All  Scri$ture  is  given  by  inspiration  of
    God,.  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  re-
    proof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in
    righteousness: that  the  man  of  God  may  be
    perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good
    works."  (II  Timothy  316,  17)
              [See: The Voice of our Fathers]




                                      -Volume LII, Number 1, October 1, 1975 J


506                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



                         CONTENTS:
                                                                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
Meditation  -                                                         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                           Second Class  Postaoe Paid at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
  Christ Builds His Church         . . . . . . . . . . .506     Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                Department Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma,
Editorials  -                                                   R e v .   C o r n e l i u s   H a n k o ,   P r o f .   H e r m a n   H a n k o ,   R e v .   R o b e r t   C .   H a r b a c h ,
                                                                R e v .   J o h n   A .   Heys,  R e v .   J a y   K o r t e r i n g ,   R e v .   D a l e   H .   Kuiper,.   R e v .
                                                                G e o r g e   C .   L u b b e r s ,   R e v .   M e i n d e r t   J o o s t e n s ,   R e v .   M a r i n u s   Schrpper,
  Staff Changes         . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .509    R e v .   G i s e   J .   V a n   Baren.  R e v .   H e r m a n   Veldman, Mr. Kenneth G. Vink.
                                                                Editorial Office:  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
  Our Australasian Tour (1) . . . . . . . . . . .509                                            4975  lvanrest Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                 Grandville,  Michigan  49418
All Around Us  -                                                Church News Editor:                         Mr. Kenneth G. Vink
                                                                                                           1 4 2 2   L i n w o o d ,   SE.
  Pierre Courthial's Dream         . . . . . . . . . . .5 12                                               Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
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  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 14          Reprint Policy:  Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of arti-
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In His Fear  -                                                  ~l;~dIearticles  are  reproducad  in full;  .b) that proper acknowledgement
                                                                               ;  c) that a copy of the  perrodrcal  m which such  reprmt appears
  The Little Things of Love . . . . . . . . . . .516            is sent to our editorial office.
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                           . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .518     Business Agent for  Australasia:Mr.   Wm. van Rij
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Studies in Isaiah  -                                                                                                      Christchurch 4. New Zealand
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  The Doctrine of Creation . . . . . . . . . . .523             advertising of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
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                                                                umes may be obtained through the Business Office.




            MEDITA  TIO N

                               Christ Builds His Church
                                                       Rev. C. Hanko

                                           `II will build my church. " Matth. 16:18



  I believe a church.                                                     The very fact that  I believe  a church, rather than
                                                                   accept this as mere fact, already places the church in
  Since I believe in God, I also believe a church.                  a category beyond the earthly and the tangible. Any-
  I do not believe  in  a church, but I believe a church.          thing that I can perceive with my senses is not an
There is an obvious difference. I do not put my trust              object of faith. But eye hath not seen, ear hath not
in the church as the source and fountain of my salva-              heard, and it exceeds the fondest imagination of
tion, because I believe in God, the complete Author                mere man, what God hath prepared for those who fear
and Finisher of my faith. In Him alone I trust. Yet                H i m .
since I believe in God implicitly, I also believe that                    I believe a church because God has revealed that to
there is and always will be an organism known as the               me in His holy Word. He has sealed the testimony of
church.                                                            His Word to my heart by His Holy Spirit, Who also


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               507



assures me, that "I am and forever shall remain a           fitly framed together groweth unto  an  holy temple  in
living member thereof." The marvelous power of              the Lord: in whom ye also are  builded together for a
faith assures me, not merely that God is God, but           habitation of God through the Spirit." (Eph.  2:19-22)
that this God is my God. By that same conviction I          And what applies to the temple in her entirety also
am convinced that God has His church in this world,         applies to the individual. Paul expresses surprise that
of which He makes me a living member, now and               members of the church could so readily fall into the
forever.                                                    sin of fornication. He severely rebukes them by
  That church is, according to the Scriptures, the          saying, "What? know ye not that your body is the
Body of Christ, the assembly of the elect believers         temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye
and their spiritual seed.                                   have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are
                                                            bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
   "Glorious things of thee are spoken, City blessed        body and in your spirit, which are  Gods." (I Cor.
of God, the Lord."                                          6:19,20).
  Let it be said with all fear and reverence: the             Therefore it must follow that the church is  holily
church is holy.                                             devoted to God. Jehovah says of her, "This people
  The church is holy because she belongs so                 have I formed for myself: they shall shew forth my
intimately to God Himself. He forms her, creates her.       praise," (Isaiah  43:2 1). Every individual member of
He even redeems her unto Himself by His own                 that church has his own personal calling to be holy, as
precious blood. He gives her to His Son, Who is the         God is holy. He knows himself to be friend-servant of
Servant  par excellence  in God's House, our Lord           the living God. "But ye are a chosen generation, a
Jesus Christ, in Whom God pays the purchase price           royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;
for His church unto all eternity. Nothing could be          that ye should shew forth the praises of him who
more fully, more intimately God's than His church.          hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous
We have the testimony of God Himself for that, "But         light." Already in the dispensation of shadows we
now thus saith the Lord that created thee, 0 Jacob,         were taught to sing:
and that formed thee, 0 Israel, Fear not: for I have          "Zion, founded on the mountains, God thy Maker
redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou              loves thee well:
art mine!" No earthly shepherd with a cherished               He has chosen thee, most precious, He delights in
flock as his sole possession could be more possessive            thee to dwell:
of his prized treasure than the Lord Himself. He says:        God's own city, who can all thy glory tell?"
"All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and
him that  cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."           This holy church is also universal.
(John  6:37).                                                 We  do, not make it our ambition to attain this uni-
  The church is holy because she is sanctified in           versality. We do not  hope  that this may be realized.
Christ. She has the forgiveness of sins and the cleans-     We  believe  a holy, universal church.
ing power of the Spirit through the atoning death of          If in any sense of the word the gathering of God's
Jesus Christ. The church receives the  ,personal            church depended upon man, we could never be
assurance that though her sins are as scarlet, Christ's     certain that it would ever attain its fulness. In fact,
blood washes her whiter than snow. Believers are            we could be sure that man must fail. But praise be
called  saints.  They are saints, not in themselves, not    God's holy Name! God gathers His church. He has
in outward appearance, not according to their old           entrusted this work to His Son Jesus Christ, Who
nature of sin, but they are saints as new creatures in      assures us: "I will build my church."
Christ, saved by His grace. God sees us in Christ, sees       "I will build my church," implies that Christ has
the righteousness of Christ in us, as if we never had       always before His consciousness the church as a
had any sin. God makes us new creatures, restored in        temple in all its fulness. At all times He sees and
the image of Christ, with the life of Christ within us.     knows that church according to the eternal blue
We have the beginning of eternal life in our hearts         prints drawn up by our heavenly Architect. God
even now.                                                   determines the length, the breadth, the height of that
  The church is holy because God is in the midst of         temple. He chooses each stone as a precious jewel in
her. Paul compares the church to a holy temple a            its own particular place. Jesus loves that temple so
dwelling place of God. "Now therefore ye are no             much that He was willing to come into our flesh as
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens          the Man of Sorrows, the suffering Servant of God, to
with the saints, and of the household of God, and are       redeem unto God that church as she is chosen unto
built upon the foundation of the apostles and               life eternal. Through His suffering and death He  ful-
prophets (the Holy Scriptures) Jesus Christ himself         tilled the Scriptures, "The stone which the builders
being the chief cornerstone; in whom all the building       rejected is become the head stone of the corner. This


508                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."           beginning to the end of the world, each stone care-
(Psalm  118:22,  23) Even before He ascended to heaven       fully shaped and polished through the power of the
Jesus gave us the assurance: "Other sheep I have,            Word for its own unique place in God's temple, to the
which are not of this fold: them also I must bring,          praise of the glory of His grace forever!
and they shall hear my voice: and there shall be one           Today that church has fallen upon evil times. One
fold, and one shepherd." (John  10:16)                       is inclined to take up the bitter lament of the days of
  What a significant statement that is! Jesus speaks         old,
of other sheep besides those which are already                  "In Thy heritage the heathen, now, 0 God,
gathered within the fold. He sees the entire church of               triumphant stand;
the old dispensation as one flock of sheep already             They defile Thy holy temple, they destroy Thy
gathered. Before His mind's eye He sees the church                   chosen land;
gathered in the line of the generations of believers           Ruthless they have slain Thy servants,
from Adam to Noah, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to             They have caused Thy saints to mourn,
Judah and David, even to Mary, the mother of our               In the sight of all about us we endure reproach and
Lord. The true, spiritual seed of Abraham had been                   scorn.:'
brought to the faith, and had died in that faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them             The church, in the estimation of many, has been
afar off, even unto the generation that could fix its        reduced to a "grace market," where Christ and all His
eyes upon the promised Seed, the Christ. Not one of          benefits are offered for sale to whoever may want
Christ's sheep, given to Him of the Father, had              Him. Others regard the church as a social center,
                                                             where the banquet hall, the gymnasium, the
perished.                                                    swimming pool, and the counsel chamber have all but
  Now He adds, "Other sheep I have." Not: I will             replaced the pulpit. The minister is surrounded with
have. Much less: I hope to have, if these sheep are          all sorts of assistants, a music director, a youth
but willing to heed My call. God forbid. Other sheep I       director, a psychologist, etc. The preaching has been
have already, given to Me of the Father to be re-            degraded to a dissertation on the political affairs or
deemed unto God by My blood. "For whom He (the               social needs of a troubled world. The attention is
Father) did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be         focused on  man,  that to man may be the glory, the
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be          praise, and the dominion as long as this world can
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom            last. The people's church has replaced God's church,
he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom           so that God's church has the appearance of a hut in a
he called, them he also justified, and whom he justi-        vineyard and of a besieged city.
fied, them he also glorified." Before God we are not
only foreknown and predestinated unto eternal life,            Yet the same One Who builds His church assures
but we are alsocalled, justified, glorified!                 us: "The gates of hell will never overwhelm her."
       "Them also I must bring." It is the voice of Jesus      He calls us to put on the whole armor of God, in
calling, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are            order to tight the battle of faith even to the end. He
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." No one can           requires that we be faithful, as a Bride to her
resist that call, for the Lord knows His own and             Husband, faithful even unto death. Even as He calls
draws them by His Spirit in their hearts.. Therefore         He is braiding for us the victor's crown in the
Acts  2:47 informs us, "And the Lord added to the            heavens.
church daily such as should be saved." And again in             I believe a church. And of this church I am and
Acts  13:48 we are told that the word of God through         forever shall remain a living member.
the apostle Paul was so powerful in Antioch of Pisidia
that "as many as were ordained to eternal life
-believed." Just as Acts  16:14 points out that the Lord
Himself opened the heart of Lydia to believe.

       One flock, one Shepherd. John on Patmos sees that
wonder fulfilled. "And I John saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I
heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself
shall be with them, and be their God." (Rev.  21:2, 3).

  This is the universal church, gathered from the


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                               509



EDITORIALS
                                         Staff Changes

                                                  ProJ: H. C. Hoeksema

  This issue is the first of Volume 52, and you will                The department  In His Fear  will be revived this
notice a few changes. All change is not improvement;          year, and it will also have some new blood. Pastor
but we hope and pray that these changes will serve to         Meindert Joostens, of Faith Prot. Ref. Church in
help our  Standard Bearer  hold high the standard, and        Jenison, Michigan, will be writing for this department
that they will kindle continued interest on the part of       in 11 of our 21 issues. The other 10 issues will be the
you, our readers.                                             responsibility of Rev. Dale Kuiper, as in the past.
  One change we already noted in our last issue.              Welcome to the Staff, Rev. Joostens!
Reluctantly we released Mr. Donald Doezema from                     During the coming volume-year we also expect to
his duties as news editor; and we welcome Mr.                 feature a larger number of guest articles from several
Kenneth Vink as his replacement.                              of our ministers who are not members of the staff.
   For many years we have seen Prof. H. Hanko's               This feature of our magazine serves a dual purpose,
name in the department  All Around  Us. That will be          you know: it adds variety to our magazine, and it
different from now on. Prof. Hanko has agreed to              gives potential future staff-members an opportunity
write for a new department on practical theology.             to try their pens  - or, if you will, to break in
The name of the department is  "My Sheep Hear  My             gradually.
Voice".  For the rest, Prof. Hanko himself will  intro-             For the rest, all departments and editors will con-
duce.this department to you.                                  tinue as last year, with the exception that one of our
  What about  All Around  Us? This department will            faithful veterans, Rev. John Heys, was given a dis-
be under the care of another of our veteran writers,          pensation to contribute on an irregular basis for  The
Rev. Herman Veldman, who has already been busy                Day of Shadows.
perusing the many religious papers which we receive                 And now, brethren of the writers' guild, let us all
on an exchange basis. By the way, Rev. Veldman will           go to work with a will, each contributing his due
be carrying more than a full load of writing this year:       share! And may the Lord our God bless our  Standard
for he has also agreed to contribute one-third of the         Bearer's  witness in the coming year, even as He has
meditations in this volume, even as last year.                abundantly done so in the past.



                                                               .            -
                          Our Australasian  `l`our  (1)

   With this article we make a beginning at reporting         churches are interested, perhaps similar programs can
to you some of our experiences and impressions of             be arranged elsewhere. For the rest, you will have to
our tour to Australasia. The Rev. Hanko and I have            be satisfied with word pictures.
completed a lengthy and detailed report to the                      Meanwhile, I also have to be careful how I express
denominational Committee for Contact With Other               myself: for the  Standard Bearer  goes down under,
Churches; and what we report here will be sub-                too; and this means that our friends there will be
stantially the same as our official report. Only I will       seeing themselves through my eyes. Well, I will tell
try to include some sidelights and some additional            the truth as best I can.
information which might serve to make these articles
a bit more interesting than our official report. I am               For the proper understanding of our tour a little
only sorry that we cannot include with these articles         geography lesson is necessary. This will at least give
the multitude of pictures which we took along the             you some understanding of the places to which we
way. A public program is being arranged for the               are referring, and it will help in understanding the
Grand Rapids area; and there we plan to show a selec-         circumstances of our tour.
tion of our slides (about half of them) as we take our              Everything is different down under. Mind  *you, I
audience on tour with us. If some of our outlying             didn't say "topsy turvy"!


510                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


                                         N E W   Z E A L A N D ,





            1 3 0 0   m i l e s   t o
            AUSTMLIA
       <





            T A S M A N
               S E A





                                                           P A C I F I C
                                                           O C E A N


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                511



   Auckland, New Zealand is some 8500 miles from             experience to have snow on the Fourth of July, as we
Grand Rapids. And that 8500 miles involves many              did the morning we left Christchurch! Nevertheless, I
 changes. In the first place, it involves time changes.      hasten to add that the warm, warm hospitality more
Mrs. Hoeksema and I left Grand Rapids on Saturday,           than compensated for the cold weather.
 June 14. We flew to Chicago, and from there non-              The heavens are different down under, too.
 stop to Honolulu, Hawaii. That was our first experi-        Dominant in the night skies is the Southern Cross.
 ence of "jet lag." In Honolulu it was  3:30 p.m. when       And I don't know whether it was only because we
we arrived at our lodging; in Grand-Rapids, however,         were in the bush country, completely away from the
it was  9:30 p.m.  - only a couple hours before bed-         city lights, and on an exceptionally clear night; but
time. Well, we learned that this thing called jet lag is     down on the  Taranna Peninsula in Tasmania we all
real; it involves not only your sleep, but all the timing
 of your body. And it is a matter of discretion to give      remarked that the stars seemed to hang especially low
yourself time along the way to adjust to the change.         in the firmament, shining like bright lanterns. One
This was the purpose of our stops at Honolulu and            thing, however, we never learned. There was a very
 Fiji. The trouble is that we also lost a day! Crossing      bright evening star in the Southern Hemisphere. We
the ocean from Honolulu to Fiji, we picked up                noticed it repeatedly, and we asked about it. Mr. Ian
 another couple hours and skipped an entire day.             Morgan, who is experienced in navigation and who
When we left Honolulu, it was Sunday night, June 15.         therefore has some knowledge of these things, assured
On the way we crossed the International Dateline,            us, when we were in Melbourne, that it was a  star,  not
                                                             a planet. But no one could name this star for us. Any
with the result that when we disembarked at Nadi,            amateur astronomers who could enlighten us?
Fiji, it was  4:30 A.M., Tuesday, June 17. And while
we picked up many more hours before returning                  The language is different down under, too. I sup-
home, we never slipped back a day. Hence, while we           pose we Americans have to concede that it is closer to
were in New Zealand, whenever we wanted to figure            true English than is our language. But the New
out the time in Grand Rapids, we had to add 8                Zealanders tend to speak with a rather clipped,
hours and subtract a day. By the way, did it ever            English accent; by the time we left New Zealand we
 occur to you that when we pray on Sunday for the            were becoming more adept at understanding and even
 church and the preaching of the Word in other lands,        attempting to imitate. And although we had to listen
it is already Monday in places like New Zealand and          closely, the language presented no obstacle; and it
Australia? And when we remembered our home                   seems our American accent was no great obstacle. We
 churches on Sunday in New Zealand, it was not yet           only had to get accustomed to some of the New
Sunday here at home!                                         Zealand idioms. This was even true of the road signs.
                                                             How do you like "deceptive bend" for dangerous
   The climate is different, too. We were in the             curve; or "greasy when wet" for slippery when wet;
Southern Hemisphere, which means that the seasons            or "metal surface" for gravel road? Or how do you
are the opposite of ours. We left Grand Rapids on a          like "tea" as the name for evening dinner, and
beautiful summer day; when we arrived in Auckland,           "supper" for late-night coffee time?
it was top-coat weather. We finally shipped some               The country of New Zealand is delightfully pic-
winter clothes home when we were about to leave              turesque. We did not have very much opportunity to
Sidney, Australia. And if any of our readers is think-       see the country; but what we saw was beautiful. Both
ing about travelling to Australasia, let me advise you       islands are mountainous. The North Island is very
strongly to go when it is winter here and summer             much like the lower mountains along our East Coast,
there! And with all apologies to my Kiwi and Aussie          while the South Island is rather famous for its lofty
friends, it was cold!!! They told us in New Zeeland  -       and snowcapped Southern Alps, which, however, we
and we believe them  - that their winter season is rather    could view only from our plane one afternoon. The
short and that this was an unusually cold winter (they       climate is actually relatively mild. Through much of
said in Christchurch that it was the coldest in 100          the North Island we saw oranges and grapefruit
years). Nevertheless, it was cold. Frankly, I think they     growing, which testifies to the fact that the winters
could take some lessons from us on how to heat their         cannot be severe. On most days when there are a few
houses and churches! Central heating is a rarity there;      degrees of frost at night, the temperature gets above
and when it becomes cold, the little space-heaters are       the freezing point during the daylight hours. And
not adequate to heat their homes and churches,               especially in the northern part of the North Island the
especially not when the electrical voltage is reduced!       grass in the hilly pastures (called  `fpaddocks"  there)
An electric bed-warmer or even a hot water bottle in         was lush and green; and it was a beautiful sight to see
bed was most welcome. And once the Rev. Hanko                the thousands of sheep grazing peacefully. The South
even welcomed a sheepskin throw rug which he could           Island is very rugged, with a range of mountains
wrap around his ice-cold feet in bed! Yes, it's quite an     running the length of the island, for the most part


512                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER



leaving only a rather narrow belt of farm country               church is about as far south of the equator as Grand
along the eastern  -coastal  areas. Distances are rather        Rapids is north of it. And  Dunedin would compare in
great; because of the mountains and hills the roads             southern latitude with the Straits of Mackinac in
are rather winding and slow. And so, because of our             northern Michigan.
full  schediiIe,  most of our travel was by air.                  One more fact of  geography. We  "top-siders" tend
  To furnish some idea of where we were and how                 to think of New Zealand and Australia as being rather
far we travelled, let  me give a few facts and figures.         close. But they are two distinct countries, each with
Auckland, at the north end of the North Island, is              its own culture  and customs; and there are more than
New Zealand's largest city, with ports on both the              1300 miles of the Tasman Sea separating Auckland,
Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. It is about as far            N.Z. from Sidney, Australia.
south of the equator as the city of Norfolk,  Virginia
is north of it. Wellington, at the south end of the               For the rest, you may refer to the accompanying
North Island, is the capital city. It is some 300 air           outline-map to gain some idea of where we went
miles from, Auckland. From Wellington to Christ-                during the New Zealand portion of our tour. We have
church, the largest city on the South Island, is around         marked on the map the various places where we held
200 miles by air. And from  Dunedin at the south end            meetings.
of the South Island to Nelson at the north end is                 Next time we will try to sketch the  church-
roughly 400 miles. Wellington is about as far south of          situation in New Zealand and tell you something
the equator as New York City is north of it. Christ-            about our contacts.

ALL AROUND US

                             Pierre Courthial's Dream
                                                       Rev. H Veldman


  It was a year ago that the  Standard Bearer  (Oct. 1,           After calling attention to the dream of John
1974) referred to a dream of the editor of  The Out-            Calvin, in which the reformer of Geneva had written
look.  In this dream the editor dreamt of a Congress of         that he would cross, if necessary, ten seas in search of
Conservatives. Rev. John Vander Ploeg was very                  true ecumenicity, Pierre Courthial also mentions our
willing that this conference would also be attended             churches in his letter to the editor of  The Outlook.
by representatives of our Protestant Reformed                   When he quotes from Calvin's letters to show that the
Churches. However, the editor was afraid of one                 reformer of Geneva favored and strongly desired a
thing, namely, that time and energy and efforts                 conference which would deal only with "funda-
would be exhausted in a futile effort to resolve a              mentals" and not with secondary matters, I remind
controversy that is of fifty years' standing. He                the brother that John Calvin was an uncompromising
referred, of  course;to the Three Points of 1924. We,           champion of the sovereignty of God and that he
however, believe that this controversy is fundamental.          opposed any and every denial of this truth with all
Until now we have heard nothing of such a con-                  the power at his command. This can be shown.
ference. And, as of now, under present circumstances,           However, we now refer to the following in his letter
one can hardly visualize the presence of Protestant             to the editor of  The Outlook:
Reformed representatives at such a conference.                           It is a historical evil placed under the judgment of
                                                                    God that the Reform  ended in "national" churches
  Well, it is in connection with this dream of the                  and not in the re-formation of a "universal" church
editor of  The Outlook,  that Pierre Courthial,                     ("catholic" or "ecumenical").
Academic Director of the Faculty of Reformed
Theology at Aix-en-Provence, France, also has a                          Our Reformed vision of the churches of God (or
                                                                   the church of God) ought to be "de-nationalized,"
dream. We read of this dream in the August, 1975,                   "de-particularized." It is normal that there be local
issue of  The Outlook  in a letter which this brother               churches, expressions of the holy universal church,
sent to Rev. J. Vander Ploeg; it appears on page 21.                and that there be regional and national synods. But
His dream is of a renewal of the very old dream which               would it not be normal that there be regularly
was that of John Calvin.                                            universal "catholic," "ecumenical" synods?


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                            513


        You state very well: "The danger is that we             extended in the entire world." One wonders what his
    together might exhaust our time and energy and              opinion may be of the fathers of Dordt and of the
    efforts in a futile effort to resolve a controversy that    Canons of Dordrecht. What is his appraisal of that
    is of fifty years standing" - the controversy between       great Synod of Dordrecht and of the efforts of this
    PRC and CRC.                                                great synod to set forth the error and heresy of the
        But an ecumenical congress would oblige us              Armmians in all its detail, declaring that Arminianism
    all to surmount all  secondary and quite relative           is a heresy that has its origin in hell? Does the editor
    historical problems in order to seize again (to use         of  The Outlook  agree with this French writer when
   the words of Cramner)  the principal points of  t/!e
   ecclesiastical doctrine and to search for "the path of       the latter speaks of secondary matters we should
   unity of all the confessing reforms throughout the           surmount? Did not the Rev. Vander Ploeg speak of
    world. Our too-narrow points of view, too much              the danger of exhausting our time and energy and
    drowned in local controversies would be enlarged.           efforts in a futile effort to resolve a controversy that
   Thanks to God, we would go to His Word and to His            is of fifty years' standing? Is it true that our differ-
    Spirit :                                                    ences, as Protestant Reformed Churches, with the
  1. Toward the establishment of an  ecumemkal                  Christian Reformed Churches are secondary matters?
     Reformed confession of faith;                              If these be secondary matters, then it must also be
                                                                true that the issues which confronted our fathers at
  2. Toward the establishment of a  common                      the great synod of Dordrecht were also secondary
     ecclesiastical discipline  crowned by the regular
      institution of a Reformed ecumenical synod;               matters. What are these primary matters as in distinc-
                                                                tion from the things that are secondary? We will
  3. Toward the extension of a Reformed evangel-                indeed maintain that the so-called secondary matters
      ization in the entire world.                              of 1924 are the destruction, eventually, of all primary
    "Like Calvin we must be willing to cross ten seas (he       matters. Is not the terrible condition of the Christian
    says ten) to unite the church."                             Reformed Church today a tremendous testimony to
        "To cherish the vision or goal of having all those      this effect? One can never separate this condition
    who are scripturally conservative and genuinely             from 1924.
    Reformed in a Catholic Reformed  Church hardly calls
    for an indictment or an apology. As prophets, priests
    and kings, are we not all entitled and also obligated         So, the issues of 1924 are secondary matters! Is it a
    to cherish and also to pursue such an ideal, even           secondary matter to speak  of the love of God as
    though we do it unofficially?"                              universal rather than particular? Is it a secondary
       Such is my dream. Such is my appeal, Such is my          matter to teach' that God would save all men and
   prayer.                                                      must be satisfied with the salvation of a few, rather
                                                                than teach that He saves whom He wills? Is it
       Expressing to you my gratitude and devotion in           secondary that the preaching of the gospel is merely
    Christ, I am sincerely yours,
                                          Pierre Courthial.     an offer instead of the power of God unto salvation?
                                                                Is it secondary to teach that the natural man is not
  It would be interesting to read the answer of the             wholly corrupt but can do much good before the
editor of  The Outlook  to this letter and dream of             living and perfectly righteous and holy God? These
Pierre Courthial.                                               departures from the truth of the infallible Scriptures
  One also wonders what kind of a  Reformed  con-               are not secondary. They are primary and vital. Until
gress this brother from France envisions. He speaks of          now, the Christian Reformed Church has consistently
"too-narrow points of view, too much drowned in                 refused to discuss these matters with us. We have
local controversies", which would be enlarged. He               been ready and willing to do this; we are ready and
also speaks of a "Reformed evangelization being                 willing to do this today.


                                       Reprobation Ignored

  I am not about to quote from the July, 1975,                  Reformed Church today with 1924. So, they, too, are
News Bulletin of thy ACRL,  the Association of the              simply "whistling in the dark."
Christian Reformed Laymen. I assume these quota-
tions to be correct and just. This association also               Our readers undoubtedly know that Dr. Boer
makes the fundamental error of refusing to associate            requested the synod of the Christian Reformed
the very alarming conditions in the Christian                   church last June to produce scriptural grounds in


  514                                                   THE STANDARD  BEARE,R


  support of the doctrine of reprobation as set forth in               the Canons of Dordrecht as a 17th Century docu-
  our Canons of Dordrecht. Instead of appearing at the                 ment. I would remind this minister of  Classis Kalama-
  synod with a gravamen, protesting against the teach-                 zoo that this document happens to be one of our
  ings of the Canons (which would have required of                     creeds, the product of the Church of God and of
  him that he walk the proper ecclesiastical way and in                Christ, even as that church was led and directed by
  the meantime refraining from making any propaganda                   the Spirit of Christ in harmony with Christ's own
  for his views), he requested of the synod this scriptural            promise that He would lead His church into all the
  evidence, and this in spite of the very clear scriptural            truth. I would also remind this minister, formerly of
  references set forth in the Canons.                                  our churches, that this "17th Century document,"
    Well, on pages 6 and 7 of this bulletin we have a                 instead of creating real problems, speaks a language
  copy of the Rev. L. Doezema's speech delivered at                   that is clear as crystal, and that it creates problems
  that synod; We .quote:                                              only for those who are in disagreement with it. And I
                                                                      would finally remind Rev. Doezema of the fact that
            I think we all should appreciate the concern of Dr.       the scriptural proof Dr. Boer requests for the doctrine
         Boer here . , . I think everyone who has worked with         of reprobation is contained in these very Canons,
         the Canons especially in connection with the Conclu-         specifically the First Head of these Canons. It is true
         sions of the Canons will realize that this 17th Century      that the fathers do not refer to any Scripture when
         document creates real problems . . . And certainly we
         shouldn't just take the Canons as clear in this respect      they set forth God's double decree of predestination
         either and as we go on and are farther away from that        in the positive part of this Head in connection with
         point we increase as we are farther away from the            the doctrine of reprobation. However, the positive
         original authors of this document. We increase in our        part of Head I is full of scriptural proofs as far as the
         problems especially with the complexity of our day,          doctrine of election is concerned. And, of course, the
         changing in philosophical presuppositions . . . And          doctrine of election presupposes the doctrine of
         who doesn't have agony with the decrees of God . . .         reprobation. And, as far as the doctrine of reproba-
         If there is not a possibility to show clear Scriptural       tion is concerned, that part of Head I which deals
         proof, then we have maintained that the Canons are           with the Rejection of Errors does refer to the Word
         expressing something above and beyond the Scrip-             of God in support of its doctrine of reprobation.
         ture. . .
    We  must bear in mind that Dr. Boer was requesting                   We will return to this report of this association in
  the synod for scriptural proof for the doctrine of                  our following article. We would conclude with the
  reprobation as taught in the Canons. So Rev.                        very mild remark that the Rev. L. Doezema would
  Doezema,  .formerly a minister in our Protestant                    not have spoken this language, either before 1953 or
  Reformed Churches, declares that all should appre-                  during 1953. I refer, we understand, to the time when
  ciate the concern of Dr. Boer. I would therefore con-               the De Wolf element left our churches because they
  clude from this that this concern of Dr. Boer is a                  would maintain a conditional theology with respect
legitimate concern. Notice, Rev. Doezema speaks of                    to the promise.


  "MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE"

                                                     Introduction
                                                              Prof. H. Hanko


    There are mixed feelings about "leaving" one                       is acquainted with the purpose of each room, what
  department of the  Standard Bearer  and moving into                  can be expected to be found there, for what purpose
  another. It is, I suppose, something like moving.                    each room has been set aside; he is familiar with the
  Although I have moved in my lifetime more times                      dusty comers where no one comes and the places
  than I care to count, each move was accompanied by                   where the cracked plaster does not yet quite show.
  these same mixed feelings. One dislikes leaving a                    The laughter and noise, the sounds of fellowship and
  house one has come to know well. He knows the                        camaraderie belong in that house and blend in with
  creaks and sighs, the sounds during the night as well                the walls and ceilings. He recognizes the turns in the
  as he knows the speech of a close friend. In it he can               road which have to be made to get there, and he
  find his way without difficulty  - even in the dark. He              rejoices to arrive: for it is home, and there is no place


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               515


like home.                                                   ples of method of catechetical instruction;  Liturgies,
   "All Around Us" has been my "home" for fifteen            which discusses the principles of worship and the con-
years. I had learned to feel as comfortable there as it      tents of the liturgical forms; Poimenics, which limits
is possible to feel in any writing venture. I was as         itself to the area of pastoral care; Church Polity,
acquainted as one can be with its nooks and crannies,        which studies the principles of Church government
with its strengths and weaknesses, and the loose             and the Church Order which is used in the Protestant
boards which could make one stumble were not                 Reformed Churches.
unknown to me who had walked its corridors so                   Because the field is so broad, there are different
often. To leave it behind pulls a bit at the heart.          ways in which one could treat this subject. Perhaps
   But moving can also be high adventure. It was that        the way which suggests itself first of all is to take
already when I was still a child and the farmer's            each of the individual areas of study enumerated
trucks used to pull up at the front door to carry our        above and develop them much in the same way one
earthly belongings to our new dwelling. When we              would develop the subjects while treating them in the
came, with the third or fourth truckload, it was not         classroom of the Seminary. There are objections to
home by any means. No rugs were laid or curtains             doing it this way, however. One runs the risk of writ-
hung. The rooms were bare mostly, and everything             ing in this area in such a way that what he writes is of
looked strange and out of place. We did not know the         interest only to ministers. And it would be of little
house and could not feel comfortable there. It was           value to them because most of the material would be
difficult to sleep the first night. There were strange       what they have already received in the years of their
sounds which could not be identified and an atmos-           Seminary training, and there is also the obvious fact
phere which was foreign and insecure. But there were         that such material can easily be gained from  ,other
new rooms to explore, new discoveries to make and            sources. We have, e.g., syllabi in the Seminary in
new surroundings to investigate. In, the end, the            almost all these subjects, and anyone interested in
strangeness was worth it. The sense of adventure out-        what the Seminary has to say can send for one of
weighed the strangeness.                                     these syllabi.
   Going into a new rubric is like that. Its "rooms"            It would be better if the articles were more practi-
are new, its strangeness is unsettling. There is a lot of    cal. But, even then, they ought to be practical in such
getting-use-to-it which needs to be done. But there is       a way that they are of value to ministers and  office-
the potential for adventure, for there are new areas to      bearers not only, but also to all our readers as they
explore. The excitement, I think, outweighs the diffi-       live their life in the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.
culties.                                                     This is the way, therefore, we hope to develop our
                         *****                               articles in this field.
  Why a new rubric?                                             One more comment.
   The idea was born at last summer's staff meeting.           It seems to me that a rubric of this nature could
The editor, prior to the staff meeting, sent out a           benefit greatly by reader participation. I do not know
notice of the meeting to all the contributors to our         how much of this there can be. But if our readers
paper, and he asked, along with the notice, for sugges-      would write in connection with this subject, the value
tions which anyone might have for change which               of the rubric could be greatly enhanced. You can
would make our paper more interesting and valuable.          write to ask questions which are of concern and
One of our ministers suggested that a rubric in              interest to you. You can write to make comments,
"pastoral theology" would be a valuable addition to          remarks, criticisms and register objections. You can
the  Standard Bearer.  He wrote, in part: "Perhaps one       write enclosing articles or notices which appear else-
or more . . . men might write a department directed          where which you think are worthwhile enough to be
to the good orderly operation of the church, e.g., the       considered in this rubric. In fact, you can write the
place of preaching, family visitation, catechism, Chris-     column yourself if you believe you would like to get
tian discipline, etc. Perhaps this could be on the order     your ideas into print. But if we can arouse reader
of pastoral advice for all to hear. . .  ."                  participation, so much the better.
                                                                                        *****
  The staff thought the idea a good one, and a new             The title of this rubric is taken from John  10:27:
rubric was born.                                             "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
                         *****                               follow me." Yet, the figure is very common in the
  The field of pastoral theology is a broad one. In          Scriptures. The relationship of God to His people in
the Seminary there is a whole department of pastoral         Jesus Christ is often described as a relation between a
theology which includes the following subjects:              shepherd and his sheep. In that most beloved of all
Homiletics, which deals with the whole science of            Psalms,  Psalm 23: 1, the Psalmist writes: "The Lord is
sermon making; Catechetics, which treats the princi-         my shepherd; I shall not want." Already in the Old


     516                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



     Testament, Christ was spoken of as the Shepherd of           without a shiver of fear, for it is a dreadful thing to
     His sheep. Isaiah writes in Isaiah 40: 11: "He shall feed    be an unfaithful shepherd. "Son of man, prophesy
     his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs         against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say
     with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall         unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the
     gently lead those that are with young." But it is in         shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do
     the New Testament that this idea comes to the fore-          feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the
     ground. In Luke  15:3-7, the well-known parable of           flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the
     the lost sheep, Jesus compares Himself to a Shepherd         wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the
     Who goes in search of the sheep which is lost. Mark,         flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither
     in Mark  6:34 writes of the people of Israel in their        have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye
     relation to Christ: "And Jeus, when he came out, saw         bound up that which was broken, neither have ye
     much people, and was moved with compassion toward            brought again that which was driven away, neither have
     them, because they were as sheep not having a                ye sought that which was lost; but with force and
     shepherd: and he began to teach them many things."           with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were
     The epistles speak of this also. Peter writes, in I Peter    scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they
     2:25: "For ye were as sheep going astray; but are            became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they
     now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your            were scattered. . . . Thus saith the Lord God; Behold,
     souls." And again in  5:4: "And when the chief               I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock
     Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of           at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding
     glory that fadeth not away." In Hebrews 13: 20 we            the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves
     read: "Now the God of peace, that brought from the           any more; for I will deliver my flock from their
     dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the              mouth, that they may not be meat for them." Ezekiel
     sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,        34:  l-10.
     make you perfect in every good work."                           Hence, God's people are repeatedly referred to
       Especially in the Old Testament, the officebearers         sheep in the Scriptures. This is implied in the passages
     in the Church were called shepherds. It is striking that      which we quoted above. But there are many other,
     this is especially in connection with the unfaithful-         specific passages which refer to this. In Isaiah 53  :6 all
     ness of those who were responsible for caring for the        God's people confess: "All we like sheep have gone
     spiritual needs of God's people. A couple of passages        astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and
     will suffice. In Jeremiah  25:34-36  we read: "Howl, ye      the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." The
     shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the             same thing is true in  Psalm 119: 176: "I have gone
     ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your       astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not
     slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished;          forget thy commandments." In John 10 Jesus re-
     and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the            peatedly refers to His people as His sheep Who hear
     shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal       His voice and follow Him. In Matthew 25 Jesus de-
     of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the             scribes the judgment in terms of separating the sheep
     shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the             from the goats.. vss. 31-46. And this figure is repeat-
     flock, shall be heard: for the Lord hath spoiled their        edly referred to in the prophets.
     pasture." Ezekiel 34 deals almost exclusively with
     this subject. One cannot read this powerful passage             But with this we must close for the time being.

I

     IN HIS FEAR

                                  The Little Things of Love
                                                        Rev. D. H. Kuiper



            The subject is love. Although we use the term love     spiritual, vertical love, we ought to be reminded that
     very loosely sometimes, saying we love this food or           for the child of God there is really only one kind of
     we love those clothes, although the Word of God               love; there is love. By way of introduction to this
     differentiates between a natural, horizontal love and a       tremendously important and fascinating subject,  con-


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                             517



sider these examples. There was a young man who              night. Take heed to them. Walk in them morning and
was courting a maiden. He professed such a great             evening, in the home and by the way. But there is a
love for this young lady of his choice that he ex-           certain warning here. God has delivered us from the
pressed the willingness to swim the widest ocean for         icy grip of death and caused us to enter into His
her, or to climb the highest mountain. Indeed, wild          friendship that we may enjoy Him forever and ever.
horses could not keep him from her side! Then after a        We might begin to think that God requires us to
farewell embrace he said to her, "Good night.  I'll see      express our gratitude for so great a salvation in some
you on Friday if it doesn't rain." What do you sup-          unusual, spectacular way. So that we begin to look
pose ran through the young lady's mind?. . . . There is      about us for big deeds, magnificent works, splashy
in our land the custom of recognizing Mother's and           activities. And as we search for these, we neglect the
Father's Day. Children and young people make or              simple, little things right around us that ought not to
buy gifts for their parents as an expression of love         be left undone. We forget that being a Christian does
and gratitude. When these tokens are unwrapped, the          not usually involve us in big, attention-getting
parents use the ties or perfume, but oftentimes              things . . . not for most of us at any rate. We march
their unspoken reaction goes something like this:            in the army of Jesus Christ taking little steps and
"Oh, I like these things you have given me, but              doing little tasks. There are times, of course, when a
do you know what I would really like? You don't              faithful life demands of the saint that he stands ready
have to give me gifts. Just listen to what your mother       to perform startling deeds. In Old Testament times
and I say to you all the year through. That would be         this was required of Elijah and Daniel and many
the finest gift  !"                                          others. Later Stephen was martyred for his good con-
   So it is with love as it relates to God and to Christ.    fession, and the apostles were hauled before councils
This love is the response of the child of God to God's       again and again. The history of the New Dispensa-
eternal love for him, and is actually the same love as       tion Church is liberally splashed with the blood of the
we have for our parents, our fellow saints, those we         martyrs. For the faithful there was exile, there was
court, and our neighbor. In His farewell sermon as it        torture, there was death. But the battle we are given
is recorded in John  14:15,  Jesus states, "If you love      to wage does not center about such wonderful sac-
Me, keep My commandments." Today as perhaps                  rifices of life. Today the Christian life moves with
never before these words must be understood and              little steps, day after day.
kept by the members of Christ's Church, be they                 Do you remember the example used earlier? There
young or old.                                                was this young man with his ardent love. But how
   The commandments to which Jesus refers are the            many times would he have to swim the ocean or
Ten Commandments, the moral law given to Israel at           climb lofty mountains for his lady love? His words
Mount Sinai through Moses. These two tables of the           were empty and meaningless. She wanted to see him
law, written full, cover all life's relationships. And       rain or shine, and if his car were out of gas, would he
those tables, written in rock by the very finger of          walk? That's the kind of mistake we must avoid in
God, give us a law that is eternal and un- changeable,       showing our love for God and the Savior. Don't say
modem permissiveness and situation ethics to the             to God, "I would rather be put to death than deny
contrary notwithstanding. The essence of the Com-            Thee, I would rather be burned at the stake than say
mandments is that we love the Lord our God with              Thy Word is not Truth!" Don't say that sort of thing
our whole being and our neighbor as  ourself.  Jesus         because in an age when these things are not required
does not direct our attention to the Law as if it were       of us, such a profession is self-deceiving and meaning-
the way by which we can gain entrance into heaven:           less. At the present time, the Lord is ruling over all
for that is not the way to salvation, and it never was.      things from heaven in such a way that we have free-
Even for Israel the Law was a schoolmaster to bring          dom to read the Bible, pray, worship publicly accord-
them to Christ. The law functioned as a whip with            ing to the dictates of our consciences. But this does
one hard message: You are cursed if you do not keep          not mean there are not many temptations which, if
all of this law. And thus the believing Israelite looked     not successfully resisted, will result in our denying of
to the coming Christ, Who is the end of the law for          the Christ! The Devil has learned to be more refined,
righteousness to everyone that believes (Rom.  10:4).        more subtle in his approach to the sheep. He has
Yet even after Christ sacrificed Himself, the law            learned that the blunt, frontal attack  .backfires on
remains. Although its  function  has changed, its            him; and so he tempts in these days in respect to the
conte&s  have not changed in the slightest. Engraved         little, daily things. And so we must be directed to the
in the hearts of God's people by the Spirit of Liberty,      words: "If you love Me, keep My commandments."
it is our faithful guide for a life of thankful service.       A couple of practical points ought to be made.
  Thus Jesus says, "If ye love Me, keep My com-              First, great emphasis is placed today on witnessing
mandments." Meditate upon them by day and by                 and evangelism projects. These projects have the


518                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


special aim of getting the church member involved.            means you have to bite your tongue. Admonish those
Now the Church must certainly engage in mission               who are profane in speech. And finally, there is the
work through her office-bearers. And every member             7th Commandment which enjoins purity in  ,words,
of the Church, young and old, must witness to the             thoughts, desires, and actions. Through television and
power of God's grace. We are His witnesses, we are            the movie, through magazines and the stage, the Devil
the light of the world! But what dangers this topic           would make wicked fornicators of all of us. Be pure!
presents!  How  are we to be God's witnesses, and             Refuse to engage in sexual permissiveness, which is
where?  Specifically, because this is being urged upon        only another form of the bondage of sin. View
the young people, how do young  people  witness to            marriage as the sacred bond between one man and
God's redeeming grace? Many say that evangelism               one woman for life. This is the holiness which must
teams must go to other communities and even other             clothe us as a robe, without which no man shall see
states in order to reach people there. Others say that        God, but which having, children of God shall shake
the youth ought to conduct periodically the worship           the world as all men behold your Christianity.
services in their own churches so they can express
what God has done for them. (Usually they speak of               Secondly, the last few years have witnessed the
what they have done for God.) This is the error we            spectacular growth in many church fellowships of
mentioned above, the search for the unusual. Such             neo-pentecostalism which teaches there are two kinds
activities do not recognize that God has put you in a         of Christians: there is the common garden-variety
certain life-position, and that in that place you are         Christian who has been reborn from above, and there
called upon to live a consistent, holy life.                  is the elite Christian who not only has rebirth but also
                                                              has been specially filled with the Spirit, which filling
       The correct, most effective method of witnessing is
for young people to keep the Commandments of                  enables him to do spectacular (splashy) things, and
                                                              unusual (bazaar) deeds. He can speak in strange
God. Even though all the Commandments must guide              tongues, he can have direct speech with God, he can
you, four stand out for youth as far as witnessing is         perform acts of healing on the unfortunate. Be
concerned. These are days of terrible Sabbath                 warned that these fantastic claims are mere fan-
desecration; therefore, keep the Sabbath Day holy!            tasies. Do not get caught up in this  Biblically-
Be active on Sunday, but busy yourselves only with            groundless movement! You see, when such things are
those things which are kingdom-centered and king-             thought to be the essence of the Christian life, the
dom-preparing. And refuse to go along with the                things that ought to be done are left undone. The
trend of making the Lord's Day a day of selfish               way to demonstrate the presence of the Spirit, which
pleasure seeking. Secondly, these are days of lawless-        fills every child of God without exception, is to mani-
ness and open rebellion in all the areas of authority         fest the fruits of the Spirit. And the fruit of the Spirit
that God has instituted, namely, the home, the                is above all else a walk in the quiet way of God's
church, the government, and industry. Be submissive           commandments. Hear Paul in Galatians  5:22-23:
and obedient to those over you through whom it                "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,  long-
pleases God to govern you. That will shout to those           suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
around you that you are a true yoke-fellow of Jesus           temperance. . .  ."
Christ, and that you have learned the first principle of
the Kingdom . . . humility. Thirdly, more and more              Will such things witness to God and give Him the
man's language becomes profane and stinks of the              glory? Such things as meekness and gentleness in
sewer. The Names of God, His Christ, Their attributes         today's world  of competitive striving? Precisely! Keep
are boldly being dragged through the mud of men's             the words of Jesus and love one another. Then are
sinful lives. Refuse to swear and curse, even if it           you His disciples!

THESTRENGTHOFYOUTH

                                         Youth and  War
                                                   Rev. J, Kortering

  War?                                                           Well, that's just the point.
  Whose interested in war? We aren't involved in                 Lest we become complacent and relegate wars to
fighting wars now, we don't even have an active draft         ancient history, we had better do some serious  think-
for young men. Why think about war?                           ing about war as it applies to us today.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 519


  Looking back, we notice that war has played a                 This is not to say that all war is sinful.
large role in our American history. We have been                Pacifism seems to be the "in" thing within the
involved in nine wars: The Revolutionary War, the             modem church today. Surely, the Christian does not
War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the              extol war. We shudder to think of it; it is repulsive; it
Spanish-American War, World War I and II, the                 is the terrible curse of God upon sin. How can anyone
Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Put them all                 ever glamorize war? Bloodshed, wounded soldiers,
together and they cover 42 years or about  one-               assaulted innocents, devastated land, the cries of the
fourth the time of our country's existence. Over              widows and orphans, chill the heart. No, we do not
one-half million of our young men were killed during          say that war is desirable in itself. It is easy for us to
these conflicts. In the past, wars have certainly             understand how the pendulum has swung from mili-
touched the lives of Americans in a direct and per-           tarism to pacifism.
sonal way.                                                      War, however, must be viewed within the frame-
  What about the future?                                      work of God's authority granted to government. We
  Two things are significant here. We have just lost          read in Rom.  13:4, "For he (that is the ruler) is the
our first war; no matter how the politicians may try          minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that
to cover up, we lost the Vietnam War. The cause for           which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword
which thousands of young Americans gave their lives,          in vain, for he is the minister of God a revenger to
namely, to safeguard South Vietnam from a Com-                execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." He does
munist takeover, failed. Today all of Vietnam is in           this in two ways, first, by punishing criminals within
the hands of the Communists. We lost, not because             society, either by imprisonment, fines, or ultimately
we lacked military might; no, we have plenty of               capital punishment. Secondly, he does this by pro-
weapons. We lost because we lost the will to fight.           tecting the citizens from attack. War is part of the
Americans did not want war any more. This is signifi-         arsenal of self-defense. This may be either of one's
cant. The second thing is that we do not have an active       own country, or if by treaty a country promises to
draft program. Our army is "voluntary". We are cut-           help protect the right of existence to another
ting back the acceleration of weapon production. It           country. Within the framework of protection from
seems as if America is pretty much putting war out of         attack, war is a legitimate tool of government.
its mind. Will there be war no more? Are young men              We readily admit that the application' of this
safe in planning their future? Is this wonderful? Must        principle is what creates problems. How is a war of
we thank God for this? Does this make the future              self-defense to be distinguished from a war of aggres-
bright for youthful Christians?                               sion? Our recent debacle in Vietnam demonstrated
A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE                                       this only too well. Shouldn't we learn one thing, that
                                                              the citizen, no matter how informed he may be, is
  War is an expression of man's depravity as a result         hardly in a position to make a correct judgment on
of sin. We can be sure that as long as the earth re-          the legitimacy of war. There are so many secret
mains, there will lurch within the dark recesses of           commitments, so much political intrigue, that the
man's heart the urge and lust for conquest. God               responsibility of the moral aspects of war rest to a
described man's evil in these terms, "every imagina-          large extent upon the elected officials. True, within
tion of the thoughts of his heart were only evil              the framework of our type of government, the citizen
continually", Gen.  6:5. In the New Testament, the            is responsible and must exercise that response cor-
Spirit tells us, that the natural man is, "filled with all    rectly; yet when it comes to war, there certainly are
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous-           limitations upon this ability. It seems rather. pre-
ness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate,"           sumptuous for a citizen to stand up and lead a large
etc, Rom. 1: 29. Adam fell into sin as a king, the king       segment of our citizenry against the government, to
of the creation; and now that desire to rule over all the     oppose war, on the basis of common knowledge.
earth is corrupted, not lost, but corrupted so that
man dreams of world conquest and the lust for                 CHRIST, THE LORD OF WAR
power courses through his veins. He longs for the
earth's wealth and wants to take what does not belong           The privilege of a Christian is not to get over-
to him. Of these things, war is composed.                     whelmed in a debate that seems to produce only
                                                              confusion, rather to evaluate events in the light of
   That nature of man is the same today, no matter            Scripture and acknowledge that the Lordship of
what the lie of Liberalism within the churches may            Christ affords inestimable comfort in trying to under-
say. War is like a lion in the breast of every man. Man       stand the sovereignty of God over against war.
is not improving, society is not becoming better. No,
man is becoming worse and the drive for war is                  God's Word declares clearly, "By me kings reign,"
stronger than ever.                                           Prov. 8: 15. Or, "The king's heart is in the hands of


520                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


the Lord, as rivers of water he turneth it  whitherso-         war any more." Already these words are in-
ever he will," Prov. 21: 1. God is indeed sovereign            scribed upon the United Nations building. Antichrist
over kings.                                                    will claim for himself the peace promised by the
       This sovereignty is rooted in His will to redeem His    prophets to the children of God in heaven. Doesn't
church out of the fallen world and to crush the                this explain the attitude on the part of many
serpent and his brood, once for all. This He did by            American people already? They lost the will to fight.
the. blood of Calvary. At the cross, Christ established        Nations talk about detente, peaceful co-existence,
Himself as God's Ruler in the midst of the world. He           arms limitation, etc. Are we not on the threshold of
took from Satan any claim he had upon His people               antichirst? How careful the Christian must be to
and secured righteousness for His own.                         realize that the "peace" of antichirst will not be his
                                                               safety and surety. Rather, it will occasion the great
       Christ now directs all things for the sake of the       tribulation prophesied in Rev. 13; for all who will not
salvation of His beloved church. True, He also  .did this      recognize the beast, anitchirst, will be persecuted.
already in the Old Testament by type and shadow.
Babel is a powerful example. According to Gen. 11                There is one more thing as far as war is concerned.
the whole world remained as one people in the plain            It will be the final great downfall of the nations.
of Shinar. God knew that that could not continue for           Because the nature of man is always the same, and
two reasons. First, He willed to gather His church             antichrist does not change the heart of man, man's
from  nations,  not just individual people; and second-        lust for war persists. The heathen nations, such as
ly, while they were united as one, they posed as a             China, the third-world nations, will rise up against the
threat to God's covenant people, they would easily             nominally Christian nations, such as America, in the
destroy the very elect from their midst. So for the            last and final battle called Armageddon, cf. Rev.
elect's sake, God came down and confused their                 20:7-9.  This will demonstrate that apart from Christ,
languages, formed the nations, and scattered them              man cannot build a great society. Man can only
over the face of the earth.                                    produce a kingdom built on sinking sand. The fearful
                                                               cry of the ungodly will be, "Babylon is fallen, is
       Since then, the dealings of the nations have had a      fallen!" While foolish man stands poised with his long
direct affect upon the church that is in the midst of          range missiles and nuclear armaments. While man
them. The nations exist for the church, not the other
                                                     `.        begins that battle, he will never finish it: for in the
way around. This includes the wars of the nations.             midst of it Christ will personally return. The sun will
Rev.  6:4 makes plain that the red horse follows the           be darkened, the moon will turn into blood, the earth
white horse and serves it. The preaching of the gospel         will quake, tidal waves will destroy the cities, and
is first; the red horse of war follows and serves the          man will cry unto the mountains to cover them and
gospel. How? By the distraction of the nations in war,         the seas to swallow them up.
the godless rulers do not try to wipe out the church
from the face of the earth. The church under God's               Yes, war will be the last event in history, not to
providential direction is able to be gathered by her           allow man to destroy himself, but to show that God's
mission work while the nations tight battles.                  judgment upon the fallen human race is true. Hatred,
                                                               envy, and death is his portion.
WARANDTHEENDOFTHEWORLD
  Matt.  24:6 speaks of wars, "And ye shall hear of            CHRISTOURPEACE
wars and  rumours of wars; see that ye be not                    Hence, we do not set our hearts upon the peace of
troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but          the world. We realize that earthly, national peace will
the end is not yet." As part of the continuing process         bring persecution for the Christian. Yet, that does not
that leads to the end of the world, wars must be               disturb us as young people. Terrible prospect, you
fought and the threat of still greater wars must prevail.      say. Yes, it is from a natural point of view. Yet, from
                                                               a spiritual perspective it will signal the nearness of the
  It is also Scriptural that man will succeed in               personal return of Christ. As God speaks in judgment
causing wars to cease. This has been true in history;          to the ungodly, He speaks of the sure promises of the
temporarily men are able to bring peace among the              return of Christ to His people.
nations. This will be supremely true at the time of
antichirst. For a time, the wounded head of the beast,           This is the blessed hope for all of God's children.
Rev.  13:3, will be healed. The division brought by              Now we have peace in Jesus Christ. No, not peace
Babel will be taken away, and the nations will enjoy           among the nations. Peace as Jesus said, "Peace I leave
unity. They will usurp falsely, the fulfillment of Isa.        with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world
2:4, "They..shall beat their swords into plowshares,           giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be
and their spears into pruninghooks, nation shall not           troubled, neither let it be afraid," John  14:27.  This
lift sword against nation, neither shall they learn            peace endures through all the hardships of life, wars,


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  5281



persecution, afflictions. It is sure and steadfast, for it               redeemed shall sing a new song, "Thou hast redeemed
is implanted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God.                    us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and
  We have the privilege to set our hearts upon a true                    tongue, people and nation," Rev. 5: 9.
international and lasting peace that will be the true                       International peace brought about by Jesus Christ,
fulfillment of all Scripture's prophesies. When Christ                   whose salvation, changes the hearts of men from
comes, He will destroy the wicked, burn the present                      hatred, lust, covetousness, unto love, contentment,
heaven and earth in fire, Rev. 21 and II Peter  3:7. He                  and praise.
will create a new heaven and earth, and upon it shall
descend the Jerusalem, the glorified Church made up                         How great is the salvation of our God.
of people from every nation under heaven. The                               He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth!,

STUDIES IN ISAIAH

                               Incompetent Government
                                    Removed In Judgment.
                                                               Isaiah 3 : 4-7

                                                        Rev. Robert C. Harbach


   1.  Incompefency. "And I will give boys (as) their                    place also within each individual kingdom." Usually it
princes, and infants shall be ruling over them" (v. 4,                   is because such heads of state, unfit for office, are
Hebrew). Not merely inferior kings would rule over                       incapable of governing a family, even a wife, or even a
them, but without a king, inept rulers, incapable of                     child, as is so evident in the highest office in our
"Solo.monian"  q u a l i t y ,   w o u l d   b e   o f   a   m o r e     nation. It is an international scandal when those in
"Rehoboamian" hotheaded, reckless despotism. The                         public office who ought to be worthy of respect,
mere shadow of a king, a boy, would rule, whose                          become base and beggarly to merit only disgust and
advisers would be mental and moral weaklings, the                        contempt. So our country "has had it." As Calvin put
impudent, the imprudent, the effeminate, the                             it, "Destruction is not far off." Calvin also pointed
cowardly! An inexperienced, youthful president                           out long ago that a singular gift of God is a  well-
would have a cabinet of ventriloquist dummies, them-                     regulated commonwealth established with judges,
selves manipulated by brainless meddlers and                             magistrates, senators, captains, soldiers and teachers,
"kibbitzers." The whole nation would be degraded to                      all joining to promote the general safety of the whole
base mockery. (The Greeks have a word for it:                            people. Even war, in itself, he says, is not to be con-
empaigmone.' The LXX has, "Mockers shall rule over                       demned. For war ought to be nothing else than an
them.") No wonder the world is confused with the                         attempt to obtain peace, and so a means to preserve
law of the claw and the club, beaten first one way by                    the commonwealth. War and the sword so utilized are
lust, then another by cruelty, or is done in simul-                      opposed only by fanatics who are wicked men and
taneously by double calamity (Jud.  19:25),  as with                     enemies of public safety.
the Pakistani rape of Bangladesh. Today, the White                          Notice that such shocking decay and ruin do not  I
House takes the lead in breaking away from all                           occur by chance, nor are mere men the cause of
restraint of modesty and decency. Such low,  gutter-                     them, but "I (the Lord) will give" these conditions.
type conditions do not improve, as the verb in the                       They are due to the Lord's predetermined plan and
imperfect suggests a durative action, "they (these                       purpose in judgment.
sons of Belial) shall be continuously ruling." Still,
"No earthly state has continuously (i.e., indefinitely,                     2. Anarchy.  "And the people shall tyrannize, man
RCH) maintained a position strong and flourishing.                       against man, and a man against his friend. The boy
One need only call to mind the world-monarchies.                         will rage proudly over the aged, and the despised
That gradual weakening of the world-power indicated                      (light person) over the honorable (heavy person)"
in Daniel's image of the monarchies (Dan.  2), takes                     (v. 5, Heb.). The connection between this and the


      522                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



      preceding is that bad government leads to mob-rule,          ignore parental discipline and directives as to dress,
      and mob-rule to anarchy. Then war arises to become           hair styles, companions and all the rest with which a
      the war of all against all. Calvin says that they who        teenager eventually becomes interested. Christian
     undermine the foundations of civil government and             parents do not want their children taught that they
     violate the decencies of life are open enemies of             must not be under any restraint as to morals, religion,
      mankind, are the dregs of humanity, and in no                amusements, drink, drugs or sex. Too many public
     respect different from wild animals. "The boy will            school teachers are the corrupters of children and
     rage proudly over the aged, and the despised over the         youth. They are the signs not  only of the modem
     honorable." The increasing evil of contempt for old           apostasy, but the depravity and degeneracy of revived
      age elicits God's anger. "The anger of the Lord hath         barbarism. When wickedness receives the stamp of
      divided them; He will no more regard them; they              law or social acceptance, governments and men will
     respected not the persons of the priests, they favored        become lawless and vile.
     not the elders" (Lam. 4: 16). This evil is a sign of state       3. Desperation. "When a man will take hold of his
     reversion to barbarism, for it is only heathen  of.fierce     brother (in) the house of his father (saying), You
      countenance which regard not the person of the old           have a wrap; you be a leader for us, and this ruin shall
      (Dt.  28:50).                                                b e   u n d e r   t h y   h a n d " (v. 6, Heb.). Conscription
                                                                   becomes necessary because no one is willing to hold
        ,A prime example of this disrespect for elders is          office, though requested to do so. The government
I     found in 2 Kings  2:23-24 where a mob of over  forty-        goes begging. It is a rarity, when a nation is ruined by
     two children came out of the apostate city of Bethel,         anarchy, to find anyone willing to assume or remain
     mocking the prophet Elisha with, "Go up! thou bald            in office. Then even commoners will be willing to
     head! Go up! thou bald head!" He then turned,                 have. their equals be their superiors. Then Joseph's
     looked at them and cursed them in the name of the             brothers change their tune. Joseph has a garment
     Lord, whereupon two she-bears came out of the                 while everyone else in the family goes naked. Under
     woods and tore to pieces forty-two of the children. If        the circumstances, the man with a wrap is the logical
      we live in an age where it is a common thing that            person to be a ruler of his people. But such a man
      children and young people have neither respect for           invariably shuns the opportunity presented him. There
     their parents, nor for their elders, nor for any in           are impoverished countries actually suffering starva-
     authority, is this not largely the fault of parents who       tion, extreme nakedness and abject wretchedness;
     neither demand nor are themselves worthy of                   witness the Ik people of Africa, India, Bangladesh and
     respect? This disrespect is common enough in                  Ethiopia.
     mugging and robbing the aged and in the destruction             Here in this verse we have a somewhat common
     of their property. Juvenile crime, of-whatever sort, is       Jewish name, 
     rarely punished, the culprit getting off with a per-                           Katzin.  "You  be a  katzin,   a  leader  for
                                                                   us." Things have gone so far to ruin that the demand
     functory rebuke and a "J-D" (juvenile delinquent)             is not for government of the right kind, but simply
      card. Parents, far from shocked at the crimes of their       "for a leader who would bring benefit to the people."
      children, apathetically ascribe their gross conduct to a     They are dying, but their philosophy of pragmatism
      "stage" they are going through. State educational
     experts, psychologists and psychiatrists insist that          still prevails. They are not concerned with what is
                                                                   right, but with, "Who will show us any good?" People
      children must not be suppressed, but must be free to         all across the world do not see that world conditions
     act autonomously. They claim it is harmful to the             are as bad as they are because of their own sin. In
     child's normal development to inflict on him "inhibi-         desperation, they still turn to man for help. They are
     tions" and out-worn puritanical "hang-ups." Parents           not yet that desperate that they will turn to God.
     who act according to Prov.  13:24;   19:18;   22:15;          Nothing, not even judgment on their sins, will change
     23: 14 will not only be regarded as brutes by their           them. The wicked and the filthy  will be wicked and
     neighbors, but may be reported to the SPCC, or                filthy still, and they will not turn to God in
     hailed into court, with the judge not supporting, but         repentance and confess their sins. (Rev.  9:21).
     censur&g  them. Perhaps already some of our parents
     have been approached by an agent of HEW to be                   4. Response. "in that day he will lift up (his voice
     prodded with their questions and questionnaires as to         in protest), saying, I am not able to be a binder-up,
     whether' corporal punishment is employed in the               and in my house (is) neither bread nor wrap. Do not
     upbringing of the children. When in Philadelphia on           make me a leader of the people"  (v. 7, Heb.). A man
     mission work, parents reported their efforts to get           takes hold of his brother to take him and make him a
     their children out of the public and into the Christian       leader (Jn. 6: 15). But here is decline of the oppor-
     schools as quickly as possible. For in the public             tunity presented, of necessity so because a starving
     schools the children were being taught to disrespect          man covered only with a rag knows it utterly im-
     their parents and their elders, were encouraged to            possible to attempt the assumption of a civil office.


                                                                                                                                     1





                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       523


No, he protests, people everywhere will say, Physician               with 4-7). "For now they shall say, We have no king.
heal thyself! or, Himself he cannot save! Why press                  Because we feared not the Lord, what then should a
into service one helpless to minister to the incurable               king do for us?" (Hosea   10:3).  They had rejected
head-to-foot wound of the state? The meaning is that                 God from being their king. Then what could any king
he was not qualified to be, nor could he be the healer               do for them?, especially what could any king do for
and restorer of the calamitous and so desperately bad                them that God had not done for them? All of the
state of the nation. So he instantly and flatly refuses              nineteen kings of Israel were nothings. They could
to be a  katzin.  There is not a sensible, much less, a              not be compared to the prophets of Israel. "I gave
righteous man to take the responsibilities of public                 thee a king (kings) in Mine anger, and took him
office.                                                              (them) away in My wrath" (Hos.  13:ll).  When a
                                                                     kingdom originates in rebellion it has God's dis-
  What the prophet is saying is that if men will not                 pleasure on it. God's removal of it in anger and wrath
have God's good gifts (such as good government), He                  is proof enough that this rejected monarchy will not
has other gifts He will give them  inHis wrath (w. l-3               be restored as the future kingdom of God.

THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS

                             The Doctrine of Creation
                                                    ProjI Robert D. Decker

           "We believe that the Father, by the Word, that is, by his Son, hath created of nothing, the heaven, the
           earth, and all creatures, as it seemed good unto him, giving unto every creature its being, shape, form, and
           several offices to serve its Creator. That he doth also still uphold and govern them by his eternal providence,
           and infinite power, for the service of mankind, to the end that man may serve his God. He also created the
           angels good, to be his messengers and to serve his elect; some of whom are fallen from that excellency, in
           which God created them, into everlasting perdition; and others have, by the grace of God, remained stedfast
           and continued in their primitive state. The devils and evil spirits are so depraved, that they are enemies of
           God and every good thing, to the utmost of their power, as murderers, watching to ruin the Church and
           every member thereof, and by their wicked stratagems to destroy all; and are, therefore, by their own
           wickedness, adjudged to eternal  damnation;daily  expecting their horrible torments. Therefore we  rejedt
           and abhor the error of the  Sadducees,  who deny the existence of spirits and angels: and also that of the
           Manichees, who assert that the devils have their origin of themselves, and that they are wicked of their own
           nature, without having been corrupted."
                                                                                      Article XIII, The  Belgic Confession

  In straight-forward, simple, yet profound language                 the Scripture itself.  Anyone who takes Scripture
this article presents what  Sc'ripture  teaches and what             seriously  will have to admit that the Bible teaches
we as Reformed believe concerning the creation of all                that God created all things in six days by "his Word,
things. The article really speaks of two matters: the                that is, by his Son." The issue between those who
creation of the heavens  and the earth and all things in             teach the period theory and those who teach that
them, and the creation of .the angels, of whom some                  God created all things by his Word is not one of the
have  fallen. We intend to limit ourselves to the doc-               proper interpretation of Scripture. There can be no
trine of creation in this article. In the next issue, the            question as to what the Bible says concerning crea-
Lord willing, we will treat the last part of the article,            tion. That this is true is obvious from the fact that
which speaks of the angels and devils.                               now the theologians who do not want a literal crea-
                                                                     tion tell us that Genesis 1 and 2 are not literal
  During the past thirty years or so this doctrine of                history. These and several succeeding chapters in
creation has been the subject of no little discussion                Genesis are only myths or teaching models and hence
within the Reformed community. This discussion was                   cannot be interpreted literally. If we wish to know
precipitated by the so-called "period theory".                       the origin of things, we must not consult the Bible
According to this view, the days of Genesis 1 and 2                  but listen to science. From these views we wish to
are really long periods of time during which the crea-               separate ourselves completely. It is our firm convic-
tion evolved from first principles which God created.                tion that Article XIII is an adequate and beautiful
Really one's view on this score depends on his view of               summary of the truth of Creation as revealed in  Scrip-


524                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


ture. Genesis does record what actually happened.           by whom are all things, and we by him." (I Cor.  8:6)
Without shame we take the creation account literally        Hebrews  1:2 teaches that God has spoken to us in
and as it stands. We do this because we believe: "All       these latter days by His Son:  ". .  .whom he hath
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profit-    appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for         the worlds." Perhaps the most beautiful of all these
instruction in righteousness: that the man of God           passages is the one found in Colossians 1. In this
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good          passage the inspired Apostle speaks of Christ as the
works." (II Timothy  3:16,17)                               "image of the invisible  God> the firstborn of every
                                                            creature:" (vs. 15). Christ is that because: "by him
  The Confession begins by ascribing the work of            were all things created, that are in heaven, and that
creation to the Triune God. Creation is:  ". . . of the     are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
Father, by the Word  - that is, by his Son." To this        thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all
we may add, and through the Holy Spirit. This is in         things were created by him and for him: And he is
harmony with the nature of revelation. God always           before all things, and by him all things consist. And
reveals Himself in the Son and through the Spirit. The      he is the head of the body, the church: who is the
Scriptures also are the revelation of God in Jesus          beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all
Christ; and this revelation comes to the Church             things he might have the preeminence." (vss. 16-18)
through the Spirit. Therefore also creation is of the
Father, in the Son, and through the Spirit. This is         What a blessed truth! All things were created by and
plain already from the second verse of Genesis 1,           for Jesus Christ Who is the firstborn of every crea-
where we read:  ". . . and the Spirit of God moved          ture, the firstborn from the dead. In everything He
upon the face of the waters." Creation is the work of       has the preeminence. Among other things what this
the Triune God. How beautifully this is emphasized          certainly means is this: what one believes concerning
already in the majestic and profound opening words          the wonder of creation, one must also believe con-
of the Bible: "In the beginning God created the             cerning Christ. To deny the Scriptures' teaching con-
heaven and the earth." (Gen. 1: 1) Indeed, as David         cerning creation ultimately involves one in a denial of
sings: "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness there-      Christ Himself! It simply is not true, as "theistic
of; the world and they that dwell therein. For he hath      evolutionists" (a contradiction in terms!) would have
founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the       us believe, that one's position on the doctrine of
floods." (Psalm 24: 1, 2) And John in vision sees the       creation has nothing to do with the doctrine of salva-  '
twenty-four elders worshipping God in glory with            tion. Touch creation and one touches Christ Himself
these words: "Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive           by whom and for whom all things were made!
glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all         Article XIII goes on to declare that creation was
things, and for thy pleasure they are and were              "out of nothing". By this phrase the fathers mean to
created." (Rev. 4: 11)                                      emphasize that there was nothing outside of God out
                                                            of which He framed the worlds. Creation is an act of
  That God created all things by "his word, that is,        the omnipotent will of God Who: "called the things
by his Son" is equally plain from the Bible. We read        which be not as though they were." (Romans  4:17)
repeatedly in the creation account: "And God said,          That creation is by the Word of God "out of
Let there be . . . and there was." (Gen. 1) So it           nothing" means:  ". . .that things which are seen were
is that the  Psalmist declares: "By the word of the         not made of things which do appear." (Hebrews
Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them        11:3)  Certainly with this phrase, "out of nothing,"
by the breath of his mouth." (Ps. 33: 6) Hebrews 11: 3      the article closes the door to any view or theory of
teaches the same: "Through faith we understand that         evolution. Evolution must of necessity explain the
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that          existence of things as developing from other prior
things which are seen were not made of things which         things. No matter how far back one goes, things
do appear." Scripture teaches that this Word is God's       always come from things. By the words, "out of
Son in many passages. The Gospel according to John          nothing," these theories stand condemned. And, let
opens with these words: "In the beginning was the           us understand in this connection, this is a matter of
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was           faith. Creation is the opening wonder, miracle, of
God . . . all things were made by him; and without          God's revelation. It is the beginning of the manifesta-
him was not anything made that was made . . . And           tion of God's glory in Christ as that glory shall be
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and           revealed perfectly in the new creation. As such, crea-
we beheld his glory, the glory' as of the only begotten     tion belongs to "the mystery of the gospel" (Eph.
of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1: 1, 3,    6: 19) which can be apprehended only by God's gift
14) The Apostle Paul instructs Corinth and us: "But         of faith. It remains forever true: "Through faith we
to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are         understand that the worlds were framed by the Word
all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ,       of God, so that things which are seen were not made


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        525


of things which do appear." (Heb.  11:3) Either one            Him that was to come," the last Adam, Who is Christ,
approaches the Bible's teaching concerning creation            (Romans 5: 14, I Cor.  15:20-22)  The tree of life was a
with the prayer: "Lord, I believe. Help thou my                symbol of the heavenly tree of life. (Rev. 22: 14) Ail
unbelief." Or in pride he rejects the Biblical record.         things, therefore, in the original creation spoke of
In this latter case one is driven to some form of evolu-       God's great purpose to glorify Himself in Christ.
tion. And, ultimately he will deny the truth at every
point. It is as simple and as serious as that!                    By creation God also gave to every creature:  "itS
                                                               being, shape, form, and several offices to serve its
  Article XIII teaches that creation is according to           creator." This, too, opposes every form of evolution
God's good pleasure or eternal counsel with the                - God gave to every  creature   its being, shape, form,
words: "as it seemed good unto him." God was                   and several offices. By "several offices" is meant the
sovereignly free in the work of creation. Nothing              place each creature occupies in the creation so that it
could influence God in the determination of all                can serve the purpose of God. Creation is a beautiful
things. This does not mean that creation is arbitrary.         harmony in which all creatures reveal the glory of
Never! God created all things "as it seemed good unto          God.
him," i.e., with a definite purpose. This is the idea of
the repeated words: "And God saw everything that                  Impressed with the wonder of creation the child of
He had made, and behold, it was very good." (Gen.              God exclaims in faith: "The heavens declare the glory
1:3 1) All creation was "very good," which is to say           of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork:
that the whole of creation was perfectly adapted to            Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night
the purpose for which God made it. This purpose was            sheweth knowledge." (Psalm 19: 1, 2) "0 LORD our
the glory of God's Name in Jesus Christ. Creation was          Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who
by Christ but also  fov Christ. (Col. 1) God never             hast set thy glory above the heavens. .  .When I con-
intended to reach His ultimate purpose  ,with the first        sider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon
creation. The fall was not an unexpected accident,             and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is  man;
and the work of Christ is not some kind of repair              that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man
work of the original creation. The first creation              that thou visitest him?. . .O LORD our Lord, how
was a picture of the new creation; the first paradise of       excellent is thy name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:  1, 3,
the heavenly paradise. The first Adam was a "figure of         4, 9)


CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY.


                            About The Lord's Supper

  Recently I received a letter from a brother in New              Christ) pressed out in the garden and on the cross. Is.
Jersey responding to an article which I wrote for the             63:3.
Standard  Beaver  on the subject of the use of un-                      Symbolism of the Old Testament pointing to
leavened bread in the Lord's Supper. His letter is as             Christ is always the choicest. and the purest, I Peter
follows:                                                          J : 19. An unblemished lamb was required to sprinkle
      While reading the guest article "Should we use              the pure unadulterated blood on the altar. Never the
    Unleavened Bread in the Lord's Supper," by Rev.               disease-ridden blood of a second grade lamb was to be
    Mark Hoeksema, (Standard Bearer, August, 1975) I              used to sprinkle as a sacrifice.
   was set to thinking about the symbolism involved. It            Is the artificially induced joy of alcoholic wine a
    would have been interesting to know on what basis             symbol of the joy and forgiveness of salvation?
    those Lutheran Churches mentioned were taking their
    stand of using unfermented wine in their observance                 No doubt  a.&oholic  wine is not condemned in
    of the sacrament. My experience in the past, when             Scripture to be used as a medicine, as a remedy for
    discussing the grapejuice question, was that all those        physical sickness, not restoration from spiritual death
    people favoring it founded their stand mostly on the          unto life. But many passages of Scripture speak of it
   purity of the bread, so also the wine that flows from          disparagingly, see Ps.  75:8,  Prov.  20:1, Prov.  23:31,
   the berries in the winepress, as the pure blood of             Is.5:11,Eph.5:18,ITimothy3:3.
   Christ was the unadulterated kind. The symbolism                     In Deut. 15: 14 the Israelite is admonished to give
    being primarily the one bread baked in the (hellish)          to his poor brother liberally, live animals from the
   heat of affliction, and the one wine (the blood of             flock, fresh grains from the threshing floor, and fresh


 526                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER


        wine  (arane Juice) from the winepress, not wine           fore has no bearing at all on the question before us.
        where `~heLnouris&g sugar has been-substituted with        Further, all of the other texts cited condemn without
        alcohol through bacterial action.                          exception not the use, but the abuse of wine. Finally,
           So, shouldn't it be unleavened bread and non-           Scripture never forbids the use of wine, but even
        alcoholic wine to be used in the sacrament?                advises it (I Timothy  5:23), and at least speaks posi-
                                   Sincerely,                     tively concerning its proper use, cf. Ps. 104: 15 and
                                   Thomas Y. Nelson                Eccles.  10:19. Certainly, wine cannot according to
   In answer to these remarks, I would, first of all, like         Scripture be used to restore from spiritual death to
to thank the brother for his letter. It is always                 life; but I know of no claim that it can.
encouraging to see evidence that the people of God                 4. Regarding the contention that the joy of alcohol is
are  .thinking and studying and asking questions.                  artificially induced, in a sense I would have to agree.
Secondly, the point of the brother's letter seems to               But after all, is not all joy an emotional response to
be that he raises objections against the position I took          some sort of stimulus? Is not physical joy induced by
in my original article, though at the same time I                  wine, and spiritual joy by, for example, the preaching
would point out that I wrote primarily concerning                  of the Word? The point is that joy never exists all by
unleavened bread and not wine, and that his argu-                 itself, but is always our reaction to something else.
ments concerning wine do not speak directly to the                And in this connection I would point out that I did
question of unleavened bread. Yet, this subject of                 not associate wine and joy. Scripture does, and that
wine is interesting; and its many facets can be  profit-           association I must accept.
.ably studied. I will attempt to answer the questions              5. Concerning the purity of the sacraments in con-
and objections raised concerning its use without going            nection with the Old Testament sacrifices, the asser-
into the many other aspects of this subject.                      tion of the brother is correct regarding the required
1. As far as the Lutheran grounds for the use of                   perfection of sacrificial animals. But the implication
grapejuice are concerned, I must confess that I have               of his statement is wrong. He evidently means to
never heard the explanation given by Mr. Nelson. I do             imply that because wine is impure, its use is incorrect.
know that mainline Lutheran bodies such as the                    But this is begging the question. He has not showed
American Lutheran Church and Missouri Synod use                   that wine is impure; and my opinion is that he cannot
fermented  ,wine, and that this reasoning does not                 do so, for Scripture never speaks this language. But
come from them. As to the group to which the                      perhaps the best answer to this objection is simply to
minister mentioned in my article belonged (I cannot               point to the fact that according to Numbers 15: 5, 7,
recall its exact name; I do know that it was a small               10, wine was to be used in the sacrifice called a drink
Lutheran splinter group), I cannot answer for them.               offering. Whatever else this may signify, this certainly
The only ground for the use of grapejuice with which              shows that wine belonged in the sacrifice.
I am acquainted is that which is given by such people                I hope that this has answered the brother's ques-
as Baptists and Methodists, i.e., they refrain from the           tions and objections. There is a great deal more that
use of wine to avoid giving offense to possibly                    could be said about the whole matter of wine, but I
,alcoholic members of the church. It must be remem-               will maintain my position that its use in the
bered that this reasoning is also based on the idea that          sacrament is correct. If the brother has any further
sin lies in things, with which we certainly cannot                thoughts, I will be more than willing to discuss them
agree.                                                             again.
                                                                                             Fraternally,
2. Concerning the text in Deut. 15: 14, I find no                                            Rev. Mark Hoeksema
grounds whatsoever for your assertion that the grain
and wine must be fresh; all that the text teaches is
that the needy be furnished liberally out of the flock,
the threshingfloor, and the winepress. Also I would
point out in this connection that unfermented  grape-                          Know the standard
juice was virtually an impossibility as far as the
ancients were concerned. It is a scientific fact that the                           and follow it.
juice extracted from grapes begins to ferment
immediately through a natural process. It was only                                     Read the
with the advent of pasteurization that grape juice
became possible.                                                             STANDARD BEARER!
3. Regarding the Scriptural passages cited concerning
wine, I would point out that Ps.  75:8 speaks of wine
and the winepress as a figure of judgment, and there-


                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  527



                                 NOTICE!!!!                    -                                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   On Thursday, October 23, at 8:00 P.M., Prof. H. C. Hoeksema will              "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in His ways."
deliver a lecture in Kalamazoo on the topic "HOLY SCRIPTURE  7                   Psalm 128:l
WHOLLY DIVINE."                                                                      September 18, 1975, the Lord willing, our parents, MR.  & MRS.
   The place  - Kalamazoo Christian High School Auditorium. (Take                A,RTHUR DE JONG will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. We,
US 131 to Stadium Drive, east to Howard St.).                                    their children and grandchildren, wish to thank our Covenant-keeping
                                                                                 God for giving us God-fearing parents and a Christian home. It is our
                   EVERYONE IS URGED TO ATTEND!                                  prayer that they will always walk in obedience to His Word as they
                                                                                 continue their life together on this earth.
                                                                                                                     Frank  & Joyce Antczak
                                                                                                                     Art  & Sarah De Jong
                                                                                                                     Carol
                                                                                                                     Ken  & Marilyn De Jong
                                                                                                                     Wayne & Vicki De Jong
                                                                                                                     Jim  & Becky Hanemaayer
                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                             George
                                                                                                                     Homer
   The members of the Junior Mr. and Mrs. Society of First Church                                                    Don
(Grand Rapids) wish to express our sympathy to our members, Jack                                                     Bill
and Judy Feenstra in the loss of their father,                                                                       Anita
                                                                                                                     Lewis
   We are comforted in the sure knowledge of God's presence in time                                                  Esther
of trouble.  `I - Let not your heart be troubled, neither let be afraid."                                            John
(John  14:27).                                                                                                       Ann
                                                       C. Reitsma, Vice-pres.                                        Henry
                                                                                                                     and 12 grandchildren

                                                                                                                                       South Holland, Illinois

                                  c         3





                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
    On September the 13th. our covenant parents, MR. AND MRS.
BARTEL  ZANDSTRA celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.                                       WEDDING ANNlVERS/JRY
    We thank our covenant Father who gave them to us to lead us in His              On October 1, 1975, the Lord willing, our beloved parents, MR.
ways and for preserving them together for these years. It is our earnest         AND MRS. ALVIN RAU hope to commemorate their 25th wedding
prayer that God will continue to bless them in the years to come.                anniversary.
   Their thankful children,                                                         We, their children, are thankful to our Heavenly Father for helping
Mr. and Mrs. John Zandstra             Joanne Ruth Zandstra                      them give us a Christian home and Christian instruction. It is our prayer  :
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Zandstra            Bartel Zandstra, Jr.                      that God may continue to bless and care for them as they go down  1
David Allen Zandstra                   Betty Lou Zandstra                        life's pathway together. "Not unto us, 0 Lord, but unto Thy name give
Charles Lee Zandstra                   Mark Douglas Zandstra                     glory." (Psalm  115:l).
Mary Anne Zandstra                     Roseann  Marie Zandstra
Daniel Zandstra                        and grandchildren:                                                           Their children,
                                                                                                                     Mr. and Mrs. James Rau
                                       Lindsey Joy and Brenda Lea
Lansing, Ill.                                                                                                        Pat Rau
                                                                                                                     Mary Rau
                                                                                                                     David Rau
                                                                                                                     Michael Rau
                                                                                                                     Rosemary Rau
                                                                                                                     and their 3 grandchildren
                                                                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan.



                   WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
    On October 4, 1975, our dear parents, MR. AND MRS. JOE
OOMKES, hope to commemorate their 40th wedding anniversary, the
Lord willing.

    We, their children and grandchildren, extend our hearty congratula-                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
tions and are grateful to God for what He has given us through them.
May we ever follow their example and walk in the fear of the Lord.                  On October  12, 1975, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND  '
Trusting that His blessings will continue to rest upon them and supply           MRS. LEWIS  BRUINSMA JR., will celebrate their 25th wedding  anni-  :
them in all their daily need.                                                    versary. We, their children, are thankful to our Lord for the blessings
                                                                                 He has given us through them. Our prayer is that God may continue to
                                       Their grateful children,                  bless them together.
                                       Mr. and Mrs. William Oomkes
                                       Karlene Oomkes                                                               Their children,
                                       Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Ryskamp                                                 Mr.  & Mrs. Donald Bruinsma
                                       and 6 grandchildren.                                                         Debra Bruinsma
1832 Observatory S.E.                                                                                               Douglas Bruinsma
Grand Rapids, MI 49506                                                                                              Duane Bruinsma


THE STANDARD  BtARER
           P.O.  Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





                                News From Our Churches

   There are several. items to report in the area of         of literature, personal calls and letters, as well as lec-
mission and church extension work which would                tures. The Reformed Witness Committee has chosen
indicate that there is no lack of activity in these areas    to implement this program in the Rock Valley, Iowa
within our churches. From 346 Water St., Skowhegan,          area from September through March. Five lectures are
Maine 04976, Rev. D. H. Kuiper reports on some of            planned, beginning with Reformation Day and spaced
the facets of his work as missionary as follows: August      every five weeks. The planned lectures include:
27, instead of a regular meeting of the Adult Bible          1. The Place of the Reformation in the Church of
Study Class, the group, in Skowhegan met together              Today  - Rev. G. Lanting
for a farewell to Mr. and Mrs. John Hilton and
daughter. Mr. Hilton will take up his studies in the         2. Modern Translations: A Help for Understanding or
Seminary of our churches this fall. Rev. Kuiper gave a         Misunderstanding?  - Rev. D. Engelsma
short speech based on Joshua  1:9, "Be strong and of a       3. God Loves the World, Not All Men  - Rev. J.
good courage; be not afraid neither be thou dis-               Kortering
mayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee  whitherso-         4. Are You Sure of Your Salvation?  -  ,Rev. J.
ever thou goest." A few Psalter numbers were sung, a           Slopsema
small gift presented, and a lunch was enjoyed by
all. The departure of the Hilton's for Grandville,           5. Preaching and Discipline: A Vital Unity  -~ Rev. R.
Michigan, means that the regular attendance at                 Moore.
Skowhegan is reduced to two families, and two indi-            We also have a report from another `Reformed
viduals. Rev. Kuiper reported that he planned to             Witness Committee', this one from our Hope (Walker,
speak on Christian day school instruction on his next        Michigan) Church. This committee has been placing a
Sunday morning radio program. He  says,"1 can                series of meditations in the Walker, Ottawa, and
imagine that this will sound strange in this area."          Grand Valley Shoppers (weekly area newspapers) for
   After that report from Maine, we would be pleased         a period of 26 weeks. The committee has been active
to receive a report on the work in Houston, Texas.           in placing the pamphlets "Pentecostalism" and "God
How about it Rev. Harbach?                                   is Our Refuge and Strength" published by our South
   The June 15 Hull,  Ia., bulletin reported that Rev.       Holland Church in rest homes, hospitals, and other
Kortering and Rev. Van  Overloop  were to conduct            possible public places where they might  be; appreci-
services that day at the Christian Reformation Church        ated. The committee has also established a tape
in Holland, Minn. The request came through Rev.              library. Master tapes are  catalogued and copies made
Slopsemai  who has had some contact with this congre-        of the masters. Tape copies are being sent, to indi-
gation. The Hull consistory has acceded to the               viduals both inside and outside the U.S.
request  of the mission committee to have Rev.                 By now, you may have noticed something different
Korteringi work in the Beatrice, Nebraska area by            about this column. The difference is a new editor.
means of! Bible study classes and other promotional          After six years, D. D. has asked to be retired (as News
literature and radio work. There are about four              Editor, that is; his appearance in the regions above the
couples at this point who express interest in such a         ears is not really a true indicator of his age.) After
class..                                                      this column has been so well cared for by the likes of
 The Reformed Witness Committee which is com-                J. M. `see you in church' Faber and D. Doezema, any
posed of members from our Iowa and Minnesota                 newcomer has no small task ahead of him. But with
churches has informed its supporting churches of the         the help of a far-flung network of correspondents
intensive new program it plans to begin this fall. It        (you may read "bulletin clerks" we will attempt to
hopes to concentrate upon one area in a systematic           keep this column filled with news items of interest.
and coordinated effort. The plans are for distribution                                                          K.G.V.


