STANDARD ,.
     BEARER  .b
-A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





         "Though  I  lived as a monk without reproach,  I felt
       that  I was a sinner before God with an extremely dis-
       turbed conscience. I could not believe that He was
       placated by my satisfaction. I did not love, yes,  I hated
       the righteous God who -punishes sinners, and secretly, if
       not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly,  I was
       angry with God. . . .
         "At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and
       night,  I gave heed to the context of the words, namely,
       `In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is
       written, He Who through faith is righteous shall live.'
       There  I began to understand that the righteousness of
       God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of
       God, namely by -faith. And this is the meaning: the
       righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely,
       the passive righteousness with which merciful God justi-
       fies us by faith . . . . Here  I felt that I was altogether
       born again and had entered paradise itself through open
     gates."
       (Luther describing how he came to the truth of Justifi-
       cation By Faith.)

                                                                    . .

                                    0
                                         Volume  LII, Number 3, November 1, 1975  -


                                                                                -
I
     554                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER




                               CONTENTS:                                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                             Semi-monthly,   except monthly   during June,  July, and  August.
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        Persevering Unto The Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . .554                    Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
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                                                                                     Rev.  Cornelius   Hanko,  Prof.  Herman  Hanko,   Rev.  Robert  c.  Harbach,
        Our Australasian Tour (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .557                 Rev.  John  A.  Heys,  Rev.  Jay  Kortering,   Rev.  Dale  H.  Kuiper,.  Rev.
                                                                                     George   C.  Lubbers,   Rev.  Meindert   Joostens,   Rev:Marinus   Schrpper,
        Open Your Eyes! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .559               Rev.  Gise  J.  Van  Baren,  Rev.  Herman  Veldman,   Mr.  Kenneth  G.  Vink.
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     MEDITA  TIO N


                               Persevering Unto The Crown

                                                                    Rev. H. Veldman
                  "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. "
                                                                                                                                                          Rev. 3:ll


       In the letters to the churches of Asia Minor,  re-                                 rich. They are rich, of course, spiritually. And of the
     `corded in Rev. 2 and 3, the churches at Smyrna and                                  church at Philadelphia we read that they have kept
     Philadelphia are characterized by three things. First,                               the word,of His patience.
     these churches are not rebuked by the Savior. The
     other churches are rebuked and admonished to                                                  Where do we now stand as Protestant Reformed
     repent. Secondly, both. churches are small and weak                                  Churches as we celebrate and have celebrated this
     This refers, of course, to material poverty; and that                                year our fiftieth anniversary? Does this characterize
     they are little means that they are little in numerical                              us? Are we busily engaged in holding fast what we
     strength. And, thirdly, both churches are spiritually                                have? As churches and also as individuals? Are we
     strong. Of Smyrna the Saviour declares that they are                                 holding on to the truth, with grim determination and


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  555


 tenacity; is it being proclaimed and taught among us,       He speaks of "thy crown," He refers to the crown
 not only practically but also doctrinally and dis-          which belongs to that church and to the church of all
 tinctively, to the utmost of our ability and capacity?      ages. Besides, it is so contrary to all of Scripture. May
 The admonition is urgent: hold fast which thou hast.        this one passage suffice - Rom. 9: 16: "So then it is
                                                             not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
                       *  * * *  *                           of God that sheweth mercy." God has willed the
                                                             glory; but also the way that leads to that glory; He
   This crown is a crown of victory. There is also           has willed the crown but also the struggle to the
 another word in the original Greek which is translated      crown, inasmuch as it is given unto us, not only to
 "crown." This other crown is a royal crown,. a              believe in Christ, but also to suffer for His sake.
 diadem, the symbol of royal dominion. This word,
 e.g., appears in Rev. 13 : 1. In this text, however, a
 crown of victory is meant, a prize which one obtains           Indeed, we must persevere. We are moral-rational
 when he is victorious.. Victory and struggle, battle and    beings. Our difference with the Pelagian is exactly
 affliction, glory and shame characterize the Christian      that we maintain that the outcome is solely de-
 and the church of God in the midst of the world. We         pendent upon God's divine and sovereign grace. And
 must hold fast, that no man take our crown. In this         our difference with the false mystic is exactly that we
 text the word. crown appears `without any further           maintain that we are no stocks and blocks, but that
 description. However, in 2 Tim. 4:8 we read of this         the grace of God, almighty in its power, does not
 crown as a crown of ,righteousness;  in Rev. 2: 10 the      simply carry us into glory, as in a  pullman sleeper,
 Saviour speaks of it as a crown of life; and in 1 Pet.      but that it operates through us, setting our hearts and
 5:4 we read of it as a crown of glory.                      minds on fire for the cause of God and of His Christ.
                                                             Indeed, we must persevere, tight unto the end, hold
    It is striking that the word crown appears here in       fast what we have.
 the singular. `The Saviour addresses in this scripture
 the church at Philadelphia. This, of course, applies to                           *  *  *  *  *
 the church of God of all ages. For that church of all
 ages a crown of righteousness, life and glory has been        To obtain this crown we must hold fast. We must
 laid away, the full and perfect and complete manifes-       hold fast - to what? Verse 8 is important: "And hast
 tation of all the riches of the grace and glory of the      kept My word, and hast not denied My Name." The.
 living God in Jesus Christ. He is the fulness of the        church at Philadelphia had kept Christ's word. This is
glory of the living God, and the church is the reflec-       the word of truth, the word of the gospel. This is the
 tion of that  fumess of glory in Christ Jesus. This is      doctrinal aspect of our calling, the Scriptures as they
                                                             center in Christ and in God as the God of our salva-
 the crown of victory laid away for the one church of
 God of all ages. Nevertheless, in that fulness of glory     tion. This means, for us, the truth as we profess it as
                                                             Protestant Reformed Churches. 0, Protestant
 each child of God will receive his own particular           Reformed doctrine is not a certain Protestant' Re-
 crown. This explains why we read, in the singular, of       formed pet conception or theory. Protestant Re-
him that overcometh in verse 12 of this chapter.             formed doctrine is, as we read it in our Baptism
 Every child of God must fight personally, persevere         Form, the complete and perfect doctrine of salvation,
 unto the end, and finally receive his own crown, his        the truth as taught in the infallible Scriptures. Very
 own place in that mighty chorus, his own divinely           important, too, is this - that we have not denied His
 appointed place in that building of God, his own            Name., This is the practical aspect of our calling. Not
 particular place in glory. Indeed, to the church of         to deny Christ's Name means that we confess it; this
 God of all ages, and to each child of God in particular     means that we not only know the truth, but also
 is addressed the admonition: hold fast which thou           practice it, are living examples of being saved by grace.
 hast.
                                                               Verse 10, too, is of great significance. There we
   We must persevere unto the obtaining of the               read of having kept the word of Christ's patience.
crown. We must not understand this, of course, in the        This "word of Christ's patience" is surely the same
Pelagian sense. He., speaks of a crown that is laid away     word whereof we read in verse 8. This word of
for God's people,, God's child. But this crown is laid       Christ's patience is the word of Christ as it exhorts us
away for those who believe, who hold fast which they         to patience. Patience presupposes suffering and afflic-
have. And this, of course, is true. But the Pelagian         tion and persecution. If we maintain Christ's word of
presents this obtaining of the crown as dependent            truth and do not deny His Name, affliction and
upon our persevering unto the end. How wicked is             suffering will invariably be our lot. And therefore
this view! It is contrary to this text. The Saviour here     Christ's word of patience is also always a word that
is addressing the church at Philadelphia. And when           exhorts us unto patience, the willing and joyful bear-


556                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


ing of our affliction because of Christ and.for Christ's     practice it, that we are in the way of the Lord, that
sake, knowing that to suffer for the sake of Christ is a     our sights are trained upon that City of our God as
privilege of grace, inasmuch as it is in His behalf, in      we are running the race, and stretching, reaching out
His interest, in the sense that He will be glorified         to that crown of everlasting life and victory!
through it all. We suffer, not to show how much we                                 *  *  * * *
can do, but to reveal the power and wonder of His              Behold, I come quickly! What a glorious, blessed
grace.                                                       incitement this is! Who is coming? Indeed, this is
   Negatively, Christ, according to Rev. 2 and 3, has        Jesus, of Whom we read in verse 7 that He is holy and
also something else to say to His church. The                true,. that He has the key of David. This is Jesus, the
churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia escape rebuke.           glorified Head of His church, Who suffered and died
The other five churches must all repent, and are             and rose again, Who holds the keys of His kingdom in
exhorted to do so. Do we, as Protestant Reformed             His hand,  .controlling and directing His church and
Churches, dare to appropriate unto ourselves the             also all things.
beautiful pictures' of the churches at Smyrna and              When will He come? He surely comes when we die,
Philadelphia? Have we maintained our first love; are
we strong in discipline; do our hearts and minds burn        then to take us unto Himself. This is clearly implied
                                                             in Rev. 2: 10. But He also comes at the end of time,
with zeal and are we on fire for the cause of the Lord       the end of this world. In that day He will make all
and His word? Do we practice what we believe; do we          things new.
love doctrine and its distinctive preaching; do we
study and prepare ourselves for our society meetings,          How does He come? Notice, please: I come, or I
and are we faithful in attending them? Do we fall            am coming. Christ is coming, throughout the ages of
short? Let us, then, turn from evil and unto the Lord.       the New Dispensation.

   Positively, hold fast which we have. As is evident          He is coming, inasmuch as He is working all things
from verse 12, this admonition surely comes to each          unto the realization of His kingdom.
of us personally. Hold fast to pure doctrine; love it,         He is coming, through the gospel, saving His own,
study and know it, maintain it, and reject all heresies.     and He is coming through wars and pestilences and
Hold fast to the practice of it; do not deny Christ's        famines and earthquakes.
Name; confess it; practice what you know to be the
truth. Doctrine and life are inseparable. Keep your             He is coming through all things.
garments clean and unspotted in the midst of the
world; seek not the world, neither the things that are         And, He is coming quickly.
in the world; be strangers and pilgrims in the earth.          Our Lord Jesus Christ is in a hurry; He is con-
                                                             stantly  hurrying, coming at a constantly accelerated
   Hold fast which we have also as churches. This            pace, because He wants all His own to be where He is,
admonition is also addressed to the church, to its           in everlasting glory and heavenly immortality. Are we
officebearers and its entire membership. We must             eager for Him to come quickly?
maintain sound doctrine and the pure preaching of the
Word, always emitting a clear sound. We must be true           What a blessed incitement and encouragement this
watchmen upon the walls of Zion; be vigilant and             is! Indeed, bitter is the struggle within us and all
true in discipline; never become lax. The wolves out-        around us! How bitter is the struggle against sin with-
side the gate are dangerous but, inside the gate, they       in us! And then there are the enemies of darkness
are devastating. May our catechetical instruction and        confronting us! How hopeless is our lot! All the
all our societies be characterized by the Word of our        resources and man-power are on the side of the
God; hold fast, hold on "for dear life"; hold on             enemy, of those who would take our crown!
tenaciously; never let go,, keep what we have. Be sure
that we ever retain our vigilance, in the home and in          However, behold! Behold, look and see! There are
the church and in the school.                                wars and  mmours of wars, earthquakes and tidal
                                                             waves, persecutions and famines and pestilences.
                                                             They are all signs of His coming. Do we hear them; do
  And, how necessary it is that we heed this exhorta-        we hear Him, the rumblings of His coming? Behold,
tion of the Word of God! We must never permit the            take courage, lift up your heads, be comforted! Your
enemy to take our crown. 0, he does not want this            struggle will soon be over, the battle fought, and then
crown, but he would deprive us of it. How important          the crown will be given you, in everlasting life and
it is to maintain the pure doctrine as it is according to
the Scriptures; how necessary is the truth of divinely       &ry-
free and sovereign grace! How important it is that we          Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                             557



EDITORIALS


                          Our Australasian Tour  (3)

                                                 ProJ: H.C. Hoeksema



  We are now ready to furnish some details con-                Auckland is a large and rather beautiful city, with
cerning the New Zealand section of our tour.                access to the Pacific Ocean on the east and to the
  After a couple days' rest in the charming Fiji            Tasman Sea on the west. And while it is a harbor city,
Islands, Mrs. Hoeksema and I arrived in Auckland,           it did not impress us as having some of the unattrac-
New Zealand on the evening of Wednesday, June 18.           tive characteristics common to port cities. It is clean,
No one knows, unless he has experienced it, how             spacious, and probably not as busy as an American
good it is to arrive in a foreign country, pass through     city of comparable size. Our contacts were all in sub-
immigration, and then see a familiar and friendly face      urban (satellite) areas, however, and we did not get
waiting just beyond the desk of the immigration             the opportunity to see a great deal of the city proper.
officer. Everywhere on our tour we had this experi-            Our meetings in this area - and this was character-
ence; and if it had not been for this, it would have        istic of our entire tour - were of three types. We held
been extremely difficult to make our way in these           so-called  cottage meetings. These were meetings held
foreign lands. At Auckland our good friends, Mr. and        in someone's home, with 15 to 20 people in attend-
Mrs. William van Rij, were waiting to greet us. Mr. van     ance on the average. These meetings were informal in
Rij is production manager for General Foods in New          character. Usually we would be asked to introduce a
Zealand; and he managed: to be in Auckland on busi-         pertinent subject (and the choice of subject was most
ness at the time of our stay in this area. His home is      often left to the people being visited), and this would
in Christchurch, on the South Island. (Please refer to      be followed up by questions and informal discussion.
the map which appeared in the October 1 issue if            Meetings of this kind often lasted  three or more
you wish to note the location of the various cities         hours. There were also public lectures, usually fol-
mentioned from now on.) There were a few friends            lowed by a brief question-period. And, wherever we
with the van  Rijs; and we soon became acquainted           had the opportunity, we preached on the Lord's day.
with them, too. Until this time, they had been only         For us, as representatives of our churches, this pre-
names to me  - mentioned in correspondence; now             sented many new situations. Except for some ac-
we connect faces with these names.                          quaintance with us through our literature, we were
  Our gracious hosts in Auckland were Mr. and Mrs.          strangers to the people we were visiting. They had to
John Starrenburg. Again, this couple and their three        become acquainted with us, therefore. But we were
lovely children were total strangers to us; but they        also at a disadvantage: for the people were strangers
gave us the "red carpet" treatment and made us feel         to us. We did not know their specific interests; we did
thoroughly at home during the few days we spent             not know their degree of understanding of the
with them. This, too, happened repeatedly on our            Reformed faith and their capacity and receptivity.
tour. And it was a real advantage for us that we might      And while we had been rather thoroughly briefed by
enter the homes of various people. Not only is this         friend van Rij as to the main interests and the general
much superior to the loneliness of a motel room, but        areas for discussion, and in some cases had even re-
it also furnished an excellent opportunity to become        ceived a list of questions and suggestions as to sub-
acquainted with the people, `with their way of life,        jects for discussion, we more or less had to feel our
and with the church situation and spiritual conditions      way and try to gauge our audiences even while we
in the various communities which we visited. And let        were speaking and discussing. In some instances we
me add immediately, lest I forget, that we are very         did not learn the actual subject for, discussion until
thankful for all the hospitality extended to us along       we arrived at the meeting and asked the people
the way and for the friendships which were estab-           point-blank what they desired. This involved a
lished. Many of the names of our New Zealand                measure of extemporaneous speaking, and sometimes
friends keep popping up in our conversations from           involved a great deal of reaching back into one's
time to time, and we shall not forget them.                 memory and drawing on one's backlog of knowledge


558                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


and experience. Once in a while it gave rise also to         countryside of northern New Zealand. The lush green
totally unexpected questions, as when in Tasmania            paddocks, dotted with thousands of sheep or large
we were suddenly confronted by a question about              herds of Black Angus cattle, spread out over the hilly
supra- and infralapsarianism. All in all, however, we        terrain  - all this was very picturesque. Needless to
found this method to be highly successful. We could,         say, the trip also gave us a good opportunity to
of course, have made our tour with a fixed list of           become reacquainted with the van Rijs; there was no
subjects for lectures and talks, and,allowed people to       shortage of conversation. Along the way we also had
choose from that list. But with the method which we          opportunity to discuss our plans for the remainder of
followed we were able to speak directly to the needs         the New Zealand tour and to be briefed with respect
and interests of the -people and to treat subjects in        to various local situations. Hamilton, New Zealand, is
which they themselves expressed an interest. One             about the mid-point on this trip; both on the way to
might think that this restricted us severely, and that it    Rotoma and on our return we stopped for some
did not always furnish us the opportunity to say             personal visits in that city where the van Rijs
things which.we thought were in need of being said.          formerly resided. Rotorua is one of New Zealand's
This, however, was not the case. For there is no area        tourist attractions, partly because it is a thermal
of doctrine or life which is not related to our rich         region, reminding one strongly in sight and smell of
Reformed heritage and on which we do not have                the geyser area in Yellowstone National Park, and
something to say from our specific Protestant Re-            partly because there is a Maori village there. The
formed stance. We had abundant opportunity to                Maoris are said to have been the earliest settlers of
bring our Reformed viewpoint to bear, therefore; and         New Zealand; they seem to have been of Polynesian
I am sure that those who heard us will also bear wit-        origin. They still have their own distinct culture to a
ness to this.                                                large extent; and they have never been fully assimi-
                                                             lated into New Zealand society. Mr. and Mrs. Derek
  Our very first meeting in New Zealand was a cot-           Bound were our hosts in Rotorua. Our meeting in
tage meeting on Thursday, June 19, at the home of            Rotorua was held in the Lutheran Church. I was
Mr. and Mrs. A.R. Storm in  Howick. There were               asked to lecture on "The Need for Confessions in the
about 20 people present; most of them were from              `~OS," a subject which again gave me the opportunity
Reformed churches in the area. After introductions           to stress our Reformed heritage and to emphasize our
all around, we sang and prayed together. And what            calling in the light of the fact that creeds not only
do you think was the very first subject on which I           serve to unite but also bring separation and division.
was asked to talk in New Zealand? Thousands of               There was a  smalI audience of 13 present, and they
miles from the homeland and the home churches, I             came from all backgrounds  - Free Presbyterian,
was asked to give an introduction concerning the             Orthodox Presbyterian, Reformed, Particular Baptist,
origin and stand of our Protestant Reformed                  and Lutheran. At this same meeting Mrs. Hoeksema
Churches. Amazing! And yet, on second thought, it            was asked to give a short talk on covenantal educa-
was not so amazing: these people were in effect ask-         tion  - something on which she had not planned at
ing the good questions, "Who are you, and what do            all! This, by the way, happened more often during
you stand for?" This, of course, very naturally fur-         our tour. When those whom we visited discovered
nished an opportunity to speak about the Three               that Mrs. Hoeksema is a veteran teacher and the
Points and about common grace, and to emphasize              author of a book on child training, they wanted to
the truth of sovereign, particular grace. There were         hear more about Christian education from a Re-
many intelligent questions and much  Scripture-              formed  .point  of view. Mrs. Hoeksema had accom-
centered discussion on this subject. There was a very        panied me on the trip "for the ride," so to speak; but
good spirit. manifested throughout the meeting, and          this turned out to be one of the bonuses of the tour.
there was also no little degree of agreement ex-             The auditorium where we met that evening was
pressed. Well, that was a good beginning; and at the         almost unbearably cold. Hence, our discussion period
end of that evening we could only feel elated and            was held to a minimum; and after the meeting several
thankful to God for this opportunity to speak of             of us adjourned to the Bounds' living room for coffee
things which are close to our heart in that meeting so       and more discussion. At Rotorua we had the oppor-
far from home. If you had asked me when I entered            tunity to meet the Rev. Jack Mitchell of the Ortho-
the ministry  - no,  .even if you, had asked me five         dox Presbyterian Church at Whakatane. Here we also
years ago whether something like this would ever             met a couple .of people with friends and relatives in
come to pass, I would have responded that the very           the Grand Rapids area.
thought was preposterous!                                      By the evening of Saturday, June 21, we were back
   Friday, June 20, we travelled by auto with the van        in the Auckland area. My second driving lesson in
Rijs to Rotorua, some 150 to 200 miles southeast of          New Zealand (they drive on the left and in right-hand
Auckland. This was a delightful trip through the             drive cars) was on a dark, windy, rainy evening and


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                               559


on a rather narrow, winding, unfamiliar-highway; very          concerning Bible versions and translations. This seems
exciting! However, we arrived safely at the manse of           to be an important practical question to many people
the Rev. George McKenzie in Manurewa (another                  in New Zealand. The people were very receptive to
satellite of Auckland). Mr. McKenzie is pastor of the          my remarks on this subject; and I believe that there is
Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Manurewa. We had               room for more of our literature on this subject in
tea (supper) with the McKenzies, and Mr. McKenzie              New Zealand. Some of our Standard Bearer reprints
briefed me concerning the order of worship at the OP           on this subject could profitably be distributed there.
Church, where I was scheduled to preach on Sunday                 Our first Sunday in New Zealand was rounded out
morning, and concerning plans for the lecture                  by a cottage meeting in the evening at the home of
scheduled for Sunday afternoon. By the time we re-
turned to our hosts on Saturday evening, we were               the Starrenburgs in Mt. Wellington (another satellite
                                                               of Auckland). This time the subject was Christian
ready for some rest and quiet, as well as a little             Education; and rather unexpectedly it fell to Mrs.
opportunity to collect our  thoughts'and to prepare            Hoeksema, because of her background as a teacher, to
for Sunday's labors.                                           introduce the subject. Needless to say, I couldn't
   Sunday morning brought a new experience. This               keep my mouth shut long. We had a very good dis-
was the first time I ministered the Word outside our           cussion that extended to almost midnight. There is
Protestant Reformed pulpits. What should I preach              almost no Christian education in New Zealand. There
on? What would be the receptivity of the audience?             is opportunity for some religious instruction in the
Would I be able to preach to these people of God as            public schools, but this amounts to little. There is a
to our own people? `As I `told the congregation that           real need for Christian schools among Reformed and
morning, I decided to preach as clearly as possible,           Presbyterian people there.
trusting that if I delivered to them the Word of God,             During the day on Monday, June 23, we had an
they would understand and receive it. And this                 opportunity to see downtown Auckland, do a bit of
proved to be true. I took as my text Isaiah 3: 10, 11;         shopping, and make some airline reservations for the
and while I did not preach as long as in our services at       next part of our tour. In the evening we had a cottage
home, I had ample opportunity to expound the text              meeting at Mangere (still another Auckland suburb)
and to draw the antithetical line so plainly expressed         at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Suurmond. Present
in this passage. There was an attentive audience of 40         were 21 people, of whom 16 were men. Most of the
to 50 people present. Pastor McKenzie led the service.         people were from one of the Reformed churches of
The singing was from the Scottish Psalter. The meet-           the area. "The Need for Confessions" was the subject
ing place was a classroom of the Clendon Park                  for the evening. There were many questions and much
School. After the service many of the congregation             discussion. about the need for doctrinal instruction
expressed their appreciation for the sermon; and we            along confessional lines in pulpit and catechism class.
met many new acquaintances and engaged in conver-              And again there were questions about Bible transla-
sa tio n for a long time. After dinner with the                tions and about Christian education.
McKenzies, we made our way to the Intermediate                    Thus ended the first section of our New Zealand
School at Papatoetoe (try to pronounce that Maori              visit. Tuesday morning bright and early we headed for
name!), where I lectured to an audience of 23 on               the airport, after we said our goodbyes to the Starren-
"The Reformation Faith In Crisis." Opportunity was             burgs. By 8 o'clock Mr. and Mrs. van  Rij were air-
given for questions afterward; and there were several          borne on their way back to Christchurch; and ten
pertinent questions from this audience composed of             minutes later Mrs. Hoeksema and I were in the plane
Reformed, Presbyterian, Brethren, and Orthodox                 going to Napier, southeast of Auckland. But the rest
Presbyterian people. By the way, one of the questions          of our New Zealand story must wait until the next
which came up repeatedly at our meetings was that              issue.


                                       Open Your Eyes!

                                                  ProJ H.C. Hoeksema


  We are creatures of habit. This is true in almost              It is also true in our public worship. And this is
every area of our lives. In fact, if it were not true, life    good, subject to two limitations. In the first place,
would be well-nigh impossible.                                 our habits must be  good  habits. And, in the second


560                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


place, our habits must not become mere formalities,          diction to be prayers; and probably this has occa-
empty habits. Thus, for example, to honor the Lord           sioned our closing our eyes, as we usually do in
with our lips, while our heart is far from Him, is an        prayer. But they are not prayers - not in our services.
abomination to Jehovah.                                      In some churches they. are given the form of prayers.
   In our churches, it is my conviction, we engage in a      And a seminary student, who speaks a word of edifi-
bad habit which, with a little effort, could easily be       cation, may indeed employ the language of these
corrected. And, I believe, it would improve our public       blessings in the form of an opening and a closing
worship if we would correct that bad habit. I.cannot         prayer. But they are not prayers. This is plain from
say precisely when and why I came to this con-               the fact that the minister does not introduce them by
clusion. Partly, it was occasioned by study of a             "We pray . . . ." It is also plain from the fact that he
passage of Scripture related to the subject. Partly,         addresses the congregation, not God. It is also plain
perhaps, it came about as a result of the fact that I        from the fact that he says "you," not "us." Neither,
have been sitting in the pew rather frequently in            however, are they mere wishes, much in the same way
recent months and, as a result, have done some think-        as you may bid farewell to a friend and wish him the
ing about our order of worship and our acts of wor-          Lord's blessing. No, in these parts of our worship the
ship. Partly, too, my thoughts were triggered by a           minister makes an authoritative pronouncement as
sermon by one of my colleagues on worshipping God            the ambassador of Christ and in the name of Christ.
in Spirit and in truth. But the occasion is, after all,      And through that pronouncement the blessing of
not so very important.                                       Christ indeed comes upon the congregation that is
                                                             addressed, even as Christ Himself speaks through the
  I am referring to the fact that in our services we all,    preaching of the Word.
minister and congregation, have the habit of closing
our eyes at the moment of the salutation and the                  If we understand this, it will already be sufficient
moment of the benediction, at the beginning and at           reason to keep our eyes open during these phases of
the conclusion of our services respectively. For the         our worship.
benefit of our readers who may follow a different                 But there is more.
order of worship, let me explain. In our congregations
the service begins with the votum, "Our help is in the            We must be Scriptural in our worship. And then we
name of Jehovah, Who hath made heaven and earth."            must remember that the salutation and benediction
Then the minister addresses the congregation, "Be-           used by the minister are borrowed directly from
loved in our Lord Jesus Christ." Thereupon, he               Scripture and that they occur in various epistles in
raises his hands in a symbolic gesture of blessing and       one form or another. But these epistles were histor-
pronounces the salutation, "Grace, mercy, and peace          ically occasioned letters to various congregations.
be unto you from God the Father, and from Jesus              They were addressed to and read in the churches.
Christ our Lord, through the operation of the Holy           And surely, there is no reason to imagine that when
Ghost. Amen." Sometimes a variant Scriptural saluta-         such letters were read in the churches, the congrega-
tion is used, as, for example, from the first part of        tion bowed their heads and closed their eyes at the
Revelation 1. At the time of this salutation we have         greeting and the benediction portions of those letters.
for unnumbered years had the habit that both the             No, that would not make sense. They were be-
                                                             ing addressed with the apostolic salutation and
minister and the congregation close their eyes as if in
prayer. At the conclusion of the service, following the      benediction.
doxology, the Scriptural benediction is pronounced                Still more.
in a similar manner, "The grace of our Lord Jesus                 There is no'sense, either for minister or congrega-
Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the            tion, in the symbolic gesture of blessing if the congre-
Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen." And again both            gation close their eyes. Surely, we do not believe
minister and congregation close their eyes.                  there is some magical operation in those uplifted
This, I claim, is a bad habit. It is both unnecessary        hands! But then why, pray tell, should the minister
and empty. But worse than that, it simply does not           raise his hands in blessing upon a congregation which
                                                             -
make sense. In fact, this phase of our worship exactly            if they all religiously close .their eyes - does not
loses part of its sense through the fact that .we close      even see those uplifted hands? That simply does
our eyes.                                                    not make sense, either for the minister or for the
                                                             congregation.
   Let me explain.                                                Hence, I propose that we should break that habit.
  In the first place, let me explain that these ele-         By "we" I mean both ministers and congregations.
ments of our worship are not in the nature of a              Open your eyes, preacher: you are addressing Christ's
prayer, nor in the nature of a pious wish. I have. an        congregation. Open your eyes, congregation: Christ's
idea that we often consider the salutation and bene-         minister is speaking to you in word and in symbolic


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         561


gesture. No, your eyes should not wander and you                      Though it may seem strange at first, by reason of its
should not be looking around to see who is in church                  differentness, I assure you that these solemn
and who is not present. On the contrary, all eyes
:                                                                     moments of our worship will become more significant
should be straight forward, glued upon the minister                   if we substitute this good habit for the bad one.
of Christ who with symbolically raised hands is                         I speak from experience - both in the pulpit and
pronouncing the blessing of God upon the church.                      in the pew. And my pastor has also made this change.

                                        Welcome Edmonton
                                                             ProJ: H. Hanko

     The Standard Bearer received some material from                      of organization as a congregation among the Protes-
our newly organized congregation in Edmonton,                            tant Reformed Churches in America. When Rev.
Alberta, Canada which includes a program of the                           Woudenberg returned, they consulted with him, and
organizational meeting held September 25, 1975, a                         afterward with a committee from his  consistory  as
letter from the Consistory of Edmonton addressed to                       well as one from the Mission Committee of the
all the Protestant Reformed Churches in Classis West                      Protestant Reformed Churches. It was their advice
                                                                          that the group of believers should send a letter of
(but which was also distributed in some of our con-                       request to  Classis West of their denomination to
gregations in Classis East,) and a bulletin of the first                 request such organization. This was done on Septem-
Sunday worship services.                                                  ber 3, 1975, and the  Classis  authorized them to be
     The Standard Bearer wishes to make recognition of                    organized under the direction of the  con&tory  of
this great event in the lives of God's people in                          Lynden Protestant Reformed Church together with
Edmonton and in the history of our Protestant Re-,                       Rev. George  Laming of Loveland, Colorado. The
formed Churches. After all, with the organization of                     meeting has been set for this evening, September 25,
this new congregation, our Churches have "gone                            1975, in the Crestwood Presbyterian Church at
international"; and our Churches now extend from                         Edmonton.
the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the northern                              It is with thankfulness to God that we would
parts of Canada to the balmy tropical sunshine of                        express our gratitude for the two wonderful years of'
Southern California.                                                     study and fellowship in the Word under the leader-
                                                                         ship of Rev. B. Woudenberg, and our prayer is that
     The organizational meeting was held under the                       having begun in this way of truth, the Ring of the
supervision of the Con&tory  of our Lynden congre-                       Church will keep us and our,. children faithful unto it
gation and was conducted by Rev. G. Lanting and                          for many years until He comes to receive us unto
Rev. B. Woudenberg. On the inside of the program                         H i m s e l f .
the following is found:                                                 From the bulletin enclosed we learn that Rev.
         The origin of the First Protestant Reformed                  Laming began immediately to preach on the Heidel-
      Church at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is to be found             berg Catechism; that Catechism classes were
      in a Bible study class which met for about two years            organized, and that the Bi-weekly Study Group was
      under the instruction of Rev. Bernard Woudenberg of             continued.
      Lynden, Washington, U.S.A.                                        Reading the material enclosed, one cannot help but
         It was in the spring of 1973 that a number of               be impressed that this small group of fourteen con-
      people in Edmonton became deeply concerned with                 fessing members and eighteen children began their
      the growing liberalism`of their church life. At that           history as a Protestant Reformed Church with great
      time, Mr. and Mrs. F. Tolsma came to visit in Lynden,          joy in their hearts and with abundant gratitude to our
      and to meet with Rev. Woudenberg who offered to                covenant God.
      come to Edmonton and do what he could to help
      them. This he did, and the result was the organization            And so we, the Staff of the Standard Bearer extend
      of a regular Bible study class meeting every two                to you of our newest congregation a heartiest
      weeks for the following two years. Each time Rev.               welcome into our fellowship. You so often express in
      Woudenberg would fly up by plane from Lynden and                your letters your desire for the prayers of your sister
      lead the class, which studied in detail the  tive,points        congregations; be assured of these prayers, and may
      of Calvinism and the Belgic Confession of faith.                the God of all grace, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
         It was during the summer of 1975, when Rev.                  through the operation of His Holy Spirit lead you
      Woudenberg was unable to meet for about two                     into the riches of the truth of the gospel and join you
      months, that the members of the class came to the               with us and with all God's people in the bonds of love
      conclusion that they should seek a more stable form             and truth.


562                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



ALL AROUND US


                                        The Offer In The Preaching

                                                            Rev. H. Veldman


  In the periodical De Waarheidsvriend (The Friend                    in this attack upon those who deny the offer of the
of the Truth), June 5, 1975, page 271, the official                   gospel. We do not understand how anyone can be in
organ of the  Hervormde  or State Church of the                       want unconsciously. We fear that the writer ascribes
Netherlands, is an article which discusses the off& in                this doubt to the sinner's failure to accept this offer
the preaching of the gospel. We will quote briefly.                   because he does not know whether it is meant for
The  writer realizes what a  struggle  it has been to                 him. However, we assure him (and we, too, reject this
maintain God's sovereignty and to honor the re-                       presentation of the gospel as  `&I offer) that if the
sponsibility of man. It grieves him, however,  when                   gospel be preached in?all its fullness, that there is rest
the well-meaning offer is denied. Why? He writes as                   for the weary, bread and water for the hungry and
follows, and we translate:                                            thirsty, that this word of God is sure and that it nevei
          But also the salvation of man is at issue. How              fails, that the weary will  ,surely find rest and the
       many people have doubted until their last gasp
       whether they might claim the promises of God                   hungry and thirsty will surely eat  and. drink. How'
       because it was not sure that these promises were               ever, if my salvation depends upon my acceptance of
       meant for them, whether God also meant them with               an offer, then the salvation of a sinner  certainli
       the offer of His grace. How many people theie are              becomes very uncertain and then .doubts will surely
       also today who, because .of this, are in spiritual want,       plague and torment him. Anything that is dependeni
       consciously or unconsciously.                                  upon the choice of a sinner can never lead to
  What shall we say? Of course, there is nothing new                  certainty.


                  Professor Kuitert And The Woman In Office

  In  Waarheid en Eenheid  (Truth and Unity), a                           the reformed synod, which allows the woman in
periodical of those who are disturbed in the Nether-                      office. However you may  interpret it, in the New
lands because of conditions in the Reformed Church,                       Testament this is not only inconceivable, but. it is
appears an article with the above heading in the issue                    even emphatically contradicted in certain epistles.
of June 21, 1975, page 4. We quote and translate:                        When nevertheless the synod does allow the woman
                                                                         in office, then it certainly does not place the gospel
          An interviewer &ks:                                            upon an uncertain basis? I would not know why.
          A much used objection is: whoever begins by                    Unless one naturally anchors such a faith in a view
       placing Genesis upon an uncertain basis (op Zosse                 concerning the bible. Then: I would answer: the last
       schroeven), must surely end with the resurrection (we             anchor of your faith surely does not lie in a certain
       assume this means that this truth, too, will become               view of the bible? Your faith is anchored in God
       uncertain H.V.).                                                  Himself Who, in the fmal analysis, addresses man.
          Prof. Kuitert answers:                                         From where otherwise comes your fmal assurance?
                                                                         To say it with the old psalm  versification: I have
          The error in this reasonbg appears to me that                  myself heard it out of His mouth.
       people think that something is certain because it is
       written in the bible. I &ink we must begin with this.            We agree with the following criticism of this view
       However, we do not believe in the biblical announce-           of Prof. Kuitert as it appears in this same periodical
       ment because the bible says it, but b&cause we have            and follows immediately upon it:
       heard it in its content because we have experienced it                  We now make the following observations. Prof.
       as the word of God. Something is not certain because              Kuitert asserts that the woman in office is expressly
       it is recorded in the bible and therefore it does not             contradicted in the N.T. I believe he is completely
       become uncertain when you say: we can no longer go                correct, as far as the teaching office is concerned.
       along with it in  @is  way.  A$ example, I would name             From this it is abundantly clear that already for a


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        563


   long time the evil is increasing in our churches, and           strange assertion in the mouth of Prof. Kuitert. Must
   that the question of woman officebearers, yes or no,             we now establish that the rationalism of Kuitert and
   must finally be answered with the question: how do               fanaticism lie very close to each other?
   you actually approach the Bible? What is this for me?
   God's infallible Word or not? If not, then I would no          And we would add the following. Of course, we do
   longer speak over any text of the Bible. Yes, but so         not believe something only because it is in the Bible.
   Prof. Kuitert` declares at the end: `I have myself heard     The Holy Spirit must surely work  this faith in our
   it out of His mouth.' I would thereupon ask: How             hearts. But, we may certainly not believe something
   then?                                                        that is contradicted by the Bible. God does not speak
     A special revelation? Inner enlightenment? A very          in us apart from the divine and infallible Scriptures.



                                      How To Read The Bible
  Lester De Koster, editor of the Banner, has written           structed how to read the Bible. God knows whether
a booklet entitled: How To Read The Bible. We read              He has created the heavens and the earth in six days
the following on page 20:                                       or in six periods. But, the Lord has not told us. The
      For example, God knows whether His creation was           Word of God does not bother to settle the issue. I
   done quickly, say in six days of twenty-four hours           assume this means that you may read the Bible as you
   each, or over long periods of time. Some men are             please. However, the Bible does bother to settle this
   curious to know. Much time and argument is spent             issue. I refer our readers to Gen. 1, .Ps. 33:6, 9, Heb.
   trying to decide between creationism and evolu-              11:3, the fourth commandment, Exodus 20: 8-l 1,
   tionism. God knows. But His Word does not bother             and many other passages. I remind the editor of the
   to settle the issue.                                         Banner of the Scriptural truth that this is understood
  So, there you have it. In this booklet we are in-             only by faith.


                           Fear Of Schism In Missouri Synod
  In  Chris@  Neys, of Monday, July 21, 1975,                      generally back the dissident district presidents in their
appears the following which bears upon this subject:               stand, have estimated that as many as 25 per cent of
                                                                   the Church membership will bolt the denomination,
      ANAHEIM,  Calif. (RNS)  - Theological conserva-              probably within a year.
   tives of the Lutheran Church  7 Missouri Synod set                 A staff spokesman for Dr. Jacob A.O. Preus, presi-
   the stage for what is feared will be a wide split in the        dent of the Synod, believes that fewer than 50 con-
    denomination when they passed a resolution demand-             gregations will withdraw from the denomination
   ing that if any district president cannot in conscience         because deep-seated loyalties to the Church will pre-
    abide by regulations concerning ordination, he should          clude a wholesale walkout. The mood of the 1,120
   resign.                                                         delegates seemed resigned to the fact that some kind
      The resolution passed after extended debate by a             of split is now inevitable.
   vote of 626466. It was directed specifically at eight              A key passage in Resolution 5-02 said that if a
    district presidents who have ordained uncertified              district president  "camrot in good conscience uphold
   graduates of Seminex (the seminary of the moderates             the constitution and bylaws of the Synod, which he
   or those who advocated a liberal interpretation of the          has sworn to do at the time of his installation, and
   Holy Scriptures, H.V.), in violation of the Synod's             cannot  refrain from ordaining or authorizing the
   by-laws.                                                        ordination of candidates for the holy ministry who
      Immediately after the action, eight district presi-          have not received endorsement for ordination
   dents who were the targets of the resolution read a             through the duly authorized Synodical process, then
   statement saying that they would remain in their                the said district president, for the peace and the good
   offices unless the people of the districts themselves           order of the Synod, shall resign from the office of
   say they should leave. They declared that their call to         district president."
   the office is divine in nature and not subject to legis-           Another provision declared that if such district
   lative action of the denomination's national meeting.           presidents do not resign "they shall be commended to
      The presidents preside over eight districts that             the pastoral care and discipline of the Synodical presi-
   have a total of 586,638 of the 2.8 million baptized             dent, assisted by the Council of Presidents, for the
   members of the denomination. `Moderates," who                   solution of this matter."


564                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



          A fmal provision said  that  if pastoral care, and             ments will be brief. We will not comment on the
       discipline have failed to secure from each district presi-        ecclesiastical procedure set forth in this quotation.
       dent involved his compliance with the resolution or               Our comments will concern these splits and schisms.
       he refuses to resign, "the  Synodical president,  after
       consultation with the Council of Presidents, shall                Splits and schisms are always painful. It hurts when
       inform the said district at least 60 days before the              brethren with whom we have been associated in the
       beginning of the next regularly scheduled district                battle for the truth deviate from and reject the funda-
       convention, that. a vacancy exists in the office of said          mentals of the  Word of God. However, one thing is
       district president, and that. the said district is to elect       sure: it is better for a church to part with those who
       a successor for the unexpired term in harmony  aiith              err than to retain them in the  fellow&ii of the
       this resolution and according to said district's pro-             church. The glory of God and the purity of the
       cedures."                                                         church demand this. It is better for these "wolves" to
  In connection with the above quotation, our com-                       be outside the fold of the sheep than within the fold.


TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE


                                             "Hyper-Calvinism"
                           and  the- Call of the Gospel  (13)

                                                               Rev. David Engelsma

  Herman Hoeksema has been instrumental in the                           and the achievement of final salvation through divine
development of the Reformed faith. The area of his                       and human cooperation.
outstanding contribution is the doctrine of the
covenant: what the covenant is; the sovereignly                             The better Reformed theologians heard the dis-
gracious nature of the establishment and maintenance                     sonance and manifested uneasiness with the
of the convenant; the inclusion of the children of                       convenant conception that passed for truth in the
believers in the covenant; the Biblical basis of infant                  Reformed sphere. But it was Hoeksema who sub-
baptism; and related truths.1 The prominence of the                     jected that conception of the covenant to rigorous
doctrine of the covenant in Scripture and its                            scrutiny in the light of Scripture; who rejected it,
iignificance for the Reformed faith are widely recog-                    root and branch, as in fundamental conflict with the
nized.                                                                   Reformed faith; and who, not without the aid of
                                                                         certain predecessors and some contemporaries, set
  The doctrine of the covenant is found in Calvin                        forth, in preaching and writing, a "new" doctrine of
and the Reformed creeds, but in somewhat                                 the covenant. Hoeksema viewed the covenant as the
embryonic form. Through the years, Reformed                              living relationship of friendship between God and His
theology has grappled with the question: What is the                     people in Christ; as "unilaterally" established and
covenant? Sounder views and less sound views have                        maintained by God alone in free and sovereign grace;
been propounded. In time, a view of the  covenant                        as a gift bestowed upon the elect in Christ and them
gained currency in Presbyterian and Reforined circles                    only; and as itself the highest good for man both in
that jeopardized the sovereignty of God and the                          time and eternity.
gospel of grace. It began to be accepted that the
covenant is a pact, entered into mutually by God and                        There are evidences today, outside the Protestant
men, dependent on conditions fulfilled by both                           Reformed Churches, that `this view of the covenant
parties, and serving as the means by which the
covenant people acquire salvation. Notes in jarring                         l.Hoeksema's conception of the covenant is set forth in his books,
discord with the sweet music of the Reformed faith                       Reformed Dogmatics  (p. 152; pp. 214-226; pp. 285-336) and  The
                                                                         Triple Knowledge, Vol. 2 (pp. 504-553).  in a pamphlet, "God's Taber-
began to be struck in the Reformed churches  - a                         nacle with Men."  For his view of the inclusion of the children of
dependent God; the decisiveness of man's will in sal-                    believers  in. the covenant and the basis of their inclusion, cf. his
vation; the extension of God's grace to a wider circle                   Believers and their`sseed and the pamphlet, "The Biblical Ground for
                                                                         the Baptism of Infants." All of these are available from the Reformed
than the elect; the failure of this grace in many cases;                 Free Publishing Association.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             565



represents real development of Reformed doctrine.            two reasons. The first is that the teaching of the offer
Berkouwer, who has very little good to say of                of the gospel is bound up with the doctrine of the
Hoeksema as a Reformed theologian in his dogmatics,          covenant as a conditional pact between God and men.
has recently questioned whether the notion of the            Wherever men defend the offer, you will  find them
"covenant of works" has a rightful place in Reformed         also defending a conditional covenant, i.e., a covenant
theology, although he does not mention Hoeksema's            dependent on man. Our repudiation of the offer must
longstanding and well-known repudiation of the               be considered against the background of the doctrine
covenant of works.2                                          of the covenant developed by Hoeksema.
  Here and there, men are also voicing dissatisfaction          But the main reason for this excursus is to point
with the conception of the, covenant as a mutual             out that an investigation of Reformed theology of the
compact or agreement of God and men and are                  past, such as we propose with regard to the teaching
moving towards a doctrine of the covenant that               of the offer of the gospel, must recognize the possi-
approximates Hoeksema's bond of love and friend-             bility, not only of a lack of clarity on a certain
ship. The Presbyterian theologian, John Murray, in a         doctrine, but also of a lack of consistency. One must
work called  The Covenant  of Grace, has criticized          not be surprised to see contradictory `elements
the teaching that the idea of a mutual compact, or           struggling for supremacy, sometimes in the same,
agreement, constitutes the essence of the divine             godly man. So near does the life-and-death struggle of
covenant. Instead, Murray suggests that the covenant         the truth and the he come to us. The Spirit of Christ
of grace is a "sovereign administration of grace and of      leads the Church into all the truth, but only  - as
promise." The essence of the covenant is: "relation-         church history clearly shows - in the way of constant
ship with God in that which is the crown and goal of         labor and battle. Examination of Reformed theology
the whole process of religion, namely, union and             of the past, therefore, a going back to our sources,
communion with God .  : .  "3                                does not consist merely of compiling quotations from
  The non-reformed theologian, Jakob  Jocz, writes           here and there. Satan, after all, can find quotations in
along the same lines. Jocz has made a fresh,                 Scripture itself to buttress his case, As Luther said,
significant study of the Biblical doctrine of the            we must discriminate when we study the fathers:
covenant.4 Even though the book is ravaged by.un-            "the places where they speak from the Spirit should
Reformed teachings, including many concessions to            (be) picked out and held fast, and those where they
higher criticism, it sets forth a doctrine of the            savor of the flesh let go."
covenant strikingly different from'that embraced by             There has been real. development in Reformed
many Reformed theologians in the past, namely, a             theology as regards the doctrine of the covenant, and
conditional pact entered into mutually by God and            this development has included the Reformed faith's
men. Jocz asserts that the concept of the covenant is        saying "No" to views that clamored to be accepted
so, important that it is the "unifying principle" of the     from within the Reformed churches and its purging
entire Bible. "Covenantal theology is at the root of         of views which for a time even gained some accept-
biblic,al thinking" (p. 9). He criticizes the notion that    ance. It is similar as regards the doctrine of the call of
the covenant is an agreement between God and men.            the gospel.
In close connection with this, he `denies that the              None of this should be understood as a tacit
covenant is conditional. Rather, the covenant is "the        admission that Reformed theology of the past can be
conditionless and . . . irrevocable will of God to be        made to prove whatever one wants it to prove,
present to His people" (p. 43). The "root-idea" of the       specifically now as regards the offer of the gospel.
covenant is made plain in the tabernacle in Israel:          The thrust of Reformed theology is perfectly clear -
"communion between the Holy One and man,"                    so clear that a child can perceive it. Its genius is
which is "the essential Old Testament message about          plainly opposed to the theology of the well-meant
God" (pp. 47, 48).  Jocz argues that the covenant is         offer. Reformed theology of the past, from Calvin on,
unilateral. He quotes Weber with approval: "the              stands up to say "Amen" to the teaching that the
covenant in the Old Testament setting is `essentially        preaching of the gospel is grace to the elect alone. It
determined by one side' and . . . it is God who acts as      acknowledges this doctrine, as sharply and clearly
initiator. It is therefore not a `contract' in the usual     formulated by Hoeksema, as its own well-born child
sense, `implying two partners, but an arrangement            and disowns the notion of the offer as illegitimate.
made solely by the one who determines it.' `. He
speaks of "the one-sided nature of the covenant rela-
tionship," and says that this is "decisive for a
theological understanding of the Bible" (pp. 30, 31).           2-G.C. Berkouwer,  Sin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971). PP. 206ff.
                                                                3*John Murray, The  Covenant of Grace  (London: The Tyndale
  I interject this little discussion of doctrinal de-        Press, 1954). pp. 30ff.
velopment into' our study of the call of the gospel for         4aJakob  Jocz, The Covenant (Grand Rapids; Eerdmans, 1968).


 566                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


    One other thing must be borne in mind as we turn             It is of no consequence, therefore, that the term,
 tb Reformed theology of past ages. We are concerned          "offer," appears in Calvin, in other Reformed
 to discover whether Reformed theology teaches, or            theologians, and in such Reformed creeds as the
 even favors, the doctrine that the preaching of the         -Canons of Dordt and the Westminster Confession of
gospel expresses God's grace to all men; the doctrine         Faith. The word, "offer," had originally a sound
 that the preaching is motivated by a sincere desire in       meaning : `serious call, presentation of Christ.' We are
 God to save all men; the doctrine that the success of        fundamentally uninterested in warring over words. No,
 grace depends upon the will of men; and the implied          but we are interested to ask concerning the doctrine
 doctrine that Christ and His cross are for all men.          of the offer: is it Reformed?
 This is what is meant by the well-meant gospel-offer
 in Reformed circles today.                                                      (to be continued)


 THESTRENGTH   O.F'YOUTH


                                          Four Pictures
                                                   Rev. J. Kortering

    "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto         catches our attention is that there is a man sitting on
 my path." Ps. 119:  105.. How often we read these            a throne. Its ornate luxury tells us that he is very rich.
 words and hardly give them a second thought. The             One thing is disturbing, his face. It reflects rage and
 Word of God is written down for us in the Bible,            hostility. We can hardly be expected to know his
 which in its totality makes up the Word of God. The         name, but we are told that it is Diocletian.
 Bible is precious to us. We don't have to be tossed to
 and fro with every wind of doctrine; we have the               It won't take too long, while we study the picture
 Word of God to guide us,into the safety of the haven        more carefully, to discover why this king is so angry.
 of rest. We need not dash our souls to pieces upon the       Outside the window, we see on yonder hill a stake in
 jagged rocks of human lust and evil desire, but need         the ground. It is not a marker to commemorate some
 only. follow the beacon light of God's Word to steer        heroic event of the past, rather it stands amidst a
 clear of such dangers and be guided safely through           thick mat of wood chips soaked in oil. Its lonely vigil
 troubled waters. When our life is filled with trials and     announces the fate of some poor soul who shall be
 cares and we cry out to Jehovah in our distress, we          bound to it while the flames of death shall consume
 may be sure that the Word of God will direct us to          him.
 the comfort of our redemption and loving care of our           By now our attention is drawn to yet another part
 Heavenly Father Who controls the storms.                     of the picture. Just inside the door of the great palace
                                                              a group of soldiers surround an old man. Ruthlessly,
   About this time of the year,. we do well to reflect        they press him forward in the presence of his austere
 upon the significance of the great Reformation for us.      majesty. He trembles as his loose fitting cloak con-
 By the Reformation, we refer to the events which             ceals the torture that has been  -his. His hands are
 God brought to pass in the lives of Martin Luther and       bound and his head bowed~ low. Soon the silence is
 John Calvin, along with others. It was an astounding         broken by the thundering voice of Diocletian. "Where
 event in the history of the church; it brought the          is your Bible?" The tone of his voice indicates the
 children of God from the shackles of dead formalism         torrent of rage contained within. Yes, this is the
 into a vibrant and living faith.                            mighty emperor who hates God, has slain countless
   The Word of God made all the difference.                  Christians. His hands are red with the blood of the
   Let's look at that story in the form of four pic-         godly. Some were burned at the stake, others torn by
 tures.                                                      the lions, many rotted away in the dungeons.
                                                                The answer comes forth without wavering. "Your
 THE FIRST PICTURE                                           majesty, it is in my heart!"
   Its edges are frayed, it is yellow with age, being           The old man knew that the enemy might be able to
 taken over 1700 years ago. The first thing that             uncover a Bible hidden amongst his meager  posses-


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   567



sions and take it away. But, he also knew that if he           The first is obviously a ruler, his dress and deport-
committed the Word to  .memory so that it would             ment indicates that he is a man of importance. He is
abide in His heart, they could never take that away.        not here to be entertained, he is here to function as a
   He knew the meaning of the words, "Thy word              judge, this is a trial of great importance. He is Charles,
have I hid in my heart." Such a word is a lamp unto         ruler of Germany? surrounded by none other than the.
our feet and a light upon our pathway, even if that         great and mighty of the Holy Roman Catholic Church,
way leads through the valley of the shadow of death.        Mr. Eck.
  He went to the stake with the Word in his heart.            Before him stands Martin Luther, thin, short of
                                                            stature, robes, skull cap and all. His eyes are sharp
THE SECOND PICTURE                                          and penetrating. His mean figure by no means indi-
   It, too, is very old, about 700 years to be exact. It    cates timidity. The picture tells a different story.
also is a sad picture.                                         This moment is crucial for Luther. Many strange
   The center of this picture is a large church. It is      things have happened to him already. He had nailed
very old and by the architecture we can tell that it is     the 95 theses on the door of Wittenburg. He had
in southern France about the year' 1200. We can tell        caused a. storm of protest and violent theological dis-
that something strange is going on inside this church.      cussion. The pope had already excommunicated him
There are no happy people entering for worship.             by means of the papal bull. The pope had also waved
Rather, we see soldiers cari-ying people upon their         his political influence by requesting Charles to call
shoulders, some are old and feeble, others are just         this trial to determine whether Luther was a heretic
children. Some are kicking and putting up a fuss,           or not; and if so, he was determined to have Charles
others are submissive. All are sad faced; they seem to      put him to death.
realize what lies ahead.                                      Luther's life was at stake here.
   I hate to tell you to step up closer and look inside
the windows: for it is a horrible spectacle. One can          The clever Eck begins to ask questions. Are these
just hear the screams and cries of the tortured, the        your writings? Do you recant, are you sorry for
moans of the dying. Soldiers are standing ankle deep        writing them? Are you willing to destroy them?
in blood; it is seeping into their shoes. On the altar,        The answer of Luther sends chills down our spine.
bodies of the dead are piled high. Soon the church
cannot hold any more corpses, for by nightfall over            "Since then your majesty and your lordship desire
60,000 men, women, and children are dead by the             a simple reply, I will answer without horns and with-
edge of the sword..                                         out teeth. Unless I am convicted by the Scripture and
  Why this carnage?                                         plain reason - I do not accept the authority of popes
                                                            and councils for they have contradicted each other;
  Pope Hildebrand had issued a decree that no one           my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I can-
could own a Bible. Only the priests could have one          not and I will not recant. For to go against conscience
for their study. The people in this village were            is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I cannot do
Waldenses, they had disobeyed the order of the pope.        otherwise, God help me."
They had painstakingly copied by hand - sometimes
it took a whole year - the Bible, so that they could           This  was. the  &man that had struggled personally
read and commit much of it to memory. That Word             until God showed him the truth of justification
they. taught to their children, so that they, too, could    through faith in Jesus Christ and not righteousness
know the God of salvation.                                  based upon our works. His comfort had been found
  The words of Psalm 119: 105 were precious to              not in the words of men, but the infallible Word of
them, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light          God. The floodgates of righteousness were opened
unto my pathway." Only that light couid  swallow  up        unto him as he read,"The just shall live by faith." His
the darkness. Without it they would rather die.             fervor for the Word of God led him to translate it
                                                            carefully into `the language of the people. It didn't
                                                            take very long and  his fellow German, Gutenberg,
THE THIRD PICTURE                                           invented movable type and the common people had
  The next picture is relatively recent, being about        their Bibles.
400 years old.                                                 Yes, where else could he stand than upon the
  The attraction in this picture is not a palace, not a     certain ground, "My conscience is captive to the Word
church, but a large hall. This is not a mob scene, it is    of God!"
very orderly. Two personages are the focus of atten-.          The light of that Word had illuminated the whole
tion.                                                       of his life.


568                                          TH.E STANDARD BEARER


THE FOURTH PICTURE                                         chapters in great quantity. You can give him chapter
  This one is very new, its edges are crisp and clean.     and verse, and he can find it readily. His Bible is part
  The center of this picture is a house. By its            of his life.
structure we can see that it is  a...house in suburbia        And that's not all.
America. The tree lined streets are enhanced by the           His Bible is at the table, at school, in church, in
presence of the dwelling.                                  society.
  What is important to us, however,  ,is not the             Very seldom is there not a Bible available within an
outside, but the inside. With our zoom lens, we are        arm's reach.
able to enlarge one room of this house to sizable
proportions. This room is obviously someone's                Is this a picture of you?
private abode. No, it is not- spotless, the rumpled          You, too, have learned that, "Thy Word is a lamp
bedspread, the shirt hanging over the doorknob, the        unto my feet and a light upon my pathway." What
junk in one comer, tell us that someone lives in this      would our life be without our Bibles? How could we
room. It is not a museum; it is a bedroom, very            ever really know  the  answers without its authority.
special. Amidst the adequate furnishings we notice a       Where would we find direction without its guidance,
desk in one corner. It, too, tells of neglected papers,    comfort without its words of hope. The Bible is so
piles of abandoned games, books, etc.                      much part of our life we almost take it for granted.
  But look on.                                               Now look back. Four pictures. Two are sad, one is
                                                           a picture of courage, one is a happy scene. Between
  There at that desk is a young student. Tonight he is     the sad ones and the happy one is the picture of
working hard at his math. He has finished his English,     courage.
and he has yet to tackle History. Amongst his books
is a Bible. So commonplace he hardly gives it a               That's what the Reformation must mean to us.
second thought, yet so precious that he wouldn't
think of studying without it. From time to time his          God used Martin Luther and John Calvin and
textbooks make reference to this one great Book. His       others to give us our Bible, that we might have its
teachers ask penetrating and thought-provoking ques-       lamp upon our feet.
tions that force him to examine the texts of this            Next time you reach for your Bible, think of these
Book carefully. He has memorized verses and                four pictures.


GUEST ARTICLE


                               The Reformation and
                             the  Neti Hermeneutics

                                                Rev. W. Bekkering



  The Reformation stands as a high point in the his-       church through its unholy councils and overbearing
tory of the Christian church because it served to free     tradition of the fathers imposed man's word upon the
the Word of God out of the bondage of the Roman            Word of God.
church. The Roman church had suppressed the Scrip-           What a terrible time that was for the child of God
ture to the extent that it was all but taken away from     who cried out for the comfort that comes through
the masses of the common people. Only the clergy           the clear exposition of the truth of the gospel of
had access to the Bible and that was limited. The free     salvation through faith in Christ alone.
study and interpretation of the Scripture was stifled
because the church determined what the Word of               Imagine then the inexpressible joy of Martin
God said and woe unto him who found in the Scrip-          .Luther when God caused the light of the pure gospel
ture what the church said was not there. The Roman         to beam into the night of his uncertainty to work the


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                569



assurance of sins forgiven, which brings that peace          the new hermeneutic because there is no set standard
that passeth understanding.                                  of what it is. The new hermeneutic can, however, be
   As children of the Reformation, we must never             recognized by certain elements that all or most of the
cease to be thankful for what God has wrought for            adherents hold in common.
His church through the Reformation `and for what                The new hermeneutic was born among the scholar-
God continues to do for the church that continues in         ly, the highly educated, the theologians. It arose out
the way of the truth, the truth as it was rediscovered       of a concern that the church have an influential role
and reinterpreted through the true principles of inter-      in shaping the world in which we live. It was moti-
pretation, the chief of which is that the Scripture          vated by the fear that the church was losing its in-
interprets the Scripture. God through the Reforma-           fluence and that it was no longer relevant. These men
tion caused the church to see and confess: "We               were concerned lest a sharp antithesis come between
believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain the         the church and the world so that the church be no
will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to                longer in a position to address the world, and the
believe, unto salvation, is sufficiently taught therein.     world the church. That, you see, would be a cardinal
. . .For, since it is forbidden, to add unto or take         sin, for then the church would be as salt that had lost
away anything from the word of God, it doth thereby          its savor. Then the world would not be influenced
evidently appear, that the doctrine thereof is most          when the church spoke with respect to the social prob-
perfect and complete in all respects. Neither do we          lems of our day, such as racism, ecology, corruption
consider of equal value any writing of men, however          in politics, etc. The church, after all, has a mandate to
holy these men may have been, with those divine              fulfill which is both cultural and evangelical. These
Scriptures, nor ought we to consider custom, or the          scholars with deep social concern have weighed the
great multitude, or antiquity, or succession of times        church in the balances and have found her wanting.
and persons, or councils, decrees or statutes, as of            Long has the church preached the gospel, but to no
equal value with the truth of God, for the truth is          avail. In the first place, they say, the church has been
above all; for all men are of themselves liars, and          entirely too internally oriented, that is, her message
more vain than vanity itself. Therefore, we reject with      has been addressed too much to the church and not
all our hearts, whatsoever doth not agree with this          enough to the world. Secondly, the message of the
infallible rule, which the apostles have taught us, say-     church has been too bland - it is no wonder that the
ing, Try the spirits whether they are of God. Like-          world gives no heed. The message of the church must
wise, if there come any unto you, and bring not this         be seasoned with the salt of social concern.
doctrine, receive him not into your house." (Belgic
Confession, article VII) The church further believes            Something has to be changed! `There has to be a
"without any doubt, all things containedin them, not         reinterpretation of the task, the message, and the goal
so much because the Church receives and approves             of the church. Doubt has to be cast upon the teaching
them as such, but more especially because the Holy           of the Word of God which says that God has put
Ghost witnesseth in our hearts, that they are from           enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed
God, whereof they carry the evidence in themselves.          of the woman - between the world and the church.
For the very blind are able to perceive that the things      That may have held for the church in the Old Testa-
foretold in them are fulfilling. (Belgic  Confessionj        ment, but can hardly be relevant for the evangelical
article V)                                                   church of the 20th century. Room has to be made in
                                                             the church for the teaching of the world concerning
  In the last few years something terrible has been          the origin of all things. There has to be a new inter-
happening in those churches that were born out of            pretation of the old naive account of creation as set
and long lived in aljpreciation of what God brought          forth in the  first few chapters of God's Word. That
about in the Reformation. That terrible thing is the         must not be understood literally, but as a teaching
so-called new hermeneutic. That means a new way of           model that was only intended to teach the what but
interpreting the Word of God. The new hermeneutic            not the how of creation. The teaching of God's Word
is a pernicious and a deceitful error. It is pernicious      that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and
because it leads the church back into the situation in       is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
which men, and not the Word itself, determine what           for instruction in righteousness" (II Tim. 3: 16), and
the Word of God teaches. It is deceitful because it          Jesus' prayer in  Johns  17: 17, "thy word is truth,"
claims a love for the Word, adherence to the Word,           must not be interpreted to mean that the Scripture is
and because it confesses that the Word is God's Word,        infallible, without any error. That was all right for the
but what it does not say is that the Word of God is          old hermeneutic but the new hermeneutic must deter-
absolutely infallible and entirely without error.            mine what the content of the truth is without being
  It is difficult to give a clear picture of exactly what    unduly concerned with the form of the truth. It may
the new hermeneutic is. In fact one cannot pinpoint          be stated that the Word of God is  in  the Scripture,


570                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


but not that the Scripture is the Word of God. It may         the clear teaching of the Word of God, there is some-
not be said of the Scripture that it contains propo-          thing terribly wrong. The new hermeneutic is bearing
sitional truth, so that one can take a statement out of       its fruit. The Word of God is being removed from
the Bible and say that it gives a concrete manifes-           God's people so that finally only the theologians will
tation of a truth that God caused to be  inscrip-             be able to be "sure" what is God's Word in the Bible
turated. The Scripture, we are told by those who use          and what is not. God's people `can sense that some-
the new hermeneutic, was never intended to be                 thing is' wrong when pulpits, affected by the new her-
treated as a collection of propositional truths;              meneutic, send forth the sound of uncertainty with
Rather, we may say with respect to a statement from           respect to the Scripture. The faith of God's people
the Scripture that it is Moses' understanding of the          cries out for the rock-solid testimony of the truth.
truth or Matthew's interpretation of the truth or             Let God's people who are ensnared in such circum-
Paul's reaction to the truth but never the truth per se.      stances flee to where the truth is proclaimed with
You see, cultural and historical circumstances that           certainty.
surround a statement of the Bible determine how it is
to be understood. The new hermeneutic insists that               Whenever man or a group of men become the
one give full due to the human side as well as the            standard of the truth, then gone is  all the blessed
divine side of the Scripture.                                 comfort of God's Word. As soon as one thinks he can
                                                             find one error in the Bible he no longer believes in the
   We could go on and on to show how the new her2            holy Scripture, but in himself. If he accepted every-
meneutic manifests itself in the churches, but let this      thing else as true, he would believe it, not because the
serve to show the very seriousness of this error.             Scripture says it, but because it agrees with his own
                                                             reason or his own sentiments.
   We ought to notice that there is really nothing new
in the new hermeneutic. What we have at bottom is                The Bible must not be believed just because that is
the question "Who is the standard of the truth - God         the best logical presupposition, but because the Holy
or man?" More fundamental yet is the question,               Spirit gives clear evidence in the Scripture that it is
"Whose voice will man heed  - the Lord's or the              God's infallible Word, and He testifies in the heart of
devil's?" The devil does not demand that his word be         believers that His Word is truth.
specifically acknowledged. It is satisfaction enough
for him to see that God's Word is denied. The devil              As Protestant Reformed churches we must re-
understands very well that to deny God's Word is              member with gratitude what God has wrought in the
principally to give heed to him. The devil is content         Reformation and what He has continued to do for His
to let man think that man is the standard of the              church up until this day by preserving her in the way
truth.                                                        of the truth. We have the old hermeneutic, which
                                                              principles were rediscovered and clarified through the
                                                              Reformation. The old hermeneutic begins with the
   Historically the devil was the first to use the "new       firm conviction that the Bible is inspired in all its
hermeneutic" when he used the questioning approach            parts, that it is God's Word and therefore it is infal-
to cast doubt on the veracity of God's Word in speak-        lible. The old hermeneutic holds that the Scripture is
ing to Eve, "Yea hath God said,. .  .?" The Roman            the only interpreter of the Scripture.
church with a "new hermeneutic" took the Word of
God from His people. More recently the 19th century              Let Christian scholarship be manifest in our midst
unbelieving higher critics laid the ground work for the      not with high-flown theories of men, but in drawing
new hermeneutic. ,There is really nothing new in this        out of the Word the treasures of the truth. That is
hermeneutic, but we recognize the same old attempt           true exegesis! That is the way of the Reformation.
on the part of the devil to rob God's people of the
blessed assurance of His Word and to afflict them
with the agony of uncertainty.

                                                                            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
  It is no joy for us to behold the new hermeneutic             The Redlands Men's Society expresses sincere sympathy to one of
having,its terrible effects in a`church very close to us.    it's members, Mr. Arthur Griess, in the death of his father, MR.
The Christian Reformed Church is presently caught in         AUGUST GRI ESS.
the throes of this dreadful error. The roots have               May our covenant God comfort the bereaved by His Word and
                                                             Spirit.  " For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we
grown deeply into the whole life of the church, and          die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the
the clear fruits are being manifest. When that church,       Lord's." (Remans  14:8)
year after year, takes decisions that fly in the face of                                           Rev. Marvin Kamps, Pres.
                                                                                                   Larry Feenstra, Sec'y.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                571



STUDIES IN ISAIAH

                  Kingdom And Capital Fallen  (19)
                                               Isaiah 3: 8-11
                                                Rev. Robert C. Harbach


   1.  Why Government Office is Refused.  "For               looks show what  they are:  onen. hardened
Jerusalem is failed and Judah fallen, because their          fornicators, adulterers and drunkard; (I.' Cor. 6:  9):
tongue and their deeds (are) against Jehovah, to             Their eyes speak plainly, are full of adultery, which
embitter (insult) the eyes of His glory," (v. 8, Heb.).      cannot cease from sin (II Pet. 2: 14). As Matthew
"Fqr, " expressing "the reason why the conscripted           Henry says, "they had a whore's forehead (Jer.  3:3)
man refuses to accept the reins of public office" (E.J.      and could not blush (Jer. 6: 15)" Like the Sodomites
Young). For the ruin (v. 3) of any nation, generally,        in the days of Lot, they `brazenly tell their sin. They
it has only itself to thank, and that because of its         do not hide it, but bring it right out in the open. It
profane and blasphemous offending of the holiness            appears on the front cover of Time magazine. The sin
and glory of God. There is no exception with the             of Sodom represents utter abomination. Today it is a
nation whose God is the Lord. For Jerusalem and              sin not only frequent and widespread, but tolerated
Judah failed and fell, to be destroyed by their own          by the general public, and has become so commonly
iniquities. They insulted the Lord's glorious eyes in        accepted that it is everywhere praised and defended.
that He had to look upon works of darkness. The              More and more it is being pushed by TV. Hardly a
world mocks God, sticks its tongue out at Him, and           maude covers the macerated mash.
the more the lash of His severity it feels, the more it
breaks out in insolent fury against Him. But God is            This evil generation, bemused by so called "sensi-
not mocked, and His destruction of these ungodly             tivity training" (in the public schools, in the hospi-
people is righteous.                                         tals, in some churches, and, increasingly, on police
                                                             forces) and blinded by lust, rushes heedlessly into
  The ungodly break God's law, and they do so to             feminism, effeminacy and everything base. So, in the
purposely insult  Him. Strangely, this is also true of       end of it all, the wicked world system rewards itself
the blasphemers who claim they do not believe there          with evil.
is any god. Then why do they wilfully intend to
offend  Him? Why do they go out of their way to                 3. What Classes of Men are Involved. "Say ye (of
show contempt for His authority? Why do federal,             the) righteous that (for them it is) good. For they
state and local authorities threaten the people,             shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe to the wicked!
disrupt quiet , communities and make every insane            (for him it is) evil! For the reward of his hands shall
effort to destroy the family unit? Why, in this way,         .be made to him" (w. 10, 11, Heb.). Two classes of
do they continue to beg God to destroy  this.nation          people divide the whole globe, the righteous and the
with terrible judgments? Why do capital and country
                  _~                                         wicked. These two have always been in conflict as
labor  `in the very fire to earn the unenviable, the         they are absolutely antithetical to one another. For
horrible epitaph, "For the wrath of God is come upon         this reason there is always the battle of the two seeds,
them to the uttermost" (I Thes. 2: 16)?                      the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent
                                                             on-going. The flood destroyed the world of the
  ,2. What Brought on the Calamity.  "The cut of             ungodly, while Noah, safe in the ark, represented the
their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they      righteous. The death angel ruined the nation of
tell their sin; they do not hide (it). Woe to their soul!    Egypt, while Israel was safe under the cover of the
for they have rewarded to themselves evil" (v. 9,            blood of the Passover. Here you have that sharp, dis-
Heb.). Our nation makes no secret of its depravity,          tinct line between sin and grace, a line ineradicable.
blatantly boasting its corruption and vileness by ways       The flood came as a judgment because the sons of
of the news and communications media, and by its             God and the daughters of men had blended the two
constant mad carouse. The cut of their faces (the            sides of that line, to form a wicked alliance between
expression on the face) is stamped with shameless            the church and the world. That line is intended to
lewdness. Appearance testifies against them. Their           maintain the .distintition  between the precious and the


 572                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


 vile to the end of the world. There is no borderland          creatures contradict the Creator. We don't always see
 between righteous and wicked to so form a third               that it is always well with the righteous. Sometimes it
 neutral class. The difference is as clear and plain as        looks very.evil for him. But the authority of God and
 that which divides death and life. It is impossible to         His Word is better than sight. It is not sight nor feel-
 be between death and life, where one would be not in          ing, but divine authority which assures us it is at all
 either state. There are no "in betweenites," who are           times well with the righteous. It may not always be so
 between sin and grace, not in sin, yet not out of it,         with our bodies, but it is so with our souls, so that we
 not in grace yet not out of it. So one is either               may always sing, "It is well, it is well with my soul!"
 righteous or wicked. Writer and reader belong to the
 one class or to the other. As for the righteous, it shall
 be well with them. If any are not righteous, they are           There is only one other class of men, identified in
 wicked, even though they may not think so, and it             `Woe  to the  wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the
 shall be ill with them.                                       reward of his hands shall be given him." It is ill with
                                                               the wicked, always evil for him. No time is specified
                                                               in the text. For the wicked it is ill for time and
    The well-being of the righteous is a solid, un-            eternity, ill in fat years and in lean years, ill in
 deniable fact. It is always well with the righteous.          prosperity (which for him is like the last meal of the
 "Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well with
 him" in prosperity, for in itself prosperity comes with       condemned criminal), ill in adversity (which, on him,
 many perilous temptations. It shall be well with him          is like the first drops of the eternal fall-out of divine
 in persecution, an evil hard and sometimes  almost            wrath). It is ill with the wicked on divine authority.
 impossible to bear. It is not merely well with the            When God says it is not good, but evil, which is
 righteous at special times, but at any and all times,         always the portion of the wicked, then it must be
 from the beginning of the year to the end of the year,        woefully bad for him. Then it shall be ill with him in
 from the dawn of day to the dark of night. It is              the future. With him it shall get worse and worse until
 always well with the righteous, and never otherwise           the very worst shall occur, and he shall be cast out
than well  withhim.                                            into the outer darkness. It is ill with the wicked in his
                                                               entire human nature. His whole head is sick, heart
                                                               faint, and from sole of foot to crown of head, it is ill
    So, it shall be well with the righteous in the future.     with him. In health, his soul is ill. When his feet
Sometimes he dreads the future, but without reason.            dance, his soul is condemned. When he sings his lewd,
 It shall be well with him when the evil days draw nigh.       profane songs, he but more vibrates the sword of
 It shall be well with him in the impending struggle. It       judgment hanging over his head. Man's word is like
 shall be well, literally, good for the righteous, nothing     milk-weed on the breeze. God's word is  l&e an
 but good, the text speaking of an absolute, unqualified       avalanche. It is ill with the wicked in life, in death,
 good. The righteous may suffer in tumults, turmoils,          and after death the judgment, and after judgment
 conflicts, wars and when kingdom and capital have             condemnation, and after condemnation the  never-
 fallen. Armageddon shall occur when the Euphrates is          ending hell-fire and eternal torment.
 dried up. The very elements shall melt with a fervent
 heat, but to the Christian it does not matter what shall
 happen in the castastrophic end of all things, for God          It must be ill with the wicked, for "the Lord hath
 has said it shall be well with the righteous.                 made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for
                                                               the day of evil." It must be evil for him, for he was in
                                                               disobedience appointed to stumble over the Word (I
   When we say it is well with the righteous, we say it        Pet. 2:s). The wicked are out of joint with the world,
 not as an educated guess, but we say it on divine             out of step with God, and in opposition to the whole
 authority. It may be nice or wonderful to have a              current of creation, which is ever moving toward God
 physician tell us we are well. For some people it             (Rom  11:36). It is ill with him because it can never
 seems encouraging when a psychiatrist tells them all is       be well with stubble before the fires of judgment, nor
 well with them. We may arrive at our own con-                 with the wax which boasts itself against the heat, nor
 clusions, and think we are pretty safe to adjudge that        with the gnat that fights the giant. It is ill with him
 all is well with us. But we need, and have, more than         because his life, work and joys hang by a thread, and
 the fallible judgments of men. We have it on the              when that thread is cut, as it must be, what will it be
 authority of divine omniscience that with the                 with him but as ill as can be? It is ill with the wicked
 righteous all is well. `When God says all is well, let the    because when his temporal end comes his eternity
 devil, all his minions and the whole world say it is ill,     begins. His story may be told in two chapters, one of
 we know whom to believe and whom we have be-                  tinsel glitter, the other dark with never ending
 lieved. True faith remains unshaken, even should all          Stygian night.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 573



FROM HOLY WRIT


                     Exposition of Hebrews 13: 8
                                                  Rev. G. Lubbers



JESUS CHRIST EVER THE SAME (Hebrews 13:8)                   eternal King. This placing of these names emphati-
  There is some difference of opinion concerning the        cally on the foreground emphasizes the Son of God in
relationship of this passage contextually. The one          the flesh in his Person and Office. It is the full gospel
school of thought holds that the assertion concerning       of grace in a nutshell.
Jesus Christ is a basis and proof for what we read in          Now of this Son of God, who is called Jesus, the
verse 7 concerning the Word of God which was                Christ, it is stated that He is ever the "same"! This
preached by the leaders in the church, the apostles         might refer to the eternity of His godhead, and truly
and others. Really, these faithful servants preached        the godhead cannot be separated from the predica-
Jesus Christ as being the same in all ages. This, of        tion that He is the "same" in all ages and times.
course, is undoubtedly true. Such was the faith which       However, here the viewpoint is the ever faithful and
the apostles preached. They laid the foundation             changeless manifestation of the grace of God in Jesus
besides which no other foundation can be laid which         Christ. In the Old Testament dispensation this Jesus
is Jesus Christ. (I Cor. 3: 11) It may, however, be         was the Christ of God. No one will ever understand
questioned whether this text refers exclusively to the      the meaning of the shadows and types in the temple
foregoing verse, or whether it can not also be meant        without seeing that Christ is the surety of their fultil-
as referring to what follows in the verses 9, 10, 11. It    ment. He who does not see Christ in the Old Testa-
then is the basis for the teaching that we must not be      ment Scriptures is not understanding these Scriptures.
made stedfast in our hearts by "meat" but rather by         He cannot see any unity of doctrine in them. All such
grace. We hold that this is then a general saying con-      must needs end in "divers and strange" teachings.
cerning God's covenant faithfulness in Christ Jesus in      Such cannot see that the Christ of "today" is the
all ages. In Jesus Christ all God's promises are yea,       same Christ as the .Messiah predicted in the Old Testa-
and in Him amen to the glory of God the Father. (II         ment Scriptures. And again, such will never under-
Cor.  1:20, 2 1) For in this latter passage we have a       stand that this Christ is changeless even in the ages to
reference to God, Who is the one establishing us and        come here on earth, and in the endless ages of the
anointing us with Christ through the grace of the           eternal state, when the tabernacle of God shall be
Holy Spirit. For the grace that establishes us is the       with man. This is the Jesus that says to John on
"earnest," which is the Spirit of Christ.                   Patmos as the glorified Christ, "Fear not, I am the
  The clarion note of this text, "Jesus Christ is the       First and Last, the Alpha and the Omega," (Rev.
same yesterday, today and forever," is worthy of a          1: 17). He is ever the same one, the I-Am-that-I-Am.
bit of study and attention. We ought to notice the          We must cling to this one Jesus Christ, the Son. of
implication of these names which are placed so              God in the flesh. To deny that Jesus Christ is ever the
emphatically on the foreground. This is especially          same is to fall away from the living God in the flesh.
true here in the book of Hebrews. The name "Jesus"          It is to become anti-Christian.
refers to the historical man who born from a woman
and made under law. (Gal. 4:4, 5) He came to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive         THE BASIC ADMONITION  AGAlNST  DIVERS
the adoption of sons. He came to save His people            AND STRANGE DOCTRINES (Hebrews 13: 9- 11)
from their sins. (Matt. 1:21) He is God in the flesh,         The term in the Greek for "doctrines" is didachais
who will sit upon the throne of His father David            and not  didaskaliais.  The latter term refers to the
forever. This Jesus is Jehovah-saves, the Mediator of       content of the teaching while the former refers to the
the New Testament in His blood. He alone brings all         act of teaching: It refers to those teachings which are
His people into the rest of the eternal Sabbath. (Heb.      rampant in the church by those who do not understand
4:8) This Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God      or believe the truth of the Gospel, but are merely the
to be the chief Prophet, the only High Priest, and our      attempts of would-be teachers to confuse the hearers.


574                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


(Gal.  1:7) Such teachings are often as manifold and         THE HEART ESTABLISHED'BY GRACE  (Hebrews
different as there are teachers. And those having            13:9)
itching ears will heap to themselves such teachers,
now one and then another. They are "carried about"              Jesus says to His disciples before he dies on the
by such teachings and are far from the solid and only'       Cross of Calvary, "Let not your heart be troubled, ye
foundation: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It is            believe in God, believe also in me," (John 14: 1). It is
against such that the writer writes a strong prohibi-        an arresting fact that the writer to the Hebrews
tion: be not carried about with strange and divers           speaks of the "heart" here as that which must be
doctrines.                                                   established in the believers. For it is with the heart
                                                             that man believes unto salvation. (Rom.  10:6-11)
   That such doctrines are denominated "divers" is           And of this heart into which the love of God is shed
because these are of such a variegated and confusing         abroad by the Holy Spirit our text speaks. (Rom.
nature. They are an attempt at preaching so that the         5:5) The letter to the Hebrews speaks repeatedly of
"heart" is established, but none of these teachings          the "heart". It is the great benefit and reality of the
brings us to the rest which Jesus gives. It does not         better covenant that the law is not written on tables
bring us to the old and tried way of the  temple-            of stone, but that it is written in the heart and in the
worship as this finds its fulfilment in the blood of the     mind. (Heb.  8:lO) Unbelief is also a matter of the
Cross. Perhaps the writer is here referring to the rising    heart, "Let not your hearts be hardened."  (Heb.
of the many errors of that day, which all are the way        4:7-12) There must notbe an evil heart of unbelief in
of "works of law" and not of "grace". Each of these          the church, lest they fall away from the living God.
errorjsts had his `own private interpretation. Further-      (Heb. 3: 12)
more, such errors were not only divers, but they were
also "strange". They did not carry the familiar sound           Now the text speaks of this heart and says that it
of free and sovereign grace of God, Who loved and            must be established. This must refer to believing
elected His people and sent His Son to save them:            hearts which have been renewed by the Holy Ghost.
They were not the voice of the shepherd, but of              Only such hearts can be established in the faith. And
thieves and robbers. (John 10:7, 8, 26) And now the          it is a good thing, a very beautiful (kales) thing when
sheep are warned against these foreign teachings             the heart is established in a Christian, when he
which are not the law and the prophets, but the              receives strength to stand on his believing feet, and
peeping and muttering of false teachers. For the             with boldness draw nigh to God in Christ in the most
teachings here referred to do not hold to the head           holy place. What more beautiful thing, good thing,
Christ, but would change the "Christ" according to           can there be. The Psalmist says, "But it is good for
their own fancy and whim.                                    me to draw near unto God." (Psalm 73:28) Here we
                                                             understand with the Psalmist and say,"For thou,
   They zeroed in (these doctrines) on the question of       LORD, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous
"meats". It was a matter of what entered into the            in mercy unto all them that call upon thee." (Psalm
mouth which brought about salvation. Such were the           86:5) That establishes the heart. For to be established
tea&rigs of the "traditions of the elders." These            means: firmness in the sense of having inner stability,
"meats" referred to the legalistic teachings in which        solidity. The ultimate stability is that of God in
the way of salvation was supposed to consist. The            history in all His fulfilment of His promises. He can
way into the most holy place with God was through            be relied upon that His word will come to pass; it is
what a man did with "meats". It dealt with what was          proved true. To be established is therefore always a
Levitically clean and unclean. It is the lesson which        matter touching our faith and confidence in God.
Peter must so profoundly learn when a sheet from               Now the text teaches that this must not be, neither
heaven is lowered to him three times by the Lord             can this be a matter of using of "meats". In all the
with the command: slay and eat. In this sheet were all       Old Testament dispensation many were occupied
manner of clean and unclean animals. All were made           with meats. Generations of the people of God were
dlean by the Lord. (Acts  10:9-18) Later Peter must          walking in these "meats". It was a heavy burden for
once more be corrected by Paul at Antioch when               the children of the Old Covenant in their day. (Acts
Peter acts contrary to the Gospel by separating              15: lo), It dealt with the warp and woof of Levitical
himself from the Christians of the Gentiles in the           cleanliness in Israel. But it was to no "profit". It
presence of the Jewish Christians. (Gal.  2:11-21) It        could not really establish the heart then. It could
was Jesus Who showed up and exposed the folly of             only point to Jesus Christ yesterday, today, and
the washings of the hands and meats when He taught           forever the same! But in itself it could not cleanse but
that not that which enters into the man defiles the          could only be a parabolic presentation of the Gospel
man, but that which proceedeth from his mouth as             till the time of Reformation when Christ would come
this comes forth from the heart. (Matt. 15: 15-20)           the High Priest of better things. (Heb. 9: l-l 0) Why


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                575


                                                                        ;     !.

then now be carried about with all these winds of          whidh is such that the writer  can speak of "what
doctrine .from their own stedfastness in Christ?           behooved God", ,For grace is prior to election. Paul
   Shall there be an establishment of the believing        speaks of the election of grace. (Rom. 12: l-5) If it is
heart, then it must be by grace. The term  grace we        not thus, then election is not election and grace is not
find in the book of Hebrews in many passages, and          grace, but works. When the heart is established by
the term is very significant. The term refers to God's     grace, it is established by the power of God as this
basic disposition to his people. Thus Christ tasted raw    works in the true preaching of the Gospel. And,
death for all his own "by the grace of God." This was      therefore, we must not be carried away by every
the grace which was back of the good pleasure of God       teaching, the divers and strange teaching of heretics
.&-I bringing many sons to glory. This is the grace        who corrupt the Gospel.




                                    ANNUAL REPORT, R.F.P.A.

Dear Members and Friends of the Reformed Free.             witnessing would also be a worthwhile project for our
Publishing Association:                                    individual churches and societies to undertake, and
  Once again, in this 5 1st year of publishing  The        the board earnestly solicits your requests for free
Standard Bearer, your board comes `before you this         copies for your mailing.
evening with a resume of the activities connected with       The Book Publication Committee has also been
its publication during the past twelve months. With the
                               -                           very active. To date, approximately 3000 copies of
help of our covenant God; who  on&e again gave us          Behold He Cometh have been sold, and already 1900
faithful editors and writers, and with your generous       copies of.  God's Covenant Faithfulness  have been
contributions, we were able this year to expand our        sold, out of a total printing of 3000. If you have not
witness to those outside the sphere of our churches.       yet ordered your copy (or copies) we urge you to do
   Our publishing total rose from 1500 copies per          so at once, as there will be no more available after the
issue in 1973 to 1900 copies per issue in 1975; and        3000 are sold.
more than two thirds of this total were sent to those         Coming soon from the press are 4 more books;
outside the Protestant Reformed denomination. In              1. 
comparison, as late as. 1960, better than 85% of our                 Marriage - The Mystery  of  Christ and the
subscription rolls were Protestant Reformed fami-              Church  by David Engelsma
lies. In 1974 we bound 125 volumes of The Standard           2. God's Eternal Good Pleasure (25  sermons on
Bearer  and in 1975 we' are increasing this to 200                   Rom. 9, 10, 11) by Herman Hoeksema
volumes. A total of 170 new  12-month subscribers             3. The Mysteries  of  the Kingdom  (a book on the
was added in 1975, plus 290 more lo-for-2 sub-                       parables) by Herman Hanko
scribers. Fifty-nine cancellations were received during
the year. The board solicits each subscriber's help in       4.A book of Lenten messages by Herman
expanding the witness of our  Standard Bearer  and              H o e k s e m a
asks that you send us names of friends who you feel          In addition to his many other duties, our business
should be reading it. Only $2 for 6 months for new         manager, Mr. Henry Vander Wal, has taken upon him-
readers . . . .                                            self all the work connected with handling, processing,
   During the year we mailed 635 free copies to the        and shipping book orders. We cannot thank him
mailing list of the Illiana Chr. High School, which is     enough for all the time spent on behalf of The
in the Chicago area. Over 225 free copies were mailed      Standard Bearer  and the Book Publication Com-
to pastors in the Orthodox Presbyterian Churches,          mittee.
220 free copies were mailed to postal patrons in the          Retiring this year are the brethren Roger King,
Forbes, N.D. area, and 1000 copies were mailed to          Donald Knoper, and John Vander Woude. We wish to
members of the A.C.R.L. Free copies were also              thank these men for the time spent on the  .Board of
mailed to Australia and Tasmania. While the response       the R. F.P.A.
to these endeavors does not always seem gratifying,           In conclusion, the Board of the R.F.P.A. and the
the point to remember is that our God has given us         staff continue to covet your prayers and support of
the means and has made it possible for us to reach         this Kingdom work.
other church denominations and individuals who are                                     Don Knoper
interested in the truth as we proclaim it. This kind of                                Sec'y for the board

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


                                                                          I."
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                                                                                           i-           .~     1

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576



                                N e w s Fro m Our Churches

  After accepting the job as News Editor for the                             Witness Hour made mention of `Arminianism' in a
Standard Beaver  there has been a very noticeable                            negative manner and was heard to say that it was, in
increase in the mail delivered on Linwood St. In fact,                       his opinion, a wrong and un-Biblical doctrine, or
we are considering a bid solicitation for an addition                        words to that effect." This is the first time in 35
to our mailbox so that all the interesting material                          years of continuous radio broadcasting that our
being sent can be accomodated.                                               Reformed Witness Hour has been banned from any
  In addition to the mail reports, a personal delivery                       radio station. No doubt it will not be the last time
of a rather disturbing report was received from a                            such refusals are received as the end of all things is at
member of the Reformed Witness Hour Radio Com-                              hand.
mittee. It seems our distinctively reformed radio
program has been `kicked off' the air by a radio                                  Rev. Joostens has kindly submitted a report on the
station in New Jersey. WAWZ  - FM in Zarephath,                              October meeting of  Classis East which will take the
N.J., refused to continue our Reformed Witness Hour                          rest of the space allocated to this column. Therefore
programs over their outlet as of September 9. The                            the rest of the items waiting in the `news box' will
reason given for the program discontinuance by the                           have to wait for the next issue.
WAWZ program director was: "This past Sunday
evening (September 7) the speaker on the Reformed                                                                      K.G.V.

                                         . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


  Classis East of our Churches met in regular session                       which the ladies had prepared, the committees were
on Oct. 1, 1975 at the Hope Protestant Reformed                             ready to give their reports.  Classis granted Kala-
Church. Each of our nine churches in Classis East was                       mazoo's request for pulpit supply by adopting the
represented by two delegates. This session of Classis                       following schedule: Oct. 19 - Rev. R. Van Overloop;
was short due to the fact that no new material                              Oct. 26  - Rev. H. Veldman; Nov. 9  - Rev. M
appeared on the agenda and the matters treated were                         Schipper; Nov. 16 - Rev. C. Hanko; Nov. 30 - Rev.
routine. Even though the session was brief, it                              M. Joostens; Dec. 7 - Rev. G. Van Baren; Dec. 21 -
afforded an opportunity for the officebearers to                            Rev. J. Heys; Dec. 28 - Rev. R. Van Overloop; Jan.
enjoy one another's fellowship. We have reason to                            11 - Rev. H. Veldman. The classis also approved the
thank our God that He causes our congregations to                           expenditure of $292.14 to cover the expenses of this
flourish in peace.                                                          classis. Elder Feenstra reported that he thanked the
  After opening devotions by the last president, Rev.                       ladies doubly since they donated the refreshments.
H. Veldman took the reins of this  classis. After the
necessary classical procedures, the Chairman made                                 After the questions of Art. 41 of the C.O. were
the following committee appointments. Elders P.                             asked and satisfactorily answered, the concept
Faber and H. Schipper were to serve on the Finance                          minutes were read and adopted and  classis was
Committee; Rev. Van Overloop, Rev. Den Hartog and                           adjourned.  Classis East will meet next time, D-V., at
Elder T. Huizinga on the Classical Appointment Com-                         Southeast Church on Jan. 7, 1976.
mittee; and elder G. Feenstra to thank the ladies for
their catering.                                                                                    Respectfully submitted,
  After feasting on coffee and various baked goods                                                 Rev. M. Joostens, Assist. Stated Clerk


