STANDARD

- A   R E BEARER
  F O R M E D   S E M I - M O N T H IL Y   M A G A Z I N E





          "In such a situation there is always a danger that
      one's sympathies color his judgments and evaluations.
      In fact,  I frankly asked myself more than once in the
     early part of the tour, `Can this be real? Am  I seeing
      things too rosily? Am  I overly excited and enthusias-
      tic?' It was a very good thing, therefore, to share
      things. with Rev. Hanko, a veteran and experienced
     laborer in our churches, and to be able to weigh and
     evaluate our experiences  together, so that upon our
     return we might make a sober and well-reasoned
     report to our Committee and to our churches. In a
     very real sense, therefore, what we are reporting to
     our churches is established by two witnesses; and our
     report and advice are the fruit of very careful and
     sober evaluation, not the reflection of run-away
     enthusiasm. This makes all the more serious the con-
     crete questions which our denomination will eventu-
     ally have to face as a result of the obvious fact that
     the Lord has opened doors to us in Australasia."
                                                                            See page 605



                                                              Volume  LII, Number  4;`D&zember  1, 1975  -


602                                                        THE STANDARD  BEARER




                         CONTENTS:                                                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER
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                                                                             R e v .   C o r n e l i u s   H a n k o ,   P r o f .   H e r m a n   H a n k o .   R e v .   R o b e r t   C .   H a r b a c h ,
                                                                             R e v .   J o h n   A .   Heys,  R e v .   J a y   K o r t e r i n g ,   R e v .   D a l e   H .   K u i p e r ,   R e v .
   Our Australasian Tour 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .605.           G e o r g e   C .   L u b b e r s ,   R e v .   M e i n d e r t   Joostens,   R e v .   Marinus Schipper,
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MEDITA TIO N


                                The Virgin Birth  -  ,A Sign
                                                                 Rev. M. Schipper

               "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a
              son, and shall call his name Immanuel. "                                                                                                               Isaiah 7 : 14.
               "`Now all this was done, that it might be fulJilled which was spoken of  the Lord by the
              prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they
              shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. " Matthew  1122,  23.


   Normally, at this time of the year, the church of                                   Whether that reflection be on the annunciation to
Christ desires and looks forward to hearing and                                  the virgin, the message of angels to the shepherds as
meditating on the Christmas story. Old as that story                             they watched their flocks by night on the hills of
                                                                                 Judea, or the visit of the Magi to the Christ-child; or
may be, and so oft repeated as the story is, the be-                             even the sign of a pregnant virgin given to an ap-
lieving church and her believing children want to                                parently pious, but very wicked king Ahaz  - it makes
reflect on the central mystery of the incarnation, the                           no difference. Believers look to the church to tell the
coming of the Son of God in the flesh.                                           story.


                                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    603


   And this is entirely proper. Our sympathies are not                           of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
with those who would spoil the custom because there                              And this is true also with all other signs God has
is some discrepancy regarding the time when the                                  given; e.g., the sign of the rainbow to Noah, the sign
story should be told; or who would rob us of the                                 of the dew on the fleece to Gideon, the signs of
celebration of Christ's birth, simply because such a                             Pentecost to the church in the upper room. And so is
celebration is not mandated in the Holy Scriptures; or                           the intention of the sign, given first to Ahaz; and later
because the world with its vulgar commercialism has                              to Joseph, espoused to the pregnant virgin, whose
distorted the story. There can be nothing wrong with                             name was Mary.
telling the story, provided that it is told according to                                The Lord Himself shall give you a sign.
the Scriptures. When this is so done, it is as it should
be.                                                                                     Ahaz, king of Judah, was threatened by a powerful
                                                                                 union of Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of
   Nor is it abnormal at such a time as this to call                             Syria. These had united to lay siege against Jerusalem.
attention to the wonder of this historical event.  To                            They had connived to slay Ahaz, and to set a man of
tell the story, without anything more, is only half the                          their choice on the throne in his stead. Ahaz was
story. To relate only the history, and not the purpose                           sorely afraid for his life and for the future of his
of God, Who realizes history, would be a failure to                              `kingdom. His troubled thoughts, however, did not
relate the whole counsel of God. It must also be seen                            bring him to seek the Lord as His help. Rather, he
that back of all history, also that pertaining to the                            planned to find help in an arm of flesh, and he called
Advent, is the eternal, covenant God, realizing His                              to the king of Assyria for help.
eternal purpose. And the heart of that eternal pur-
pose is His covenant. We should see that in the birth                                   In this situation the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah
of Christ is the central realization of God's eternal                            to him to inform him that the threat of Israel and
covenant which He establishes first with Himself, and                            Syria would not succeed, and therefore he need not
then with the believer and his believing seed.                                   seek the help of Assyria. It was then the Lord
                                                                                 through the prophet demanded that he ask a sign of
   It is this truth which lies basic in the Word of God                          the Lord. But Ahaz refused, on the pretense that he
upon which we now focus our attention.                                           would not tempt the Lord. But the Lord would make
   That Word of God speaks of the virgin birth as a                              His sign to be given anyway.
sign.                                                                                   "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son;
   We should see, first of all, that it is a divine sign!                        and shall call his name Immanuel."
   And signs are for the believers!                                                Jehovah God remembers His covenant with the
   This cannot mean that signs have no significance                              house of David. He will preserve the seed of David
for the unbelievers. Jesus once said: "A wicked and                              forever. He will not fail to keep that which He had
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there                            sworn to David. Nothing is too hard for Him when it
shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the                              comes to keeping His Word. He will even do the
prophet Jonas." (Matt.  12:39;  16:4) Paul also wrote:                           impossible!
"For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek                                  Imagine, a virgin, not a married woman who has
after wisdom." (I. Cor.  1:22) From this it is plain                             co-habited with man, shall conceive and bear a Son.
that the wicked not only desire signs, but that signs                            And this Son shall be called Immanuel  - God with
are given unto them. Even wicked king Ahaz, who,                                 us!
according to the context, appears so pious that he                                 It is the fulfillment of this prophetic Word that is
will not tempt the Lord by asking for a sign, never-                             revealed to Joseph who was espoused to Mary, a
theless has a sign given unto him, namely, the sign of                           virgin, of the house and lineage of David.
a pregnant virgin.
                                                                                   A divine Son!
   However, the ungodly cannot discern the signs con-
cerning the kingdom of heaven. Jesus intimated that                                Mary's first-born!
when  4He said, "0, ye hypocrites, ye can discern the                              But God's Only Begotten!
face of the sky: but can ye discern the signs of the                               Indeed, she was espoused to Joseph, but before
times?" (Matt.  16:3)  As with the preaching of the                              they came together she was found with child of the
gospel, so with the multiplication of signs, the un-                             Holy Ghost. (Matt. 1: 18)
believers reject them to their own condemnation.                                   Joseph was troubled, for he imagined that his
       Indeed, signs are only for the believers. To them                         virgin was no longer a virgin, but that she had had
t h e   s i g n s   c o n f i r m   t h e   W o r d   o f   G o d   w h i c h    illicit relations with another man. According to the
accompanies them. Signs are divinely intended to                                 law he must expose her. But while he thought on
strengthen their faith. Very evident this is in the signs                        these things, and even in his thoughts was planning to


604                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



hide her for shame, the angel of the Lord appeared to          existed, which is unmixed, unchanged, undivided, and
him in a dream commanding him not to fear to take              inseparable." Such is the miracle of the incarnation,
to himself Mary for his wife, for that which was con-          the coming of the Son of God into the flesh!
ceived in her was of the Holy Ghost.                             Of this truth the pregnant virgin was the sign!
       Born,  He would be, of a woman, a virgin; not by the      The sign was given by the prophet to wicked king
will of man, but by the will of God!                           Ahaz, and rejected by him. Now the sign is revealed
       Not of any virgin would He be born, so that it did      by the holy angel to Joseph, who by faith is enabled
not make any difference in which nation the virgin             to appropriate it. And it is revealed to and accepted
would reside; but a particular virgin, who represented         by faith by the believers and their believing seed, as
the very last of the long line of David. That line             the rock upon which all of their salvation rests.
ended in a virgin. She was all that, was left of the
royal and elect line of David. It was this truth that            Central is this truth in the fulfillment of God's
also brought consternation to Mary herself; for when           covenant promise. Possibly this statement may be
the angel appeared to her with the announcement                disputed, in favor of other wonders which may be
that she was to have a Son, she asked: "How shall this         considered central, such as: the resurrection of Christ
be, seeing I know not a man?" (Luke  1:34) She                 from the dead, or the miracle of Pentecost, when the
understood that there was no man that could fulfill            work of salvation is applied to the hearts of the be-
                                                               lieving church. But it should become abundantly clear
God's promise to David. God in His providence had
made it impossible for man to  fultill,His  promise. He        that none of these wonders could ever be possible
alone would fulfill it by performing the impossible.           without the wonder of the incarnation. Without the
So, too, Mary's first-born Son would at the same time          virgin birth, there is no cross or resurrection think-
be God's only begotten.                                        able. Without the mystery of Bethlehem, there can be
                                                               no other wonders. And the converse is also true  - all
  They shall call His name Emmanuel  - God with                other wonders find their center and significance  unly
us!                                                            in the mystery of God coming into the flesh.
  Surely, Mary's first-born was not her only                     A covenant promise, a promise that was reiterated
begotten. When the Lord opened her womb to con-                and symbolized in sacrifices and ceremonies, was
ceive and -bring forth her first-born,  :He opened it to       given at the very dawn of history in the so-called
conceive and bring forth others, though this must be           Mother promise. (Gen.  3:15) It was the central mes-
understood as being possible by the will of man. That          sage of all the prophets, informing the believers not
Mary had other children who are  j even called by              only with general references, but even in detail the
name, is evident from all the gospels. (Matt.  12:46,          facts concerning its fulfillment, when they spoke of
47;  13:55,  56; Mark  3:31, 32;  6:3; Luke  8:19, 20;         the manner (Isa. 7: 14;  9:6,7) but also the place
John 7:3-5, 10) We must have nothing of the doctrine           (Micah  5:2) where the promise would be fulfilled.
that would make Mary's first-born her only begotten.             Our text from Matthew's gospel makes it very clear
Joseph would indeed be the father of her other chil-           that with the birth of Jesus from the virgin we have
dren. But Mary's first-born would be God's only                the beginning of the fulfillment of the covenant
begotten.                                                      promise. This is certainly implied in the very name of
       Emmanuel! God with us!                                  the virgin's Son  - Emmanuel, that is, God dwelling
       God uniting the human and the divine natures in         with His people.
the Person of His only begotten Son! "For God so                 God purposed eternally to dwell with a people
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son             whom He had chosen and would form, who would
. . . " (John 3: 16) "When the fulness of time was             forever show forth His praise, a people who histori-
come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman . .  ."          cally had fallen into the depths of sin and death, but
(Gal.  4:4) "In this was manifested the love of God            whom He purposed to redeem through His saving
toward us, because that God sent his only begotten             grace. With that people He came to unite Himself
Son into the world, that we might live through him."           when He appeared in the form of a man-child, con-
(I John  4:9)                                                  ceived and born by the Holy Ghost from the Virgin
  The person of the Son of God, in Whom resides all            Mary, whom the fathers called the Mother of God.
the divine nature and all the perfections of the               And having united Himself to that people, He saves
Godhead, is united to the human nature, so perfectly           them, lifts them up into heavenly heights, where He
that He is like unto us in all things, sin excepted. As        will dwell with them in the house of His covenant
the fathers of  Chalcedon expressed it (an expression          forever.
which has been denied, but never changed):  :`In the             Of all this, the sign of the pregnant virgin is the
incarnation the unity of Person in two natures                 beginning of fulfillment.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 605


   This is the story that must be told in this Christmas     only serve to blot out of sense and reason the true
season.                                                      story of Christmas.
   The believing church ought to eschew as a satanic
evil the mythical fantasy of a jolly old Saint Nick.           With believing hearts the church and her children
Nor should she prefer to read to her children Dickens'      will want to hear only the good news of the gospel  -
ghost story of Christmas, intriguing as the story may       God manifested in the flesh, as the God of our  salva-
be. All the tinsel and the sound of jingling bells can      tion, revealed in the sign of the pregnant virgin.




EDITORIAL
                         Our Australasian Tour  (4)
                                             Prof H. C Hoeksema

  We interrupted our tour in mid-air, so to speak, on        for a large bus  - on the very rim of a scenic gorge.
the way from Auckland to Napier-Hastings, in order          The day was rainy and dark at first, and the heater of
to give our attention in the November 15 issue to           the bus was not working. So while we travelled with
some of the events in Wellington. We now resume our          an overcoat wrapped around our legs for warmth and
account in chronological order.                             shivered most of the way, we were truly happy when
  If you turn back to the map which appeared in the         sunshine greeted us just as we arrived in Palmerston
October 1 issue, you will find that Napier (and its         North. At Palmerston we were greeted by a Mr. A.
neighboring city Hastings) are located on the shores        van Echten, our congenial host for a day-and-a-half,
of Hawke Bay, on the east (Pacific) coast of New            and by Rev. R. McKenzie, the conservative pastor of
Zealand. This is beautiful country, and normally the        the local Congregational Church. As you may gather,
climate is very mild. It is the fruit-belt of New Zea-      this was one of the strange situations encountered on
land. The only trouble was that we experienced some         our trip. There is a group of people here who former-
of the coldest, rainiest weather of our tour there. The     ly belonged to a Bible Presbyterian Church  - a group
cold was the more severe because the electrical volt-       which originally separated prematurely from the
age was cut down, which made the heaters well-nigh          Reformed Church in the Runia friction. However, the
useless. However, the hospitality of our hosts, Mr.         Bible Presbyterian group was smitten with dissension;
and Mrs. J.  Braam, was warm. At Napier Mrs.                and now this group of people is without an actual
Hoeksema had the opportunity to talk to a group of          church home, although they fellowship and worship
women in the afternoon about Christian education;           with the Emmanuel Congregational Church. The
and during the meeting, I had the opportunity to            latter group is rather conservative and find themselves
become acquainted with the Rev. L. Reurich, pastor          at odds with their denomination on several counts.
of the local Reformed Church. Our evening meeting           The former group has some serious problems, not the
was in that church; but the attendance was greatly          least of which is some neo-Pentecostal leanings. How-
hampered by a driving rainstorm and the extremely           ever that may be, all of these circumstances afforded
cold weather. In fact, my lecture on "The Reformed          me an opportunity to speak to an attentive audience
Faith in Crisis" had to be cut short because the            of about 25 on "Our Calling and the Faith of the
extreme cold in the little church auditorium was            Reformation." The message was rather well received
literally numbing for both audience and speaker. This       and favorably commented on by Pastor McKenzie
was one of our smallest meetings, the audience              and more than one member of his congregation.
numbering only eight. After the meeting we enjoyed            I should also note at this point that while we were
fellowship and a warming cup of coffee with Pastor          at Palmerston, Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Young, of the
and Mrs. Reurich and with Rev. and Mrs. Graham              Christchurch Orthodox Presbyterian Church, flew up
Adams of the local Orthodox Presbyterian group.             to meet us and to accompany us on the rest of our
  Bright and early on the morning of June 25 we             journey. They brought along a supply of our litera-
took the bus across the island and to the southwest         ture, much of which was disposed of at this meeting
toward the city of Palmerston North. The trip across        and various other meetings along the way. Mr. Young
the mountains of the North Island ended in a winding        is one of the elders at Christchurch, a capable and
drive  - along a road which was actually too narrow         knowledgeable leader there; and during our travels


606                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



together we soon became well acquainted, so that             issue recounts most of that conference, I shall not
"Mr.  and Mrs. Young" became "Andy and Nola" to              repeat that information here.
US. We truly appreciated their company.         --             `Late in the afternoon of that day Mr. van Herk
   After an early breakfast on Friday, June 27, the          picked us up at the home of Rev.  Ki-oon and took us
Youngs and the Hoeksemas met Mr.`Bob van Herk at             through the hills of Wellington to his home in the
Pastor McKenzie's house. Brother van Herk is a long-         pleasant suburb of Wainuiomata. Mr. and Mrs. van
time friend-by-correspondence from Wellington. And           Herk were our gracious hosts during our stay in the
he had driven up from Wellington early in the morn-          Wellington area. Mind you, they themselves slept in a
ing to pick us up for the 2% hour drive down to              "caravan" (house trailer), in order that we might have
Wellington  - the capital city of  Ne:w Zealand, situ-       their comfortable bedrooms. After "tea" (evening
ated at the southern tip of the North Island. The            dinner) with the van Herks, we all returned to down-
drive to Wellington seemed very short  - partly be-          town Wellington for the advertised lecture in the
cause of the beautiful scenery (every now and then           YWCA building at  7:30 p.m. To an attentive audience
we caught sight of the Tasman Sea), and partly be-           of 30-35 people I spoke on "Our Calling and the
cause our time was occupied with busy conversation           Reformed Faith." There was a rather long question
concerning the things of the truth and of God's              period after the lecture. Several of the questions
church.                                                      centered on predestination and on the Reformed
                                                             position over against the Arminian error. After the
  Meanwhile, Rev. C. Hanko had arrived in Auckland           formal meeting ended, many of the people remained
on June 26; and on the morning of the 27th he flew           for a while, so that we had the opportunity to meet
down to Wellington. Needless to say,, we had a happy         them and converse with them. The majority of those
reunion when we met in downtown Wellington. I                who were present expressed agreement with the
cannot stress too much the importance of having a            lecture and said that they enjoyed the evening.
co-laborer on a tour of this kind. It was not only a
relief to have help with leading meetings and fielding         On Saturday morning, June 28, we had a "cottage
questions. But I personally found it to be of great          meeting" at the van Herk residence. Present were Mr.
help and support to have  s.omeone with whom to              and Mrs. van Herk, Mr. and Mrs. J. Koppe, and Mr.
share problems and to help make evaluations of the           Anton Vooys. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Young were also
many new situations and experiences which con-               present. The Wellington people are acquainted with
fronted us. I think it is no secret that I have long been    Mr. and Mrs. Young through the fact that at the last
personally involved in contacts "down under"; and            couple of Council meetings of the OPC the Welling-
my sympathies obviously lie with our friends there.          ton brethren had participated. This little group in
In such a situation there is always a danger that one's      Wellington have been separated from the Reformed
sympathies color his judgments and evaluations. In           Churches ever since the Runia crisis. Since that time
fact, I frankly asked myself more than once in the           much of their spiritual nourishment has come by way
early part of the tour, "Can this be real? Am I seeing       of literature and taped sermons from our churches.
things too rosily? Am I overly excited and enthusias-        For a long time Mr. Jacob Kuiper, Sr., of our Hope
tic?" It was a very good thing, therefore, to share          Church, has faithfully sent them cassette-tapes of the
things with Rev. Hanko, a veteran and experienced            Hope services. The express purpose of our meeting on
laborer in our churches, and to be able to weigh and         that Saturday morning was to discuss the future of
evaluate our experiences  together,  so that upon our        this little group of three families. At this meeting
return we might make a sober and well-reasoned               each of the heads of families expressed his apprecia-
report to our Committee and to our churches. In a            tion for the fact that we had come to Wellington and
very real sense, therefore, what we are reporting to         strengthened them. They expressed themselves very
our churches is established by two witnesses; and our        warmly and sincerely with respect to their desire to
report and advice are the fruit of very careful and          maintain the Reformed faith and to have Reformed
sober evaluation, not the reflection of run-away             preaching and instruction for themselves and their
enthusiasm. This makes all the more serious the con-         families. They expressed deep appreciation for their
crete questions which our denomination will                  contact with our churches and especially for the
eventually have to face as a result of the obvious fact      taped sermons and the literature which they had re-
that the Lord has opened doors to us in Australasia.         ceived. As a small group without a church home, they
                                                             feel very weak and dependent. They felt keenly that
  What work was accomplished in Wellington?                  God in His providence had sent us to them and,
  During the afternoon of the 27th `of June we met           though they. hardly dared suggest it, they expressed
with the three Reformed ministers of the Wellington          the desire that somehow a minister from our churches
area at the home of Rev. Kroon. Since my "open               might come to New Zealand to. help them. Needless to
letter" to Rev. G.I. Williamson in the November 15           say, we were deeply impressed by the spontaneous


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 607



 testimony of these brethren and by their altogether          Manager, Mr. Vander Wal. That tape was played a
 unsolicited cry for help. As representatives of our          good many times during our stay at Christchurch!
 churches we were not in a position to make any               For us personally, the stay at Christchurch was one of
 promises, nor to commit our churches to anything.            the highlights of the tour. Over the years a bond of
 We did assure them that we would report faithfully to        friendship had developed between us and Mr. and
 our Committee for Contact and to our Synod what              Mrs. van Rij, and it was a real pleasure and a blessing
 we heard from them. We also discussed with them the          to spend a few' days in their home, even as they had
 possibility and the practical implications of possibly       been in our home several years ago.
 having a man from our churches who would work                  But also as far as the purposes of our tour were
 both in Wellington and in Christchurch. And we               concerned, our stay in Christchurch was one of the
 encouraged the brethren to remain faithful to the            highlights. There is a small, but lively congregation
 Reformed faith, to keep in contact with us (as we            there. Several university students are among the
 would with them), and to continue in close contact           membership. Mr. van Rij is somewhat of a spiritual
with the Council of the Orthodox Presbyterian                 father to this young group, being much older in age
 Churches. It must be remembered that there is as yet         than they, but also much older in the faith. Mr.
 no organized group in Wellington. The present group          Andrew Young, who along with Mr. van Rij is an
 is very small; but the brethren assured us that they         elder, gives capable leadership. He himself is a young
 were interested in trying to work in this area with a        man, but very knowledgeable; and he capably leads
view to the possibility of gathering a congregation,          the services in this little congregation which is with-
 which could then become a congregation of the OPC.           out  itsown pastor. Besides, through his position as a
 Only time would tell whether there is the possibility        lecturer in soil science at Lincoln College, Mr. Young
 of establishing a viable congregation there,  .of course;    has opportunity for contact with many young people,
 but there are indications of considerable interest. I        and thus opportunity to give them spiritual guidance
 can assure you that our meeting that  Saturdaymom-           and instruction. We learned of two instances of young
ing was a heart -warming one; and when we listened            foreign students here who have been converted from
to these brethren, we could have been among our               heathendom and have come to the Reformed faith.
own people.                                                   One of these is still in Christchurch, but will have to
   Rev. Hanko remained in Wellington over Sunday,             go back soon to a very difficult battle in her home-
 June 29, and stayed with the van Herk family. In our         land when she has finished her education. The other
 official report to the Committee of Contact, Rev.            has already returned to his homeland of Singapore,
 Hanko reported as follows: "We had services in the           where he is under bond to his government for several
 morning in the YMCA. There were 10 individuals               years in order to repay the government for his educa-
 present. Since the room had no heat whatsoever and           tion. We met him when we reached Singapore a few
 the cold penetrated into the building, the men kept          weeks later.
 their overcoats on, the ladies spread blankets over            The little flock in Christchurch does not have
 their legs, and all agreed that it was worth suffering a     much from an outward point of view. They are small.
 bit of cold to hear once more the sound of the Word.         They own no place of worship. They are young in the
 In the afternoon a meeting was held in the home of           faith. But we found them vitally interested in the
 Vooys, where we also had afternoon tea. In the eve-          truth, and that, too, not as a matter of mere theory,
 ning a service was held in the home of the van Herks.        but as a matter of their life and walk. Foi we dis-
 The same group was present on each occasion. They            covered that many of the  questiqns in our cottage
 listened attentively to the Word, one woman even             meetings with them arose out of practical problems
breaking into a sermon to ask a question which she            and concerns in their lives. It was truly encouraging
 was afraid that she might forget. A very interesting         to have fellowship with them for a few days, and it
 discussion followed."                                        was a spiritual delight to be able to preach to them
   For Mrs. Hoeksema and myself, along with Mr. and           and to instruct them.
 Mrs. Young, our stay on the North Island ended on              Sunday, June 29, was a busy day. In the morning
 Saturday afternoon, when we flew some 200 miles              at  lo:30 we had our first service in the Red Cross
 farther toward the South Pole, arriving in the large         Hall, their meeting place. Yes, it was cold: when we
 city of Christchurch at  5:45 o'clock. Mr. and Mrs. van      sang, we `could see our breath! But our hearts were
 Rij were at the airport to meet us and brought us to         warm. Mr. Young led the service. A congregation of
 their very comfortable home, which was our head-             22 was present. And I preached for some 50 minutes
 quarters while in Christchurch. Awaiting us was some         to an attentive audience on Isaiah  45:22-25. We
 welcome mail from home, and also a surprise in the           lingered for a good while after the service, getting
 form of a recording of a Dutch Psalm-sing in Grand           acquainted. After a quick lunch at the van  Rij home,
 Rapids  - sent by none other than our Business               we returned to the hall for the afternoon lecture at


 608                                          THE STANDARD-BEARER



2:30. Upon request, I spoke again on the subject,           the evening service, at which I preached on John
"The Reformation Faith in Crisis." There were 34 in         14:6. The audience  totalled 27 souls, and we re-
the audience, including several who had not pre-            mained at church for a long time after the service  -
viously participated in any of the meetings of this         talking on an informal basis.
congregation. There was a fairly lengthy question
period after the lecture, and there were some very             There was more to come in Christchurch when
pertinent and intelligent questions asked. Especially       Rev. Hanko joined us again on Monday, June 30. But
were there questions about the key truth of God's           the rest of the story and the conclusion of the New
sovereignty in the matter of salvation. After our           Zealand section of our tour must wait for the next
evening meal we went back to the hall  .once more for       issue.


FEATURE
                                Report  on  the  Conference
                         Between  the  PRC  and  the  RCUS
                                            Rev. Rodney Miersma

   On October 7 and 8, 1975 at the Richmond Lake            in Isabel, South Dakota, both members of the RCUS
Youth Camp, located on the shores of Richmond               (Eureka Classis), contacted Rev. G. Lubbers, who at
Lake, a few miles northwest of Aberdeen, South              that time was laboring in Loveland, Colorado. They
Dakota, an unofficial conference was held between           were dissatisfied with the amount and the quality of
interested ministers and elders of the Reformed             the preaching which they were receiving from their
Church in the United States (Eureka  Classis) and of        own denomination. Hence, through the aid of the
the Protestant Reformed Churches of America. The            then Rev. Herman Mensch, a call of help was ex-
conference was well attended, in that there were            tended to Rev. Lubbers. As a result of his labors, the
twenty-two men present (11 from each denomina-              Ebenezer Protestant Reformed Church, Forbes,
tion) for the duration of the two-day meeting.              North Dakota, and the Hope Protestant Reformed
Represented were men from points as far west as             Church, Isabel, South Dakota, were organized in the
Shafter,  Calif., as far east as Grand Rapids, Michigan,    year of our Lord 1960.
as far south as Kansas City, Missouri, and as far north
as  Upham,  North Dakota, which is near the Canadian
border. The fellowship which was experienced during
the discussions, leisure time, and meals, was warm
and enjoyed by all. A special word of commendation
is in order for the ladies of our Forbes church for the
delicious meals which they served during the two-day
stay.

BACKGROUND
  The Protestant Reformed Churches first came into
contact with the RCUS (Eureka  Classis) in 1944. An
unbiblical union had taken place between their
denomination and another with which the  RCUS                 The third contact was in the spring of 1974 when
(Eureka  Classis) could not be part of, in good con-        Rev. Mark Hoeksema and the undersigned, both
science. This led to the separate existence of Eureka       pastors in the two above-mentioned Dakota churches,
Classis. A conference in  Menno,  South Dakota in           were invited to join a group called The Reformed
1944 considered our respective doctrinal positions.         Ministerial Conference. This was a group consisting of
As an indirect result of this conference Herman             ministers from the Reformed Church in the U.S.
Mensch and Marvin Koemer came to our seminary for           (Eureka Classis), the Reformed Church of America,
instruction.                                                the Christian Reformed Church, Orthodox Presbyte-
  The second contact came in the 1950's. Two                rian, Evangelical and Reformed, and now the Protes-
churches, one in Forbes, North Dakota, and the other        tant Reformed Churches. Its membership for the


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               609


most part consisted of ministers from the RCUS               tural view of the church of Jesus Christ. Dealt with
(Eureka  Classis) with the rest of the membership            were the unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity
consisting of the conservative element in their              of the church. Also the question of God's counsel
respective churches. At these meetings Scripture was         with relation to the election and salvation of the
exegeted and pertinent doctrinal subjects were dis-          church was presented from the supralapsarian point
cussed, to the benefit of all in attendance.                 of view.
   Through these discussions the two pastors from the          Wednesday morning began, as did Tuesday  mom-
PRC learned to appreciate the Reformed stand and             ing, with a paper. Prof. H. Hanko presented a paper
sincerity of the ministers from the RCUS (Eureka             on Possibilities and Areas of Further Contact. In this
Classis). It was their desire that more of our ministers     connection Article 85 of the Church Order was dis-
and people meet them and enjoy the same fellowship.          cussed: "Churches whose usages differ from ours
Thus, an unofficial  ad hoc  committee was formed            merely in non-essentials shall not be rejected." Prof.
with membership consisting of Revs. Hoeksema and
Miersema from the PRC, and Revs. Hart and  Riffert           Hanko continued by explaining that the unity of the
from the RCUS (Eureka Classis). The purpose of the           church is a unity of essence, which must take on
committee was to arrange details for further un-             institutional form and which expresses further unity
official contact, which resulted in the conference at        by forming broader federations of churches. These
Richmond Lake.                                               are formed in different countries and in different
                                                             cultures and nations, this being the reason why there
                                                             are found even today differences between the
THE CONFERENCE                                               Reformed and the Presbyterian. A unity that tries to
   The conferees began arriving on Monday evening            erase these differences must be shunned, for "God
and soon became acquainted around the chess board,           wills that the church of Christ, agreeing in essentials,
ping  pang table, volley ball net, and later in the bunk     differing in non-essentials, develops in different ways
house where all the men slept.                               according to its different nationality, culture, and
                                                             race. It is within this context that we must discuss
   On Tuesday, after breakfast and introductory              our contacts with each other."
remarks, a paper was presented by Rev. Howard Hart,
Eureka, South Dakota, entitled  The Basis  of  Christian       After a discussion on these matters the conference
Unity.  Emphasized in the paper was the truth that           came to a close with the following consensus: 1) that
unity of the church is ultimately based on the unity         further contact between the two churches should
of the Trinity (T&Unity) and on the fact that the            remain unofficial, 2) that if another conference were
members of the true church belong to and constitute          held that the subject of debate be limited to one
the one body of Christ. Thus, there can be unity only        topic with position papers being presented by
for those in Christ, a unity in the truth which is           members of each church, 3) that a committee of two,
manifested in the church by the three marks. Rev.            one from each denomination, be appointed to study
Hart said that "we must not allow our zeal for ex-           the feasibility of another conference and to make
ternal unity to betray us into the error of giving it a      arrangements for the same if plans materialize.
place above the other essentials of the truth. Unity is        In the eyes of the undersigned, and I am sure that I
one of the essentials of the church  - but not at the        can speak for most of those present, the conference
price of truth."                                             was well worth the time spent. The objective was
   Following the presentation of this paper there was        met, i.e., ministers and others of both denominations
lively discussion on such questions as the following:        had the opportunity to meet one another and express
1) the covenant as "essentially a relation of friend-        their views. We enjoyed one another's fellowship and
-ship," 2) infra- and supralapsarianism, 3) common           appreciated the Reformed stand on many key points
grace, 4)  "ultra-predestinarianism," 5) the relationship    of doctrine. But, understandably, there were many
between the higher and lower assemblies, and 6)              differences (essential and non-essential) which make
the  apolegetics  of C. Van Til.                             any official contact at this time not  .feasible. How-
                                                             ever, we would like to discuss these differences at a
  On Tuesday evening a public lecture was given at           future conference to see whether there are areas to
the conference grounds by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema on             which God will lead us, in which we can work to-
The Reformed View  of  The Church.  And if my                gether, and be of assistance to one another. For, as
memory serves me correctly, the three divisions were         Prof. Hanko wrote in his paper, "we live in the end of
1) Its Idea, 2) Its Election, 3) Its Gathering. This         the ages. The pressures of circumstances may push us
lecture was very stimulating and informative, for it         together in ways wholly unanticipated. For the
tied together many loose ends of the discussion              people of God shall have to stand together in the evil
during the day, as it presented a thoroughly Scrip-          day that will soon enough be upon us."


610                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



"MY SHEEP. HEAR MY VOICE"


                                     Letter To Timothy


  I made mention in a previous article of the fact                                               November, 1975
that this rubric ought to be as practical as possible so    Dear Timothy,
that it can be of benefit to all our readers. A theoret-
ical discussion of the various branches of Practical          It was good to hear that you successfully com-
Theology would not be of as much interest to all our        pleted your classical exams and are now an ordained
readers as a more practical discussion of the matters       minister of the Word and Sacraments. Now begins the
related to this subject might be.                           work towards which you have aimed your life and
                                                            bent your efforts for many years. No doubt, there is
  In casting about for a format for these articles
which would emphasize the practical aspect of the           also in your heart a deep sense of gratitude to God
subject, it came to me that the best vehicle for attain-    for bringing you on this long journey to become a
ing this goal would be a series of letters written to an    shepherd of a' flock in Christ's sheepfold. There were
imaginary minister of an imaginary congregation; or         many barriers along the way, obstacles to overcome,
letters  writtencto the congregation itself; or letters     difficulties to face. There were, I know, many times
written to some imaginary member or office bearer in        of discouragement, and you would be an exception to
the congregation. This idea is certainly not original.      the rule if there not many moments when you really
Charles  Spurgeon already used this type of format,         doubted whether God had called you to the work of
although in a slightly different form. And others have      the ministry. But the Lord opened the way each step
done the same.                                              of the path you walked, and brought you to your
                                                            goal. No doubt, you yourself are amazed, now that
  Nevertheless, the format commends itself for dif-         you can look back, how the Lord, in many wonderful
ferent reasons. In the first place, it tends to keep the    ways, made it possible for you to continue your
discussion on a more informal level; and, in this way,      work, and how He led you step by step to your des-
it tends to preserve the practical emphasis which is so     tination.
important in the treatment of this subject. In the
second place, it will, hopefully, assist in bringing the      I suppose that you have begun your work with
discussion as close as possible to the problems of pas-     mixed feelings. On the one hand, there is undoubt-
toral and congregational life within the church of          edly a sense of elation. How could it really be any
Christ. And this was the original purpose of such a         different? You have struggled to attain this goal; you
rubric when the idea was proposed at last summer's          have prayed often that the Lord would bring you to
staff meeting. In the third place, it will give me more     the point where you can actually begin the work of
freedom to wander about in the whole field without          the ministry. You have held this goal before your
limiting myself to any one given subject. Matters can       mind and heart for more years than you yourself
be treated as they arise. One need not be too con-          know. And now your prayers are answered and your
cerned about a systematic, logical and continuing           life's work lies before you. The years of preparation
treatment of individual subjects. One can roam rather       are over, and the actual task to which you have been
freely and discuss matters of importance as these mat-      called now begins. But, on the other hand, there is
ters appear. Finally, this format will introduce into       also, I am sure, a certain sense of wonderment and
the rubric a personal element which will hopefully          awe, of trepidation not unmixed with fear. It is only
inspire more reader response so that the column is          when you are at last in the parsonage and begin to
shared with you all.                                        perform the work of shepherd that some of the heavi-
  Let us then call our imaginary pastor, "Timothy"          ness of your responsibilities comes upon you. The
and include in these columns, "Letters to Timothy."         fact that you are a mouthpiece of Christ, an ambassa-
If the time comes  tb write to an imaginary congre-         dor of the gospel of our King, one to whom is en-
gation, or to imaginary members of a congregation,          trusted the feeding of the souls of the precious elect
we shall find other names and other titles.                 of God, suddenly fills you with a measure of fear as
                        *****                               you stand before the task to which you are called.


                                                                    :
                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  611



   Do not mistrust this feeling. I hope that it remains       that your study of the principles of Biblical interpre-
with you all your life. It is only this sense of wonder       tation was directly related to your calling to preach
and fear at the awesomeoness of the task which will           the gospel. It stands to reason therefore, that the two
lead you to seek your strength and help only from             are closely connected to each other. This is not only
Him Who has appointed you to this position in His             true from a theoretical point of view, but from a very
Church.                                                       practical point of view as well.
  While perhaps we can discuss some of these things             When mention is made of the New Hermeneutics,
in another letter, for there are many things to write in      (and there is a lot of talk about this in the air nowa-
this connection, nevertheless, you have asked for             days), it is not always so very clear exactly what
some guidance in the matter of preaching. And it              people mean by this. This confusion is due to the fact
might be well to shelve our present discussion for a          that there is such a great variety of opinion among
little while to turn to this matter.                          those who promote this so-called New Hermeneutics.
  The fact that you inquire concerning the whole              There are almost as many differences of methods of
subject of preaching is interesting. You have had your        interpretation as there are interpreters. Each one who
Homiletics course in seminary, and you have mas-              takes upon himself the task of constructing a differ-
tered, in so far as that is possible in school, the me-       ent Hermeneutics has his own idea as to how this
chanics of exegesis and sermon making. It is not con-         ought to be done. This, in itself, is worthy of special
cerning these things which you inquire. Your ques-            notice. There is something instructive in this, -for it
tion, I take it, arises out of another situation. You         gives evidence of the fact that once one has aban-
have learned rather quickly that mastering theory in          doned the tried and true paths, it is sort of like
school is one thing  - of no little importance, of            "every man for himself." And this already puts a big
course. But the matter of putting theory into practice        question mark behind all these attempts.
is quite another. You will find that this is true in all        Nevertheless, the term New Hermeneutics is, from
aspects of your work. I suppose, in a way, I am inter-        one point of view, a fitting description of what is
preting your request. But I take you to mean that             going on in the field of Biblical interpretation; and,
you are anxious to know something about the more              from another point of view, it is a misnomer. It is a
practical aspects of preaching. And this is indeed            misnomer  first of all, because what is meant by the
something worth talking about.                                name New Hermeneutics is really not new at all. The
  Although it may seem that I am starting rather far          New Hermeneutics has striking resemblances to what
distant from the subject of preaching, I think never-         has been going on in the field of higher and destruc-
theless, that this is important if we are to put preach-      tive criticism for a couple of centuries already. These
ing, from a practical point of view, in its proper per-       resemblances have to do not only with the views
spective. I want to talk for a bit about the relation         which are held by the proponents of these New  Her-
between preaching and what is called in our day, the          meneutics  - the views are the same in some respects
New Hermeneutics.                                             of those of the higher critics from way back in the
                                                              18th century; but the resemblances are especially
  There will not be sufficient room in this letter to         striking in the way both the higher critics and the
complete our discussion of the subject; so please wait        proponents of the New Hermeneutics approach Scrip
for a further letter or two to finish the matter. In the      ture. That is, both approach Scripture from a  mtio-
meantime you can write with any questions you may             ualistic   viewpoint. And I mean this to be in distinc-
have and perhaps steer the discussion in different            tion from the approach  offaith.   But I shall try to say
channels.                                                     a little bit more about this later on. So the New  Her-
  Admittedly, I have a personal reason for discussing         meneutics is not really  ylew, but very, very old.
this matter first. I was asked to give a Reformation            Nevertheless, from another viewpoint it is new.
Day lecture on the subject of the New Hermeneutics.           And it's new because it is only within the last twenty
And, while I could not discuss in that lecture the            or thirty years that this Hermeneutics has been found
relationship between the New Hermeneutics in                  within the Reformed Churches. At the time of the
preaching, I felt all along in the lecture that this was a    Reformation, certain basic and fundamental princi-
subject worth some discussion.                                ples of Scriptural interpretation were set down which
  There is no doubt about it that the New  Herme-             the Reformers maintained over against Rome. And
neutics has all kinds of implications for preaching.          while there have been, over the years, some develop-
You recall from your school days that when we                 ment and systematization of these views, neverthe-
worked together in Hermeneutics class we discussed            less, the Reformed Churches have been faithful to
at length the principles of the interpretation of Scrip-      these principles. Higher Criticism arose out of ratio-
ture  - and this is really what Hermeneutics- is all          nalistic philosophy which had its roots not in the
about. You will recall that we talked about the fact          Reformation, but in the Renaissance. It is true that


     612                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



     this rationalism and Higher Criticism infected the Re-        But now things are different. Within the Reformed
     formed Churches in the Netherlands in the 17th and         Churches there is a new approach; not new in the
     18th centuries. But when our fathers led many people       sense of being something different from Higher Criti-
     of God out of the old State Church in 1834, the            cism, but new in the sense that the principles of
     Church returned to the principles of the Reformation       Higher Criticism are rapidly creeping into Reformed
     also in this matter of Biblical interpretation. And the    circles and winning the day. This is new.
     church has, on the whole, remained faithful to these          But I see I must end this letter. We shall have to
     principles. Even when there were many doctrinal con-       continue our discussion next time. In the meantime, I
     troversies of many different kinds, the opposing par-      suggest you read H. Boer's articles in the  Reformed
     ties were, on the whole, not divided on questions of       Journal  on this subject. He has just started a series on
     Hermeneutics. And if there were men who departed           the matter. He is going to defend, he says, a genuine
     from these principles of the Reformers, (such as           and Scriptural "Biblical criticism.`: We shall see.
     Geelkerken in the Netherlands, and Jansen in Amer-                                  With Christian greetings,
     ica) they were deposed from office.                                                 H. Hanko

     Taking Heed To Doctrine.



                                     Hyper. Calvinism and
                               the Call of the Gospel  (14)

                                                   Rev. David Engelsma


       John Calvin takes up the doctrine of the call of the     the elect (Is. 8: 16)." "Whence it is evident that the
     gospel in Book III of the  Institutes,  in connection      doctrine of salvation, which is said to be set apart for
     with the doctrine of God's eternal election. In            the sons of the Church only, is abused when it is
     chapter XXII, section 10, after he has taught that         represented as effectually available to all . . . though
     God elects some to Salvation and reprobates others to      the word of the gospel is addressed generally to all,
     perdition, he notes that "some object that God would       yet the gift of faith is rare. Isaiah assigns the cause
     be inconsistent with himself, in inviting all without      when he says, that the arm of the Lord is not revealed
     distinction while he elects only a few. Thus, accord-      to all (Isa. 53: l)."
     ing to them, the universality of the promise destroys         The harmony between election and the call of the
     the distinction of special grace." He faces the ques-      gospel to all who hear the preaching Calvin gives in
     tion, "How can election be harmonized with the call        chapter XXIV of Book III. He begins by stating that
     of the gospel to others beside those who are saved?"       he will now treat "both of the calling of the elect,
     This question is really an objection to election. Those    and of the blinding and hardening of the ungodly"
     who raise it argue that since God calls everyone to        (section 1). For Calvin, "the preaching of the gospel
     repent and believe, there is no election.                  springs from the fountain of election"  (I), i.e., the
       Calvin's answer is that' there is harmony between        preaching of the gospel is due to the eternal love of
9    "the two things  - viz. that by external preaching all     God's heart for the elect, is God's gift to the elect,
     are called to faith and repentance, and that yet the       and is intended to save the elect  - and the elect only.
     Spirit of faith and repentance is not given to all."       Accordingly, the call of the gospel, "which consists
     Addressing himself to the assumption that the ex-          not merely of the preaching of the word, but also of
     ternal call to everyone implies a universal grace of       the illumination of the Spirit"  (2), is exclusively for
     God to all and a universal promise to all, Calvin          the elect. God withholds the call from the reprobate.
     reminds such objectors to election that God is not           Immediately, Calvin brings up Jesus' words in
     "under a fixed obligation to call all equally." "He        Matthew 22: 14: "Many are called but few are
     (God) destines the promises of salvation specially to      chosen ." Does this not contradict Calvin's teaching


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 613



that God calls only the elect, and does this not indi-       it was spoken of the Jews' inability to believe on
cate that God desires many more to be saved than             Christ, Clavin declared to be "incontrovertible, that
only the elect? Not at all, says Calvin, for "there are      to those whom God is not pleased to illumine, he
two species of calling  - there is a universal call, by      delivers his doctrine wrapt up in enigmas, so that they
which God, through the external preaching of the             may not profit by it, but be given over to greater
word, invites all men alike, even those for whom he          blindness" ( 13).
designs the call to be a savour of death, and the
ground of a severer condemnation. Besides this there           Calvin concludes his treatment of the doctrine of
is a special call which, for the most part, God bestows      the call by considering certain texts appealed to by
on believers only, when by the internal illumination         those who object to the teaching that God's call unto
of the Spirit he causes the word  pre*ached to take          salvation is grounded in and determined by election.
deep root in their hearts" (8). The "special call," or       Strikingly, these texts are the same as those always
efficacious call, which consists both of the preaching       appealed to by defenders of the offer and, as Calvin
of the gospel and the "internal illumination of the          remarks in his "Treatise of the Eternal Predestination
Spirit," is for the elect alone. The call in the preach-     of God," the same as those appealed to by Pelagius
ing comes also to many reprobates, but God's                 against Augustine: Ezekiel  18:23;  I Timothy  2:4; and
"design" with the call to them is that it be to them a       Matthew  23:37. Whether one agrees with Calvin's
savour of death and the ground of worse condemna-            interpretation of these texts or not, it is clear that he
tion. Calvin does not regard the external call of the        does not explain them as teaching that God is
gospel as grace to all hearers or as an expression of        gracious in the gospel to elect and reprobate alike or
God's sincere desire to save all.                            that God sincerely desires all men to be saved.
                                                             Calvin's remarks on Ezekiel 18: 23 show this. The text
  Calvin comes back to the assertion that the preach-        reads: "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked
ing of the gospel, and particularly the call of the          should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he
gospel, has a two-fold effect and that this effect is        should return from his ways, and live?" Calvin's
determined by God's eternal purpose in election and          opponents appeal to it as proof that God loves every
reprobation. "As the Lord by the efficacy of his call-       man and, in that love, sincerely desires every man to
ing accomplishes towards his elect the salvation to          be saved. Replies Calvin: "If we are to extend this to
which he had by his eternal counsel destined them, so        the whole human race, why are not the very many
he has judgments against the reprobate, by which he          whose minds might be more easily bent to obey urged
executes his counsel concerning them. Those, there-          to repentance, rather than those who by his invita-
fore, whom he has created for dishonour during life          tions become daily more and more hardened? Our
and destruction at death, that they may be vessels of        Lord declares that the preaching of the gospel and
wrath and examples of severity, in bringing to their         miracles would have produced more fruit among the
doom, he at one time deprives of the means of hear-          people of Ninevah and Sodom than in  Judea (Matt.
ing his word, at another by the preaching of it blinds       13:23).  How comes it, then, that if God would have
and stupefies them the more" (12). So far from being         all to be saved, he does not open a door of repentance
grace to the reprobate, the preaching of the gospel is       for the wretched, who would more readily have
a judgment against them, for by the preaching God            received grace? Hence we may see that the passage is
blinds and stupefies them. "God sends his word to            violently wrested, if the will of God, which the
many whose blindness he is pleased to aggravate"             prophet mentions, is opposed to his eternal counsel,
(13). This is the teaching of Holy Scripture. God sent       by which he separated the elect from the reprobate"
Moses to  Pharoah with His Word in order to harden           (15). The "genuine meaning" of this much-abused
Pharoah's heart (Ex.  4:2 1). "But the prophecy of           text, says Calvin, is that "the prophet . . . only means
Isaiah presses still more closely; for he is thus com-       to give the hope of pardon to them who repent" (15).
missioned by the Lord, `Go and tell this people,
Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye                  Calvin's doctrine of the  callof the gospel is also on
indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this             the foreground in the first of the two treatises that
people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their        make up  his Calvin's Calvinism*,  "A Treatise of the
eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their     Eternal Predestination of God." Calvin wrote it,
ears, and understand with their heart, and convert           shortly before his death, against  Albertus Pighius and
and be healed' (Isa.  6:9, 10). Here he directs his voice    Georgius the Sicilian, who denied predestination and
to them, but it is that they may turn a deafer ear; he       affirmed free-will. Pighius made grace common to all
kindles a light, but it is that they may become more         men in the offer of salvation, although it depended
blind; he produces a doctrine, but it is that they may       for its efficacy on the will of the sinner. Calvin calls
be more stupid; he employs a remedy, but it is that          this a "fiction": "The fiction of Pighius is puerile and
they may not be cured" (13). After referring to              absurd, when he interprets grace to be God's good-
John's explanation of this prophecy, in John 12, that        ness in inviting all men to salvation, though all were


 614                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


lost in Adam. For Paul most clearly separates the             salvation, which is very far inferior to the illumina-
fordmown  from those on whom God deigned not to               tion of the Spirit, was not made of God common to
look in mercy . . . he (Pighius) holds fast the fiction       an  meyz"  (p. 104).
that grace is offered equally to all, but that it is
ultimately rendered effectual by the will of man, just           Calvin castigates Pighius for teaching that the
as each one is willing to receive it" (pp. 49-5 1).           mercy of God extends to others than the elect:
                                                              "After this, Pighius, like a wild beast escaped from his
     Pighius, "this worthless fellow," thought to find an     cage, rushes forth, bounding over all fences in his
argument against election in the fact that "Christ, the       way, uttering such sentiments as these: `The mercy of
Redeemer of the whole world, commanded the                    God is extended to every one, for God wishes all men
Gospel to' be preached to all men, promiscuously,             to be saved; and for that end He stands and knocks at
generally, and without distinction." Calvin replies           the door of our heart, desiring to enter' " (p. 152). By
"that Christ was so ordained the Saviour of the whole         Calvin's standard  - an accurate one  - wild beasts
world, as that He might save those that were given            abound today, running loose in even nominally
unto Him by the Father out of the whole world, that           Reformed churches. We will do our best to cage them
He might be the eternal life of them of whom He is            and to muzzle their ravings about a grace of God for
the Head; that He might receive into a participation          all, that wishes all to be saved, and that stands offer-
of all the `blessings in Him' all those whom God              ing and begging at the door of the sinner's heart.
adopted to Himself by His own unmerited good                  Calvin refutes this "puerile dream" with the teaching
pleasure to be His heirs." The, grace of Christ in the        of Romans 9 and Romans 11. God chose Jacob and
gospel is intended for and given to the elect only:           rejected Esau before they were born or had done
"       the virtue and benefits of Christ are extended        good or evil; God hardens whom He wills and has
unto, and belong to, none but the children of God."           mercy on whom He wills; "the election obtained it,
"If we see and acknowledge, therefore, the principle          and the rest were blinded."
on which the doctrine of the Gospel offers salvation             Similar is the refutation of Georgius the Sicilian.
to all, the whole sacred matter is settled at once. That      Georgius argued that the universal call to repentance
the Gospel is, in its nature, able to save all I by no        and faith indicates that God willed all to be saved.
means deny. But the great question lies here: Did the         For God to call a man to believe whom He had repro-
Lord by His eternal counsel  ordain  salvation for  all       bated would be for God to mock that man. The form
men?  It is quite manifest that all men, without differ-      that this argument takes today is the contention that
ence or distinction,  are outwardly called  or invited to     for God to call one to believe, towards whom God
repentance and faith. It is equally evident that the          has no grace and for whom God does not desire that
same Mediator is set forth before all, as He who alone        he be saved, would be to deny the seriousness of the
can reconcile them to the Father. But it is as fully          gospel-call. Calvin's reply is that the command of God
well known that none of these things can be under-            to the reprobate to repent is God's demand that they
stood or perceived but by faith, in fulfilment of the         give God what they owe Him: "For surely God doth
apostle Paul's declaration that `the Gospel is the            men no injury whatever when He demands nothing
power of God unto salvation to every one that                 more of them than that which they really owe Him
believeth'; then what can it be to others but the             . . . "  (p. 173). Calvin readily grants that the exhorta-
`savour of death unto death?' as the same apostle             tions of the gospel are addressed both to elect and
elsewhere powerfully expresses himself' (pp. 93-95).          reprobate, but he holds that God's purpose with these
                                                              exhortations is different in the case of the elect and
      Calvin wants to "hold fast that the Gospel, which       in the case of the reprobate. As regards the elect, God
is, in its essential nature, `a savour of life unto life,'    intends that they "return to a right mind," i.e., be
and ought to be so to all that hear it, becomes `a            saved; as regards the reprobate, God's purpose is
savour of death unto death in them that perish,' who          "that lying stupefied in their iniquities, they might,
thus remain in their darkness and unbelief  because           by such piercing appeals, be goaded into a sense of
(Calvin's emphasis  -  DE)  `the arm of the Lord' is not      their awful condition . . . (and) prove themselves at
revealed to them" (pp. 97, 98).                               length to be incurable" (p. 174).
     Calvin makes plain that he is opposed not only to          Calvin's doctrine of the call of the gospel, then, is
Pighius' doctrine of free-will, but also to Pighius'          this. In the preaching of the gospel, God outwardly
doctrine that God wills all men to be saved  - which          calls all hearers to repent and believe, and the Church
two doctrines are ever and necessarily found                  must call everyone indiscriminately also. God's
together. "Now let Pighius boast," writes Calvin, "if         purpose with this call is determined by and is in
he can, that God willeth  all men  to be saved! The           harmony with His eternal counsel of predestination,
above arguments, founded on the Scriptures, prove             election and reprobation  - He wills the call to save
that even the external preaching of the doctrine of           the elect, and He wills the call to work the  condemna-


612                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                  615


tion of the reprobate. The call of the gospel to the                 repentance and faith called for  - Whom God is not
elect is accompanied by the internal enlightening of                 obligated to give to anyone  - and instead hardens
the Spirit, so that they are efficaciously drawn  to                 them in their unbelief.
Christ by faith and are saved. The call to the reprobate                We  have now found for the defenders of the  well-
is God's demand, made in perfect righteousness and                   meant offer of the gospel the original hyper-Calvinist
in utmost seriousness, that they do what is their duty               - John Calvin himself.
to do. When God gives this command, He withholds
from them the Spirit Who alone is able to give the                                            (to be continued)


THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS


                       Angels, Devils and Evil Spirits

                                                   ProJ: Robert D. Decker




           "We believe that the Father, by the Word, that is, by his Son bath . . . also created the angels good, to be his
           messengers and to serve his elect; some of whom are fallen from that excellency, in which God created
           them, into everlasting perdition; and the others have, by the grace of God, remained stedfast and continued
           in their primitive state. The devils and evil spirits are so depraved, that they are enemies of God and every
           good thing, to the utmost of their power, as murderers, watching to ruin the Church and every member
           thereof, and by their wicked stratagems to destroy all; and are, therefore, by their own wickedness,
           adjudged to eternal damnation, daily expecting their horrible torments. Therefore we reject and abhor the
           error of the Sadducees, who deny the existence of spirits and angels: and also that of the Manichees, who
           assert that the devils have their origin of themselves, and that they are wicked of their own nature, without
           having been corrupted.
                                                                                            The Belgic Confession, Art. XII

  Approximately two-thirds of this article on Crea-                  pose in the salvation of His elect in Christ. The devil
tion is devoted to the creation of the angels, their                 is also real! So is the host of evil spirits who with
function, and the fall of some of them. In this respect               Satan "left their first estate" (Jude 6). The Bible has
the  Confession  reflects something of the times in                   something to say concerning both and, therefore, we
which it was written. During the Middle Ages and on                  ought to know that teaching. As we turn to the
into Reformation times many were preoccupied with                    Scriptures we ought to heed the advice of John Calvin
the mysterious realm of the spirits. Much was made                   who writes: "Let us remember here, as in all religious
of both the good angels and the  f&en evil spirits.  .The             doctrine, that we ought to  hold to one rule of
trouble was that all of this was mixed with a good                   modesty and sobriety: not to speak, or guess, or even
deal of superstition and wild speculation which went                 to seek to know, concerning  obscyre matters any-
far beyond the givens of the Scriptures. This accounts               thing except what has been imparted to us by God's
for the relatively detailed presentation of the truth of             Word. Furthermore, in the reading of Scripture we
Scripture on this subject given in Article XII.                      ought ceaselessly to endeavor to seek out and medi-
  We do well in our own day to devote a bit of study                 tate upon those things which make for edification.
to this whole matter. Today the pendulum has swung                   Let us not indulge in curiosity of the investigation of
to the opposite extreme from Reformation times.                      unprofitable things." (The Institutes Of The Christian
Now very little attention, almost none at all, is given              Religion,  Book I, Chapter XIV, Section  4)"
to the truth concerning the angels and the devils.
Many know almost nothing about them. Many, too,                       *Anyone interested in making further study of this subject is urged to
deny their very existence. Let it be understood the                   consult Calvin's Institutes; Book I, Chap. XIV, Sections 4-19.
                                                                         There is a briefer passage dealing with the same subject in H.
angels are real creatures of God who serve God's  pur-                Hoeksema's  Reformed Dogmatics,  pp. 248 ff.


616                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


   The  Confession  correctly affirms that these            4: 16) Two of these latter are mentioned by name:
spiritual beings, including also the fallen angels, the     Gabriel (Luke 1: 19, 26) and Michael. (Jude 9; Rev.
devils, were created by God. "He also created the            i  2:7) In addition we read of "principalities and
angels good, to be his messengers and to serve his          powers, of thrones and dominions in the heavens."
elect; some of whom are fallen from that excel-             (Eph. 3 : 10 and Col. 1: 16)
lency . . .  " As created beings the angels are as fully
dependent upon the will of God as any other crea-              The  Confession  emphasizes two of their tasks.
ture. They all were created good in the beginning, as       They are messengers of God. Their very name "angel"
is evident from Scripture. In Genesis  1:3 1 we read:       in both the Hebrew and the Greek means "messen-
"And God saw everything that he had made, and,              ger". They are present at special revelations of God,
behold it was very good." Just when the angels were         such as the giving of the Law to Moses. (Gal. 3: 19)
created we do not know. Some think the angels were          They appeared at crucial points in the history of
created on the first day of creation week. They base        redemption. Several times the angels appeared to
this conclusion on Job  38:6, 7, where Scripture says:      Abraham and other of the patriarchs, to Israel when
"Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or         delivered out of Egypt, and in the days of the exile
who laid the cornerstone thereof; When the morning          and restoration. They are mentioned especially in
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted        connection with the birth, ministry, suffering,
for joy?" H. Hoeksema offers the following comment          resurrection, and ascension of Christ. In all of this the
on this passage: "From this passage the conclusion          angels were created "to serve the elect." Of this the
has been drawn that the angels were created on the          Bible speaks often. Angels are "ministering spirits
first day, although it must certainly be said that the      sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs
text offers no strict proof for this contention and         of salvation." (Heb. 1: 14) Thus we read that the
that if we may conjecture that there is a parallel          angels: rejoice over the conversion of sinners (Luke
between the creation of the earth and that of heaven        15 : 10); watch over believers and preserve them from
and the heavenly beings, it would seem more natural         harm (Ps.  34:7; 91: 11); care for God's little ones
to suppose that the angels were created on the sixth        (Matt. 18: 10); are present in the church (I Cor.
day. But for the time of the creation of the angels we      11: 10); and seek to learn something of the manifold
have no proof in Scripture."  (Reformed Dogmatics,          grace of God (Eph. 3: 10). Thus do God's messengers
p. 249)                                                     serve in the saving and gathering of God's Church.
                                                            And together with them the people of God look
  The Bible says several things about the angels.           forward to that great day when they shall stand
They are spiritual beings who do not have flesh and         before God's throne and cry with a loud voice:
bone. (Luke  24:39)  There is no marriage among             "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne,
them : "For in the resurrection they neither marry,         and unto the Lamb." (Rev. 7:9-17)
nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God
in heaven." (Matthew 22: 30) These spiritual beings           The Article also speaks of the fall of some of the
are personal beings with intelligence and will, for         angels. The details of this fall are not given in Scrip-
Scripture speaks of their intense interest in the           ture, for it is neither necessary nor profitable for us
"sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow      to know them. Evidently Satan was moved by pride
       which things the angels desire to look into." (I     and followed by a host of angels, who became evil
Peter 1: 11, 12) Although they do not know all              spirits or devils. (Cf. I. Tim.  3:6 and Jude 6) The two
things, Scripture does indicate that they know more         principal names of the devil are  Satan,  which depicts
than we. (cf. Matt.  24:36) As is evident from the fall     him as the enemy, adversary of God and His cause in
and consequent judgement of Satan and the devils            Christ, and  devil,  which emphasizes that he is the
and evil spirits (cf. Jude 6) the angels possess a moral    great liar or deceiver of men. He is also called "the
nature, and just as we they are answerable to God. We       prince of this world" (John  12:3 1; 16: 11; I Cor.  4:4),
know, too, that the angels constitute a mighty host.        "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that
The Apostle John writes: "And I saw, and I heard the        now worketh in the children of disobedience." (Eph.
voice of many angels round about the throne and the         2:2; 6: 11, 12)
beasts and the elders: and the number of them was             We ought never underestimate the power of Satan
ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of           and his evil spirits, for, as our Creed says, "they are so
thousands." (Rev. 5: 11) Apparently, too,, there is         depraved, that they are enemies of God and every
distinction of class or rank among the angels. Scrip-       good thing, to the utmost of their power, as mur-
ture speaks of the "cherubim" who reveal the glory          derers, watching to ruin the Church and every mem-
and majesty of God (Gen.  3:24) and of the "sera-           ber thereof, and by their wicked strategems to de-
phim" who stand about the throne of God. (Isaiah            stroy all . . .  " Indeed we must "be sober, vigilant;
6:2, 6) There are "archangels" who shall accompany          because our adversary the devil as a  roaring  lion;
the Lord when He comes in final judgement. (I Thess.        walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." (I


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                            617


Peter  5:8). At the same time, however, we must not                 minded to affirm Christ's Kingdom as we ought, we
be discouraged in the battle, for Christ is Victor also             must wage irreconcilable war with him who is plot-
over the devil (Heb. 2: 14). Already now the devil and              ting its ruin."  (Institutes,  Book I, Chap. XIV, Sec.
his evil spirits are "cast down to hell, and delivered              15)
into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judg-                    The article concludes by rejecting the errors of the
ment." (II Peter  2:4, Jude 6) Powerful as he may be,               Sadducees and the Manichees. The former denied the
the devil cannot touch us apart from the will of our                whole realm of the spirits and thus, too, the resur-
heavenly Father. (cf. the Book of Job, Revelation 20)               rection from the dead. The Manichees taught that evil
Besides, "they that be with us are more than they                   is in matter, or is matter itself. The only escape from
that be with them." (II Kings 6: 16) In that con-                   evil is escape from this creation. If a man wishes to
fidence the believer "fights the good tight of faith"               escape evil he must separate himself from the earthly,
(Eph.  6), "giving no place to the devil.", (Eph.  4:27)            even from his flesh. He does this by the power of his
Calvin puts it well when he says: "The fact that the                mind. For this reason Manicheeism taught that the
devil is everywhere called God's adversary and ours                 devils could not have fallen or been corrupted, but
also ought to fire us to an unceasing struggle against              originated by themselves and were wicked by virtue
him.. For if we have God's glory at heart, as we should             of their nature. Both of these errors are rightly con-
have, we ought with all our strength to contend                     demned for they clearly stand in conflict with the
against him who is trying to extinguish it. If we are               teaching of the Word of God.


ALL AROUND US:

                         Shall We Take Inventory
                                                         Rev.  H,  Veldman

  In a magazine,  THE BANNER OF TRUTH,  July,                              preached. The clergymen were wretched high and dry
1975, page 14, appear a few statements which I wish                        sticks of the old school and their preaching was not
to pass on to our readers. After writing that he had                       calculated to do good to anybody. I can truly say
no true religion at all up to the time that he was                         that I passed through childhood and boyhood with-
about twenty years old, the writer offers the follow-                      out hearing a single sermon likely to do good to my
ing which, though not an excuse for his conduct, may                       soul.
serve to some extent as an explanation of it:                          I do not quote this because I believe that it is
      I really had no opportunities or means of grace, so           completely applicable to our homes and to our con-
   to speak, when I was young. My father's house was                duct upon the Sabbath. I certainly do not believe in
   respectable and well conducted but there really was              legalism, and that what we do or fail to do as such
   not a bit of religion in it. We had no family prayers at         upon the Lord's Day has any merit in itself. But I do
   all, except on Sunday nights and that only occasion-             believe that the  first day of `the week is the Lord's
   ally. My father and mother went to church and took               day, and that we should not spend this day as we
   us on Sundays, but I never could see that the service,           spend any other day. And I have quoted this because
   or sermon, were regarded as anything but a mere                  I would ask our readers to take inventory of them-
   form. Conversation on a Sunday went on much as on                selves, and to ask themselves: how do I spend this day
   weekdays. Letters were read and written, newspapers
   read just the same as on weekdays. We dined early                which the Lord has separated from the other days of
   and had plum pudding, which was always a joyful                  the week? I believe that this question is of great
   thing, and we also had an extremely good hot supper,             importance.
   and sometimes oysters and hot ale. The elder mem-
   bers of the family on Sunday evenings in winter used            WOMEN IN ECCLESIASTICAL OFFICES
   to read sermons to themselves in separate corners of               In the  Banner  of August 22, 1975, appears the
   the room. But they all used to look so unutterably               following from a Rev. B. Mulder, pastor of a Christian
   grave and miserable over them, that I privately made             Reformed Church in Alberta, Canada, a delegate to
   up my mind that sermons must be very dull things,
   and religion must be a very disagreeable business.               that church's synod, which the editor of the  Banner
   Macclesfield with only 35,000 people had only two                has quoted in his editorial:
   churches and in neither of them was the gospel                             The other day I began to reminisce a bit about


     6 1 8                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER



         that long and emotional discussion we delegates had          less decide that this would be proper, and this
         on the floor of Synod of 1975 regarding women in             because the Bible must be read against its own cul-
         church office.                                               tural and historical background, and that therefore
              There was the traditional view, born of good and        what  niay have been in effect years and centuries ago
         long tradition, which holds that Scripture must be           is no longer applicable today.
         taken at face value, also with regard to this question.
         In that view there are two golden strands running                In connection' with this same question, whether
         through the whole Scripture. The one strand has to           women should hold office in the church of God,
         do with the salvation of male and female alike, the          there is an article  in CHRISTIAN NEWS,  Sept. 8,
         bestowing of the gifts of the Spirit on both sexes, the       1975, page 1. In this article it is stated that the LCMS
         realization of the Pentecostal dream that your SONS          (the Lutheran Church  - Missouri Synod) advocates
         and daughters shall prophesy. Those who take this            the Scriptural position that women are not to hold
         road assert no inferiority on the part of the female,        office within the church of God. The LCMS has taken
         no slavery for her, neither hidden nor overt. They           this position repeatedly. However, the majority of
         simply believe that God has made both sexes magnifi-         ELIMists (the moderate group among the Lutherans)
         cently in their own way and in their own order, so
         that they are both fellow heirs of salvation as well as      reject this position of the Word of God, claim that
         living witnesses to the grace of God.                        the apostle Paul is or was in error when he forbade
                                                                      the women to hold office in the church of God, and
              The other strand, equally clear in Scripture, shows     they would maintain that women may hold office.
         that male and female do not have the same function
         before God. The woman is to be submissive to the             Strange that these  ELIMists should strive to maintain
         male because of the creation order, for the male was         this position? Hardly! It is striking that that element
         created first and the woman after that. This, says           who support the position that women may hold
         Paul, is what the Torah, the law, says about her.            office in the church of God (and this is also appli-
              There is yet another reason mentioned in I Tim. 2,      cable to the Christian Reformed Church) is consti-
         but we are not going to indulge in all sorts of repeti-      tuted of those who deny the infallibility of the Scrip-
        tions of what has been said ad nauseam  on the subject        t u r e s   t h r o u g h o u t   a n d   w h o   m a i n t a i n   t h a t   t h e
         already. In any case, as the study rep&t said, "the          Scriptures must be read and interpreted against their
        literal enforcement of this (biblical) rule . . . . would     cultural and historical background.
        forbid the ordination of women to the office of elder
         . . . . as defined by the Church order."                     LABOR DAY
       Then, after asserting that the big question is                    In the  Banner  of August 29, 1975, the editor of
     whether it is to be enforced what the Bible says about           the  Banner writes  on LABOR DAY. We need not
     this matter, and that the Bible says NO to women                 quote the entire article. The following excerpts should
     when it comes to holding office, and- also stating that          be sufficient:
     there was another approach on the floor of Synod to
     this question, namely that the Bible must always be.                      A holy day, Labor Day is. On which we give
     read against its own cultural and historical back-                    thanks for human energies, and organizing genius. On
     ground, the writer concludes:                                         which we bless God for technology, and pray that He
                                                                           will grant wisdom for right use of it.. A day to remem-
              If, then, anyone thinks that the matter of the               ber that all things made embody the lives of those
         ordination of women is a rather innocent. affair once             who shared in their making. To remember that such
         it is stripped of its emotional overtones, he or she              made things are holy, for in them humanity itself is
         ought to have another look at it. A ship run aground              set aside for the common good.
         is a warning for sailors, says a Dutch proverb in free
         translation; it would be utter foolishness for them to          So, now we understand that Labor Day is not only
         steer the same course as their hapless examples. The         a holiday; it is a holy day. And we must`remember
         vote on the floor of the 1975 Synod was uncom-               that all the things that are made by human genius are
         fortably close, I thought. The whole matter will be          holy, for in them humanity itself is set aside for the
         back with us before long; in the corridors of the Fine       common good. Should not the people of God rise up
         Arts Center there was some foreboding talk about             in holy horror when they read this, this wicked
         battles won and wars lost. Sad business, reay.               modernism? I remind the editor of the  Banner  of
       Sad business, indeed. We, too, fear that the battle            Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-Cain, in the Old Testament,
     may have been won but that the war will ultimately               before the flood, the wicked children of the wicked
     be lost. And it would surely be a tragedy for the                Lamech. I assume that the editor of the  Banner also
     Christian Reformed Church should that church ever                believes that the products of these men are holy,
     decide that women may hold office within the church              inasmuch as they were set aside for the common good
     of God. How sad it would be that, although the Bible             of all mankind. Well, the world was destroyed,
     emphatically declares that women may  not hold                   because of these men. Of course, there is nothing
     office within the church, the church would neverthe-             wrong in things, themselves. But we must thank God



L


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          619


for these holy things, holy because they serve the                     Thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work
common good of all mankind? The world was                              of our hands establish Thou it" (Ps. 90: 17).
destroyed because of these children of Lamech, and                   And what can and shall we say about this
the same will occur at the end of the ages.                        modernistic corruption? Now we know what Biblical
  And then we read  this:                                          prophetism is all about. Here we read of men, all
      How shall mankind know the use of all God's                  men, who are earnestly thirsting after righteousness. I
   blessings lest He also tell us? And how shall mankind           know of only one righteousness, and that is the
   hear except He send bearers to this generation of His           righteousness of the cross, of Calvary, the righteous-
   prophetic Word?                                                 ness of the Son of God and the Son of Man, the
      That the fruits of labor and industry may feed,              righteousness which is bestowed only upon the elect
   clothe, and provide opportunity for all men - this,             people of God. This is the only righteousness I know,
   surely, is the intent of the inspired prophetic Word.           and this is the only righteousness which is held before
   That none shall lose their souls to luxury while others         us in the inspired Word of God. And now we may
   succumb to grinding want  - this, surely is the                 also know what Moses meant when he, inspired,
   temporal intent of the Gospel.                                  wrote these words in Ps. 90: 17: "Establish Thou the
      On this Labor Day it is imperative that the Church           work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our
   confront again its mandated obligations to the                  hands establish Thou it." This, Editor De Koster,
   marketplace - that is what Biblical prophetism is all           refers to God's covenant people, the work of His
   about.                                                          grace and Spirit,  ,and that the work of our hands is
      And it is a measure of the Church's dereliction of,          established by the Lord, does not mean that the Lord
   its command to preach truth to power that often                 works, approvingly, in the hearts and upon the hands
   ideologies usurp the divine prerogative in the minds            of wicked men whereby they seek the advancement
   and hearts of men earnestly thirsting after righteous-          of that which is from below, but that we may be
   ness.                                                           active in the work of  His grace and covenant. I am
      It's a day to pray with the Psalmist, as we reflect          only amazed that an editor of a magazine, which
   upon another year of labor past, and anticipate doing           claims to be Reformed, such as the  Banner,  could
   what we can in the year opening before us: "Establish           write these words.




                                  Correspondence and Reply

  The editor of  The Standard Bearer  has also  for-                     While it is undoubtedly the intent of Rev.
warded to me a letter from a Rev. Arie Blok of                        Veldman to point out that opposition to abortion on
Everly, Iowa, and we quote:                                           a humanist basis is something quite different from an
                                                                      opposition to abortion on Biblical principles, which
   Editor in Chief of The Standard Bearer                             sees the sanctity of human life as given by the com-
   Dear Rev. Hoeksema,                                                mandment "Thou shalt not kill," and in the injunc-
                                                                      tion of Genesis 9:6 (Whoso  sheddeth man's blood, by
      I am a minister'in the R.C.A. and have recently                 man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God
                                                                                             _
   become a subscriber to the Standard Bearer because                  made He man.), I feel that a basic error is made with
   even though I do not agree with everything I read in               the statement that "The sinner has a right to noth-
   it, I do apreciate your point of view. In the issue of             ing."
   October 15, 1975, which reached me today there is
   an article in the section "All Around Us" (p. 536).                    While this is true as regards the situation of a sinful
   There in an editorial comment regarding abortion I                  man before God, who is too pure of eyes to behold
   read the following comment.                                        iniquity; it is very wrong in the way it is used here,
                                                                      because the distinction between the First and Second
            Today we hear much of the movement to                      Tables of the Law is lost sight of. When the Bible
            save the unborn child upon the ground that                speaks of man in his relationship toward God, man is
            such a child has a right to live. This ground             and always remains a sinner. (Yes, after justification,
            we must reject. The "right to live" is cer-                man is still defacto, a sinner.) But when it comes to
            tainly not a scriptural principle. The sinner             man's relationship to his fellow man, Scripture does
            has a right to nothing.                                   not hesitate to speak of "innocent blood."


 620                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER


        If we see what a consistent application of "The             never had this right. Rev. Blok writes, and  I  quote:
  sinner has a right to nothing" would do in common                 "While this is true as regards the situation of a sinful
  applications we can easily see how false the premise is           man before God, who is too pure of eyes to behold
  as applied to the' second table of the Law. Suppose               iniquity; it is very wrong in the way it is used here,
  that someone were to steal my automobile, the prin-               because the distinction  between  the First and Second
  ciple that "A sinner has a right to nothing," would
  prevent me from reclaiming it. Self-defense, in case of           Tables of the Law is lost sight of."
  an attack upon my person could not be justified,                     I assume that the brother means that I do not have
  because the only justification for self-defense is that a         this right because, in my relationship toward God, I
  person has a right to live.                                       am a sinner, God is too pure of eyes to behold
        While the idea of a "right to life" often arises out        iniquity, and I have therefore lost this right. However,
  of a humanist rather than out of a Biblical orienta-              when it comes to man's relationship to  l-$s fellow
  tion, it is not right to reject the idea of a right to live       man, Scripture does not hesitate to speak of "in-
  on that account. In the humanist orientation we are               nocent blood," and I do have this right.
  dealing with degenerate dirivative (should be "deriva-               Now, in the first place, that a man has a right to
  tive?" -H .V .) of Biblical principles, degenerate
  because God is not acknowledged, nevertheless, to                 nothing is based upon Scriptural passages such as:
  reject the idea of a "right to live" on the part of the           Psalm 24: 1, Psalm  50:10, and Haggai  2:8. These
  embryo not only ignores what is implied in Amos                   passages speak, I believe, for themselves. That the
  1:13, but ignores that sinful people like ourselves               Lord is the Sole Proprietor of heaven and earth and
  have. "rights" not because we are worthy of them, but             everything in them is because He is God; that I have a
  because our God is a just God who judges the cause                right to nothing is not simply because I am a sinner
  of the innocent, even lvhen the "Innocent" is a sinner,           but because I am His creature.
  as in the case of Amos 2:1, where the Moabites are                   Secondly, the example of the theft of an auto-
  condemned for burning the corpse of the  King of
  Edom into lime.                                                   mobile does not hold. If it were true that I could
                                                                    never reclaim my stolen automobile because it was
                                   Yours in Christ's service,       never mine, then it is just as true that the thief may
                                   W.S. A& Blok                     not have it because it was never his. So, this reasoning
                                                                    surely does not hold.
   First, I am glad that the Rev. Blok is a subscriber
to our  Standard Bearer.  I  also appreciate his writing               My possessions and life are "mine," as far as my
to the effect that he, although not agreeing with                   neighbor is concerned, only because the Lord has
everything he reads in it, nevertheless appreciates our             allotted them to me. The heart of the eighth com-
point of view. And I also appreciate that the Rev.                  mandment is exactly that I am a steward and never an
Blok recognizes the intent of the undersigned, namely               owner. All things, including my life, are not given to
that the opposition to abortion on a humanist basis is              me but loaned to me. A thief proceeds exactly upon
something quite different from an opposition to                     the assumption that what he has is his and he also
abortion on, Biblical principles, which sees the sanc-              craves the possessions of his neighbor. Fact is, every
tity of human life as given by the commandment,                     man is a thief (I am speaking now of the second table
"Thou shalt not kill," and in the injunction of                     of the law), even though he never lays his hands upon
Genesis  9:6. Incidentally, my thanks to the writer                 any goods of his neighbor.' He is a thief by nature, a-
from Everly, Iowa, because of the good spirit of his                part from regenerating grace, because, hating God and
letter. I hope to reply to him in the same spirit. Of               his neighbor, he says of what he has: "all this
course, if my answer fails to satisfy Rev. Blok, he is              is mine." And I must be content. with what-
free to write again.                                                ever the Lord has allotted to me, and may surely
                                                                    never lay my hands upon whatever the Lord has
  I believe that I must maintain the position that we               allotted to my neighbor, be it his goods or his life.
must and may not oppose abortion upon the ground
that the child has the right to live. I do not wish to                It is exactly the error of socialism that man views
oppose this evil as also the world would oppose it; I do            himself as an owner. Abortion is surely a great evil.
not wish to join with the world in its opposition to it;            But I wish to oppose it, not in conjunction with the
I would oppose this terrible sin only upon the ground               world and as the world would oppose it, but distinc-
of Holy Writ.                                                       tively, upon the basis of the Word of God. I believe
                                                                    that I have also answered, by implication, what the
   I had written that "the sinner has a right to                    brother wrote about Amos 1: 13 and 2: 1. Perhaps I
nothing." Perhaps I should have written: "Man has a                 should say that I need not discuss now these passages
right to nothing." This is what I meant. That he has a              quoted by the brother from Iowa.
right to nothing is not because as a sinner he has
forfeited it, but because he, as man and as creature,                 Permit me to make one more observation. Rev.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                               621



Blok refers to the two tables of the law. We must               neighbor is never anything else than the love of God
never separate these tables of the law, place them              as revealed to the neighbor. We do well to remember
next to one another. The law of God is one. Jesus               that the natural mind is not subject to the law of
emphasizes this in Matthew  23:37-40.  The love of              God, and this, of course, also refers to the second
God with all our heart, etc., is the great command-             table of the law. Of course, our love to the neighbor,
ment, not the greater or the greatest. And the love of          be he wicked, will always be a "one way street." It
the neighbor is like unto it. This does not mean that           will never be a bond of fellowship. And, as the
there is a similarity between them, but that the love           Saviour also teaches us in Matthew  5:44-45, when we
of the neighbor is like unto it in the sense that it is         love that wicked neighbor he will hate us and perse-
like unto it essentially; it is the same. The love of the       cute us. But the two tables of the law are always one.


FEATURE


                                   Parental Report Cards

                                                   Rev. R. Van Overloop



       It is said that when the school year begins, the life    new season, many of us undoubtedly had thoughts
of the family changes. This change is caused by the             dealing with the responsibility of parents to train
fact that now the attention of the entire family                their children in the way they should go. We realized
concentrates on the instruction of covenant children.           then how tremendously important this matter is. We
It is true that after a summer of vacation, the children        were reminded of our promise and intention "to see
are wholly taken up with school; but what about                 these children, when come to the years of discretion,
their parents? Are they taken up with the education             instructed and brought up in the aforesaid doctrine,
of their children?                                              or help or cause them to be instructed therein, to the
       By the time this article appears in print, almost        utmost of your (our) power." And as Reformed
three months of the present school season will be               Christians we know this promise is so important that
completed. That means that this season of covenantal            we could not send our children to just any school,
instruction will be one-third finished.                         but only to one in which the "aforesaid doctrine" is
                                                                taught.
       Parents have already received and returned report
cards for the first six weeks period and are wondering            After these thoughts raced through our mind, did
                                                                we not then firmly resolve to become more involved
what kind of marks the second six weeks marking
period will bring. The report card serves as an indi-           with our children's instruction? What happened to
cator to the parents of the development and rate of             that resolution? How well have we been  fulfdling our
development on the part of their child. On report               promise and intention? Is it being maintained? Or has
cards there is room for teachers to indicate how well           it been forgotten?
the child is doing not only in specific subjects, but             What would a report card grading our fulfillment
also in understanding concepts, whether he partici-             of this promise show? Have we been watching what
pates, whether he cooperates with other children,               our children are taught? Have we been helping the
whether he shows respect for other students and for             teacher by helping our children with their memory'
his teachers, whether he shows interest, whether he is          work, arithmetic, history, etc.?
courteous and honest, and what his general behavior                                   ,*****
is.
       But what about report cards for parents. How well        Why must we put forth the utmost of effort and
or how poorly are the parents of the covenant seed              power? Is that much necessary when we have our
doing in the education of their children? As we have            own schools?
said, one-third of this school year is almost past.               To answer these questions we should take a close
When we watched the doors of the school open for a              look at our children. What should we see when we


 622                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



 look at our children? What must be our attitude with        a pretty good idea what our cards would show if we
 regard to our children?                                     check what kind of mark our children received under
    First of all, we see totally corrupt sinners. We see     "Is courteous," or what they received under the
 those who are worthy only of damnation in hell. Do          following categories: "Respects authority; Respects
 we find the reason why we should exert so much              property of others; Respects sacred things." Are not
 power in training them in the fact that this training is    these marks an indication to us, who are examples to
 the way they can be saved from that damnation? No,          our children, of the grade we would receive under
 that is contrary to all of Scripture. The reason for the    "Shows good time use"? That is true because a child
 abundance of this exertion has to be found in               grows gradually and constantly. His growth is not
 something else.                                             limited to the moments during which we have the
                                                             time to instruct him. Because his growth is constant,
    Besides seeing the children of the church as corrupt     the child (especially the child of the covenant) is
 sinners we also see them as being OUR children, i.e.,       always receptive. Our children learn from our entire
 the children of believers. Scripture teaches that God       life, and every waking moment of our life. They are
 establishes His covenant in the line of continued           constantly watching and absorbing all that which goes
 generations. Does not that mean that "godly parents         on about them. If our children are courteous and
 have no reason to doubt of the election and salvation       respectful, usually they have learned it from watching
 of their children" (Canons, I-17)? We know then that        their parents. Do they refuse to respect those in
 we and our children belong to God.                          authority? If so, it. is true because of the attitudes
    If they belong to God, then they are only given to       they learn at home. What is the content of our
 us for a little while. They are given to us not merely      conversations when the children are around us? Do
 to enjoy, but especially to teach God's covenant and        we deal with every moment of our life as one in
 testimony so that they may keep it (Psalm  1.32: 12).       which we are teaching the covenant seed? Only then
   Thus, God puts upon our parental shoulders the            are we exerting the utmost of our power.
 responsibility to train up our children in the way they         Do we have a good grade under "Cooperation"? Is
 should go. We could do that in our homes, but the           there good rapport between parents and teachers? Is
 State demands that we send our children, to institu-        there a complete lack of strained feelings between the
 tions of education. As parents in the covenant, we          parents and the teacher? Do we speak often to our
 believe that "to the utmost of our power" means that        child's teacher so that there is a constant flow of
 we establish and maintain Christian schools. When           communication? Do you know of better ways to have
 our own efforts and powers are not sufficient, we           c o m m u n i c a t i o n   b e t w e e n   t h e   p a r e n t s   a n d   t h e
 help or cause our children to be instructed by hiring       teachers? As parents are we aware of what is being
 believing and upright teachers.                             taught and do we ourselves understand it? If we do
   Then, after establishing Reformed institutions of         not  - we should not hesitate to ask the teacher. We
 instruction and after hiring fellow-saints as teachers,     MUST know. The teacher will gladly inform us and
 we parents can rub our hands together, saying, "The         help us to understand it. They like nothing better
 utmost of our power has now been exerted. We are            than cooperative parents and themselves are very
 causing our children to be instructed in the aforesaid      desirous to be cooperative. Do our children know
 doctrine. We have done our duty. The teachers must          that there is this cooperation? Or are they always
now use the utmost of their powers, for the responsi-        trying to pit teachers against parents and especially
 bility is now all theirs."                                  parents against teachers?
   Right? Wrong! !! Nothing could be farther from the           Well,  show did you do for the first twelve weeks of
 truth. Before God, the responsibility is still ours. The    the school year? Did you do well; or have many of
 utmost of  OUY power must still be exerted. The reason      your well-intentioned plans fallen by the wayside?
 for this is because God's command always comes to           Let us hurriedly pick them up and do better in the
 parents, not to teachers, to train up their children.       rest of the year. We tell our children to try harder, to
.The teacher too must use the utmost of his power            put aside their toys and to concentrate on the work
 and will be responsible for whatever he teaches; but        at hand. Let us, as parents, do the same thing. As we
 ultimately parents must answer for everything they          have so often told. our children, the exertion of the
 allow others to teach their children. Therefore we          utmost of our power will never hurt us. We and our
 must know not only THAT, but also WHAT our                  covenant seed will be the better for it. Let us not
 children are taught. We must be sure our children are       forget to create an atmosphere which is conducive to
 being taught the truth and all things in the light of       their growing as children of the covenant.
 that truth.                                                    The result will be that they will be "piously and
   NOW  let  US  get back to the idea of parental  report    religiously educated." They will "increase and grow
 cards. What. would our report cards show? We can get        up in the Lord Jesus Christ." This is so that they


                                                          THE STANDARD  BEARiR                                                                 623


 "may daily follow Him, joyfully bearing their cross                       eternally praise and magnify" God and His "Son
 and cleave unto Him in true faith, firm hope and                          Jesus Christ, together with the Holy Ghost, the one
 ardent love." Acknowledging God's fatherly goodness                       only true God." What more glorious end can there
 and mercy, they will "live in all righteousness, under                    be?
 our only Teacher, King and High Priest, Jesus Christ;
 manfully fight against, and overcome sin, the devil                           What a most blessed fruit upon our parental
 and his whole dominion, to the end that they may                          labors! !





WHA T IS THIS `<FREE OFFER " OF SAL VA TION?,                              "The Kosmos." He concludes the pamphlet with
by James Payne; 12 pp.                                                     the words: "We conclude therefore that the  so-
                                                                           called free offer of Jesus Christ to men as such
    This brief pamphlet is a reprint of an article which                   does not, in fact, exist at all except as a figment
originally appeared in the Magazine  Watching  & Wait-                     in the minds of certain men."
ing,  and which was sent to the  Standard Bearer  for                         The price of the pamphlet is not given, although
review. In it the author takes sharp issue with the                        other pamphlets are listed from  5p to  2p. It can be
doctrine of the free offer of the gospel, and treats it                    obtained from the author at 28 Cissbury Road, Hove,
in connection with other doctrines such as "Gospel                         Sussex, BN3  6EN, England. It seems from the titles
Invitations,"  "Redemption and Justification," "Union                      of the other pamphlets listed that the author might
With Christ," "The Gospel versus Mass Evangelism,"                         be a premillennialist.





                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
   On November  28, 1975, our beloved parents, MR. AND MRS.                   The Ladies Society, Ruth, of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church
THOMAS Y. NELSON celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary.                (Grand Rapids), expresses its sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Huizinga
   We thank our Heavenly Father for preserving them for each other         and family, in the loss of her father, MR. DICK VANDER LOON.
and for their covenant love and guidance they have given us. It is our        "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon
prayer that Jehovah will continue to care for them as He hath done so      them that fear Him." (Psalm 103:  17)
graciously in the past.                                                                                             Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Pres.
                                                                                                                            Mrs. Jay Bomers, Sec'y.
                                               Their grateful children:
                                                        Thomas Craig
Fair Lawn, New Jersey                       Mr. Bruce  & Kathy Nelson





                                    News From Our Churches

    The Fall Meeting of the Officebearer's Conference                      most pressing for the first two  - both of which he
in  Classis East was held in Hope Church (Walker) on                       felt were practical possibilities. The need is for
September 29. Rev. C. Hanko spoke on the topic                             counselling of the disturbed based on God's Word and
"Should We Consider Starting Our Own Institutions                          not corrupted by the theories of modem, man
of Mercy?" The speaker identified institutions of                          centered, psychology. Rev. Hanko maintained that
mercy as sheltered workshops for the handicapped,                          the proposed clinic should not, supplant the work- of
clinics or homes for the mentally disturbed, rest                          the minister in the local congregation, but that the
homes for the long term sick, and homes for the aged.                      clinic could provide assistance in counselling.
It was the speaker's contention that the need was                                                      * *  1 * *


                                 ~.-~. --- ____ __
 THE STANDARD BEARER
       P.O. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





624


   Rev. Bekkering just returned from a three week                Oil wells are frequently seen in the country side
classical appointment in Edmonton. He had prepared            pumping the black gold that makes Alberta one of
a little history of the group in Edmonton for this            the richest of the Canadian provinces.
column, but Prof. Hanko `scooped' that report in the             The life in both urban and rural areas compares
November 1 issue. Rev. Bekkering did send some                very closely with the similar areas in the States, but
photographs of the congregation in Edmonton and               the cost of living is somewhat higher.
their place of meeting. In addition, Rev. Bekkering
submitted the following interesting report on the
Edmonton area:

   Many people in the States have some misconcep-
tions about Canada. Some may think that all of
Canada is heavily wooded and snow covered with dog
sleds as the main means of transportation; but the
area around Edmonton is well developed and modern.




                                                                 Our new sister congregation lives in a situation very
                                                              similar to that of God's people elsewhere and faces
                                                              similar problems and difficulties. Let us remember
                                                              her in prayer as she fights the good fight of faith and
                                                              walks in the way that our God has called her to walk.
                                                                                      *****
                                                                 If you check your atlas, you may notice that
                                                              Edmonton is not far from the Canadian Rockies  - an
                                                              ideal goal for your family vacation trip next summer.
                                                              I am sure the congregation in Edmonton would be
  Edmonton, a city of about 500,000 people, com-              pleased to welcome you into its fellowship and
pares very closely with any large city in the States. It      worship services while away from your own church.
has many large shopping centers, a renovated inner                                    *  *  h  *  *
city area, and it is growing rapidly in all directions. In       Edmonton has extended its first call to Rev. B.
fact, there is an acute housing shortage in and around        Woudenberg. Kalamazoo has published a trio con-
the city which has driven the cost of land and houses         sisting of Rev. Kortering, Rev. Bekkering, and Rev.
to a very high level. For example, an average size            Van  Baren.
building lot in or near the city sells for about                                      * *  *  8  *
$25,000.                                                        At this time of year many of our congregations are
                                                              scheduling their annual congregational meetings. First
  The land around Edmonton is used mainly for                 Church, Grand Rapids, has departed from generations
agricultural purposes. Mainly grain crops are grown;          of tradition by scheduling the meeting on the
some for "cash crops" and some as feed for dairy and          Monday before Thanksgiving rather than the Friday
beef herds. The fields are large and flat for the most        after the holiday. A welcome change  - in some
part, with the average farmer tilling somewhere               households at least!
between 400 and 500 acres.                                                                                    K.G.V.


