     The
STANDARD
     BEARER
-A REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY.MAGAZlNE





                 A  study of the parables will therefore
              yield an abundance of fruit in the lives
              of those citizens of the kingdom whose.
              eyes have been opened to see its
              mysteries and whose ears have been
              opened to hear its truths.     '





                                       Volume  LII, No. 8, January 15,  19?6    1


                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER
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MEDITA TIO N



                                   New Creatures in Christ

                                                                   Rev. H. Veldman

            "Thqefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are Passed away; behold,
            all things are become new. "                                                                                           2 Cor. 5:17


  In the verses 14 and 15 the apostle had written of                             flesh. Once, when he persecuted the church, he was
the wonderful love of Christ, that, when He died, we                             motivated by carnal reasons. But now, all this is past.
all died, in order that we should no longer live unto                            Now we know Him no more after the flesh; Christ has
and for ourselves, but unto Christ Who died for us                               shed abroad His love in our hearts.
and rose again. Henceforth, from now on, because of                                 Of this, the words of our text are a conclusion.
this love of Christ toward us, we know no man after                              From this it is evident that if a man be in Christ, he is
the flesh. Indeed, once Paul knew Christ after the  _ a new creature. And, let us read the text this way:


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      675



"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, a new creation!             all things to Him, or to do all things because he loves
old things are passed away; behold, they are become              himself.
new!"
                                                                   However, there is more. The object here of God's
                        *****                                    creative work is man as old man. Sin did not affect
                                                                 man essentially. -True, he lost much of his'excellent
   The word translated "creature" in English and                 gifts; he retains only remnants of these original gifts.
"schepsel" in Dutch simply means "creation,". `and it.      Man must now struggle to attain unto the knowledge
is the same word as that which appears in Genesis,               of things. Besides, his body, too, was affected. It is
that God created the heavens and the earth. To create            subject to death. However, he did not change essen-
is always presented in the Word of God as an act of              tially. He continues to be a moral-rational being, is
God's almighty, omnipotent will.                                 able to think and will and desire, has the ability to
                                                                 develop the earth, use its powers, is able to propagate
  To create is not merely to make something out of               the human race. Sin, however, did affect man spiri-
nothing. Of course, there is nothing fundamentally               tually.  His entire nature was changed, spiritually,
wrong with this definition; what the fathers meant               from the service of the living God into the service of
with it we all understand. However, this definition, in          the  devil-. He is now a sinner, wholly corrupt and
the first place, does not apply to man, inasmuch as he           perverse, dead in sin and in trespasses, full of darkness
was taken out of the dust of the earth. Secondly, it             and hatred of God and death.
really does not tell us what it means to create. And,
thirdly, it surely fails to do justice to the beautiful             Finally, what is the nature of this creative work of
and very significant definition of this concept in Holy          God? Indeed, the Christian is not a product of in-
Writ.                                                            struction. An instructed sinner always remains a
                                                                 learned fool. Neither is he the product of persuasion.
  God only can create. Man cannot create. He cannot              A sinner can never be persuaded to leave his evil way.
call, speak things into existence. We can speak of               There is no amount of external activity that can ever
things only after they exist. We ourselves are crea-             transform a child of sin and darkness into one of life
tures, and therefore limited to and determined by the            and light. The Christian is nothing less than a new
things that are made. God alone can create. That God             creation. He is the product of God's almighty grace.
creates means, in the first place, that He calls into            He is called into existence by God's own omnipotent
being as an act of His almighty will. The Lord's speak-          word. As God spoke at history's dawn, "Light," and
ing (when God Himself speaks) is always powerful                 there was light, so now God speaks light and life into
and creative. He speaks and it is, He commands and it            the darkness and death of His elect sinner. And this
stands. It was thus at history's dawn: God said, "Let            Christian is a new creature. Even as the Lord, at his-
there be light," or literally: "Light." This same idea           tory's dawn, called the things that are not as if they
of creating must also be borne in mind to understand             were, so the sinner becomes new; light and life now
this text. And, secondly, when God creates, calls                exist where only darkness and death reigned before.
things into existence, He calls the things that are.not          How wonderful is this new creature in Christ.
as if they were. This we read literally in Romans                                        * *  * *`*
4: 17. This, too, is of the utmost significance in the
interpretation of the words of this text.                          Christ is the source of this new man or creation.
                                                                 This is surely the idea of this text. When we read: "If
  Whom does God create into a new creature? Who                  any man be in Christ he is a new creature," we re-
and what is man? In common with the animal world,                alize that the apostle means that he is a new creature
man, too, is an animated, organized, living being; and           because he is in Christ. This almighty, creative work of
he was created out of the earth. Man is body and                 God, creating this new creature, always occurs in
soul. He was created physically, is composed of flesh            Christ - never outside of Christ.
and bones and blood, has a nervous system, etc. He
also has a soul. The soul of the animal is in its blood.            Christ is the Head of His church. Negatively, this
My soul is the seat of my natural life, the seat of all          means that there is no life or possibility of life in us.
my thinking and willing and lusts and aspirations. My            We have no life. We are completely devoid of it. And
body and soul are wonderfully adapted to one an-                 we can never attain to it. We can never merit it nor
other. In distinction from the animals, God breathed             pay our sins and debts. And we can never call our-
into man's nostrils the breath of life. Man is, there-           selves out of life into death, nor call ourselves into
fore, created as God's image bearer, is a personal, a            the life of God's covenant.
moral-rational being. He is always prompted by his
attitude toward God, either to love Him and subject         -       Christ is the Head of the church. It is for this


  676                                           -iHE STANDARD BEARER



  reason that the apostle uses the name, Christ, in this       passed away. This is also true objectively. The world
text. The name, Christ, means: Anointed. Christ is             is no longer our permanent home; the sphere of sin
  the name of the Servant of Jehovah, as He was                and our covenant with iniquity and darkness are
  anointed, ordained and qualified by the Triune God,          passed away. Our old and former friendships and
  even eternally, to be our Head, our Representative,          associations, lusts and aspirations are all passed away.
  our Chief Prophet, Only High Priest, and Eternal                Behold, all things are become new! The apostle
  King. Christ is Jesus, God's eternal Son, anointed in        exclaims this in spiritual ecstasy. We read: "Behold,
  our flesh and blood, to do what we could never do,           they are become new. And this word, "new," does
  represent us in death and in life, to restore and lead       not mean "new" in the sense of another (there is also
  and translate dead sinners into the blessedness of           a word in the Greek which means "new" in the sense
  God's eternal kingdom and covenant.                          of another), but in the sense that it never existed
                                                               before.
    This Christ is the Head of the church. He is our
  judicial, representative Head. He represents us in the          Do we grasp this ecstasy on the part of the apostle?
  awesome satisfying of the righteousness and justice of       Is it any wonder that he is filled with ecstasy? Notice:
  God. He pays our debt, bears God's infinite wrath in         all is become new within us! The love of Christ con-
  perfect obedience, merits for all His own everlasting        strains us, now controls our entire being and nature.
  life in heavenly immortality. He is also our Head            We have a new will, a new mind, a new thinking, new
  organically. We receive this everlasting life, not only      lusts and desires, new plans and purposes; we are
  because of Him, but also through Him. He Himself is          prompted by something we never had before  - the
  glorified. And He is glorified as our Head. He is not        love of God and the love of Christ, the love of the
  simply received up into heaven to take His place             brethren and the love of the neighbor.
  among and next to all the saints who preceded Him.              And, secondly, new are all things all about us. The
  He passes them, is lifted up above them, to the very         objects of our pursuits here have become new, abso-
  pinnacle of glory, at the right hand of God, receives        lutely new. We now have new associations, new
  the Spirit beyond measure, is glorified as the  life-        fellowships, new purposes, a new city, the heavenly
  giving Head of all His elect own.                            Jerusalem. Everything is so different. We live in a new
                                                               and wonderful world.
    Hence, if any man be in Christ, he is a new crea-
  ture. Indeed, He is the power station, our spiritual            Of course, all this is true only in principle. This
  reservoir, and we are the light bulbs. His life and light    new life is ours only in principle'- we have this new
  are transmitted to us by God's almighty and irresisti-       man in an earthly house of this tabernacle. And this
  ble creative word. God speaks the living Christ into         remains as such until the day of our death, so that the
  our hearts. God speaks, as the Triune God, through           cry of lamentation is heard from our lips, as we read
  His Spirit; He speaks, explosively, Christ in us, in our     it in Romans 7:24. We love this new life, seek it, and
  hearts, Christ as the life-giving Head `and Principle of     would be delivered of the old man of sin. We reach
  His church. And the result of this wonderful grace of        out to the perfection that is above. But, be it in
  God is that Christ, in His grace, is called into our         principle, we are new creatures. The joyful future
  hearts, sets up His throne there, unites all His own         now beckons unto us. This new creature will soon be
  with Himself, and now we live in and out of Christ           delivered out of this earthly house and then nothing
  Jesus, our Lord. And this is revealed to us and con-         will ever again disturb the perfect and heavenly fel-
  firmed in our consciousness through the preaching of         lowship with God. Then the word of God, 2 Corin-
  the gospel, when we are called, consciously, out of          thians 5: 1, will be fulfilled: "For we know that if our
  darkness into God's wonderful light.                         earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we
                                                               have a building of God, an house not made with
                         *****                                 hands, eternal in the heavens."
     Old things are passed away. This expression, as well
  as the expression, "All things are become new,-" must
  be understood in the absolute sense. True, the child
  of God-is very imperfect. And he knows this. Yet, the
  child of God is viewed here from the principle of the                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
  new man, from the viewpoint of his being a new                  The  Redlands  (CA)  Mary-Martha Society wishes to express their
  creature.                                                    sincere sympathy to Mrs. Kate Veldman in the loss of her husband, MR.
                                                               HARMON (BILL) VELDMAN.

    So, old things are passed away. All old things! The           May our covenant God comfort her by His Word and Spirit.
  inner fellowship with sin and darkness is gone. We              "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." (Psalm
  have died to sin (sin has not died within us, but we         116:15).
                                                                                                              Rev. Marvin Kamps, Pres.
  have died to sin). The old man, the old creature, has                                                Mrs. Dennis Van Uffelen, Sec'y.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                677



EDITORIALS                         .               u:              _     _. .               ..- . .



                         Our Australasian Tour  (7)

                                               ProJ: H.C. Hoeksema



     To be completely honest, we both were of the            assessment has been confirmed by a development
opinion  - Rev. Hanko and I - that after our tour of         about which I will tell you at the end of this article -
New Zealand the rest of our tour would be somewhat           a most exciting and delightful development!
anticlimactic. Part of the reason for this lay in the          When I say that we had a whirlwind tour of
fact that our New Zealand tour had been so thrilling;        Tasmania, I mean it. In 3% days' time we participated
part of it lay in the fact that the rest of our schedule     in 7 meetings and in countless personal conversations,
was somewhat vague when we began our trip, due to            and we travelled an estimated 300-400 miles. Our
some last-minute changes. However, we could not              tour began with our arrival in late afternoon at
have been more mistaken! And needless to say, we             Wynyard, in the northwest comer of the island. We
are glad that we were mistaken.                              were met by a Mr. and Mrs. Klein and by Pastor
     We were very warmly and enthusiastically received       Rodman, and our hosts were Mr. and Mrs. Albert
in Tasmania. And though our Tasmania schedule was            Bosveld. As you can tell by the names, there are some
a bit uncertain before we arrived, due to the fact that      of Dutch background in the EPC. We even met a
Pastor Rodman was still recovering from the effects          Kuiper family in Launceston; that's getting rather
of a severe heart attack last year during his travels,       close to "Hoeksema" - because my mother was a
our schedule turned out to be extremely busy. For a          Kuiper, which accounts for my middle name,
man who was supposed to be on a curtailed schedule,          "Cooper." An interesting sidelight was the fact that
Pastor  Rodman was an extremely busy man during              the Bosvelds had a snapshot of a Rev. Hoeksema, taken
the 3% days of our whirlwind tour of Tasmania! But           by Mr. Bosveld's deceased brother in the 1950s in
he seemed to suffer no `ill effects, and we all              Grand Rapids. It turned out to be a picture of my
thoroughly enjoyed our fellowship together, both at          father, taken in the front yard of the First Church
the meetings and during`our travels. The fact that we        manse.
travelled together by car gave us much opportunity             Our meeting on that first evening was held in the
for discussion of theological and ecclesiastical matters     Methodist Church building in the neighboring town
- interspersed by Rev. Rodman's, "Oh, that reminds           of Bumie. It was a gathering of some 30 people, who
me of a story that I must tell you from my Arminian          listened intently to my lecture on "God's Sovereign
days . . ." And with all our exchange of views - and I       Love of the World." These people love and under-
must say, we were deliberately probing one another           stand the Reformed truth of sovereign, particular
and even searching for possible areas of disagreement
-                                                            grace; and this became evident, too, from their re-
     we discovered an altogether delightful likeminded-      sponse to the lecture. After the lecture we enjoyed
`ness. And we also had a hearty reception from the           much conversation with the people of the congrega-
people of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church wher-          tion, and later we visited with the Bosvelds and Kleins
ever we went. Further, we received the testimony             until late at night.
that we were the first and the only ministers from
another denomination whom they would allow in                  Bright and early on Saturday, July 5, Mr. Bosveld
their pulpits. This, we believe, is a significant indica-    drove us along the rugged north coast to Ulverstone,
tion of the stand of these churches and of the degree        where we met Rev. and Mrs. Rodman, who brought
of agreement between us. Along these lines Rev.              us the rest of the way to Launceston, where Mr.
Hanko and I reported to our Contact Committee and            Rodman's home church is located. Rev. Hanko stayed
to our Consistories when we returned. And now our            in Launceston at the home of Mr. and Mrs. V.


     678                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


     Connors; Mr. Connors is clerk of the Launceston             .supra- and infra-lapsarianism and about Calvin on
     session and also clerk of the presbytery (classis). Mrs.    common grace as discussed in L. Berkhofs  Sys-
     Hoeksema and I stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Lot                 temafic  Theology! What a surprise! And what a pure
     Bosveld, members of the Reformed Church in                  delight to spend that evening with this group of some
     ,Launceston.                                                40 people and their children. We went to bed that
       There was little time to spare after our arrival.         night with much to think about and much to be
     Saturday's first meeting was in the Launceston              thankful for. Rev. Hanko stayed with the Car-ins, and
     church at 3:30 in the afternoon. Rev. Hanko spoke at        Mrs. Hoeksema and I stayed overnight with Mr. and
     length on the history and background of our churches        Mrs. Syd Crawford.
     and on the common grace question. And after his               On `Monday morning, after a quick picture-taking
     introduction, there was a lengthy  question-and-            stint to prove that we saw genuine Australian kanga-
     answer session, during which several pertinent              roos, we were on the road again for the all-day trip to
     questions about the covenant and the place of the           the Tasman Peninsula and the village of Taranna. Our
     children of believers in the covenant were raised. This     Business Manager and I had often talked about that
     was a very interesting meeting and, I believe, very         "strange address" in Tasmania: "Tararma, Koonya,
     fruitful. We had "tea" (supper) cafeteria style in the      Tasman Peninsula," where the Rev. John Lyons lives.
     church basement, and this gave us the opportunity to        Now we had the opportunity to meet this brother
     meet and converse with the Launceston people.               and his wife, and a joyful time of fellowship it was.
     Saturday's second meeting was a lecture on "The             There is nothing imposing about the Taranna Church
     Reformed Faith in Crisis." In this lecture I was also       - a small building and a struggling little `flock. And
     asked to interject some remarks concerning the              the  Taranna manse is located in the kind of back
     AACS, a movement which has also gained a foothold           country, at the end of a dirt lane, such as you would
     in Tasmania - or, at least a toehold. We found in our       not even imagine for a Protestant Reformed manse.
     Australasian travels that there was considerable in-        But here we were! Amid Reformed people who
     terest, but also considerable ignorance, with respect       genuinely welcomed us! At the far southern end of
     to the Toronto movement; and we were glad for the           this far away island in the Pacific! Unbelievable! God
     opportunity to enlighten people on some crucial             works in a mysterious way, indeed! I wish you could
     matters and to sound a warning against this move-           have enjoyed Pastor Lyons' conversation with us.
     ment. Nevertheless, the general interest of the people      And I wish you could have shared our fellowship at
     is not in this subject. After the evening lecture we had    the evening meeting at the home of Kingstons, when
/    our late evening refreshments (called "supper" in           Rev. Hanko introduced the discussion on the basis of
     Australasia), and again had the opportunity to chat         Matthew 11: 28. We were saddened, however, to learn
     with the people. There were audiences of 50-60 at           that Pastor Lyons, because of poor health, was about
     both these Saturday meetings.
        Sunday morning both Rev. Hanko and I had
     preaching engagements. Rev. Hanko had the oppor-
     tunity to preach at a mainline Presbyterian Church,
     St. Andrew's; and he preached on Psalm 9 1: 1, 2 to a
     rather elderly congregation of some 200 people. I was
     a guest in Pastor Rodman's pulpit, and I preached to
     a congregation of some 80 people on. Isaiah 45: 22-25.
        After noon dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Connors and
     farewell to Launceston, we travelled along winding
     roads through the Tasmanian countryside to the little
     congregation at Winnaleah, arriving nicely in time for
     a meeting scheduled to begin at 4 o'clock. This was
     an informal gathering at the home of Mr. and Mrs.
     Peter  Carins. I introduced the subject of sovereign,
     particular grace in connection with Ephesians 2:8-10.
     And our meeting extended right through "tea" to
     about 10 o'clock at night. If we were wondering
     whether the people of the EPC were as well-informed
     concerning the truth as their leaders, any doubts were
     dispelled at this meeting. Here, in this far away little
     country village of Tasmania, in this meeting of very
     ordinary people of God, we fielded questions about


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                        679



to retire from full-time ministry. This again will
intensify the sore need for ministers in the EPC.
  Thus ended our stay in Tasmania. In the morning
we had a quick sightseeing tour to the ruins of an old
penal colony at Port Arthur. Then, on our hurried
trip to the Hobart Airport, we enjoyed some of the
beautiful scenery of Tasmania. And after barely mak-
ing it to the airport on time (they were paging us
when we arrived!), it was a hurried goodbye to Mr.
Rodman, and back again to Meiboume. We regretted
the fact that because of our abbreviated schedule and
because of the fact that the bridge over Dwwent at
Hobart is out, we could not visit the Hobart congre-
gation and Pastor Cameron-Smith.
  And now for that surprise! In response to a letter
of thanks from our Committee of Contact. and our
inquiry as to ways in which we might be of assistance,
we received the following letter from the Presbytery
of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, signed by Mr.
V. Connors, Clerk:
"The Committee of International Church Relations
of the Protestant Reformed Churches of America,
"Dear Sirs:
  "We wish to thank you for your letter which was
read at our last Presbytery meeting on the 25th
October.                                   +.-
  "When this letter was read and received the repre-
sentatives from the various congregations of our
Church including Rev. P. Burley from Rockhampton,
Rev. I. Morgan, Melbourne, expressed their apprecia-                Professor H. Hanko
tion of the ministry that Professor Hoeksema and
Rev. C. Hanko exercised among us.                                              $ 5 . 9 5
  "After due discussion on this letter, it was unan-
imously         agreed that the Presbytery of our
Church officially recognize the Protestant Reformed
Churches of America as a true Church of Jesus Christ            Can be obtained from the Business Manager
and therefore we desire to establish official corre-            of the Standard Bearer:
spondence with you. We recognize the communion of
the Protestant Reformed Churches as a sister com-
munion of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of                             Mr. H. Vander Wal
Australia.                                                                   P.O. Box 6664
   "Appreciation was also expressed by the various                           Grand Rapids, Michigan 49566
representatives concerning the manner with which
your representatives conducted themselves whilst
they were among our Churches and we wish to
inform you that their presence in our Church was a
great encouragement. We were grateful to God for
their visit.
                            "Yours in Sovereign Grace,
                                     (w.s.) V.J. Connors
                                      Presbytery Clerk"

   And that is a fitting note on which to end this
report of our Tasmanian Tour.


680                                                   .THE STANDARD BEARER



ALL AROUND US:

                                         Challenge for Today
                                                            Rev. H. Veldman


      In De Wachter, a Dutch weekly periodical of the                     structure are any longer necessary?
Christian Reformed Church, on page 5 of the Oct. 2 1,                        The answer is, I think, none of them at all!
1975 issue, appeared a concluding paragraph in an                            What do you think? - LDK
editorial by the editor of that paper, which we now
quote (we translate):                                                    What must one say of this? I again refer the editor
                                                                      of the Banner to Report 44, and the life appointment
          Reformation Day is again approaching. May our               given to a seminary professor, Prof. Harold Dekker,
       commemoration of the Reformation lead to a                     who openly said and wrote that he is in disagreement
       deepening sense of the absolute authority of God's
       Word and to struggle against  ah undermining of that           with the Canons of Dordt. And the Christian  Re-
       authority. Yea, and also to faithfulness in the  proc-         formed Church, in its preaching and Seminary, etc., is
       lamation and listening to God's Word. Let that Word            loyal to the Reformed understanding of the Scrip-
       determine for us what is the deepest need for man,             tures? I ask: how is this possible? Is the editor of the
       also the man of today, and let that Word bring the             Banner unaware of conditions in his church? How can
       saving message, and let that Word enlighten the  in-           he write this?
       tense  (nijpende) problems of today and show the way
       for solution.                                                  AMERICAN DELEGATION ASKS PENETRATING
      That is the challenge for us today  - as sons and               QUESTIONS OF DUTCH CHURCHES
daughters of the Reformation.                                           In the RES News Exchange of Oct. 14, 1975, page
      With this, editor of De Wachter, we are in complete             1109, appeared the following bit of information
agreement. Of course, the editor of the Wachter is                    which we wish to pass on to our readers. The quota-
surely aware of the fact that this  .authority of the                 tion speaks for itself.
Word of God is being undermined today in the                                 (Grand Rapids) A team of four churchmen of the
Reformed church world, also in the Christian                              Christian Reformed Church in North America has
Reformed Church. What must we say about Report                            returned from visiting a number of  Reformed
44? Or about a professor who received a life appoint-                     churches in the Netherlands. A high point of their
ment in Calvin Seminary and has publicly said and                         visit was the address of their spokesman, Prof. John
written that he is in disagreement with the Canons of                     Kromminga to the General Synod of the  Reformed
Dordt? Then, Rev. Haverkamp, we must fight all this                       Churches in the Netherlands (GKN) with which the
undermining of the Word of God. May we have the                           Christian Reformed Church has close ties. The  dele-
grace of God to do this! The hour is extremely late!                      gates expressed the concern of the Christian Re-
                                                                          formed Church about theological and church develop-
                                                                          ments in the Netherlands. In his address Prof.
HOW POSSIBLE?                                                             Kromminga asked: "Is there a theological drift in the
      However, the Banner in an editorial in the issue of                 Gereformeerde Kerken away from the moorings  pro-
Oct.  24, 1975 is rather confident that the Christian                    vided by the Confessions? Have doctrinal sensitivities
Reformed Church is loyal to the Reformed  under-                          been weakened to the point where many do not
                                                                          realize the seriousness of an important deviation? Has
standing of the Scriptures. The editor writes on page                     secularization made inroads into the church to the
7:                                                                        point where sound doctrine is considered to be of
          In  short, the Christian Reformed Church exists                secondary importance? Does the church encourage all
       now in loyalty to the Reformed understanding of the                of the above deviations by failure to take definitive
       Scriptures. Granted this understanding, our  institu-           and decisive action where an error of important
       tions fit: preaching, the sacraments, discipline;                  dimensions has been identified and recognized?"
       schooling, and the Seminary; missions, radio  out-                   The visiting churchmen recognized that the  Re-
       reach, and the ministries of information and mercy.               formed Churches in the Netherlands have found
          But take the Reformed understanding of the Scrip-              "another way of dealing with each other" in cases of
       tures away, and put the keys to the kingdom into the              doctrinal deviations from the Confession than was the
      hands of anyone trained in some evangelistic                       case in recent years. However, they also asked, "Has
       "method," and what parts of our denominational            _       not the time come for the healing action of discipline


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                                              681


   - applied to be sure, with due consideration and                    less talk is past," they said. "We separate ourselves
   patience, but applied firmly for the. sake. of the                 from.those who violate the body of Christ  andChrist  .
   integrity of the church?"                                           Himself by holding or tolerating false doctrine."
      Church members, Kromminga stated, must know                      Schrift  en  Gettligenis,   an organization of those dis-
                                                                       turbed 
   themselves as belonging to a body, of which Christ                             by events within the GKN, however, did not
   alone is the head. It is necessary "that they recognize             feel that it could recommend such a course because
   that the Spirit of Christ dwells in that body and leads             the  GKN Synod did not really hinder the true wor-
   it into the truth; that no one may presume to be such               ship of God.
   a teacher of that body that he will no longer listen to                Rev. H.J. Hegger compared the God of Wiersinga
   the body when it speaks."                                           and Kuitert to Baal, for they have destroyed the altar
      The Synod did not react immediately to the                       of the Lamb who was sacrificed for the sins of the
   address but will study the communication and its                    world.  Some choose the God of Eli, who was afraid
   penetrating questions.                                              to resist the apostasy of his sons. Hegger called upon
                                                                       the people to choose for the God of Elijah. At the
  Imagine, these delegates expressed the concern of                    end of his address, Hegger read from an article by K.
the Christian  Reformed Church about theological and                   Runia and commented, "As long as we still hear such
church developments in the Netherlands. I could                        things from our church leaders, it is difficult to turn
hardly believe my eyes when I read this.                               our backs to our churches.
  Of course, it is wonderful when delegates of the                       Four consistories have addressed letters to the
                                                                      GKN Synod saying that they do not regard as author-
Christian Reformed Church express concern about                       itative pronouncements of any church assembly that
these questions and developments.in the churches in                   are not based on and that do not perpetuate faithful-
the Netherlands. But, what must one say when these                    ness to God's Word and to the Confessions.
same developments are also present in the church of                  I believe that I should make a few comments. I do
these delegates? What would a dyed-in-the-wool                     not know what Prof. Runia had written in that arti-
Calvinist say when confronting the Synod of the                    cle. Our readers, however, have been introduced to
Christian Reformed Church today? That church has                   fim in  the  past  on more than one occasion in our
set forth its doctrine in the Three Points of 1924,                Standard Bearer, in connection with his denial of the
teaching a general, universal love of God and denying              truth of double predestination.
the truth of the utter depravity of the natural sinner.
That church has its Report 44, has given a life                      The organization in the Netherlands, to which the
appointment in its seminary to a professor who is                  above quotation refers, consisting of those who are ill
publicly in disagreement with the Canons of Dordt.                 at ease in Zion because of events in the Netherlands,
That church has its decision on homosexualism, on the              did not feel that it could recommend such a course
remarriage of divorced persons whether divorced                    because the GKN Synod did not really hinder the
biblically or unbiblically. That church, too, is playing           true worship of God.
with its confessions and liturgy. And now delegates                  The Synod did not really hinder the true worship
from this church sit in judgment upon the churches in              of God? What must a synod do before it really.
the Netherlands? Is one not reminded of the Dutch                  hinders the true worship of the Lord? I suppose this
saying: de pot verwijt den ketel dat hij zwart  is (the            means that those who love the truth may continue to
pot accuses the kettle that it is black)? I do not                 worship God unmolested by those who hate the truth
understand that Dr. Kromminga had the boldness to                  of the Word of God. However, what must the people
address these remarks and penetrating questions to                 of God do when the synod condones heretics, refuses
this General Synod of the Reformed Churches in the                 to prosecute those who depart from the Scriptures
Netherlands. Would it not be much better if the                    and trample the Word of God under foot? What must
Christian Reformed Church would take inventory in                  they do who love the truth when they are compelled
its own midst; should that church not confront itself              to sit down at the Lord's table with those who attack
with these penetrating questions?                                  and destroy the Word of God? Is it not true that such
                                                                   a synod denies the marks of the true church? These
THREE DUTCH (GKN) MINISTERS CALL                                   marks are denied because discipline is no longer exer-
FOR SEPARATION                                                     cised against those who corrupt the truths of the
  How different is the following quotation from the                Word of God, and also because the sacraments are
RES News Exchange of Nov. 4, 1975, page 1122.                      profaned, inasmuch  .as the table of the Lord is not
                                                                   denied to those who despise the Word of God. And if
      (Grand Rapids) Three ministers of the Reformed
    Churches in the Netherlands (GKN) distributed a                this be true, and it is, then it must also  follow that
    letter at a meeting of the association  Mzrift en              there is a most serious defect as far as the preaching
    Getuigenis  (Word and Witness) which stated their              of the Scriptures is concerned. It is hardly true, there-
    conviction that it was time to separate oneself from           fore, that the GKN Synod did not really hinder the
    those who are not of the church. "The time for end-       -    true worship of the Lord.


682                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE



                                     Letter to Timothy

                                       January  15,1976       when God accomplishes his good pleasure in the
Dear Timothy,                                                 elect, or works in them true conversion, he not only
                                                              causes the gospel to be externally preached to them,
   We had reached the point in our last letter where          and powerfully illuminates their minds by his Holy
we were talking about faith - especially as it stands         Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern
connected to the Scriptures. I think I mentioned to           the things of the Spirit of God; but by the efficacy of
you that Scripture does not mean by faith an accep-           the same regenerating Spirit, pervades the inmost
tance of unproved assumptions or of unprovable pre-           recesses of the man; he opens the closed, and softens
suppositions. This is a view of faith which is extreme-       the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was
ly common today especially in the so-called Science
- Scripture debate or Creation  - Evolution debate.           uncircumcised, infuses new qualities into the will,
And there is sometimes misunderstanding about this            which though heretofore dead, he quickens; from
matter also in connection with our faith in Scripture         being evil, disobedient, and refractory, he renders it
as the Word of God infallibly inspired in all its parts.      good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens
When we claim that we hold the Scriptures to be               it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits
infallibly inspired by faith, we are said to hold to a        of good actions.
doctrine which is fundamentally unprovable. That we              "And this is the regeneration so highly celebrated
accept this by faith means that we accept it even             in Scripture . . . it is evidently a supernatural work,
though we cannot prove it, and perhaps just because           most powerful, and at the same time most delightful,
we cannot prove it. I deny this, and I think we ought         astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in
to be clear on this point.                                    efficacy to creation, or the resurrection from the
   The whole thing revolves around the question:              dead, as the Scripture inspired by the author of this
What is faith? The Scriptures make it very clear that         work declares . . . Whereupon the will thus renewed,
faith is the bond which puts the believer into living         is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in
contact with Christ so that the believer lives in fellow-     consequence of this influence, becomes itself active.
ship with Christ, draws his life out of Christ, is part of    Whereupon also, man is himself rightly said to be-
the mystical body of Christ, and continues in organic         lieve . . ."
union with Christ for all of life, through death, and            Now the point I want to make is this. If faith is
on into eternity.                                             such a spiritual power, faith is exactly the power to
  But because faith is the living connection between          put the believer in contact with heavenly things  -
the believer and Christ by which the life of Christ           with the things of God, of His revelation, of His
becomes the possession of the believer, it is also a          Word, of Christ, of heaven and of all things spiritual. I
very great power which changes in a profoundly                say, faith is the power to put him in contact with all
spiritual way the whole life of a man who possesses it.       these things. Without faith this is impossible. Faith is
Do not get me wrong. Faith does not change man in             the power to do this. But if faith is such a power,
any psychological sense of the word. Faith does not           then faith is, so to speak, its own proof. I want to
make alterations in one's character. As far as his            make this as clear as I possibly can. To ask one to
character is concerned he is the same kind of man             "prove" that the Bible is the Word of God is to ask an
before he has faith as after he has received this gift.       absurd question of one who has faith. Let me see
Nor, if he has an IQ of 95, does faith raise his IQ to        once if we can illustrate this. Supposing that you are
135. Faith is a spiritual power. But as a spiritual           in your living room looking out of the window on a
power it enlightens the mind and changes the will.            day in which the rain is falling from the skies in
  Our Canons speak of this as a couple of very                torrents. Supposing further that there is a man who is
beautiful articles. It is true that our Canons are talk-      standing on the street comer in front of your house
ing about regeneration or conversion, but it is also          waiting for a bus. But because he has no umbrella he
obvious that our fathers, in these articles, meant to         has literally become soaked to the skin. The water is
include faith. They write in III  & IV, 11, 12: "But  _ dripping off the brim of his hat. He is huddled inside


                                                                                             L

                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                683


his coat trying to preserve a little warmth against the    "remnants of natural light." But the spiritual loss of
chill of the drenching he is getting. He is completely     man's spiritual powers was fatal. He is now an enemy
and totally miserable. Now supposing that you rush         of God, filled with bitter hatred against God. And it
out of the house and run up to the man to ask him          is this spiritual enmity and hatred which makes the
why he is so miserable. He will probably wonder a bit      sinner totally blind to God and to all the things of God.
about your sanity, but will, no doubt, answer that,        To use Paul's expression in Rom. 1: 18, he holds the
generally speaking, his misery is due to the fact that     truth in unrighteousness. It is exactly this spiritual
the rain is falling, he left his umbrella home, the bus    blindness which makes all proof really irrelevant to
is late in coming, and this combination of circum-         the unbeliever. You will recall what Moses said to the
stances has resulted in a thorough soaking for him.        rich man in hell (Luke 16.) The rich man wanted
But if your next question would be:  "Prove  to me         Lazarus to go back to earth to warn his brothers
that it is raining," the man would either become           about the consequences of their sinful lives. Moses
furious because he would think you were mocking his        told the rich man that he would not send Lazarus
discomfort, or he would think you out of your mind         back, because the rich man's brothers had Moses and
if your question was asked in seriousness. The point is    the prophets. But the rich man did not think that
that there are some things which are so totally ob-        Moses and the prophets were adequate. He was of the
vious that they are beyond the reach of proof. They are    opinion that if his brothers had something extraor-
so obvious that, if to a given person, they are not        dinary, had a visitation from one who had been
obvious, there simply is not any kind of evidence one      through death and who lived on the other side, that
can muster which will make the point any more              this unusual happening would surely persuade them
obvious than it is. If the man who is standing in the      to change their ways. `Moses' answer is definite and
rain and is gradually getting more and more soaked,        final: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets,
seeks seriously proof for the fact that it is raining,     neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from
there is no evidence one can prqduce which will make       the dead." There is no way in which an unbeliever
it any more obvious than it already is.                    can be convinced of the truth of heavenly and spiri-
  Now this was the way it was in Paradise with             tual things. There is no proof which can be brought
Adam. All the creation shouted aloud the Word of           to bear on the problem which will be sufficiently
God. And Adam heard this Word of God in every              convincing to persuade him to change his mind. And
living thing. He knew God, knew God as a friend            this is simply because the whole matter is spiritual.
knows a friend. He had living and abiding fellowship       The wicked are spiritually blind, not intellectually
with God. His joy and happiness was to live with God       blind. And their spiritual blindness makes it im-
surrounded on every side by God's Word. If someone         possible to see anything of the kingdom of heaven.
had come into the garden `and had asked Adam:              There is an old adage, "No one is so blind as he who
"Prove to me that there is a God," Adam would not          will not see." This is eminently true of the unre-
have known what to say. And he would not have              generate.
known what to say because every flower, every bird,          And it is exactly because of this that faith is such a
every piece of fruit, every ray of sunlight, every part    great power. For faith is the power whereby our
of the blue sky above, shouted itself hoarse in praise     spiritual blindness is taken away. And faith is such a
to God the Creator of all. About all Adam could have       power because faith enlightens the mind and changes
said was: "Look around you at every thing. And if          the will. By the power of faith, we  will see, for our
you are not persuaded that God is, then there is noth-     wills are renewed. By the power of faith, we love the
ing at all I can do or say which will make this truth      things of God and of His Word.
any clearer than it is." God was so obvious in all           Hence also faith is its own proof. And faith is its
things that there was no proof possible.                   own proof, not because faith is blind acceptance of
   Sin changed that. And sin changed that, not be-         the unprovable, but because faith is the spiritual
cause the speech of God in the creation is any less        power to see the completely obvious. The believer
clear. It may be a different kind of speech in the         needs no proof that the worlds were framed by the
creation, for the creation speaks loudly of God's          Word of God so that things which are seen were not
wrath, of His curse and of  His punishment of all          made of things which do appear. Faith makes this so
wickedness. But the speech is still there. God did not     completely obvious because faith places the believer
cease speaking in creation; The trouble lies with man.     in living contact with Christ. Faith believes that the
Sin has made him completely blind and deaf to God.         Bible is the Word of God. To the believer this is
We must understand once again that this was a spiri-       obvious. If the unbeliever says to him, "Prove to me
tual loss. It is true that man was also affected by sin    that the Bible is the Word of God," all that the be-
physically and psychologically. Death came into his        liever can do is say, "The Bible says so." And if this is
existence. And the'powers of mind and will which he        unsatisfactory, so be it. You cannot prove any further
possesses from a natural point of view are only            something so completely and totally obvious. You


684                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


cannot prove to a man standing in a howling blizzard        Christ's Word as truth because He knows Christ Who
that it is snowing. You cannot prove to a man dying         speaks that Word. He knows Christ as his Friend and
of cancer that he is sick. You cannot prove to a man        Savior. He knows that he belongs to his faithful
who has just eaten himself full that he is not hungry.      Savior. And he knows that that is his comfort.
If all these things are not completely obvious to the
individual, there is something wrong with .him that            But now I must say farewell for the time being.
no amount of proof is ever going to change. You             Sometime in the near future I shall finish this discus-
cannot prove to a child of God that the Bible is God's      sion by tying the loose ends together and relating this
Word, that Christ is His Christ, that all that Scripture    to Hermeneutics and to preaching.
says is very truth. He knows this with such total con-                                 With Christian greetings,
viction that proof to him is irrelevant. He knows                                      H. Hanko



FROM HOLY WRIT


                - Exposition of Hebrews (13:~14)

                                                 Rev.  G. Lubbers

BURNED WITHOUT THE  CiMP OF ISRAEL                            Things must be seen and understood in their
(Hebrews 13 : 11)                                           proper perspective and meaning. The readers must
  The writer to the Hebrews peruses his instruction         clearly understand the typical transaction of the Day
                                                            of Atonement, which was a yearly event in Israel.
concerning the error and danger of returning to the         They must notice what happens to the 
Old Testament tabernacle after Jesus has suffered for                                                      bodies  of
                                                            those beasts (living creatures whose life was in their
the sins of the people outside of the gate of Jeru-         blood) whose blood was carried into the most holy
salem, at Calvary. This he does in a very profound          place by the high priest. In many sacrifices which
way in which he incidentally gives us some very             were brought into the tabernacle the priests had their
pointed exegesis concerning. the meaning and the            regular portion of the meat assigned to them. Among
intent of the Old Testament sacrificial atonement on        the distinct provisions made for the support of the
the great Day of Atonement. The writer lets the             priests from the altar were those of the sacrifices, the .
Scriptures themselves speak once more, and from             flesh of burnt-offerings, peace-offerings and the
these Scriptures he draws certain unerring and bind-        trespass-offerings, and especially the heave-shoulder
ing conclusions.                                            and the wave-breast. (Num. 18:1-14) This was to be
  He is speaking here of certain sacrifices of the Old      eaten in the temple, and it was also for the house of
Testament priesthood. In this case he is speaking of        the priests. However, there was one sacrifice which
the blood which was carried into the most holy place        was not eaten at all among others. It was the flesh of
once a year as delineated in Leviticus 16. Of this          the bullocks which were slain for the sins of the
yearly entering into the holy place the writer of the       priests on the great Day of Atonement. On this day
Hebrews had spoken before. (Heb. 5:2, 3; 9:7; 10:3)         atonements were made for the priests, the temple and
In each case he draws a contrast between the priest-        the altar, and for the sins of all the people. It was the
hood of the Old Testament high priest after the order       grand  finale of all the feast days of the yearly lunar
of Aaron and the New Testament high priesthood of           and Sabbatic Calendar in Israel. All the sacrifices
Christ according to the order of Melchizedec. And           proclaimed that a better sacrifice was needed. And so
now, once more, as a parting warning to the Hebrews,        such a great sacrifice came before the Feast of taber-
the writer once more points out a great difference          nacles on the seventh month, the fifteenth day. This
between the two Testaments, indicating the greater          was a day in which all Israel humbled themselves with
benefit of what Jesus did for us when compared with         fasting. (Lev. 16:29) And it was a day in which two
the ritual of those who continue (hoi Zatreuontes)  to      goats were selected for the sacrifice for the sins of all
minister in the tabernacle of Sinai.                        the people. It was a sin-offering which brought about


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                685



 atonement and was a picture of a sacrifice which                speaking of what Jesus performed, does not speak of
 would be well-pleasing to the Lord, whereas in it all           Jesus outside of the "camp" but outside of the
 the former sacrifices were proclaimed to have  per:             "gate". Reference is here not to the holy camp of
 fected nothing. (Heb. 7: 19) In this sacrifice on the           Israel, where God dwells in the midst of His people,
 day of atonement the blood was sprinkled on the                 the chosen tribes, but rather to the earthly city,
 mercy-seat of the ark, proclaiming that the just                which is left desolate. (Matt. 23:38; Jer. 22:5; I Kings
 demands of the law were now fulfilled. Of course, the           9:7) Even the fleshly Israel, which continues to carry
 just demand of the law was not fulfilled; it was only           blood into the holy place, shall be a "proverb and a
 fulfilled in a typical, prefiguring way. It was gospel-         by-word amongst the people". For the city of which
 tidings of better things to come when Christ would              the writer here speaks is not an "abiding city". (Heb.
 cry from the cross with a loud voice, "It is finished".         13: 14) Truly that city where the Lord was crucified
 (John  19:30)                                                   is the "great city, which spiritually is called Sodom
    It is to this that the writer in Hebrews 13 : 11 refers      and Egypt". (Rev. 11: 8) From out of this city Jesus
 when he speaks of the "bodies of those beasts" whose            bore his cross on his "Via Dolorosa" till they came to
 blood                                                           the place of the skull, called Golgotha. There they
           is carried (eispheretai  - present tense) into the
 holy place. The writer here refers really to the most           crucified him between two malefactors, being
 holy place, as is evident from such passages as                 numbered with the transgressors. In this city, the
 Hebrews  9:8, 12, 24, 25. Here the high priest only             attendants at the altars continue with the Old
 might enter, and that, too, only once per year, and             Testament sacrifices in the days of the Hebrews to
 not without blood. What happened to the "bodies"                whom our letter is addressed. Judgment hangs over
 of these beasts, the goats and the `bullocks? Did the           this "city". The fatal year is 70 A.D.
 priests receive a part of this sacrifice as they did with         Now the church of Christ, the believing Hebrews,
 certain sacrifices which we have pointed out in the             must notice that Jesus "suffered" without the gate of
 former paragraph? Not at all. All that belonged to the          this city. He suffered for the sins of the people. He
 sacrifice was unclean. In other words, the sacrifice            says : "Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou didst not
 was such that it afforded no benefit for those who              desire; it is written in the volume of the book: Be-
 ministered in the tabernacle. They could not eat from           hold, I come to do thy will, 0 God!" "Outside of the
 this altar. They ended up with zero. The burning of             gate of Jerusalem, before all the world, Jesus hanged
 these beasts was not a whole-burnt-offering of thank-           on the accursed tree. There He suffered his inex-
 fulness and of being accepted of God in the worship             pressible sorrows, pains, and hellish agonies, and shed
 of profound gratitude. It simply meant that the                 his blood. There He suffered and died till the full
 greatest sacrifice in Israel "perfected nothing". Here          atonement was made. He carried our sins outside of
 the writer once more does what Jeremiah did when                the "camp" of Israel when He passed through the
 he found fault with the old covenant which can be               "gate" of Jerusalem. There walked the "Lamb of
 broken. (Hebrews 8:8-13; Jer. 31:31-34) The writer is           God, who carried away the sin of the world". (John
 standing on solid Scriptural ground. He demonstrates            1:29)
 conclusively that the Old Testament Day of Atone-
. ment was only a failure in itself; it called for endless,         For His name is "Jesus"! The writer emphasizes
 annual repetition without having any positive benefit           more than once that Jesus is the Mediator who brings
 for those who minister in the tabernacle. And if it             the blood of the Covenant, the sin-offering, the blood
 had no benefit for those ministering, far less did it           of sprinkling. It is the blood which Christ will bring
 have any benefit for the "people", the congregation             into the better and heavenly tabernacle, before God
 of God. It ended in a heap of stinking ashes outside            Himself on the throne of grace. This Jesus is the Son
 of the camp of Israel. What folly on the part of those          of God in our flesh. He is real and righteous man, and
 who continue to carry blood of the beasts and con-              yet very God! He came to save his people from their
 tinue to burn their "bodies" outside of the camp!               sins.  That  the Hebrews must not ever forget. They
                                                                 must not forget that Jesus also brought blood into
 THE PEOPLE SANCTIFIED BY CHRIST'S BLOOD                         the sanctuary of God. He brought his "own" blood,
 OUTSIDE OF THE GATE (Hebrews 13 : 12)                           and not the mere blood of "beasts" which could not
                                                                 make satisfaction to the righteous demand of the law.
    But now the entire matter has changed for the                In bringing his "own blood" Jesus "sanctified
 church, the believers of the New Testament in                   the people". This means that He suffered the
 Christ's blood. For Jesus did something outside of the          wrath of God against our sins. It must be
 "gate" of the earthly city of Jerusalem. He suffered            the final and perfect cleansing. It behooved
 there for the sins of the people. He brought the sin-           God, in bringing many sons to glory, to per-
 offering!                                                       fect the captain of our salvation through sufferings.
    It is interesting to notice that the writer here, when       (Hebrews  2:8;  5:8;  9:26) And the altar upon which


 686                                                THE STANDARD BEAKER



 Christ brought the sacrifice, the Cross of Calvary, is               GOING OUTSIDE OF THE CITY TO BEAR
 such that we may eat from it and hunger nevermore.                   CHRIST'S REPROACH (Hebrews 13 : 13)
 It became for us the bread of life. (John  6:53-55)                     What is striking in the text is that the writer says to
 When the writer to the Hebrews speaks of "sanctify-                  the believers, "Let us go forth therefore". The term
 ing" the people it does not merely refer to what we                  "therefore" in Greek is  "`toinun",   that is: indeed
 call sanctification, the putting off of the old man and              now! Since Christ has suffered, for us without the
 the  putting on of the new man, but it refers both to                "gate" we,  too,  must pass through that gate of the
 the taking away of the guilt of sin as well as the                   earthly city, which'is made a desolation. We must not
 corruption. It is the complete redemption which                      stay in this error of Judaism, with its manifold and
 Christ became unto us, when He was made to us from                   strange teachings, but we must leave it all behind,
 God wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification. (I                    once  and for all. Never must the church look back to
 Cor.  1:30, 31) Here, too, the truth is: "He that                    this teaching as something to which they would re-
 glorieth, let him glory in the Lord". (Jer.  9:23, 24)              turn. Such is this  precept  of the Gospel here. It is the
 Jesus on the Cross is  "JEHOVAH  -.  TSIDKENU",                      counterpart of Christ's all when He says, "Come unto
 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! (Jer.  23:6)                            me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will
 And the people who are sanctified outside on the                    give you rest." It is really seeking the "old paths" and
 " g a t e " are also denominated  "The Lord, our                    the "good way" when we pass through the "gate" of
 righteousness". (Jer. 33: 16) Jesus  so cleansed the                Jerusalem to be with Christ, where the middle-wall of
"congregation" that no further cleansing is needed.                  the partition has forever been broken down, and
 For where there is cleansing, God says, "I will remem-              where the set times and seasons of the Old Testament
 ber their  sins and iniquities no more". (Jer.  31:34;              are no more kept, whereas they have been nailed to
 Heb. 10: 17) And where there is such forgiveness                    the cross as the weak and beggarly principles. (Gal.
 there "is not more offering for sin". (Heb. 10: 18)                 4:9, 10; Cal. 2:20)




 VOICE OF OUR FATHERS


                        Man's Creation and Fall  01)
                                                    ProJ: Robert D. Decker
           "We believe that God created man out of the dust of the earth, and made and formed him after his own
           image and likeness, good, righteous, and holy, capable in all things to will agreeably to the will of God. But
           being in honor, he understood it not, neither knew his excellency, but willfully subjected himself to sin,
           and consequently to death, and the curse, giving ear to the words of the devil. For the commandment of
           life, which he had received, he transgressed; and by sin separated himself from God, who was his true life,
           having corrupted his whole nature; whereby he made himself liable to corporal and spiritual death. And
           being thus become wicked; perverse, and corrupt in all his ways, he hath lost all his excellent gifts, which he
           had received from God, and only retained a few remains thereof, which, however, are sufficient to leave
           man without excuse; for all the light which is in us is changed into darkness, as the Scriptures teach us
           saying: The light sbineth  in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not: where St. John calleth men
           darkness. Therefore we reject all that is taught repugnant to this, concerning the free will of man, since man
           is but a slave to sin; and has nothing of himself, unless it is given from heaven. For who may presume to
           boast, that he of himself can do any good, since Christ saith, No man can come to me, except the Father,
           which hath sent me, draw him? Who will glory in his own will, who understands, that to be carnally minded
           is enmity against God? Who can speak of his knowledge, since the natural man receiveth not the things of
           the spirit of God? In short, who dare suggest any thought, since he knows that we are not sufficient of
           ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but that our sufficiency is of God? And therefore what the
           apostle saith ought justly to be held sure and firm, that God worketh in us both to will and to do of his
           good pleasure. For there is no will nor understanding, conformable to the divine will and understanding,
           but what Christ hath wrought in man; which he teaches us, when he saith, Without me ye can do nothing."
                                                                                     Article XIV,  The Belgic Confession


                                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    687


    In the previous article we concentrated on the very                      the .terms "image" and "likeness." It is much better,
first clause of Article XIV and limited ourselves to                         however, to understand "likeness" as referring to the
the doctrine of man's creation. We emphasized in that                        same thing as "image" and a further explanation of
connection the uniqueness of man's creation by God                           "image" in Genesis 1:26. Thus what the text teaches
out of the dust of the earth. That uniqueness is                             is that God so created man in His Own image that
evident from three facts: the significant pause in the                       there was a likeness of God in man. Others have
Genesis record between the creation of the animals                           found the idea of the image of God in man to consist
and that of man and the Divine soliloquy, God's                              in the dominion man was given over the rest of crea-
forming of man out of the dust of the earth, and                             tion (Cf. Genesis  1:26ff.). These often made appeal
God's breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. All                    to Psalm 8: 5,6 where Scripture speaks of man's crea-
this means that man, while he is "of the earth,                              tion in these terms:
earthy", is more excellent than the animals and in a                             "For thou hast made him a littie lower than the
real sense stands above the earthly. By virtue of his                            angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
creation man is a thinking, willing, and personal be-                            Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of
ing. In this article we wish to focus on the first part                          thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet."
of Article XIV once more and treat the concept of                            It is true that man stood as lord under God over the
the image of God in man. We believe that God: " . . .                        creation as image bearer of Jehovah. His lordship over
made and formed man after his own image and like-                            creation also revealed man's excellency and honor as
ness, good, righteous, and holy, capable in all things                       God's image bearer. But his dominion over creation
to will agreeably to the will of God." This, the fact                        must not be identified or confused with man's having
that he was created in God's image, the Creed terms                          been created in the image and after the likeness of
man's "honor" and "excellency."                                              God. His dominion, as is obvious from God's com-
   Just what is meant by the image of God in man?                            mand (Gen. 1:28ff.), refers to man's unique and holy
What do the Scriptures have to say to this question?                         task as God's friend-servant. The late Karl Barth
There is little or no disagreement among the theo-                           proposed a rather novel view and insisted that the
logians as to the general meaning of this concept. The                       image of God in man consisted of the male and
image of God simply means that man was created in                            female relationship. According to Barth, when
such a way that there was "a creaturely likeness of                          Genesis 1:27 states: " . . . male and female created he
God in him" or a "reflection of the perfections of                           them, " it is describing the image of God. There is a
God in man." (H. Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics,                               community of Persons in the Godhead argued Barth.
p. 204) Calvin speaks of man before his fall as a                            This is reflected in the fact that God created man as
"mirror of the  glory  of God." (Institutes,  Book I,                        "man and woman." In this way man stands in the
Chapter XV, 4) This clearly is the idea of the Genesis                       image and after the likeness of Maker. For reasons
account which reads:                                                         which will become obvious as we continue this dis-
     "And God said, Let  us make man in our image,                           cussion we find this view of Barth unacceptable.
     after our likeness: and let them have dominion over                       A view of the image of God rather commonly held
     the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and                  in the Reformed community distinguishes the image
     over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every                 of God in the wider (or broader) and the narrower
     creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God
     created man in his own image, in the image of God                       sense. To the image in the broader sense belongs
     created he him; male and female created he them."                       man's rationality, morality, and "immortality" (It
                                                                             should be noted that "immortality" in Scripture
                                                        Genesis 1: 26,27     does not merely mean that man lives on after death,
The text teaches that God made man in such a                                 but it refers to the state of "not being able to die"
fashion that he resembled God Himself. As created in                         and is attainable only by grace and through the cross
God's image, man reflected something of the very                             and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (Cf. I Cor. 15). This
virtues of God. This, in general, is the idea of the                         part of God's image man still possesses; he did not
image of God in man and concerning this there is                             lose this in the fall. And this too distinguishes man
little difference of opinion. This is also the meaning                       from the animals. By the image of God in the nar-
of our Confession when it speaks of man being made                           rower sense is meant man's original righteousness
and formed by God "after his own image and like-                             which he no longer possesses as a result of his fall into
ness."                                                                       sin. The inherent danger involved in this distinction
   However when it comes to specifics concerning the                         ought to be apparent at once. This means that man
image of God there is a wide range of opinion among                          retained something of God's image and likeness even
theologians both past and present.* Some of the                              after his fall. He still possesses a rational, moral, and
earlier fathers of the church distinguished between                          "immortal" soul and in this sense still stands in the
                                                                             image and after the likeness of God. This leads quite
*A rather extensive survey of the many views may be found in G. C.
Berkouwer's,  Man:   The  Image  of  God,  pp. 67ff.                         naturally to the next step, that of saying there  re-


     688                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


     mains a remnant of good left in man after the fall.               "And be  renewed in the spirit of your mind; and
     And, this in turn:  " . . . lends itself very easily to          that ye put -on-the- new- man, which after God is
     support the view of those who insist that' there is a            created in righteousness and true holiness."
s    certain common grace by virtue of which natural man           Putting off the old man involves the renewal of our
     is not so depraved as without that grace he would             minds; this is knowledge. And that new man which
     have been. And if this is not a denial of the doctrine        we must put on is created (formed, transformed or
     of total depravity, words certainly have lost their plain     completely changed) according to God in righteous-
     meaning." (H. Hoeksema,  Reformed Dogmatics,  p.              ness and true holiness. (Cf. also Col. 3: 10; Romans
     207)                                                          12:1,2; Ephesians 5:8, I John 3:1,2; John 17:3) This
       Preferable, if distinctions must indeed be made, is         is what man possessed originally, lost in the fall, and
     the one made by the late Herman Hoeksema. (To the             is given by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. This the
     best of my knowledge this distinction is original with        elect can never lose. In the glory of the new creation
     Hoeksema.) According to this distinction we speak of          and for all eternity the saints will mirror, as God's
     the image of God in the formal and in the material            image bearers, the beauty, the power, the matchless
     sense. By the formal sense is meant that man's nature         glory of His infinite perfections.
     is adapted to bear the image of God. God created                This is the view of Calvin and our Confessions.
     man in a way which made man capable of. reflecting            Citing Colossians 3: 10 and Ephesians 4:23,24, Calvin
     His perfections. From this point of view we may               argues that we can know "in which faculties man
     speak of man as image bearer of God. As image bearer          excels" and is a "mirror of the glory of God" from
     with a mind and will and moral nature, man was                the restoration of the corrupt nature of man.
     created capable of bearing God's Own image. By the            (Institutes, Book I, Chapter XV, 4) The Catechism
     material sense is meant the actual contents of the            asks: "Did God create man so wicked and perverse?",
     image of God. In this sense man actually bore the             and answers: "No; but God created man good, and
     image of God; he really mirrored God's virtues. This          after his own image, that is in righteousness and true
     is commonly called: "man's original righteousness."           holiness."  (Heidelberg Catechism,  Lord's Day III).
     Those virtues making up that original righteousness           The Canons of Dordrecht  teach: "Man was originally
     are the true knowledge of God, righteousness, and             formed after the image of God. His understanding
     holiness. As created in God's image man knew God as           was adorned with a true and saving knowledge of his
     His Creator, Father and Friend; he stood in harmony           Creator, and of spiritual things; his heart and will
     with God's will; and in purity of nature man was              were upright, all his affections pure, and the whole
     consecrated to the service of God in love. These              man was holy." (III, IV, Article 1). And the  Belgic
     virtues he lost when he fell into sin and consequently,       Confession in Article XIV emphasizes the same truth
     into death. Now man is image bearer of the devil              when it says: "We believe that God created man out
     according to his fallen, sinful nature. He is still man.      of the dust of the earth, and made and formed him
     Still he possesses a rational, moral nature, but no longer    after his own image and likeness, good, righteous, and
     does he reflect God's virtues. About this we shall have       holy, capable in all things to will agreeably to the will
     more to say in our next article.                              of God."
       This is the Biblical view. Scripture always presents          This, therefore, is the truth concerning the image
     man's redemption as a restoration of the image of             of God in man; the truth taught in Scripture and our
     God in him and that image of God consists in knowl-           Creeds.
     edge, righteousness, and holiness. In Ephesians 5:23,
     24 we read:                                                                                          to be continued. . .

     GUEST ARTICLE

                        Special Collections For Missions
                                                       Rev. G. Van Baren



       At the last Synod of the Protestant Reformed                was a rather momentous decision, a departure from
     Churches, a decision was taken which directly affects         the ordinary practice of the churches to raise  neces-
     the financing of the mission work of the churches. It         sary funding through Synodical assessments. Yet few


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                689


have been made aware of the decision. The Acts of            tions per year in the churches. Ground: Many families
the last Synod (at the time of the writing of this           feel they would like to contribute directly to mission
article) have not yet been distributed. The  con-            work (cf. E 7 of the Mission Committee report)
sistories have been informed of the decision under           Carried."
consideration, but even there some misunderstanding            So  - in harmony with Synod's decision, $5,000
has arisen. The purpose of this article is to call atten-    must be raised in 1976 by taking four collections in
tion to this action of Synod and to encourage our            each of our churches. Each family will have to con-
people to respond generously.                                tribute an average of $6.00 per year in these four
  Briefly, Synod decided to raise a part of the funds        collections (or, $1.50 per family per collection). That
for our mission labors through collections (four of          is not much  - but it will be needed to balance the
them) in the churches during the year of 1976.               budget Synod adopted.
  The Mission Committee presented to Synod a                   The decision however, marks a change of course,
proposed budget for mission work. After revision             howbeit slight, for our churches. In the past, the
through Synodical decisions, that budget included the        Synod has been inclined to raise required funds by
following: $10,000 for radio broadcasting; $5,000 to         assessing the churches annually. Within the congrega-
send emissaries for two to three months to Jamaica;          tions, families willingly paid their prescribed budgets
$35,300 for domestic missions; $5,000 for work in            - yet hardly could distinguish what their `gifts
other fields of labor. The total amount adopted by           supported. One might vaguely recall that something
Synod in this mission budget was $55,300.                    like $180.00 per family per year represented Synod-
  The mission committee estimated that of this               ical assessments. Yet, how this was divided into which
amount, $9,000 would be raised through collections           funds, few would know. Assessments seem to be the
on the various mission fields. This is itself a remark-      easy way of raising required funds.
able fact. This `represents about 16% of the total             Nevertheless, it has become evident repeatedly that
mission budget or about 22% of the amount needed             when the people of our churches are aware of a real
for our "home" missions (excluding radio and                 need, they respond even beyond that which is ex-
Jamaica missions).                                           pected or asked. The erection and payment of our
   Synod, in adopting an assessment for missions,            Seminary Building is an example. Instead of assessing
took into account that there was a surplus in the            the churches over a period of ten or fifteen years to
mission funds. It estimated that for 1976, $6,300            pay for this building, Synod asked for voluntary con-
could be used of accumulated funds in the mission            tributions. None was required to give. What was
account. Some of this balance arose when we assessed         presented was given in love and in the consciousness
the churches for two home missionaries before these          of the need. Now, after only a few years, the contri-
had accepted the call extended to them.                      butions and pledges  will more than pay  for our
                                                             Seminary Building. The overwhelming support was
   The assessments which Synod levied for mission            simply more than any of the Theological School
work were $40.00 per family per year. This repre-            Committee had dared hope for.
sented a drop of $3.00 per family from the previous
year. The $40.00 assessment would raise from our               Perhaps that experience was part of the motivation
875 families a total of $35,000.                             of the Mission Committee to propose raising some of
                                                             the funds for mission work through voluntary giving
  The difference between the total amount bud-               in four collections. The amount needed is relatively
geted, and the amount raised by assessments and the          small. There ought to be no difficulty raising it. But
collections from the mission field and from the sur-         this will represent voluntary gifts of God's people
plus of last year, is $5,000.                                who, in their giving, are aware of the fact that it will
   It was in connection with this $5,000 figure that         be used for a specific purpose: for the preaching of
the Mission Committee came to Synod with the                 the Word of God in other places.
following proposal: "We ask Synod to authorize four            But just suppose, once, that our people over-
mission collections per year in the churches. Ground:        whelmingly also supported this idea of contributing
Many families feel they would like to contribute             voluntarily to the mission fund through collections -
directly to mission work. Estimated receipts:                and far, far more was given above that which Synod
$5,000." The Synodical committee which presented             anticipates. That could only mean that the Synod of
its advice to Synod on this proposal, recommended            1976 would be compelled to reduce again the assess-
adoption. And the Synod itself adopted the proposal          ments  for missions because of the willingness of
(as I recall, without debate) in Article 102 of the          God's people to contribute voluntarily. (In fact,
Acts, "Motion is made to adopt II E 3 of Committee           $53.00 per family per year or $12.50 per collection
I Report that Synod authorize four mission  collec-          per family would raise all that we need to carry out


696                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



our proposed mission work in 1976.) If voluntary              four young ministers in Jamaica be paid $10 per week
contributions would raise that much, then assess-             each for living expenses and $10 per week each for
ments would no longer be necessary for mission                travel expenses (the Rev. Elliott receives also this
work. None would be paying any more than they do              latter amount for travel). The total amount needed
now through assessments - the difference would be             annually is $4,680. But again, Synod did not levy an
that our contributions would be more meaningful and           assessment to raise this amount. The Synod rather
voluntarily given for a cause which is dear to the            approved the request of the Mission Committee that
hearts of each of us.                                         collections (the number was not specified) be taken in
   How are you going to respond?                              the churches to  .raise this sum. At the present time,
                                                              however, the mission committee is embarrassed by
                                                              the fact that it does not have the funds to pay these
Another collection                                            laborers in God's vineyard in harmony with the deci-
                                                              sions of Synod. Our churches, perhaps, have not been
   The last Synod also took other decisions of which          impressed sufficiently with the need and the Synod-
the churches ought to be aware, approving the taking          ical decision with regard to their recommendation for
of collections in the churches to provide for certain         help. We trust that our God will lay upon our hearts a
necessities of the five ministers who presently labor in      willingness to give in harmony with this need. Collec-
Jamaica with their brethren. The Synod approved the           tions taken for this cause ought to be sent to Rev. R.
recommendation of the Mission Committee that the              Van Overloop who is serving as treasurer of this fund.


IN HIS FEAR



                           The Future That Is Past
                                                      Rev. M. Joostens



  It is especially at this time of year that our                 This .must never become a reason for the child of
thoughts turn to the future. As the old and  well-            God to be distraught. I know that this is the tendency
marked calendar is replaced by a new one, sporting an         of the world. The world is very anxious regarding the
unfamiliar scene, we consider the things which may            future.  They would much like to have the ability of
come upon us in the coming year. Perhaps it is the            prophetic prediction. Peering into a crystal ball,
sudden and abrupt change from the old to the new              reading tea leaves or the palm of one's hand, as well
that is to blame for this. Even as a sigh expresses the       as the whole craze of astrology, are only a few signs
thankfulness that all has gone well in the past, our          of this. But we as children of God must exclaim,
souls are gripped with fear regarding the future, and         "Thanks be to God." We must see His inscrutable
various questions of what lies ahead flood the-soul.          wisdom even in this, that He has hidden from us the
Though we have arrived at the middle of this first            future. Certainly this can never be proclaimed a mis-
month of the new year, reminiscences of the old and           take! Most certainly our God, Who is characterized
questions about the new still linger in our minds.            by divine wisdom, has veiled the future for us
  The future is nebulous. The future is full of all           according to His all-wise purpose.
kinds of uncertainties. And though we often attempt             The fact that the future belongs to the  realm of
to peer into the darkness of the future, philosophiz-         those things which are hidden, finds its very establish-
ing and rationalizing about it, the questions about the       ment in the perfection of God's creation. For when
future remain to a large degree, unanswered. Even an          we speak about the future we are dealing with the
objective analysis of the past combined with a careful        concept of time, and time is a creature of God. Time
projection concerning the future cannot unveil the            is an inherent characteristic of the whole of God's
future.                                                       creation. In the act of creating, God gave a distinct


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   691


and. separate existence to those things which were             But we rejoice in quite a different truth! We are
eternally in His counsel. That particular distinction of     not without God in this world, but we are the chil-
the creative act is the characteristic of time and space.    dren of God for--Christ's sake. We confess the ever-
For our purposes, we are interested only in the              beautiful truth of Lord's Day 10, that " . . . we place
former. The whole creation is ruled by time. Whether         our firm trust in our faithful God and Father. . ." He
we speak of things animate or inanimate, time affects        will providentially care for us even in regard to the
them all. Wood rots, metal corrodes, chemical ele-           very minutest  detail. So the Scriptures assure us, that
ments have half-lives and wrinkles mark our faces. In        not even one hair can fall from our heads except it be
distinction from the immutable Creator, all things           in accordance with His will. That fatherly care  also
and creatures are mutable. We are constantly                 applies to the future. As the uncertainties of this pil-
changing and becoming. I speak of the way I was, the         grim journey come upon us, as fear grips the soul and
way I am at the moment, and the way I will be. The           questions storm the mind, then we rejoice  wi.th the
past, present. and future are very real segments of          Psalmist, "What time I am afraid I will trust in thee."
time for us.                                                 (56:3)
   Not only has God, in His perfection and wisdom,             He is the eternal God. Time is in  His hand. The
characterized the creation by time, but He has also          future is past! How is that so? In the first place,
withheld from the rational, moral creature the capa-         because all things are finished in God's counsel. In
bilities of analyzing the future. That which pertains        God's counsel appears not only the alpha but also the
to the future lies beyond our grasp. Our memories            omega of history and time as we know it. And cer-
and history books facilitate the recollection of events      tainly from the viewpoint of the Almighty and
which belong to the past. We are able to live and act        Eternal One, every future as well as past event of
in the present. But the future is beyond our reach.          history stands fixed. Not, you understand, as if God's
   To the future, therefore, belongs those things            determinate counsel is stagnant, for He is the decree-
which are providentially hidden from view. The               ing God. But we can never interject the aspect of time
future is expressive of things which must yet come to        into the Eternal. He sees the end from the beginning.
pass, a time subsequent to the present. To the future        There is no future with the "I am." But in the second
.belongs  those things which as yet are shut up in God's     place, and this is more to the point of this article,
counsel, to be executed before the teleological end of       though essentially no different, all time is compre-
history. To that portion of time belongs speculation         hended in Christ. We are referring to the concept of
and conjecture.                                              the "fulness of time." Let us consider this closely.
   It  is, the very nature of man to delve into that           This particular concept is deep and not without
future. According to the nature of man, he desires to        variation in meaning. It is not our purpose to enter
secure for himself the future. Man hates uncertainty.
It is revolting to him to think upon things over which       into the sundry arguments of exegesis, but simply to
he has no direct control, the things which point him         point out the central significance of Christ from a
to his finite characteristic. The whole of the world         historical viewpoint. After all, we are dealing with
illustrates that this is the case. Mankind will not rest     time and specifically the future. The apostle Paul uses
until it can secure for itself a prosperous future. Man      the phrase  "ftiess of time" in the. two familiar
wants to secure world peace. We need hardly be               passages of Ephesians 1: 10 and Galatians 4:4. In the
reminded that today's "peace-makers" are heralded as         latter, his point is that Christ made His appearance in
heroes, though they seek after a false peace. They           the flesh when the old dispensational era came to a
who make achievements in procuring methods to                close. That is to say: Christ fulfilled, made full, the
perpetuate earthly life are hailed because man wants         dispensation of the law. Prior to Christ, Israel was
to be certain about his life and health tomorrow.            under the yoke of the schoolmaster who led them to
And, in as far as the great ones of this earth have          Christ. In Ephesians Paul speaks of the fumess of time
fallen short of their aims, man buys for himself             as being the era of the new dispensation in which God
security. for his possessions, health and life itself. As    will gather all things together in Christ. We may
people of God, we must be careful so as not to be            combine these two meanings and note that there is no
swept along with this carnal craving after security. It      history that stands in separation from Christ. All of
is man by nature who so strives. Man who stands              history, as the execution of God's counsel, finds its
outside the sphere of God's particular grace stands in       summation in the cross and resurrection of Christ as
the midst of this world by himself. He has no god            He stands at the very center of that counsel. The
because he rejects His Christ! He stands in his own          result is that every moment, as well as its content or
sinful pride professing to be his own god. And in            happening, is completed in Christ from a principle
conformity with this, he thinks to be the master of          viewpoint.
his fate.                                                       But what does this mean concretely? This,  that.


692                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


every historical happening or event is for the well-         live by faith ever trusting in our heavenly Father.
being and benefit of Christ. Oh, but there is more!          Never may providing for the future violate our faith.
For Christ is the Anointed One commissioned to               I'm afraid that all too often on our part, a full refrig-
stand at the head of His people. Paul tells us that He       erator and a good pension plan or insurance policy
is the head and we the body. We are Christ's! Then it        detract from our faith and trust. The whole way of
becomes clear to us. History from its alpha to its           our pilgrim's journey unto the heavenly Canaan has
omega has but one function and purpose and that is           been completed in Christ.
to be the stage upon which God saves unto Himself a            The future does not look bright. The anti-Christian
people, along the way of sin and grace. The present          kingdom is increasingly becoming realized. Questions
and past serve that purpose, but so will the future. Of      flood the mind, fears grip the soul. What does the
that we can be certain.                                      future hold? We don't know. Yes! We do know. It
                                                             holds a pilgrim's journey upon which every obstacle
  We need not live with fear and trepidation in our          has been conquered by our Lord. He was in all points
souls. We may not! Do not misunderstand; there is a          tempted like as we will be. He died even as we must
correct concern regarding proper provision for the           die. By the grace of God in Christ we will traverse the
future. But this may never turn into worry and anxie-        future until we receive the crown of glory. We do not
ty! This is sinful. As God's children, we must daily         walk in fear, but in His fear!


SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                             The Mark Of The `Beast

                                                 Rev. G. Van Baren



  In the past I have reported various items which            ticity of the reports, yet these appear realistic enough
point to the possible nearness of that time when a           to give pause for thought.
"mark" will be required of all who would buy or sell.          The first article appeared 
The "mark of the beast" is one of the well-known                                                in  the  Old Faith Con-
signs of the end of time and the imminent return of          tender,  July-Sept., 1975, and in turn was quoted
                                                             from Moody Magazine:
Christ on the clouds of glory. We read of this mark in
Revelation 13. There, the second beast out of the                     The Beast is a gigantic computer that takes up
land (land indicates the relative stability which allows         three floors at Administration Building of Common
for the rising.of this beast) does wonders, making tire          Market Headquarters. This `monster'  is a  self-
to come down out of heaven in the sight of men (vs.              programming unit that has over one hundred sensing
13). He deceives by means of miracles (vs. 14). He               input sources. Computer experts have been working
directs that an image be made of the first beast                 on a plan to computerize all world trade. This master
(unified political powers of the earth). And he gives            plan involves a digital numbering system for every
                                                                human on earth. The computer would assign each
life to the image of the beast, requiring that all should        citizen of the world a number to use for all buying
worship that image or be killed. The image of the                and selling to avoid the problems of ordinary credit
beast is given the power to speak and to execute                 cards. The number would be invisibly "laser-tattooed"
punishment upon those who will not bow down to                   on the forehead or back of the hand. It would pro-
his demands. The subservient ones receive marks in              vide a walking credit card system. The number would
their foreheads or in their right hands. The mark                show up under infra-red scanners to be placed at all
these receive is the number "666." Whoever has not               check-out counters and places of business. Dr.  Elder-
that number can neither buy nor sell.                           man suggested that by using three six-digital units,
                                                                the entire world could be assigned a working credit
  Two articles recently were brought to my attention            card number. Other Common Market Officials believe
which give some indication what form the mark of                that the present chaos and discord caused by the
the beast can take. I can not vouch for the authen-              `mystery' points to the need of a world currency  -


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                               693



   perhaps an international mark that would do away              That complex computers can be cheaply produced
   with all currency and coin.                                 is evident to anyone who reads the daily newspaper.
      When one of the Market leaders was asked what            Ads appear with regularity advertising various
   would happen if any person objected to the system           "adding" machines which can do complex mathe-
   and refused to co-operate, he replied rather                matical work. The prices are low  - the cheapest is
   pointedly, "We would have to use force to make him          under $10.00. Stores are converting to  computer-
  conform to requirements."                                    registers. Ringing up a sale at the same time registers
  And from the Maranatha Messenger the following               everything needed to check on stock or any of the
article appeared:                                              other necessary tasks of operating a place of business.
      On Tuesday, April, 1975, on the  6:30  a.m.                It is not difficult, then, to conceive of large com-
   Morning News on Radio Station KTRH in Houston,              puters (beast?) which can keep record of every indi-
   Texas, the following was broadcast:                         vidual and every transaction that takes place on the
      "A Nebraska based supermarket chain has become           whole of the earth. If a hand-held machine at such
   well known to the banking committees of Congress            low price can accomplish so much, it would hardly be
   and to federal regulatory bodies, The Board of Gov-         a difficulty to design that which could keep a check
   ernors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Fed-          on everything. There is even the suggestion that
   eral Home Loan Bank Board. The interest in these            computers could translate instantaneously from one
   supermarkets by these financial groups is not in its        language to another; or could convey requested in-
   food operations but in the results of its landmark
   experiment; First Federal was authorized by the             formation by voice transmission. Could not then such
   FHLBB last January to install electronic terminals in       a computer be the "image of the beast" which could
   the two supermarkets. Its transmatic- money system          literally speak and make demands which would serve
   enabled First Federal customers to make deposits and        to place all of mankind under the beast?
   withdrawals from their accounts via computer, while
   shopping for groceries. The arrangement was the first         The appearance of "marks" also serve to remind
   of its kind in the state in E.F.T. (Electronic Fund         one of the end of this age. Hardly a grocery item can
   Transfer). There is a huge conviction in financial cir-     be purchased but that it has printed on it a set of
   cles that E.F.T. in one way or another will become a        unevenly spaced lines and some numbers. Whether
   major means for transferring money in the near fu-          men could have placed on them literal, but invisible,
   ture. All buying and selling in the program will be         marks by means of laser beams, I do not know. That
   done by computer. No currency, no change, no                does not seem at all inconceivable.
   checks. In the program people would receive a num-
   ber that had been assigned them tattooed in their             Already now, our own government has assigned to
   wrist or forehead. The number is put in by a laser          most of the citizens a number which enables one to
   beam and cannot be felt. The number in the body is          carry on business with the government  - the social
   not seen with the naked eye and is as permanent as          security number. To this I have called your attention
   your fingerprints. All items of consumer goods will be      before. That number was, originally, for the purpose
   marked with a computer mark. The checkstand will
   also pick up the number in the person's body and            of collecting and distributing social security taxes.
   automatically total the price and deduct the amount         But increasingly, that number is being used for many
   from the  pers,on's  `Special Drawing Rights' account.      other transactions. Only this past year we have re-
                                                               ceived a notification from the Internal Revenue Ser-
      "Over eight cities in the U.S. have started this pro-
   gram. Some of the banks in the Portland, Oregon area        vice informing us, "In processing your return for the
   have been asked to install this type of system in their     above tax year, we found that it did not include your
   banks. The marks are already appearing on items             spouse's social security number. The number  will be re-
   nationwide."                                                quired  for processing tax returns in the future." (italics
  I would want to caution us first of all that reports         mine). At least there is the implied threat that unless
as the above ought to be taken with the proverbial             one voluntarily takes on himself this social security
"grain of salt." I suggest that because repeatedly in          number, he will not be able to have his income tax
the past I have observed somewhat "sensational"                return processed (with the consequent penalties, I
signs mentioned which are obviously designed to                presume).
attract attention  i and gain additional financial               What will be next? Will the government use a laser
support for the group or organization which has such           beam `(or some other device to record a number per-
foresight as to warn its members of the future                 manently on each individual?
dangers. At the same time, the two quotations above
are very similar to others I have read (and quoted)              The church and the child of God ought to be very
from other sources at other times. There is certainly          observant of the things taking place today. We must
that element of truth in these reports which causes            not think  that the time for  warning  and the sign of
one to sit back and think.                                     danger would be when someone writes a number,


694                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER



666, on one's forehead. The antichrist, and his fore-                        care. Present-day developments ought to be diligently
runners, are more clever than that. The attempt will                         studied. The church will not be able to change the
be rather to lead man, step-by-step, to accept the idea                      course of events which lead to the establishment of
of the mark of the beast. At each step, there will be                        the antichristian world power. Nor does it desire to
the attempt to show that the developing "mark" is                            do that. But it must itself beware lest its garments
essential to-progress and development. The danger for                        become spotted and it seeks to cooperate with the
the church, then, is that it will be willing at each step                    world. The spirit of compromise is obvious every-
to concede the necessity of that little step.                                where. Cooperation is the hallmark of this age.
  The appearance of the first and second beast of                               "Be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing,
Rev. 13 is imminent. Many signs point in that direction.                     saith the Lord, and I will receive you," II Corinthians
It behooves the church, therefore, to take special                           6:17b.





                                                  Book Reviews

                                                                     R. D. Decker

THE ZONDERVAN PICTORIAL ENCYCLOPEDIA                                           There are many excellent features about this work.
OF THE BIBLE. Merrill C. Tenny, General Editor;                             We can mention only some of the most important.
Zondervan Publishing House, 1975; $79.95 (five
volumes). [Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko]                                         Each word is given in the Hebrew and Greek where
                                                                             possible. This is of value to those who are able to use
  Zondervan Publishing House has completed its                               the original languages of Scripture, but it in no way
work on an entirely new Encyclopedia of the Bible.                           detracts from the value of the set for those who have
The work was a massive undertaking, and the results,                         no acquaintance with these languages.
generally speaking, are gratifying.                                            All the articles of importance have a bibliography
                                                                             at the end of them which is, generally, valuable and
  The scope and theological.position  of the Encyclo-                        will assist the student in pursuing his study of various
pedia are defined in the Preface:                                            topics in greater detail.
           The scope of this ENCYCLOPEDIA is intended to                       Some subjects are treated in great detail which
        cover directly or indirectly all persons, places,                    makes it possible to use this Encyclopedia for refer-
        objects, customs, and historical events and major                    ence work. There are lengthy articles on many doc-
       teachings of the Bible. Not all  .a.re treated separately;            trinal subjects such as inspiration, Biblical criticism,
        some will necessarily be subsumed under larger                       canonicity, election, ethics, creation, the atonement,
       topics. It is, however, designed to be a comprehensive                the millennium, etc. E.g., there are 35 pages on the
        survey of general Biblical and theological knowledge.                canon of Scripture alone. Some of the articles are.
          The critical and theological position of this work is              excellent and, as the Preface states, take a conserva-
       conservative. All viewpoints of Biblical scholarship                  tive position. J. Murray, e.g., has an excellent article
       are mentioned and are given fair representation, but                  on the truth of election; G.H. Clark has an excellent
       the emphasis is that of historic Christianity. Allow-                 article on ethics; there is a `fine section on the
       ance has been made for varying opinions within this                   chronologies of the Old Testament.
       framework, and in some cases more than one article                      The work makes use of all the latest discoveries in
       on a given theme has been included in order to repre-
       sent fairly differing doctrinal interpretations. Occa-                archeology and brings much information about the
       sionally one may find discrepancies between articles on               Bible up to date.
       historical and chronological topics. These are often                    There are many maps and pictures, beautiful color
       indicative of ambiguity in the original records, on                   plates, and a fine map section at the end of Vol. 5.
       which no  final judgment is easily attainable. Authors
       of articles have been accorded liberty to state their                   Anyone who uses the work will, of course, have to
       conclusions, provided these conclusions  ye founded                   exercise some discretion. While the authors usually
       on a fundamental conviction of the veracity of the                    present many different viewpoints on controversial
       Biblical record.                                                      subjects, they also state their own views. We cannot


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               695


always agree with these. The author of the article on        Uitgeversmaatschappij J. H. Kok, Kampen, 1974; 412
genealogies does not want to give them literal signifi-      ,pages, $37.50 (Dutch money).
cance. W.H. Mare favors a progressive creationism.
W.U. Ault holds to a local flood. And there are                On October 12, 1973, Dr. Berkouwer retired as
naturally some disagreements when different authors          professor of the Theological Faculty of the Free
are writing on similar or related subjects.                  University of Amsterdam. This event occasioned his
                                                             looking back upon a half-century of being busy
  The Encyclopedia could be improved by a system             within the Gereformeerde Kerken and in Theology.
of cross references. E.g., while the subject of the          And the book under discussion is the result of his
millennium is discussed in at least four different           retrospective look. In these theological memoirs he
places, there are no cross references to aid the             gives account of his motives in his theological and
searcher in finding all these places.                        ecclesiastical labor, and he offers a review of the
  We recommend this Encyclopedia with the reserva-           important currents in theology from 1920 until
tions mentioned above. It is a must for our schools. It      today. In a way this is not a typical Berkouwer book.
is a valuable addition to any home library, and we           While in the nature of the case there are many
urge our people to purchase it. The price is not high        references to the views of others, at many points
for the amount of material which is contained in it,         there is much more of Berkouwer in this book than in
and it will be used for years as an aid in the study of      some of his Dogmatical Studies. Through reading this
Scripture.                                                   book, one certainly obtains a better insight into the
                                                             theological approach and views of the author. Any-
                                                             one who has followed the entire series of Dr.
Herman  C.  Hanko,  The Mysteries of the Kingdom             Berkouwer's Dogmatical Studies, as well as his other
(An Exposition of the Parables), Reformed Free Pub-          works, should by all means read this volume. And it is
lishing Association, Grand Rapids. 306 pages.                to be hoped that the Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
  The readers of the  Standard Bearer are  familiar          Company will eventually publish an English edition
with the writings of Prof. Hanko who teaches New             of this interesting book by Dr. Berkouwer. This is a
Testament  in the Theological School of the Protes-          very significant volume.
tant Reformed Churches. This is the author's first full        Of special interest to Protestant Reformed readers
length book. And it is a good one. On the inside front       will be Chapter IV, which deals with the doctrine of
cover of the attractive dust jacket one reads: "This         election. In this chapter Dr. Berkouwer attributes his
book is an attempt to interpret the parables in such a       own development with respect to the doctrine of
way that the Lord's description of their purpose and         election to his reaction against the views of Rev.
His guidelines for interpretation are followed. It is in     Herman Hoeksema, whom, therefore, he credits with
this way, the author believes, that the mysteries of         helping his own development, but by way of contrast.
the kingdom will be set forth in their proper light."        I have paid special attention to this chapter in a
The author has succeeded admirably in reaching this          review article in the May, 1975 issue of our Protes-
purpose.                                                     tant Reformed Theological Journal.  In this article I
  All of the parables of Jesus are treated. The              quote the pertinent section from Chapter IV, and
material is strictly based on solid exegesis of the text.    then I offer some critical, remarks. The interested
And there is constant practical application of these         reader may consult that article. If it was not clear
mysteries to the lives of the citizens of the Kingdom        from Berkouwer's work on  Divine Election,  it cer-
of Heaven. While the author does not hesitate to             tainly becomes clear from this volume that Dr.
grapple with textual or theological problems wherever        Berkouwer denies double predestination, and there-
necessary, he does so in clear, understandable               with denies the Reformed doctrine of sovereign pre-
language. Hence the expositions are exhaustive but           destination, including both election and reprobation.
never too deep for the believer who may lack formal             My recommendation of this volume, therefore, is
theological training. It is a book which can and ought       not due to agreement with Dr. Berkouwer, but is due
to be used by preachers, teachers, and laymen. It may        to the fact that Berkouwer is a very significant and
be purchased for $5.95 ,from Reformed Free Publish-          influential theologian. In recent years he has probably
in g Association, P.O. Box 2006, Grand Rapids,               been more influential on the Reformed scene than
Michigan 49501.                                              any other single theologian. It is important, therefore,
   My colleague and the R.F.P.A. are to be com-              that those who study theology and who are called to
mended for publishing this book, a worthwhile                maintain and teach and preach the Reformed  posi-'
addition. to any library.                                    tion, should take into account the teachings of Dr.
                                                             Berkouwer. And this volume is important for the
Een Halve Eeuw Theologie (Motieven en Stromingen             understanding of Berkouwer. Its careful study, there-
van  1920  tot  Heden),  by G. C. Berkouwer;                 fore, is highly recommended.


 THE STANDARD BEARER
        P.O. Box 6064                                                                             SECOND CLASS
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                                      POSTAGE PAID AT
                                                                                                GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.
                                      -___    _     ------..-_._           ___             I                            I
                                ._                                             -

 696

                                News From Our Churches

   The time of Sunday worship services seems to be           No report has yet arrived concerning the school
 something that receives a periodic review in our            dedication (the mail from the West Coast seems to be
 churches. The consistory in Isabel, South Dakota,           a bit slow.) The new school in Redlands is distinctive
 called a special congregational meeting to consider         on at least three counts: it is the newest school; it is
 changing the Sunday worship services from 10: 00 AM         the only one of our, schools which is air-conditioned,
 and 2:00 PM to  9:30 AM and  1:30 PM. The  con-             and the only one of our schools with grapefruit trees
 sistory felt this would be an aid to the ranchers in the    growing in the school yard. (I enjoyed a half dozen
 congregation and to those members who travel a great        grapefruit from these trees last summer; they were a
 distance to attend services. They could then do their       bit tart, but otherwise quite good.)
 work and travel while it was yet light. Edgerton con-         The congregation in Hull has plans to open a new
 sidered a proposal on the agenda of their annual con-       grade school. This past November a drive was con-
 gregation meeting to extend evening services through        ducted in Hull to raise $15,000 to pay off the debt
 the months of November and March. The previous              on the land for the school and to secure $30,000 in
 schedule was  9:30 AM and  7:30 PM April through            pledges toward the cost of erecting a school building
 October and  9:30 AM and 2:00 PM November                   in 1976.
 through March.                                                Most if not all of our Protestant Reformed Chris-
   One of the reasons we look forward to Christmas           tian Schools publish a newsletter or journal several
 Day in many of our churches is because of the Sun-          times a year. Of late I have received copies of the
 day School Christmas Program. If one of your chil-          Adams  Announcer,  the Hope (Walker, Michigan)
 dren is scheduled to take part in the program, you          Highlights,  and the Northwest Iowa  (Doon) P.R.
 may even look forward to this event with just a little      Christian School Polaris. All of these contain school
 bit of nervous anticipation. But, as Prof. Decker           news and short pieces by the students and teachers. If
 expressed it after the Christmas program in First           you live near one of our eight schools and would like
 Church, children can express the meaning and the joy        to receive a subscription to one of these newsletters, I
 of Christmas in a way that is special and always brings     am sure the school would be most pleased to 
 joy to the hearts of those who attend the program.                                                           comply
                                                             with your request.
 After the program the children receive some candy,
 maybe an orange, and in Southwest Church, even                Each year, the students at Adams and Hope
 animal crackers for the `wee-tots.'                         schools forego the customary school practice of gift
   We even seem to have some diversity in the Sunday         exchanges. Instead, the students contribute toward a
 School schedule within the churches. Most meet              gift which this year was given to the students of our
 September to May, but in Hull, Iowa, it is June             small western schools. The money is used to buy
 through August. And in Southwest Church (Wyo-               classroom educational materials that will benefit the
 ming,  Mich.), Sunday School meets May through              students of these schools.
 August.                                                       The Young Adult Society in Randolph sponsored a
   Two of our Protestant Reformed Schools cele-              Thanksgiving evening Singspiration. Mr. & Mrs. John
 brated rather special events the beginning of this          Hilton, formerly from Maine and now living in Grand
 school year. After a number of years of holding             Rapids where John is attending our seminary, con-
 classes in the church basement, a new school building       sented to come and give special music. John plays the
 was dedicated on September 12 in Loveland, Colora-          saxophone accompanied by his wife on the piano.
 do. After speeches by Rev.  Laming, Mr.. G. Kuiper          The children of the congregation also prepared some
 the school administrator, and Mr. Ray Ezinga the            songs.
 School Board President, and some musical numbers,             Rev. M. Kamps of Redlands, California, has re-
 refreshments were served in the new building.               ceived a call from our church in Edmonton, Alberta,
   Our congregation in Redlands, California, not only        Canada.
dedicated a new school building, but a new school.                                                            K.G.V.


