          The
     STANDARD
         BEARER
f- A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                          .





            The  risen  Christ  is  exalted   to  God's  right
          hand  where  He  receives  the  Spirit  without
          measure,  and  that  Spirit  He  pours  out  in  the
          church  and  in  the  hearts  of  all  them  who  are
          ordained to-eternal  life. And they do not need
          to  see  Him  with  their  natural  eye,  for  He
          takes  up  His  abode,  in  them.  And  they  believe
          what  they  do  not  see.  Blessed  are  they,  in-
          deed!,

          See "Believing in the Resurrection"  - page 818.





t                                       Volume LII, No. 14, April 15,1976    -


848                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June. July, and August.
                                                                               Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                 Second Class Postaae Paid at Grand Raoids. Mich.
                           CONTENTS:                                       Editor-in-Chief:.Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                           Department Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma,
                                                                           Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko. Rev. Robert C. Harbach,
                                                                           Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. Dale H. Kuiper, Rev.
Meditation -                                                               George C. Lubbers, Rev. Meindert Joostens, Rev.  Marinus   Schipper.
                                                                           Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren. Rev. Herman  Veldman,  Mr. Kenneth G.  Vink.
   Believing in the Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 18          Editorial Office:  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema
                                                                                                4975  lvanrest  Ave.  SW.
Editorials :                                                                                    Grandville.  Michican  49418
   Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 1    Church News Editor:          Mr. Kenneth G. Vink
                                                                                                       1422 Linwood, S.E.
   Our Australasian Tour (12) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 1                                      Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
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IMEDITATION

                          Believing In The Resurrection
                                                                Rev. M. Schipper



                "Jesus saith  unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believe& blessed are they that have
             not seen, and yet have believed. "                                                                                         John  20:29


   This conversation between Jesus and Thomas took                           was not with them. That the disciples were gathered
place eight days after the Lord had risen from the                           together behind closed doors, we are told, was  be-
dead.                                                                        cause of fear of the Jews. Why they feared the Jews
                                                                             we are not told. We can only surmise that they had
    On the evening of the resurrection day Jesus met                         concluded that what had happened to Jesus at the
with His disciples behind closed doors, but Thomas                           hand of the Jews, would also happen to them. That


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                             819


they were gathered together that resurrection evening       saw very plainly, namely, the appearance of the
was, no doubt, to discuss the events of the day. Some       resurrected Lord.
had reported that they had seen the risen Lord,               "Then Jesus saith unto him, Thomas because thou
others heard rumors that He was risen from the dead.        hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are those
With the crucifixion of Christ their hope had turned        not seeing, and believing."
to despair; but now that He was reported to be alive,
their hope was rekindled.That Thomas was not with             Concerning Thomas we know very little. When the
them, was due to the fact that he would not believe         names of the apostles are mentioned, his name
what he had heard with his ears until he had seen it        appears among them. He was also called Didymus.
with his eyes, and handled it with his hands, The           That was his Greek name, which along with his
other disciples had reported to him: "We have seen          Hebrew.name Thomas means "little." But that tells
the Lord." But he said unto them: "Except I shall see       us very little about him. Perhaps from birth he was
in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger      small in stature. From those instances when the
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into        Scriptures speak of him in particular, we gather that
his side, I will not believe."                              he was one of so many who always looked on the
                                                            dark side of things. Perhaps we could say that he was
   Because he so expressed himself, he has acquired         also of a stubborn disposition, one who would defend
the name Thomas, the Doubter, or, Doubting                  his point of view until he knew that he could not any
Thomas.                                                     longer maintain it. But at the same time he reflected a
   But why make this harsh judgement of Him? Was it         certain warmth in his character, and certainly he must
not true that the rest of the disciple group should also    have loved Jesus with a very deep love. He, too, along
be called doubters? Do we not read of them that             with the others of the apostle group evidently mis-
when the women had reported to them that they had           understood the Lord and His mission, believing that
seen the risen Lord, their words seemed to them as          He had come to set up an earthly kingdom.
idle tales? Was it not also true that, when they heard
from faithful witnesses that the Lord was risen, and          We become a little acquainted with'him for the
when he suddenly appeared to them behind closed             first time in Perea where Jesus had gone with His
doors, they had great difficulty in believing that,He       disciples because the Jews had lately threatened to
was indeed the risen Lord? Does not Luke's gospel           kill Him (John 11). There Jesus had received word
inform us  (24:37-43) that when He appeared unto            that Lazarus, His friend, was sick. He did not respond
them and said "Peace be unto you," they were terrified      immediately to the message, waiting two days until
and affrighted, and supposed they had seen a spirit?        He knew Lazarus had died. Then Jesus announced to
And did not the Lord find it necessary to eat before        His disciples that He must go to  Bethany. His dis-
them, and show them His hands and feet, before they         ciples warned Him that He had left the area because
would believe? Indeed, they also doubted, and would         the Jews had threatened to kill Him. But Jesus insists
not believe until they had seen with their eyes what        that He must go because Lazarus sleepeth, yea, was
the Lord was pleased to show them in His appear-            dead. It is at this point that Thomas says: "Let us
ance. Surely, if Thomas must be called the Doubter,         also go that we may die with Him." Two things are to
then consistency  w.ould demand that all the other          be noted here: not only the profound love of Jesus
disciples should also be given this appellation.            which he showed in his willingness to die with Him,
                                                            but also the gloomy aspect which this disciple had for
  Thomas is not a doubter, an unbeliever, but he is         the future. Evidently he meant to say this: If Jesus
one who will believe only what he can see with his          dies and is killed, everything which we had hoped for
eyes, and handle with his hands. But such an one, so        will also be finished, that is, the hope of an earthly
long as he remains such, can never taste the blessed-       Kingdom. If Jesus dies,  this hope will perish with
ness of seeing the unseen.                                  Him; and therefore we might as well be dead also.
  That he might become an eye-witness of the resur-         There is no hope for anything beyond Jesus' death.
rection, as the rest, the Lord appears unto him eight         A little later we read of Thomas again (John 14).
days later as he is now assembled with the rest of the      After the Lord had instituted the Lord's Supper and
disciples.                                                  then announced that He was about to leave them to
  Directly the Lord goes to Thomas and exhorts him          return unto the Father, He seeks to quiet and com-
to "reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands;           fort their sad hearts by saying, "Let not your hearts
and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side:      be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In
and not be faithless, but believing.`" We do not read       my Father's house are many mansions. I go to pre-
that Thomas responded by touching Him, and we               pare a place for you, and whither I go ye know, and
suppose that he did not. Immediately he exclaims            the way ye know." But Thomas said unto him, "Lord,
"My Lord, and my God." Thomas believed what he              we know not whither Thou goest, and how can we


820                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



know the way?" Jesus said unto him, "I am the way,          blessing than that which Thomas experienced when
the truth, and the life." Here also it appears that         he saw with his natural eye the appearance of the
Thomas could see no farther than an earthly Jesus.          risen Saviour.
If Jesus would go, that would be the end as far as the        Greater blessedness it is, because of its deeper and
disciples and Thomas were concerned.                        spiritual cause!
  Now we find him again, a week after the resurrec-
tion. Jesus had suffered and died. He had gone the            This faith, which has no need of seeing the risen
                                                            Lord with the physical eye to be convinced of the
way of the cross. He had suffered, and died, and was
buried. With that death and burial of Jesus, as far as      truth of the resurrection, has a much deeper cause,
Thomas was concerned, everything else was buried.           and much richer content. This faith which embraces
True, that was the thinking of all the disciples, but of    the testimony given by eyewitnesses and incorporated
                                                            in the Holy Scriptures is wrought in the heart by the
Thomas it was especially true.                              testimony of the Spirit of the risen Christ. For, you
  For Thomas the resurrection was an impossibility.         see, the risen Christ is exalted to God's right hand
0, Thomas was not a Sadducee. Like Martha, the              where He receives the Spirit without measure, and
sister of Lazarus, he believed in the resurrection in       that Spirit He pours out in the church and in the
the last day. Nor could he deny that Jesus had the          hearts of all them who are ordained to eternal life.
power of the resurrection, for he evidently was also a      And they do not need to see Him with their natural
witness of the miracle of the resurrection in the case      eye, for He takes up His abode in them. And they
of Lazarus. But that Jesus would rise from the dead,        believe what they do not see. Blessed are they, in-
that was farthest from his thoughts and understand-         deed!
ing. For him the cause of Jesus was lost with His
death. And this explains why he was not gathered              `But there is more!
with the rest on the evening of the resurrection. This        Thomas could not believe in the resurrection, be-
also explains why he answered as he did when the            cause he did not understand and believe in the cross.
disciples announced to him that the Lord was risen          To him the cross was the end of all his hope.
from the dead. It made no impression on him except
to push him down further in his state of gloom, for           But blessed are they who see in the resurrection
he would not believe until he had seen for himself.         the efficacy of the cross! Christ is risen from the dead
                                                            as a signal of their justification through His humilia-
  Thomas, you have seen Me, and therefore you have          tion and descent into hell. As Paul later expressed it:
believed!                                                   "Who was delivered because of our  offences,. and
  Your faith, wherein you now rejoice, has come up          raised again because of our justification." Not was He
in your soul and has overwhelmed your heart because         raised to justify us, but because we were justified in
you have seen Me with your natural, earthly eyes.           His deliverance for our offences. This is what faith
  Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have         believes, that which can not be seen with the natural
believed!                                                   eye. And that is blessed, indeed!
  What the disciples could not do when the women              Still more! As Peter also later expressed it in these
brought them the message that they had seen the             words: "Who having not seen, ye love; in whom,
Lord, what Thomas hesitated to do when the dis-             though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice
ciples informed him that Jesus was indeed risen.from        with joy unspeakable and full of glory." This is the
the dead  - that thousands upon thousands would             blessedness of which the Lord speaks in the text.
indeed do, namely, believe what they had not seen.            Marvelous indeed! We see Him not, for He is in
  Presently the apostles would go into all the world        heaven; yet we love Him. Though now we see Him
bearing the good tidings that they were eyewitnesses        not, yet believing, we joy with joy unspeakable.
of the fact that Christ was truly risen from the dead.        ,Wonderful  faith!
And upon their testimony an innumerable host would
believe and be saved.                                         Faith which believes that in Jesus we have the very
                                                            God of our salvation. Which believes that the resur-
   Yea more, long after their decease, through their        rected Lord by the power of His Spirit and Word has
word empowered by the Holy Spirit and inscribed in          given unto us the power of a new life, implanted in
the Holy Gospel, the truth would echo and re-echo in        our hearts by regeneration which is resurrection life
all the world through the lively preaching of the           that cannot perish. Which also believes that the good
gospel by the faithful church. And many will rejoice        work He has begun in us He will also finish, so that
with joy unspeakable in the resurrected and glorified       even our bodies which must presently be laid in the
Redeemer.                                                   grave, shall also rise again. Which believes that in the
   And that faith shall give greater joy and richer         regeneration of all things we shall see Him, Whom


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                              821



now we cannot see - face to face. And we shall abide           When we shall see Him, Whom now we cannot see,
with Him forever.                                           but then face to face, we shall glorify and praise Him
  What shall we say then?                                   forever!.
  Thomas, when for a small moment he was  priv-                In the meantime, we walk by faith, not by sight.
ileged to behold an appearance of the risen Lord,              And this is blessedness, par excellence!
exclaimed, My Lord, and my God!


EDITORIALS
Pro$  H.C. Hoeksema           .


                                           Edit or's Notes

Bound Volumes. Our Business Manager informs me              lot, men!"- For your bound volume write: The
that bound copies of Volume 51 are now available.           Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI
Because of the great increase in demand for bound           49506.
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In addition, many past volumes (black binding only)         2006, Grand Rapids, MI 49501. Do you know that
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Business Manager adds the following note: "Thanks           catalogue? That's a good beginning for a library of
to several of our seminarians, these bound volumes          Reformed literature! And besides, all our pamphlets,
are made available. It takes quite a bit of time and        catechism materials, and periodicals are listed. Check
effort to collect the loose issues and get them in order    your library shelf to see whether you have every-
for binding. These young men have been most                 thing!
cooperative in assembling the loose copies. Thanks a


                                   Our Australasian  Tour  (12)

   For the first time in our lives we had the ex-           present. It was my turn to preach at this fast service,
perience of participating in a service which we did not     and I went to the pulpit accompanied by my inter-
at all understand. And what is more, Rev. Hanko and         preter, Evangelist Cornelius Kuswanto. I preached in
I both had the experience of preaching through an           the English language on John 14:6, "Jesus saith unto
interpreter. At  6:30 on Sunday morning our chauf-          him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
feur, Cornelius Kuswanto, was at the hotel to pick us       cometh'unto the Father, but by me." I had to deliver
up for the first service of the day, which began at 7       my sermon in simple and deliberate English, waiting
o'clock. The services are conducted early in the            after each sentence for my interpreter to translate
morning because of the heat and humidity. Before            into the Indonesian language. That was indeed a new
the services began, we were treated to some weak tea        experience! After the service we had the opportunity
and rice cakes: for our hosts at this church gave every     to meet,all the people of the congregation as they left
evidence of outdoing themselves in an effort to be          the building. As I mentioned earlier, we had no idea
kind and hospitable. All three of us were present at        how well we were communicating with the congrega-
the prayer before the service (which we did not             tion; we were told, however, that the messages were
understand); and then we went to the auditorium,            greatly enjoyed and gladly received.
where there was a congregation numbering about 150            Between services we were again treated to refresh-


r822                                            THE STANDARD BEARER
  ments, and we also had the opportunity to visit the         Ephesians 2, gave them a simple lesson about the Five
  homes of Mrs. Mangindaan and of Mr. and Mrs.                Points of Calvinism. There were several intelligent
   Sudargo and to get some idea of the way these people       questions about predestination and about free will, as
  lived.                                                      well as questions which arose concerning the denial of
     Rev. Hanko was scheduled to preach at the 10             the authority of Scripture. The subject of the Five
   o'clock service. But he had been informed on Satur-        Points of Calvinism seemed new to these people. For
   day evening, shortly after our arrival, that the elder     after the meeting, during some of the informal dis-
   who would serve as his translator was more at home         cussion which followed, there were those who ex-
   in the Dutch language than in the English language.        pressed that they would like to know more about the
   The result was that Rev. Hanko spent a long time on        subject of the Five Points of Calvinism; and Evangel-
   Saturday night preparing to preach in the Dutch            ist Kuswanto asked if I would be able to send him a
   language  - something which he had not done in             book about this subject, which I promised to do.
   about twenty years. Talk about a catholic church             Thus ended a Sunday full of new and strange
   service! Rev. Hanko was preaching in Dutch on Psalm        experiences, but also a day at the end of which it
   9 1:  1,2. His interpreter was translating into the        behooved us to give thanks to our God for this oppor-
   Indonesian language. My wife and I followed the            tunity to make known His Word in that distant land.
   Scripture reading in our English Bibles. There were
   others with Bibles in the Indonesian language. But in        Monday, July 21, was a day partly devoted to
                                                              work and partly devoted to a whirlwind shopping and
   the pew in which we sat there was also a young lady        sight seeing tour. Even in Indonesia we could not
   following in her Bible in the Chinese language.
   English, Dutch, Indonesian, and Chinese - all in the       escape the influence of  Mri van Rij; and this was a
   same church service! Incidentally, we sang from            good thing. He had made arrangements for one of his
   Indonesian hymn books, with many of the American           business associates in Jakarta, Mr. Cornelius Marinus,
   hymn tunes familiar to us being used. Although we          to help us find our way in those foreign circum-
   did not know what we were singing, Rev. Hanko and          stances and to show us some of the sights. Our first
  Mrs. Hoeksema and I sang along in Indonesian, be-           item of business was to confirm our air reservations
   cause the language is very phonetic.                       for that evening. We had been unable to succeed in
                                                              this on Saturday when we arrived; and it seems as
     After the service we were treated to an Indonesian       though even a little routine item such as this is quite
   dinner in the courtyard of the church, a dinner which      an accomplishment in Indonesia. At any rate, we
   was shared with the various leading people of the          were somewhat relieved to have that taken care of.
   congregation. But soon after dinner we went back to        Next, we had to  find the Emmanuel "Toko Buku
   our hotel for some rest and some relief from the           (Book Store)", the headquarters of the mission which
   stifling heat and humidity.                                distributes our literature in Indonesia for the Foreign
     At  5:30 in the afternoon Mr. Kuswanto again             Mission Committee. All we had was the name and a
   called for us and brought us to the church for a meet-     postoffice box number. But Mr. Marinus knew where
  ing of various of the leaders of the congregation for       to go, and also knew how to get us through the
   Bible study. Again, this entire meeting was conducted      tangled morning traffic of Jakarta. At the mission we
  by us in the English language, with Mr. Kuswanto            inquired for  Mr. Sam Daniels, who, we had been
  translating our remarks into the Indonesian language;       informed, was in charge of the work. Incidentally, the
  besides, except for a few questions from the people         people in charge of this mission are of Indian nation-
  which were asked in broken English, our interpreter         ality, not Indonesian. This mission is engaged in
   also had to translate the Indonesian questions into        translating, printing, and distributing some of the
  English for us. The reader can well understand that         Bible Lessons prepared by Rev. Woudenberg. Our
  this served to make a meeting rather tedious. On one        mandate was to find out about this work and its
   occasion I forgot about the language problem and           progress. I will not weary you with the details of
   about. my interpreter, until several in the audience       what we learned, except to report that we found out
  began to laugh and to point to Cornelius standing at        that the response to these lessons is rather small. This,
  my side. Fortunately, he was able to catch up on the        however, is not due to the lessons themselves, but
  several sentences which I had spoken without a pause.       rather due to the fact that in this land of inefficiency
  This was a very interesting meeting from the point of       and poverty you can hardly expect to find many who
  view of the fact that the questions from the audience       will complete a correspondence. course. However, we
  served to `reveal their thinking, and also served to        have made our report on this matter to the Foreign
   show `that my remarks were getting across even             Mission Committee, and they will undoubtedly have
  through the process of translation. I took this occa-       recommendations concerning future action to our
   sion to tell this gathering something about our Protes-    next synod. I may add that at this mission we were
   tant Reformed Churches, and, in connection with            asked concerning the possibility of sending other


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                      823


tracts and pamphlets which might be translated and                 and seeing the rice paddies, the banana groves, and
printed. They also requested samples of our books                  later, at the higher elevation, acre after acre of tea.
that might be placed in their bookstore.                           We passed through the city of Bogor, where, we were
   After this business was taken care of, we all had               told, the Dutch government officials formerly lived;
some shopping to do in Jakarta; and in this, too, we               and we went on as far as a low mountain pass, called
were assisted by Mr. Marinus, who knew the best                    Puncak Pass, where we had noon lunch rather be-
places to shop and who took care that we were not                  latedly. However, we had really extended our tour
cheated. In the course of our shopping tour, we also               too long. And although our guide was virtually cer-
had the opportunity to see some of the sights of                   tain that our flight would not leave the airport on
Jakarta. Just to furnish another glimpse of the social             time (for it seems to be proverbial that no one is on
and economic conditions, I may mention that we                     time in Indonesia), we could not depend on this. The
visited a batik factory, where Indonesian workers                  result was that we had a breakneck trip back through
were busy in a dark and dingy cellar stamping designs              the traffic of Jakarta to the airport, with our.
on and dyeing the beautiful batik fabric. We  ,were                chauffeur playing "chicken" all the way. And sure
told that the women who were working there earned                  enough, though we got back to the airport just in
the equivalent of 35  a per day. It was a relief to get            time to check in for our scheduled departure, our
out of the city of Jakarta for awhile and into the                 plane was delayed for an hour, and we could have
countryside of the Island of Java. We had been told                made our return trip at a more leisurely pace. Our
that a lack of food and agricultural productivity is               friends from the church were at the airport to bid us
not one of the problems of Indonesia; and when we                  good-by, and at 6 P.M. we left by Thai International
traveled through the lush, tropical countryside, we                Airlines for Singapore, more than 500 miles to the
could believe. this. Everything grows luxuriantly and              north. When we reached Singapore, we were back in
abundantly. None of the land is wasted. And al-                    the Northern Hemisphere, just a little north of the
though our trip was somewhat spoiled by torrential                 equator.
downpours, we enjoyed traveling through the country



                          Clasping A Viper To The Bosom

                                                            (2)


   On February 23, 1975, Dr. S. Woudstra preached a                which would have been to his credit. This, however,
sermon on Ephesians 1: 3,4 in the Reformed Church                  he exactly did not do, as we shall see.
of Geelong. For some time prior to last year's visit to              But it was a bold move, in the second place, be-
Geelong I had had a tape recording of this sermon;                 cause this very text (Ephesians 1:4) is referred to no
and later I received a typewritten transcript of the               less than four times in the First Head of Doctrine of
same sermon which I checked very carefully for ac-                 the Canons of Dordrecht. Article 7, where election is
curacy by comparing it with the recording. The date                defined, quotes this passage for proof. Article 9
of this sermon is significant, because it was after                quotes this passage as proof that holiness is not a
Woudstra's dismissal from Geelong, but before his                  condition of election, but the fruit and effect of
going to the Reformed Church of Hobart, Tasmania.                  election, which is "the fountain of every saving
The text of the sermon is important: for it meant                  good." Article 1 of the Rejection of Errors quotes
that Dr. Woudstra was bound to preach on the sub-                  this text again as proof that. God "has from eternity
ject of election.                                                  chosen certain particular persons to whom above
   This was a very bold move.                                      others he in time will grant both faith in Christ and
  It was a bold move, in the first place, because Dr.              perseverance." And Article 5 of the Rejection of
Woudstra had just been dismissed from the Reformed                 Errors cites this passage once more over against the
Theological College because of errant views concem-                Arminian error of conditional election and in favor of
ing predestination, especially reprobation. It could, of           eternal and unconditional erection.
course, have been a very good move: Dr. Woudstra                     However, it was a bold move, in the third place,
could have purged himself of every suspicion of                    because, Dr. Woudstra took this opportunity to
heresy by preaching a thoroughly Reformed sermon                   preach a very bad sermon. No, I do not mean a poor
on this text. Then this would have been a bold move                sermon: for even a professor can preach a sermon


 824                                             THE STANDARD  BEARER


 that is homiletically and exegetically poor. I mean a          the world." But nowhere in the sermon is this taught.
 bad sermon. It is a sermon which no Reformed man                 On the contrary, the sermon teaches a strange
 should get in his head or in his heart to preach. The          doctrine of election in time. With respect to Abra-
 whole sermon is bad. It is not Reformed. There is not          ham, Dr. Woudstra says: "Of all the people who were
 a Reformed note in it - though one might expect a              in the world at that time, God came down and picked
 ringing Reformed sermon on a text like this. It casts          just one lone individual, Abraham." With respect to
 aspersions on the Reformed truth of election by cari-          Israel he says: "Many years later, in fact, many gener-
 caturing that truth and then criticizing the caricature,       ations later, God was doing the same thing. But this
that is, criticizing things which no one believes, but          time God entered into this kind of relationship with
 which Reformed people have often been wrongly                  one people that had sprung from the loins of
 accused of believing. And it positively teaches a              Abraham . . . . But of all the people who could look
 wrong view of election, and that, too, in more than            back to Abraham as their father, God chose only one
 one respect.                                                   people, Israel."' And with respect to Christ he says:
  I wish that space permitted quoting  the'entire  ser-         "And then history rolls on, hundreds of years pass by.
 mon: for any discerning Reformed believer would be             But after hundreds of years, the Lord God did the
 compelled to agree with my characterization of the             same thing. And this time God elected again an in-
 sermon. But I will limit myself to some specifics.             dividual, Jesus of Nazareth."
    Before I point out these specifics, however, I must            When he comes to the crucial expression "before
 make two more remarks. In the first place, let me              the foundation of the world," one would expect that
 prevent in advance any counter-argument by empha-              here, at last, he would somewhat set matters straight
 sizing that what I write has nothing to do with the            and that the idea of election from eternity would be
 difference between supra- and infralapsarianism. I             preached. But he lightly tosses that idea off as fol-
 prefer the former, but I can shake hands with a true           lows: "Paul also says here, `Chosen in him before the
 infra- any day. Our Canons are infra-, too. And Woud-          foundation of the world.' What does Paul mean? I
 stra's sermon stands condemned in the light of the             don't think that Paul was here interested in giving an
 Canons. In the second place, let me point out that we          exact date or time when God did something, when
 are talking about a sermon, about preaching. This ser-         election took place. Or Paul does not say here that
 mon illustrates a very real, practical, spiritual danger       election somehow can be dated, whether it be in our
 to the church, therefore. And the danger is two-fold:          own calendar or, say, a heavenly calendar. What do
 this kind of preaching robs God's people of their              we know about these things anyway? With this phrase
 comfort, and it robs God of His honor. For, mind               the Apostle Paul manages to say that our election has
 you, the text of Woudstra's sermon speaks of these             nothing to do with anything that is in me, anything
 two items. The text puts the language of praise, of            that I have been able to accomplish or perhaps in the
 doxology, to the electing God in the mouth of God's            future will accomplish. It means that God's choice of
 people. And it attributes "every spiritual blessing" of        me and many others is purely  His sovereign love
 God's people to their being elect in Christ from be-           decision. It also expresses, I believe, that election is
 fore the foundation of the world. Here is the text in          not an arbitrary kind of thing, a decision by which
 the version which Dr. Woudstra was using: "Blessed             God, so to speak, simply arbitrarily elects some and
 be the God and Eather of our Lord Jesus Christ who             rejects others."
 has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in
 the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before
 the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
  and blameless before him."
        Let us ask and answer some pertinent questions             Know the standard
  with respect to this sermon, especially in the light of
  the Canons of Dordrecht, which every Reformed                         and follow it.
  minister vows to uphold, teach, and defend.
  1. Does the Reformed doctrine of an eternal and
  unchangeable election come to expression in this ser-
  mon-?
  Answer :                                                                            Read  ihe
        No. This doctrine is plainly taught in Canons I, and
  the text on which Dr. Woudstra preached is cited as
  Scriptural proof, the reference being, of course, to                   STANDARD BEARER!
  the well-known expression "before the foundation of


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                825


2. Does the Reformed doctrine, taught in Canons I            have a tendency to make of election a limiting con-
10, that God `ivas pleased out of the common mass            cept. Somehow we tend to think, and there is a rea-
of sinners to adopt some certain persons as a peculiar       son for it - and I will come back to it - somehow we
people to himself" come to expression in this ser-           tend to think that the election of one implies of
mon?                                                         necessity the rejection of the others. But this cannot
Answer:                                                      be quite so. The Bible does not quite put it that
                                                             way." He then goes on to twist the fact that. in
  No. In the entire sermon the doctrine of definite,         Abraham all the nations of the earth would be blessed
personal election never comes to expression. The             into the idea that Abraham's election does not imply
sermon speaks of God's choosing a "multitude of              the rejection of the rest of the world. The same is
people." It speaks of God's choosing a "whole                done with Israel. Even though he quotes the
world." More than once that is confused by an ex-            prophecy of Amos, "You only have I known of all
pression such as, "in other words, a new heaven and a        the families of the earth," - and what could be more .
new earth." And while it is true, of course, that God        exclusive than "only"?  - he later states: "That
purposed to save an entire world, a whole creation,          (Israel) was the nation that God chose, but it should
this is not in the text. The text speaks of "us." Never      be quite clear that Israel's election did not mean the
once does the sermon define that "us" or limit it in         rejection of the rest of the world. Israel's election was
any way. Never does the sermon hint that election is         never meant to be a narrow restricted privilege for a
personal, definite, limited.                                 single isolated people." I ask: what else was Israel's
  Further, the sermon teaches a national election of         election through all the ages of the old dispensation,
Israel, but it fails completely even to suggest that "all    when God dealt exclusively with the nation of Israel?
are not Israel that are of Israel." Moreover, this elec-     Did not God know only  Israel of all the families of
tion of Israel  is' not presented as an election unto        the earth? Were not the Gentiles excluded? This is
salvation, but as a sort of election unto service.           not only falsehood,. but nonsensical falsehood!
Notice: "Israel was chosen by God in order that she            But there is more.
might make known to the world, the true character
of God. God wished to make it known to the world,              As we have already quoted in another connection,
through Israel, that He is a God who freely gives Him-       Dr. Woudstra says: "It also expresses, I believe, that
self to man in covenantal union. God chose Israel so         election is not an arbitrary kind of thing, a decision
that through Israel He might elect the world. And            by which God, so to speak, simply arbitrarily elects
then, of course, from Israel we turn to Israel's great-      some and rejects others." Now it is surely true that
est son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in His election we       neither election nor reprobation is arbitrary. But this
see most clearly what the purpose of election is and         idea of arbitrariness has been used wrongly as a stick
what election is. For in and through the election of         to whip the doctrine that God predestinates solely
the Lord Jesus Christ, God achieved His purposes for         according to His good pleasure. And Woudstra is not
the world, as we saw already, in His election of             careful to define what he means by arbitrariness; nor
Abraham and in His electioni of Israel. God's election       is he careful to state that although God is not arbi-
of the Lord Jesus Christ meant the salvation of the          trary, He does indeed sovereignly elect some and
world. And through His cross, through His resurrec-          reject others.
tion, Jesus achieved what God intended to do                    Later in the sermon he puts what has always been
through Israel. He achieved what Israel's election was       an  Arminian argument against sovereign predestina-
all about." [The reader may wonder how in a sermon           tion in the mouths of his audience. "We are inclined
on this text this whole subject of Israel and Abraham        to think that if we are elect, we are going to make it
can even arise; and I marvel, too, that it can be in-        anyway . . . But if, on the other hand, I am not elect,
jected into the sermon. But that is not the point. The
point is that this is a twisting of the Scriptural and       there is no force in heaven or on earth that can pos-
Reformed doctrine of election.] But in close con-            sibly change it. In other words, it would lead to utter
nection with this matter of definite, personal election      passivity." He merely calls this an irrelevant remark.
stands the next question.                                    He fails to point out that both election and reproba-
                                                             tion are, indeed, eternal and unchangeable and sover-
3. Does the Reformed doctrine that election is selec-        eign, and that the flaw in this remark is that this
tion, that it implies reprobation, come to its own'in        doctrine "does not make men careless and profane."
this sermon, in harmony with the teaching of the
Canons in I, 6 and I, 15, as well as other articles?            A bit later he again brings up the matter of arbi-
                                                             trariness in such a way as to cast aspersions on the
Answer :                                                     Reformed truth of predestination: "We also tend to
  By no means. On the contrary it is contradicted by         ask many wrong questions; and one of the most
many expressions. Note the following: "You and I             popular questions always is, `Why the one, why not


 826                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


 the others?' But the very answers we come up with                         The conclusion? Dr. Woudstra either teaches or
 are an indication that there is something wrong with                   leaves room in this sermon for the very same errors he
 the questions. Then our answer will always be either                   was reported to have taught at the Theological Col-
 God is arbitrary, as the proverbial flip of the coin, or               lege and for which he was dismissed.
 God is not quite powerful enough to save the whole                        And while he was dismissed from the college, he is
 world." The whole tendency of a discussion like this                   left completely free to teach these  evors in the
 is against the Reformed truth of sovereign election                    churches which support the college. The Reformed
 and reprobation by an eternal and unchangeable                         Church of Australia has clasped the viper to its
 decree. There is nothing wrong, you see, with this                     bosom, the venomous viper of the denial of sovereign
 question. It is perfectly legitimate. And there is a                   predestination. And now it is reported that at the
 Scriptural and Reformed answer: God's eternal and                      Synod in May there will be overtures and an appeal
 sovereign good pleasure. "He hath mercy on whom he                     for the reinstatement of Woudstra in the Reformed
will, and whom he will he hardeneth."                                   Theological College! That will only compound the
   Finally, he applies his sermon as follows: "Election                 evil. What should be done? He should be kept from
 means that there is salvation not for a few, but means                 the college. He should be deposed from the ministry.
 that there is salvation for the whole world . . . No one               And Classis Victoria should acknowledge the error of
 need be lost." That is a statement which no                            approving his admission to the ministry. If the
 Reformed man would ever make. It is principally                        Reformed Church of Australia ever hopes to retain
 universal&m! It is the blatant denial of sovereign                     anything at all of a Reformed character, this is the
 reprobation, which excludes all but the elect from                     only way. Return to the truth, or perish as a Re-
 salvation and destines them to be lost.                                formed church!



 VOICE OF OUR FATHERS



                                            Eternal Election  -

                                                      Pro$ Robert D. Decker

              "We believe that all the posterity of Adam being thus fallen into perdition and ruin, by the sin  of.our first
              parents, God did then manifest himself such as he is; that is to say, merciful and just: Merciful, since he
              delivers and  .preserves from this perdition all, whom he, in his eternal and unchangeable counsel of mere
              goodness, hath elected in Christ Jesus our Lord, without any respect to their works: Just, in leaving others
              in the fall and perdition wherein they have involved themselves."
                                                                                        Article XVI, The Belgic Confession



        Very carefully and very firmly the Creed has shut               giving ear to the lie of the devil. The tragic effect was
 the door to any possibility of man's saving himself.                   that man became wicked, perverse, and corrupt in all
 The truth of God's Word concerning man's creation,                     his ways. His light was changed into darkness. Man
 fall, original sin, and incapacity to perform what is                  lost all his excellent gifts and retained just a few
 truly good is set forth in the clearest of terms in                    remains of them, and even these are sufficient only to
 Articles fourteen and fifteen. Scripture teaches that                  leave him without excuse. Man has become liable to
 God created man good: in His image and after His                        corporal and spiritual death. Man is a slave to sin,
 likeness. God made man able to will "agreeably to the                  incapable of doing the good, and even incapable of
 will of God." `And man was righteous and holy. Thus                     willing the good. In a word, man has nothing of him-
 man mirrored, though in a creaturely way, something                     self. What is more,  &is original sin, both from the
 of the glory of God, His Maker. But from this excel-                    point of view of its guilt and from the point of view
 lent honor man fell into the shame of sin. He willfully                 of its corruption, has passed to all men because Adam
 subjected himself to sin and consequently to death by                   stood as the representative head, the first father, and


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 827


the root of the entire human race. There is, therefore,      merciful:  ". . .since he delivers and preserves from
but one and only one possibility of salvation for man.       this perdition all, whom he, in his eternal and un-
God! God must save or man remains forever lost.              changeable counsel of mere goodness, hath elected in
God's mercy is our only hope of salvation. This is the       Christ Jesus our Lord, without any respect to their
thrust of the teaching of our Confession at this point.      works." This is the decree of election. God is just:
"We believe that all the posterity of Adam being thus        ". . .in leaving others in the fall and perdition wherein
fallen into perdition and ruin, by the sin of our first      they have involved themselves." This is the decree of
parents, God did then manifest himself such as he is;        reprobation.
that is to say, merciful and just."                             In its brief statement on election, our Creed men-
     This knowledge has profound effects upon the            tions several of the characteristics of this decree.
believer. It humbles the child of God. He knows the          Notice that the Confession emphasizes that election is
terrible power of sin and his sinful nature against          "in Christ Jesus our Lord." Never may the decree of
which he must strive every day. He knows his                 election ,be conceived of apart from Jesus Christ. The
incapacity to perform what is truly good from daily          decree of election is not some arbitrary determination
experience. Out of this knowledge he is ever ready to        on the part of God. Election always has to do with
pray: "God be merciful to me, the sinner." The               Christ. Election is the choosing of the organism of the
knowledge of his depravity and of God's mercy                Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and of which
causes the believer to wonder. In the consciousness of       the individual, chosen saints are the members. Elec-
God's mercy he exclaims with the prophet:  "How              tion is  in  Christ and it is realized in the cross of
wondrous are the ways of God  and'how marvelous              Christ. The Scriptures make this abundantly plain.
are his doings." (Isaiah  55:8,9) Those ways of the          The holy Apostle breaks forth in the beautiful
Lord are certainly not our ways! How tremendously            doxology: "Blessed be the God and Father of our
great is God's grace and merciful His kindness. This         Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
knowledge also comforts the believer. Exactly                spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:" (Eph.
because man lacks the ability to save himself or even        1:3) God has done this, Paul continues; "According
to contribute toward his own salvation, and exactly          as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of
because God saves, the believer may be and is assured        the world. . . ." (vs. 4) We are predestinated unto the
of his salvation. God surely performs to the finish          adoption of children by Jesus Christ according to the
what He begins. Not only that but no one and                 good pleasure of God's will and to the praise of the
nothing can frustrate the work of Almighty God. If           glory of His grace. (Eph. 1: 5,6) It is in Christ that we
God saves and God alone, and He does, then nothing           have obtained the inheritance:  ". .  .being pre-
can be against us but all things are for us. This beauti-    destinated according to the purpose of him who
ful truth is taught in that classic passage, Romans          worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
8:28-39: "And we know that all things work together          (Eph. 1: 11) In chapter two of this same epistle the
for good to them that love God, to them who are the          Scripture speaks of the elect as the workmanship of
called according to his purpose." Why is this true and       God, who are created. in Christ Jesus unto the good
how is it that we know this? "For whom he did fore-          works which God has before ordained that they
know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to            should walk in them (vs. 10) One finds the same
the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn         emphasis in Romans  8:29 and 30 where Scripture
among many brethren. Moreover whom he did                    teaches that God predestinated His own "to be con-
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he               formed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
called, them he also justified: and whom he justified,       firstborn among many brethren." Thus it is that the
them he also  gIorified.  What shall we then say to          purpose and grace according to which God has saved
these things? If God be for us, who can be against           us and called us with an holy calling was given us &z
us?" Sovereign predestination in Jesus Christ is the         Christ Jesus  before the world began." (II Timothy
deepest ground of the believer's comfort. For this           1:9) Election according to the Word of God is in
reason too the Scriptures exhort God's people to:
"                                                            Christ. In fact, it may be said that Christ is THE
 . . .give diligence to make your calling and election       Elect. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone, elect and
sure: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall: For     precious, Whom God has laid in Zion. (I Peter 2:6;
so an entrance shall be ministered unto you                  Isaiah 28: 16) The One Who is the Servant of Jehovah,
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord          in Whom Jehovah delights and upon Whom Jehovah
and Saviour Jesus Christ." (II Peter 1: 10, 11)              has put His Spirit, God's Elect is Christ. (Isaiah
     While the article is very brief it does capture the     42: l-4) He is the Lamb of God by Whose precious
Bible's teaching on election and reprobation.* Notice        blood the saints have been redeemed and, "Who was
that the  Co?zfession   speaks of predestination as a        verily foreordained before the foundation of the
manifestation of God as merciful and just. God is            world, but was manifest in these last times for you."


828                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


(I Peter 1: 19,20) Still more, Christ is the firstborn of     depends upon the faith and obedience of men. They
every creature, the image of the invisible God. He is         believe, and, only they, whom God has eternally and
that because all things were created by Christ; all           unchangeably ordained to eternal life in Christ. God
things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible,         "delivers and preserves from this perdition all, whom
thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things        he, in his eternal and unchangeable counsel of mere
were created by Him and for Him. Thus Christ is               goodness, hath elected in Christ Jesus our Lord." Of
before all things and all things consist by Him. He is        this blessed truth the Savior Himself assured us when
the Head of the body which is the Church. Christ is           He said: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead in order           me * and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
                                                                  ,'
that in all things He might have the preeminence. The         out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine
reason for this is simply that it pleased the Father          own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is
that all fulness should dwell in Christ and that all          the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
things be reconciled to Him through the blood of His          which he hath given me .I should lose nothing, but
cross. (Colossians 1: 15-20) From all these passages          should raise it up again at the last day." (John
and more it is evident that God's eternal purpose, of         6.37-39)
which election is a part, is to manifest His glory in            Finally, the Creed characterizes election as being
Jesus Christ. Christ is first in God's counsel. All things    "without any respect to their works." God's elective
find their meaning and their significance in relation-        choosing is not conditioned by works. Election is not
ship to Jesus Christ.                                         even conditioned by the work of faith or man's act of
     The decree of election is confessed to be of God's       conversion. Listen to the powerful testimony of the
"mere goodness." Election is a sovereign decree. No           Word of God: "For the children being not yet born,
one and nothing outside of God prompted the                   neither having done any good or evil, that the pur-
Almighty to elect His Church. God elected us:
"                                                             pose of God according to election might stand, not
       .according to the good pleasure of His will."          of works .but of him that calleth; It was said unto her,
(Eph.  1:4,5) Furthermore, this decree of election is         The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
"eternal and unchangeable" according to our Con-              Jacob have I loved, but Esau -have I hated. . .So then
fession.  One must never imagine that God first               it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
determined to create the worlds and all things in             but of God that sheweth mercy." (Romans 9: 1 l-13,
them and then. when mankind fell decided to elect             16) Always salvation is "not of works lest any man
some to eternal life. Election is not some desperate          should boast." Always salvation is "by grace through
attempt on God's part to repair what man had spoiled          faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
through his sin. God has chosen His own in Christ             (Eph. 2: 8,9)
"before the foundation of the world.? From all
eternity God out of mere goodness chose His people              *It is my intention to devote four articles to this subject. This first
in Christ. And that decree is unchangeable. Nothing           article will concentrate on the subject of election. In our next install-
                                                              ment we shall consider the decree of reprobation. The last two articles
can frustrate God's saving purpose in Christ. God has         will be a study of John Calvin's views on Divine Predestination and our
not merely provided the possibility of salvation to a         Reformed Confessions' presentation (especially the  Canons of Dordt
fallen humanity. Neither is it the case that this decree      and the  Westminster Confession)  of this truth.



GUEST ARTICLE

          The Holy Spirit.  GodI's Downpayment.
                                                  Rev. Mark Hoe,ksema



     An evaluation of the theological trends of the 20th      Christ, especially under the influence of  neo-
century will reveal that in the early part of this            Reformational (and often heretical) theologians, of
century the Fatherhood of God was given  promi-               whom Barth was perhaps chief. In more recent times
nence, especially under the influence of men like             the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has received more
Bamack; the middle portion of the century was                 attention, perhaps most obviously through the rise of
devoted primarily to the doctrine of the person of            Pentecostalism and neo-Pentecostalism, as well as the


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                829


reaction of orthodox theologians to these move-              original means earnest money, pledge, guarantee,
ments. As could be expected, the Scriptural truths           downpayment. The figure conjured up by this word is
regarding the Holy Spirit received more scrutiny and         certainly familiar to us who live in the age of credit.
development also in the Reformed community.                  When we make a purchase for which we cannot
  The Protestant Reformed Churches have been no              immediately pay, we charge it, deferring the whole of
exception to this. Though many issues raised and             the balance due until some later date; however, we
discussed by the theologians and churches of the             must make a downpayment, i.e., give the seller a frac-
world do not touch us directly or concern us greatly,        tion of the purchase price immediately. This is not
mostly because the majority of the views expressed           only a pledge to the seller that he will receive the
are patently non-Scriptural and heterodox, the               balance due him, but also a guarantee to the buyer of
emphasis upon' the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has           immediate ownership and possession of what he has
affected us. For some time I have heard comments             bought.
from our people to the effect that their knowledge             According to Paul, the Holy Spirit is exactly such a
concerning the Holy Spirit and His work is lacking.          downpayment. In Ephesians 1: 14 the Holy Spirit and
While it is by no means true that our people are             the downpayment are identified, while in the two
ignorant regarding this aspect of the Scriptural doc-        passages in II Corinthians Paul speaks of the
trine of salvation, such comments do indicate that           guarantee, the content of which is the Holy Spirit.
there is a need to increase our knowledge in this area.      While at first glance it may seem crass to speak of the
                                                             Holy Spirit in such pecuniary terms, yet this is
  This fact was recently brought home pointedly to           exactly what Paul does, taking a well-understood
me. At a recent meeting of the Reformed Ministers            figure from our daily lives, as Scripture often does.
Association of the Dakotas, an organization of               The meaning of the figure is, therefore, that the Holy
Reformed ministers which meets monthly for the               Spirit is God's downpayment to us, His people.
purpose of informal discussion of various aspects of
the Reformed faith, one of the members presented a             All of this is in harmony with the context in the
paper on the subject of the Holy Spirit as guarantee.        passages cited. All of them have an eschatological
The thoughts presented in this article are the fruit of      emphasis, i.e., they deal with the future realization
the discussion which followed, as well as of personal        and fulfillment of the salvation of God's elect. In II
study. It is my hope that the ideas set forth here will      Corinthians  1:22 the context is the certainty of the
in a small way contribute to our understanding of this       promises of God in Christ from the viewpoint of their
aspect of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and thus of       ultimate fulfillment; in II Corinthians 5: 5 the context
the Holy Spirit Himself.                                     is the certainty of the future bodily resurrection and
                                                             our hope in it; and Ephesians 1: 14 speaks about our
  The concept of the Holy Spirit as guarantee or             inheritance in the final sense. Yet the implication is
downpayment is found only three times in Scripture,          that we already possess the promises of God in
in all instances in the epistles of Paul. II Corinthians     Christ,  : though not in the fulness of perfection; we
1:21-22 says: "Now he which stablisheth us with you          have now the certainty of the resurrection of the
in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath            body, we are the recipients of the benefits of Christ.
sealed us, and given us the earnest (downpayment,            Nor is this surprising, for the Holy Spirit as He works
guarantee) of the Spirit in our hearts." In II Corin-        in believers always operates as the Spirit of Christ,
thians 5:5 we read, "Now he that hath wrought for us         applying to them the benefits of Christ's finished
the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto          work. Yet the emphasis in this downpayment idea is
us the earnest of the Spirit." (The  selfsame thing          definitely future and regards the full and perfect
refers to the bodily resurrection). And Ephesians            possession of salvation.
1,:  13b and 14: "In whom (Christ) also after that ye          When we put all of these ideas together a clear
believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of             picture of the Holy Spirit as downpayment emerges.
promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance until         We have immediate possession of God's salvation in
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the         Christ. Of that fact the Holy Spirit is the guarantee as
praise of his glory."                                        He is poured out into the church on Pentecost and
   As far as the idea of the term is concerned, it is        dwells in the hearts of believers. This means that the
rooted in a Hebrew word which means "to become               Holy Spirit is God's pledge to us that He will give us
surety, to pledge." In this sense it is often used in the    the whole of our salvation in the day of Christ. Then
Old Testament. And its basic meaning carries over            we shall receive the balance of our inheritance, which
into the New Testament; in fact, so closely are the          we now possess in part. God has assured us by giving
Old Testament and New Testament ideas connected              us the Holy Spirit in our hearts that He will pay the
that the word used by Paul in these Greek passages is        balance.
a transliteration of the Hebrew word. The word in the          Moreoever, the downpayment is the Spirit of


830                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


Christ as He dwells in believers subjectively. Though         that He is our Paraclete, but He also pledges to us
all of the work of the Holy Spirit is in a sense subjec-      that the same inheritance for which He pleads as our
tive, this needs stress. The point is that although we        Intercessor is in reality ours. The functions of the
must avoid being engulfed in the morass of  subjec-           Holy Spirit as Paraclete and downpayment both con-
tivism, we may not ignore the fact that there is a            cern the final inheritance, the former from an objec-
rightful place for Christian experience. And this is          tive viewpoint, the latter from the subjective. Cer-
exactly what the Holy Spirit as downpayment is all            tainly we believe the one; is it harder to believe the
about  - experiential assurance and certainty. We             other? Besides, this same Holy Spirit as the Spirit of
know  because the Holy Spirit is our guarantee that           Christ is also the giver of the gifts of the Spirit (I
the good work which our sovereign God has begun in            Corinthians  12), which are objective proofs of His
us he will surely perfect and realize in the day of           presence within the believer. The possession of the
Christ. And when we recognize that God witnesses              Holy Spirit as guarantee cannot be denied any more
this Himself in the Person of His Holy Spirit in our          than can the presence of the Spirit in believers as
very hearts, then our assurance can only increase.            manifested in the gifts and fruits of the Spirit.
  This does not mean, however, that the possession               All of this has a very practical significance for the
of the Holy Spirit as guarantee is purely subjective in       child of God. Most or all of us are at one time or
character. It is also objective, for this aspect of the       another plagued by doubts about the certainty of our
work of the Holy Spirit is inseparably connected with         salvation. We wonder if we really do possess the Holy
the other aspects of His work mentioned in the Scrip-         Spirit as God's downpayment. Perhaps we even go a
tures. Perhaps the question might arise, "How do I            step further and question whether, although we have
know that I have the Holy Spirit as God's downpay-            the Spirit of Christ, He is active as God's guarantee.
ment?" In answer I would point to the truth that this         The  answer  of God's Word is that He must be,
same Spirit Who is the guarantee is also the author of        whether or not we are always equally conscious of
other works of grace. His work, after all, is principally     His operation as such. When we possess the Spirit of
one, though it has several aspects. For example, the          Christ, we have God's downpayment. In the words of
Holy Spirit is our Paraclete or Intercessor with the          I John 4: 13, "Hereby know we that we dwell in him
Father in heaven. That is, He pleads on our behalf on         and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit."
the basis of the finished work of Christ, appealing to        And then, too, we have the firm and unshakeable
the justice of God regarding our right to the final           assurance of our final inheritance in all its perfection
inheritance of glory. Immediately the connection is           and glory.
evident. Not only does the Holy Spirit guarantee us


ALL AROUND US:

                                               Biblica 1 Zoology
                                       Chiang Vs. Chou In Death
                                    Trouble Within The LCM Synod
                                              Lutheran Merger?

                                                     Rev. H. Veldman


                BIBLICAL ZOOLOGY                                  lamed a train of thought. What a lot of animals there
  In the Banner of Jan. 16, 1976, appeared an article             are: in the Bible! They are mentioned in its  fast
by J. D. Eppinga on BIBLICAL ZOOLOGY. This                        chapter. In the second chapter, they are brought to
article appears on page 9 of this issue. Writing on the           Adam for naming. In Genesis 3, there is the serpent.
fact that so many animals are mentioned in the Word               The gospel story cannot be told without reference to
                                                                  creatures created a little lower than man. If  God
of God, he writes the following:                                hadn't loved them all so much, He wouldn't have
       Coming home, I reflected on his answer and  en-            given them a boat ride in Genesis 7 . . .


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        831



      As vice-reeents  of the earth, let us love and care              TROUBLE WITHIN THE LCM SYNOD
   for all (God's) creatures, great and small. Like               CHRISTIAN NEWS has the following to report in
   Thoreau. Like Francis of Assisi. Meanwhile, don't
   forget to work toward and pray for the coming of             its issue of Jan. 12, 1976, page 1:
   God's kingdom.                                                      "Moderates" have been praising while conserva-
                                                                    tives in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod have
      Wherein "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and              been criticizing Dr. Jacob Preus, president of the 3
   the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf
   and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child        million member church body, for defying a resolution
   shall lead them" (Isa. 11:6).                                    adopted at the church's 1975 convention in Anaheim,
                                                                    California.
  When I read this article, I said to myself, "What
kind of language is this when `speaking about the                      The Associated Press reported last month in a
                                                                    story from St. Louis: "The president of the Lutheran
flood?" Is it proper to speak of the flood as a                     Church-Missouri Synod says he won't follow a synod
"boat ride"? Besides, what is Eppinga's conception of               resolution that required him to oust a district presi-
working and praying for the coming of God's king-                   dent from office." The December 26 Denver  Post
dom? As did Thoreau? Thoreau, I understand, was                     headlined the story: "Lutheran President Defies
not a believer in God and in His Christ. Does Eppinga               Ouster Order." The December  23 St. Louis  GZobe
mean that we work and pray for the coming of the                   Democrat said: "The Rev. Dr. Jacob A.O. Preus,
kingdom of God when we love and care for all God's                  president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod,
creatures, as did Thoreau? Does Eppinga believe in                  will not follow a synod resolution that requires him
the kingdom of God in the postmillenarian sense of                  to oust a district president from office, he said
the word?                                                           Monday." The St. Louis paper said that "The
                                                                    decision is virtually certain to  turn many conservative
                                                                    synod members against the controversial president,
             CHIANG VS. CHOU IN DEATH                               who was elected by conservatives seeking doctrinal
  This article appeared in CHRISTIAN BEACON,                        reform in the  2.8~million  member church." A head-
                                                                    line in the December  27 Los Angeles Times  read:
Jan. 15, 1976, Vol. 40, No. 49, page 1. We now quote                "Lutheran Leader Defies Resolution."
the following from this article:
                                                                       The LCMS directed its president to take action
      The death of Chou En-lai can be contrasted with               against any district president who defended the
   the death of Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang  Kai-shek  had a            theology of "Seminex" and insisted on ordaining and
   Christian funeral. Only 23 nations sent any form of              installing graduates of "Seminex"  (5-02A).  Most
   representation. Chou En-lai received eulogies from               graduates of "Seminex" are defending the theological
   more than one hundred nations. President Ford and                position of their professors at "Seminex." These pro-
   Dr. Kissinger praised his leadership. The newspapers             fessors contend that the Bible contains errors, man
   of the United States and the networks also praised               may have evolved from some ape-like creature, man
   him as a great statesman.                                        does not have an immortal soul, and some of the
      Here was a man who was responsible for the                    words and miracles attributed to Jesus in the Bible
   murder of millions of human beings. As prime min-                were not actually said and performed by Jesus.
   ister he killed more Christians than Hitler ever killed          According to some "Seminex" professors, some of
   Jews.                                                            these words and miracles may have been fabricated
      His death has revealed two things. First, his body            by the early church. Dr. Herman Neunaber, president
   as it lay in state had over it the red flag with the             of the LCMS's Southern Illinois District, is one of the
   hammer and the sickle. This has been the emblem of               LCMS's district presidents who maintains that LCMS '
   the USSR. The Red Chinese have had their own flag,               pastors and professors should be allowed to teach
   but in death Chou En-lai revealed the real heart of his          that the Bible contains errors and that man does not
   whole life  - the hammer and the sickle. This is the             have an immortal soul. Neunaber has been an ardent
   emblem that Communism is using to unite the world                defender of the theological position of "Seminex."
   in its elimination of U.S. "imperialism," neocolonial-           Preus has defied the LCMS's convention resolution
   ism," and capitalism.                                            and allowed Neunaber to remain in office even
                                                                    though Neunaber has refused to retract his defense of
      Second, the so-called break between Red China                 the theology of "Seminex."
   and Moscow is only on the surface. . . .                            Neunaber said that "To comply with resolution
  With this we substantially agree. We do not care to               502A  would hinder the Christian ministry in the area
                                                                    where I am called as District President." According to
comment on the remarks of Carl  McIntire in re                      Neunaber, "To give `stated compliance' to resolution
Communism. This is not Christianity's only enemy.                   5-02A  would mean that I no longer support the stu-
For the rest, however, we must agree. That this                     dents and the protest they have raised against the
murderer of millions was eulogized was undoubtedly                  action of  Synodical administrators at Concordia
politically prompted. We fear that this is sadly true.              Seminary. It is my personal belief that the students


832                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER


       not only had the right, but even the Christian duty to         where of the growing liberalism in the Lutheran
       protest actions which they believed to be wrong."              Church. Do you want the merged church of the
  So, the battle lines are being drawn more sharply in                future to teach without opposition the following:
the Lutheran Church. It remains to be seen what will                  1. Holy Scripture may contain errors and contra-
be the outcome of this.                                                      dictions?
                                                                      2.     Adam and Eve are not real people?
                    LUTHERAN MERGER?                                  3. Miracles of the Bible perhaps ,never  happened?
  LUTHERANS' ALERT-NATIONAL is a magazine                             4.     The sayings of Jesus were injected in the Bible by
to warn all Lutherans everywhere of the growing                              the early church?
liberalism in the Lutheran Church. In its January,                    5.     Nothing is of real importance in the Bible that
1976, issue, pages 2-3, the following appears. This                          does not deny the Gospel; therefore, extra and
quotation is by Dr. Redal, president of this magazine.                       pre-marital sex is not necessarily sinful? Homo-
                                                                             sexuality should be tolerated, and abortion is to
          With the recently expanded cooperation between                     be accepted?
       the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran
       Church of America at the seminary level it is very                   This is the theology  .of the liberal church today.
       apparent that a merger between the two synods is in           This is the theology that is at present tolerated in
       the offing. Even though Dr. David Preus, President `of         both the ALC and the LCA and the "unity in faith
       the ALC, and Dr. Robert Marshall, President of the             and doctrine" about which Dr. Preus speaks. The
       ICA, have not specifically endorsed an organic merger          merger of these two bodies would only solidify the
       their own statements suggest a move in that direction.        hold on these false teachings.
          Dr. Preus in an address on October 14th at                        Again we say with emphasis, unless the grass roots
       Wartburg  Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, spoke these                in the ALC and LCA wake up,  this is the church for
       words: "The ALC believes that ALC-LCA relations               your children. Is that what you want?
       are going well, and we rejoice in that. We believe that       To this we add: these terrible heresies are taught so
       Lutheran unity is a present reality. Unity in faith and    terribly commonly today. Also in the Reformed
       doctrine with the LCA is overwhelmingly accepted by        churches of today. We share the sentiments expressed
       the ALC people':                                           by the author of the above quotation, and also his
          Dr. Marshall said in an address on September 21,        fears. Is this what we want? May the Lord give us His
       1975: `Some ALC leaders believe organic union              grace ever to be on the alert and to warn our children
       would be a mistake. My view is different." He further      and the. Church of God against these distortions' of
       stressed that the LCA will press cooperation with the      Holy Writ. These teachings purpose the destruction of
       ALC.                                                       the Church of God. Incidentally, the mailing address
          What we are trying to do in LUTHERANS                   of this magazine is: P. 0. Box 7186, Tacoma, Wash-
       ALERT-NATIONAL is to warn all Lutherans every-             i n g t o n   9 8 4 0 7 .


MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                         `Letter To .Timothy

Dear Timothy,                                                     not a question. I think `you probably put this in your
  I have before me your last letter in which you                  letter because it is a sort of "stock answer" which
make some inquiries concerning practical preaching. I             you get when you talk to ministers about your
shall try to discuss the points you bring up, one by              problem; but it is a stock answer which, while
one.                                                              acknowledged by you to be true, nevertheless does
                                                                  not really satisfy you.
  You make the observation first of all that you
agree wit-h the assertion which is often made that "if               But I want to make a few remarks about this
doctrine is preached, a proper walk will be obvious,              matter nevertheless. I hope you will be sufficiently
for doctrine and walk .are one." I realize that this is           patient with me not to chaff at my desire to empha-


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                833



size this truth once again. It needs emphasis. And the      share your life with him and enjoy his fellowship. Nc
whole matter ,of practical preaching cannot be under-       book will ever do that.
stood properly without this emphasis. .                       But the Bible does this. This is not because the
  In a certain sense of the word, the distinction           Bible has any magical power in itself. But the Bible
between doctrinal and practical preaching is a false        does this through the operation of the Spirit and in
distinction. It is, if properly understood, not to be       organic connection with the preaching of the Word of
condemned; and, indeed, it is a useful distinction          God contained in the Scriptures. The Bible does not
which we cannot abandon even if we wiIl. Even the           only tell  us about  God  - although it does that too.
apostle Paul, e.g., has what we usually call a doctrinal    But when God gives to us the Book in which He tells
part to his epistles and a practical part. And the prac-    us about  Himself, He gives us a Book by means of
tical part is the application in a very practical way of    which we can, in the deepest sense of the word, know
the doctrines he has set forth in the early part of the     Him. Admittedly, this is a miracle which defies
letter. But there is a sense in which the distinction is    description and analysis. But, through the Scriptures,
false. And we should be clear on that.                      we know God as truly and as intimately as we know
                                                            our own wives. We know God as truly and as inti-
  Let me put the matter this way. We believe that           mately as we know our closest friend. We know Him
the Scriptures are God's infallible record of His own       because He talks to us and makes it possible, through
revelation to us in Jesus Christ. God has revealed          the Word, to talk to  Him. We know Him because,
Himself. He has revealed Himself in such a way that         through the Word, we have the experience of His
He has told us about Himself. By means of His revela-       presence and nearness as really as we experience the
tion we can know Who and What God is. This revela-          presence and nearness of our own wives.
tion is always through Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ is
not only the highest possible revelation of God, but          Thus the knowledge which Scripture gives us of
Jesus Christ is the revelation of God as the God Who        God is the knowledge of love. There really is no other
saves His people, and saves them through Christ.            knowledge of God than this. In an abstract way we
  The Scriptures are the infallible -record of this         can conceive of a knowledge of God which is a mere
revelation. It is important that we see this clearly.       intellectual knowledge  - a knowledge of the head,
This is Scripture. This is its character. This is what      though nothing more. But such a knowledge does not
Scripture is all about. God is talking in Scripture         really exist in fact. And it does not exist in fact be-
about Himself. He is telling us Who He is and What          cause every man must either love God or hate God.
He is and what He does.                                     There is no in-between, no middle ground, no neutral
                                                            position, no evasion of the calling to love. But a
  But the Scriptures are different from any other           person who hates God is also a person who will never
book because the Scriptures are the record of God's         allow: the knowledge of God as it is in the Scriptures
revelatory Word. You may, e.g., read, "Son of My            to stand unchallenged and uncontested. Just as the
Tears," and by means of this biography of Augustine         heathen, according to`Pau1 in Romans 1, change the
come to know about Augustine. Or you may `even              glory of .God revealed through the things which are
read Augustine's own autobiography, his "Confes-            made into images representing corruptible things, so
sions." But all the knowledge you will acquire of           does the unbeliever change the glory of God revealed
Augustine is a certain amount of knowledge about            in the Scriptures into his own images. He hates God,
him. There is no way, short of face to face contact, in     but his hatred can never leave God alone. He has to
which you can come to know Augustine himself. And           corrupt God, to destroy Him.
face to face contact will have to wait till you meet
Augustine in glory.                                           But to get back to the point I am trying to make:
  But this is not merely because Augustine is now           the knowledge of God which comes through  .the
dead. Even if he were living this would be true. You        Scriptures is a knowledge of love. I.e., it is a knowl-
can pick up a biography of a living man, or even his        edge born out of love; it is a knowledge of the in-
own autobiography, and these books will not give            timacy and fellowship of love; it is a knowledge
you anything more than knowledge  about  that               which results in love.
person. This is important. As long as you only know           But you see here the connection. The whole
about  a person, there is nothing you can really say        keeping of the whole law of God, and the whole
about any contact with that person. You cannot              observance of all His will for us is the one great
claim to have talked with him. You cannot claim to          commandment: Love  God: All the hundreds of
have had any kind of personal experience with him.          admonitions of Scripture are only detailed explica-
You cannot have sufficient knowledge of him that            tions of that one command: Love God, And here
you can confidently say, "I know him." And above            doctrine and life come together in an inseparable
all, you cannot love him, have communion with him,          way. It is for this reason that the  ,confession  of the,


834                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


truth is not a mere verbal confession of one's  con-          who may wonder why in the world his girlfriend
viction concerning certain intellectual beliefs, but it is    wants to know all these meaningless and insignificant
rather a way of life, a levenswandel.                         details which are of no importance to him and which
   It is true, of course, that this has to be made clear      seem totally boring. If he inquires of her as to the
`to your people. And you must do this again and               reason for her interest in these things, she could con-
again. There is always the danger that people in the          ceivably answer that she wants to learn as much as
Church forget this for one reason or another. You             she can about him because she wants to discover for
see, though it is true what I said above that one either      herself whether or not he will be a husband who can
loves God or hates God and that, therefore, one               provide her with the good things of life when once
either loves the truth or hates the truth; nevertheless,      they get married. She may answer that she wants to
it also usually happens that within a given congrega-         `be sure that he will, after their marriage, enable her to
                                                              live a life of complete leisure in which she can do as
tion, the love for the truth which once burned as a           she pleases and enjoy life to the full. But if this is the
hot light, does not turn into hatred overnight. It can
never work this way, nor does it work this way in             gist of her answer, her fiance will have good reason to
history. What usually happens is that there is a              doubt her love for him, and will have every reason to
spiritual lethargy which creeps into the church. There        conclude that she loves herself only and simply wants
is a sort of "ho-hum" attitude towards the truth of           to use him for her own selfish purposes. That will be
the Scriptures. There is an indifference, a  shrug-of-        sufficient to break the engagement.
the-shoulders response to the preaching. People do               But if on the other hand, she really does love her
not really take it very seriously any more. There is          husband-to-be, she will answer that she wants to
nothing very important about it, after all. There is          know all she can about him for no other reason than
nothing to get excited about. There is nothing to stir        that she loves him. Love prompts her to want to
the soul. One can take it or leave it as he sees fit.         know all she can about him. Love is its own reason.
   This attitude arises; obviously, when the truth of         Love is sufficient reason. It is in the nature of love to
the Scriptures is no longer preached as the truth of          want this. And it is precisely because of that love
love. The result is an attitude of carelessness and           which expresses itself in that way that she will also
indifference towards the truth which is also followed         keep herself pure for him, waiting anxiously the time
by a carnal and worldly walk which is at total vari-          of his return.
 ance with the love of God. From this springs dead               Do you see the analogy? We are engaged to Christ.
 orthodoxy and antinomianism. But the solution to             We are destined to be His bride. If the love which is
 the problem is not to down play doctrine and make a          stirred up in us by the letters He writes to us in the
 false disjunction between doctrine and practice; the         Scriptures is a genuine love, that love will not only,
 solution to the problem is to get across to the con-         for its own sake, want to know all that there is to
 gregation what true doctrine is all about.                   know about Christ, but that desire to know all that
   I suppose an illustration at this point would per-         there is to know about Christ will also prompt us to
haps be helpful. Supposing that a young engaged               keep ourselves unspotted from the world while we
couple separated because the man is called by his             anxiously await the coming of our Lover to take us to
government to serve in the armed forces. This service         Himself in the marriage supper of the Lamb.
involves his going overseas to live for a time far from
his home and far from the girl he loves. As has                  It is in this way that doctrine and practice are
happened so often in the past, the girl asks in her           related.
letters that her fiance tell her all about himself. She          I will have to save your other questions for the
wants to know what he does every day. She would               next letter.
like the latest pictures which he has had taken of him.
She wants to know the smallest details of his life.                                       With Christian greetings,
This might appear to be puzzling to the young man                                         H. Hanko




                       Gift Idea? Give good books. Give RFPA publications!


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 835


IN HIS FEAR



                           An Experience With Asaph

                                               Rev. Meindert Joostens


   The particular experience of which we want to             This is no less the case in Psalm 73. This is of signifi-
 speak is not a strange one. In fact, it is a very com-      cance as well as being beautiful. Before Asaph speaks
 mon one. For who of God's children has not, at one          concerning the dreadful experience that had taken
 time or another, asked himself the question, "why?"         hold upon him, he relates to us the outcome of his
 We ask ourselves this question as the troubles and          trial. How wonderful an instruction we find here! For
 cares of this life roll over us as strong and raging        we turn to Psalm 73 when things seem to be all wrong
 billows of the sea. Maybe this question came to mind        in our eyes. When it seems as if God has forgotten all
 when we were on the verge of despair and there was          about us. When we are spiritually down in the valley
 no way to turn, or when suffering went beyond all           far removed from the mountain tops of faith. In this
 the limits of our expectation. And, yet more often,         type of a situation Asaph confronts us with a very
 when the lot of the Christian here below as pilgrim         startling truth. The truth which, sometimes, we-lose
 and stranger is less than what our flesh would enjoy.       from our spiritual sight. It comes. to us with a re-
 In times such as these we ask ourselves the question,       sounding forcefulness. "Truly God is good to Israel."
 " . . .is there knowledge in the Most High?" This           In effect Asaph tells us this: "Listen, we can speak
 question is not new or recent, but Christians have          regarding your problem of distress or whatever, but
 raised it throughout the ages. Our Heavenly Father          let us get one thing straight, God is always good to
 also knew this question to be typical of His children       us," That is significant. Oh, my finite and limited
 and for that reason He moved one of the saints to           understanding may tell me that God's favor has
 enter it into the Infallible Record for our comfort         shifted from me upon the ungodly, but that is never
 and edification. We are, of course, referring to the        the case. God is good to His people, without fail! This
 73rd Psalm.                                                 is a valuable piece of instruction.
   The Psalms are often called a biography of the               Having established this, Asaph is now ready to dis-
 experiences of the child of God. This depiction is          cuss with us his experience. We are at once struck by
 true. At any time we can open the Scriptures to the         the openness and lack of inhibition on the part of the
 book of Psalms and find a passage to suit our imme-         Psalmist. I think that strikes us because in our circles
 diate need. The proof of this can be found in the           we are seldom characterized by such openness regard-
 songs that resound from the lips and in the mind of         ing our spiritual lives. It would be of great benefit to
 the saints. Have not the following versifications of the    relate to one another, within the communion of the
 Psalms often filled your souls? In time of fear we          saints, the various struggles that we, as Christians,
 a, "What time I am afraid, I put my trust in                have in our lives. Not that each and every problem
 thee . . ." (Psalm 56) In time of nigh despair: "0 God      should become general information for the gossip
: preserve me for in thee alone my trust has stood . . ."    circuit, but it is to the spiritual welfare of Christ's
 Or when the happiness of a Sabbath morn floods our          body to discuss the spiritual aspect of our lives. It is
 soul we joyfully sing, "With joy and gladness in my         good for the saints to relate their joys, so that we
soul, I hear the call to prayer . . ." (Psalm 122) Let us    may all rejoice, or to speak of their sorrows that we
go to the Psalms to experience with Asaph the soul           may carry one another's burdens unto the Throne of
 rending question, "Is there knowledge in the Most           Grace. Notice how personal the Psalmist becomes:
 High?" And in so doing may Asaph lead us to the             "But as for me . . ." Let it be established that God is
 understanding that, "Truly God is good . . . to such as     always good and a faithful covenant keeping God, but
 are of a clean heart."                                      I am not always so steadfastly established in the faith.
   It is characteristic of the Psalms to begin with an       ". . . my feet were almost gone; my steps had well
 outburst of` praise. That which is uppermost in the         nigh slipped." A double figure is implied here. It is
 mind of the poet comes to immediate expression.             important for the people of God to maintain a firm


836                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


stance in their lives. This is possible only if they stand    things? His feet almost lost their stance of faithful-
upon something firm and solid. It is a sheer impos-           ness and trust.
sibility to secure a bearing stance upon the mire of            All this is not strange to us, is it? We, too, many
quicksand. Only upon the solid ground can one plant           times in our lives, very keenly feel this experience as
his feet securely. In the light of this figure, Asaph         Asaph records it. We feel it when the Lord brings
describes what happened to him. His feet were almost          sickness or takes a loved one to glory. This is our
gone and his steps nigh slipped. His feet were so in-         experience when we have `to sacrifice greatly, even
secure that they almost let go, because the ground            until it hurts, for the cause of the kingdom. Yes,
upon which he was standing was very slippery. We              when we see the wicked prosper and the hand of the
can almost envision Asaph's position in our mind. A           Lord seems to weigh so heavily upon us, then we ask,
man trying to stand upon glare ice just about ready to        "Doesn't the Lord know? How much more do we
fall because his feet are taken from under him. I al-         have to take? Is the favor of God no longer upon us?"
most lost my foothold, says Asaph.                            Or maybe in a moment of greatest spiritual weakness
   Why? Because any attempt to stand upon insecure            we may ask, "Is it worth all this; or do I cleanse my
turf must always end in a disastrous fall. This almost        heart in vain and strive after a godly life to no avail?"
happened to Asaph. For a moment he stood upon the             We understand that of which Asaph is speaking.
quicksand of his own rationale and attempted to                  Oh, the wonder of God's grace in dealing with His
reason without taking into account the inscrutable            people. ". . . my feet were almost gone; my step had
wisdom of the Almighty. Asaph allowed the carnal              well  nigh slipped." The Lord will never let us go. For
things and earthly circumstance to dictate to him the         a while He may leave us to our own rationalistic
spiritual state of things. The Psalmist forgot for a          fancies but the hand of His grace always and again
moment the truth which Paul later expressed in the            takes hold upon us. Faith and trust for a moment
Scriptures when he said,  ". . . the wisdom of this           were hid but they quickly tread to the fore. They
world is foolishness .with God." (I Cor. 3 : 19) Asaph        begin to work. Listen, "If I . . . speak thus . . . I
took off his spiritual spectacles for a moment and so         offend . . . the generation of thy children. (This was)
he attempted to evaluate the situation. This is what          too painful for me." Asaph comes to his spiritual
he saw: wicked men who had great prosperity. They             senses. Now the voice of faith reasons. If I say that I
stood firm in the power and strength-of their own             have cleansed my heart in vain, this strives with the
flesh and died without agony. All through their life,         assurance of God's people who have through genera-
the wicked had little trouble, and plagues seemed to          tions faithfully. maintained their weighty lot here
pass them by while they prospered in all the abun-            below. Yet, the wicked prosper. It is a conundrum to
dances of this earth. Yea, in all their manifold cor-         him.
ruptions and persecutions of the godly they proudly
boasted throughout the earth and defied God. And                 This problem will drive him into the sanctuary and
there is something else which Asaph perceived. And            there all will be made plain. The problem which is too
that he does not understand. While the wicked                 painful will be rectified in God's house, Next time,
prosper, he and all God's people are plagued,                 D.V., we will go with Asaph into the sanctuary and
 chastened all the day long, and waters of a full cup         there come. to the clear understanding that God is
 are wrung out to them. Is God ignorant of these              indeed good to Israel.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

                         If Tomorrow                           W ere To Die
                                                   R.&J. G. Van Baren

       We have, in these columns, given our attention to         In discussing the return of Christ, we do sometimes
the various signs of the times - signs pointing to the        grow weary of the mention of this. We are not always
nearness of Christ's return on the clouds of heaven.          that anxious for Christ to return  - we do have it
Nor can there be any doubt in the mind of the dis-            pretty good here on the earth. We might rather con-
 cerning Christian that His return is at hand. The            sider our interests and goals on this earth  - than
 specific date none can say  - Jesus Himself warned           think constantly of that which is to come. Besides,
 against attempts to determine the day and the hour.          does it not sometimes seem as though all things do


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                              837



continue as they always were? Are not many of the          have a far different perspective on time which God
signs of Christ's return, signs which were evident         allotted to me. When there would be one or but a few
almost from. creation itself? Why then mention so          days remaining, I would surely make careful use .of
often the return of Christ?                                every last second. There would be no time to
  This time, instead of speaking of Christ's return        "waste." There would be far too many things to do
bodily on the clouds of heaven in the, last day,  -1       and to say. There would be no time for idleness; no
would mention another sense in which we can speak          time for foolish things. Each moment would be re-
of His coming. There is the day of our death when          garded as a precious gift to be used carefully to
Christ comes to receive the souls of His people to         accomplish what must be done.
bring them to glory. How much do we think of that?           One's attitude toward the world and its enter-
  Perhaps a minister is, more than many `others in a       tainments would certainly be altered if there were but
congregation, aware of the reality of death. He is         a few hours of time remaining in this life. I am rather
called upon when there is sickness and death in the        sure that the child of God would not while away the
families of his parishioners. He is personally aware of    time in front of his television set. He would not fmd
the many sorrows which befall one on this earth.           pleasure in the entertainments which the world
Especially when one who dies, or is about to die, is       provides. He would not be found going to one last
very young, one begins to think seriously of the fact      movie. He would find no `pleasure in the dance. He
that each must die - I must die. Most do not know          would not sing one last worldly song or rejoice in the
the time of their deaths. Some however do know -           rock music of this world. Conscious of the fact that
that is, they know that within a few days or weeks         Jesus would soon be taking him home, he would also
they must die.                                             know that shortly he would be giving account of all
                                                           that he had done on this earth.
  If I were to know that I would die tomorrow, if I
were of the few that have an advance warning, how            Without doubt, there would be a different attitude
would this affect my life? My goals? My thoughts and       toward one's work in this case. Oftentimes, work can
                                                           become the means of establishment and advancement
attitudes? And if my position would be radically           in this world. That job may have been all-important.
altered, in the light of such knowledge of impending       One might be willing to sacrifice his church connec-
death, ought not that same spiritual attitude be seen      tions, at least with the church where he believed the
NOW?                                                       Word to be most purely preached, in order to advance
  Were we certain of our death tomorrow, we would          himself.. He might put all of his time into that work -
surely make necessary arrangements concerning our          having no time for family, for church, for school. But
possessions and perhaps concerning funeral, burial,        were there one day remaining, interest in work and
etc. Normally, we are inclined to ignore this because      job would suddenly abate. Even if part of this last
we refuse to face the possibility and reality of our       day were to be put into one's job, it would not be in
own impending death. But if we knew the day, we            order to earn enough to have a good life here on this
would make plans accordingly.                              earth. That work would mean nothing anymore - at
                                                           least nothing as far as his earthly life was concerned.
  But if Christ were to return to take one of us
tomorrow, and we knew this, there are spiritual mat-         The same would be true concerning one's friends
ters in which we ,would surely involve ourselves to-       and concerning the question of marriage. Often,
day. What would you do and say were you to have            especially for young people, there is nothing more
such knowledge?                                            important than this. One might compromise; he
                                                           might be ready to give up everything: church and
  I suppose one would be inclined first to reflect         family, in order to marry the one he "loves." God is
upon the past  - and not without regret. The years         not first in his thoughts. His own "happiness" (which
quickly went by. And what did we really accomplish?        often soon turns into bitter sorrow) is more im-
How many did not we waste - assuming that we had           portant than anything that the Word of God teaches.
many more to come? What could not we have done             But were death surely coming tomorrow, all of this
differently - if we had known the brevity of the days      would be different for the child of God. He would
given us! How much more time would not we have             evaluate his "love" in a different light and with a
spent with God's Word and in prayer! How much              different standard. Then it would not first be the
more instruction we would have given our children!         friendship of man which is the most important, but
How much more we would have sought God's people            friendship with the ever-blessed God. Earthly ties
and the coming of His kingdom! But the time is past        must be broken; but the child of God has eternal
- beyond recall.                                           fellowship with Father in heaverrthrough Jesus Christ
  But what would my thoughts and attitudes be in           His Son.
this last day God has given? First, I would doubtlessly      I would suspect, too, that the child of God, under


838                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


the circumstances, would not want any evils or sins          soul. All his goods, all his plans, were of no value to
he committed to remain unconfessed. Surely he                him anymore. Others took what he had worked so
would acknowledge before God all that which he had           hard to obtain.
done amiss. It is true that he always confesses his sin         Jesus speaks in John  9:4 concerning Himself, "I
before God. But often such is rather in a routine way.       must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is
In the knowledge of standing soon in Jesus' Presence,        day: the night cometh, when no man can work." And
one would surely desire to cry out for mercy before          we are reminded in Romans 13: 12, "The night is far
the Living God.                                              spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the
  And one would want to remove every offense with            works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of
a brother. There is not always a sense of urgency,           light."
when one thinks he has much time before him. There             One cannot, of course, be "scared" into doing the
is always tomorrow, or next week, or month, or year.         good and holy by fear of impending death. Though
But if only one day remained, then the child of God          the angel of death stood this `very moment before a
would want to make sure that no offense remained.            wicked person, that one would not therefore repent.
How could he stand before Jesus' face shortly, know-         Repentance and godly walk are the fruit of the work
ing that he had left unresolved even one offense?            of the Spirit. There must be regeneration and con-
  If I had but one day remaining, what would I do?           version. Then one will principally seek that which is
  All the above represents only a few thoughts of            spiritual.
what might cross one's mind when facing the reality             But the point we ought to see is that often the
of death. But does not Scripture itself more clearly         child of God is deeply affected by the world and his
emphasize the calling of the child of God? Did not           own sinful flesh. Often he puts off til next year what
Jesus say, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and        ought to be done today. Often he enjoys the very
His righteousness; and all these things shall be added       things which he knows will have no place in heaven.
unto you" (Matt.  6:33)? Did Jesus not add, "Take            He seeks to defend and excuse his actions. He con-
therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow          siders that he has much time til Jesus' return; or
shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient      much time before Jesus calls him from this earth. So
unto the day is the evil thereof' (vs. 34)?                  he procrastinates. He has forgotten that the night is
  Jesus also pointed out, through parable, the fool-         far spent - the day is at hand.
ishness of setting one's heart on earthly things. He            We know not how many tomorrows we have. But
spake in Luke 12: 16-21 of the rich fool who made            we know that God has given us this day to use to His
elaborate plans to tear down his small barns in order        glory. May we be aware of the brevity of our days
to build bigger to hold his material goods. He was           that we may set our hearts on wisdom's way. Perhaps
assured that he had much goods "laid up for many             we could well ask ourselves before we did, or failed to
years." He would take his ease, eat, drink, and be           do, anything, "Would I do this if I knew that today
merry. But that very night God required of him his           were my last?"


                                               Book Review


The History of Christian Doctrines, by Louis Berk-           treatment. This is evidently the reason for the reprint
hof. Baker Book House (Twin Brooks Series) Grand             under separate cover. At the same time, however, it is
Rapids,  Mich., 1975. Paperback, 285 pp. $4.95.            ' meant as a companion volume to Systematic TheoE
[Reviewed by Rev. Mark H. Hoeksemal                          ogy, and should be used in connection with it, since it
  This book is a new paperback reprint of what was           contains the historical material related to it.
originally the historical volume of Berkhof's  we&             As far as the book itself is concerned, Berkhof
known  eeformed Dogmatics  (later entitled Sys-              begins in the prolegomena by speaking of the subject
tematic Theology). According to the author, though           matter, task, method and divisions, and history of the
the study of the history of dogma is intimately con-         history of dogma. As to his method of treatment,
nected with that of systematic theology, yet this            Berkhof uses the vertical method, i.e., traces each of
discipline is a separate study and deserves separate         the major doctrines from its inception down through


                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                         839


the history of the Christian church up until more                                         proceeds from a confessional basis. Assuming that by
recent times, doing so also from the standpoint of                                        his confessional basis the author means the Reformed
what he calls the confessional method, which means                                        confessions, then it must be remarked that it is often
the evaluation of various views from the perspective                                      difficult to see his Reformed standpoint clearly.
of Scripture as interpreted by his own confession,                                        There is not enough emphasis upon the roots and
although he does not specify what that confession is.                                     development of Reformed, theology in its various
He then devotes a short section to the apostolic                                          shades and manifestations, as one might expect from
fathers, setting forth their views in brief and treating                                  a Reformed writer. Finally, the book stops too soon
various developments in the early church, including                                       in the history of dogma. There are those who caution
Gnosticism, Montanism, and Monarchianism. It                                              against evaluating too quickly the events of recent
should be noted here that although it is difficult to                                     history. And though we may heed that caution, it is
know exactly what the author means, it is disturbing                                      unfortunate that a book which originally came out as
to find the heresy of Marcion  called a "movement of                                      late as 1937 does not include more of the doctrinal
reform." Berkhof then goes on to deal with the                                            developments in the Reformed churches, both here
development of the major doctrines roughly along the                                      and abroad.
lines of the six loci of dogmatics, spending consider-                                       But the book also has its strong points. Somewhat
able time with the Middle Ages and the Reformation,                                       paradoxically, its brevity is also its strength, because
as well as mentioning some of the more recent                                             it sets forth briefly and concisely, almost with outline
developments of the 19th century.                                                         clarity, the history of dogma. If this is what the
    There are several weaknesses in this book. Forone                                     reader is looking for, the book will serve admirably.
thing, the treatment of the history of the various                                        Especially helpful are margin notations indicating
dogmas is very brief, and often assumes further                                           which subjects are treated on each page. Also helpful
knowledge on the part of the reader. Though the                                           are the three indexes, those of literature, names, and
author obviously did not intend a lengthy and de-                                         subjects. And encouraging is the lack of footnotes,
tailed study of the history of dogma, one often                                           the perennial stumblingblocks of easy and steady
wishes for a little more light, not only concerning                                       reading. The questions at the end of each chapter are
facts, but also regarding depth. Secondly, the con-                                       also helpful, providing incentive for review and food
fessional presuppositions from which the author                                           for further thought as well.
claims to proceed are not always as evident as they                                          If the purpose of the book is remembered and it is
could be. It seems reasonable to assume that the                                          read with its companion volume, no doubt it will be
various views and doctrines are judged in the com-                                        instructive and informative. With the above reserva-
panion volume, Systematic Theology. But at the same                                       tions, the book is recommended as worth obtaining
time, there is not enough evaluation, which should be                                     and using.
the task of the dogmatic historian, especially one who





                                 NOTICE!!!                                                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
    Due to our decision to add a fourth teacher to our Staff, the                           The Ladies Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church of
S O U T H   H O L L A N D   P R O T E S T A N T   R E F O R M E D   C H R I S T I A N    Holland, Michigan, expresses its Christian sympathy to one of its
SCHOOL is accepting applications for the position. Anyone interested                     members, Mrs. Henry Vander Kolk, in the passing of her father, MR.
should write or phone Mr.  Menno Poortenga, 18425  Oakwood  Ave.,                        RALPH VAN SPYKER.
Lansing, Illinois 60438. Phone:  (312) 474-0675.                                            May our Covenant God comfort her by His Word and Spirit.

                                 NOTICE!!!                                                  "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil.  1:21).
                                                                                                                                          The Ladies Society of the
    The Free Christian School of Edgerton, Minn., is in need of a                                                                        First Protestant Reformed
teacher for grades Kindergarten thru 4th grades. Please send applica-                                                                     Church of Holland,  Mich.
tions to: MR. ART VER HEY, RT. 1  - BOX 188, EDGERTON,                                                                                       Mrs. G. Wassin k, Sec'y.
MINN. 56128.

                                                                    -
                                  NOTICE!!!
    The annual Spring Lecture will be held, the Lord willing, April 29,
 1976, at 8:00 P.M. in the First Protestant Reformed Church, Grand.
 Rapids, Michigan. Prof. Robert Decker will speak on the subject  -
 "THE WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE CHURCH." Make plans now to hear
 this timely lecture and encourage and invite your friends to attend also.
                                                         The Lecture Committee


                                __~_~- --_____-_---  -.- _..~_
 THE'STANDARD BEARER                                                                           SECOND CLASS
        P.O. Box 6064                                                                      POSTAGE PAID AT
                                                                                        GRAND RAPIDS,             1
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49606                                                                                MICH.





840

                                News From Our Churches
                                            REPORT OF CLASSIS  WEST


  Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches           Classical Committee of Classis East to supply Edmon-
met in Edgerton, Minnesota, on March 3.  Classis             ton the Sundays of March 14, 21, 28, and advised
began with devotions at  8:30 A.M. and finished its          Edmonton to ask the seminary for supply during the
work about 9:00 P.M. the same day. Ten ministers             summer months.
and eleven elders carried out the work of the                  Seven churches requested and were granted sub-
churches of the West.                                        sidy, in the amount of $42,550: Edger-ton; Edmon-
  Present at Classis for the first time were the dele-       ton; Forbes; Isabel; Lynden; Pella; and Randolph.
gates from our Edmonton, Alberta, Canada congre-               Classis rejected a "protest-petition" from a  con-
gation, the brothers Folkert Tolsma and Dave Zylstra.        sistory, that  Classis' decision of September, 1975,
Rev. Harbach, missionary in Houston, Texas, also             regarding the fourth commandment "be reconsidered
attended Classis and was given the right of the floor,       in terms of its formulation and nomenclature."
as well as the right hand of fellowship. His presence          Classis spent a good deal of time considering the
was explained not only by the meeting of Classis, but        advisability of incorporation, in view of the fact that
also by the conference on church extension work by           Classis West is one of the chief beneficiaries of the
the local congregation that preceded Classis, Tuesday        will of the late Mr. Cecil Vander Molen. Its decision
afternoon and evening. Arranged by the committee             was to incorporate under the laws of Minnesota. It
on officebearers' conferences, the conference was            mandated the Classical Committee to implement this
chaired by Rev. B. Woudenberg.                               decision.
  The president of the previous  Classis, Rev. D.              Classis elected several functionaries: classical
Engelsma, led  Classis in its opening devotions on           committee  - Rev. J. Slopsema;  primus delegate ad
Wednesday morning. He read Luke 22: 19-30 and                examina - Rev. W. Bekkering; secundus delegate ad
spoke on verses 24-28, "Being Great in the King-             examina - Rev. J. Slopsema; church visitors - Rev. J.
dom." After the approving of the credentials, Rev. M.        Kortering and Rev. G. Lanting.
Hoeksema Presided over the Classis - a first for him.          Classis also voted delegates to the 1976 Synod in
  The report of the Reading Sermon Committee (the            South Holland. The minister delegates are: D.
consist&-y of Edgerton) indicated that there are             Engelsma; J. Kortering; G. Lanting; and B. Wouden-
plenty of reading sermons for the churches, although         berg. Alternate minister delegates are: W. Bekkering;
a large number are out on loan  - more than 150.             M. Kamps; G. Lubbers; and J. Slopsema. The elder
Churches that have reading sermons of the  Classis           delegates are: M.  Alsum (Loveland); A De Jong
lying around should return them to Edgerton's con-           (South Holland); H. Huisken (Edgerton); and J.
sistory. The report of the Taped Sermon Committee            Kalsbeek, Jr.  (Doon). The alternate elder delegates
(the council of South Holland) likewise indicated that       are: E. Kuiper (South Holland); B. Menninga (Pella);
Classis has a sufficient number of taped sermons on          F. Tolsma (Edmonton); and E. Van Ginkel  (Doon).
hand for the use of the churches, including a com-             The next meeting of Classis will be held in Love-
plete set of the Heidelberg Catechism. Since there was       land, Colorado, on September 1, the Lord willing.
no report of the Church Visitors,  Classis instructed                           Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk
the visitors to present their report at the Fall Classis.                                               Classis West
  Edmonton received classical appointments: April
4, 11, 18 - Rev. M. Hoeksema; April 25, May 2,9 -              Rev. Richard Moore has.accepted the call extended
Rev. J. Kortering; May 16,23, 30 - Rev. R. Miersma.          to him by our congregation in Edmonton, Alberta,
Classis instructed its Classical Committee to ask the        Canada.


