            The
STANDARD
           BEAf?Ef?
/ - A   R E F O R M E D   S E M I - M O N T H L Y   M A G A Z I N E





            Jesus' natural body was sown in corruption; it
     is raised in incorruption. Our natural body must
      also be  sow,n in corruption, to be raised in
     incorruption. His body was sown in dishonor,
     and is raised in power. Our vile bodies must also
     be sown in dishonor to be changed into the like-
     ness of His glorious body, by  ,that power where-
     by He subdues all things to Himself.
            0 death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is
     thy victory?
            Christ is risen! With Him we rise, with Him to
     reign, that to our  -God may be the glory forever
     and ever!
            See "Firstfruits of An Abundant Harvest"  -
      Page 866.


                                                                       Volume  LII, No. 16, May  15,1976


866                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



                          CONTENTS:                                                                 THE STANDARD  BEARER
Meditation -                                                                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
   Firstfruits of an Abundant Harvest . . . . . . . . . .866                   Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
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   Our Australasian Tour (14) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .869             Depaflment  Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J. Engelsma,
                                                                           Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. Robert C. Harbach,
   Open Season on Reprobation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872                Rev. John A.  Heys, Rev. Jay- Kortering, Rev. Dale H.  Kuiper.  Rev.
                                                                           George C. Lubbers, Rev. Meindert Joostens, Rev. Marinus  Schipper.
   Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873      Rev. Gise J. Van  Baren.  Rev. Herman Veldman. Mr. Kenneth G. Vink.
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MEDITATION


                   Firstfruits of an Abundant Harvest
                                                                  Rev. C. Hanko

             "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be
             glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
             it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. "
                                                                                                                          John  12:23,24.



   "And there were certain Greeks. . . ."                                    from nearly every corner of the civilized world, came
                                                                             thousands upon thousands of the faithful, Jews and
  The great feast of the Passover was but a few days                         proselytes, coming up to the Holy City to participate
away. On foot, by boat, on the backs of donkeys,                             in the celebration. A conservative estimate has placed


                                              .THE STANDARD BEARER                                             867


as many. as one hundred fifty thousand visitors in         the Jews, were rejecting Him, these Greeks sought
Jerusalem for this important event. Parthians, and         Him.
Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Meso-                Their request places Philip in a quandary. Jesus on
potamia, and in  Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus,         occasion had told the disciples that He was not sent
and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in         to any others than to the lost sheep of the house of
the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of          Israel. On the other hand, He had also spoken of
Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians were        other sheep, not of this fold, which also He must
all present, drawn to Jerusalem by the determinate         gather into the fold to make His flock complete.
council and foreknowledge of God. They came to Jer-        Could Jesus `have had in mind these deeply concerned
usalem for the Passover, and they came to Jerusalem        Greeks? Yet how would the chief priests and rulers
to see. this Jesus of Nazareth, for word of Him had        react if Jesus should add insult to injury by consort-
spread to the far reaches of Jewry. It was common          ing with Gentiles in the temple? Philip presents his
knowledge that this Man went about teaching and            problem to Andrew, who may have been his close
preaching, sealing His testimony with signs and won-       companion, and together they approach Jesus with
ders such as the prophets before Him had never been        the request.
able to do. Many cherished the secret hope that He                               *****
might be persuaded to become a revolutionist to de-
liver them from the hated yoke of the Roman govern-           "The hour is come."
ment. The raising of Lazarus particularly, and the            This request of the Greeks is a clear sign to Jesus
triumphal entry into Jerusalem had aroused the enthu-      that His hour is come. Jesus is visibly impressed. His
siasm of the multitudes to a fever pitch. Were the         grief-stricken face lights up with joyful anticipation.
rulers possibly mistaken in branding this Man as a dan-    The longing of His soul is satisfied with a ray of hope
gerous character, worthy of imprisonment and death?        that cheers the present gloom. Heaven itself sent
The smallest encouragement from Jesus would have           these Greeks to give Him a foretaste of the glory that
supplied Him with an army and an enthusiastic fol-         awaited Him. Like Rahab, the harlot from Jericho,
lowing, ready to crown Him as their king. Satan was        like Ruth, the Moabite, like the Ninevites who
hissing once more, "Bow down to me, and I will give        repented at the preaching of Jonah, like the wisemen
you all the kingdoms of the world; or else . . . ."        who were led to His cradle by a star, when He was
  Among the milling throng that crowded into the           but a Babe, so also these Greeks are the promise of
outer court of the temple and into the court of the        the better things to come. Japheth is getting eager to
Gentiles were also certain Greeks who faithfully           move into the tents of Shem.
attended this annual feast. They had given up their           The hour. Jesus had often spoken of His hour. It
vain idols to worship Jehovah. Though we do not            had always been the anticipated hour - not yet, but
know their names, nor even how many there were,            always approaching, always sure to come. Now the
Scripture focuses our attention upon them, and that        hour had arrived. Amazing hour! Hour of great con-
with a purpose.                                            flict; dreaded, yet desired; bitterly painful, yet
  It is possible that these Greeks came from               blessed;  -filled with deepest shame, and yet with
Decapolis, a region near Galilee, where many Greeks        highest glory. This hour included all the suffering of
had made their home. That would account for the            the cross and the glory that followed. Soon Jesus
fact that they approached Philip, who was from             prays, "Father, the hour is come: glorify Thy Son,
Bethsaida of Galilee. They say to him, "Sir, we would      that Thy Son may glorify Thee." Later, standing
see Jesus." Philip realized that this request was not      before Caiaphas He will testify, "Hereafter shall ye
from idle curiosity. It was not their vain ambition to     see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power,
spot a celebrity, so that they could tell the folks at     and coming with the clouds of heaven." After His
home that they had feasted their eyes on the re-           resurrection our Lord will tell the men of Emmaus:
nowned Jesus of Nazareth. These Greeks knew about          "Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things,
Jesus. They may have heard Him preach, and may             and to enter into His glory?"
have witnessed some of His miracles in the environs                              4  *  *  *  c
of Galilee. They may have been present in Jerusalem           "Except a- corn of wheat fall into the ground and
to witness the triumphal entry and the cleansing of        die . . . ."
the temple. They felt a strong urge to meet Him, to
converse with Him. To these Greeks Jesus was the              What good does a kernel of grain do lying dormant
promised Messiah, the only hope of salvation. Likely       in a granary? The kernel attains its real purpose when
He was teaching at this moment in the outer court,         it is planted, sprouts into a plant, and brings forth
and they, not being allowed there, hoped that Philip       fruit. But to produce fruit it must necessarily die; and
could persuade Jesus to arrange an interview with          that according to divine appointment.
them. At the very moment when Jesus' own people,.             The comparison is obvious. Our Lord sees Himself


868                                           THE  STANDARD,BEARER


as that grain of wheat that must die, be buried in the        Triumphantly we cry: "But now is Christ risen
earth, in order to arise again in newness of life.          from the dead, and is become the Firstfruits of those
Eternally He is chosen of God as the Firstborn among        who sleep." (I Cor. 15:20)
many brethren, the Firstborn from the dead, the                                     *  * * * *
Firstborn of an entirely new creation. He is appointed
of God to be the Firstfruits of an abundant harvest,           As the coming of the wisemen  served as a sign of
the entire church of the redeemed that eternally            Christ's birth, so the coming of the Greeks was a har-
rejoices before the throne. The Seed and the Harvest        binger of His death.
are one, for God makes them one.                               To us it would appear as if they had arrived a bit
                                                            early. Scripture does n.ot inform us whether Jesus
  It is for that reason that the Son of God became          spoke with them or not. One would be inclined to
Son of man. He took His flesh from the virgin Mary,         interpret the answer of Jesus to Philip to mean: Tell
that He might become flesh of our flesh, bone of our        these Greeks that all is well, but they must be patient
bone, yet without sin. He had to enter into our world       a little longer. To see Jesus now would be but to see
of sin and death, had to become like us, burdened           the Man of Sorrows, the Suffering Servant, the Seed
with the debt of our sin, in order to pay our debt and      that must still be planted in the earth. How would
deliver us from it. As the Captain of our salvation He      they ever be able to understand that He is the Savior,
had to go through death and the grave to lead many          made perfect through death, especially if His own
sons into heavenly glory. He had to be made perfect         intimates disciples did not understand. Yet their
through suffering. He had to bear the burden of             inquiry is eagerly received, for it is the signal from
God's wrath and deliver Himself and us from it. Mere        heaven that the hour is come when God will glorify
suffering would never do. Suffering without com-            Himself by taking His obedient Servant into glory.
plaint was not sufficient. He had to suffer willingly,
.dying every day. Deliberately He had to take upon            Were these Greeks still present in Jerusalem on
Himself the burden of suffering. Unflinchingly He           Friday? Were they filled with fear and wonder? Were
had to bear it, even as the load grew heavier and the       they still present on the morning of the resurrection?
way steeper. Repeatedly the opportunity offered             Likely they were. Likely they also heard the report of
itself to shed that burden. Friend and foe urged Him        the wonder that had taken place in Joseph's garden.
to have mercy on Himself, to shake off the weary            The Seed had sprouted. May we assume that they
load. Yet He carried on in obedience to the Father          were back in Jerusalem on Pentecost to hear the 120
Who sent Him. No veil hid the future from Him. He           tell in many languages the great things that God had
knew that He, the Son, Who enjoyed intimate,                done for them on the cross, by the resurrection, and
covenant fellowship with His Father, would be re-           through the ascension of Christ to heaven? Were they
jected, cast out in His innocence, forsaken, panting        included among those who heard Peter's marvelous
under the torrents of divine wrath that would sweep         sermon? Were they among the three thousand that
over His soul. He must suffer spiritual death; and          were added to the church that day?
then, after He was delivered from that, give His body         We can only surmise. This is certain, the risen
unto death and the grave. For Him the planting of the       Christ did implant His life in their hearts, so that they
seed in the earth involved a willing surrender unto         were born again, not of corruptible, but of incor-
death in love, love to Father, love for His people, love    ruptible Seed, by the Word of God which lives and
that would cling to Father in longing, crying out of        abides forever. They are now with the saints before
hell, "My God."                                             the throne. Their bodies are sown in the earth,
  Greater love has no man than this, that he lays           awaiting the glorious Harvest when Christ returns.
down his life for his friends. My Savior laid down His      They would see Jesus in the flesh; they now see Him
life for me, even for me, when I was still His enemy.       face to face to reflect His glory, world without end.
  He loved us then. He loves us still.                        Jesus' natural body was sown in corruption; it is
                                                            raised in incorruption. Our natural body must also be
  The kernel of wheat  must  fall into the earth and        sown in corruption, to be raised in incorruption. His
die. How well our Lord Himself was aware of that.           body was sown in dishonor, and is raised in power.
There is no other name under heaven whereby ,we can         Our vile bodies must also be sown in dishonor to be
be saved. There is no other way of salvation than that      changed  .into the likeness of His glorious body, by
the Captain of our salvation passes through death into      that power whereby He subdues all things to Himself.
life to lead His many sons into glory. The prophet
Isaiah had foretold that God would make His soul an          ;~O death, where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy
offering for sin; yet through this offering He would        victory?
see His seed. God had promised to prolong His days           Christ is risen! With Him we rise, with Him to
into endless eternity, and- the pleasure of the Lord        reign, that to our God may be the glory forever and
would prosper at His hand. (Isaiah 53: 10)                  ever!


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    869



EDITORIALS
ProJ: H. C Hoeksema


                                   Our Australasian Tour  (14)
                              Open Season on Reprobation
                                             Editor's Notes

         OUR AUSTRALASIAN TOUR (13)                            on the scene and learning to know the situation  -
  In this concluding article concerning our tour, I            especially in New Zealand and Australia - firsthand,
wish to make a few observations by way of evaluating           as compared with what we have learned by corre-
this work and to make a few suggestions of a general          spondence in the past, is invaluable. In the second
nature with respect to the calling of our churches and        place, the reception accorded us both in New Zealand
possible future labors in this area of our ecclesiastical     and in Australia was far beyond our expectation. We
life. I will not at this time write concerning the con-       are referring now not merely to the friendliness and
crete proposals which our Committee for Contact               hospitality of the people, but to their reception of
With Other Churches is making to the coming synod.            us as representatives of our Protestant Reformed
There will be such proposals and our Synod will have          Churches and their reception of the message which
to consider them seriously and reach some rather              we brought. There was an exhilarating air of delight
important decisions. For the time being, however, I           and excitement among these people, and we shall
will not write about these, but wait until after our          never forget this experience. Our strongest impression
1976 Synod has met. Then these matters will be                is that lasting bonds have been established with the
reported. My present remarks will be of a more                churches in New Zealand and in Australia, while in
general nature.                                               other areas seeds have been sown."!It is my hope that
  In the first place, we may ask whether this tour            by means of our report to the churches and by means
was worthwhile? Was it worth the time, the effort,            of this series of articles in `our editorial columns some-
and the expense connected? I think that by this time,         thing of this worthwhileness has been conveyed to
after our lengthy account of this tour, I hardly have         our people. After all, this was not the work merely of
to argue the fact that I am not asking whether this           a couple individuals or of a committee, or even of our
was a worthwhile pleasure trip. For a vacation trip           synod, but the work of the churches and the work of
this certainly was not. I may point out that in the           the Lord. Personally, I have been deeply involved in
space of thirty-eight days we held a total of 40 meet-       -- contact with New Zealand and Australia both in
ings of various kinds: services, lectures, cottage meet-      correspondence and through writing for several years;
ings. Some 21 different air flights, plus numerous            but the value of this face to face contact far out-
trips by train, bus, and private car, were involved in        weighs the value of such impersonal contact. And if
our travels of more than 30 thousand miles. In our            the occasion should arise again, as well as the need, I
various meetings we spoke to a total of about 1800            would not hesitate to recommend that our churches
people, many of whom we met personally and                    follow this course again. I would also recommend
engaged in conversation concerning the Reformed               strongly that sometime in the future emissaries from
faith. As far as the amount of work accomplished is           the churches down under visit us. This can only result
concerned, therefore, there can hardly be any ques-           in a strengthening of the bonds betw.een us.
tion as to whether this tour was worthwhile. Nor can             In the second  .place, I call your attention to the
the expenses be considered exorbitant when you con-           fact that this is a first for our churches. It is the first
sider that, due partly to the fact that our hosts also        time that there have been any positive results of our
assisted with these expenses, the total expense for           efforts toward contact with others. For many years
each emissary amounted to less than  7% per mile.             we have had a  synodical committee whose work it
But permit me to quote, in answer to this question,           was to seek such contacts on behalf of our churches.
from the official report which Rev. C. Hanko and I            And at various points in our history we have
submitted to our committee and to our churches:               attempted such contacts, and sometimes seemed on
"There is not a shadow of doubt in our souls as to the        the verge of a break-through. I may mention in this
worthwhileness of this tour. In the first place, being.       connection the fact that our churches have repeatedly
                                                                                                            :


870                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


sought contact with our mother church, the Christian           although, perhaps, some of us knew that there were
Reformed denomination, but were shunned. We have               people of Reformed and Presbyterian persuasion in
sought fellowship more than once with the Reformed             the countries of Australasia, we certainly did not give
Ecumenical Synod, but the door was closed.                     this much thought, nor did we pay attention to these
Unofficially, during the 1940's, we had some contact           churches. In our thinking, they were more or less on
with the German Reformed Church (Eureka Classis),              the sidelines. And we certainly made no conscious
but this came to nought at that time. We sought                effort to have contact with anyone in Australasia. As
fellowship with the Gereformeerde Kerken, both                 far as our churches are concerned, these contacts
Synodical and Liberated, but doors were closed in              grew spontaneously and without conscious effort and
our faces. And now at last we have been received, and          solicitation on our part. Providentially, and in an
received warmly: and there is a real possibility of            unexpected manner, the Lord has brought us to know
establishing some official ties of ecclesiastical fellow-      one another.
ship. This is reason for thankfulness to our God. For
it is good to know, is it not, that as chuiches we do            At the same time - and this is my third observa-
not stand alone and shunned. This is reason for                tion - we ought to keep things in the proper perspec-
encouragement: for is it not encouraging to have               tive. We must maintain our sense of proportion, and
fellowship in the faith and the bonds of the truth?            our enthusiasm should be a tempered enthusiasm.
And in the same connection, it is good for our                 Our Committee for Contact With Other Churches is
ecclesiastical self-esteem and I believe that there is         well aware of this. Perhaps the danger of  over-
such a thing as sanctified self-esteem - especially in the     enthusiasm is greater for those of us who are directly
light of the fact that we have so often been shunned           connected with this work than it is for others. Yet we
and looked down upon as being sectarian.                       may  tie11 bear in mind that though great and  g`ijod
                                                               things have taken place in this area of our ecclesiasti-
                                                               cal life, they are not big things. Nor, I believe, must
   In this same connection, there are some rather              we expect big things in the outward sense of the
striking facts about these contacts which we should            word. The groups of churches with whom we have
not overlook. In the first place, those with whom we           been brought into contact are certainly not large and
have been brought into contact are, for the most part,         significant according to the standard of men. Our
not of Dutch and Reformed background; but they are             own denomination is small, but those with whom we
Presbyterians. This is not to say that we had no con-          have established contact are smaller than our own.
tact with people of Dutch and Reformed background,             The movement in New Zealand is still in the struggles
particularly in New Zealand; but as far as the church          of its infancy. And the churches in Australia are also
groups are concerned, these were the Orthodox Pres-            small and struggling. We certainly should be
byterian Churches in New Zealand and the Evangeli-             accustomed to this as Protestant Reformed Churches
cal Presbyterian Churches in Australia, not to over-           because of our own experiences. But it is well that we
look the Reformed Presbyterian congregation in Syd-            kkep this in mind, lest we also should have false
ney, Australia. Perhaps this was even one factor in the        expectations. Personally, I do not believe that we are
fact that we were received among these people: I refer         living in times in which we may expect big things in.
to the negative fact that among these people are not           the outward sense of the word as far as the faithful
found some of the prejudices against us which are              church is concerned. Nevertheless, let us also bear in
found among the Dutch-Reformed people, due to the              mind that the significance of a church is not depend-
fact that we have been misreFresented and maligned             ent upon its size and numbers, nor upon worldly
many a time among Reformed people. A second strik-             power and influence. The crucial issue is that of faith-
ing fact in this connection is the fact that it was exactly    fulness to the Word of God. And in that,?;qq connec-
our Reformed stance which undoubtedly constituted              tion, let us not forget that the Lord oul;(GJqd does not
the main element of attraction to us. I am convinced           despise the day of small things; neither tr$ght we, as
of this fact. We noted it time and again during our tour.      His people, to do so.
We certainly made no effort to hide our position,
either in our speaking or our preaching; on the con-             My fourth observation  - and this is a key one  -
trary, we made it known clearly. And we experienced            cbncerns  the fact that the Lord has very evidently
that it was exactly this which constituted the element         brought us into contact with one another, and that,
which attracted others to us. This is reason for grati-        too, in a very wonderful way. About the fact of the
tude, and reason for hope with respect to future rela-         contact, of course, there can be no doubt. But also
tionships. Thirdly, we may take note of the fact that          about the fact that this is the Lord's work, I want to
these contacts came in an altogether unexpected                stress, there can be no doubt. I make bold to say this,
comer of the world. The way of the Lord with His               first of all, in the light of the fact that it became very
Church is sometimes surprising, is it not? Some ten            clear during our tour that the one factor which
years ago we were not even aware of one another; and           attracted us to one another was that of agreement in


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  871



the truth of God's Word and our Reformed heritage.           bearing, know-it-all attitude. We must not assume the
This, you understand, can only be the work of the            attitude of a kind of big brother who knows best. As
Lord; and, at the same time, this may be the only            I stated, our attitude must be that of equals, so that
kind of ecclesiastical contact that we may seek. But I       we recognize the churches down under as churches in
also say this in the light of the very manner in which       their own right. And therefore we must not attempt
we have been brought together. This was not our              to impose our help and our advice and our knowledge
work. We did not seek and did not even expect these          and the benefit of our experiences, but we must show
contacts. Not many years ago we did not even know            ourselves willing to help when called upon. We must
of one another. These contacts were altogether un-           be prepared to exercise ecclesiastical fellowship
expected and unsought, and came about in a wonder-           mutually to the degree that this is possible.
ful way through what appeared to be a series of                At the same time, as far as the churches down
coincidences. This, too, should say something to us.         under are concerned, I hope that they will continue
And when I say "us," I have in mind not only our             to see this calling, even as we discussed it together
Protestant Reformed Churches, but also the churches          face to face. They must remember, too, that fellow-
in Australia and New Zealand. We mutually may not            ship is a two-way street. We may not and must not go
ignore this. To ignore it would be wrong. We are con-        our independent ways and ignore and forget about
fronted by a calling.                                        one another, now that the initial contacts have been
  What is the nature of that calling as far as our           made. That would be wrong, and it would be a sad
Protestant Reformed Churches are concerned? Nega-            mistake if that which was accomplished during our
tively, let me point out that we are not speaking here       visit would be allowed to become nothing but a fond
of mission work, and do not and must not view the            memory.
brethren and sisters down under as objects of mission          That leads me to my fifth remark, namely, that we
work, so that we have in mind to change them,                must wovlc at maintaining contact with one another.
perhaps, into Protestant Reformed Churches of New            We must do so from both sides of the ocean. If our
Zealand or of Australia. No, we do and must                  contacts are to be worthwhile and fruitful, they must
recognize them as churches in their own right, not as        not be allowed to languish. We must not be so
potential Protestant Reformed Churches. We neither           parochial and so preoccupied each with the affairs of
can change them, nor ought we to change them. They           his own churches that we lose from sight the broader
are not Protestant Reformed, and they never will be.         sbene. This is all the more necessary because we are so
They have a different background. They have a differ-        small and because we are so far separated from one
ent constituency. They have a different history. They        another geographically. Officially as churches, but
are very definitely Presbyterian and hold  tp Pres-          also unofficially through correspondence and through
byterian Confessions, or subordinate standards. They         weting in our respective magazines, we must work
do and must live their own ecclesiastical life and nui       hard at maintaining and fostering the ties which have
their own ecclesiastical affairs. We understand this,        been established. For my own part, I shall continue
and we certainly want the brethren down under to             to do this, also through our Standard Bearer. I know
know that we understand this. But as our Church              `too, that it is the mind of our Committee for Contact
Order puts it, rather negatively, churches which differ      to do so officially. And I sincerely hope and expect
from ours in non-essentials shall not be rejected. The       that our Synod will do all in its power to cement the
positive of that is that it is our calling to have           bonds, and will see its way clear to take various con-
ecclesiastical fellowship with them, and, to the degree      crete actions' in this regard.
that this is possible, to recognize one another as sister
churches. It is our calling to be of mutual strength           Finally, I wish to say a word about our Standard
and comfort to one another, to assist one another, to        Bearer in this connection. There is no question about
stand shoulder to shoulder in the bonds of the faith.        it that our' Standard Bearer,  as well as our other
Certainly, there are differences; and there  ,will           literature, has played a significant role in our contacts
continue to be difference. As long as those differ-          with New Zealand and Australia. I mention this not
ences are not essential, however, they may not stand         to boast, but to encourage our RFPA to continue and
in the way of fellowship and cooperation.                    to increase the  witness  of our  Standard Bearer  in
                                                             those countries and in other places, as much as
  One of the notable differences is that our Protes-         possible. Let us bear in mind that this is a significant
tant Reformed Churches are older, and we are a more          part of our work. The primary  question is not
established and experienced denomination. The                whether we gain paid subscribers, or whether the
churches down under are younger and of compara-              Standard Bearer pgys its way in other lands. The fact
tively recent origin. They recognize this, too. As `far      of the matter is that even on paid subscriptions we
as our churches are concerned, this means that we            lose moriey. But this is not the question. Our calling
must be careful that we do not assume an over-               is to'send forth our witness. We may do so and ought


872                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


to do so in the confidence, too, that the Lord will           gravamen. Nevertheless the Synod declared "that Dr.
take care of the fruits of that witness. We do not            Boer has raised a legitimate concern to which the
know, and we need not be concerned about, the out-            church should express herself." This was the only
come of that witness when we send it forth. We                substantive decision which the 1975 Synod of the
should learn this, and we should learn from experi-           Christian Reformed Church was able to reach on this
ence that the results may be very surprising and              matter. Obviously the matter was not finished yet.
unexpected. If I may put it that way, let us learn to         And after the rejection of various other recommenda-
cast our bread upon the waters. Who knows what the            tions, the Synod decided to appoint a committee to
results may be? In recent years the Lord has                  advise the Synod of 1976 on two items: "a. The
prospered our RFPA financially, so that we do not             status of communications like that of Dr. Harry Boer
have the struggle to "make ends meet" which we had            which purport to be neither appeals nor gravamina. b.
in some earlier years. Hence, we are very well able to        The proper method for Synod to deal with them."
spread abroad our witness wherever and whenever the           Thereupon the Synod of 1975 also decided to post-
occasion arises. We should not hesitate to do so, and         pone a further answer to Dr. Boer until this com-
to do so freely and generously.                               mittee would report.
   I have one more suggestion. of a practical nature.           The report of this committee is now available
During our travels we noticed repeatedly in various           (Report  45, 1976 Agenda For Synod,  pp. 479-483)
places an extensive use of cassette recorders and             The committee (Rev. Clarence Boomsma,  Rev. William
recordings. I know that our First Church in Grand             P. Brink, and Dr. John Kromminga) presents the
Rapids has a rather extensive cassette library service.       following recommendations:
Perhaps there are others of our churches who are              " 1. That Synod declare that any communication,
engaged in this work also. I believe that it is a good        though it may purport to be neither an appeal nor a
work, and that it can be even better. More can be             gravamen, which does in fact express doubt about
done along this line. This is an excellent means of           any expression or teaching of the confessions of the
spreading abroad the truth. One of the problems               church should be dealt with as a gravamen.
undoubtedly is that of publicity and distribution.            "`2. That Synod declare that the communication of
For, surely, if people do not know of this tape library       Dr. Harry Boer to Synod of 1975 (No. 4) is essen-
service and do not know the materials which are avail-        tially a gravamen and must be received by Synod as
able, there can not be extensive distribution. I urge,        such.
therefore, that more extensive use be made of this
medium. And for my part, the pages of the Standard            "3. That Synod declare that the request of Dr. Boer
Bearer are also open for purposes of publicity in this        be open for public discussion and study in the
regard.                                                       churches.
  This brings me to the end of this published account         "4. That the Rev. C. Boomsma  be given the privilege
of our tour. I hope that it has been interesting, and         of the floor when this report is under consideration
not tedious, to our readers. And I hope that it has           py  S y n o d . : '
served the purpose of informing and encouraging our'            In substance, therefore, the committee ias reached
people with reSpect to this work.                             the same conclusion which I reached last year,
                                                              namely, that this "request" of Dr. Boer is a gravamen,
                                                              that is, an objection raised against an article of our
                                                              Confessions. And although the entire report of the
           OPEN SEASON ON REPROBATION                         committee also shows that they recognize very
                                                              plainly that this is a disguised gravamen, as I pointed
  A year ago I commented in these columns about a             out, the committee nevertheless does not include this
communication to the Christian Reformed Synod by              in their recommended description of the status of Dr.
Dr. Harry Boer. He, himself called this communication         Boer's communication. If they had advised the
a request that Synod furnish "the express testimony           Synod to declare that Dr. Boer's communication
of Sacred Scripture" which Canons I, 15 asserts is            was "a gravamen in disguise," they could not have
available to establish the doctrine of reprobation. Not       recommended that Dr. Boer's request also must be
only did Dr. Boer address this communication to the           received by Synod as a gravamen. They would have
Synod, but he also published it  in  the  Reformed            been compelled to advise Synod that Dr. Boer's
Journal. In' an editorial on this subject I pointed out       request was not legally before the 1975 Synod and
that this was actually a gt-avamen in disguise.               that it could not properly be treated either in 1975 or
  The Synod of 1975 received that communication               1976. They would have been compelled to declare,
as being properly before the Synod, and treated it in         further, that Dr. Boer had violated the provisions of
part. Synod recognized this as a  commtinication              the Formula of Subscription, both by addressing his
which purported to  be neither an appeal nor a                communication to Synod, instead of to his  Con-


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 873


 sistory, and by making known publicly his objections       more step will be taken toward becoming a modalities
 against the Canons, instead of keeping silence and         church. This is undoubtedly the desire of some.
 making them known only to his Consistory. And they         2. The Formula of Subscription will not be worth the
 would have been compelled to advise Synod to               paper it is written on. The Christian Reformed
 declare that Dr. Boer is  de facto  suspended from         Church could better discard the Formula of Subscrip-
 office.                                                    tion altogether. This would at least be honest.
   Now, however, the 1976 Synod of the Christian            3. The moment of truth of which I wrote in my
 Reformed Church is confronted by a strange situa-          editorial a year ago could be reached, and it could be
 tion. Dr. Boer insists that his communication is not a     a public moment of truth. The Christian Reformed
 gravamen. Dr. Boer's consistory and Classis Chicago        denomination would then be squarely confronted by
 South also insist that it is not a gravamen. But the       the question whether it wants to keep or to discard
 committee says, "Yes, but it is a gravamen and must        the Reformed doctrine of reprobation. The whole
 be treated as such." If the Synod of 1976 accepts this     procedure could very well result in the official death
 recommendation, it will mean, in the first place, that     of the doctrine of reprobation in the Christian
 any office bearer can flagrantly violate the provisions    Reformed churches. A ready-made formula for this is
 of the Formula of Subscription, publicly agitate           already available from the Gereformeerde Kerken of
 against the Confessions, escape any discipline, and        the Netherlands, who have declared that the doctrine
 then succeed in getting his case before the Synod. In      of reprobation as expressed in Canons I, 6 and
 the second place, it will mean that an office bearer       canons I, 15 is not in accord with the Scriptural givens.
 can express objections against the Confessions with-
 out offering Biblical proof  - something which is            Time  wiil tell. But do not forget that the 1975
 incumbent upon anyone who presents a gravamen, as          Synod has already declared "that Dr. Boer has raised
 the committee also recognizes in its report  - and         a legitimate concern to which the church  should-
 then transfer the burden of proof to the churches and      address herself." And do not forget that it is this
 the Synod. Moreover, since the report of the com-          declaration of the 1975 Synod which has already
 mittee, in harmony with the mandate which they             served as the wedge for lifting the suspension of Dr.
 received, concerns not only the communication of           Boer in Classis Chicago South.
 Dr. Harry Boer but also "communications like that of
 Dr. Harry Boer which purport to be neither appeals                           EDITOR'8 NOTES
 nor  gravamina," this will mean that from now on             DID YOU receive a defective copy of the April 15
 there is open season in the Christian Reformed             issue? We know that some copies were defective -
 Church on any article of the Confessions about which       some duplicate pages and some missing pages. We also
 anyone chooses to bring a communication "which is          know that some of these went to addresses in Iowa
 neither a gravamen nor an appeal."                         and in Michigan. But we do not know how many
   Still more: the committee recommends that this           copies were defective and who received them. If you
 request of Dr. Boer be open for public discussion and      were a victim and, would like a good copy, please
 study in the churches. This will certainly mean that       ;write to `our Business Office.
 there will be open season in the Christian Reformed                   I           *`,* * * *
 churches on the doctrine of reprobation. Everyone            IF YOU file your copies by issue-numbers, please
 will be free to speak and to write anything he chooses     take note that somewhere between instructions and
 concerning this item of our Canons, and that, too,         mailing a mistake crept into the May 1 issue. It is
 without danger of becoming subject to discipline. The      Number 15, not Number 14.
 committee offers no grounds for this recommenda-                                  *  * *  *  8
 tion, even as they fail to offer grounds for any of           STAFF MEMBERS, these notes are for you. In the
their recommendations. It is plain to see, however,         near future you will receive notice from our secretary
 that this would be a matter of simple fairness. After      about a staff meeting in June, when Synod meets. If
 all, Dr. Boer could publicly express objections to the     you cannot attend, please notify the secretary of any
 Creeds without penalty and without filing a  grava-        business items you may have. If you can attend,
 men; it is fair that everyone be accorded the same         please plan to reserve some time during synod for this
 privilege and be free to express himself without fear      purpose; and also, please come equipped with good
 of discipline.                                             ideas for the new volume-year. And here is a special
                                                            plea from your Editor. There is a tendency to become
   I do not know, of course, whether the 1976 Synod         lax about meeting deadlines during the summer
 of the Christian Reformed Church  w,ill accept these       months when we publish only once per month. Please
 recommendations of Report 45. If they do, the              get your required articles in, and please get them in
 following could be the results:                            on time. This will make it easier for all concerned.
 1. The churches will avoid a heresy trial, and one         Thank-you!


 874                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                   Letter To Timothy

                                              May 15, 1976    tian's life with social involvement and address them-
Dear Timothy,                                                 selves on the pulpit to berating their audiences with
                                                              stem calls to be busy with the social problems of the
  We have already begun to discuss your last letter.          age. I'm not interested here in discussing this
You were concerned in your letter about  practical            miserable caricature of preaching. I only want to
preaching which you called "preaching on more                 insist that this is the end of a man when he does not
specific sins." We talked at some length about the            want doctrinal preaching any more.
relation between doctrine and practice, and the total
importance of doctrinal preaching. I do not think               And so, I cannot emphasize strongly enough how
that this relation between doctrine and preaching can         important it is for you to resist all those who make
be emphasized strongly enough. If a minister                  strong and steady pleas for less doctrine and more
abandons doctrinal preaching, he has really only two          practice.
paths he can follow. He can become a  "Sunday-                  But now I have to turn more specifically to some
School preacher" who gives little more than a Sunday          of the questions in your letter. There are several
School lesson to which is appended a  piotis moral            remarks which you make in your letter which are of
homily of some sort. This type of preaching is, I             interest to me, and which are worth some discussion.
think, far more common than you and I realize. It             E.g., you remark: "Ministers and those who are
reminds me of one of the newer Bible Story Books.             sti-ong in faith don't realize all that goes on and is said
In this book the author is discussing the miracle             by the weaker brother." And I think you mean that
which Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee by which             ministers espedally do not always realize the specific
He changed water into wine. The title of this chapter         sins with which many members in the Church
is already a dead give-away: "Jesus goes to a party."         struggle. It is in that connection that you write:
The little moral homily tacked on the end reads like          "Shouldn't the Word be more specific on current sins
this: "This was the first miracle Jesus did. Do you           in' this generation? Examples: TV, birth control,
know why I think He did this first? It was because He         sabbath observance, working on Sunday, novels,
wanted us to know that we must serve Him first of all         plays, drama, working mothers, false ideas of Christian
in our daily lives. You do not have to go to Africa as        liberty, unprofitable servants?" And you sort of sum
a missionary to serve Jesus. Perhaps some day He will         it up when you write: "We should have preaching in
call you to go to Africa. And if He does, He will give        which the walk of a Christian is not to be treated as
you the special rewards He has promised to all those          an ideal which is unattainable; but it should be some-
who leave family and home for His sake. But you               thing that should be strived for daily. "I fear," you
must not wait till that day comes to start serving            write, "for the Church on this earth. Temptation
Him. He wants you to love Him, and obey Him, and              from within `Israel' is very subtle." And again: "I
to enjoy Him too, right now, beginning today, at              would like stronger application of the preaching, on
home, at school, yes, and in your play and fun, and           current prevalent sins that have crept into the
even at your parties." Now what in the wide world all         Church."
this has to do with Jesus' marvelous miracle at Cana            Let's talk about this for a while.
escapes me. In fact, I dare say that this kind of
moralizing is down-right wicked and of untold                   Let me say first of all that in general I agree with
spiritual harm to those who read this trash. But to           you. The preaching must include all this. I recall
forsake doctrinal preaching leads to this.                    vividly that my father tells a little story about this.
                                                              And, while the story itself is not all that interesting
   The other path you can follow if you forsake               and exciting, it does illustrate the point you are
doctrinal preaching is the path of the social gospel. I       making. He tells about a minister in a neighboring
think that even "ministers" who do not want                   Church where years ago my father shepherded a con-
doctrinal preaching see the wretchedness of                   gregation. This minister in a neighboring Church had
moralizing; they weary of it and see that this sort of        come out of the Seminary as one of the shining lights
thing is worse than useless. And so they go the way of        of the school. He was a gifted preacher, a man of no
preaching a social gospel. They identify the Chris-           little ability to make a sermon, and he was extremely


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 875



popular in the pulpit. When the time came to send           they were merely addressed to problems current in
out calls, he was inundated with calls from many            the times they were written. To take this position is
Churches which desired his services. There was strong       to deny that the-Scriptures are our rule of faith and
competition for his services. This kept up for a num-       life. And, finally, of course, to take this position
ber of years after he was in the ministry. After two        means to take the position that Scripture is not the
years elapsed and he was once again eligible for a call,    Word of God which He gives to His Church.
he received them almost with every delivery of the             The Scriptures were certainly written under
mail. And he moved around quite a bit too. But              specific historical circumstances. Who can deny this?
gradually this began to change. The calls came with         Isaiah spoke to problems present in Judah during the
less frequency until they ceased coming altogether.         reigns of Uzziah, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh.
At last he was caught in the backwater of the Church        Zechariah spoke to the Church which had returned to
and for years he never received even one call. One          Palestine from captivity and was having trouble
time when Rev. H. Hoeksema was visiting at our home,        finding the spiritual courage to go on with the
my father asked him about this: "Why is it that this        important work of building the temple. Paul wrote
man, once so popular, never gets any calls any more?"       his letter to the Galatians because there were wicked
What was the answer, do you think? Rev. Hoeksema's          men in these Churches whose teachings on the place
answer was this, (and it was apparently correct,            of the law in the life of the Christian had to be
although I never knew the man and cannot verify it):        contradicted. Nevertheless, the Scriptures are totally
"He failed to keep up with the times." That answer          and completely relevant to the Church of every age.
may surprise you; but that was the whole answer.            They speak to us with exactly the same authority and
And that answer meant, I assume, that he failed to be       power with which they spoke to the Church which
relevant. He failed to make his preaching useful for        existed in that day. In fact, this is so true that in
the times. He failed to address the Word to the             order to learn what the Scriptures have to say to us
problems which people were facing in the hard               today, we must learn first of all what they said to the
realities of life. He didn't know what was going on in      Church in the days when they were written. You may
the congregation. He didn't know the struggles, the         not and cannot preach out of Galatians and make
temptations, the sins, the burdens of his flock. He         your sermon relevant without telling your people
retreated into the privacy of his own study and made        exactly why Paul wrote to these Churches.
his sermons in 1944 the same as his sermons were in           But this is not so hardto understand. After all, we
192 1. They ceased to mean anything to his people.          still believe in the doctrine of providence. And,
  Now, I don't happen to like the word "relevant."          among many other things, that means that God so
But my dislike for that word is not because it is not a     controlled the circumstances in the Galatian Churches
good word. It is so distasteful to me because it has        by His sovereign power that when He inspired Paul to
taken on, in the context of worship, such bad con-          write that beautiful and powerful letter, He did so
notations. It means today in the ecclesiastical world,      with His Church of all ages in mind. God knew then
to be so like the times in which we live in dress,          already that the principles and truths which He
preaching, conversation, worship, liturgy, and all the      inspired Paul to write to that situation were going to
rest, that we lose what Scripture has to say to us. But     be of abiding use to the Church - even 2000 years
the word itself is a good one; and I think you mean         later. And you must remember that, after all, the
that preaching ought to be relevant in the good sense       Scriptures are a part of the miraculous. They belong
of the word. With this I agree. It does not mean a          to the wonder of grace. God is speaking through
bearded minister on the pulpit' with a cross over his       Christ to His Church; and God is revealing Himself.
turtle-necked sweater who blasphemously begins the          Everything is there that the Church will ever have to
sermon with a "Good morning, God," and who                  know. Our Belgic Confession speaks of the fact that
pompously prates about things that are of no interest       "We believe that those Holy Scriptures fully contain
to anyone with an IQ somewhere above the level of           the will of God, and that whatsoever man ought to
3 5. But it does and can mean to preach in such a way       believe, unto salvation, is sufficiently taught therein."
that the living and abiding Word of God speaks to us          So, my answer is, Yes. Of course. By all means.
in our walk and path of life. And this should always        These problems must be discussed on the pulpit. The
be the case.                                                minister must address himself specifically and con-
  This is true because of the nature of the Word of         cretely to all the evils which are present in the
God itself. We do not believe that, as the proponents       Church. ,He must do so explicitly and with force. His
of the New Hermeneutics put it, the Scriptures are          words must carry the authority of the Word of God.
time-bound and historically conditioned. We do not          His preaching has to be relevant in the good sense of
believe that there are huge pieces of Scripture which       the Word.
are of no immediate concern to us in our day because          And to do this he must know his people and their


876                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


life. He must know the difficulties of their way in the          Solomon says there is really nothing new under the
world. He must know their struggles, temptations,                sun. This is true too as far as our life in the world is
weaknesses, and battles with Satan and his host.                 concerned. And, finally, he can listen. He ought not
   He cannot live the lives of his sheep, of course. He          to be talking all the time, you know. He can listen to
cannot spend a month out of the year working in the              His sheep. He can listen with his heart as well as his
factory to learn what it is like. He cannot go out as a          head and ears. He can listen with sympathy and
salesman to see what are the temptations peculiar to             understanding, with love and concern. And if only he
one with such a calling. He cannot live for a week or           learns once to listen,`he will learn too what is going
two in the homes of his parishioners. But this is not            on  - even among those whom you call "the weaker
necessary either. What he can do and must do is, first          brethren" who do not always dare to say what is on
of all, know himself. His own sins and temptations              t h e i r   m i n d s .
and struggles are not all that different from those of             There are dangers though. But enough for now.
his sheep  - not in their deepest character anyway.             Another letter is a better place to discuss them.
And, in the second place, he can be a faithful student                                     Fraternally in Christ,
of the Word. In countless places the Word tells him                                        H. Hanko
(as it tells us all) what sin and temptation is all about.


ALL AROUND US


                               What About Movies, Religious or Otherwise

              Two Churches of the Reformed Family in the Netherlands
                                        Move Closer Toward Union

                                     Billy Graham's Compromise

                               Detroit Lutheran President Ousted Friday

                                                 Of Love and Risk


                                                      Rev. H. Veldman



WHAT ABOUT MOVIES, RELIGIOUS                                        acting  - any decent man was disgusted with the
OR OTHERWISE (4)                                                    extremely low morals of most professional actors  -
                                                                    but they were also against plays put on by amateur
  THE MESSENGER is the organ of the Free                            actors.
Reformed Church of North America. In its January                         Calvin, at any rate, would not hear of it. His motto
issue, 1976, Vol. 23, on page 1, an article appeared                was: whether good or bad productions, no stage
on movies, religious or otherwise. We wish to quote                 plays! And  iyhy not? According to him, plays corrupt
from this article. May we all take  this to heart  - also           character, lead to neglect of true service and are a
our young heople, but not onZ~ our young people.                    waste of time and money, encourage immorality, pull
                                                                    down the Holy Scriptures, and promote idolatry.
       In a final article I want to give you a bird's eye           Only once did Calvin permit the staging of a play in
   view of the attitude our Reformed fathers took to                Geneva. But this was really against his will. It was
   plays and theatre going.                                         actually a concession to the citizens of Geneva who
       In general it can be said that as far as the Re-             were still very fond of plays, and he did not think it
   formers were concerned, their attitude to acting was             wise to forbid everything right away. Calvin did allow
   negative. Not only were they opposed to professional             a certain type of school plays, however, to help


                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         877


    students overcome their shyness and to improve their              Churches in the Netherlands (CCKN) and the Re-
    speech. But the stipulation was: absolutely no Bibli-             formed Churches (Liberated,  Unafffiiated),  the two
    cal material.                                                     churches have taken substantive steps toward
       The Reformed churches all adopted Calvin's                     approaching one another. Far-reaching agreement was
    opinion. Synod after Synod decided that the Holy                  found to exist on the subject of the "appropriation of
    Scriptures are not to be used as source material for              salvation." This subject involved questions such as
    plays. The Synod of Nimes in 1572 stated: "The                    rebirth, the experience of faith and conversion, the
    Scriptures were not given for our amusement, but to               place of the covenant and God's promises in preach-
    be preached to our edification and comfort." Many                 ing. These have long separated the two churches. Part
    Dutch Synods spoke in a similar vein.                             of the discussion dealt with the question whether the
                                                                      one church did not focus too exclusively on preach-
       What our Heidelberg Catechism says about images                ing conversion and the other too exclusively on
   in the church was also applied to religious plays. Such            preaching the covenant promises of God. Both sides
    "books to the laity" were condemned on the ground                 agreed that a balance was necessary to avoid, on the
    that "we must not pretend to be wiser than God, who               one hand, undermining the certainty and assurance of
   will have His people taught, not by dumb images, but               faith and, on  the. other, a placid sense of having
    by the lively preaching of  His word." (H.C., Question            arrived.
    and Answer 98) "Faith  cometh  by hearing and
   hearing by the Word of God"  - that was the text                 When the churches of the Secession of 1834 (De
   which our fathers always quoted in this connection,            Afscheiding) and of the Doleantie (led by Dr.
    and rightly so.                                               Abraham Kuyper) united in 1892 to form the  Gere-
       The English Puritans were just as adament in their -       formeerde Kerken of the Netherlands, those who
   rejection of plays. They condemned the Elizabethan             refused to go along with this merger became the
    stage as "a home of paganism, obscenity, and pro-             Christian Reformed Churches of the Netherlands (not
    fanity." (Will Durant,  The Story  of  Civilization,  Vol.    to be confused with the Christian Reformed Churches
   VII, p. 78)                                                    in this country).
  Then, after quoting from these Puritan fathers, and               Apart from the relative significance of this possible
also referring to C.H. Spurgeon's strong opposition to            merger, one must concede that important questions
play-acting of any kind, the writer writes as follows:            are at stake here, questions such as: rebirth, faith and
       Today, however, not much of this sentiment is left         conversion, the place of God's covenant, and God's
   in Reformed circles. Movie attendance is since long            promises in the preaching.
    acceptable in the Reformed Churches in the Nether-
   lands, as well as in the Christian Reformed Church on
   this continent. What about us in the Free Reformed
   Church? Officially we are still opposed to it, but I           BILLY GRAHAM'S COMPROMISE
   fear that many of our young people frequently attend             In the GOSPEL WITNESS, a magazine of the
   movies and other worldly amusements. And not only              Orthodox Presbyterian Churches of New Zealand, on
    our young people! Many of their parents, while never          page 7 of its March, 1976, issue, we have an article
    setting foot inside a theatre,  wiIl watch the same           under the above heading, and we quote:
   movies at home on TV.
  The writer has more to say, but I believe that this                 BILLY GRAHAM'S COMPROMISE
is sufficient. What the writer has to say about Calvin,                  This has been apparent for a  long.time, but the
the Reformed churches, our Heidelberg Catechism, is                  following report should clear all illusions from every-
pertinent and should lead us to sit up and take notice.               one's mind. Preaching at Leighton Ford's "Reachout"
That Calvin did allow a certain type of school play                  in Milwaukee, on Sunday, October 21, 1973, Dr.
does not mean that we should follow him in this. But                 Graham said: "This past week I preached in a great
it is striking that he was absolutely against all Biblical           Catholic cathedral, a funeral sermon for a close friend
material.                                                            who was a Catholic . . . and as I sat there going
                                                                     through the funeral mass, that was a beautiful thing,
                                                                      and clear in the Gospel that I believe. And I think in
                                                                     a meeting like this it's wonderful of all of us to gather
TWO CHURCHES OF THE REFORMED FAMILY                                  together and realize that we represent different
IN THE NETHERLANDS MOVE CLOSER                                       denominations, but believing in the same God. And
TOWARD UNION                                                         so I say, God bless the Christians of Milwaukee of all
                                                                     denominations.
  The RES NEWS EXCHANGE of `the Reformed
Ecumenical Synod writes of this in its issue of Vol.                    Is comment necessary? Here is a clear example of
                                                                     how far a man can get from the truth once he takes
XIII, No. 2, Feb. 3, 1976, page 1145, and we quote:                  the first steps of compromise.  The mass is totally
    (Grand Rapids) According to a declaration issued                 contrary to Scripture and there is no Gospel  in it.  The
    conjointly by committees  oft the Christian Reformed             entire thing is a system of salvation by works  - dead


878                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER


       works. Furthermore, people who have never been                seminary is liberal, denying the fundamental truths of
       regenerated by the Spirit of God  simply do not               the Word of God. We say that this action of Dr. Preus
       worship the same God as Bible-believing, born again           is a step in the right direction. However, we under-
       Christians. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of our times         stand that there are more district presidents who
       is the widespread confusion that has been sown by             support Seminex and have departed from the con-
       Dr. Graham and other evangelists. Any "Gospel" that           servative position of the Lutheran Church. What
       is compatible with Romanism is surely  a false Gospel.        action will be taken with respect to them? We hope
  We agree: no comment is necessary. According to                    that Dr. Preus did not take this action against these
our Heidelberg Catechism, and in harmony with the                    four district leaders because he is assured that there`
divine Scriptures, the Romish mass is an accursed                    will not be any mass resignations of pastors or congre-
idolatry. How can a truly Protestant evangelist deny                 gations in their parts of the country. This action
the fundamentals of Protestantism and of the holy                    should be taken only for the sake of and in the
Scriptures as Dr. Graham did that Sunday of October                  interest of the truth.
21,1973?!


                                                                     OF LOVE AND RISK
DETROIT LUTHERAN PRESIDENT                                           In the Banner of March 26, 1976, page 20, Dr.
OUSTED FRIDAY                                                        James Daane reflects upon  an article written by
  The Grand Rapids Press had an article in its April                 William and Marianne Radius in the Christmas issue
3, 1976, issue, page 6-A, reporting the ousting of four              of the Banner upon the subject The Risk of Loving.
Lutheran district presidents. We quote the following:                We will not quote their answer to this article of Dr.
          ST. LQUIS (AP)  - A controversy within the                 Daane. The article of Dr. Daane reads as follows:
       Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod over ordination of
       graduates of a breakaway seminary reached a critical              OF LOVE AND RISK
       stage Friday when the head of the synod fired four                   We owe much to William and Marianne Radius for
       district presidents. The presidents said they will defy           the many excellent articles they have co-authored for
       his order.                                                        us Banner readers. This fact makes me reluctant to
          But Dr. J.A.O. Preus, whose decision was un-                   express criticism of their article The  Risk of Loving in
       precedented in the  129-year  history of the 2.8                  the 1975 Christmas issue of the Banner. I have refer-
       million-member synod, said he did not believe their               ence specifically to the assertions that when in love
       ouster would precipitate a split in the church.                   God created the world and in love sent His Son to
          "I don't anticipate anything happening in the way              redeem it, God was taking a "risk" because it is
                                                                         always a risky business to love. I disown the idea that
       of anyone leaving," he told newsmen. His decision
       followed meetings Thursday and Friday with the four             God is the cause of man's rejection of God, but I
       district presidents, who are all from the eastern half            would disown no less that in His loving act of crea-
       of the United States. Included in the ouster was                  tion God exposes His love to risk and that his re-
       Harold L. Hecht of Detroit, president of the  non-                demptive act was a "great act of risking His own
                                                                         Son." I do not believe that either such determination
       geographical English District.                                    or such acts or divine risks can be  biblicahy sup-
          "The congregations are quite synodically minded                ported. I do not believe that God ever runs a risk.
       in that part of the country. I don't see any mass
       resignations of pastors or congregations," said Preus.               The authors contend that in creating man in His
                                                                        image God took a risk because Adam was given by
          It was the first time the denominational head had              God the "choice" of loving or rejecting God. I know
       used the authority of the office to oust regional                 that this idea is widely held, but I think it untrue.
       church presidents elected by their home districts. The            Even in the case of Adam and Eve, loving God was an
       action signaled a test of strength between denomina-              obligation (command), not an option. Had God
       tional headquarters and home rule, a tradition in                 indeed given them a choice, it would be unjust to
       Lutheranism.                                                      punish them for exercising one of their God-given
          The district presidents, who hold an office com-               options.
       parable to that of a bishop, were removed for ordain-                Love, even God's love, gets hurt in this sinful
       ing graduates of Concordia Seminary in Exile                      world. But this is not a chance God's love takes, nor a
       (Seminex), formed in February 1974 following a                    risk it runs. Old Simeon after that first Christmas
       doctrinal dispute between moderates and conserva-                 predicted  the hurt when he said about the infant
       tives over interpretation of the Bible.                           Jesus that He would "be spoken against," or be a
  This action of Dr. Preus is surely a step in the right                 "sign of contradiction." But the language of divine
direction. The attention of our readers has been                         risk is the language of ultimate unpredictability.
called to this Seminex in the past. This breakaway                      How confusing is this article of Dr. Daane! He


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         879


surely confuses the meaning of the words "choice"                  secondary cause of his own deeds.' Would Dr. Daane
and "option." And he disowns the idea that God is                  be so bold as to rule out the sovereignty and control
the cause of man's rejection of God.                               of the living God in the fall of Adam and Eve? Do
  Indeed, the loving of God was not an option for                  you, Dr. Daane, believe in what we read in Eph.
Adam and Eve. Dr. Daane does not believe that Adam                 1:9,10, where the apostle Paul writes, by divine
was given by God the "choice" of loving or rejecting               inspiration, that it was the mystery of God's will,
God, and he adds that "Even in the case of Adam and                according to His good pleasure, to gather in one all
Eve, loving God was an obligation (command), not an                things in Christ in' the dispensation of the fulness of
option." Of course, it was not an option. It was not               times? Do you, Dr. Daane, believe in Isaiah 45:7? Do
left to Adam and Eve whether they should serve and                 you, Dr. Daane, believe the Word of God as recorded
love God or not. From this viewpoint, Adam had no                  in 2 Samuel 16: 10, where we read that the Lord, had
choice. He had no right to sin, to obey the devil. He              said unto Shimei: Curse David?
had no alternative. It was his calling and obligation to              Finally, Dr. Daane, do you believe in the divine
serve and love the Lord his God.                                   decree .of Reprobation? If you do. not, then, of
  However, Adam certainly had a choice, or he had                  course, you do not believe in the decree of Election
to make a choice. He was confronted, on the one                    either. But, do you believe in what we read in Matt.
hand, by the command of the Lord that he might not                 11:25,26, where we read that the Saviour a.scribes it
eat of the forbidden fruit. But, he was confronted, on             to the good pleasure of the Father that "these things"
the other hand, by the word of the devil.  He must                 were hid from the wise and prudent? Or, what do you
obey the one and reject the other. He must say Yes                 do with the Word of God in 1 Pet. 2:8, where we read
and No, Yes to the command of the Lord, and No to                  that the stumbling of the disobedient is that where-
the temptation of the devil. This is surely obvious.               unto they were appointed? Finally, Dr. Daane, you
                                                                   yourself call attention in your article to the incident
  Thirdly, this choice confronting Adam was of the                 in Luke 2 of the aged Sirneon. The old servant of the
Lord. How anyone can dispute this the undersigned                  Lord says about the infant Jesus that He would be
cannot possibly understand. It was the Lord Who had                "spoken against," or be a "sign of contradiction."
given our first parent the prohibitive command in                  Why would He be "spoken against"? Why? Because,
regard to the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good               according to Luke 2:34, this child is set for the fall
and evil. And it was also the Lord Who controlled this             and rising again of many in Israel. God, we read in
incident in paradise, the garden of Eden. The Lord                 this text, has set this child for, unto, their fall. This is
would have Adam serve Him antithetically, to love                  the simple interpretation of this passage in the Word
Him, obey His word, and to reject all evil.                        of God. And this is the divine decree of Reprobation.
  Fourthly, the Lord is surely the sovereign and                   It is for. this reason that the aged Simeon can predict
determining cause of man's rejection of the living                 these things of this child, Jesus, inasmuch as this aged
God. Dr. Daane writes that he disowns the idea that                servant of the Lord speaks this word through divine
God is the cause of man's rejection of God. However,               inspiration. The Scriptures, Dr. Daane, are not time-
Reformed theologians have often made the distinc-                  bound; they are the inspired, infallible Word of the
tion between God as the First Cause and man as a                   living God.


IN HIS FEAR


                        An Experience With Asaph
                                                            (2)

                                                 Rev. M. Joostem

  As you recall, we left Asaph with a very painful                 strength of the wicked is firm, there are no bands in
problem in his soul. He witnessed to us that his "feet             their death and they are not in trouble as other men
were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped"                  are. Asaph became envious of the prosperity of the
when he considered the ways of the wicked. `The wicked and did not understand why the people of


     880                                        THE STANDARD BEARER



God have the waters of a full cup wrung out to them.          Son, of Whom we are brothers and sisters. God freely
While the wicked prospered, he was chastened day by           gives us all things in Christ unto eternal life.
day. God's hand was heavy upon him. Asaph fell into              This is the wonderful and ever comforting truth of
a carnal thought process and in so doing lost the             divine providence. To point out the extreme comfort
spiritual perspective of the problem with which he            that we have in this doctrine, we cannot help but
grappled. The situation had become a conundrum to             refer to Lord's Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism:
him. "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and            What advantage is the doctrine of providence to us?
washed my hands in  innocency." We also saw last              "That we may be patient in adversity; thankful in
time that this problem is by no means strange and             prosperity; and in all things which may hereafter
foreign to us. Sometimes we, too, ask ourselves,              befall us . . . place our firm trust in our faithful God
     "Why do I strive after a sanctified life when all I      and Father . . . ." (Answer 28)
experience is the weighty hand of God upon me?" Is
a Christian life in vain? When Asaph thought to know             The problem with Asaph (and often with us, for
this it was too painful, because this would implicate         we must not exclude ourselves) is that he did not
vanity on the part of all the faithful people of God          look at his life from a comprehensive and total view-
who have striven and do strive after godliness.               point, but rather from the viewpoint of a particular
                                                              situation or circumstance. Not to excuse, but to
       Let us in this installment benefit from Asaph as he    explain, this is not so difficult an error to fall into.
resolves his problem. The problem continued to be             For we are creatures of time, we live from moment to
painful for him until he went into the sanctuary.             moment and are always becoming. This means that
This, we must understand, is old testament language.          we must always deal with particular present situations
Asaph lived in the dispensation of shadows and types.         without fully understanding their future outcome.
The sanctuary was, in all probability during the days         This takes a tremendous amount of faith. And, to our
of Asaph, the tabernacle which king David erected             shame, our faith is often weak at this juncture. Some-
upon Mt. Zion. But regardless, whether it was a taber-        times our own particular carnal considerations of the
nacle or .a temple, the significance is the same. Both        moment are determinative of the situation. You see,
were types which foreshadowed the realization of              we do not think in the channels of faith and complete
God's covenant fellowship with His people. God was            trust! We must learn to say, "Lord, this doesn't look
behind the .veil in the sanctuary. And therefore when         to be to my welfare, but I know Thy ways far surpass
Asaph enters into the sanctuary with his painful              my finite understanding, and in spite of the way
problem, he brings his problem before the Most High           things appear they must be to my eternal well-being."
God. Asaph is now moving toward the spiritual per-            That's the voice of faith. That's what Asaph learned
spective of which we spoke earlier. For there was but         when he entered the sanctuary!
one element missing from Asaph's former carnal con-             "
sideration of the dilemma which presented itself to               . . . then understood I their end." Asaph is now
him, and that was God!                                        able to look also at the wicked from a comprehensive
/                                                             viewpoint. He is now able to place them in the
       Oh, what a tremendous experience for the child of      perspective of the whole of God's dealing with them.
God, when his feet are almost ready to slip, to appear        Though the wicked revel in their sin and boast in
before God in prayer. We must understand the doc-             their affluent success, nevertheless God has made
trinal implications which are so very practical here.         them vessels fit for destruction. "Surely thou didst
To approach unto God requires the recognition that            set them in slippery places." The wicked seemingly
God is the infinite and independent One. All things           stand secure in the midst of their prosperity. But
that come upon His creatures must be understood               their security is just for the moment. For their trust is
from His viewpoint. When we, as did Asaph, approach           placed in the things which are earthly. They amass
God with awe in our soul, then we understand the              unto themselves the riches of this world and boast in
words of God in Isaiah 55: 8-9: "For my thoughts are          the powers that their riches give to them. But all the
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,             pleasures of sin are but for a season. All their
saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the        treasures and wealth are subject to decay and corrup-
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my           tion. They are treasures of the earth where moth and
thoughts than your thoughts." The ways of God are,            rust doth corrupt. The carnal prosperity of the
deep, and His dealings with us incomprehensible. B&           wicked is due to God's forbearance with them. In
these dealings are always right, because the God to           prospering them from a carnal viewpoint, God has in
Whom we pray is Jehovah our Father for Jesus sake.            mind their utter desolation and destruction. God puts
And certainly a father always seeks the well-being of         them in slippery places and will cast them down into
his sons. To put it more plainly, at the very center of       destruction. That which Asaph perceived about the
all the dealings of God, i.e. the execution of His            wicked and became envious of was but temporary.
determinate counsel, stands Jesus Christ Who is the           The things which the wicked possess and which often


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  881


look good to `us are but for the moment, and their          this: when my heart was embittered and my feelings
latter end is utter destruction in hell. Asaph here         were aroused. Then, I was a fool and ignorant. We are
learns what Moses had seen long before, when he             to blame. As James warns us,  ". .  .every man is
chose "rather to suffer afflictions with the people of      tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts, and
God, than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season."       enticed." (1: 14) Our own hearts deceive us and the
                                                            flesh urges it on. From a carnal viewpoint we begin to
  0, how ignorant was I not to see this, exclaimed          second guess God in His dealings with us and the
Asaph (verse 22). We must not be foolish and                world. The positive side of this is set forth in Philip-
spiritually ignorant, as was Asaph. It is easy to be        pians 4: 11-13; "not that I speak in respect of want:
deceived and to listen to the desires of the flesh and      for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith
so to become disenchanted with our life and the place       to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I
which God has given to us. Sometimes we think we            know how to abound: everywhere .and `in all things I
ought to have certain things, or again think we can         am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both
very well do without afflictions that plague us. Let us     to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things
be careful! The heart is deceitful above all things. We     through Christ which strengtheneth me." After facing
must not become entangled in our own carnal                 God in the sanctuary, we can say with Asaph (verses
psychology. This is foolishness, says the Psalmist.         24 and 29, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel,
Instead we must approach the Most High God, and in          and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in
such a spiritual frame of mind we will not grumble,         heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I
but be content to know that the Lord has placed the         desire beside thee."
wicked upon a swift slide into hell, but that all things
will work for OUY good.                                       God is faithful! In our more or less frequent moods
                                                            of disenchantment, when we are dissatisfied with our
   Asaph confesses his sin of carnal mindedness. "I         lot in life, when we are as beasts, ignorant and foolish
was as a beast before thee." Before thee! Asaph             before God, we must confess our shortcomings and
realized that when God's children so reason (that is,       lack of trust before God and rejoice in His faithful-
carnally) they do it before the face of their God. Yes,     ness. This also Asaph realizes. Listen. "Nevertheless I
while God is a faithful Father, constantly watching         am continually with thee: thou hast  holden me by
over us and leading us perfectly in the way ever-           my right hand." He will never leave us or forsake us.
lasting, we are as prodigal sons, disenchanted with our     Though we as His children often grumble and com-
Father's dealings and headed for the pig sties of a         plain regarding our afflictions, trials, and lot in this
foreign country. We must see that the emphasis is           life, our Father's arms are always open. More! He
upon, "before Thee!" When we stand before God,              holds us by our right hand even through the times
these spiritual considerations take over our thinking.      when our feet well nigh slip. "God is the strength of
As does Asaph, we do some introspection. What a             my heart, and my portion forever." (verse 26) Shall
difference! When we let God slip far from our con-          we make that our assurance? Then we return from
siderations, then we look only at things and circum-        the sanctuary with the words of Asaph in our hearts
stances outside of ourselves. The wicked prosper and        and upon our lips:  ". . .Lo, they that are far from
increase. How foolish! The problem is with ourselves.       thee shall perish . . . But it is good for me to draw
This Asaph realizes, "My heart was grieved and I was        near- to God: I have put my trust in the Lord
pricked in my reins." The idea is better put across in      God . . . ." Thus we live in His care, in His fear.


T H E S T R E N G T H O F Y O U T H


                                     The Little Foxes
                                               Rev. J. Kortering


  The Song of Solomon is a beautiful book.                  the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the
                                                            earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and
  Chapter two is no exception.                              the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig
  Some people remember this chapter for its beauti-         tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with
ful description of spring. "For lo, the winter is past,     the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my


882                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


fair one, and come away." (verses 1 l-l 3)                    not our Lord Jesus say, "I am the true vine, and my
   Others read it as a love poem. "As the lily among          Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that
thorns, so is my love among the daughters . . . He            beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch
brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner            that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me            forth more fruit"? (John 15: 1,2)
with apples; for I am sick of love . . . 0 my dove, that        Christ is now concerned about the well being of
art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the    the vine, or more particularly the tender grapes that
stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me  hear thy          are upon the, vine. It does not take much imagination
voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is         to realize that the tender grapes represent children,
comely." (verses 2, 4, 5, and 14.) No more beautiful          young people, or anyone who is not spiritually
words can be found to describe the anticipation and           mature. Since it is springtime, the grapes are tender.
consummation of the love relationship.                        They are just beginning to form in the bud. They are
   Of course, spring and love go wonderfully together.        especially sensitive to chill. They can easily be torn
                                                              loose from the vine. Hence, they must be protected
  My interest, however, is in the foxes. "Take us the         ca,refully. This also applies to youth within the
foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our        covenant of grace. You young people are tender of
vines have tender grapes," verse 15. I hope this isn't a      faith. This is no disgrace; it is a spiritual fact we do
disappointment. After all, the lovers, the vineyard,          well to recognize. You have not yet been tested and
and the foxes are all joined beautifully together. The        tried. You can easily be persuaded to follow different
lovers say, "Take us the foxes."                              ideas. There is glamor in the lust of the flesh; there is
                                                              pleasure in the cesspool of sin. You are very
                                                              impressionable and sensitive to the wide world
THE TENDER GRAPES                                             around you. You are tender!
  As you know, the Song of Solomon is rich in
symbolism. This does not take away from the moving            LITTLE FOXES
and explicit description of love that is referred to in         As these lovers walked together through the vine-
its verses. After all, if the symbol isn't beautiful, then    yard, a little jackal scampered ahead of them. This
the thing signified isn't either. But it is; the love that    reminded him that they had to do something about
Solomon had for his Shulamite wife was rich and               those "little foxes" lest they spoil the vines and
deep. The inspired author rises to exalted heights as         thereby destroy the tender grapes. As they played in
he reflects on his love for her.                              the vineyard they would dig at the roots, tear the
  Solomon is not simply writing a marriage manual,            vine, and certainly damage the potential of having
he is writing to the church. Hence the description of         mature grapes.
his love for his wife and her love for him symbolizes           I suppose those jackals looked anything but
for us the spiritual love which Christ has for His            dangerous. A little fox has all sorts of appeal, they
Church and the love the Church has for Christ. All            even look soft and cuddly. Many children have been
this is in full harmony with all of Scripture. The most       tempted to try to make a pet of a little fox. However,
well-known reference can be found in Ephesians 5:             it doesn't take long before its true nature becomes
"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as             apparent. A little fox is still a fox! The appearance
Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour       may differ, but beneath that innocent exterior is a sly
of the body . . . Husbands love your wives, even as           and treacherous animal.
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it . . .
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother          Within Christ's vineyard there are little foxes.
and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall         These little foxes are a threat to the well-being of the
be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak            tender grapes. What might these be?
concerning Christ and the church." (verses 23-25, 31            In general these little foxes represent anything that
and 32)                                                       appears to be innocent yet can have a deadly in-
  As we watch these two lovers walk in the vineyard,          fluence on the youth of the covenant.
he speaks, "0 my dove, that art in the clefts of the            I'd like to hear you suggest what these might be.
rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy        I suppose you would come up with quite a list.
countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy
voice and thy countenance is comely. Take us the                Let me help you.
foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our          By now you know that there are erroneous views
vines have tender grapes." (verses 14 and 15) Christ is       circulating within the sphere of the church of Christ
here speaking concerning the vineyard. The vineyard           on earth. Maybe you read about them in some maga-
represents the church in the midst of the world. Did          zine. Perhaps you encountered them in school, either


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 883


because your teacher showed you the errors of others        "God," the girlie magazine instead of the real thing,
or because your teacher might have advocated a              yelling "teach" yet not staging a campus revolt, tell-
wrong view, depending on which school you attend.           ing the "white lie" and still not always being a de-
Your minister or parents may have showed you some           ceiver.
of these views in the catechism class or at home.             You can take it from here.
  The striking thing about error as it relates to our         We might add one other area. There are many
faith is that it doesn't always seem so bad, par-           things in our lives which are not sinful in themselves
ticularly while we are young. That's what makes them        but which can become the means to sin against God.
"little foxes." Think of the truth of creation over         How often have we heard that there is no sin in tele-
against evolution. How many teachers of evolution or        vision! And that's right! Yet, the television can easily
theistic evolution claim that it doesn't make that          become a little fox. It has such an innocent appear-
much difference.whether we say God created in six           ance. Just look at the veneer cabinet, complicated by
days, each limited by 24 hours, or that we say God          an array of knobs, and demonstrated in living,
created by means of a process taking up to billions of      dazzling color. It's a marvel. Beneath that slick out-
years? What's the difference as to how we got here, as      side is a complicated electronic wizard, with resis-
long as we are doing the right thing once we are here?      tors, transistors, and all the rest. A human genius
Have you heard this language? Yet what is at stake is       developed it, there is no doubt about it.
the Word of God itself, our original perfection in
Adam, the historicity of the Garden of Eden and the           There are more than electrons bounding around,
events of the fall, and ultimately our whole salvation.     however. There are pictures and sounds that teach,
                                                            that teach moral values. They may teach us science,
  The same is true in so many doctrinal truths. Did         they may teach world events, they may even teach
Eve actually talk to a serpent? Were the miracles real?     the skills of sports. But, they can also teach the
Is man really "incapable of doing any good and              horrors of murder, hatred, lust, crime, and the whole
inclined to all evil"? Was Christ really born of a          world of iniquity.
virgin? Was the cross necessary unto the satisfaction
of sin? These are in question form deliberately. More          It could be a little fox.
and more people are denying them today. Very care-             There are so many others: books, magazines,
fully and subtly they insist that the Bible is not re-      musical instruments, record players, projectors, and
liable for history, that man is not completely cor-         all kinds of inventions.
rupt, and that Christ died for everyone because God            There is 
loves everyone.                                                             no sin in things. It just makes a difference
                                                            what we do with things and how we use them. If we
  Such lies are presented in a subtle way and thereby       use them to the glory of God, they are instruments
become "little foxes" for covenant youth. You may           unto righteousness; if unto sin, they are little foxes.
sometimes think that your parents and teachers as
well as preachers are getting pretty "technical" over
these differences; yet what is at stake is a little fox.       It is not enough to sigh and say, "Yes, that's right.
  There are other areas.                                    I should do something about this in my life." That
  Certain sins do not seem so bad, and sometimes            kind of sigh only brings one closer to destruction.
have a lot of appeal. Think for instance of rebellion.         We have to take the foxes and remove them from
That's an ugly word. We recall times of civil  dis-         our lives.
obedience,:campus  riots, strikes. All of these were           To be sure, this is the business of the whole church
accomp$ \&l with violence, bloodshed, open hostility        and all who are involved in the development of chil-
to autho 
          l-l`ty. We all react to this and agree,  "no      dren: parents, teachers, ministers, and guardians.
way!"                                                          You young people have to realize that this is alsp
  Yet, the big fox begins with a little fox. Sometimes      your   calling.  In  the interest of protecting you, your
you like to accept the challenge to "bug" your              parents and others are commanded by God to get rid
teacher. No, I don't suppose you are going to stand in      of these little foxes lest you become spiritually torn
front of the whole class and mouth off. You'll try          apart or even ripped off the vine. Little foxes are
something more sly. Ring typewriter bells - how will        deadly foxes. They must be taken and destroyed.
she ever know who did that? Let a mouse loose in the
room - that's good for a few laughs. Maybe you'll get          As you get older, you have to handle these little
more nerve and crash the monitoring system  - and           foxes yourself. Remember it is in love that Christ tells
find yourself with an unexpected.free period.               us, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the
                                                            vines, for our vines have tender grapes."
   Do you get the point? There are the "little sins"
which don't seem to be so bad: the "gosh" instead of           How good are you at fox hunting?


 884                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY:


Dear Sir:
   I am astounded at the way Prof. H. Hanko repre-            growing in the knowledge of God in His works and
sents my views in his review of A Christian View of           ways."
History? He quotes a passage in which I say (in part)            I do argue against those persons who argue from
that Christians should study history "since the Chris-        the "valid observation" "that all things are under the
tian's task is to live in this world and to witness to the    providence of God" to one "that does not necessarily
love `of God as manifested in Christ, it is essential for     follow, that we know specifically how God provi-
us to understand ourselves and the world as well as           dentially influences history." My main argument
we possibly can." Prof. Hanko observes, "This taken           against this "traditional approach to history" is that
by itself, is a wholly inadequate reason for studying         it involves "an apparent failure to distinguish ade-
history, but it follows from the general view of the          quately between God's special revelation in Scripture
authors, for they reject the traditional view of history      and his more general revelation elsewhere." If I took
as the unfolding of the counsel of God."                      Prof. Hanko's review by itself I would suspect that he
   I would agree that taken by itself this statement is       does not adequately make this distinction between
inadequate, since it tends to emphasize an ethical            special and general revelation. He at least blurs this
aspect of living to the glory of God and does not             distinction when he suggests such things as that our
include some important theological bases for the              purpose should be to "find in history the revelation
Christian's understanding of the significance of              of God," :while making no clear distinction between
history. However, the point is that this statement can        the revelation we can find in Scripture and that which
not be  taken  by  itself  If it is it distorts my whole      we  find elsewhere.  Taken by itself Prof. Hanko's
position by ignoring the essential context of my              statement amounts to the principle of Modernism,
fundamental theological presuppositions. Since I state        that we find God revealed just as much in the
such fundamental points directly, I can only ask for          historical progress of culture as in Scripture. I'm
this space to set the record straight so that your            sure that Prof. Hanko does not intend this blurring
readers can see what is the actual position in my             concerning the quality of special and general revela-
essay.                                                        tion, so I'& sure it would be- as-unfair of me to take his
   On the same page from which Prof. Hanko quotes I           review by itself as it is for him to take my one state-
speak of the centrality of God's revelation in Scrip-         ment by itself.
ture for our understanding of all of history. Then               I expect that Prof. Hanko and I do have real dis-
(after a passage in which as a matter of fact I defend        agreements. These  disagreemerits,  however, have to
an antithesis between Christians and non-Christians           do not with whether history is the general revelation
even in their knowledge of elementary facts) I have a         of God but over how accurately we can read what is
section clearly entitled "OUR KNOWLEDGE OF                    revealed in God's providential work in history. I think
GOD'S ACTIONS IN HISTORY." Part of this reads:                Prof. Hanko is mistaken and presumptuous if he
          "We  know of God's actions particularly in the      thinks that we make definitive declarations on what
   history of redemption recorded in Scripture and            God's purposes are in everyday historical events.
   centering in Christ. We also know that God will con-          I do not, however, think that if Prof. Hanko is
   tinue his redemptive work through the workings of          mistaken on this point (as I think he is) therefore his
   the Spirit in the church, and hence that the highest       whole position on history is "of little or no help
   value and the most meaningful experience for men is        (except by way of antithesis)". I am  genutiely
   knowing and loving God. We know also that human            offended that he is so ready to draw such a con-
   experience for men is knowing and loving God. We
   know also that human history will end in judgment.         clusion concerning my work and of that of my
   We can say therefore that there is meaning in the          colleagues. I hope at least that he will withdraw that
   most fundamental developments in history and that          remark. Perhaps then we could begin to come to an
   there is a general progression defined by the actions      understanding of each other which I think should at
   of God in our history." P. 38                              least be among the minimal goals of Reformed Chris-
  Compare this to Prof. Hanko's sentence (following           tians.
the one quoted above): "Doing this, they can no                 I expect that  Prbf. Hanko may be able to find
longer find in history the revelation of God, and they        some theological imprecision, misplaced emphasis,
no longer see in a study of history the benefit of            and even some inaccuracy in my essay. This would


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                885


not surprise me since (as our book emphasizes) we do        created good, but fell and lost the image of God, and
not claim infallibility for our formulations of Chris-      is therefore unable to do any good at all.
tian views of history. I leave it for your readers to            Dr.  Marsden denies, in a somewhat scoffing way,
judge, however, whether the  essay takes the essen-         that "history is a contest of good guys versus bad
tially anti-Christian stance that he attributes to it in    guys, good ideas versus bad ideas, Christians versus
his review.                                                 lions." (p. 43.) I  be1ieve this to be true. I believe in
                       Sincerely yours                      the absolute antithesis in history  - an antithesis
                       George Marsden,                      between the works of darkness and the works of
                       Professor of History                 light, between the seed of the woman and the seed of
                                                            the serpent, between Christ and Belial.
Reply :                                                          But centrally, as Dr.  Marsden  also notes, our
  Although it is somewhat distasteful for me to have        differences center in the concept of revelation.
t o   d e f e n d   a ' `Book Review," nevertheless Dr.     Although it may come as something of a shock to Dr.
Marsden's letter requires at least a brief response.        Marsden,  I do not blur the lines between special and
  The first part of his letter deals with my criticism      general revelation because I do not believe that Scrip-
of his statement concerning the reason for studying         ture teaches the idea of general revelation in the
history. He takes exception to the fact that I leave        generally accepted use of that term. I accept the
the impression that this is the only reason the author      traditional view of history, although I do not accept
gives for studying history and that I omit other            Dr. Marsden's description of it as "lessons of history
reasons which he enumerates. In this connection, I          becoming largely the readings of the special  provi-
remind Dr. Marsden of the following- facts of which         dences of God" (p. 39); or, history as the means
he himself cannot be unaware.                               whereby we can tell "what God's purposes are in
   1) The reason for studying history which Dr.             particular historical events" (p. 39.); or, that the Old
Marsden gives and which I quoted is said by him to be       Testament national distinctions are still in force
"the basic reason." (p. 3 1; underscoring is mine.) I       today and serve as a basis for blessing and cursing. I,
emphatically disagree.                                      along with Dr. Marsden, reject these ideas.
  2) On  p. 34, Dr.  Marsden calls this same reason:             But that is not the traditional viewpoint of history
                                                            -
`fthe most compelling purpose for studying or teach-             although I am not interested in getting into an
ing history." He writes: "Although for the Christian        argument about what is traditional and what is not. I
the most compelling purpose for studying or teaching        do believe that God's counsel is absolutely decisive in
history is to gain such a perspective that contributes      all of history. I do not believe, as Dr. Marsden does,
directly to Christian living . . . ."                       that God "has decisively entered into and changed
                                                            human history" (p. 38.); or that "men's sinful actions
  3) The only other reason I can find (after re-            work against the purposes of God." (p. 38.) While
reading the chapter two more times) for studying            this is  dot the place to discuss this whole question
history which Dr.  Marsden offers is the reason of          (and indeed it would be nice if we could "begin to
"memory." Exactly what he means by this, I am not           come to an understanding of each other" on these
sure, but it is not germane to our subject.                 matters), it must certainly be maintained that because
  4) Dr. Marsden speaks of my failure to pay special        God's counsel is absolutely determinative for every-
attention to the essential context of his fundamental       thing which transpires, God sovereignly realizes His
theological presuppositions.        Nevertheless, in the    purpose in all that takes place in history. That
whole context of his theological presuppositions, I do      purpose is attained in Christ through the salvation of
not find any other reason given why the Christian           the elect and the condemnation of the reprobate on
ought to study history.                                     account of their sins. That purpose is constantly
  It is, however, indeed correct that our basic dis-        being realized in history as Christ, from His position
agreements lie in the area of these theological pre-        at God's right hand, executes all God's will. But
suppositions. I disagree with Dr. Marsden's view of         because reprobation must serve election, all of
man. I do not believe that "the biblical revelation"        history, in all its details, serves the salvation of the
gives us a "paradoxical" view of the "character of          Church. `This must be the fundamental starting point
man," namely, that, "on the one hand, man is the            for all the interpretation of history,. and this must be
crown  o$ creation, made in God's own image, and            the deepest explanation for the absolute antithesis
given both responsibility and capability to subdue the      which runs through history between the seed of the
earth"; and, "On the other hand, man is fallen and is       woman and the seed of the serpent.
the great self-deceiver, constantly prone to think               While: this certainly does not enable us to interpret
more highly of himself than he ought." (pp. 40,41.) I       every detailed "fact" of history, and while the pur-
believe in the truth of total depravity, that man was       poses of' God are not always apparent to us, neverthe-


      886                                        THE STANDARD BEARER


                                         -..
less, history interpreted from-any other viewpoint is        history. Because we have the Scriptures we are com-
incorrect interpretation. To use Dr. Marsden's own           pelled to do this. Does Dr. Marsden  hold to this view
example, while we cannot see God's purpose in the            of Scripture?
isolated fact of Washington's crossing of the                   While indeed the whole subject of the relation
Delaware, we can see God's purpose in some measure           between so-called  historia  revelations  and world
in the American Revolution. And we can and must              history is an important one - especially as it relates
pass moral judgment on that Revolution as well.
 i            :                                              to the whole question of revelation, whether special
       How can we do this? We can do this because Scrip-     or "general," I do not find in Dr. Marsden's essay any
ture itself gives to us the key to the understanding of      of these truths emphasized. But they should be
history. And Scripture gives to us the objective             emphasized by any history teacher who is Reformed
standard to pass moral judgments on the events of            and Calvinistic.                        Prof. H. Hanko


                                                Book Review
POWER-WORD AND TEXT-WORD IN RECENT                           phiiosophy, leave me with a deep feeling of dis-
REFORMED THOUGHT,  by Harry L. Downs;                        satisfaction. It seems to me that the A.A.C.S. has
Presbyterian  & Reformed Publishing, 1974; $3.50             forced errors in some parts of traditional Reformed
(paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                        theology out into the open. The A.A.C.S. is collecting
       This book, by the pastor of the Dresden Christian     bills past due because of these errors. And the result
Reformed Church in Dresden, Ontario, is an analysis          is that those who oppose the views of the A.A.C.S.
of "the view of Scripture set forth by some repre-           find themselves in an unfavorable position to combat
sentatives of the philosophy of the law-idea." Par-          successfully the enemy which they see creeping into
ticularly, the author examines in some detail the            the camp.
views of the A.A.C.S. with respect to their basic              Although a book review is hardly the place to go
doctrine of the Word of God.                                 into these matters, let me be specific and mention
       Although the author enters into the more philo-       them at least.
sophical views of the A.A.C.S. in Chapter II (a                For one thing, the theologians of the A.A.C.S.`have
chapter which can be skipped by those who are not            placed a lot of,emphasis on the idea of the Word of
`interested in the vagaries of philosophy), the book as      God. This is both their strength and their weakness.
`a whole gives a rather thorough presentation of the         The doctrine of the Word of God is, without ques-
views of those who are followers of Dooyeweerd's             tion, of fundamental importance. In placing emphasis
philosophy on the North American continent and in            on this doctrine, the leaders of the A.A.C.S. have
various places overseas. In chapter 1, the author deals      properly made some important distinctions - as e.g.,
especially with the differences in the Reformed              between the creative Word, Christ, the Scriptures, and
community on this question and points out  not               the Word preached. With these distinctions I not only
only the differences between the proponents of               have no quarrel, but find myself in complete agree-
the law-idea and those who oppose this view,                 ment. The trouble with the A.A.C.S. is that it has
but also shows that there is not complete agreement          separated these aspects of the Word of God so com-
among the A.A.C.S. men themselves. But especially in         pletely that there is no room left for any relationship
the rest of the book, the author concentrates on the         between them whatsoever. The  opponetits of  the
view of Scripture and goes into a rather lengthy             A.A.C.S. have, on the other hand, all but  identified
critique and analysis of these views. For these reasons      these various aspects of the Word of God. And this
the book is worth reading.                                   too is a serious mistake. To give but one example, the
       However, I must, in this review, also make mention    opponents of the A.A.C.S. have identified thegospel
of the fact that I am increasingly troubled by those         with the  Scriptures.  We believe with all our hearts
who oppose the errors of the A.A.C.S. As those who           that the Scriptures are the infallibly inspired record
have been readers of the Standard Bearer know,* I            of the Word of God. But it is the written record of
have no sympathy for the aberrations of the                  the Word of God, not the gospel. The  opponen$ of
A.A.C.S., and I consider the whole philosophy of this        the A.A.C.S. speak of the Scriptures as if the Scrip-
movement to be a dangerous and heretical movement            tures themselves are the powerful Word of God which
within the Reformed church world. But this does not          is able to save. But they are not. I have even heard
alter the fact that a book such as this under review, as     Rom. 1: 16 quoted as support for the proposition that
well as the writings of mariy who have opposed this          the Bible has power in itself. But Paul does not say


                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                887


that in the text. He writes: "For I am not ashamed of                       ophy of the law-idea.
the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto                          And this brings me to the third matter, for the
salvation . . . ." That is something  else. Only the                        whole idea of general revelation is closely connected
gospel, which is the preaching of the Scriptures, is                        to the idea of common grace. While some members of
able to save. The Scriptures can be called "The Word                        the A.A.C.S. seem somewhat reluctant to accept the
of God" only in the sense that the Scriptures contain                       idea of common grace - at least all the implications
the infallibly inspired record of the Word of God. The                      of this view, they cannot really escape it. But those
Scriptures have no power in themselves. The oppo-                           who oppose the A.A.C.S., while still maintaining the
nents vitiate their own criticism when they fail to                         doctrine of common grace, never get around to a
make this distinction; and we have the A.A.C.S. to                          successful refutation of this heresy. One illustration
thank for bringing this distinction out into the open.                      will suffice. In all the writings of the A.A.C.S. there is
  For another thing, the A.A.C.S. has made a lot of                         almost no  merition of the devastating effects of sin
the revelation of God through the Word in the crea-                         both on the creation itself and on man whose mind is
tion. They have erred, and erred seriously, in making                       so darkened that he cannot hear the Word of God in
a disjunction between the Word in creation and the                          creation. But this same fundamental fault is to be
Word of God in Scripture. Nevertheless, leaning upon                        found in those who oppose the A.A.C.S. In all the
the traditional idea in some parts of the Reformed                          critique of the book under review there is almost no
Church world between "general" and "special"                                mention made of sin. Without even discussing the
revelation, the opponents of the A.A.C.S. have                              whole doctrine, it is of utmost importance to see how
committed the same error of making a disjunction                            sin affects the whole truth concerning the doctrine of
between God's Word in creation and in the Scriptures                        the Word of God and revelation. Without a proper
- the Scriptures now as the infallibly inspired reccn-d                     conception of sin, no light can be shed on this prob-
of the revelation of God in the Word which is Christ.                       lem. And the concept of common grace makes this
It is my considered opinion that if the opponents of                        utterly impossible.
the A.A.C.S. are to be successful in their refutation of                       It would be well for this whole subject to be
the views of the A.A.C.S., they must abandon forth-                         analyzed in detail. And if the opponents of the
with the whole concept of "general revelation" of                           A.A.C.S. do not do this, they will find that their
whichneither Scripture nor our Confessions (not even                        efforts to combat the A.A.C.S. are futile. The
Article 2 of the Belgic Confession) speak. If they                          A.A.C.S. will continue to collect the bills due, and
insist on holding to this distinction, they will never be                   their heresy will continue to permeate the Church.
able successfully to refute the errors of the philos-

                            NOTICE!!!                                                                   NOTICE!!!
   According to the decision of the Synod of 1975, the Council of the          The Hull  (Iowa)  Protestant Reformed Christian School is in need of
South Holland (Illinois) Protestant Reformed Church was appointed           a teacher for Grades 3, 4, and 5 for the school year beginning  Septem-
the calling church for the 1976 Synod. The Council of the South             ber, 1976. Anyone interested please contact Mr. Bernard  Driesen, RR
Holland Church hereby notifies our churches that the 1976 Synod of          1, Box 13,  Boyden, Iowa 51234. Phone 712-725-2071.
the Protestant Reformed Churches in America will convene, the Lord                                           The Board of the Hull Prot.
willing, on Wednesday, June 2, 1976, at 9 AM in the South Holland                                             Reformed Christian School.
Church. The pre-Synodical service will be held Tuesday evening, June  1,                                      Bernard  Driesen, Sec'y.
at 8 PM in South Holland Church. Rev. J.L. Kortering, President of the
1975 Synod, will preach the sermon.  Synodical delegates are requested
to meet with the Council before the service. Delegates in need of
lodging should contact Mr. Gene Kuiper, 1211 East  164th, St. South
Holland. IL 60473.
                                  Gene Kuiper, Clerk.





                                                              NOTICE! ! !

                               Due to our decision to add a fourth teacher to our Staff, the
                          SOUTH HOLLAND PROTESTANT REFORMED CHRISTIAN
                          SCHOOL is accepting applications for the position. Anyone interested
                          should write or phone Mr.  Menno Poortenga, 18425  Oakwood  Ave.,
                           Lansing, Illinois 60438. Phone: (332) 474-0675.

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



888                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


                          News From Our Churches
   Rev. Van Overloop, pastor of our Hope Church in           will again be coming from that kitchen.
Walker, Michigan, returned to his congregation early            With the coming of Spring also comes Spring
in April after spending some time in Houston, Texas,          weather. Several of our Michigan churches have had
working there with our missionary, Rev. R. Harbach.          notices in their bulletins concerning the pblicy of that
Rev. Van Overloop  gave the following report to his           church in regard to holding church services in the
congregation in his April 11 bulletin: "Your pastor          event of a "tornado watch" or a "tornado warning."
gives thanks to God for being safely brought back to         The Council of Southwest Church has purchased a
your midst after working with Rev. Harbach for two            "weather alert system" to give warning of severe
full weeks. Because the size of the group in Houston          weather conditions as they develop.
is small (3 families, 18 souls) we should not despair
and come to the conclusion that the time has arrived            Two of our Michigan church bulletins have con-
to pull out and close the field. To `shake off the dust       tained reports  from their deacons regarding the
of our feet' (Matt. 10: 14) is not a move to be taken        dwindling balance in their Benevolence Funds. In this
lightly. But even apart from that it is my opinion that      time of much material wealth and a great number of
there is still much work to be done. Through v.arious        social welfare programs administered by state and
contacts which were -made, I am convinced that there        national.governments,  it is good to see that the work
is potential which has not been touched heretofore.          of Christian Mercy as performed by the deacons has
Let us remember this field and their missionary in otir      not disappeared in the Protestant Reformed Churches
prayers and let us not expect the rate of growth in a        as it has in many churches of our day. In their 1975
mission field to be any faster than the rate of growth       Financial Report, the deacons of First Church in
our congregation experiences from without."                  Grand Rapids reported disbursing over $21,000  in
   Rev. Moore has accepted the call to Edmonton,             assistance to the needy for the year.
Alberta, Canada, but due to immigration laws his                The last in a series of lectures given in Rock Valley,
move has been delayed. One of the steps Rev. Moore           Iowa, by the Reformed Witness Committee was
had to take was to journey to Chicago and undergo a          scheduled for March 24. Rev. Moore's topic was
personal interview with the Canadian Council. His            "Preaching and Discipline: A Vital Unity." The work
original goal was to be in Edmonton by May 1st.              of the Reformed Witness Committee is supported by
Whether that will be possible or. not -remains to be         our churches in Hull and Doon, Iowa, and Edgerton,
seen.                                                       . Minn., These same churches also scheduled an Office-
                                                             bearers' Conference on March 30 in Edgerton. Rev.
   Rev. Moore's present congregation in Doon, Iowa,          Slopsema spoke on "Christian Giving and the Mercies
formed a trio consisting of Rev. M. Hoeksema, Rev.,          of Christ."                         -`.
M. Kamps, and Rev. Van  Overloop.  From this trio,
the congregation has extended a call to Rev. R. Van             A little further to the East, another Office Bearers'
Overloop.                                                    Conference was scheduled on April 6 at Hope Church
                                                             in, the Grand Rapids area. Prof.  H.. Hanko was to
   Another fiftieth anniversary celebration within our       speak on' the question, "When Family Discipline
churches - the Doon, Iowa, congregation celebrated           Fails, When Should Church `Discipline Be Applied?"
their fiftieth anniversary on Sunday, March 2 1, with a
singspiration. The program also included some special           The Young People's Societies in  dtir  %chm-ches
numbers and a short speech by Rev. Moore.  Doon              across the land seem to be very busy sponsbring all
invited sister congregations in Hull and Edgerton to         kinds of activities, including car washes, soup suppers,
join with them for this evening of spiritual fellowship.     singspirations,  talent nites, roller skating parties,
  The  Edgerton consistory decided that the church           banquets, swimming parties, family nites, and a few
kitchen was in need of some refurbishment. A night           more activities - all with the goal of raising funds for
                                                             the 1976 Young .People's Convention scheduled for
was set aside last February during which the families
of the congregation were given the opportunity to            late August at Camp Geneva on Lake Michigan. I have
make a gift for this project. A total of $523 was            a suspicion that the Young People, in addition to
collected on the Kitchen Fund drive. We trust that on        raising funds, might even be enjoying a good time! .
                                                                                                                   K.G.V.
various special occasions some rather pleasant smells


