      The
     TANKARD
      BEN?H?
        A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





The Reformed Church rejects  hyper-calvin-
ism, not  bec.ause she hedges on her Calvinism
at the last moment,, but exactly because of
her. Calvinism. Knowing her salvation as the
sovereign, . free, gracious calling of God in
Christ, she burns with zeal for the glory of her
God. In the love of her thankful heart, she
desires that His great Name, Jesus, be pub-
lished to the ends of the earth and that His
good commandments be obeyed.

  See "Hyper-Calvinism" and the Call of the
  Gospel - page 204


                                       Volume  LIII, No. 9, February 1, 1977  -
                                                  l&SN  0362-4692


194                                                            THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER
                              CONTENTS:                                               Semi-monthly. except monthly  during  June.  July.   and August.
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MEDITA TIO N



                                          Be Strong in the Lord
                                                                  Rev. H. Veldman


                  "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. " Eph. 6:lO.


  Finally, my brethren . . .                                                       verses that follow how we can be strong in the Lord
  The apostle is nearing the end of his epistle to the                             and in the power of His might. Engaged in the fearful
Ephesians. And, now, as far as the rest is concerned,                              struggle of the ages, fighting a battle which is ex-
concluding my epistle to the church at Ephesus, and                                clusively spiritual, we must put on the whole armour
also to the church of God throughout the ages, the                                 of God.
apostle would say, I leave with you this final word of                              We must be strong in the midst of the world. That
God: Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His                                we are in' the midst of the world is, of course, an
might. And then the apostle holds before us in the                                 obvious fact. But, what is fully as important is that


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER.                                             195



we must be in the midst of the world. We do not             mentioned is the girdle' of truth. We must know the
believe in world flight, that we must seclude ourselves     will of God, what the Lord demands of us in the
from the world. As impossible as it is for us to "get       midst of the world. That will of God is contained for
out" of the world, so wrong and contrary to the will        us in the. infallible scriptures. And, we must also be
of God is it for us to do so. Although not of the           able to recognize that will of God from whatever is
world, we are nevertheless in the world. Naturally          opposed to it. We must have the power of spiritual
speaking, contact with the world is unavoidable. We         discernment. Secondly, we must also be strong in our
are not called to separate ourselves from any world         walk. We must always be ready to seal our confession
sphere. In the world, we must certainly "rub elbows"        of the truth with a new and godly walk. This may
with those who love the darkness rather than the            imply that we invite trouble and disaster. Yet, we
light, with all the powers of sin and darkness.             must be strong. Doctrine and life belong inseparably
   What is this world that confronts us? Viewed             together. If we are not grounded in the truth, we will
naturally, they are exactly as we are. We come into         be as a ship without a compass and a rudder; then we
contact with men having bodies and souls, who have          will drift aimlessly to and fro. But, if we do not seal
the same needs we have . . . . We meet men who stand        our confessibn with a godly walk, then all our knowl-
in the same earthy relationships as we do, such as          edge will be nothing more than a tinkling cymbal;
parents and children, husbands and wives, employers         then we are nothing; then it would have been better
and employees, etc. They are men of like passions as        had we never been born.
we are; they receive from God the same gifts, such as         I-Iow can we be strong? The expression, "be strong,"
and sunshine, etc.                                          as it appears in the original, can mean two things. It
   Viewed spiritually, however, they are vastly dif-        can mean that we strengthen ourselves. It can also
ferent. The children of the world are governed from         mean that we are strengthened. We prefer the passive
below. It makes not a particle of difference how they       interpretation: be strengthened. We believe this in-
may  aFpear and conduct themselves in the outward           terpretation to be more in harmony with what
sense of the word. They may be ever so humanitarian,        follows: in the Lord, and in the power of His might.
striving for the betterment of mankind, making this         The translation, "be strong," is permissible, if only
world a better place in which to live. Fact is, they are    we remember that our only strength is exactly in the
governed from below. How scriptural this is! How the        Lord and in the power of His might. Besides, the
Word of God emphasizes this in Eph. 2: l-3 and Rom.         word, "be strengthened," is in the present tense, a
8: 6-8! And governed from below, controlled by the          being strengthened, and this means that we must be
power of sin and evil, they have but one purpose and        strengthened continually, as in the Lord and in the
goal. They are unalterably opposed to God and the           power of His might.
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. All their humani;           Indeed; we can never be strong in ourselves. On
tarian efforts are only man's vain attempt to set up        the one hand, the odds are hopelessly against us. The
and establish his kingdom of sin, without God and           people of God are hopelessly outnumbered, in man
the Christ of Calvary. All this will culminate in the       power and in resources. Besides, we can never be
kingdom of Antichrist. How important it is that we          strong because of ourselves. The fifth columnist lurks
understand this, as fathers and mothers, as husbands        in our every bosom. We are holy only in principle.
 and wives, also as young people.                           The spiritual undertow, the current against which we
   Besides, this world is strong. On its side are the       must struggle, is terrific in its force. And, we are
 spiritual powers of the air, the devil and all his         naturally attracted to the things that are below. How
 demonic host - see Eph. 6: 12. United with the world       can we ever protect this small principle of our new
 are countless millions of men, far more numerous           and heavenly obedience? Indeed, the history of the
 than the people of the Lord. Then, they have access to     Church is littered with the debris of those who would
 all the resources of this world . . . . And, to add to     stand in their own strength.
 this very sober and apparently gloomy picture, there         How can we be strong? First of all, we can be
 is the manner in which we must conduct this warfare.       strong only as in the Lord. The Lord here is surely
 We may never resort to force or violence over against      our Lord Jesus Christ. To be strong in Him means
 those who are in authority, and this also includes our     that He must be the sphere and origin of our strength-
 employers. We must be willing to be led as sheep to        ening. We must never seek help outside of Him. Of
 the slaughter, even as Christ, and we must trust that      course, we must be in the Lord, united with Him. But
 the Lord will vindicate us in His own good time.           then we must also seek all our strength from Him;
   To be strong always means two things. It means           always He must be the source and origin of all our
 that we must be strong in the truth. We do well to         strength. And, secondly, we must be strong in the
 bear in mind that, in the apostle's description of the     power of His might. These words are added by the
 Christian's armour in the verses 13-17, the first item     apostle as a further explanation of the words: be


                                                                                        /  -
196                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                     _-_-<  _


strong in the Lord. Indeed, well may we seek our             Indeed, the struggle will be difficult. How this
strength in and from the Lord because of the power           truth is emphasized in the Word of God! The world is
of His might.                                                unalterably opposed to the kingdom of God and of
                                                             His Son. The book of Revelation speaks vividly of the
  Indeed, what a tremendous power is His! This               struggle throughout the ages between the kingdom of
power which proceeds from the crucified and living           this world and the cause of God and of His Christ. In
Christ is surely the same power which was wrought            Revelation 13 we have the description of the anti-
by God in the Christ Himself. It is the mighty power         christ as he rises out of the sea and out of the earth.
which raised up Christ from the dead and exalted             And in Hebrews 11 the inspired writer speaks of the
Him into the highest glory, far above all principalities,    great cloud of witnesses, the saints of God through-
power, might, and dominion. Christ emptied Himself           out the Old Dispensation. Seeking all our strength in
into the lowest abyss of hell; the power of God              the Lord and in the power of His might, our path
exalted Him, our crucified Lord, into the highest            will not be a path of roses. The Word of God tells us
heaven.                                                      that the servant is not greater than his master. This
  And, this power of His might is also ours. Christ is       same truth is also emphasized in this sixth chapter of
not merely an individual. He is not merely another           Paul's epistle to the Ephesians.
man who suffered and died and rose again, and now               However, we will be strong. We will be strong in
beckons unto us that we follow in His footsteps. If          the Lord and in the power of His might. And what-
this were true, we could never attain unto heavenly          ever may be life's troubles and trials, this will be our
glory. Jesus must surely be more than a trail blazer         joy and experience: the assurance of eternal and
who shows us the way. This Christ is none other than         heavenly victory, that no harm can really befall us, and
our Lord Jesus Christ. He suffered and died as our           that all things work together for our good. Although
Head, the Head of all the elect given Him by the             hopelessly outnumbered, God is for us, and, if God
Father. He suffered and died for our sins. For us He         be for us, nothing is and can be against us. We are
merited everlasting life and glory. So, the power  of.       more than conquerors through Christ that loved us.
His might which elevated Him to the highest glory is         Our Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of His
now His, and to be wrought by Him in all His own,            might, can preserve us even unto the end. And we will
the elect given Him by the Father from before the            have the assurance that nothing will ever be able to
foundations of the world.                                    separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
                                                             Jesus, our Lord. Even as we may read it in Romans
  Now we understand the word of the apostle: be              8:38-39: "For I am persuaded, that neither death,
strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.           nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
Seek Him at all times, constantly, through God's             things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
word and prayer. Seek Him as our Lord Whom we                depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to sepa-
confess, Who suffered and died for us, paid for all our      rate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
sins and has begun His work of grace in us. Seek Him         our Lord." Let us, then, put on the whole armour of
as the One Who is alone able to keep us and to pre-          God, stand in the power of His grace, and rejoice in
serve us, Who can give us grace to be strong, to stand       the victory which is ours and will be given us in that
in the battle of faith, to persevere against hopeless        day when the battle will be over and the crown of
odds, to enable us to suffer and shame, and then,            victory given us only because of Jesus, the Captain of
when our life's course has been finished, to take us         our salvation and the Author and Finisher of our
unto Himself in everlasting life and glory.                  faith.

EDITORIAL

                             The  GKN  and  Dr.  H.M.  Kuitert
                             Baptism  on  the  Mission  Field  (4)

                                               Prof H. C. Hoeksema


  Recently so much attention has been paid to the            in the Netherlands that one was almost inclined to
Wiersinga Case in various reports about developments         think that the problems surrounding the teachings of


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 197



Dr. H.M. Kuitert had subsided or disappeared.                 Of all this I was reminded when I read the reports
Nothing, however, could be farther from the truth.         of the most recent synodical decision concerning
Dr. Kuitert has changed neither his teachings nor his      Kuitert's views. Dr. Kuitert wrote a little book en-
rather abrasive tactics. Moreover, he continues to         titled  "Zonder  geloof  vaart niemand  bvel (Without
occupy a chair in the Theological Faculty of the Free      faith no one prospers)" - a book with a fairly decent
University, where he can easily influence the budding      title, but which occasioned complaints of a very
theologians and future ministers of the  Gere-             serious nature against his views. And, as reported in
formeerde   Kevken   who are his students. He con-         various church papers recently, the Synod of the
tinues, too, to propagate his views among the              GKN has now expressed itself concerning those
churches and to influence the churches in various          complaints. Rather than translate the entire decision
ways by virtue of the fact that he has remained un-        of the General Synod, I will try to furnish the high-
disciplined with respect to his place in the churches.     lights.
He has even been able to function as advisor at the
General Synod of the GKN recently.                            First of all, questions were raised in connection
                                                           with Kuitert's book concerning the following items:
  Rather futilely, in my opinion, some have con-           being bound by the confessions, the nature of the
tinued their attempts at protest against the views of      authority of Scripture, the relation between revela-
the liberals in the GKN, and in particular against the     tion and Holy Scripture, and so-called  extra-
views of Dr. Kuitert. I say "futilely" because to date     ecclesiastical Christianity, i.e., a Christianity outside
no one has been successful in these attempts at            of the Christian church. Before the decision on
protest. The General Synod has been willing in some        Kuitert's views was made, there were extensive dis-
instances  - not in all  - to make some mildly con-        cussions with Kuitert about his views and about the
demnatory pronouncements concerning some of the            criticism of them.
liberal and un-Reformed teachings of these men; but
it has not been willing either to take or to recom-           In reaching its decision, Synod took into consider-
mend any kind of disciplinary action with respect to       ation the following items: 1) That Kuitert maintains
the men themselves.                                        his objections against the binding character of the
                                                           confessions under the 1971-72 Formula of Sub-
  And as might be expected, this failure to take dis-      scription, although he does not plead for setting aside
ciplinary action only serves to embolden the heretics.     of the Formula of Subscription. 2) That certain
They do not stand still, of course; but become more        expressions in his book concerning the relation
bold and outspoken in expressing their heretical           between revelation and Holy Scripture and the nature
ideas, and also add heresy to heresy. It is already        of Scriptural authority are, without further explana-
several years ago that Kuitert's views first came under    tion, difficult to harmonize with the acknowledge-
attack. And although at that time the General Synod        ment of Scripture as the Word of God; but from
of the GKN made a doctrinal pronouncement con-             further explanations on his part it might appear that
cerning the historicity of the creation and fail of        he confesses that via Holy Scripture God's unique and
Adam and Eve, nothing was ever done by way of              unrepeatable Self-revelation is transmitted to us. Yet
disciplining Kuitert. The result has been that Kuitert     there are still important questions concerning
not only "stuck to his guns" but also that he propa-       Kuitert's views concerning the relation between reve-
gated more and greater errors in his characteristically    lation and Holy Scripture and concerning the nature
abrasive way  - a manner which is intentionally            of the authority of Scripture. 3) That Dr. Kuitert in
employed by Kuitert, I think, for its shock-effect.        general repudiates the apparently possible conclusions
  What is worse, the result of all this has been that      which might be drawn from his book, such as that he
the down-grade movement in the GKN has also con-           holds for true the content of Scripture and of the
tinued unimpeded. No synodical pronouncements              Christian faith only in as far as they, according to
have been able to stop it. There were those who found      general human opinion, can promote a liberating
reason for cheer in the fact that the Synod declared       human prosperity; such as that he makes no essential
Wiersinga's denial of the atonement impermissible;         distinction between God's general revelation and His
but the simple fact is that this declaration, mainly       special revelation in Scripture; such as that he holds
because it was not enforced (and, I dare say, unen-        that the Christian faith is a human invention and not
forceable), did nothing to stem the tide. No church        the divinely wrought response of men to the Gospel
ever stands still, you see. Either a church moves          of God in the Christ of the Scriptures; such as that he
forward in the way of the truth of the gospel, or it       views the Christian faith as one of many ways by
retrogresses. And sad to say, in the GKN there is          which a man can come to God and His salvation; and
every evidence today that there is neither the will        such as that he wants to legitimize an extra-ecclesias-
nor the ability to stand for the precious truths of        tical Christianity. With respect to all the latter items,
our Reformed heritage.                                     however, the Synod declared and took into considera-


 198                                            THE STANDARD'BEARER


tion the fact that the discussion with Dr. Kuitert did          In the second point of its declaration Synod de-
not lead to satisfactory clarity.                             clares that the protests against certain expressions of
   Permit me to interrupt this account of Synod's             Kuitert concerning the relation of revelation and
decision for a moment, in order to observe that at the        Scripture and concerning the nature of Biblical
least, at the very> least, there are grounds in the above     authority are legitimate. Then it points out what is
for the Synod to declare that Dr. Kuitert is  incom-          involved in the acknowledgement of Scripture as the
petent  to instruct students in theology and future           Word of God according to the Netherlands Confes-
ministers. If a man's writings are so vague and so            sion, Articles 3 and 5  - as if both Kuitert and his
lacking in precision and clarity that even ecclesiastical     critics did not know this! But then the Synod adds
experts (the Synod and the deputies who engaged in            that because the confession is historically modified in
these long discussions) cannot gain a clear under-            its formulation of the truth of Scripture, it does not
standing of what he teaches, and if the man himself           answer the new questions which have arisen since then
cannot, when given extended opportunity, clarify his          concerning the relation of revelation and Scripture
views, then he is obviously not much of a scholar and         and concerning the nature of  Biblical authority, and
still less of a teacher. A teacher must be able to make       that therefore Synod had previously already assigned
things plain, and he must be able to communicate.             the study of these questions to the Commission on
For my own part, however, I do not believe this story         Church and Theology. Yet the Synod gave no specific
of the Synod. I believe it is a ruse. Dr. Kuitert is quite    mandate on this matter of Kuitert's unclear views to
able to communicate. I have found him to be so in his         the committee.
writings. I also'.found him to be quite clearly heretical       Notice again, however, that nothing whatsoever is
when he lectured several years ago under the auspices         demanded of Dr. Kuitert with respect to his views of
of the Christian Reformed Ministers' conference. No,          Scripture. The objections are legitimate; but nothing
that is not the trouble. The trouble is that the Synod        is required of him!
was afraid to say anything unfavorable in forthright
language. Notice that in all of the above items there is        In the third point of its decision Synod takes note
nothing unfavorable to Kuitert which is stated in             of the fact that Kuitert claimed in general not to be
black-and-white terms. Everything is qualified;               able to recognize himself in the conclusions which
nothing is firmly declared. The language reminds one          could apparently be possibly drawn from his book,
of the double-talk of a diplomat. The trumpet gives           and that for the rest no ecclesiastical pronouncement
an uncertain sound!                                           can be made concerning various items at the present
                                                              stage of discussion.
   As you might expect, the actual declaration of the           And do not forget in all this discussion how serious
Synod is no better than the considerations which              these matters are. For it is a mark of the false church
precede it.                                                   when heretics are upheld and tolerated!
   In the first place, the Synod declares that objec-
tions were rightly registered against Kuitert's radical                     Baptism On The Mission Field (4)
criticism of the binding character of the confessions,          In this installment of our consideration of the
and it rejects such radical criticism. And then this is       Study Report we wish to return to the item which we
added: that of Dr. Kuitert, even as of all who sign the       by-passed earlier, namely the decision of the Synod
Formula of Subscription, it is expected that he will          of 1956.
continue to adhere to that which is laid down therein.          First of all, let us quote what the Study Report has
   A decision of this kind is ridiculous; it is not           to say on the matter. Their mandate was "to take
worthy of a Reformed assembly. What is worse, it is a         into account . . . the previous decisions of Synod,
lying decision! Notice: 1) Synod acknowledges that            especially 1956." In referring to this decision of
Kuitert objects to binding and that the protests              1956, the committee offers the following summation:
against him are legitimate. 2) In the next point Synod
also acknowledges that the protests against Kuitert's               The Synod of 1956 approved of the labors of the
                                                                 missionary working in Loveland, Colorado "with the
views of the relation of revelation and Scripture and            exception of his administration of the Sacraments."
of the nature of Biblical authority are legitimate. In           The grounds adopted were: 1. That the administra-
other words, he has already transgressed the binding             tion of the Sacraments is contrary to the second
authority of the confessions! 3) Yet Synod speaks of             duty mentioned in the Form for Ordination. 2. It is
continuing to adhere. How, pray tell, can a man con-             contrary to his being under the supervision of the
tinue to adhere  when he has already departed and                Consistory of the First Church of Grand Rapids,
failed to adhere? But notice, too, that Synod  de-               Michigan. Article 7 of the Constitution of the Mission
mands nothing of Kuitert. Synod uses the same miser-             Committee." (Acts of Synod, 1956, Articles 85,86,
able language as in the Wiersinga case: it "is ex-               90-94.)
pected. . . ."                                                  In connection with its discussion of the Form of


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    199



Ordination of Missionaries, the Study Report has the                     The motion of Article 86, with its various  amg#d-
following to say about this decision of 1956:                          ments and grounds offered is now adopted. (Articles
                                                                       85,86,91,92,93,94)
          The Form of Ordination of Missionaries (pp. 74-76
       in the back of the Psalter), rightly understood,               I quote all of this material in full because it sheds a
       charges the missionary with the duty of baptizing on        little different light on the subject than one might
       the mission field, before and with a view to the exis-      gain from the partial quotation in the Study Report.
       tence of the instituted church. This Form was mis-          From a strictly formal point of view I am not greatly
       understood by the Synod of 1956, which decided              in love with the decision of 1956. You see, it was one
       that "administration of the Sacraments is contrary to       of those decisions which was hatched out on the floor
       the second duty mentioned in the Form of Ordina-            of Synod. Our past leaders, such as the late Revs.
       tion" (Art. 9 1).                                           Hoeksema and Vos, were rather adept at these
  Finally, in its advice the Study Report has the                  "floor" decisions. And at the time they were made,
following to say: "B. Synod declare that the Synod                 very often they were correct, too; and usually they
of 1956 erred in Art. 91, Ground 1 when it said,                   would be clear to those who were present at Synod.
`That the administration of the Sacraments is con-                 The trouble is that because of their brevity they are
trary to the second duty mentioned in the Form for                 often not clear to posterity, except by way of looking
Ordination.' "                                                     up all the background, etc. That is why synods do
  In considering this material, we should get the                  well to commit such problems to advisory com-
background of the 1956 decision, which is not fur-                 mittees for full and careful formulation. Nevertheless,
nished in full by the Study Report. Here it is:                    I am essentially in agreement witkthe decision, as I
   1. Our missionary was at that time laboring in                  was when I was a delegate to the 1956 Synod. And in
Loveland, Colorado, and was laboring in an already                 connection with the Study Report and the above
existing and instituted congregation, which, however,              data, I u)ish to point out the following:
was not yet a Protestant Reformed Congregation. It                    1. The Study Committee, it seems to me, went
was the Reformed Hope Church of Loveland.                          beyond its mandate. The mandate was  to take into
  2. According to a letter from the Consistory of                  account  this decision of 1956. The Study Report
that Reformed Hope Church which the Mission Com-                   passes judgment  on the 1956 decision, and even
mittee included in its report, our missionary "has                 recommends that Synod declare it to be in error.
administered the Lord's Supper twice, has baptized                 Moreover, in the advice of the Study Report no
three of our children." Acts of Synod, 1956, pp. 78,               grounds are offered for declaring it in error.
79.                                                                   2. It should be carefully noted that this decision
  3. Neither the Advisory Committee nor the Mission                was taken in a concrete case. Synod of 1956 did not
Committee offered Synod any advice on this matter.                 simply declare that  all administration of the sacra-
But when this material was treated on the floor of                 ments on the mission field  was improper. But it re-
Synod, the following decision was made:                            ferred to the situation as described above. What was
                                                                   that situation? This: 1) there was an organized con-
          Motion is made that we approve of Rev. Lubbers'          gregation. 2) However, that congregation was not yet
       labors in Loveland as reported by the Mission Com-          a Protestant Reformed congregation.
       mittee. See "I" of report. An amendment is made
        "with the exception of his administration of the              3. In this light it is plain that the Synod of 1956
        Sacraments." A motion is made to add the following         understood the Form for Ordination in the same way
        grounds:                                                   as I have explained it in my earlier articles on this
          1. That the administration of the Sacraments is          subject, namely: if it please the Lord to make thy
       contrary to the second duty mentioned in the Form           work fruitful unto the gathering of a congregation,
       for Ordination.                                             i.e., a Protestant Reformed congregation, then the
         2. It is contrary to his being under the supervision      missionary may and must baptize. In addition, Synod
       of the Consistory of the First Church of Grand               offered the ground that a minister may not without
       Rapids, Michigan, Article 7 of the Constitution of the       authorization place himself (in preaching and admin-
       Mission Committee.                                          istering the sacraments) under the supervision of a
          This motion carries.                                     non-Protestant Reformed consistory.
         An amendment is made to add "and with the ex-                Finally, I wish to point out that there is a vast
       ception of pronouncing the blessing." Ground: The            difference between what the Form states and  tihat
       official blessing and benediction is only and exclu-        the Study Report states.
       sively laid on an organized congregation, and under            1. The Form places a  limitation,  a condition, on
       the supervision of a local Consistory. Proof: all the
       benedictions in the Old and New Testaments are laid         the missionary with regard to baptism:  ". . .IF it
       upon the organized church of Christ. Carried.               pleases God to make thy work fruitful unto the


 200                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


 gathering of a church. . .  ." The Study Report in           look or the purpose which the missionary has in mind
 effect changes this to a statement of  purpose:              when he baptizes. No one knows whether or not a
 " . . .with a view to the existence of the instituted        church will be instituted. But the missionary must
 church. . . ." These two are by no means the same.           have this in mind in baptism: it is "with a view to the
                                                              instituting of a congregation," but this instituting of a
   2. The language of the form is objective: it points        congregation is not certain, it may be possible, may
 objectively to the proper circumstances under which          even be probable, but may also be improbable or
 a missionary has the duty of administering baptism.          doubtful. Again, the language of the Study Report
 The language of the Study Report, it seems to me, is         and that of the Form are obviously by no means the
subjective.. it seems to me to speak only of the out-         same.

 TRANSLATED TREASURES
                   Acts of the Synod of Dordrecht
                                               Historical  Forewo'rd (5)


   At the Synod of the South Holland Churches, held           fication of man before God, and concerning other
at Dordrecht, they took cognizance of the fact that           main points of doctrine. And he sought to prove that
none of the Ministers siding with Arminius had been           in these Reformed Churches a doctrine of divine
willing until now to reveal his objections against the        predestination was being promulgated which con-
adopted doctrine to his fellow Ministers, but that            flicted with God's nature, wisdom, righteousness, and
with various alibis they had all made mockery of              goodness, with the nature of man, with his free will,
the admonitions of the Churches and the decisions of          with the work of creation, with the nature of eternal
the Synods. It was again decided that they should             life and death, and, finally, with the nature of sin.
earnestly order them anew, within one month after             Further, he charged that this doctrine undermined the
this warning, to make known their objections, under           grace of God, was opposed to the honor of God, was
penalty of ecclesiastical censures against those who          a hindrance to the salvation of man, made God an
stubbornly refused. The Synod also decided to re-             author of sin, was a hindrance to sorrow eve? sin, took
quire the same thing of the Professors of Sacred              away all godly carefulness, diminished diligence to do
Theology in the `Academy of Leiden and of Petrus              good, quenched the fervency of prayer, deprived of the
Bertius, Regent of the Theological College. When              fear and trembling with which we must work out our
these Ministers saw that they either had to reveal            salvation, produced despair, perverted the Gospel, was
their views or undergo ecclesiastical censure, in order       against the ministry of the Word, and, finally, sub-
to escape these alternatives, with the help of                verted the foundation not only of the Christian reli-
Uitenbogaard they obtained authorizations from the            gion, but also of all religion. When Gomarus had
States by which these Ministers were ordered to send          learned of this, he, December 12, felt obligated better
their accusations, within a month's time, sealed, to          to inform the States, in order that their feelings might
the States, to be kept and delivered to the Provincial        not perhaps be prejudiced by wrong pre-judgments
Synod. When the Professors were requested by the              against the orthodox doctrine. On this account, hav-
deputies of the Synod to reveal any objections which         irig sought consent to speak, he declared at length
they might have, Gomarus answered that he had                 what the real view of Arminius was concerning the
detected nothing in the Confession or the Catechism          grdce of God and concerning the free will of man,
of these churches which did not agree with God's              concerning the justification of man before God, con-
Word and which was in need of change or improve-              cerning the perfection of man in this life, concerning
ment. Arminius replied that he would in his own time         predestination, concerning original sin, and concem-
answer this request in writing. And when he saw that         ing the perseverance of the saints. And he showed
he would in this way be pressed to declare his views,        how Arminius had given just reasons for suspicion
he revealed to the States in their full se&ion in a          that he did not have the right view concerning Holy
wide-ranging speech what he believed concerning               Scripture, concerning the Holy Trinity, concerning
divine predestination, concerning the grace of God           the providence of God, concerning the satisfaction of
and the free wjll of man, concerning the perSeverance        Jesus Christ, concerning the Church, concerning faith,
of the saints, concerning the certainty of salvation,        concerning good works, and other main items of
concerning the perfection of mati in this life, concern-      doctrine. Further, he exposed the practices of
ing the deity of the Son of God, concerning the justi-       Arminius in spreading abroad his beliefs, how until


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               201



now he had not revealed his views in public, though         cerning  predestination, concerning the grace of God
asked and'begged to do so by the Churches, but had          and free will, and concerning the final perseverance of
done so secretly, especially to the Ministers whom he       the saints, he had different views than the doctrEe of
hoped to draw to his side and to his pupils. He             the Netherlands Churches. This increased the concern
showed how Arminius diligently taught his views,            of the Church, seeing that not only Arminius in the
how he undermined the chief proofs of those who             Academy but also Bertius in the Theological College,
sought to establish sound doctrine, how he supported        a "greenhouse" of the Holland Churches, presented a
the proofs of the Jesuits and other enemies by which        strange doctrine to the youth entrusted to him and
they opposed the doctrine of the Reformed Church,           dedicated to the service of the Churches, and, leading
how he inculcated `various doubts concerning the            them away from sound doctrine, instilled in them
truth of the adopted doctrine in his disciples, and         new beliefs. All this the Churches saw, and they were
how he presented the true doctrine first as being on        grieved. And although they greatly wished and con-
an equal footing with the opposing doctrine, in order       sidered it highly necessary to make lawful provision
thereafter simply to reject the former. Gomarus             in this matter and to remedy this evil, they neverthe-
pointed out that until now Arminius had been com-           less could not accomplish this by reason of the fact
pletely unwilling to make a declaration of soundness        that Uitenbogaard and others, whose influence at that
and agreement in the doctrine (although he was many         time was great with many Regents of the Fatherland,
times lovingly and fraternally asked to do so by the        diligently prevented all  synodical gatherings and
Churches), that he had done his utmost to prevent his       ecclesiastical judgments. All of this served to make
errors which had been exposed before the High               the Ministers siding with Arminius bolder; and they
Council, from becoming known to the Churches. And           began to bring their strange beliefs to the people
he showed how Arminius, having despised the judg-           openly, attacking the adopted doctrine with false
ments and decisions of the Synods, Classes, and             complaints, and striking out against it in a grievous
Consistories, had for the first time walked into a trap     and despicable manner. Among these Ministers, the
before the Government, and there had presented his          chief was a certain Adolphus Venator, minister of the
complaints and accusations against the Churches, and        Church of Alkmaar in North-Holland. He (besides the
with courtly practices had diligently labored to            fact that he was not very pious in his life) openly
arouse favor for himself and hatred and disfavor for        spread abroad in public and in private the Pelagian
the Churches. Gomarus concluded by beseeching the           and Socinian errors with unbelievable shamelessness.
States, seeing the Students of Sacred Theology in the       For this h&was suspended from his office by a lawful
Academy of Leiden and many preachers in various             judgment of the North Holland Churches. But, despis-
places were every day more and more falling away            ing the judgment of the Churches, he nevertheless
from sound doctrine, and seeing that the disagree-          continued in his office, in spite of anything the
ments and disputes were increasing and that the             Churches did. The right-minded Ministers in the
Churches were disturbed and the citizens divided,           Classis of Alkmaar judged that this evil man, as also
that the promised National Synod might be held              other lesser Ministers whom he had drawn to his side
immediately, and that at this Synod the causes of the       and who had stubbornly refused to express agreement
calamity might be lawfully investigated, and at last a      with the doctrine of the Reformed Churches, might
proper remedy might be applied. The Deputies of the         not properly be admitted to their gathering. These
Churches repeatedly requested the same thing; but           Ministers complained about this to the States; and,
through the initiative of Uitenbogaard and others the       with the help of Uitenbogaard, they obtained an
convening of the Synod was always postponed.                order for  `Classis Alkmaar to admit them into  the&
  They also admonished Arminius various times that          gathering. Since the orthodox Ministers could not in
he should keep his promise to deliver his objections in     good conscience allow this, they humbly petitioned.
writing. He finally answered, April 4, 1609, that he did    the States that they should not be aggrieved by such
not deny having promised this, but that seeing he had       orders, which they in good conscience could not
understood that the States had ordered the Ministers        obey. The Deputies of the Churches, seeing that all
to send their objections sealed to the States, he had       these disagreements and offenses were increasing every
changed his mind and would wait until the same              day, again earnestly petitioned the States, in the
order came to him. Petrus Bertius, Regent of the            name of the Churches, that the promised Provincial
Theological College, was admonished by the same             Synod for the removal of these evils might immedi-
Deputies that in case he had anything against the           ately be convoked. When Uitenbogaard and the other
adopted doctrine of the Churches, he should declare         Ministers who sided with Arminius saw that the
this freely. And on February 13 he declared his views       States were inclined to do this, they wanted to avoid
concerning many points of doctrine forthrightly gnd         any ecclesiastical judgment. And they succeeded in
without any alibi, and declared that in the Articles        bringing about through the influence of some who
concerning the justification of man before God, con-        seemed to favor their cause that, instead of a Provin-


202                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


cial Synod, a Conference should be held between                     same time be reserved by the Churches. The States
Gomarus and Arminius, in the gathering of the States,               desired that the Conference should take place orally,
concerning the Articles of doctrine about which they                but that for the help of the memory one might use
disagreed. In this Conference each man might be                     documents. And they promised by a public act that
accompanied by four Ministers, of whose advice they                 this case, after they would have taken cognizance of
might make use. Arminius chose Uitenbogaard, minis-                 it at this Conference, would be reserved for the judg-
ter in the Hague,  Adrianus Borrus of Leiden,  Nico-                ment of the Provincial Synod, and that to that end
laus Grevinchovius of Rotterdam, and the aforemen-                  everything which was dealt with orally would after-
tioned  Adolphus Venator of Alkmaar. Gomarus on                     wards be put in writing and that these documents
the other hand, chose Ruardus Acronius, minister at                 would immediately be delivered to the Synod. The
Schiedam, Jacobus Rolandus of Amsterdam, Johannes                   same Ministers (Gomarus and his fellows) judged it
Bogardus of Haarlem, and Festus Hommius of                          also to be improper that Adolphus Venator, who had
Leiden. When they had come together, Gomarus and                    been suspended from office by lawful ecclesiastical
his fellow Ministers requested these two items:                     censures on account of his unsound doctrine and life,
1.) that this Conference might take place by written                should be admitted to such a conference. They
document, delivered by both sides, in order that by                 claimed that this could be done only with great
this means all kinds of evil rumors might be pre-                   prejudice to the ecclesiastical censure; and they re-
vented; 2.) that these documents might thereafter be                quested that on this account someone else might be
delivered to the National Synod, in order that the                  accepted in his place - something which they could
judgment of an ecclesiastical matter might at the                   not gain because Arminius was vehemently against it.

STRENGTHOFYOUTH


                                  Envy Not the Wicked
                                                             (1)
                                                   Rev. J. Korterirzg


  How often have you looked slant-eyed at your                      some extent. There are responsibilities we must
neighbor and secretly wished that you were in his                   accept. Life is bearable only if one is able to get away
shoes?                                                              from it all from time $0 time. One can't be serious all
                                                                    the time. There must be times for living it up a bit. So
  The catalog of "advantages" is lengthy.                           the entertainment. business bedkons for followers.
  They can get the best jobs - through their unions                 The movie business creates as much appeal as it pos-
and all that. It's easier for them to climb the ladder of           sibly can, all geared to having fun and forgetting the
success; after all, they feel a kinship for one another             seriousness of life. Show tunes are broadcast over the
and this enables them to enjoy a convivial life of                  radio so that the poor worker can have something to
eating nd drinking in jovial fellowship. Besides this,              make his day bearable. The carpenter bangs his
       t
the money they do make is their own; they simply                    hammer to the beat, the mechanic tightens bolts to
think of ways in which they can spend it on them-                   the beat, the merchant sells his product to the beat;
selves, their families, their friends. Just imagine if we           and so the beat goes on. The atmosphere is relaxed
didn't have to spend our money on Christian educa-                  and pleasant, people like the noise. For those who
tion, church supported ministries, the poor, and                    can pay more attention, television offers plenty of
missions. I'm sure that many 6f your folks could buy                opportunity to escape from the humdrum of life.
a brand new car each year and pay cash for it, if they              You can be swept into the world of the imaginary, or
didn't have to pay tuition in a Christian school. That              you can follow the raw edge of murder, the swinging
sounds pretty good to our fleshly desires. The world                life of the fun-lovers, the intriguing life of the detec-
about us is doing this right along. No wonder they                  tive, or the titillating embrace of the lustful. All you
have money for all kinds of things and entertainment.               have to do is turn it on in the privacy of your own
It's easy for us to envy them.                                      home; . . . so convenient. True, there is more available
   There is, of course, much more. Having fun seems to              if you want. to go out and spend a night on the town.
be the one big thing today. Jobs are necessary to                   You can see much more live and in the flesh. There


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 203



are racier places, bawdier shows, that go much farther      their prosperity placed them on slippery ground that
than public broadcasting allows (although even this is      caused them to slide headlong into hell, Ps. 73: 18.
changing). The night clubs, the cheap motels, the           Hardly an enviable position. But, we must be warned,
massage parlors are all over the place.                     "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be
  And what fun they all seem to have!                       thou envious against the workers of iniquity," Ps.
  Add one more thing, people are having more time           37: 1. There are plenty of examples of God's people
for this fun. Not only do they have more money,             acting out of envy and having to suffer the sad con-
they also have more time. In some areas the work            sequence. How else can we understand Israel's be-
week is shortened  - not due to lack of work, but           havior in the wilderness except we understand Israel's
rather to give more time to the worker to have fun.         envy of the wicked. Numbers  11:5,6 describes it:
And, of course, he must make at least as much money         "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt
as, if not more than, when he worked 40-45 hours a          freely; the cucumbers, and the melojns, and the leeks,
week. Think of the free time! Even the housewife            and the onions, and the garlick; but now our soul is
doesn't have to be tied down as she used to be. Micro-      dried away, there is nothing at all beside this manna;
wave ovens, TV dinners, disposable diapers have             before our eyes." Egypt without God appeared better
taken care of that. Doesn't it look good to have a two      than  manna with God; hence some proposed to re-
day and sometimes three day weekend for camping,            turn to Egypt. Since they were not allowed to return,
fun, and relaxation. Every week! Wow, there is no           the second best thing would be to erect the gods of
end to possibilities! A person can bear a few days of       Egypt and have the pleasures connected with it. The
work if he can look forward to a few days of sheer          calf appeared, and God had to strike them severely.
fun. They do not have to bother with attending                Time and again this took place in Israel. They
church, at least not at  their  sacrifice. If it is con-    envied  ihe wicked in their feasts and idol worship.
venient they might perhaps make an occasional               They clamored for a king as the other nations. They
appearance.                                                 wanted to have more fun than the dull life of the
  The keynote is, obviously, fun!                           covenant. Sad, but true, the kings and priests, as well
ENVY NOT                                                    as prophets, often led the people into this terrible
                                                            p a t h .
  It is very easy for us to envy them.                         Envy always brings compromise, sin, and ulti-
   Let's be honest about this, for this is the root of      mately destruction.
our daily struggle. We come into contact with this             How can we best deal with this terrible sin?
world of the wicked, to some extent, every day. From
our position it seems as if they have it pretty good,          Let's `do two things. First, in this article, we should
and, by contrast, we have to livs`a rather stuffy life.     begin to examine who the wicked are. Are they en-
We might even feel that we live in drabsville.              viable? Or should we say with Asaph, how foolish of
                                                            me to envy them? Secondly, in future articles, we
  God also recognizes that we struggle with this            should consider who we are in contrast. Who are
envy. Asaph, the man of God, had similar problems.          God's people, covenant youth? What makes us differ-
He speaks of this in Psalm 73, "Tmly God is good to         ent and why should we envy rather in a sanctified
Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. But as for    manner, that is, "covet earnestly the best gifts"; I
me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh        Cor. 12:31.
slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw       WHO ARE THE WICKED
the prosperity of the wicked," verses l-3. He explains
that they prosper, they have strength, they don't have        In answering this question, we should consider
trouble like others, they are proud, violent, rich,         three things about them. First, they are corrupt and
corrupt, boastful, and have more than heart could           defiled in their sins. Secondly, they are transgressors;
wish. God's people seem to have the opposite. They          in their corruption they violate God's holy law.
struggle, are plagued and chastened every morning.          Thirdly, they reveal themselves as Godless, that is,
Then he continues, "Verily I have cleansed my heart         they oppose God and God opposes them in His judg-
in vain and washed my hands in innocency," verse 13.        ment.
Does God send more blessing on the wicked than He             Let's begin by considering the wicked as evil, that
does on His children? Envy brings one to this basic         is, morally vile and full of the stench of death.
confrontation: do the wicked have it better than the          Consider a passage such as Isaiah 57:20,21, "But
righteous? If so, we cleanse our hands in vain, it is no    the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot
idvantage to be a Christian. Envy ultimately  `wouid        rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no
bring us out of the church into the world.                  peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Paul, writing in
  Hence, God comes to us in His Word. The Psalmist          the Spirit to the church at Rome, expresses the con-
learned that it was foolish to envy the wicked because      tent of that mire and dirt. He writes, "God gave them


204                                           TH.E STANDARD BEARER


up unto vile affections; for even their women did                    even considering it. It's dirt,  alright.  Yes, they can
change the natural use into that which is against                    include "Amazing Grace" along with the others, but
nature; and likewise the men, leaving the natural use                I'll tell you it's not the same grace of God that the
of the woman, burned in their lust one toward an-                    Christian reverences. In fact it is not  everi the same
other; men with men working that which is unseemly,                  God. That's the deception. Even their "religion" is a
and receiving in themselves that recompence of their                 vulgarization of the divine and a secularization of the
e&-or which was meet . . . Being filled with all un-                 spiritual. Godspell  and Superstar are proof enough.
righteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,                   How cunning our enemy works! He works on two
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit,                 levels, in the area of the so-called secular and the
malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God,                    so-called religious. But, he works the same, that is, to
despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,               cut awajr the truth of God's Word and give license to
disobedient to parents, without understanding, cove-                 the ungodly to wallow in their filth, casting up mire
nant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable,                and dirt. Publishers are producing books and maga-
unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God that                     zines prolifically. The movie and television industry
they which commit such things are worthy of death,                   are producing yardage instead of footage. Some of
not onl~do the same, but have pleasure in them that                  the largest sales in our country deal in liquor,
do them," Romans 1:24-32.                                            tobacco, pornography, gambling and even illicit
   God's Word calls the products of the unbelieving                  drugs. Stand on the street corner; watch the world
world, filth, rqire and dirt.                                        pass by. Look at the magazine rack, read the movie
  The Bible is as timely as when it was written. If                  reviews, cast an eye upon the best sellers in the lit-
you covenant young people cannot see this today,                     erary field. If there ever was a time that a person
you never will see it. What is the spiritual character of            doesn't have to go to the movies, watch the TV pro-
the arts, science, and culture of the unbelieving                    grams, read the books and magazines, to see how bad
world? It is even as Paul describes it in Romans, and                things really are, it is today. The promotional adver-
as the Prophet Isaiah described it in his day; it is the             tising of these things tells you enough.
filth that comes forth from a reprobate mind. True,                    Woe be to the church that calls the evil good and
there are relative degrees of filth. Even the world                  becomes as a blind man leading the blind so that both
recognizes this. But let's not call the less evil, good!             fall into the pit together. The sure sign of apostasy in
The degree is that of corruption, not a degree of                    the church is for the leaders of the church to call this
goodness.                                                            mire and dirt something clean and worthwhile. How
  The evidence of this is round  &bout us on every                   the devil laughs at such deception! It is the worst
hand. Examine the ten pop tunes, the best sellers in                 kind.
L.P.s, the most requested songs on the radio pi-o-
grams. What is their subject matter? They glamorize                    Envy the wicked?
sex so openly and explicitly that even their con-                      Their works smell like dead carcasses and look like
science must be seared. The perversion that Paul                     an oil slick that the storm tossed sea has cast upon
speaks about is openly glamorized in our society                     the shore.
today. Marriage is laughed at. How can there be mar-
riage when group sex is the ultimate? Most of it is so                  It is mire and dirt.
vile that the sensitivities of God's people are hurt                    (To be continued)

TAKING HEED TO THE DOCTRINE

  "Hyper-Calvinism" and the Call of the Gospel
                                                             (23)
                                                Rev. David Engelsma

  In its classic, developed form, hyper-Calvinism                    irresistible grace, i.e., Calvinism. Hyper-Calvinism also
denies that it is the duty of the Church to preach the               denies that it is the duty of every sinner, without
gospel of salvation to all men and to, call all men to               exception, to believe on Jesus  Chiist. Only the
believe on Jesus CIirist. The gospel is to be preached               regenerated elect is required to believe, The ground
only to the elect,  and, only they are to be called to               for this position is the doctrine of total depravity.
faith. The grounds put forward for this  position are                i.e., Calvinism.
the doctrines of election, limited atonement, and                       The English Baptist, Joseph Hussey (1660-1726),
                                                                                                                                  1


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                               205


taught this hyper-Calvinism. A preacher must preach           His elect, all of them; but it pleases God - and He has
a different message to unregenerated sinners than he          revealed `this to us in His Word - to save them by the
preaches to the converted elect: "you must preach             preaching of the gospel. "For I am not ashamed of
t$e Gospel of the kingdom to them: exalt Christ (i.e.,        the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
preach that Christ is a special king to crush gainsayers      salvation: to every one that believeth . .  ." (Rom.
-DE). Do this, then, when you do not preach the               1: 16). "For whosoever shall call upon the name of
Gospel of the blood of Christ to them."1 A preacher           the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on
mand. . . ."2 As regards infidels and Jews, a preacher        him in whom they have not believed? and how shall
our duty to preach the mere form of the  cdm-                 they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
m&d. . . `."2 As regards infidels and Jews, a preacher        and how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Rom.
that they should believe on Chiist with true faith - for      10:13,14)
this is not their duty, but that they should believe in         The Reformed faith has a lively knowledge of, and
Christ with "natural faith" - something, according to         healthy respect for, the fact that the sovereign God is
Hussey, that lies within their natural power.3 All of         a God Who uses means, thus establishing and main-
this is set forth as if it were the Calvinistic               taining human responsibility. It knows God as a God
repudiation of the Arminian offer.                            Who gives men their daily bread - in the way of their
  Calvinism becomes the ground for a restriction of           working at a job; therefore, the Reformed faith
the preaching of the gospel, a silencing of the gospel-       demands that men work and refuses to feed anyone
call, and a denial of human responsibility. The very          who will not work. It knows God as a covenant God
errors with which Calvinism has always been charged           Who saves the children of believers - in the way of
by its foes and from which Calvinism has always had           believers faithfully rearing their children; therefore,
to disassociate itself are here acknowledged as an in-        the Reformed faith does not counsel parents to in-
tegral part of Calvinism.                                     action, but calls them to establish sound homes and
                                                              good, Christian schools. It knows God as a faithful
  Even though such a fully developed, hardened                God Who infallibly preserves every saint - in the way
hyper-Calvinism does not threaten, a Reformed                 of his diligent use of the means of grace in the
church must guard against the subtle inroads of the           church; therefore, the Reformed faith does not con-
hyper-Calvinism heresy with all vigilance. She must           clude frbm preservation to carelessness, but exhorts
resist every manifestation of the spirit of hyper-            believers to frequent the house of God every Lord's
Calvinism, for it is not the spirit of Reformed Chris-        Day, to hear the Word and receive the sacraments.
tianity. To guard against hyper-Calvinism is peculiarly       Just so, <it knows God as a God Who will save all of
the urgent task of the Reformed church which, in              His chosen people in all nations  - in the way of
keeping with the Reformed tradition, has rejected the         calling them to Jesus Christ in faith by the gospel;
Arminianism of the well-meant offer of the gospel.            thereforq, the Reformed faith cannot recommend
Against this church, the favorite wile of the father of       passivity or excuse negligence in the matter of mis-
lies is the antinomism of hyper-Calvinism. Although           sions, but calls the Church to go into all the world
she may never., become suspicious or fearful, a Re-           and preach the gospel to every creature, commanding
formed church must watch against hyper-Calvinism              all men everywhere to repent and believe.
with the keen awareness that this evil, like the oppo-          To separate what God has joined together, to
site, evil of Pharisaism, is not far from her, since it is    divorce God's decrees and purposes from God's
ingrained in sinful human nature.                             means, is no honoring of God's sovereignty, but a
  What are the manifestations of the spirit of hyper-         tempting of the Most High. "As the almighty opera-
Calvinism? How does this fundamental enemy of the             tion of God, whereby he prolongs and supports this
gospel attempt to subvert the truth, ruin a church,           our natural life, does not exclude, but requires the
and dishonor the God of grace?                                use of means, by which God of his infinite mercy and
  One such manifestation is a minimizing of Christ's          goodness: hath chosen to exert his influence, so also
mission-mandate to His  Church~ with an appeal to             the beforementioned supernatural operation of God,
election as the guarantee that God will save His              by which we are regenerated, in no wise excludes, or
people. There need not be an outright denial of the           subverts the use of the gospel, which the most wise
mission-calling of the Church; it is enough that there        God has. ordained to be the seed of regeneration, and
be unconcern and negligence. The justification, or            food  of, the soul. Wherefore, as the apostles, and
excuse, is that no elect will ever perish, even though        teachers who succeeded them, piously instructed the
the Church sits on her hands.  Arminianism's  emo-            people concerning this grace of God, to his glory, and
tional motivation for missions, "Many will perish,            abasement of all pride, and in the meantime, how-
who otherwise might have been saved," is in error;            ever, neglected not to keep them by the sacred
equally erroneous is hyper-Calvinism's cold defense of        precepts of the gospel in the exercise of the Word,
its failure to engage in missions. Indeed, God will save      sacraments and discipline; so even to this day, be it


206                                           THE STANDARD:BEARER


far from either instructors or instructed to presume        Savior's tender call to the laboring and heavy laden
to tempt God in the church by separating what he of         with its precious promise of rest, the bulk of the
his good pleasure hath most intimately joined to-           sermon is controversy with the Arminian corruption
gether. For grace is conferred by means of admoni-          of the text. Little is done with the comforting mes-
tions; and the more readily we perform our duty, the        sage of the text; the tender, urgent call to the labor-
tiore eminent usually is this blessing of God working       ing in the audience is never given; the audience goes
in us, and the more directly is his work advanced; to       home convinced that the Arminian interpretation is
whom alone all the glory both of means, and of their        wrong, but without having heard the gospel them-
saving fruit and efficacy is forever due. Amen"             selves.
(Canons of Dordt, III, IV, 17).                                The Reformed faith condemns, indeed despises,
  Another betrayal of the spirit of hyper-Calvinism is      the "altar-call." It has bad parentage: Finney. It is
embarrassment and hesitation, i.e., fear, over giving       bad theology: universal grace dependent upon the
the call, "Repent! Believe!," and over declaring the        free will of the sinner. It is bad practice: the trans-
promise, "Whosoever believes shall not perish, but          forming of the inner, spiritual activity of the heart
have everlasting life." This language is not suspect; it    into an outward, carnal activity of the body - Scrip-
is not the language of Arminian "free-willism." It is       ture nowhere presents repentance or  belieiring as a
pure, sound, Biblical language; it is as much a part of     matter of "coming to the front"; besides, no Re-
the Reformed heritage as is the statement of divine,        formed church has an altar. But opposition to the
double predestination. We must take care that we do         altar-call does not, in any way, imply opposition to
not concede precious elements of the gospel to the          the call of the gospel to the spiritually laboring and
Arminians. Because they have seized on certain              laden sinner to come to Christ for rest. God forbid!
elements of Scripture, have wrenched them out of
their proper setting, force them into the service of          When hyper-Calvinism has developed somewhat,
their false gospel, and, thus, wrest them to their own      there is a failure, even a refusal, to preach the admo-
destruction, we may not abandon those elements.             nitions and exhortations of Scripture to the saints, on
Rather, we must continue to honor them as part of           the ground that good gospel-preachers should not tell
God's revelation and must continue to give them their       God's people what to do. At the very least, the
necessary place in the proclamation of the Word.            admonitions and exhortations are not proclaimed
There is no "Arminian text" in Scripture, nor one           with the sharpness, urgency, boldness, and freedom
Arminian word. No more than we renounce love be-            that obtain' in Scripture. From this stage, it is but a
cause the "Liberals" abuse it, do we downgrade the          little way to the disorder and license of open
external call of the gospel and slight the promiscuous      antinomism - "let us sin that grace may abound."
publication of the promise because heretics construct         How such a notion can be mistaken for orthodoxy
a message of salvation by the will of man from a            is a mystery. How it can be mistaken for  Reformed
perversion of them.                                         orthodoxy is a still greater mystery. The Scripture
  If the fruit of the preaching of the gospel is that       abounds with exhortations and warnings to God's
men, pricked in their hearts, cry out, "Men and             people; Calvin, theologian of holiness that he was, is
brethren, what shall we do?," or that a Philippian          full of them; the Canons of Dordt expressly warn the
jailor says, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?," it is     Reformed pastor not to interpret sovereign grace as
not in place, it is not typically Reformed, to launch       rendering admonitions and discipline unnecessary
into a fierce polemic against free will or to give a        (III, IV, 17). Luther, peerless defender of the gospel
nervous admonition against supposing that one can           of grace against every encroachment of illicit law and
do anything towards his own salvation. The answer to        glorious champion of justification by faith only  -
such questions  - the Reformed answer  - is:                Luther can be our teacher and guardian here:
"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the                  The churchly office of preaching is necessary not
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins . . .";          Only for the ignorant who must be taught, for the
and: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou                simple and stupid populace and the youth, but also
shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts  2:38; Acts                for those who well know what they ought to believe
16:3 1).                                                        and how they ought to live, in order to awaken and
  Although, ordinarily, hyper-Calvinism is afraid to            admonish them to be daily on their guard, not to
call the unconverted to Christ, there may even be a             grow weary and listless, nor to lose heart in the battle
                                                                they must wage upon earth against the devil, their
hesitation to preach the call to repentance and faith           own flesh and all vices. Hence St. Paul so diligently
within the congregation. One feels uneasy about this,          admonishes all Christians that he almost seems to be
as if this goes in the direction of "works" or the              overdoing the thing, by continually dinning it in their
altar-call. Then, a preacher does grave injustice to            ears, as though they were so ignorant as not to know
Scripture and great disservice to God's people. If he          it of themselves or so careless and forgetful as not to
dares to preach on Matthew  11:28, the merciful                perform it without this telling and urging them. But


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               207


   he knows full  well. that, although they have begun to                 trary, even though faith unceasingly urge and buffet
   believe and are in that state in which fruits of faith                 the flesh, it scarce succeeds in accomplishing very
   must appear, the thing is nevertheless not so easily                   much; What would be the result. if this admonition
   carried out and brought to completion. It will not do                  and urging were omitted and one were to think, as
   to think: `It is enough to have given them the truth;                  many'christians  think, `Well, I know of myself what I
   when the spirit and faith are present the fruits of                    ought to do; I have heard it so many years and so
   good works will follow of themselves.' For while it is                 often, and have even taught it to others, etc.`? I verily
   true that the spirit is present and is willing, as Christ              believk that if we were to cease our preaching and
   says, and works in them that believe, it is likewise                   admonishing for a single year, we should become
   true that the flesh also is present, and the flesh is                  worse than heathen" (sermon on the epistle for the
   weak and indolent. The devil, moreover, is not                         XIX. Sunday after Trinity).
   keeping holiday, but seeks by temptation and incite-                 The Reformed Church Eejects hyper-Calvinism, not
   ment to cause the weak to fall. Here you dare by no               because she hedges on her Calvinism at the last
   means be negligent or indolent; as it is, the flesh is
   too indolent to obey the Spirit, nay it is strong to              moment, but exactly  because of her Calvinism.
   resist it, as Paul says in  @latians   .5:17.  God, there-        Knowing her salvation as the sovereign, free, gracious
   fore, must deal here as a good householder or faithful            calling of God in Christ, she burns with zeal for the
   regent, who has a lazy man-servant or maid-servant or             glory of lher God. In the love of her thankful heart,
   indifferent officials. (They need not be actually                 she desires that His great Name, Jesus, be published
   wicked or disloyal.) He must not think it enough to               to the ends of the earth and that His good command-
   tell them once or twice what to do, but must be                   ments be obeyed.
   constantly at their heels and personally urge them on.                                               FINIS
   So, too, we have not reached the point where our                      lJoseph  Hussey,  God's Operation? of Grace But No Offers of Grace
   flesh and blood go leaping in pure joy and eagerness               (Elan College, N.C.: Primitive Publications,  19731,  p. 87.
   to do good works and obey God, as the Spirit would                    21bid.,  p. 153.
   gladly have us do and directs us to do. On the con-                   31bid.,   pp. 156, 157.


THE VOICE OF OUR FATHERS


                                Chris.t, Our High Priest
                                                      ProjI Robert D. Decker

           "We believe that Jesus Christ is ordained with an oath to be an everlasting  High Priest, after  the order of
           Melchisedec; and that he hath presented himself in our behalf before the Father, to appease his wrath by his
           full satisfaction, by offering himself on the tree of the cross, and pouring out his precious blood to purge
           away our sins; as the prophets had foretold. For it is written: He was wounded for our transgressions, he
           was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are
           healed. He was brought as a lamb to  the,slaughter,  and was numbered with the transgressors, and con-
           demned by Pontius Pilate as a malefactor, though he had first declared him innocent. Therefore: he
           restored that which he took not away, and suffered, the just for the unjust, as well in his body as in his
           soul,  feeling the terrible punishment which our sins had merited; insomuch that his sweat became like unto
           drops of blood falling on the ground. He called out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me'? and
           hath suffered all this for the remission of our sins. Wherefore we justly say with the apostle Paul: that we
           know nothing, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified; we count all things but loss and dung for the excellency
           of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, in whose wounds we find all manner of consolation. Neither is it
           necessary to seek or invent any other means of being reconciled to God, than this only sacrifice, once
           offered, by which believers are made perfect forever. This is also the reason why he was called by the angel
           of God, Jesus, that is to say, Savior, because he should save his people from their sins."
                                                                                        Article XXI, The Belgic Confession
  The main thought of this article is that Christ made                (Psalm  110:4) And again we read in Hebrews 6:20:
satisfaction for the sins of His people as their eternal              "Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,
High Priest. The article calls attention to the fact that             made an high priest for ever after the order of
Our Lord is a Priest after the order of Melchisedec.                  Melchisedec." (Cf. also Hebrews 5 : 10)
This truth is emphasized in Scripture. We read: "The,                    Several rather striking things are said in Scripture
Lord hath  swore, and will not repent, Thou art a                     of this Melchisedec. In the epistle to the Hebrews we
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."                      are told that this Melchisedec, who was king of Salem


208                                           THE  STANDARDkEARER


and priest of the Most High God, blessed Abraham as         and king of Salem or peace. He is "without father,
the latter returned from the slaughter of the kings.        without mother, without descent, having neither be-
(Cf. Genesis 14) Abraham recognized his priesthood,         ginning of days, nor end of life , . ." (Hebrews 7: 1-3).
as is evident from the fact that he gave Melchisedec        And, all this applies not to the person of Melchisedec
"a tenth part of all." Further, we are told that his        but to Melchisedec as he is the type of Christ. As
name, Melchisedec, means "King of righteousness"            priest and king Melchisedec has neither father nor
and that "King of Salem" means, "King of Peace."            mother, beginning of days or end of days. Christ is
What is more striking, however, is that Scripture says      the real Melchisedec. He is the perfect royal priest
of Melchisedec that he is "without father, without          and of His priesthood there is no beginning nor end.
mother, without descent, having neither beginning of        Having brought the perfect sacrifice for the sins of His
days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of        people Christ now and forever consecrates Himself
God; abideth a priest continually." (Hebrews 7:1-3)         and all things as priest after the order of Melchisedec
We cannot go into the several interpretations given to      to the glory of God.
Melchisedec as he appears in Genesis. (The reader              Thus Article XXI emphasizes that Christ, Who is
interested in making further study of this whole            priest after the order of Melchisedec,  ". . . hath
subject may consult H. Hoeksema's Reformed Dog-             presented himself in our behalf before the Father, to
matics, pp. 373 ff.) Suffice it to say that Genesis 14      appease his wrath by his full satisfaction, by offering
presents this Melchisedec as a real, flesh and blood        himself on the tree of the cross, and pouring out his
man, who lived in the days of Abraham and who was           precious blood to purge away our sins. . ." What the
king of Salem and a priest of the Most High God.            article emphasizes, therefore, is that Christ as our
  Melchisedec, therefore, must have been a real, his-       eternal Priest made satisfaction for our sins and those
torical person who lived in the days of Abraham. He         of all the elect.
was king of Salem, which means that he must have              There are various theories concerning the satis-
ruled over a real people. And, he functioned as a           faction of Christ, two of which, the moral theory and
priest for these people. Even outside of Abraham God        the governmental theory, are worthy of note. Accord-
preserved a remnant according to the election of            ing to the moral theory, Christ died on the cross as an
grace. Of this remnant Melchisedec was a part.              e?ampZe for o,thers to follow. Christ in His death is an
  What does it mean that Christ is a priest after the       example in that He was willing to die for His prin-
order of Melchisedec? In Hebrews 7 Scripture makes          ciples. In His life, Christ leaves the pattern of moral-
a distinction between the priesthood of Melchisedec         ity which others ought to follow. Thus in His life and
and that of Aaron. This is not to say that the two are      in His death Jesus has a moral and improving in-
mutually exclusive. In certain respects they are alike.     fluence upon mankind. If mankind follows the ex-
And certainly it is true that the priesthood of Aaron       ample of Christ, morality and goodness will prevail in
(also a type of Christ) foreshadowed that of Christ.        the world. This theory is the modernistic, liberal view
The difference lies along these lines. The priesthood       of the cross of Jesus Christ.
of Melchisedec is far greater, much richer, and wider         According to the governmental theory God shows
in scope than that of Aaron. The priesthood of Aaron        us in the cross of Christ what He might have done to
focused primarily in the bloody sacrifices and was          all of mankind if He had followed His own justice.
fulfilled once and for all in Christ's perfect sacrifice    God sent Christ into the world to suffer and die on
on the cross. The priesthood of Melchisedec, how-           the cross as a revelation of His justice. If we believe
ever, was so realized in Christ that it is perfected and    that a like punishment is what we deserve, we shall be
abides forever.                                             saved. This theory has its roots historically in
  Bearing this in mind we are able to understand the        Arminianism.
points of difference between the priesthood of Aaron          Both of the above theories, and others like
and that of Melchisedec. In the first place, in Israel      them, are alike in that they deny the vicarious
the priestly and kingly offices were separated, so that     character of atonement of Jesus Christ. These the-
one and the same person could not function in both.         ories deny the fact that Christ died in our place and on
Aaron was High Priest but could not be king.                our behalf. They deny that Christ made 
Melchisedec, however, was a royal priest. He was both                                                  satisfaction
                                                            for the sins of His people. This latter is the emphasis
priest and king. The second difference is that the          of our  Confession  and this is a Biblical emphasis.
priesthood of Aaron was temporal and came to an             Scripture teaches that Christ bore our griefs and
end when the perfect sacrifice was brought by the           carried our sorrows and was wounded for our trans-
Son of God. The priesthood of Melchisedec, on the           gressions (Isaiah  53:4, 5); was delivered for our
other hand, is everlasting.                                 offences (Romans 4:25); died for us (Romans 5:8); as
  Thus Melchisedec appears in Scripture as the type         the Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep
of Christ as Priest. He is both king of righteousness       (John lO:ll, 15-18, 28).


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 209


   These passages, and Scripture in general, present           Thus it is that ". . . he restored that which he took
several points concerning the death of the Son of            not away, and suffered, the just for the unjust, as well
God. Scripture makes plain that Christ died in our           in his body as in his soul, feeling the terrible punish-
place by assuming the guilt of our sins. Thus in His         ment which our sins had merited." This is the only
death Christ paid the price which the justice of God         comfort for believers who  ". . . justly say with the
demanded. In His suffering Christ brought satis-             apostle Paul: that we know nothing, but Jesus Christ,
faction for our sins and took those sins away. They          and him crucified; we count all things but loss and
are no more. This means that the atonement is  par-          dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
ticzdar.  God chose His elect in Christ. God, as it were,    Jesus our Lord, in whose wounds we find all manner
gave His people to Christ before the foundations of          of consolation." And, this sacrifice is the one and
the world (Cf. Ephesians 1:3 ff.). For these elect and       only means of our being reconciled to God. The
only for these elect Christ died. The Savior in His          Con,fession   puts it this way: "Neither is it necessary
death saved His'people from their sins (Cf. Matthew          to seek or invent any other means of being reconciled
1:21). Scripture further teaches that this death of          to God, than this only sacrifice, once offered, by
Christ was voluntary on Christ's part. Christ died will-     which believers are made perfect forever."
ingly. As our eternal High Priest Christ brought the
sacrifice of His own life and blood before God. In             The cross of Jesus Christ is, therefore, the revela-
perfect obedience to the Father, Jesus laid down His         tion of the sovereign grace and eternal love of God
life for the sheep given Him of the Father. Having           Who accomplished all of our salvation for us. In His
come to do the will of God, Christ died in our place
and on our behalf. This is what the Scriptures teach         death Christ merited all the blessings of salvation for
when they say Christ died FOR us. Finally, this              us. His death accomplished our redemption. This we
means that Christ bore all of the wrath of God against       must maintain overagainst Arminianism which insists
the sins of all God's elect. He did this by entering as      that the death of Christ only made possible salvation
our substitute into the very suffering and agonies of        for all mankind. According to the Arminians it re-
hell. He took the suffering we deserved upon Himself.        mains for man to accept that salvation. That is not
There remains for the people of God, therefore, no           the cross of Christ! Christ accomplished our salvation,
more wrath. The sins of the elect are paid for. He was       all of it. This means that we have nothing in-which to
able to do this, i.e., Christ was able to suffer the         boast in ourselves. With the Apostle we say: God for-
hellish agony of the wrath of God and remove that            bid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ! All
wrath because He is the Person of the Son of God in          glory belongs to God; of whom, through whom, and
our flesh.                                                   to whom are all things.

                                            Book Review
PSALMS, Charles Haddon Spurgeon  (edited by David              This condensation, therefore, is of value in so far as
Otis Fuller), Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Mich-       it offers -limited access to Spurgeon's work. It stands
igan; 703 pp., $14.95. [Reviewed by Prof. H.C.               to reason that when seven large volumes are con-
Hoeksema]                                                    densed to 703 pages, there is some very severe
   This is a one-volume reprint of a two-volume edi-         abridgement involved. Moreover, there is always a
tion of Spurgeon's The Treasury  of'David copyrighted        subjective element involved in abridgement: in this
by Dr. Fuller in 1968.                                       case, one gets to know  Spurgeon  on the Psalms as
   Spurgeon  has sometimes been called cYhe prince of        David Otis Fuller sees him. This is, of course, the
preachers." This does not necessarily mean, however,         disadvantage of this abridgement. In this connection,
that he was also "the prince of exegetes." And as any        I have two points of negative criticism: 1.) The con-
well-versed `Reformed person should know, Spurgeon           densation is too extreme. 2.) In some instances there is
is surely not always to be depended upon. Neverthe-          very little of Spurgeon  himself, and a preponderance
less, one can surely do far worse than to read Spur-         of the comments of others whom  Spurgeon  quoted.
geon. And his seven-volume The Treasury of David is             To the extent, therefore, that this volume furnishes
indeed a treasure, both because of its warm, devo-           some access to Spurgeon, I can recommend it.
tional character and because of many rich exegetical
insights.
  As far as I know, the original seven volumes cannot
be obtained today, except second-hand.  Most
younger ministers and, I am sure, most of our readers
will have difficulty gaining access to the unabridged
work of Spurgeon on the Psalms.


210                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



T H E D A Y O F S H A D O W S

                           The Gay Receive Their Pay
                                              Rev. John A. Heys


  Had you, instead of Moses, been on Mt. Sinai when         words: "Wherefore God also gave them up to un-
God gave the law, and instead of cutting that law into      cleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dis-
the solid granite with His fingers, had God dictated it     honour their own bodies between themselves: Who
to you and then told you to list the commandments           changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped
in the order that you deemed best, where would you          and served the creature rather than the Creator, who
have put the seventh commandment?                           is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave
  Would you have placed it, between the command-            them up to vile affections: for even their women did
ments against murder and theft? Would that not be           change the natural use into that which is against
too strong a position for the commandment against           nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural
adultery to hold? Murder is the worst thing you can         use of the women, burned in their own lust one
do to a man, for by it you rob him of all his posses-       toward another; men with men working that which is
sions. Take his life and you take away from him             unseemly and receiving in themselves that  recom-
everything he has on this earth. What is more, when         pence of their error which was meet.
you take his life, you perform a deed which can never         Thus it was in Sodom; and that is the meaning of
be undone by you. You can never make amends to              the statement that the men of Sodom came to Lot's
him or to his family. And shall we list adultery            house and asked for the strangers who came to stay
immediately after such a vicious sin?                       with him because they would "know them." Homo-
                                                            sexuality was the order of the day in that city. Un-
  Surely those who commit the sin do so voluntarily         ashamedly, young and old, they come, not one by
and do so because of the pleasure they derive from it.      one but in a group, all seeking to practice this vile
Shall we then list it so high among the sins that are       deed, which was not only a case of leaving the natural
condemned by God? The parents may have grief of             use of the woman but a dishonouring of their own
soul when they learn that their son or daughter has         bodies. We have a picture here in Sodom of men
fallen into this sin of adultery or fornication. The        whose morals are lower than the beasts of the field,
husband or wife whose mate has been unfaithful may          men driven so fiercely by their lusts that even the
be wounded in the soul by this deed. But would you          beasts cannot teach them. Is it any wonder that God,
stilllist it next to murder?                                Who created them in His own image, and instituted
  We'had better leave it where God placed it, and we        such a beautiful relationship as marriage to reflect His
had better remember also that God decreed the death         own covenant life, should send fire and brimstone to
sentence for it in the Old Testament dispensation. Let      wipe them off the face of the earth and into the lake
our men and women who are contemplating divorce             of fire?
and remarriage bear that in mind as they read what            One can only wonder at the patience of God when
Jesus said about divorce and remarriage in Matthew          one looks around today and sees the Sodoms and
19. Let our young men and our young women take a            Gomorrahs of our present "civilization." The world is
hard look at the position of this commandment in the        steeped in sexual immorality and does not know
law and listen to the Heidelberg Catechism when it          pornography from true art. Today men are seeking
declares that this sin is accursed of God.                  new ways to practice the evil and more ways of
  It is not literal adultery that occasions these lines.    entrapping others into it. The homosexual is called
It is not that normal adultery (normal for depraved         sick; and he himself feels hurt that some in society
man) that has been practiced by man through the             still do not accept him. Sick? Well, yes, if you mean
ages that calls our attention at this time. It is a more    spiritually sick! But in the eyes of God it is  being-
vile form than that of which we write at this time. It      exceedingly sinful besides. And not accepted in
is the sin of Sodomy, the sin for which Sodom and           society? If the beasts of the field could talk, they
Gomorrah were known, and because of which God               would speak out their rejection as well.
sent down brimstone and tire in His terrible dis-             And can you imagine that in the church it is no
pleasure upon these evil-minded and shameful people.        longer called sin, in spite of what Paul wrote to the
Of them Paul spoke in Romans  1:24-27 in these              Romans, and in spite of this clear judgment of God


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    211


upon Sodom? Can you understand that the knowl-                Now  those cities lie on the bottom of the Dead
edge that one is gay poses no problem in some circles       Sea. And the region is desolate. Nothing will grow or
for such to be on nomination for elder or deacon?           live in the Dead Sea because of its high salt content.
Can you imagine that in spheres that claim to uphold        Neither will anything grow or live on the land around
the law of God and to defend sanctity some see no           its shores. It is indeed a dead sea and a living tes-
reason why such should not be ordained as elders and        timony of the fury of God's wrath against licentious-
deacons in the Church of Christ? The Word of God            ness. It speaks of the place that the seventh com-
says that they dishonour their bodies; and do not           mandment occupies in the law and assures that it is
such also dishonour the Church, the Body of Christ?         properly placed.
Can words be found strong enough to condemn this
unnatural activity, this abuse of powers which God            Let it be clearly understood then that it can hap-
has given for wholly different purposes? Does man           pen again. Let it not be forgotten that it will happen
live for himself and have his members to end in him-        again; and this time it will destroy the whole world
self and seek himself, or is there an all-wise God Who      with all its cities. The wages of sin is death. And God
has fashioned us and made us male and female for the        pays those wages. He may not pay them in full in this
cause of His Church and the growth and fulness of           life. He does not settle His accounts in detail while we
His covenant? Scripture speaks of vile affections,          are in this flesh. He will do so fully when He sends
which literally are dishonourable affections. And           His own pure Son upon the clouds of heaven. Even
certainly such dishonour brings dishonour to the            now the, diseases that accompany this sin are on the
Church of God if the guilty ones are not disciplined -      rise again, and men ruin their own bodies as well as
to say nothing about it if they are set up to be the        dishonour them. Sin never goes unpunished, and the
ones to discipline as elders in the Church. To defile a     gay will always have to pay. In this life they may have
woman is a great evil; to defile one's own body as the      their carnal pleasures. In the life to come they will
homosexual does is a baser evil! And God said so            have their everlasting, excruciating pains and woes.
when He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire!
  Surely it is for the elect's sake in this adulterous        The name given the homosexual (or did they pick
world that a new sunrise occurs every day and the           it for themselves?) is misleading. They are to be pitied
world continues as it has for thousands of years. God       not envied. Webster says that the word gay is an
is not willing that any of US should perish but that all    adjective that in one of its uses means "Given to social
of US should be saved. That is what Peter says in II        pleasures or indulgences; hence loose: licentious; as a
Peter 3:9. Some of the elect must yet be born. Others       gay life." And licentiousness is lewdness, lascivious-
of the elect must yet be born again; and that none of       ness which are strongly condemned in Holy Writ. Pity
us should perish is so clearly taught when God takes        the homosexual then, but do not excuse him, for God
Lot literally by the hand and pulls him out of the city     has not one good word to say about his wholly
before destroying it.                                       inhuman, unnatural deeds.
  What a terrible devastation that was when Sodom             In His `own- pity and mercy God will save that man,
perished! Not one soul escaped; and one who left the        but in the way of taking him out of his dishonourable
city with Lot still perished in the fire because her        walk. God will cause him to walk as Paul writes in
heart was still back in Sodom. Lot's wife went a dis-       Romans 12: 1 when he exhorts  LIS  to present our
tance with him and their daughters. But gradually she       bodies as living sacrifices to God. Homosexuality by
fell back first a step, then two, and then more. For        no stretch of the imagination comes anywhere near
we read that Lot's wife "looked back  f~oi?z  behind        such presentation, such living as God's royal priest-
him, and she became a pillar of salt." It was not           hood.
simply a matter of looking back. That was forbidden
them, for it meant that the heart was still in Sodom;         It was this same pity of God that informed Abra-
and on all such its punishment would fall. But it was       ham of Lot's position in a city about to be destroyed
a case of not believing the words of the angel so that      in the holy wrath of a righteous God so that he could
with leaden feet she went along a distance because Lot      pray for Lot. And this incident is preserved on the
(not the angel) insisted on it, and because the angel       pages of Holy Writ by God Himself that we might be
took her hand also for a time and led her out of the        informed and pray for His people in the modern
city proper. Her heart was not in it, and she saw no        Sodoms who are walking in the sins which the  S&J-
reason for leaving. Nor did she want to leave. First        enth commandment forbids, including the seeking of
she fell back because she wanted to go back. Then she       divorce tid the remarriage of those who are divorced.
looked back to see whether it would be wise to go           These, too, are making great inroads into God's
back. And she got no further. As one who did not            church. Condemn it, but pray for those who are walk-
want separation from such filth, she died with the          ing in it. Their works will be burned, but pray that
filthy.                                                     they may be saved as by fire.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         ----I

                                                                                                                                                        P R O T E S T A N T   R E F O R M E D   C H U R C H E S
                                                                                                                                                                  4949  IVANREST AVENUE,  SW.
                                                                                                                                                                   GRANDVILLE,  MICHIGAN 49418
                                                                                                                                                                       PHONE: 1616) 531-1490
                                                                                                                              Beloved in the Lord:                                                                    February 1, 1977
                                                                                                                                    It has been some time SinCe we have written to you concerning-the work o
                                                                                                                                                  We have been a bit negligent in this, and we apologize for Our

                                                                                                                                    The second semester of our school year 1s well under-way.                            Our first
                                                                                                                                               classroom work ended the Wednesday before Christmas.                        We added
                                                                                                                                               the semester because, with the lateness of Labor Day, the
                                                                                                                                               scheduled was very short.             After two weeks of Christmas vacation,
                                                                                                                                                many of the students returned home, we spent two weeks in exams,
                                                                                                                                               semester's work, and conferences,wlth  the students to evaluate
                                                                                                                                                               Our second semester began January 24.
                                                                                                                                    We have a rather large number of students in Seminary this Year.                             It is
                                                                                                                                                              one of the largest Setiinary  enrollments ever-                  In the
                                                                                                                                                              three students:        two from the Free Reformed Church and


                                                                                                                                                    ~11 of them have been speaking in the churches,
                                                                                                                                                               this time. They are pith Fllkkema and Bill Bruinsma,
                                                                                                                                                               Holland Church, and Mike De Vrlesj a son of Pella.
                                                                                                                                                                   are five students:            Carl Haak and Dave Zandstra,
                                                                                                                                                                             originally  from Holland; and Ron Hanko


                                                                                                                                    mere are also nine students


                                                                                                                                                                                                we have, at Present, "
I                                                                                                                                                       It may seem to us as if there is scarcely rOOm In
I                                                                                                                                                             But this is closely connected with our Mission labors.
I                                                                                                                                                                                                                  but the laborers
                                                                                                                                               Let us be thankful to God for these Young men who  seek the work

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     in their support


                                                                                                                                                                                                                       to the studies C
                j:f;;;;;;i:::,<:t::.:.>;::;:                                                                                                           Don't worry, though:,
          j$$:
         t@
        @g
      &$
     @~g

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~--                                                                                                                  ,  ---            --_
     ..`-"` `.
              .-A \...
                                                """`.-Ai~-h........
     ""-"`";""...~~~ .. . . .. . . . . . . . . .
                                                           . .. .. . . . . . . . .
                                                                       . .. . . .. ...\. . . . . . . . . . . ..~...............,
                                                                               ..~ .\;.,....,.,`,,;;;,,,~I,,
                                                                                            . . . . . . ..`.~..,,,~,~,,,.,,
     .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ cause of our churches.
                                                                                                                                                                                 Fraternally, in Christ,


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                    213


                                           CALL TO  ASPI RANTS TO THE MINISTRY

  All young men desiring to begin studies this fall in the                  comes supplied with a testimonial of his consistory that he is a
Theological School of the Protestant Reformed Churches,                     member in full communion, sound in faith and upright in
located at 4949 lvanrest Ave., S.W., Grandville, Michigan                   walk, and also a certificate from a reputable physician showing
49418 are hereby notified of the Theological School Com-                    him to be in good health.
mittee meeting to be held on March 17, 1977 at 7:30 P.M. in                    A complete high school education and the equivalent of a
the Theological School Building.                                            four year (125 hour) college education are required for en-
Preseminary Department:                                                     trance into the seminary department. Moreover, each entrant
                                                                            into this department must produce evidence that he has credit
  Permission to pursue the pre-seminary course of study shall               for the required college courses. Requirements are listed in the
be granted by the Theological School Committee. A transcript                school catalog, available from the School.
of grades from High School and College (if any), a letter of
testimony from a student's pastor or consistory, and a certifi-                All applicants for enrollment in the seminary department
cate of health from a reputable physician shall be submitted                must appear before the Theological School Committee for
along with the student's application.                                       interview before enrollment. In the event you cannot be
                                                                            present at this meeting, please notify the undersigned secretary
Seminary Department:                                                        of your intentions, prior to the meeting. Mail all correspon-
  Permission to pursue the Theological course in the seminary               dence to the Theological School.
shall be granted by the Synod, upon recommendation of the                                                          Richard H. Teitsma, Secretary
Theological School Committee, to such an aspirant only who

                           NOTICE!.!!                                                      RESOLUTIO-N OF SYMPATHY
  Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet, the             The Adult Bible Class of Faith Protestant Reformed Church,
Lord willing, in Hull, Iowa, on March 2, 1977. Material for the Agenda      (Jenison,  MI), wishes to express its sympathy to its fellow member, Mr.
should be sent to me thirty days prior to the convening of  Classis.        Henry Brands, Sr., in the passing of his wife,  HILDA  BRANDS, on
Delegates in need of lodging should notify the Clerk of the Hull            January  11,1977.
consistory.                                                                   "Thou will keep him in perfectpeace, whose mind  isstayed on Thee;
                                                Rev. David Engelsma,        because he trusted in Thee." (Isaiah  26:3).
                                             Stated Clerk  Classis West.                                                      Rev. M. Joostens, Pres.




                                            R.F.P.A. PUBLICATIONS
       Behold, He Cometh!                                       $9.95       Mysteries of the Kingdom                                  $5.95
          by Herman Hoeksema                                                   by Herman Hanko
               (An exposition of the book of                                       (An exposition of the parables
               Revelation)                                                         of Christ)

       Believers and their Seed                                 $2.95       Peaceable Fruit                                           $5.95
          by Herman Hoeksema                                                   by Gertrude Hoeksema
               (An exposition of the truth of                                      (Instruction concerning the nurture
               God's covenant of grace)                                            of covenant youth)

       God's Covenant Faithfulness                              $5.95       Reformed Dogmatics                                        $9.95
          edited by Gertrude Hoeksema                                          by Herman Hoeksema
               (Commemorative volume, 50th                                         (A systematic study of theology)
               anniversary of Protestant
               Reformed Churches)                                           Therefore Have I Spoken                                   $5.95
                                                                               by Gertrude Hoeksema
       In the Beginning God                       (paper) $1.00                  - (A biography of Herman Hoeksema)
          by Homer C. Hoeksema
               (An exposition of the truth                                  Triple Knowledge                         (3 vol.)        $24.95
               of creation)                                                    by Herman Hoeksema
                                                                                   (An exposition of the Heidelberg
       Marriage: The Mystery of Christ                                             Catechism)
                    and the Church                              $3.50
          by David Engelsma                                                 "Whosoever Will"                                (paper) $1.95
                                                                               by Herman Hoeksema


214                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



ALL AROUND US

                                                  Wiersinga and Atonement
                                                      C.O.C.U. and Unity
                          New Confession for the Presbyterian Church U.S.?
                                                                NAPARC
                              Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches
                                                              Rev. G. Van Baren

  From the R.E.S. News Exchange of De& 7, 1976,                          Ohio. The report is of interest especially because of
comes a further report concerning Dr. Wiersinga and                      the clever' (?) way in  which these  unite  all divergent
developments in the-Reformed Church in the Nether-                       views to form the basis for unity.
lands:                                                                             Delegates from the nine denominations of the
          The consistory of the Reformed Church- of                          Consultation on Church Unity (COCU) chose a new
       Amsterdam sent a letter to, the Synod of the Re-                      president, accepted a 10th member body, and de-
       formed Churches in the Netherlands (RCN) expressing                   bated a revised theological basis for their unification
       consternation at the latter's statement that the views                at COCU's  13th plenary meeting here. . . .
       of Dr. Herman Wiersinga on Christ's atonement are                           Chief architect of the seven-chapter "theological
       inadmissible. The Amsterdam consistory claims that                    basis for union," Prof. John Deschner of Dallas, urged
       despite important differences, there is nevertheless                  COCU delegates to "invite the churches to consider it
       far-reaching agreement on essential points. "In view                  officially and decide whether they are willing to
       of this agreement and unity in the faith, the consistory              gather around it ."
       accepts Dr. Wiersinga in trust as its minister of the
       Word and believes that his views are admissable with-                       The 1970 union plan, of which this is a revision,
       in the bounds of the confession, namely as a con-                     was widely criticized for some of its organizational
       tribution to the discussion concerning the meaning of                 proposals, though at the time the theological portion
       the atonement." The consistory also challenged the                    seemed more acceptable.
       Synod's characterization of Wiersinga's views as a                          Prof. Deschner said the new proposal is "not a
       "threat to the unity of the faith." Part of the Synod's               kind of theological constitution but rather a "mov-
       recent  judicium  expressed confidence that the                       able, changeable starting point" which the COCU
       Amsterdam consistory would see to it that no denial                   denominations can use "to work with other churches
       of the Reformed doctrine of the atonement would                       to create a revised plan of union."
       occur in Wiersinga's ministry. The consistory obviously
       would have no part in this.                                                 At the 1973 COCU plenary in Memphis, delegates
                                                                             decided not to pursue union via a once-and-for-all
          The RCN Synod of November 24 responded that                        plan, but rather to "grow toward union" in a variety
       the letters of the Amsterdam consistory proposed no                   of ways.
       new arguments in favor of Wiersinga's  doctrineSynod
       referred the consistory to a  Synodical committee to                        Eight of the denominations have agreed to work
       discuss the possibility. of framing an appeal to the                  toward "mutual recognition of members" as part of
       next Synod (1977) to revise its earlier  judicium.                    growing together. COCU has also fostered local
                                                                             efforts ("interim  eucharistic fellowships," "generating
          Reacting to the letter of the Amsterdam consistory,                communities," and "communities in correspon-
       Dr. Herman  Ridderbos (Gereformeerd Weekblad)  ex-                    dence"), and work on common worship materials as
... presses his consternation at the attitude of the  con-                   part of the growth effort.
       sistory. Reminiscing, Dr. Ridderbos pointed out that
       this same church that now expresses alarm at the idea                       Among the "notable~improvements" in the revised
       of having to discipline someone who challenges the                    plan listed by Prof. Deschner are a "much stronger
       doctrine of the atonement was one of the leaders in                   explication" of the three uniting principles, a church
       the Reformation of the Dutch church during the last                   "truly catholic, truly evangelical, and truly re-
       half of the 19th century. During that period, the                     formed"; a "considerably strengthened" emphasis on
       Amsterdam consistory required everyone coming to                      diversity, inclusiveness, and participation in member-
       the Lord's Supper to express their accord with Paul's                 ship; and a strengthened discussion on both lay and
       confession regardng the atonement of Christ, "Who                     episcopal ministry.
       was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our                      Among its other points:
       justification."                                                             - Acceptance of the Apostles and Nicene Creeds,
                          COCU and Unity                                     but with no single confession required for all.
  The Christian News, Nov. 15, 1976, reports on a                                  - Baptism by immersion, pouring, or sprinkling
meeting of COCU which recently met at Dayton,                                for both adults and infants.


                                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                   215


         - The Lord's Supper or Eucharist at the heart of                                          his own `suggestions in drawing these various bodies
    worship, but with a recognition of the sacramental                                             closer  - and hopefully into union.
    nature of other rites.                                                                               We no longer believe that the pathway to union is
        - Three kinds of ordained minister: deacon;                                                   best paved by formal negotiations between formally
    presbyter (similar to pastor or priest or elder in cur-                                           appointed committees, charged to hammer out agree-
    rent denominational usage), and bishop.                                                           ment in all points of potential differences; in the
         - The bishop as chief symbol of ministerial  unity                                           course of drawing up detailed plans of union to be
    and continuity, but with no bishop functioning                                                    adopt&d by intricate constitutional processes.
    autonomously.                                                                                        There are two ways that men of good will can
         In addition to the seven-chapter theological docu-                                           come together -  if they are willing. The first of these
    ment, the drafting committee presented an "alert on                                               is by a form of federalization, somewhat similar to
    the new church-dividing potential of some persistent                                              the philosophy which underlay the willingness of the
    issues,"' - racism, sexism, institutionalism, and con-                                             13 original colonies to come together as united and
    gregational exclusivism.                                                                          yet sovereign states. Such a plan might include the
                                                                                                      erection of a provisional General Assembly in which
    The above surely represents an attempt to be all                                                  separate delegations could participate without sur-
things to all men  - not to the furtherance of the                                                    rendering their denominational sovereignties. This
gospel but rather to the destruction of the truths of                                                 was detailed in the June 18, 1975 Journal.
t h a t   g o s p e l .   T h e   d e n o m i n a t i o n s   p a r t i c i p a t i n g   i n            Another, more drastic and yet fully workable way
COCU are: The United Church of Christ; The Dis-                                                       in which compatible Christians from various tradi-
c i p l e s   o f   C h r i s t ;   E p i s c o p a l ;   C h r i s t i a n   M e t h o d i s t       tions could form a more perfect union  - if they
Episcopal; African Methodist Episcopal  Zion; United                                                  could summon the courage to do it  - would be the
Methodist; United Presbyterian Churches; and the                                                      way of a great constitutional convention. A great
newest member: the National Council of Community                                                      congress on the Christian faith, bringing together all
Churches.                                                                                             those interested in belonging to such a body, could
                                                                                                      resolve itself into1  a constitutional convention, adopt a
       Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches                                                   working constitution and walk out as a Church. It has
     The Christian News  also  repdrts in its Nov. 15,                                                been done repeatedly on a smaller scale, in the forma-
                                                                                                      tion of a presbytery, a synod and even a General
1976 issue that the new Association of Evangelical                                                    Assembly!
Lutheran Churches (AELC) now numbers some
6 0,000 members with 119  ,qongregations.  These                                                     New Confession for the Presbyterian Church  U.S.?
represent those who have separated from the Luther-
an Church Missouri Synod, the so-called "moder-                                                      This fall and winter the presbyteries of the Pres-
ates," who refuse to abide with the more conservative                                              byterian Church U.S. (Southern Presbyterian) will be
rulings of the Missouri Synod especially on the infal-                                             voting on the new confession entitled, A Declaration
libility of the Bible.                                                                             of Faith. This confession was adopted by the 1976
                                                                                                   General Assembly (similar to our Synod) and now
                                       NAPARC                                                      must receive approval of the presbyteries.
    A   r e l a t i v e l y   n e w   o r g a n i z a t i o n   h e l d   i t s   s e c o n d        Those who have studied the new confession suggest
annual meeting in Grand Rapids. The organization is                                                that, though many acceptable statements are made,
North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council                                                   and though the "conservatives" are finding it difficult
(NAPARC). There are presently five member de-                                                      to condemn this confession, yet that there are "grave
nominations: the Christian Reformed Church, the                                                    weaknesses" in the confession. In an article from the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian                                                     Presbyterian Journal  of Nov. 3, 1976, the author,
Church in America, and the Reformed Presbyterian                                                   John  Davis, points out that the confession suggests
Church of North America. There is a sixth application                                              that  thotigh the Bible is the "Word of God" in a
for membership for the Associate Reformed Pres-                                                    unique sense, it is no longer to be considered in-
byterian Church.                                                                                   fallible: He points out a "creeping universalism" in
    Meeting at Calvin College, representatives of these                                            this new :confession.  He writes, "By affirming neither
denominations toured Calvin's facilities where, in                                                 universalism  nor double predestination, the con-
June of 1978, the General Assemblies and General                                                   fession ends with a note of hesitation rather than the
Synods of these denominations expect to meet con-                                                  triumphant confidence of our Christian faith." The
currently.                                                                                         same author suggests there is "an unhappy combina-
                                                                                                   tion of the classic views of the Westminster divines
    The  council also voted to hold a conference on                                                and the views of Karl Barth." Though this author
"Office in the Church" in March of 1978.                                                           does not:believe the confession ought to be adopted,
     The editor of the  Presbyterian  Jounzal, Nov. 10,                                            he also insists that its adoption ought not to justify a
1976, comments about this conference and presents                                                  conservative exodus from the denomination.

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

216                                           THE STANDARD BEARER
                                News From Our Churches
  December, 1976, is a month that will probably be          c[o General Delivery, Montego Bay, Jamaica W.I.
remembered by Rev. Dale Kuiper and his family for           Rev. Heys says air mail postage is 254. Letters should
many years. On the 11 th, the Kuiper family was             get to them in about one week.
blessed with the arrival of a son, Victor Paul. Rev.          Bulletin contributors please take note. The new
Kuiper preached the evening sermon in Hudsonville           bulletin clerk for First Church is Mrs. Judi Doezema
Church on the 12th, his last in the church which had        1904 Plymouth Terrace SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan
been "home" for the Kuipers for the past several            49506. Bulletin announcements must be in written
months. On the 13th Rev. Kuiper left for Lynden,            form and on Plymouth Terrace before 6:00 P.M. on
Washington with his older children. Mrs. Kuiper was to      Thursdays. Mr. Jim Heys retired .from this post after
follow by plane with the two youngest children a bit        ten years' service. He was publicly thanked for his
later. Rev. Kuiper was scheduled to be installed as the     many labors in this task and for his service as clerk of
new pastor of our Lynden Church on the 19th by              the First Church consistory upon the occasion of his
Rev. Wayne Bekkering.                                       retirement as elder on January 2.
  Upon decision of the Mission Committee and in               The congregation of Hudsonville extended an in-
harmony with our last Synod's decision, Elder and           vitation to all our area churches to join with them in
Mrs. J. M. Faber of First Church and Rev. and Mrs.          the dedication of their new church building on Jan-
John Heys of our Holland Church left on January 12          uary 20. An open house followed on January 22. The
to labor on the island of Jamaica for six weeks. For        new church is located at 5 101 Beechtree Ave. in
those who desire to write (and I am sure the emis-          Hudsonville, Michigan.
saries would appreciate your letters), their address is:                                                    K.G.V.
                                          REPORT OF CLASSIS EAST
                                                  Januavy  5, 1977
                                     Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church
  Classis East met in regular session on January 5,         Baren, R. Van Overloop, B. Woudenberg; Secundi A.
1977 at our new Hudsonville church. A guided tour of        den Hartog, J.A. Heys, M. Joostens, M. Schipper.
the edifice preceded the meeting. Each congregation         ELDERS: Primi- D. Engelsma, J. Huisken, G. Pipe, R.
was represented by two delegates and, for the first         Teitsma; Secundi- J.M. Faber, G. Hoekstra, J. King, G.
time in many years, each congregation has an under-         Scholten. Voting for delegates ad examina resulted in
shepherd of her own. Rev. B. Woudenberg, having             a three-year primus term for Rev. G. Van Baren and a
returned to serve a congregation in Classis East after a    three-year secundus term for Rev. B. Woudenberg.
long stay in Classis West, was duly welcomed to the            Holland presented a request for pulpit supply while
Classis. Rev. M. Schipper served as chairman of this        Rev. Heys is in Jamaica. The following schedule was
session.                                                    adopted: Jan. 16 - C. Hanko, Jan. 23 - M. Joostens,
   The usual preliminary business was conducted. The        Jan. 30 - M. Schipper, Feb. 6 - G. Van Baren, Feb.
minutes were read, the Stated Clerk's report was            13 - H. Veldman, Feb. 20 - B. Woudenberg.
read, and the Classical Committee reported its activ-          One matter involving the request by a consistory
ity of approving the ministerial credentials of Revs.       for the increase in censure was treated in closed ses-
Kuiper and Woudenberg.                                      sion.
  The church visitors made their final report which
related their visit to Covenant Church in New Jersey.          The Finance Committee composed of Elders G.
The visitors report that while this small church con-       Scholten and G.  VandenTop reported expenses of
tinues to struggle because of its size, their spiritual     $392.01. These expenses were approved and payment
condition is excellent and they continue to be a strong     authorized. Elder A. Alphenaar thanked the ladies for
witness in their area.                                      their catering.
  Subsidy requests for 1978 were received from                 The questions of Article 41 of the Church Order
Kalamazoo and Covenant. Both churches requested             were satisfactorily answered, the concept minutes
$9000 subsidy for 1978; both requests were approved         were read, Elder Alphenaar closed the meeting with
and forwarded to synod. Covenant also presented a           prayer, and classis stood adjourned. The next meeting
letter of thanks for the subsidy received in the past,      of Classis East will be held on April 6, 1977 at South-
which letter was forwarded to synod for publication         east Church.
in the Acts.                                                                               Respectfully submitted,
  In voting for synodical delegates classis selected the                                             Jon J. Huisken
following: MINISTERS:  Primi-C. Hanko, G. Van                                                          Stated Clerk 1


