      STAIVDARD
           BEARER :m
f            /i REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE                                     .





       Sit glued to your TV set hour after hour
     and it will entertain you. But it will also edu-
     cate you. Place your children in front of the
     TV. They will love it. And while they are en-
     joying themselves, they too will get quite an
     education.

       But what kind of education?

             see "A House Dividend?" - page 304



                                            Volume  LIII, No. 13, April 1, 1977    -
                                                       ISSN 0362-4692


290                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                       THE STANDARD  BEARER
                                                                              SetTBi-mOnthI+.  except monthly  Buring  June.  Juiy. and  Auqust.
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                                                                         Editor-in-Chief: Prof.  HO&T C. Hoeksema
Meditation  -                                                            Department  Editon:   Prof. Robert  0. Decker. Rev. David J.  Engelsma.
                                                                         Rev. Cornelius Hanko. Prof. Herman Hanko. Rev. Robert C.  liarbach.
                                                                         Rev. John A.  Heys,  Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. M. Hoeksema  Rev.
   Our Only Comfort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .290       George C. Lubbers. Rev.  Meindert   Joostens. Rev.  Marmus   Sctiipper.
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   Reformed Thought on Baptism (4) . . . . . . . . .293                                           Grandville.   Michi-n  49418
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MEDITATION



                                            Our Only Comfort
                                                                Rev. C. Hanko


                   What is thy only comfort in life and death?
                  That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my
               faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his own precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my
               sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the
               will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea that all things must be
               subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by His Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal
               life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him. Heidelberg
               Catechism, Lord's Day I, Question 1.

   Credo! This is the  first word of our Apostolic                         divinely revealed throughout the ages to the saints in
Creed. I believe !                                                         Christ Jesus. It is the light that shines into our present
   Faith is the truth of the Holy Scriptures as it is                      darkness to reveal to God's church the One Who is


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                               291


the Truth and the Light, in Whose light we see the                Our Heidelberg Catechism is one of those Confes-
Light.                                                          sions, known to us as a part of the Three Forms of
   Faith is that truth of Scripture as it lives in the          Unity of the Reformed faith. The first question of
heart of the believer, who is drawn by the power of             the first Lord's Day quoted above strikes the keynote
that Word, even by Christ Himself through that Word,            of the entire Book of Instruction.
to the Fountain of living waters. That Fountain                    "What is thy only comfort in life and death?"
quickens them and refreshes their thirsty souls ,with             An annoying question.
life, with eternal life in the midst of death.                    I can imagine myself taking this first Lord's Day in
   Faith finds its certainty in the objective Word of           hand, with my finger on this first question, and start-
God, the inspired Scriptures. The faith of the be-              ing down the avenue of some shopping mall. Suppose
lievers is founded on that Word, appeals to the Word            I would stop the first man I met and confront him
as a final authority on all matters, is strong, even            with this question, "What is your only comfort?" If
powerful to resist every foe through the power of               he did not tell me to mind my own business, he
that two-edged Sword. Enlightened by the Spirit of              would `likely ask: "Comfort. What is that? My
Christ, with the life of Christ in my heart I can say           theory is that I can brush away any thought of misery
with conviction that defies all opposition, conviction          by telling myself that `I'm OK, even as everyone else
worth dying for: "I believe."                                   is OK.' Or if that does not do the trick, I have my
  That is our confession.                                       liquor, my golf, my vacations; yes, many things by
                                                                which to run away from the realities of life." After
  The Holy Spirit, Who dwells in the church, guides             that I might venture out to a hospital where someone
the church into all truth. Especially in times of strife,       lies in mortal agony. Hesitantly I might ask her about
when the devil is doing his utmost to undermine the             her comfort in life and death, only to hear her say
foundation of our faith, the church is led to formu-            that her friends have overwhelmed her with all sorts
late the truth of the Scriptures in Confessions., The           of comforts, none of which take away the sting of
believers need that formulation to retain their own             pain and death. "An only comfort? I am reminded
unity of faith. Those of like persuasion have their             that there should be many comforts, such as, my
common ground in the Confessions. The church                    troubles could be worse; as long as there is life there
needs that to witness to the world round about, tes-            is hope; I have the best doctors in the city." Yes, and
tifying, "This I believe." The saints in Christ need            many similar sage remarks. So I wander off to a fu-
that as their banner, their distinctive uniform, as they        neral home where the air is saturated with mourning. I
tight the battle of faith against all the onslaughts of         ask about comfort, and am told that there is actually
the devil with the sword of the Spirit, which is the            no spot in all this great wide world where mortals
Word of God. The Body of Christ needs that witness              weep no more.
to draw others to the truth of Scripture, to unite in             No, I am not getting very far with my Heidelberger
their common cause, especially in these last days as            today, but it was not intended for that anyway. The
we prepare ourselves' for the tribulation still to come.        question is a very unique question that finds response
Today, these Confessions are being challenged as out-           only in the heart of the believer. I notice that it is
moded, outdated,_ irrelevant to our advanced, scien-            addressed to me. What is my comfort, my only com-
tific age. Therefore, we hear the voice of Jesus power-         fort, my all sufficient comfort, that changes my dark-
fully exhorting us: "Hold that which thou hast, that            ness into light, that sustains me in every affliction,
no man take thy crown."                                         that changes my mournful dirge into a song of praise
  We, as believers in Jesus, have the more sure Word            in the night, and when death comes to release my
of prophecy, whereunto we do well that  .we take                soul from this prison house of death, this comfort is
heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until        still my strength and song, even into eternity.
the day dawn, and the day star arise in our hearts. (II           Even so it is an annoying question. In the first
Peter 1: 19). We have the strong consolation of the             instance I might try to deny that this applies to me. I
Spirit that unites our hearts and minds in the faith of         must admit that it does not always live clearly before
the fathers still living;. the faith that has survived fire,    my consciousness. It requires some prayerful soul
dungeon, and sword. Our fathers died for that faith.            searching before the face of God.
We, their children, cherish it as we equip ourselves to           The word "comfort" in the active sense means "to
be ready at all times to give account of the hope that          strengthen." It is taken from the Latin, "to be brave
is within us, applying God's Word to every walk of              by some outward support." In the passive sense, as it
life. We cling to that faith as the heritage delivered to       is used here, it means "to be strengthened," to have
us from the past to be preserved and passed on to the           someone at my side who takes up my cause, who
generations to come, unto the day when our Lord                 pleads my cause for me as my advocate, and who
returns.                                                        delivers me from all my miseries. Thus the word


 292                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


implies that I experience a certain great misery. This     everlasting death upon me.
misery fills my day with bitterness and my nights            ,Only when I realize that as the cause, the root of
with anxious restlessness. The fear of death and the       all my misery, can I experience the only comfort. It is'
beyond floods my soul with bitter pain. All human          the assurance that "I am not my own." My former
comforters are vain; they only make my troubles            boast is now my shame. Alone I perish! Now trium-
worse. But there is One Who comes to my aid, Who           phantly I can say, "I am not my own. I belong." I
understands my deepest woe, Who has the solution           belong to none other than my faithful Savior Jesus
for every problem. He pleads my cause for me, so           Christ. As the peace of that glorious salvation floods
that I begin to sing with the inspired Psalmist, "This     my soul, I realize that I belong, not by personal
my comfort in affliction, that Thy Word hath quick-        choice, but because my name is eternally written by
ened me."                                                  the loving hand of Father in the Book of Life. What a
   We think of the prodigal son in the parable, who        comfort that doctrine of election and predestination!
had found that the pleasures and treasures of sin end      I belong because Christ laid the seal of His blood,
up in the mire, where he had to outwit the swine to        which was shed upon Calvary, upon that name in the
share their slop with them. He "comes to himself'          Book. I know that I belong to Jesus, for the Spirit of
and says, "I will arise and go to my father, and will      Christ assures me that I am adopted to be God's son,
say unto him, Father I have sinned against heaven and      heir of salvation, to bear the likeness of Father before
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy        His throne forever. Once I was bound, now I am free.
son: make me as one of thy servants'." Maybe the           Once I was blind, now I can see, Once I was dead,
prodigal did not realize it, but already a ray of com-     now I live, for Christ lives in me.
fort was penetrating into his weary soul; it was the         ,My comfort is an all sufficient comfort. I can sum
thought of father, the one person in the whole world       up at least five benefits which apply to my physical
who cares, who, though sorely offended, would yet          life as well as ,my spiritual life, which sustain me in all
show mercy to his son. He is Father's son, for whom        the trials and sufferings of my daily existence, which
Father's love never changes. To that love he must          strengthen me in the hour of death, and accompany
appeal, even as the woman who spoke of the crumbs          me, as it were, into Father's House with its many
that fell from the table for the dogs. When he is yet a    mansions. The first of these is that my Savior has
great way off, Father sees him, runs to meet him,          purchased me unto God by paying the price far ex-
throws his arms about him and listens as he stammers       ceeding all the gold and silver of this world, the price
the confession of his sin, nothing more. The prepared      of His own precious blood. Second, He delivers me,
speech goes unspoken, for Father must have his say:        not once, but every day from every new attack of
"This my son was lost and is found, was dead and is        Satan who is determined to drive my soul to hell.
alive again!" The angels in heaven join in the chorus.     Third, He is faithful, He carries out God's eternal
  An only, comfort! In the ears of the unbeliever this     purpose in our lives, since we are God's workmans-hip,
sounds so ridiculous, so entirely impossible. In our       each a masterpiece of divine wisdom and power, to
unbelief we are guilty of what Paul calls in II Corin-     accomplish those good works which God has etemal-
thians 5: 15 "living unto ourselves." We clamor for        ly prepared for each of us to carry out in this life. We
our independence. We want to make our own mark in          never live for one second in vain; Even when all things
the world, take care of ourselves. We want to be           seem to be against us, God.is still for us, Christ inter-
somebody. We are willing to take the consequences of       cedes for us that our faith fail not, so that not one of
our independence. Yet when the Spirit of Christ            those insignificant hairs of our heads can fall unless
enters our hearts to convict us of sin against the Most    God carries out His purpose with it. That far exceeds
High Majesty of God, we realize that we have wasted        my understanding, yet it is true. Fourth, He assures
Father's goods, the gifts, the talents, the possessions    us day by day that tribulations work patience,
which God had entrusted unto us to be used to His          patience makes us well-experienced, fully equipped
glory. We realize that we have grossly transgressed all    saints, in order that our hope may continually grow
God's commandments and kept none of them. A                brighter. For hope never makes us ashamed, since the
two-fold burden rests upon us. There is the guilty         love of God is spread abroad in our hearts. (Rom.
conscience that-beats me with just accusations. How        5: l-5). The God of consolation, Who blesses us
could I be such a fool, such a sinner? There is the        through the Son of Consolation, sends His Comforter,
deep awareness that my "independence" is nothing           the Holy Spirit of Christ, to make us sincerely willing
more than slavish service of the devil, the power of       and ready to live, no more unto ourselves, but unto
sin driving me headlong into hell under God's just         the God of our salvation in true thankfulness.
wrath. As long as I am "my own" I stand responsible          "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his bene-
for enormous debt of sin, which I can never wipe out,      fits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation,
but only increase. I am, as long as I am "my own,"         and call upon the name of the Lord." (Psalm
sitting in the prison cell of sin with the sentence of     11.6:12,13).


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       293


  EDITORIAL



                       Reformed Thought on Baptism
                                                             (4)
                                                Prof H. C. Hoekiema


     In  his Systematic Theology,  III, Charles Hodge               intelligent profession of faith in Christ, and a solemn
 writes at length on the subject of baptism, giving a               engagement of obedience to Him. . . ."
  separate treatment to adult baptism. and infant bap-                In this same connection, in commenting on the
 tism. In both instances he connects baptism with                   qualifications for adult baptism, Dr. Hodge describes
  church membership. Taking his starting point in the               how catechetical instruction was instituted in the
Westminster Shorter Catechism he writes the follow-                 early church for those persons who wanted to be
 ing concerning the subjects of baptism, pp. 540, ff.:              baptized and thus to join themselves to the church:
  `Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out
  of the visible Church, till they profess their faith in             "1. Faith supposes knowledge of at least the
  Christ and obedience to Him: but the infants of such              fundamental doctrines of the Gospel. Some may
  as are members of the visible Church are to be bap-               unduly enlarge, and some unduly restrict the number
  tized.' (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 95)                    of such doctrines; but no Church advocates the
                                                                    baptism of the absolutely ignorant. If baptism in-
     "The question, who are the proper subjects of bap-             volves a profession of faith, it must involve a pro-
  tism? is determined by the design of the ordinance                fession of faith in certain doctrines; and those doc-
  and the practice of the Apostles. It has been shown               trines must be known, in order to be professed. In the
  that, according to our standards, the sacraments (and             early Church, therefore, there was a class of
  of course baptism) were instituted, to signify, seal,             catechumens or candidates for baptism who were
  and apply to believers the benefits of the redemption             under a regular course of instruction. This course con-
  of Christ. The reception of baptism, so far as adults             tinued, according to circumstances, from a few
  are concerned, is an intelligent, voluntary act, which            months, to three years. These catechumens were not
  from its nature involves (1) A profession of faith in             only young men, but often persons in mature life,
  Christ, and (2) A promise of allegiance to Him.                   and of all degrees of mental culture. Where Christian
     "This is clear, -                                              churches were established in the midst of large
     "1. From the command of Christ to make dis-                    heathen cities, the Gospel could not fail to excite
  ciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of              general attention. The interest of persons of all classes
  the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. A                  would be more or less awakened. Many would be so
  disciple, however, is both a recipient of doctrines               impressed with the excellence of the new religion, as
  taught, and a follower. Every one, therefore, who is              to desire to learn its doctrines and join themselves to
  made a disciple by baptism, enrolls himself among the             the company of -believers. These candidates for
  number of those who receive Christ as their teacher               baptism, being in many cases men of the highest cul-
  and Lord, and who profess obedience and devotion to               ture, it was necessary that their teachers should be
  H i s   s e r v i c e .                                           men thoroughly instructed in discipline. We accord-
                                                               `ingly find such men as Pantaenus, Clemens, and .
     "2. This is further clear from the uniform practice            Origen successively at the head of the catechetical
  of' the Apostles. In every case on record of their                school of Alexandria. These schools, although pri-
  administering the rite, it was on the condition of a              marily designed for converts from among the Jews
  profession of faith on the part of the recipient. The             and heathen, on account of their high character, soon
  answer of Philip to the eunuch who asked, What doth               began  .to be frequented by other classes, and
 hinder me to be baptized? `If thou believest with all              especially  by those who were in training for the
  thine heart thou mayest,' discloses the principle on              ministry. When Christianity became the prevalent re-
  which the Apostles uniformly acted in this matter.                ligion, and the ranks of the Church were filled up, not
     "3. This has in all ages been the practice  ,of the            by converts of mature age, but by those born within
  Church. No man was admitted to baptism without an                 its pale .and baptized in their infancy, the necessity


294                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


for such schools no longer existed. Their place, how-        doctrine and discipline; as the Church of England, the
ever, was supplied by the systematic instruction of          Church of Scotland, the Lutheran Church, and the
the young in preparation for their confirmation for          Reformed Church. And (5) It is used for all the pro-
their first communion."                                      fessors of the true religion throughout the world, con-
  Notice that at this early stage in church history          sidered as united in the adoption of the same general
already the church was certainly not hasty about             creed and in common subjection to Christ.
baptism. And notice, too, that the catechetical in-             "It is evident that no one definition of the Church
struction described in the above paragraph led not           can include all the senses in which the word is legiti-
only to baptism, but along with baptism to church            mately used; and, therefore, that we may affirm of
membership. At the conclusion of this discussion of          the Church in one sense of the word, what must be
adult baptism, Dr. Hodge identifies the qualifications       denied of it in a different sense; and the same person
for admission to the Lord's table, the qualifications        may be said to be, or not to be a member of the
for adult baptism, and the qualifications for church         Church according to the meaning attached to the
membership :                                                 word. In the present discussion, by the Church is
   "The question, although thus simple. in its general       meant what is called the visible Church; that is, the
statement, is nevertheless one of great difficulty. As it    whole body of those who profess the true religion, or,
is almost universally the fact that, so far as adults are    any number of such professors united for the purpose
concerned, the qualifications for  baljtism are the          of the public worship of Christ, and for the exercise
same as those for admission to the Lord's table, the         of mutual watch and care. With regard to infant bap-
question, what are the qualifications for adult bap-         tism the following propositions may be maintained.
tism? resolves itself into the question, what are the        "First Proposition. The Visible Church is a Divine
qualifications for church-membership? The answer to          Institution.
that question, it is evident, must be determined by
the views taken of the nature and the prerogatives of           "Concerning the Church in this sense, it is clearly
the Church. . . ."                                           taught in Scripture, that it is the will of God that
                                                             such a Church should exist on earth. This no Christian
  In connection with his discussion of infant bap-           denies. God has imposed duties upon His people
tism, Hodge writes, pp. 546, ff.:                            which render it necessary for them thus to associate
  "The difficulty on this subject is that baptism from       in a visible organized body. They are to unite in His
its very nature involves a profession of faith; it is the    worship; in teaching and propagating His truth; in
way in which by the ordinance of Christ, He is to be         testifying for God in all parts of the world. He has
confessed before men; but infants are incapable of           prescribed the conditions of membership in this
making such confession; therefore they are not the           body, and taught who are to be excluded from its
proper subjects of baptism. Or, to state the matter in       communion. He has appointed officers, specified
another form, the sacraments belong to the members           their qualifications, their prerogatives, and the mode
of the Church; but the Church is the company of              of their appointment. He has enacted laws for its
believers; infants cannot exercise faith, therefore they     government. Its rise, progress, and consummation are
are not members of the Church, and consequently              traced in history and prophecy, from the beginning to
ought not to be baptized.                                    the end, of the Bible. This is the kingdom of God of
  "In order to justify the baptism of infants, we            which our Lord discourses in so many of His parables,
must attain and authenticate such an idea of the             and which it is predicted is ultimately to include all
Church as that it shall include the children of be-          the nations of the earth."
lieving parents. The word Church is used in Scripture          `From the above it is evident what Dr. Hodge
and in common life, in many different senses, (1) it         understands by the church in connection with his dis-
means the whole body of the elect, as in Ephesians v.        cussion of infant baptism. Like all Reformed theolo-
.25, and when the Church is said to be a body, or the        gians, Dr. Hodge connects baptism and the instituted,
bride of Christ, to be filled by His Spirit, etc. (2) It     organized congregation. The two are not to be sepa-
means any number of believers collectively con-              rated. He goes on to make the point that the children
sidered; or the whole number of believers residing in        of believers are not to be excluded from membership
any one place, or district, or throughout the world. In      in the church. Then Hodge faces the question,
this sense we use the word when we pray God to bless         "Whose children are entitled to baptism?" And he
His Church universal, or His Church in any particular        states:
place. (3) It is used as a collective term for the body
of professed believers in any one place; as when we             "This is a very delicate, difficult, and important
speak of the Church of Jerusalem, of Ephesus, or of          question. No answer ,which can be given to it can be
Corinth, (4) It is used of any number of professed           expected to give general satisfaction. The answers will
believers bound together by a common standard of             be. determined by the views taken of the nature of the


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 295



 Church and the design of the sacraments. Probably            And from the above quotations it is very evident:
 the answer which would include most of the views             1) That by the church, or the visible church, in con-
 entertained on the subject, is, that the children of the     nection with this subject Hodge very plainly means
 members of the visible Church, and those for whose           the local congregation as instituted by Christ.
 religious training such members are willing to become        2) That he very definitely teaches that the sacra-
 responsible, should be baptized. But this leaves many        ments, both baptism and the Lord's Supper, are
 questions undecided, and allows room for great               limited to, the membership of that visible church as
 diversity of practice." (p. 558)                             represented in the local congregation.
    Note, however, that while Dr. Hodge speaks of               Prof. F. M. Ten Hoor teaches the same thing in his
 "room for great diversity of practice," he is neverthe-      Dogmatiek,  p.267 (we translate):
 less speaking of the children of the members of the            "Baptism is administered in Christ's stead, and this
 visible church; and this diversity is not such that it       administration is bound-to the office of the gospel,
 allows room for baptism outside of and apart from            Mark 1:4; John 4:2; Matthew 28: 19, but baptism is
 membership in the church. Then, after discussing             subordinate to the Word, I Corinthians 1: 14-17; Acts
 various views among Reformed theologians and among           10:48. It must be administered in the midst of the
 the Puritans as to who belong to the visible church,         congregation, since it signifies ingrafting into the con-
 and after citing several statements from Reformed            gregation, I Corinthians 12: 13, and must be accom-
 confessions, Hodge writes as follows:                        panied by the ministry of the Word.
   "It is, therefore, plain that according to the stan-         "Those who came to the congregation from out-
 dards of the Reformed Church, it is the children of          side were in the first period baptized immediately
 the members of the visible Church who are to be              after confession, Matthew 3:6; Acts 2:41; 8: 12, but
 baptized. Agreeably to Scripture usage such members          later on after two years of catechism."
 are called `foederati,' saints, believers, faithful, holy      In  his Christian Dogmatics,  II, p. 749, J. J. Van
 brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. The             Oosterzee writes:
 Apostles in addressing professing Christians in the use
 of such terms `did not express any judgment of their           "As to the administration of Baptism as a solemn
 state in the sight of God. They designated them              initiation into the Church of the Lord; it ought
according to their profession. . . . The Reformed, as         properly to be administered in the midst of His
 well as the Lutheran theologians, therefore, speak of        Church whether gathered together as the congrega-
 the members of the visible Church as believers, and of       tion or the family. Naturally it is entrusted to the
 their children as born of believing parents. All that is     same persons to whom the Lord has committed the
 intended, therefore, by the language above cited is,         teaching of His people, whilst baptism in case of
 that the sacraments of the Church are to be confined         necessity, perhaps by entirely unauthorized hands,
 to members of the Church and to their children."             can be justified only from the standpoint of those
                                                              who, in opposition to the Gospel, teach an absolute
   On p. 578 you may find the same emphasis: "The             need of baptism for salvation."
 sacraments as all admit are to be confined to mem-             In  his Systematic Theology  (Fourth edition), L.
 bers of the church. But the Church does not consist          Berkhof, writing on the characteristics of the Word
 exclusively of communicants. It includes also all who        and the Sacraments as means of grace states the fol-
 having been baptized have not forfeited their mem-           lowing, pp. 605, 606:
 bership by scandalous living or by any act of Church           "They are the  official  means of the Church of
 discipline. All members of the Church are professors         Jesus Christ. The preaching of the Word (or, the Word
 of religion. They profess faith in Christ and are under      preached)  and the  administration  of the sacraments
 a solemn vow to obey His laws. If they are insincere         (or, the  sacraments administered) are  the means
 or heartless in this profession, the guilt is their own.     officiaZZy instituted in the Church, by which the Holy
 The Church is, and can be responsible only for their         Spirit works and confirms faith in the hearts of men.
 external conduct; so long as that is not incompatible        Some Reformed theologians limit the idea of the
 with the Christian character, and so long as the faith       means of grace still more by saying that they are
 is held fast, the privileges of membership continue."        administered only within the visible Church, and that
    Lest there be any misunderstanding on this score,         they presupposed the existence of the principle of the
 let me point out that the fact that we. quote from           new life in the soul. Shedd and Dabney both speak of
 Hodge's Systematic Theology does not mean that we            them, without any qualification, as `means of sanctiti-
 agree with all the statements made by him. But we            cation.' Says the former: `When the world of un-
 are quoting in order to point out that there is a con-       regenerate men are said to have the means of grace,
 sensus among Reformed theologians on the subject of          the means of conviction under common grace, not of
 the relation between the sacraments and the church.          sanctification under special grace, are intended.'


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Honig also distinguishes between the Word of God as                that, being incorporated into Christ, we may be
a means of grace and the Word as it contains the call              numbered among the children of God." (Chapter 15,
to conversion and serves to call Gentiles to the service           jj. 583)
of the living God. Dr. Kuyper, too, thinks of the
means of grace merely as means for the strengthening                   "It is also necessary to state, that it is not right for
                                                                   private persons to take upon themselves the admin-
of the new life when he says: `The  media  gvatiae                 istration of baptism; for this, as well as the admin-
are means instituted by God that He makes use of to                istration of the Lord's Supper, is a part of the public
unfold, both personally and socially, for and through              ministry of the Church. Christ never commanded
our consciousness, the re-creation that He immediately             women, or men in general, to baptize; He gave this
established in our nature.' There is, of course, a truth in         charge to those whom He had appointed to be
this representation. The principle of the new life is              apostles. And when He enjoined His disciples, in the
wrought in the soul immediately, that is, without the              celebration of the supper, to do as they had seen
mediation of the Word that is preached. But in so far              done by Him when He executed the office of a legiti-
as the origination of the new life also includes the               mate dispenser He intended, without doubt, that they
new birth and internal calling it may also be said that            shbuld imitate His example." (Chapter 15, pp. 599,
the Holy Spirit works the beginning of the new life or              600)
of faith, as the Heidelberg Catechism says, `by the
preaching of the holy gospel.' "                                       "It remains for us briefly to show what advantage
  In discussing the relation between the Word and                  results from this ceremony, both to believers who
the Sacraments, Berkhof writes on p. 6 16:                         present their children to the Church to be baptized,
                                                                    and to the infants themselves who are washed in the
  "They differ: (a) in their necessity, the Word be-
ing indispensable, while the sacraments are not;                   holy water; to guard it from being despised as useless
                                                                    or unimportant." (Chapter 16, p. 610)
(b) in their purpose, since the Word is intended to
engender  and to strengthen faith, while the sacra-                    The last quotation is significant not because of the
ments serve only to strengthen it;  arid (c) in their              subject as such which Calvin is discussing here, name-
extension, since the Word goes out into all the world,             ly the advantages of baptism; but it is important for
while the sacraments are administered only to those                our purposes because it speaks of believers presenting
who are in the Church."                                            their children  to the  Church  to be baptized. Inci-
  Although one does not find very much material on                 dentally Calvin (and all Reformed theologians follow
                                                                   him in this) denies the absolute necessity of the sacra-
this subject in John Calvin's  Institutes of the                   ment of baptism. The Reformed position is that bap-
Christian Religion,  yet the few indications that are              tism is not indispensable in the sense that it is not
found in the following quotations show that there is               neicessary to salvation. This is not to say that baptism
agreement between the various Reformed theologians                 must be neglected and despised: for it is an ordinance
whom we have already quoted and Calvin on this                     of, God. However, in view of the fact that baptism is
score. He also limits the sacrament of baptism to the              not indispensable unto salvation, there certainly is no
organized congregation. We find the following state-               hurry about baptism on the mission field prior to the
ments in Book IV (Allen Translation):                              time that a congregation is instituted or the time,
  "Baptism is a sign of initiation, by which we are                when its institution is even likely - even apart from
admitted into the society of the Church, in order                  any other considerations.
STUDIES IN ISA IA H


       National Destruction for Abandoning God
                                                 Rev. Robt.  C Havbach

Isaiah 5 : 24-30
  1. The Ruin Complete. "Therefore, as the tongue                  vine of Judah, withering its root with immediate
of fire devours stubble, and a flame burns down                    decay and pulverizing its blossoms in a cloud of dust.
straw, their root shall be as rottenness, their blossom            Terrible punishments and awful judgments await
shall go up as the dust"; (24a), like a seeded dande-              those who stubbornly persist in the way that seems
lion head blown away! "Therefore," because of the                  right unto a man. Gruesome judgments occur today,
foregoing sins, lightning strokes of judgment blast the            to' the ruin of an entire nation. Take the genocide of


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  297


Cambodia, where Buddhist Communists, horribly                ever stretched out to deal further strokes up to that
murdered and annihilated the Buddhist populace. As           satisfaction. The picture is that of an earthquake
the root means the leaders, so the blossoms denote           causing faulted mountains and fields and valleys to be
their subjects, particularly the children. (Luther), The     strewn- with corpses. The earthquake is set off by
above referred to slaughter occurred between Spring,         hordes, of marching armies, the rumble of armed con-
 1975 and December, 1976. Soldiers were massacred,           tingencies, the din of battle, the stripping of nature
so also students, teachers, village officials, then,         and the slaughter of the populace with bodies lying
family by family fathers first, then their wives and         about like filthy street sweepings. As in Cambodia,
children and babies, all bayoneted. In similar manner,       last year, mass, senseless executions left corpses
the cities were destroyed. The land was made a               rapidly bloating and rotting in the sun . . . blood ran
charnel house, its borders ringed with  lexploded            like water .on the grass . . . rice paddies polluted with
boobytraps and heaps of corpses, forming a wall of           carcasses . . . along the way, the body of a child every
death, intended to prevent refugees escaping. The            200 yards . . . the jungle smelled of rotting bodies . . .
Communists killed 1.2 millions, destroyed the uni-           the odor, everywhere, was inescapable . . . on the way
versities, commerce, art, music, libraries, literature,      to the .border, 5,000 bodies . . . paths- so thick with
science, love, and hope. They were terrible instru-          skeletons and bones sharp to cut the feet . . . at least
ments of divine judgment, destruction and ruin,              800,000 Cambodians dead from famine, disease and
themselves facing the judgment of eternal fire. Yet          massacre . . . left as nothing more than the refuse of
such fearful instruments in Gog and Magog at the             the streets. (Cp. how the Midianites perished and
time of the final Antichrist we know will make havoc         became as fertilizer for the earth. Ps. 83:9f). "Filthy
of the end-time church.                                      are the streets of an oriental city under normal con-
   2. The Ruin Just.  "for they rejected the law of          ditions; the grievous hand of death now adds to that
Jehovah Tsebhaoth, and the word of the Holy One of           filthiness" (E.J. Young). "Whence came the distress-
Israel they despised" (24b). Do we appreciate what           ful casting out of dead bodies, but because God has
that means, to reject the law of the Lord of hosts?          raised His arm against" them. (Calvin). "The power of
It's like a gagging gasping maggot of a day exuding its      God effects it; He hath stretched forth His hand
vile bile against the sovereign God of eternity! Worse       against them . . . This is very dreadful . . . yet such is
it is for such a wretchedly corrupt nothing to `defile       the merit of sin" (M. Henry).
with his denial the all-glorious and exalted holiness of       4. The Ruin's Continuance and Consequences.  In
God revealed in His Word! Are not such reprehensible         all this His anger (is) not turned away, but His hand is
despisers of the only true God and His blessed gospel        still stretched out" (25b). It seems nothing will bring
worthy of that sudden, severe, searing judgment?             men to admit or regard these awful events as the
   The terrible judgments at this very hour coming on        judgments of God, nor the recent severities of winter
heathen nations we may expect to come closer to us.          as the power and providence of God. Man, the great
Why should our nation expect to escape? Has it not           "Master of the Universe," cannot stand before His
rejected knowledge? forgotten the law of God? (Hos.          cold (Ps. 147: 17), and in some places cannot warm
4:6). Judgment begins at the house of God. What              himself due to the gas-fuel shortage! But divine judg-
chance, then, have the impious and sinful? Other sins        ments are in execution throughout the earth, and
often meet with superabounding grace, and chastise-          there is-"more to come," for His hand is still stretched
ments for other sins often lead men to repentance.           out.
But blatant, blind, bombastic  .blasphemy against              5.  The Instruments Bringing Ruin.  "And He will
God's Word is most .often punished with destruction          lift up. a standard to the nations (heathen) from far
and everlasting desolation. The sin of rottenness is         off, and will whistle for him (them) from the ends of
punished with hopeless, unending rottenness. (Rev.           the earth, and, look! speedily, swiftly he (they) shall
22: 11; Dn. 12:2). As Matthew Henry well said, When          come!" (26). An invadmg enemy shall take Israel off
chaff is burned it "is consumed unhelped and un-             into total darkness (26-30). Now we see how the
pitied." (See Ezek. 5: 11).                                  streets of the city and the out-fields got to be strewn
   3. The Ruin's Origin. "Therefore the anger of             with corpses of men and carcasses of animals. In the
Jehovah was kindled against His people, and He               instance of Cambodia, the instruments of desolation
stretched-out His hand over them, and they were              were the closest enemy possible, the enemy within,
struck; and the mountains trembled, and their  .car-         of their own people, attacking and destroying them.
casses were the sweepings (or, filth) in the midst of the    With Israel, the instruments of ruin were the invading,
streets" (25a). Punishment has come on the repro-            ravaging enemy of a foreign power from distant lands.
bate, and shall continue to strike them down in the          The invaders which came the farthest did the most
future. God's hand upon them is not rehabilitating,          deadly and devastating work of destruction.
nor has it reached' satisfaction (of His justice), but is      A nation may deceive itself, thinking it is master of


298                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


its own and others "fate." So thought Nazi Germany,          ness of these arrows of ours so that they will fly no
Fascist Italy and Spain, imperial Japan and Com-             farther than 372 miles. Of course, then they would
munist Russia. So dreams our own country rushing             fall far short of the enemy. This is to insult us as
blindly down the socialist trail. In fact, any arms          stupid enough to come out with "bows" that will
agreement or peace negotiation of any kind easily            only allow the "arrows" to fall back on our own
lulls our nation to sleep, as if there is no danger to be    heads! But  their  arrows are all sharpened to wound
dreaded. But the heathen nations are the punitive rod        deeply; all  their  bows are bent; all  their  arrows are
of God's anger (Isa.  11:5),  His battle-axe and             ready to fly at a moment's notice. It is their philos-
weapons of war (Jer. 5  1:20), by which He breaks            ophy to be soon in action. Their mechanized cavalry
down nations and destroys kingdoms. Josephus, the            has for the last 25 years been modernized and out-
Jewish historian, reports the words of Titus after the       fitted for service. Their forces are as hard as flint.
Romans had conquered the city of Jerusalem. "We              They have wheels (surely. on their jets) which move
have certainly had God for our assistant in this war;        through the air well beyond the speed of sound.
and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews            There are far enemy nations, neither slumbering nor
out of these fortifications; for what could the hands        sleeping, with evil intent to destroy us. Yet there is
of men, or any machines, do towards overthrowing             also coming an Armageddon for all Antichrist  and
these towers?" (II, 439). Calvin put it this way:            Gog and Magog nations.
"Whether, therefore, we are afflicted by battle, or by          Their terrorism. "His roaring (is) like the lion, and
famine, or by pestilence, let us know that all this          a roaring like the young lions, and shall roar and seize
comes from the hand of God, for all things obey Him          prey and place (it) in safety, with (and) none to
and follow His direction."                                   rescue (it)" (29). Having described the enemy, what
  Wicked men and nations, who daringly commit the            he, is like, what he has, now he tells what he will do -
sins mentioned in this chapter, may expect, as Isaiah        terrify all about him.  First, there is the low sinister
described it, the like devastation of their countries. In    growl of the enemy, then the rumble .of the army on
the prophet's day, the people of his nation denied           the move, finally the roar of the battle. The prey
God's judgments with the provoking, "Let Him make            taken off with none to rescue it is Judah. God, of
speed and hasten His work"  (19), only to find to            course, can deliver; but will He? The answer is, No.
their terror that He came with speed, swiftly.               Judah is to be punished, and the theocracy is to be
                                                             destroyed. The enemy is to have its way until the
  Note the readiness of these distant nations. "Not          sovereign purposes of God through it are realized.
one becomes weary, and not one among them                    "They who would not hear the voice of God speaking
stumbles and neither falls asleep; and a girdle of their     to them by His prophets, but stopped their ears . . .
loins is not loosed, nor a lace of their shoes broken"       shall be made to hear the voice of their enemies roar-
(27). When the foe from far off Japan came attacking         ing against them" (M. Henry).
our base at Pearl Harbor, as a result of the long ex-          Their irresistibility. "and they will roar over it in
hausting journey, no one was exhausted; none fal-            that day like the roaring of the sea, and look to the
tered, none was sleepy in his intense desire for battle.     land, and, behold, darkness, distress; even the light in
Everything was in order, including such minor details        her skies shall become dark" (30). The figure changes
as belts and shoe laces.                                     from the roar of the lion to the roaring of the sea.
   Their weaponry and mobility. "As t,o which their          These forces are irresistible. The ship of Judah is
arrows are sharp (things) and all their bows bent; the       wrecked in midnight gloom. The Jews will look to the
hoofs of their horses are reckoned like the flint, and       waves of sea to cover them from the wrathful eye of
their wheels like the whirlwind" (v. 28). They had,          the divine Judge. They will look to the land for caves
for their day, the latest in the most advanced guided-       and rocks to hide themselves, but will not find them;
missiles, chariots (tanks) and cavalry; and all in con-      nor will they find any hiding in the darkness. From
stant readiness. `Our armed forces have "arrows"             world-darkness they go to eternal darkness. But' the
which can fly 2,300 miles unerringly to target. Our          prudent foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself - in the
enemies are trying to bluff.us into blunting the sharp-      cleft of the rock of Calvary.



               Know the standard and follow it.
           Read THE STANDARD BEARER:


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        299

                                         0

GUEST ARTICLE



         The Canons of Dordrecht  1
                                              An Historical Perspective
                                                             (2)
                                                   Rev. M. Kamps


Spread of the Reformed Faith                                        spread of Calvin's writings in the southern provinces
                                                                    of the Lowlands. These southern provinces were
                                                                    French speaking. Consequently the lucid, forceful
  The Reformed faith had to earn its right of exis-                 writings of Calvin found ready access by the people
tence in the Lowlands. Its spread was continually                   eager to learn the truth of God's Word.
opposed. Our Dutch fathers were to gain the faith                      The second momentous event that enhanced the
only by purchasing it with their blood. Thousands                   dissemination of the Reformed faith was the
were killed for cherishing its truth. The Calvinistic or            translation of the New Testament from the original
Reformed faith  gained  its right to existence in the               into the Holland language. Luther's German Bible was
Netherlands only through suffering and death. It                    also widely used in the Lowland, after it had been
would be maintained only in the same way.                           translated into the Holland.1
  Christ, our Lord, died to gain the victory over                      This spread of the Reformed faith was in a measure
depravity, sin, guilt, and the forces of Hell. There was            unrestricted till 1559. Charles V opposed it but not
no other way. The pattern for God's people was set.                 wholeheartedly. Most of his severe edicts were not
Christ's sufferings we must fill up. If the world hated             enforced widely. Consequently, from 1540 till 1559
the Master they will also hate His disciples. Christ was            the truth of God's Word as set forth by Calvin cast its
victorious in death. In the lives of His people Christ is           illuminating rays and life-giving power into the spiri-
always victorious too: faith inevitably makes its con-              tual darkness which engulfed our forefathers of the
fession. of the truth. But this victory of Christ by His            Netherlands.
irresistible grace is gained only through suffering. This           The Political Situation in the Lowlands
truth our Dutch fathers learned from 1540-1585.
God uses historical events and circumstances to form                  In order to understand the motive and power of
His people spiritually. One of His instruments was                  those who so mercilessly persecuted the  Nether-
Philip II of Spain.                                                 landers and especially our Reformed fathers among
                                                                    them it is neccessary to take a brief look at the politi-
  Several historical factors comprised God's means to               cal situation in the Lowlands from 1540 to 1585. In
bring the light of the gospel to His people in the                  1581 the northern seven provinces declared separa-
Lowlands, who were engulfed in spiritual darkness                   tion from the ten provinces of the south, which had
and ignorance and exploitation by Roman Catholi-                    made peace with Philip on the basis of a common
cism. Preparatory to the spread of the Reformed faith               faith  - Roman Catholicism. In the year 158 1 the
was, first of all, the dissemination of Luther's writings           northern seven provinces became an independent
from 1520 onward. Luther showed clearly the cor-                    republic. under the leadership of William of Orange.
ruption of the papal system, on the one hand; on the                But at the midway point of the 16th century the
other hand,, he made transparent the beauty of the                  Lowlands comprised seventeen provinces loosely
gospel of grace. Secondly, the Anabaptist movement                  joined together in a States General. Each province
indirectijr   served to prepare for the spread of the               was self-ruling, enjoying local rights and privileges.
truth. Anabaptism, if anything, served to awaken in                 However, these seventeen provinces that comprised
the people a desire to grant religious freedom.                     the Lowlands (modern Netherlands and Belgium)
  But there were two historical factors which direct-               were part of the domain of Charles the V in 1550. He
ly insured the spread and reception of the Reformed                 had received the right to rule the Netherlands before
faith by the people. The first was the wide and rapid               15 19 in which year Charles became the Holy Roman


300                                            TliE STANDARD BEARER


Emperor. Charles ruled all of western and central           people were directly under the powerful hand of an
Europe with the exception of France, England, Portu-        aroused and determined Roman Catholic clergy.
gal, and the Papal States. The glory and grandeur of a      Thirdly, the bloody Inquisition was used to ferret out
Roman Emperor had long before vanished by the               and kill many of the Reformed believers. With mili-
time Charles obtained his position. Charles V, who          tary power the youthful king backed up the tenacious
was a physically weak man, occasioned by repeated           activity of the Inquisition. Philip left the Netherlands
illness, was called upon to rule a  .revolutionary          in 1559 to live in Spain. He ruled the Lowlands
Europe and a people aroused and excited by the              through his half-sister Margaret of  Parma and three
reformation of the church. Charles was by birth and         heads of state which he had appointed. These three
upbringing a Lowlander. He had watched helplessly           formed a consulta  to advise Margaret and to carry out
the spread of the Reformation from Wittenburg to            the policies of Philip. Self-rule and ancient privileges
Geneva and to his homeland, the Lowlands. He tried          of the people were disregarded. The nobles, the
to stop its spread but was too humanitarian. Though         people in general, and the Church of Christ resented
he murdered thirty thousand Lowlanders in his               Philip II of Spain.
attempt, it was not enough.3 In his old age Charles           The years 1559 to 1581 are crucial in an under-
cursed the day that he had not killed Luther, as Leo        standing of how the Reformed church was brought to
X begged him to do.                                         spiritual maturity. For, first of all, at the beginning of
  Physically weak and broken in spirit, Charles, at         this period the Reformed churches began to take
the age of 55, abdicated and gave to his son Philip on      shape and were organized as Reformed in distinction
October 25, 1555 the position as King of the Low-           from Roman Catholic. By the early sixties the Belgic
lands and a year later the title Philip II of Spain.        Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism became the
  Economically the Lowland in the middle of the             confessions of Reformed believers in the Lowlands.
16th century was the most prosperous nation of all          These two confessions served to unite and identify
Europe.  Antwerp excelled Venice in commerce and            the Reformed Churches. In 1569 the Reformed
trade. The Netherlands was so wealthy that they             Churches held their first "synod" or conference at
provided  1,500,OOO livers  ($37,500,000)  as taxes to      Emden, Germany; here because it was not safe to
Charles, which constituted half of all his revenue.         meet in the Netherlands. The Reformed church had
Religiously they were beginning to prosper in the           emerged as a separate entity and began to manifest
truth,. But it was all to change with the rise of Philip    itself institutionally over against Roman Catholicism
II, son of Charles V, bigoted, murderous, and, of           and Anabaptism.
course, a dedicated Roman Catholic.                           Secondly, it was during this period that the Re-
                                                            formed people were severely persecuted by Philip.
Persecution by Philip II of Spain                           The Royal Academy of Belgium has published papers
  Philip was a Spaniard in every detail. He was             of Granvelle (a cardinal appointed as one of the three
Roman Catholic in conviction. He did not understand         advisers to Margaret, Philip's Regent) which show
the people of the Lowlands and had no regard for            that from the first Philip II urged the extirpation of
their physical well-being. When Philip began to rule in     heresy as the most important work to be undertaken
1555 he was young, healthy, strong-willed and un-           by his government.5 Philip was undoubtedly em-
godly. For four years, 1555-1559, he remained in            boldened and fortified in this endeavor, if he needed
the Lowlands continuing his father's policies. Philip II    it, by the Decrees of the Council of Trent in 1563.
had one burning desire which motivated him in all his         People were burned, buried alive, or hanged by
actions in the Lowlands. It was to "root out all            order of the dreaded Inquisition. The Spanish troops
heresy." He secretly plotted with the King of France        were guilty of pillage and rapine. The people of Zee-
to suppress and destroy all heretics. Philip was a cruel    land declared that they would rather perish in the
man. When reports came to him of the merciless              waves of the ocean than longer endure the outrages of
slaughter of seventy thousand Huguenots centered on         Philip's troops . . . thus she opened the dikes. News
St. Bartholomew's Day (1572) . . . he laughed  up-          reached the Netherlands that the father of the Belgic
roariously.4 The Church of Christ wept and                  Confession,. Guido de Bres, had been executed in
groaned . . . had God forgotten to be kind?                 1567. People fled the country. Commerce and eco-,
  This enemy of the truth used three means to "root         nomic prosperity had ground to a halt. After having
out heresy" in the Lowlands.- First, he sent in his         recalled the first Spanish troops, Philip sent the Duke
troops, placing them in the important cities. Secondly,     of Alva with thousands more and with extensive
he broadened and intensified the hierarchical rule of       political power that made the Duke's word the word
the Roman Catholic church. With the Pope's per-             of :the King. Alva was on his own.
mission in 1559 Philip established three new  arch-           Alva invented an instrument of persecution called
bishoprics and eighteen new bishoprics. Now the             The Bloody Tribunal. This Council punished treason


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                             301


  with death. Treason was defined as follows: to have           choose to suffer affliction with the people of God,
  presented any petition against the Inquisition and the        rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season,
  new bishoprics, to have tolerated public preaching, to        to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches than
  have asserted that the King had not the right to sus-         the treasures and favor of Spain's King.
 pend the charters of the provinces, and to' maintain              But we must remember that it is the Church as a
  that the Council of Tumults (Bloody Tribunal) had             whole that writes creeds and not just a handful of
  not t-he right to override all the laws and privileges of     men. Therefore, not only the 58 delegates from the
the people of the Netherlands.6 Thousands were                  Netherlands but the whole Church at Dordrecht had
  killed. People were condemned to death in batches of          gone through this experience in its youth. Youthful
  ninety-five, eighty-four, forty-six, thirty-five at a         saints during the. years 1560-1590 must have .asked
  time. Alva reported to Philip that on Ash-Wednesday           time and again "why?"; "what is so important about
  morning fifteen hundred were killed in their beds. On         what we believe?"; "is it worth it?" Always their
  another occasion eight hundred were condemned to              parents had answered: "for the truth's sake," "be-
  death. In 1572 news of the butchering of the seventy          cause we love the Reformed faith." Ultimately, the
  thousand Huguenots by the French King, who had                answer was, "we are willing to suffer loss of property
  secretly plotted with Philip II to "root out all here-        and life if necessary that we may be able to confess
  s y , " reached the Netherlands. The city of.  Antwerp        the Reformed faith to the glory of our God. This
  was sacked. Leiden escaped total ruin only by flood-          living confession was sealed with the blood of many.
  ing the countryside by opening the dikes and thereby          Faith validates its confession by a godly walk!
  allowing the ocean waters and the Sea Beggars to
  drive back Alva's troops.                                        Thus the Church at Dordrecht and its 58 repre-
     But enough! The reader with a little imagination           sentatives had counted the cost of discipleship; they
  can gain a picture of the extent of the blood bath by         knew and loved the truth of God's Word. They had
  which Philip attempted to root out the Reformed               been prepared to stand for the truth at all costs. They
  faith. Edward Gibbon estimates that the number of             were not about to compromise it away. The genera-
  Protestants who were executed in a single province and        tion before them had, by God's grace, not failed
  a single reign, far exceeded that of the primitive            them! God had through the means of one suffering
  martyrs in the space of three centuries of the Roman          generation prepared a second generation to give us
  empire. Possibly more than one hundred thousand               their creed, the Canons of Dordrecht, wherein God's
  Lowlanders lost their lives for their religious beliefs       sovereignty and glory is beautifully set forth.
  during Philip's reign.                                        Next time we will take a brief look at the events that
    But what now is the significance of this horrible           occasioned this synod in 1618.
  suffering? What does this tell us about our fathers, the
  Church at Dordrecht in 1618-l 9? The significance of          Footnotes:
  this history is that this horrible suffering, was the            1  Kromminga,  D.H.;  The Christian Reformed Tradition,  Eerdmans,
  means God used to prepare the Church boldly to con-           Grand Rapids, 1943, p. 21
  fess and maintain the truth at Dordrecht. Fifty-eight            2 Lindsay, Thomas;  A History of the Reformation,  Charles  Scrib-
  of the delegates of this Synod were Netherlanders.            ner's Sons, New York, 1910, Vol. ii  -  p. 239
  Many were born about the time of the beginning of                3. Durant, Will;  The Reformation,  Simon and Schuster, New York,
                                                                1957, p. 632
Philip's reign.     Their youthful souls were deeply
  affected and influenced by the dedication and faith              4 Lindsay, op. cit.  p. 298-200
  of those who suffered and died for the truth of God's            5 ibid, p. 243
  Word. In their youth they learned what it meant to               6 ibid, p. 256

  TAKING HEED TO THEDOCTRINE


               A Reformed Look at Pentecostalism
                                                D a v i d   Engelsnza


     It will be worth our while to examine the religious        the faith that the Holy Spirit has handed down to us
  movement known as Pentecostalism from the view-               as a glorious heritage through the Protestant  Ref-
  point of the Reformed faith. The Reformed faith is            ormation of the 16th century, especially through


302                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


John Calvin. It is the faith set forth in our Reformed        that teaches that there is a second, distinct work of
creeds,. the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confes-         grace in the child of God which is referred to as the
sion, and the Canons of Dordt.                                `Lbaptism with the Holy Spirit." At some moment
   Such an examination is worthwhile because the              after regeneration, the believer receives the Holy
Pentecostal religion makes inroads in Reformed                Spirit, usually as a marvellous, emotional experience,
churches. Some openly, and joyfully acknowledge               in such a way that now, for the first time, he has a
that the Pentecostal religion replaces the historic           wonderful feeling of joy, possesses power for dynam-
Reformed faith. Others defend their novelty with the          ic Christian life and service, and enjoys extraordinary
claim that Pentecostalism and the Reformed faith are          gifts of the spirit, especially the gift of  tongues-
harmonious. Others hold that Pentecostal&m com-               speaking. Even though the believer received Christ,
pletes the Reformation in our day.                            the forgiveness of sins, and sanctification before this,
   It is legitimate for us to conduct this examination.       not until the baptism with the Spirit lifts him to a
It is common for Penteeostals to scare off would-be           much higher spiritual level is he enabled to live the
critics by insinuating that'any critic of Pent. is guilty     full, real, joyful, powerful Christian life.
of the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against `the Holy           It is this doctrine that constitutes the very heart of
Spirit. A Reformed man  is-not intimidated by this            Pent. Other features of Pent. may attract the atten-
scare tactic. He knows of many instances in the his-          tion of the onlooker, e.g., tongues, miracles, and the
tory of the church when false teachers tried to gain          exuberance of the meetings; but the movement stands
entrance into the Church by crying, "The Spirit, the          or falls with its novel doctrine of salvation  - its
Spirit." An outstanding example is the fanatics that          second baptism, its second work of grace. The funda-
arose in Wittenberg at the time of the Reformation to         mental criticism that the Reformed faith makes  of
harass the Lutheran Reformation. These were the               this religion is that it is heretical in its doctrine of
"heavenly prophets" and "enthusiasts" who claimed             salvation, its "soteriology."
special revelations from the Spirit and the power to             The  Pentecostals identify this Spirit-baptism with
perform miracles. They cowed Melanchthon, but they            the coming of the Spirit on the 120 believers on the
did not cow Luther. When they screamed, "The                  day of Pentecost. Hence, the name of the movement:
Spirit, the Spirit," Luther replied, "I slap your spirit      Pentecostalism.
on the snout."                                                   Since the Spirit is supposed to give extraordinary
   In addition, the Reformed man knows the instruc-           gifts to those who are so baptized, the movement is
tion of the Spirit of Christ in Holy Scripture: "Be-          also called "the charismatic movement." In the Greek
loved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits          of the New Testament, the word meaning "gifts" is
whether they are of God; because many false                   charismata (cf. I Cor. 12). The gifts that Pent. makes
prophets are gone out into the world" (I John 4: 1).          much of are tongues; interpretation of tongues;
  The standard of the examination of the spirits, in-         prophecy; miracle-working; and the power to cast out
cluding the spirit of Pent., is Holy Scripture, the in-       devils (exorcism). The main gift is speaking in
fallibly inspired, written Word of God. In the light of       tongues. Therefore, the movement is sometimes
Scripture, the question must be this: Does this spirit,       called the "tongues movement."
this religious movement, confess Jesus Christ (I John           Neo-Pentecostalism is the name given to this move-
4:2,3); does it abide "in the doctrine of Christ" (II         ment as it develops within the established Protestant
John  9)? For the Holy Spirit confesses Jesus Christ          churches and within the Roman Catholic Church.
and brings the doctrine of Christ.                            There have been Pent. Churches since the early
  Our examination of Pent. should emphasize the               1900's - the Assemblies of God is one of the main
Reformed conception of the Christian life. This is            Pent. denominations. In the early 1960's, men in the
important because Pent. sneers at the life of "mere           established Protestant Churches began advocating
believers. " The effect of Pent, is that believers            Pent. beliefs and practices within their churches. The
wonder whether their life is what it should be, a             leader is generally recognized to be the Episcopalian,
"normal Christian life." Believers are even made to           Dennis Bennett. This aspect of the movement is
doubt whether they are saved Christians at all. In the        called neo-Pent., i.e., new-Pent.
final analysis, the appeal of Pent. to religious people
is  Pent.`s  boast of a higher, fuller, deeper, richer          To the' utter  ,astonishment of a Reformed saint,
Christian life. Pent. exults in a life that ,is all power,    Pent. is a large, growing, influential movement. It is
all excitement, all joy, all victory.                         regarded as a third force in Christendom, alongside of
                                                              Rome and Protestantism. Millions the world over
The Reformed Answer to Pent's Basic Biblical                  embrace the teaching and follow the practices of
Appeals                                                       Pent.
  By Pent., we understand the religious movement                There is hardly a denomination that does not have


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                               303


an active Pent. group within it, including most (but           To be sure, baptism with the Spirit is the reception
not all - God be praised!) Reformed denominations.          of great power by every one so baptized, just as
   Pent. claims that its doctrine of the baptism with       Christ instructed His disciples in Acts  1:8: "But ye
the Holy Spirit as a second work of grace and its           shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come
teaching of the presence in the Church of the extra-        upon you . . ." But let us allow Scripture to teachus
ordinary gifts of the Spirit are Biblical. It finds in      how this great power is exercised. As far as the
Acts 2, as well as in Acts 8, 10, and 19, that there was    Church is concerned, the power is exercised by wit-
a distinct reception of the Holy Spirit by believers        nessing to Christ (Acts 1:8; Acts 4:33). The mark of a
subsequent to their conversion, a reception of the          Spirit-baptized Church, therefore, is the faithful proc-
Spirit that gave the believers great power and that         lamation of Christ.
bestowed upon them special gifts. It points us to I            As far as the individual child of God is concerned,
Corinthians 12 as proof that the gifts of the Spirit to     the nature of the power of the baptism with the
the New Testament Church include healing, the               Spirit is indicated by John the Baptist when he says
working of miracles, prophecy, tongues, and the like.       that we are baptized "with the Holy Ghost and fire. "
   What is the Reformed answer to these appeals to          We receive the Spirit as a fire; He dwells and works in
the Bible in support of the Pent. teachings of the          us as a fire. Fire purifies by utterly burning away the
baptism with the Spirit and the extraordinary gifts?        dross that defiles the precious metal. The Holy Spirit,
   There is a baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is an        similarly, bums away our sin, so that we may be con-
essential part of salvation. John the Baptist so de-        secrated to God in the obedience of love. The power
scribed the saving work of Jesus: "he shall baptize         of the Spirit-baptism is the awesome power of sancti-
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (Matt. 3: 11.        fication. Such was the prophecy of the baptism with
Cf. also Mark 1:18; Luke 3:16; John 1:33). But it is        the Spirit in the Old Testament. In the day when the
not a second work of the Spirit subsequent to the           "branch of the LORD" is beautiful and glorious, the
work of regeneration and the gift of faith. Nor is it       remnant of grace "shall be called holy, even every one
limited to some Christians only, those who have ful-        that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When
filled certain conditions and thus made themselves          the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the
worthy of this higher stage of salvation. Christ's          daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of
baptism of us with the Spirit is His one, saving work       Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of
by His Spirit in every elect child of God. It is the        judgment, and by the spirit of burning" (Isaiah
work of the Holy Spirit that Scripture calls regenera-      4: 2-4).
tion, `or the new birth from above (John 3 : 1-S): It is       The mark of a Spirit-baptized Christian, therefore,
Christ's cleansing of us from sin and consecration of       is sorrow over sin (repentance) and obedience to
us to God by the pouring out of the Spirit into our         God's law (holiness).
hearts. Of this spiritual. reality, John's baptism with       Have you been born again (and you certainly have,
water was a sign. The sacrament of baptism in the           if you believe in Jesus Christ)? Are you sorry for your
Church is a sign of this baptism with the Spirit. This      sinfulness and your sins? Is there a beginning in your
is clearly taught in Titus  3:5,6: "according to his        life, small as it may be, of obedience to all of the
mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,          commandments of God's law? Then, you have been
and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us         baptized with the Holy Spirit, and the sacrament is a
abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior."                constant sign and seal to you of that baptism. Do not
  There is only one baptism in the Church of Jesus          let anyone deceive you, no, not for a moment, that
Christ: the baptism with the Holy Spirit signified by       you must look still for another, better baptism.
the sprinkling with water in the Name of the Triune                              (to be continued)
God. This is Paul's teaching in Ephesians 4:5 : "One
Lord, one faith, one baptism." Pent. has two bap-             As part of her ministry of testifying to Christ
tisms: a first, lower baptism - salvation from sin - of     Jesus, the Protestant Reformed Church of South
which the sign is water; and a second, higher baptism       Holland has on hand cassette tapes of a lecture by
- the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Thus, Pent.             Professor R. Decker, "Pentecostahsm  in the Light of
divides Christ, salvation, and the Church.                  the Bible," `and a sermon by the present writer, "The
  Christ's baptism of every one of His people with          Baptism with the Holy Spirit," which we make avail-
the Holy Spirit depends solely upon His work of             able to, those who desire them. If you would like one
meriting this gift for them by His death, not upon          or both of these cassette tapes, write:
works that they must perform. Therefore, every elect                    The Evangelism Committee
child of God not only may receive it and can receive                    South Holland Protestant Reformed Church
it, but do& receive it. "He shall baptize you with the                  165 11 South Park Ave.
Holy Ghost," John promised.                                             South Holland, Illinois 60473


304                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


GUEST ARTICLE



                                  A House Divided?
                                               Rev. James Slopsema


    Is your home a house divided?                                  It is also a well known fact that children spend a
                                                            great deal of time in front of those television sets.
   Consider.                                                Here are some statistics that will shock you. They
   On the one hand, we stress Christian education for       appear in The Christian Century, April 21, 1972, in
our children. We recognize the fact that as believing       an' article by Charles-Gene McDaniel entitled, "TV: A
parents we receive from the hand of the Lord                Wasteland for Tots." We quote:
covenant seed. We also recognize the fact that as par-                 "Pre-school children, ages 3 to 5. . . watch tele-
ents it is our duty before God to  instvct this seed.               vision on an average of 54 hours a week - nearly 64%
The Bible is clear. It lays it upon parents to provide              of their waking time. By the time the child reaches 5
for their children good, sound education; and that                  and enters kindergarten, in the previous 2 years he
                                                                    spent more time in the TV room than a liberal arts
means a God-centered education. Our children must                   student spends in the classroom throughout his 4
not only be instructed, but instructed iti the things of            years of college.
God. They must not only be taught knowledge, but                       "American children and youth spend one-fourth
the true knowledge of God. All their learning, no                   to one-half of their waking time watching television,
matter in which subject or area it is, must be from the             with only sleep surpassing television as the top time
point of view of Scripture.                                         consumer. By the time a child is 14 and in the eighth
   In obedience to this command of God we send our                 : grade, he has watched the violent assault or destruc-
children to the Christian school. The education                    i tion of nearly 18,000 human beings on television.
offered by the state in the public school simply falls             : During an average year, the older child attends school
short. In fact, it is just the opposite of what our                 980 hours`and watches television 1,340 hours, so that
children are supposed. to receive. It is a man-centered            by the time he' graduates from high school, he will
education  - instruction in the wisdom. of men and                 have spent roughly 11,000 hours in the classroom and
the lie of Satan. Thus, we as parents and also grand-              more than 22,000 hours in front .of the television. . . .
parents have banded together, built, and maintained                    "A new member of today's generation can expect
Christian schools where our covenant seed can receive               to spend nearly 10 years in front of the television
                                                                    screen during his life-span."
the instruction that they must have.                                   Unbelievable, isn't it?
  And although this requires much sacrifice on our                     Or is it?
parts, yet we have done so willingly. For we have this             Keep track once. Keep track of the hours your
promise, that God will. bless our labors and bless our      children spend in front of the television: before
children thrdugh these labors. God uses the Christian       they go to school; when they come home from
school and Christian  instiuction  for. the spiritual       school; after supper. And keep track, if you can, of
well-being of covenant seed. We send our children to        how much they watch television at the homes of their
the Christian school in the expectation that in this        friends. Do that for a week. Then add it all up. Do
way we shall see them grow up before us in the fear         your children spend one-fourth to one-half of their
of God's name and with the love of God in their             waking time watching television? Do they spend more
hearts.                                                     time in front of the TV than they do in school? You
   We are emphatic on this whole matter of Christian        may be surprised and shocked when all the totals are
education. That is good. It is well-pleasing to God.        in.
  That on the one hand.                                            Is all this TV viewing consistent with the ideals of!
   But on the other hand, there is the matter of tele-      Christian education, as we maintain it?
yision.                                                            Hardly !
  It `is a well kno& fact that 95% of the homes in
our country have at least one working television set.              Like the school, television is an. educator. We
That percentage is also fairly accurate for our homes.      seldom think of it in that way. We usually consider


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  305


the TV to be an entertainer. That is why we have it in          portrayed as a bumbling idiot, a laughing stock, and
 our homes. And an entertainer it is. But in its enter-         the object of ridicule? We laugh; our children laugh.
tainment it is also an educator. The TV is a tool to           They have learned disrespect for the authority of the
disseminate information and knowledge to its view-              God-appointed head of the home. What happens
ers. It is a tool to instill into those who are glued to it    when Grandpa Walton of "The Waltons" (so I am
night after night certain values, attitudes, and view-         told) chases after another woman in violation of the
points. It has the power to form one's world-and-life-         seventh commandment? We have told our children
view. And it does this very subtly so that one is not          that this is.a "good" program. They will undoubtedly
even aware of it. This is the power of mass communi-           learn disrespect for the holy ordinance of marriage
cation. Radio and the printed page do the same thing.          and fidelity in marriage. Fact of the matter is that
But television is more effective in this because it            these "good" programs are also filled with every
reaches us through both the eye and the ear. Sit glued         violation of God's law, only not to the blatant degree
to your TV set hour after hour and it will entertain           as the other programs. This makes them more danger-
you. But it will also educate you. Place your children         ous yet; for our guard is down when we and our
in front of the TV. They will love it. And while they          children view them.
are enjoying themselves, they too will get quite an                Perhaps a word ought also to be said about the
education.                                                      "educational"    programs - National Geographic
   But what kind of education?                                 specials, Sesame Street, Electric Company, etc. Are
   Is it a Christian and God-centered education? We            you aware of the fact that the godless theory of evo-
know better than that. There is absolutely nothing             lution comes through loud and clear in the popular
Christian at all in television programing today. Men of        National Geographic specials? Are you also aware of
God are not in control of the TV industry. The Scrip-          the fact that even worldly educators are alarmed at
tures are not the standard which determines the                the values and attitudes that are taught in Sesame
content of TV programs. God is nowhere to be found             Street?! Even the "educational" programs are godless
on TV, except in a perverted and blasphemous way.              and anti-Christian.
   The world controls TV - the world at its worse -                Are Christian education and television viewing
and ultimately Satan. That is all too obvious from the         compatible? Hardly! Fact is, they are diametrically
immorality, crime, murder, profanity, and violation            opposed to each other. The two are like water and oil -
of every one of God's commandments that character-             they simply do not mix. What we accomplish through
izes the lion's share of-TV viewing today. Remember            the Christian school we completely undermine and
the quote from The Christian Century: "By the time             destroy when we let our children sit in front of the
a child is in the eighth grade, he has watched the             TV. When we send our children to the Christian
violent assault or destruction of nearly 18,000 human          school  :by day, and then allow them to attend the
beings on television." Our televisions are the most            anti-Christian  school of television by night, we are a
-godless, anti-Christian  educators that exist today!          house divided against ourselves as far as the education
   And we can not set our children before this edu-            and instruction of our children are concerned. And a
cator without their being affected. They will learn.           house divided against itself simply can not stand.
The devil is only too happy to teach them. You place               If our homes continue in this trend, then we can
your children in front of the immorality of TV, and            not expect to see our children grow up in the fear of
they will learn immorality. You let them watch their           God's name. Do not expect them to manifest a deep
police and detective shows with its crime and murder,          love for God and things of God. Do not be surprised
and they will learn crime and murder. You give them            when they walk in the way of rebellion and set their
a steady diet of television's profanity, and profanity         feet on`the path of great wickedness. They are follow-
they will learn. How can it be any different when              ing the instruction we have given them through tele-
night after night, year. after year, our children are          vision. We can expect this type of thing.
engrossed in this type of godlessness? Our Christian              Let us be consistent!
school teachers only wish that they could command                 Let us rid our homes of every evil influence. If that
such interest and attention from our children as do            means that the TV sets must go, so be it. Life is not
our TV sets. What they could not teach our children            unbearable without them. And let us bring to bear
in the things of God!                                          upon our children everything that is beneficial for
   The objection is raised: "But we don't let our chil-        them. Then we can expect to see them grow up in our
dren watch those ty,pes of programs. We regulate our           homes and in the church.as responsible citizens of the
TV very closely. Our children watch only the good              Kingdom of God, eventually taking their places in the
programs  - family programs." These "good" pro-                battle line of the church fighting the good fight of
grams differ from the crime and sex shows of tele-             f a i t h .
vision only in degree. What effect do you think a                 This is important.
comedy program has on our children when a father is               Our children are the future of the church.


306                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                                Lettkr to the Members
                       of the Church at Philadelphia
Dear Timothy,                                                                                   April 1, 1977
     Perhaps it is well in our correspondence for the       of all upon a few ideas which Paul sets forth in the
next few months to discuss together various subjects,       fourth chapter of his first epistle.
of a more practical nature, which are .of interest and        And more particularly yet, I want to pay attention,
concern to a young minister of the gospel. There is         in this letter at least, to the first part of vs. 13: "Till I
advantage to this because of the fact that the years        come, give attendance to reading."
you have spent in the Seminary are mostly concerned
with the acquisition of theoretical knowledge. There          In my experience in the Seminary, I have found a
is a certain amount of factual data which you are           lamentable lack of reading among our students  -
required to learn in order to graduate from the             something which you probably remember that I
Seminary and be declared eligible for a call. Practical-    talked about with you more than once in your years
ly all the emphasis in Seminary falls upon the learning     in school. I tried then to get across to you something
of knowledge which is, in the nature of the case,           of the importance of reading, but I am fearful that
theoretical. It is true that you have opportunity to        now in the pressure of work, you have perhaps once
gain practical experience in some phases of your            again neglected this important aspect of your work.
work: you have had opportunity to preach in the             And so it is well that we spend a little time talking
Churches in your years in Seminary; and you have            about it.
had opportunity to teach some Catechism classes.              There are two questions especially which we ought
But, as you know, we do not have in the                     to face: one is the question of what to read; the other
Seminary an "intern program" which gives you                is the question of why read. Both are important, and
opportunity to gain experience in the actual sheperd-       we shall discuss both together since there are differ-
izing of a congregation. There are definite advantages      ent reasons why you ought to be reading different
to such a program, no doubt; it might be worth our          kinds of books.
while to consider putting such a program into effect          Before we answer these specific questions, how-
some time in the future. But the fact is that you went      ever, there are a couple of general remarks that
to your congregation with little practical experience,      should be made. The tirst of these is that you should
and you had to learn in "the school of hard knocks"
-                                                           have some plan and organization in your reading.
     not always such an easy school.                        Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to read in a
     So I thought it would be worth our while to ex-        helter-skelter fashion. I know that no rigid plan can
amine some of the more practical matters of work in         be devised, and it is not wise to attempt to hold
the parsonage. I do not want to repeat in these letters     yourself to such a rigid plan; but if your reading is
what you have already discussed in school in such           characterized by a shotgun approach, you  will not
subjects as Poimenics and Catechetics; that would be        benefit by it as much as if your reading has some
rather wasteful of your time and of mine. But there         system to it. What I mean to say is that, if you want
are many `aspects of these very practical subjects          to do some reading in the field of Church History,
which are important to you, which you did not have          e.g., you should concentrate on that field, and, in
time to discuss thoroughly in school, and which             fact, concentrate on a particular area in that field. If
probably take on new meaning anyway, now that you           you want to read in the area of Theology, you should
are actually in the work of the ministry of the Word.       concentrate either on a specific topic in that general
     We can take Paul's letters to Timothy as our point     field, or you should concentrate on a particular
of departure, for not only was he a "veteran" in the        period before moving on. If you want to study Puri-
service of the Lord writing to a fledgling minister, but    tan theology, you should pay particular attention to
the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes of    the writings of the Puritans. It does not do any harm
just such practical matters as you and I want to dis-       to draw up a tentative program for your reading.
cuss. While both epistles of Paul to Timothy are filled       In the second place, you have to make time to
with such practical advice, I want to concentrate first     read. It. is my experience that unless you do this, you


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                307


will do very little reading - especially if you do not        instructive and helpful to our understanding of the
particularly enjoy reading. If you say to yourself, "I        truth. Though it be from different viewpoints, and
will read in my spare time," you will soon find that          though it be with an emphasis with which you do not
you do not have any spare time and that you do not            always agree, there are many who write well con-
read. You must set aside time in your schedule to             cerning the truth of God's Word. You need these
devote to reading, even if it means getting up an hour        different viewpoints. And secondly, it will keep you
earlier in the morning to find this time.                     informed of what is going on in the ecclesiastical
  In the third place, you must read widely. I will not        world. You have to know this to keep abreast of the
expound on this for the moment because we can dis-            times, and to keep your congregation informed of all
cuss this presently. But there is always a lurking            that is happening that they may "redeem the times."
danger that you are too narrow in your reading, and           This includes periodicals which are not written from
that the result is that you become narrow in your             the perspective of the truth of the Reformed faith.
outlook.                                                      Do not throw them away in disgust because they mili-
                                                              tate against what you believe. You must know the
  What ought you to read?                                     wolves which threaten God's flock.
  First and foremost, you ought to read the Scrip-              In connection with this, it is almost a necessity
tures. It may sound a little silly to say this to one         that you read something which keeps you informed
who is spending his life in preaching the Scriptures.         about what is going on in the world. I do not mean
But it is nevertheless, important. It is easy to fall into    watching the late news on TV. I do not mean reading
the trap of reading nothing in the Scriptures but the         the headlines in the daily newspaper. This latter too
particular text you are going to preach on the follow-        perhaps. But I mean that, while admitting that the
ing Sunday along with that part of Scripture which            news is badly slanted and that we cannot always tell
you read with your family in your family devotions.           what actually is going on and what, those who manip-
This is not good. You must read the Scriptures regularly      ulate the news media want us to know, we must be
and consistently. After all, the most fundamental rule        able to see the broad sweep of history as it is taking
of all Biblical interpretation is: Scripture interprets       place before our eyes, for the Lord speaks in these
Scripture. And this rule will come to mean all the            things of His return upon the clouds of heaven.
more to you as you are thoroughly acquainted with
the Word of God. It is, in the final analysis, the foun-        Thirdly, you will have to read widely in your
tain from which you draw all your strength.                   chosen field of theology in all its branches and
  But this reading is unique, for it is always eminent-       aspects. I shall not comment upon this in detail. It is
ly a spiritual exercise. Your reading of Scripture is         here especially that a program of reading is essential.
not only to steep yourself in the Word, but is also to        But what needs to be read is what is being published
make the Scriptures the lamp unto your feet and the           today and what has been published in the past. The
light upon your path which God gave them to be.               latter is far more important than the former. There is
You must read in such a way that you always ask, as           not a whole lot of good which comes on the market
you read, What does this Word of God say to me? If            today which is necessary to read. But there are, never-
you read the Scriptures, then you will also have the          theless,`many books published which are worth your
Word of God as the guide for all your reading which           time. Yet, by all means, steep yourself in the past.
you must do.                                                  And read, in an organized way, in all branches of
                                                              theology. While you may have areas of particular in:
  But Paul has more in mind when he urges Timothy             terest (and quite naturally you will concentrate on
to give attendance to reading. Certainly it is true that      these), nevertheless, you shouid read in areas which
Paul assumes that Timothy will read and study the             are not of chief concern to you. If you do this, you
Scriptures. And that means that our reading must be           will grow yourself, and your work in the congregation
broader.                                                      will never go flat. Your preaching will constantly be
  Secondly, it is well that you spend some of your            enriched; your labors with  the people of God will
time reading various religious periodicals. There are so      constantly be fresh; and you will never see yourself
many in today's world, that you cannot possibly do            "getting into a rut" in your work.
justice to them all. But part of your reading must              Finally, your reading must include a wider range of
include these. And these periodicals you must get             interests than theology. You ought to be reading con-
from a wide and as diverse an area as you can. Do not         stantly in the "classics" which have been produced
limit yourself to Reformed writings. Read a sampling          over the centuries. I refer to the great writings of the
of papers which are representative of the whole               past in the field of philosophy, in literature, and in
ecclesiastical spectrum. This will have two advantages.       the writings which have come forth from the life of
In the first place, it will give you writings, of others      the people of God. This too is an important part of
from outside our own Reformed circles, which are              your reading. Furthermore, you must read, in so far


 308                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


 as that is possible, in other fields of study such as              to prepare an article for the Standard Bearer, for the
 history, astronomy, science, economics, etc. I know                making of the many speeches which are required of
 that this aspect of your reading will have to be                   you. Nothing is quite so helpful to develop the imagi-
 limited. But, nevertheless, it is important that you               nation as wide and varied reading.
 have at least a passing acquaintance with these sub-                 :Well, I have only touched upon some aspects of
 jects.                                                             this matter. And I suppose when you see this rather
    There are all kinds of reasons why this is true. I              lengthy list you begin to think that there is just too
 cannot enumerate them all. But these reasons par-                  much reading to do along with all your other work.
 ticularly come to mind. You will have to devote a                  But you would be surprised what a tremendous
 share of your work to your young people who are                    amount of reading can be accomplished if you would
 going to college, and you have got to know what they               only set aside one hour a day to do it. And if you
 are talking about when they come to you with their                 have two or three books lying about, all of which you
 problems and questions. The reading of good litera-                are reading at the same time, then you will find that
 ture stimulates the imagination - something which is               certain types of reading adapt themselves to certain
 so important for the minister of the Word. Although                times when you have a few minutes to spare. And
_ the word "imagination" sometimes stirs up in our                  you will not have any difficulty reading two or three
 minds frightening spectres of the lie, nevertheless                books a week.
 imagination in the good sense of the Word is essential               Give attention to reading. It is vital for your work.
 for sermon making, for understanding the needs of                                                  Fraternally in Christ,
 the people of God, for writing when your turn comes                                                H. Hanko
ALL AROUND US


                                               "The Battle for the Bible"
                                             Ashamed of being Dutch ?
                                                    Life Enrichmment ?
                                                         Rev. G. Van Bqren

                    "The Battle for the Bible                           believe the Scriptures to be the very word of God,
                                                                       infallible and inerrant  in all that they teach, and those
   In a much-discussed book, Dr. Harold Lindsell                        who say many fine things about Scripture but are
writes of the trends within evangelical circles toward                  willing to find errors in it. It is sad that this is so. But
a denial of the inerrancy of the Bible. His book, The                  it is even sadder if the leaders of once sound churches
Battle for the Bible,  has itself become the focus of                   are no longer willing to make a "battle for the Bible"
considerable controversy., Articles have appeared in                   in our day.
the Banner by the editor, L. De Koster, in which he                   Some of this same "battle for the Bible" continues
condem.ns  Lindsell's book ("It is a highly in-                     within the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church. In
competent work, at most a reservoir of unseemly                     Lutherans AlertNational, Feb., 1977, a report is given
gossip."). Commenting on these editorials, John J.                  on Dr. Tietjen who was ousted from the Concordia
Mitchell, editor of the Presbyterian Guai-dian,  writes:            Seminary of that church:
           In his fmal editorial on -the subject, De Koster                Liberalism is full of word perversion. To the liber-
    notes that many evangelical leaders are, "deploring the            al, Christ's statement "as Moses spoke" doesn't mean
    division among evangelicals being caused by Lindsell's             that Moses spoke; when He said: "As Jonah," doesn't
    book." And he adds, "Let us take care that such                    mean there was a Jonah. Dr. Tietjen, leader of
    division does not invade us" (in the November 26                   the Missouri revolt declares that "nothing new is
    issue). But it already has. Dr. Walhout's views of                 `being taught. The problems, he says, are only in the
    Scripture are not those of the great Reformed                      new ways of expressing old truths."
    theologians of the past. Neither are Dr. Allen                        A Concordia Seminary Student Blue Book, dated
    Verhey's. Neither, apparently, are the views of the                January, 1971 cited some of the liberal teachings in
    synodical committee that De Koster mentions whose                  the Seminary of that time under Dr. Tietjen's presi-
    report on women in church office was rejected by                   dency. The book cites many of the  "new ways of
    Synod.                                                             expressing old truths." One example: "The theory that
           The division is already there - between those who           `John the Baptist did not wear camel's hair, eat honey,


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                         309


   and preach repentance in the Judean desert is a viable           pains (I Tim. 5:23) or he may not pray in the com-
   option." (That is, you can choose what you want to               pany of unveiled women, since this disturbs even the
   believe.) "Instead, the desert was merely a `theolog:            angels (I Cor. 11:lO)  and, if he is married, he must
   ical' desert, and. clothing merely `theological' cloth-          demand that his wife addresses him as "My lord John
   ing. John, in fact, preached in Jerusalem, but a                 or Peter" (following the example of the holy women
   second Elijah was expected and therefore the church              of I Peter 3:5,6). . . .
   put Elijah trappings on the Baptist." The fact that the             . . . .In conclusion, what is the biblical teaching
   church did not write the Bible is probably quite be-             regarding women in office? In my understanding
   side the point to a liberal.                                     Scripture (Gal 3:28) says clearly: "yes", but it is also
    When the meaning of words is at the mercy of                    scriptural wisdom that I must have patience with my
   individuals and small groups of the intelligencia we             brother who `has not yet heard the "yes". May the
   can anticipate a veritable Babel. Is it any wonder that          peace of the God of peace be with us both!
   our mail, more and more, reflects the increasing con-
   fusion and frustration over the literature that is.pour-                      Ashamed of Being Dutch?
   ing out from our liberal official voices and their print-
   ing presses.                                                   An interesting little article appears in  Calvinist
                                                                Contact,  Feb.  11, 1977, with the above title. It sug-
      As Athanasius declared: God's Word is not like the        gests that one ought not be too ashamed of his heri-
   word of man. The Word of God endureth forever -              tage. In part, the article states:
   not changed, not before or after other, but existing
   the same always.                                                    Fight for your native language till the death? No,
                                                                    people of Dutch heritage don't do that and it is not
  The above  soun.ds all too much like that reported                necessary either. But don't you think it is  "klein-
in  the  Outlook  (Feb., 1976) concerning Dr. Allen                 zielig" to deny other people the privilege to read or
Verhey who was examined by the  Classis G.R.  East of               converse in Dutch once in a while?
the Christian Reformed Church:                                         I have met some Dutch people who were a con-
      This fall a candidate in a preliminary examination            stant embarrassment to me, not because they were
   had repeatedly told us that he intended to teach                 Dutch or spoke Dutch, but they tried to pretend to
   people to read the Bible critically. Questioned about            never having heard of the Dutch. They were
   this matter he stated that he did not believe that the           "Canadians" you see. I suppose they thought they
   serpent spoke to Eve as reported in Genesis 3. Ques-             could fool the people around them into thinking that
   tioned further about the earthquake mentioned in                 their accent was a carry over of a childhood speech
   Matthew 2X:2, he explained that whether or not this              impediment.
   happened was a wrong question and the earthquake
   in the account should be understood as an                           But, here is some food for thought, if you meet
   apocalyptic literary symbol of the. end. Some of the             someone with even the slightest trace of a foreign
   results of such a view of the Bible also were apparent           accent, whereas you have none, it most likely means
   in views he expressed on some moral questions. His               that he or she is smarter than you are when it comes
   view of abortion differed from that officially ex-               to language, since that person knows at least two
   pressed by the church. The command, "Servants obey               languages against your one. . . .
   your masters" was no longer to be repeated in 1850,                 . . . The following story still does the rounds in
   but the Bible taught a principle of equality under               Winnipeg about a Dutch immigrant who had been in
   Christ which brought an end to slavery. The same                 Canada for a whole year, going to the airport to pick
   principle, in his opinion, applied to the place of               up the Minister. "Goeie dag, hoe gaat het er mee",
   women in the church. Although it was plain that he               said the Minister. "Could you please talk a bit slow,
   held many orthodox opinions, regarding the Bible he              Minister, because I have forgotten my Dutch" said
   was convinced that we cannot identify the words of               our veteran of one year. "Hey, have you got a prob-
   biblical authors with the words of God in other times.           lem", said the Minister, "already you forgot the
   What became apparent in the examination was that.                Dutch and you can't speak.English yet". . . .
   such views were not held only by him.                           The above rather humorous account could also
  Or, how about this from  Calvinist Contact, January           serve to us as a reminder of that which we are so
14, 1977, by Dr. Remkes Kooistra:                               inclined to do in this world. Often we are ashamed of
      To me the three most discussed passages in con-           our spiritual heritage. We might rather appear to be
   nection with the possible ordination of women  (I.           like this world, than have any know we' belong to
   Car. 11:2-11; I Cor. 14:26-36  and I Tim. 2:8-15)  do        Christ  and are not our own. Scripture warns us not to
   not exclude this possibility. If someone with some           be ashamed of our calling.
   kind of "hermeneutics of obedience" would object.:
   "But does not Scripture state plainly that Paul does
   not permit women to teach and that it is shameful for                               Life Enrichment?
   a woman to speak in church", then, of course, who
   wants to take one verse literally must take every              Pine  Rest Christian Hospital has a division known
   verse literally and so he must drink wine for stomach        as "Life Enrichment  Center." In this  section, people


     310                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER ,


     are invited to attend various courses in order to                 games, strokes, positions, scripts, permissions. . .  .`j
     "enrich" their lives. One wonders, in reading of the              Or there is the "relaxation training" (an imitation of
     various available "courses," whether Pine Rest Hos-               transcendental' meditation?) which "involves a
     pital remembers its own Reformed heritage. It                     process of tensing and untensing your muscles sys-
     appears that there is an effort to imitate virtually              tematically." There is also an "Assertion Skills Work-
     every latest "fad" in the world of psychology. There              shop" which "utilizes a variety of techniques and
     is the "Alpha Group" where there are "action games,              methods in exploring and understanding the concepts
     role playing, and sharing. . . . Some exercises are fun           of assertiveness. It begins with discussion of what
     and playful; others are serious and involve risk taking           assertive behavior is and the benefits of assertive-
     and self-disclosure. . .  ." Another "course" is "I'm            ness. . . ."
     OK - You're OK" in which "Transactional Analysis                    One does begin to wonder whether Pine Rest Hos-
     will help you understand why you do what you do,                 pital simply imitates every new thing - or seeks to be
     and how to feel good about it. Basic concepts of TA               distinctively Reformed?
     will be covered and discussed, including ego states,

                                                      `Book Review
     INTRODUCTION TO PURITAN THEOLOGY, A                              Scriptural references, and a chart of "the golden
     READER;  Edited by Edward  Hindson, Baker Book                    chain of salvation" prepared by the Puritan William
     House, 1976; 282 pp., $8.95.                                     Perkins (according to' which Perkins was a supralap-
                                                                      sarian).
       Especially for the majority of the readers of the
     Standard Bearer, most of whom have little acquain-                  We whose background is primarily Dutch Re-
     tance with the Puritans, this is an extremely worth-             formed have very little acquaintance with the Puri-
     while book. It is intended to be an introduction to              tans. Presbyterians generally know the Puritans far
     Puritan writings and Puritan thought.' J. I. Packer,             better. It is, however, our loss that we do not know
     who writes the foreword, explains the importance of              and have never made the acquaintance of the Puri-
     re-studying Puritan thought in our days:                         tans. I highly recommend this book, and hope that
                                                                      those of our readers who purchase it and read it will
               We  evangelicals need help. Where the Puritans         be persuaded that the Puritans are worthy of further
            called for order, discipline, depth, and thoroughness,    study.
            our temper is one of casual haphazardness and restless      -
            impatience. We crave for stunts, novelties, entertain-
            ments; we have lost our taste for solid study, humble            Jesus, my God, my Friend, my King,
            self-examination, disciplined meditation, and un-                Whom heav'n and earth adore;
            spectacular hard work in our callings and in our
            prayers. Again, where Puritanism had God and His                 The wonders of thy Word I sing,
            glory as its unifying center, our thinking revolves              But never can explore.
            round ourselves as if we were the hub of the universe.
            The hollowness of our vaunted biblicism becomes                  Thy word in cov'nant undertook
            apparent as again and again we put asunder things                To bring salvation in:
            God has joined. . . . Truly, we need help, and the               Thy Word upon mount Calv'ry shook
            Puritan tradition can give it.                                   The gates of hell and sin.
       The editor has chosen subjects from each of the six                      Thy pow'rful Word can intercede
     loci of Dogmatics and has included an article on each                      And grace divine impart;
     of these subjects from different Puritan authors. Thus                     Can change the soul, supply its need,
     we have John Preston on natural theology, John                             And sanctify the heart.
     Jewel on Scripture, Stephen Charnock on God,
     Thomas Manton on sin, James Ussher on Christ, John                         Thy sov'reign Word knows no control:
     Owen on the atonement, Samuel Hopkins on regen-                            Its conquest none can tell:
     eration, George  Downame on justification, John                            Its triumphs reach from pole to pole,
     Bunyan on sanctification, Richard Baxter `on the                           To heav'n to earth, and hell.
     church, and Jonathan Edwards on eschatology.                               Summon'd by Thee, all worlds shall come,
       There are added features: a rather lengthy intro-                        From seas and tombs shall start;
     duction which explains Puritan piety and doctrine;                      Thy Word shall welcome Christians home,
     biographical sketches and pictures of the Puritan                       And bid Thy foes depart.
     authors, a valuable bibliography for those who wish
     to read further in Puritan writings, an index to all


L


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                311


                              R.F.P.A.  PUBLICkiTlONS
                          The Triple Knowledge, the publication of which
                       was completed in 1972, is already in its second
                       printing. A three volume set, totaling more than
                       2000 pages, it is the only extensive commentary on
                       the Heidelberg Catechism available in the English
                       language. This work of Herman Hoeksema is a
                       complete development of the doctrines of the
                               ian faith.



                                               Each volume is an $8.95 value. Order the com-
                                             plete set for $24.95, and receive a copy of  Be-
                                             lievers and their Seed, by the same author, free of
                                             charge. This book of 159 pages is a thorough,
                                             popularly written exposition of the truth of God's
                                             covenant of grace.


         Order from the R.F.P.A. Publications Committee, P.O. Box 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501.
         (Include payment, please.) Offer good till January 1, 1977.

       The Northwest Iowa Protestant Reformed Christian School at  Doon, Iowa will be in need of three teachers for the 1977-78 school
       year. Interested persons can apply in writing to Mr. Jim Hoogendoorn, Sec'y., Box 272,  Doon, Iowa 51235.

                                  Report of  Classis West
   Classis West met in Hull, Iowa on March 2 and 3 in                     (-Edger-ton); J. Sugg (Houston); B. Van Der Molen
the midst of a snowstorm reminiscent of the famed                         (Pella); and R. Wimberly (Houston).
Hull blizzard of March, 1965. More than a foot of
snow fell on Wednesday with the result that the                               Rev. M. Kamps, president of the previous Classis,
delegates were unable to get to their lodging in the                       led  Classis in opening devotions. He expounded I
country that evening. Since all travel by car was im-                     Thess. 5 : l-4. Rev. J. Kortering served as president of
possible even within the town of Hull, delegates were                      this Classis.
transported to homes in town by snowmobile. It was                            Classis witnessed the birth of a congregation and
an amusing sight: delegates perched warily on  .the                        the death of a congregation. The congregation newly
back of the suspicious machine, one arm holding the                        born is Houston, Texas. Classis received a ietter from
driver for dear life, the other arm grasping a suitcase,                   the Mission Committee informing  Classis of their
and a hat left to fend for itself.                                         decision to organize Houston and of their advice that
  The hostility of the elements was more than                              Houston affiliate with Classis West. The consistory of
matched by the warm hospitality of the Hull congre-                       Houston also had a letter at Classis informing Classis
gation, some of whom put up five or six delegates on                       that they were organized on February 15, 1977 and
Wednesday evening. Indeed, in the good providence                         requesting  Classis to receive the congregation in
of our God, the One Who "saith to the snow, Be thou                       Classis West and to seat the elders sent to  Classis.
on the earth" (Job 37:6), the storm served to increase                     Classis granted the request and received Houston's
the fellowship of the delegates and the brothers and                       credentials.
sisters of northwest Iowa.                                                    The congregation that disbanded was Forbes,
  Eleven ministers and fifteen elders represented the                      North Dakota. The agenda of Classis included Forbes'
churches of the West. Missing after some sixteen years                     request that Classis approve their decision to dissolve
in the  Classis was Rev. B. Woudenberg, who had                            the congregation in Forbes. Since their acceptance
accepted a call to  Classis East.  Classis bade him an                     into the Protestant Reformed denomination in 1960,
affectionate farewell.  Classis welcomed back, after a                     their membership has declined. Their energetic efforts
stint as home missionary, Rev. D. Kuiper, now pastor                       at church extension work. in the past few years under
of the Lynden, Washington congregation. Four elders                        the leadership of their pastor, Rev. M. Hoeksema, had
were present at Classis for the first time: A. Brummel                     no positive fruit in church growth.  Classis approved


THE STANDAR'D BEARER
         P.O. Box 6064          _~______~_           _~--
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506





312                                           THE STANDARD BEARER
their disbanding. The sadness over this action was           need for subsidy and was instructed to make a re-
tempered by the knowledge that the saints in Forbes          quest to the Classical Committee.
plan to move to other localities, so that they can join
other Protestant Reformed churches. The actual                  The results of the various elections were:
                          --.-_--                   dis-
banding of the church is scheduled for this summer;             - Classical Committee: Rev. M. Hoeksema
until then, the church will continue to meet for wor-           -  Primus Delegate ad Examina: Rev. G. Lubbers
ship. Classis gave Forbes classical appointments until          - Secundi Delegates ad Examina: Rev. M. Kamps
June.                                                                 and Rev. R. Miersma
   Various reports were read and acted on: Classical            - Church Visitors: Rev. D. Engelsma and Rev. J.
Committee; Reading Sermon Committee; Taped                            Kortering
Sermon Committee; Stated Clerk; Church Visitors;
and Board of Trustees. The Taped Sermon Committee               -  Primi minister delegates to Synod: Rev. D.
has a new corresponding address: The Evangelism                       Engelsma, Rev. M. Kamps, Rev. J. Kortering,
Committee, South Holland Prot. Ref'd. Church, 165 11                  and Rev. R. Miersma
South Park Ave., South Holland, Il. 60473. All                  - Secundi minister delegates to Synod: Rev. W.
requests for tapes, cassette or reel-to-reel,  .from the              Bekkering, Rev. M. Hoeksema, Rev. D. Kuiper,
Taped Sermon Library of Classis West should be sent                   and Rev. J. Slopsema
to this address.                                               .-  Primi elder delegates to Synod: Elder  J. Haak
   A classical appointment schedule for Forbes and                    (South Holland), Elder H. Huisken (Edgerton),
Houston was adopted.  Forbes:  March 13, 20, 27  -                    Elder L. Regnerus (South Holland), and Elder E.
Slopsema; April 17, 24, May 1 - Kamps; May 15, 22                     Van Egdom (Doon)
- Miersma. Houston: March 20, 27, April 3 - Lant-               - Secundi elder delegates to Synod: Elder R.
ing; April 17, 24, May 1 - Kortering; May 15, 22,29                   Brunsting (Hull), Elder B. Menninga (Pella),
- Lubbers (Houston is instructed to look to the                       Elder J. Sugg (Houston), and Elder F. Tolsma
seminary for supply during the summer months.).                       (Edmonton)
   Classis treated several overtures. It sent to Synod          Classis adjourned about noon on Thursday, having
with approval of  Classis an overture from Lynden            accepted the invitation of the Pella, Iowa congre-
that Synod improve our liturgy concerning public             gation to hold the next meeting of Classis in Pella on
confession of faith. Lynden finds our present ques-          September 7, the Lord willing.
tions and answers "unnecessarily brief and barren."                                       Rev. David Engelsma,
Classis also sent to Synod with its approval an over-                                     Stated Clerk, Classis West
ture from Hull to change the By-laws of Synod, so                                         -D.E.
that the Board of Trustees are empowered to appoint             On the -Tuesday afternoon and evening before
temporary replacements to  synodical committees              Classis, a large group of men, delegates and visitors,
under certain conditions. Classis rejected an overture       met in an Ofticebearers' Conference. The topic was
to change the time of Classis to the first Wednesday         "Baptism on the Mission Field." The men used the
of April and October, spring blizzards notwithstand-         report of Synod's study committee as an introduction
ing.                                                         to the subject and springboard for discussion. Rev. J.
  A protest by a brother against a former decision of        Slopsema chaired the meeting. There was an open,
Classis was carefully considered.                            lively, and brotherly discussion of this interesting sub-
  Classis denied the request of a consistory for advice      ject.
to proceed with the erasure of a baptized member, on            These conferences, a regular feature when  Classis
the ground that the consistory did not furnish the           West comes together, prove to be good instruction
Classis with sufficient grounds.                             and good communion.
  Six churches requested subsidy in the amount of               The committee asks your suggestions regarding a
$33,420. Classis approved the requests and sent them         topic for a conference in PelIa. Send any suggestion
on to Synod. In addition, Houston made known its             to Rev. W. Bekkering.


