      The
STAAAIDARD
     BEARER
/=-A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE.                                                 -





                                            --Ai_  ,.
                       though all the critics in the. world agree on
      .     .     .
  a theory which can explain the data of the resur-
  rection in a way other than that Christ bodily
  arose, and can make the theory so plausible `that
  all the world should believe it,  I  still believe with
  all my heart that  `Christ arose bodily from the
  dead by the power of God. I believe` this because
  God says, in His Word, that it is true!
                       Would that evangelical scholars would be
     . l .

  much less frightened by the charges of lack of
  scholarship raised by higher critics and would be
  somewhat more frightened by an angry God
 Who will not leave unpunished those who will
  not believe His Word.
                                 See "Book. Review" - page 358


                                                Volume  LIII, No. 15, May 1, 1977
                                                          ISSN 0362-4692


338                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER




                                                                                                        fi+E STANDARD BEARER
                           CONTENTS:                                          Semi-monthly.   except   mOnthly   Quring   June.  July.   and  August.
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   Fully Armed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338       Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                           Department Editors.-  Prof.  Robert  0.  Decker.   Rev.  David  J.  Engslsma.
Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340     Rev.  Cornelius   Hanko.  Prof.  Herman   Hanko.   Rev.   Robert   C.  liarbach.
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MEDITA TIO N


                                                       Fully Armed

                                                                 Rev. H. Veldman


              "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in
              the evil day, and having done all, to stand. " Eph. 6: 13

   How fierce is the struggle in which the people of                        Besides, it is a battle which assumes greater signifi-
God are involved throughout the ages! Are we                                cance because this power of darkness has an ally in
acquainted with it? This is a spiritual conflict. It is                     our own flesh and blood, a struggle in which the
not against flesh and blood and it is not waged with                        people of God are hopelessly outnumbered and out-
flesh and blood. It is a struggle, according to verse 12,                   classed.
against principalities and powers. . . . It is a struggle                       Wherefore, because of this, take unto you the
which involves forces of light and darkness, which                          armour of God, the whole  armour of God, that ye
knows. of no `compromise, a conflict to the `death.                         may be able to resist and stand in the evil day.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 339


                     WHY NECESSARY                          the beginning. This spiritual conflict, be it in greater
                                                            or lesser degree, is always with us..
   How necessary is our being fully armed! The
apostle speaks of the "evil day." Does the apostle            What an evil day! This struggle is exclusively spiri-
here refer to a special day, a special attack upon the      tual. On the one hand, it is not against flesh and
church by the forces of darkness? This cannot be            blood. Yes, it does occur upon the plane of "flesh
true. First of all, this explanation coincides with an-     and blood." Do we not read that we must hate father
other thought, namely that the coming of our Lord           and mother and brothers and sisters for Jesus' sake?
Jesus Christ was regarded at the time of the apostles       Are we not admonished to go out from among them
as imminent, also by the apostles. However, whatever        and be separate? This conflict surely affects every
may have been the personal opinion of the apostles,         phase of our life and existence. Nevertheless, this
and we do not believe that they entertained this            battle is not against flesh and blood. We cannot fight
error, it is surely a question of the meaning of the        this battle with tanks and airplanes and atomic
Holy Spirit, and He surely was not of this opinion.         bombs, etc. It is not a battle of this world, for this
Secondly, however, if this "evil day" be a special day,     world, by this world. It does not aim at worldly
how must we understand the admonitory character of          power or possessions or honor or glory. This is not
this text and its context? This admonition surely           the purpose of the Christian; neither is it the purpose
applies to the church of God throughout the ages.           of the kingdom of darkness and of this world. This
And this also appears from Eph. 5 : 15-l 6.                 conflict is exclusively spiritual. It aims at spiritual
                                                            realities: the truth, righteousness, the glory of the
   This "evil day" must refer to the entire New Dis-        living God and of His Christ. It is the question of the
pensation. 0, this does not mean that there are not         Cause of the living God and of His Christ or the main-
moments when the attack of the wicked is more               taining of the kingdom of sin and of darkness; it is
violent than at other times. However, this evil day is      the battle for or against Christ; it is not interested in
always present. The New Dispensation is surely the          our gold and silver but in the life that is in us.
evil day in distinction from the Old Dispensation.
This is the day when, according to Rev. 12, the devil,        And what a struggle it is! Can you conceive,
frustrated because the Christ-Child was snatched from       humanly speaking, of a more hopeless situation than
him, now concentrates his attack more furiously than        that of the church of God in the midst of the world?
ever upon the woman of Rev. 12, the church of the           Compare, if you will, the parties involved, the church
glorified Christ.                                           and the world. . . .
  This is the day of evil. It is a day full of hardships                        WHAT IT MEANS
and trouble. This word, "evil," does not emphasize            We must take unto ourselves the whole armour of
only one's personal corruption, but also that one           God, as recorded in the verses 14-17. We cannot, of
would corrupt others as well as himself. -In this sense     course, treat this rich passage in detail at this time.
we speak of evil songs. Ravening beasts are designated
by this word. And when the devil is called  thi  Evil       First of all, it is not difficult to see that all the parts
                                                            of this armour are concentrated in the Word of God.
One this word is used.                                      We read in this passage of the girdle of truth and of
   We live in an evil day. Do we understand? Do w"e         the gospel of peace. Besides, this girdle of truth is
experience this? Life oftentimes is so enjoyable; the       mentioned first.
only thing which now and then seems to disturb us
and mar our enjoyments is when some unforeseen                 Secondly, how beautifully striking these various
                                                            parts of the Christian's armour have been arranged by
misery crosses our path. Life appears so often to be
serene and quiet. The call of the apostle unto the          the apostle, namely: truth, righteousness, peace,
conflict, his exhortation to put on the whole armour        faith, eternal salvation, the sword of the Spirit! The
                                                            truth, the truth of the Scriptures, is first. We must be
of God seems, then, so unreal to us. In fact, the           founded upon the Word of God. This righteousness is
church today dreams of disarmament rather than              our justification which we possess in Christ, the
armament; it speaks of a universal brotherhood of           blessed assurance that all our sins are paid and for-
man  .rather than of two opposing parties. And the
word of the apostle, that we live in a very evil world      given and that we are heirs of everlasting life and
(as in his epistle to the Galatians where he speaks of      glory. The fruit of this righteousness is peace, and
                                                            peace is our blessed reconciliation with God, the
this present evil world) appears to fall upon deaf ears.    assurance that God is for us and nothing is and can be
  Indeed, let us not be deceived. Have we fallen            against us. And this assurance we have through faith.
asleep; and is it extremely difficult for us to be          Let these evil powers now hurl their fiery darts; let
aroused from this slumber? Whatever armistice may           them accuse me, together with my evil conscience, of
have been declared between the church and the world         sin and evil. Through faith I take hold of Jesus, know
surely did not proceed from him who is the liar from        that I belong to Him, even `eternally, and through that


340                                              THE STANDARD. BEARER


faith in Christ Jesus, I, having .been justified through       Besides, let us put on the  whole  armour of God.
the blood of the cross, have peace toward God for-          We need every part of it. We must not neglect. any
evermore. And now, thus at peace with God through            element of it. Let us use it in its entirety, the whole
Jesus Christ, my Lord, I can put on the helmet of           Word of God, the truth in all its glorious details, the
salvation. Here the apostle surely refers to salvation      righteousness of God in Christ Jesus but also the hope
from the viewpoint of its eternal fulfillment and con-       of everlasting life, the girdle and the breastplate and
summation. Whereas there is now no condemnation             the shield and the spiked shoes of the preparation of
for me in Christ Jesus, I, being an heir of everlasting     the gospel of peace, and apply them, in all our life
life, may well lift up my head and be assured of ever-      and vicissitudes, trusting in the glorious God of our
lasting glory. And then the apostle mentions the only       salvation. And, forget it not: we must always put on
offensive weapon in this arsenal of the Christian: the      this armour of God. Do not ever become complacent,
sword of the Spirit. With this sword of the Spirit the      feeling yourselves to be safe and secure in yourselves.
Christian warrior is able to slay all the enemies of        Know the `Scriptures, constantly; believe in Jesus,
darkness.                                                   constantly; always seek the things that are above;
   Now we can also understand why the apostle               pray and be sober, always. May the Lord be our
speaks of this  armour as the  armour of God. This          constant help and sure defense.
expression means that this is God's  armour, the
armour  which God alone has provided for us and                                   ITS FRUIT
which, therefore, is of God. And this does not merely          Doing this, we shall be able to stand. The words,
mean that the Scriptures are of God. Of course, it is       "having done all," surely mean that the Christian
true that this is God's  armour in the sense that the       warrior has done all required of him in the battle. He
Scriptures are the infallibly inspired, unerring Word       has fought unto the end. Having thus done all, he will
of God. But this does not exhaust the meaning of the        stand; not having succumbed to the enemy, he has
apostle. This entire armour, all these blessings of sal-    withstood in the day of evil.
vation are of God. He conceived of these blessings,            Indeed, we have met the enemy. We have resisted
also bestows them upon us.` And it is God's armour          his attack. We have warded off all his fiery darts.
also because He enables us to fight the good fight of       This, we understand, continues throughout our entire
faith, even until the end. God, our blessed Saviour,        lives. Throughout our earthly involvement with the
through Christ Jesus, is our sure defense.                  forces of darkness, we must resist them. They attack
   This  armour we must now take unto ourselves.            us, wave upon wave. But, having resisted the enemy
This armour is pictured here as lying at the soldier's      after one attack, we are ready to meet the next on-
feet. He must take it up. Indeed, the work of salva-        slaught. Succumbing to the onslaught of this mighty,
tion is of God alone. This, of course,. the Scriptures      relentless foe, we will be in no position to withstand
teach. God, however, saves us as moral-rational crea-       in the evil day. Then, having resisted these powers of
tures. He causes us to stand in His salvation. We must,     darkness, having "dug in," we shall be able to stand,
therefore, stand consciously in and appropriate unto        until that day when all this weary night will be over.
ourselves this glorious armour of God. Let us put on        Then we shall receive the crown of victory, given to
the girdle of truth, know- the Scriptures, embrace          us of divinely sovereign grace, only because of Him
them with all our heart and life. Let us put on all         Who is the Captain of our salvation and the Finisher
these wonderful weapons in the arsenal of the Chris-        of our faith.
tian soldier.


                                                Editor's Notes

About.Spurgeon.  Some months ago we reviewed an             About Dividends  and Titles.  It isn't really gremlins
abridged version of Spurgeon's Treasury of David. At        that cause our occasional bloopers, but carelessness at
the time we made the errone,ous statement that these        the typesetter's shop. In the April 1 issue, Rev. Slop-
volumes were, to our knowledge, not available in            sema's article was indeed a "dividend," but the title
unabridged form. More than one person later wrote           was "A House Divided," not, "A House Dividend," as
to me that this information is not correct, and that        indicated in large letters on the front cover. Yes, and
the unabridged Treasury of David is indeed available.       that book offer on page 3 11, said to expire on Jan-
All of which goes to show that my knowledge on this         uary 1, 1977, was not supposed to be printed. I dare
score was not complete; I'm still learning!'                say, though, that if you responded to the offer, our
                       *****                                book department did not turn you down. And in the


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     341


March 15 issue, I did have two editorials even though             About Pulpit Supply.  Requests for pulpit supply.
the second title did not appear in its proper place. In           from the seminary - and we are thinking especially
case you had trouble discerning, the second. editorial            about vacation supply during the summer months -
("Reformed Thought On Baptism") began on page                     should be sent to my address: 4975  Ivanrest Ave.,
270, the second column, with the words "A very                    S.W., Grandville, Michigan 49418. Phone (616)
interesting . . ." My editorial assistant, Mr. Donald             534-7308.  We would appreciate it greatly if you
Doezema, and I did not find the mistake to be very                could get your summer requests in early (we already
interesting, however.                                             have one request!), so that we can set up a schedule
                         *****                                    for the whole summer period.

EDITORIALS
ProJ: H.C. Hoeksema



                  "When I Survey.,.." -  Pre-,Publication Sale

  Some of the earliest books written by the late Rev.               We are sure that you will want one or more copies
Herman Hoeksema - and also those which received                   of this book.
some of the widest circulation - were his works de-                  And here is how you can help yourself and help us.
voted to Lenten subjects. Books such as The Amazing
Cross, The Royal Sufferer, The Power of the Cross,                   In this issue you will find an envelope through
Rejected of Men, And Jesus In The Midst, and Man of               which you can order copies of this book at the special
Sorrows were all originally series radio Lent sermons.            pre-publication sale price of $7.95 plus 45@ for post-
Some of these works reached a larger market than, did             age and handling, or a total of $8.40. The cost of the
the first edition of The Triple Knowledge.                        book after publication will be $9.95 plus postage.
                                                                  Think of it! Six good books under one cover for only
  However, I dare say that many of our readers have               $8.40! That is how you can help yourself.
never seen these books and probably did not know
they existed: for some of them have already been out                At the same time you can help the Publications
of print for many years.                                          Committee. We need money! Publication of this book
                                                                  involves a large outlay of cash. And while our Publica-
  To preserve this material for present and future                tions Committee is not poor, right now it happens
generations, the RFPA Publications Committee is                   that we are somewhat book-rich (we have a large
publishing a large Lenten Anthology which will in-                stock) and cash-poor. It would be wonderful if we
clude all six of these books. And what would be more
natural than to publish them under the title ,of what             could meet the entire cost of this venture from the
was probably the author's favorite and most often                 proceeds of this pre-publication sale. That is how you
                                                                  can help us. Will you  - and at the same time help
quoted hymn, "When I Survey The Wondrous                          yourself to a bargain? Send in that order NOW!
Cross"?



                            Baptism  bn the M iss.ion Field
                                                           (9)

  We are now ready to comment on the very  first                  been studied and decided. upon, and as though our
section of the Study Report, entitled "The Biblical               Reformed confessions and liturgy and, Church Order
Doctrine." As stated earlier, we believe that the 1975            had nothing to say as to principles and practice with
Synod gave the Study Committee a seriously mis-                   respect to the question under discussion. Personally, I
taken mandate, and that the committee should not                  am of the conviction that the direction of the Study
have been `instructed to turn to Scripture  `first,  as           Report would have been quite different if their man-
though the matter under study had never previously                date had not been misleading.


342                                                 THE STANDARD.BEARER


   Questions might also be raised as to the  meaning  of            labor and one important way in which the nations are made
the first part of Synod's mandate,  ."taking into                   Jesus' disciples is the missionaries' baptism of them, i.e., of
account the Biblical doctrine, particularly the New                 those who repent and believe at the preaching. This is sub-
Testament passages." What does it mean? Does it                     st,antiated  by Mark 16: 15, 16. Baptism is joined to the
mean that there is an established Biblical doctrine of              nnssion-preaching, as the task of the missionary. From the
baptism` on the mission field, and that this doctrine is            viewpoint of the convert, baptism has an important function,
                                                                    in connection with the faith worked by the preaching, as far as
(has been) established as Biblical sometime in the                  the salvation of the convert is concerned. That is, God uses
past? Or does it merely mean that the Bible teaches in              baptism on the mission field, always in the service of the
various passages something about this subject, and                  gospel, to save the elect.
that the Study Committee must study these passages?                   That it is illegitimate to restrict the command of Matthew
Does it refer in isolation to the subject to baptism on             28:18-20  to the apostles and their time is plain from the fact
the mission field, or does it mean the entire doctrine              that the Lord concludes with, "Lo, I am with you alway, even
of baptism as distilled from Scripture, and the subject             unto the end of the world." Calvin correctly remarks that
of baptism on the mission field in connection there-                these words show "that this was not spoken to the apostles
with? The Study Report does not speak to these                      alone; for the Lord promises His assistance not for a single age
questions. But when I look at the Report, I can only                only, but even to the end of the world" (commentary on Matt.
come to the conclusion that they understood their                   2820).
mandate as instructing them to study the New Testa-                    Exactly how the Lord intended the commands of Matthew
ment passages which seem to speak more or less                      28 and Mark 16 and how the Church understood them, under
directly about baptism in connection with missionary                the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is clearly indicated in the
labor. And then I must immediately point out, too,                  account of the missionary labor of the Church throughout the
that they only studied  part  of the passages. For ex-              Book of Acts. The testimony of Acts is that the missionaries
ample, they say nothing  m their report about  what                 baptized on the mission field; that baptizing, along with the
surely has to have significance for this subject, name-             preaching of the gospel, was part of their missionary office;
ly, that the apostle  Pa& (could we call him the mis-               that the apostles and evangelists baptized where there was as
sionary par excellence?) specifically states that  Christ.          yet no church institute and that they did so with a view to
                                                                    instituting the church. Passages include: Acts 2:38, 41; Acts
sent him not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, I                8:12,  13, 16; Acts  8:38; Acts  9:18; Acts  10:47, 48; Acts
Cor. 1: 17. Moreover, although the apostle labored in               16:14, 15; Acts 16:33;  Acts 18:8; Acts 195.
Corinth for  a year  and six months, and although
"many of the Corinthians'hearing  believed, and  were                  The practice of the Church of baptizing as part of the rnis-
baptized," and although the                                         sionary task, before the instituting of a congregation, is in-
                                    Lord told Paul, "I have         disputable. Acts  10:47,  48 teaches that Peter commanded
much people in this city," (Acts  18:8-l  l), yet  Paul             Cornelius and his house to be baptized as soon as they believed
states specifically in I Corinthians 1: 14, 16, "I thank            and the Spirit was poured out on them. Acts 16: 15 and Acts
God that I baptized none of you, but  Crispus and                   16:33 teach that Lydia and her household and the Philippian
Gaius . . . And I baptized also the household of                    jailor and his household were baptized by the apostles prior to
Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I  baptized                  the instituting of a church in Philippi, as an element of the
any'other." Now I am not at this point drawing any                  missionary task of gathering a church.
conclusion from these passages. But I do refer to                      It is necessary that we understand the reason for the apos-
them in proof of the fact that the Study Report did                 tolic practice and- for the command of Christ upon which the
not pay attention in its report to  all  the pertinent              practice was based. This is brought out in Mark 16:16;  Acts
passages, but only to  part  of the New Testament pas-              2:38;  and Acts  22:16, where baptism is attached to the
s a g e s .                                                         preaching: is related to faith and repentance, and is said to
   But now let us present the material of the Study                 serve unto the remission of sins. With the preaching, to which
Report first. It is found on pp. 104-106 of the 1976                it is always added, baptism is a means of the Holy Spirit to
Acts:                                                               give the convert the forgiveness of sins and, thus, assurance of
                                                                    salvation. According to Acts 2:38, repentance is to be fol-
I. The Biblical Doctrine.                                           lowed by baptism  "unto the remission of sins," and according
   Scripture teaches that it belongs to the office and task of      to Acts 22: 16, the effect of Paul's baptism is the washing away
the missionary not only to preach the gospel on the mission         of his sins. Thus, baptism is used by the Spirit for the saving of
field, but also to baptize those whom `the Spirit brings to         the believer, according to Mark 16: 16. The meaning is that the
repentance and faith through the preaching, as well as their        Holy Spirit uses baptism to represent to the repentant sinner
household (children). It is the right and duty of the missionary    and to assure him of the forgiveness of his sins in Jesus' blood.
to baptize, as a part of his missionary labor, i.e., before and     This is, ordinarily, a required means of the Spirit to save the
with a view to the institution of a congregation in a certain       elect in all nations.
place.                                                                 Since it has this function, baptism of the convert on the
   This is laid down by the Lord Jesus in the  missionary-          mission field is instrumental in the gathering of a church, i.e.,
mandate of Matt. 28 : 18-20. Jesus charges the apostles to make     serves to the end of establishing an instituted church in a
disciples of all nations. One important aspect of this mission-     certain place. It is a means by which the repentant sinner is


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   343


brought to the full consciousness and assurance of salvation, so      Concerning this section, I wish to point out:
that he can be a member of the church institute.                      1. That we should keep the proper perspective
   It is well that we be warned against dismission baptism and      with regard to the so-called Great Commission. I am
its significance in mission work. Christ has joined preaching       well aware that this is commonly understood as the
and baptism together in the missionary task; we may not             missionary mandate. I am well aware, too, that the
separate what He has joined. Scripture teaches that baptism is      work of missions is part of this Great Commission.
instrumental in one's receiving pardon and the assurance of         But let us not forget that when we preach and baptize
salvation; we may not argue that the Spirit can, or should,
work otherwise.                                                     in our `established congregations we are also obeying
                                                                    the Great Commission. And I have our confessions to
  The Study Report presents a rather orderly chain                  support me in this view of Matthew 28: 18-20. Both
of reasoning in this section, and we can consider it                our Heidelberg Catechism and our Belgic Confession
step by step. As we do so, we must bear in mind.that                quote this passage as Scriptural basis for baptism as it
the  question  is this: does the Study Report  demon-               is practiced within the church. Hence, the passages do
strate conclusively  that the Scripture passages cited              not  only  - if at all  - speak of baptism "before and
prove the points made in the Report? Let us under-                  with a view to the institution of a congregation ~. . ."
stand this clearly. The question is not merely whether                2. I cannot find anywhere in these passages any
these passages do or do not prove certain points. But               direct or indirect reference to such an idea as "before
it is incumbent upon the Study Report  to: show us                  and with a view to the institution of a congregation in
exegetically  that these passages prove these points.               a certain place." In other words, while the passages
The Report must not assume things. It must not                      may indeed speak of a time-relationship between
merely make claims. It must not engage in mere                      "making disciples" and baptizing  - although this
"proof-texting." It must furnish Scriptural evidence                would have to be defined by exegesis - the passages
that is the result of careful exegesis of pertinent                 say nothing whatsoever about any relationship be-
Scripture passages, and that, too, in connection with               tween baptism and the institution of a congregation.
the current teaching of Scripture concerning the                    Neither does the Study Report demonstrate this in its
principles and practice of baptism.                                 remarks about Matt. 28 and Mark 16. Yet this is a
   It is this, in my opinion, that the Study Report                 very crucial question for the Study Report.
utterly fails to do.                                                  3. Even apart from the fact that these passages say
   I am well aware, of course, that the Study Report                nothing as such about preaching and baptism in rela-
refers to several passages of Scripture - in many in-               tion to the instituting of a congregation, the great
stances only giving the references, not quoting them.               question which is left unanswered in this section and
I am aware, too, that the Report makes certain claims               which is not even touched in the one paragraph which
aS to what these passages teach. But there is very little           the Study Report devotes to these passages is:
exegesis at any point in this section of the Report.                WHEN? In the first place, in what time-relation, if
There are several unfounded and unproved assump-                    any, does the term "baptizing" stand to the com-
tions. And for certain crucial points no Scriptural                 mand, "Disciple all nations," in Matthew 28: 19? The
evidence which is the fruit of careful exegesis is fur-             same question holds with even greater force for Mark
nished whatsoever. I certainly do not believe that our              16: 15, 16, which does not even literally connect any
churches should make an important change in bap-                    mandate to baptize with the command to preach. In
tismal practice on such a scant and highly question-                the second place, in what exact time-relation does
able basis.                                                         baptism stand to the instituting of a congregation?
   The first proposition of this section is: "Scripture             The Study Report does not formulate its own prob-
teaches that it belongs to the office and task .of the              lem precisely. I have commented on this in connec-
                                                                    tion with Section II of the Report in earlier articles.
missionary not only to preach the gospel on the mis-                But remember the real question: whether baptism
sion field, but also to baptize those whom the Spirit
brings to repentance and faith through the preaching,               may be administered under the circumstances of the
as well as their household (children). It is the right              mission field months and years before the institution
and duty of the missionary,  as a part of his mis-                  of a congregation, and even when there is absolutely
sionary labor, i.e., before and with a view to the in-              no kind of guarantee that a congregation will be
stitution of a congregation in a certain place."                    established. I repeat: I agree that there is one case
                                                                    when baptism can be administered  before.  That is
   In the next paragraph the Study Report claims that               when a congregation is at the point of organization.
this is the teaching of Matt. 28: 18-20 and Mark                    Then baptism, especially of adults, and especially on
16: 15, -16: "This is laid down by the Lord Jesus in                the heathen `mission field, serves the formation of the
the missionary-mandate of Matt. 28: 18-20. . . . This is            congregation. But this was not the concrete question
substantiated by Mark 16: 15; 16."                                  in Houston which led to this Study Report. And this


344                                                THE  STANDARD,BEARER


is not the position of the Study Report. They must                        fined. Our confessions (our adopted interpretation of
show from Scripture that baptism can be adminis-                          Scripture) make the sacraments as means of grace
tered  before  in the sense of long before, and even                      secondary.  They are used to confirm faith, never to
before there is a possibility or a guarantee of institut-                 work  faith. And as such, the sacraments, though re-
ing a congregation. There is no iota of proof for this                    quired, are not of the same order as the-preaching of
in the passages cited; and surely, if there is any proof,                 the Word. The preaching is indispensable - also on
the Study Report has not produced `any exegetical                         t!le mission field. Baptism is not indispensable. In
evidence of it.                                                           fict, exactly in connection with Mark 16: 15, 16 John
   4. The Study Report in this section does not place                     Calvin makes this point in his Commentary. No, I am
the importance of baptism in the proper perspective.                      not claiming that the Report makes baptism in-
I can agree that baptism is joined to preaching (also                     dispensable. But I do warn that if this is at all the
mission-preaching). I can agree that baptism has an                       tkndency - to make baptism an indispensable part of
important function. I cannot, howevei, unqualifiedly                      r+issionary  activity - then I demur strongly.
agree with the statement that "God uses baptism on                         : My conclusion is that the first proposition of this
the mission field, always in the service' of the preach-                  section has by no means been exegetically proved
ing of the gospel, to save the elect." I want that de-                    from Matthew 28 and Mark 16.


TRANSLATED TREASURES




                    Acts of  the Synod of Dordrecht

                                                 HISTORICAL FOkEWORD

                                                                  (9)      :



(Connection: In the preceding section we saw: 1) That Con-                wherever they could, excluding all other ministers,
rad Vorstius, the Socinian nominee to replace Arminius at                 ev'en though they were gifted with learning, godliness,
Leiden, returned to the Netherlands. 2) That King James I, of             and the necessary gifts for the ministry, and even
Great Britain, strongly warned against Vorstius. 3) That the              though they were lawfully desired and called by the
Curators of the Academy were ordered not .to proceed with
the call of Vorstius. 4) That the Hague Conference resulted in            Churches. This was the reason why the right-minded
no solution to the problems in the churches.)                             Churches, with respect to those who either had
                                                                          oppressed and driven out their innocent  fellow-
                                                                          ministers contrary to all justice and propriety, or who
  Meanwhile, the disunity, uproar, and disturbances                       had been forced upon them against their desire and
in the Churches sadly increased more and more every-                      who daily with bitter and venomous sermons very
where. For the Remonstrants did their very best, by                       grievously violated the doctrine of the Reformed
inciting the Magistrates against them by false accusa-                    Churches, could not acknowledge them as their law-
tions, to see to it that especially the Ministers who                     ful Pastors, could not listen to their sermons, and
opposed their purposes not only were driven out of                        cduld  not celebrate the Lord's Supper with them.
their ministry,- but also were driven out of the cities                   Rather, they went to hear the sermons of sound
themselves. And everywhere in the Churches which                          Pastors in neighboring places, although on this
were not supplied with Ministers,,  su,ch men were                        account they had to suffer many reproaches and
forced upon them, even against the desire of the                          accusations and mockery. These were the beginnings
Churches, who were besmirched with their Arminian                         an,d the occasions of separations. The first among all
views. They did this by every means possible and                          the churches which was compelled to make such  a


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                               345


separation was the Church of Alkmaar. For Adolphus        congregations forsook their churches and went to
Venator, the Minister there, was suspended from his       hear the sermons of neighboring sound Ministers; or
ministry by the North-Holland Churches on account         where they could not obtain the latter, they-were
of his unsound life and thoroughly unsound doctrine.      taught ,by other Ministers in their villages or by sound
But he, appealing to the Magistrate there and despis-     proponents,    in separate gatherings.      When the
ing ecclesiastical censures, nevertheless continued in    Remonstrants sought in vain to prevent this by strict
the office of Minister. Then, when there was a change     prohibitions by the Magistrates, they aroused no little
of Magistrates, as that happened ordinarily every         persecution against those churches.
year, and when men were lawfully chosen who did             Meanwhile, the Curators of the Academy of Leiden,
not appear `to be very favorable toward his cause and     on the advice of the Remonstrants, called Simon
on whose protection he might no longer depend, this       Episcopius to the Theological Ministry, against the
Venator incited the common people against the law-        will of Joannes Polyander, who had been called to
ful Authority and brought it about that they rebel-       that ministry in the place of Franciscus Gomarus.
liously took up arms and were not satisfied until they    This increased the grief and anxiety of the Churches
had deposed the lawful Magistracy and replaced them       not a little, since it was evident from this that they
by others who were alien to the Reformed religion         intended to feed the disputes in that Academy and to
and who sided with the cause of Venator. These, as        establish the doctrine of the Remonstrance. When
soon as they were established in the government of        these evils could no longer remain shut up within the
the City, through the instigation of Venator, first       boundaries of the Holland Churches, this corruption
forced the elders and deacons to lay down their           finally spread out to the neighboring Provinces,
office; then they did the same thing to the two Min-      especially to the Churches of Gelderland, of Utrecht,
isters because they had taken position against the        and Overijsel. In the Province of Utrecht, through the
errors of Venator. .And when the Ministers had been       neglect of the Ministers, the ecclesiastical order
deposed from their office, they were scandalously         appeared to have fallen away; and under the appear-
driven out of the city. The one was  PieterCornelis-      ance of re-establishing this, Uitenbogaard, August 24,
sen, who had been minister for some fifty years           introduced in the Church certain Remonstrant Min-
with great edification; and the other was Cornelius       isters, and among these Jacobus Taurinus, a seditious
Hillenius, a bright and pious man, both of them           and cruel man. Thereafter, these men were very
earnest defenders of the pure doctrine.                   zealous and diligent that not only in the City but in
  Next it became necessary for the Church of Rotter-      the entire Province, everywhere where they could, the
dam to imitate this separation. For Nicolaus              sound Ministers were driven out and replaced by
Grevinchovius, seeing that his fellow minister,           Remonstrants, so that only the doctrine of the
Cornelius Geselius, a man of singular godliness, up-      Remonstrance was openly taught. Moreover, in order
rightness, and propriety, was very  .pleasing to the      that their cause might be established in that Province,
Church of Rotterdam and opposed to him in his in-         they framed a new form of Church Order, which was
tention to introduce the doctrine of  ,the' Remon-        first approved by the Synod, at which Uitenbogaard,
strance, brought it about through the Magistrates of      Minister of The Hague, presided, and thereafter was
that place, first; that he. was deposed from his min-     also approved by the States of the same Province. In
istry, and then that he was led out of the city by the    Articles IV and V, chapter 2, toleration of the views of
city-agents. Also the Ministers of the  Classis of        the Remonstrants, for which they had agitated so
Rotterdam who were devoted to purity of doctrine          much in Holland, was publicly established; and the
refused to hold Classical gatherings with this            doctrine of the Reformed Churches was also in-
Grevinchovius and with others whoni he had brought        cidentally and hatefully blamed. Further, one finds
to the views of the Remonstrants. This took place         very many innovations concerning ecclesiastical rule
after Grevinchovius, by the authority of the Magis-       in this Church Order, so that it was to be seen from
trates of Rotterdam, had forced upon the Church of        this that these men intended nothing less than `that
Bleiswijk, against the advice of the chief Ministers,     everything, not only in the doctrine but also in the
Simon Episcopius, to whom the Church of Amster-           order and government of the church, should be
dam, where he had lived, had refused a testimony          changed.
concerning his life and doctrine.                           The Remonstrants in Gelderland had now also
  There were also many churches in the villages on        gotten the Ministers of Nijmegen, Bommel, and Tie1
whom, against their will, were imposed Remonstrant        on their side; and thereafter they saw to it that no
Ministers, or Ministers who were favorable toward the     one but men of their views served in the ministry of
Remonstrants. And seeing that they could not with-        the neighboring Churches. And, in order that they
out the greatest offense, grief, and unrest listen to     might make this more sure, Uitenbogaard, Borrius,
those terrible slanders against sound doctrine which      and Taurinus travelled in Gelderland, when the States
were daily heard in their sermons, the people of these    were gathered there; and they, with the other


346                                           THE  STANDAF@ BEARER        '



Remonstrants, brought it about that also in that            Remonstrants from Holland and Utrecht, was.further
Province the ordinary, annual, Synodical gatherings         prevented.
were prevented. Similarly, in Overijsel, especially in
the Church of Kampen and Deventer, which through             Meanwhile, the Remonstrants did not cease to
the help and practices of some had fallen to the            push their cause diligently, to win the favor of the
Remonstrants, thereafter disturbed the peaceful             great, to gain the hearts of the Magistrates, and to
                                                            render suspect and prevent all Synodical gatherings
Churches there with new wranglings.                         with the Political leaders, to gain the vacant
  When the Netherlands Churches saw that this evil          Churches, to spread their views through public  ser-
was growing and spreading in this manner, also in the       m'ons and writings, to violate sound doctrine with
other' Provinces, they deemed it highly necessary to        terrible slanders, to draw the people to their side and
oppose this. And, without any further postponement,         more and more to alienate them from the doctrine of
by common consent they sent from each Province              the Reformed Churches. To this end they spread
two delegates to the States-General: from Gelderland,       abroad booklets among the people, written in the
Johannes Fontanus and Guiliehnus Baudartius; from           mother language, under such titles as  Firebells.
Holland, Libertus Fraximus and Festus Hommius;              Further Information, Signpost,  and others. In these
from Zeeland, Hermannus Faukelius and Guilielmus            they not only upheld their doctrine and enhanced
Telingius (the Utrecht Churches refused to send             Vorstius, but they also with bitter and shameless
theirs); from Friesland, Gellius Acronius and               eloquence and in a most horrible manner struck at
Godefridus Sopingius; from Overijsel, Johannes              the adopted doctrine of the Netherlands Churches
Gofmannus and Johannes Langius; finally, from the           with the most shameless slander and by evilly and
City of Groningen and Environs, Cornelius Hillenius         faithlessly drawing from that doctrine the most sense-
and Wolfgang Agricola. These men, together with the         less consequences, or conclusions. Because of this,
Deputies of the Church of Amsterdam, which was              there arose among the people everywhere bitter dis-
Synodical, Petrus Plancius and Joannes Hallius, set         putes and quarrels, through which the closest friends
forth in detail the difficulties and the dangers of the     and acquaintances were embittered against one an-
Churches. They did so in the name of the Churches           other and were frightfully alienated and torn apart
themselves, and also in the name of the States of their     from one another, to the great injury of love, to the
Provinces (whose letters they also showed). Further,        disturbance of the church and the common peace,
they humbly petitioned the States that they would be        and to the great grief and offense of the pious. And,
pleased to sympathize with the thoroughly grievous          seeing that in many places they had the Magistrates
position of the Churches, and should at once give           on their side, and through Johannes Uitenbogaard
serious attention to the solution of these evils, and to    were permitted everything by the Advocate of Hol-
that end authorize at once a National Synod (which          land, they were also haughty and scornful against
had already for many years been promised). Although         their Churches and Fellow-Ministers. Meanwhile, all
many among these States-General judged that this            pious lovers of the Fatherland and of the Church
convening of the Synod should no longer be post-            mourned and bemoaned pitifully this terrible misery
poned, and clung to this, nevertheless, seeing that the     of the Churches. And, seeing that they saw clearly
representatives of the Province of Utrecht were             where these upheavals would end if they were not
absent and that those of Holland and West-Friesland         promptly attended to, and seeing that this could not
said that they did not have a clear enough mandate          be done thus far by public authority, they began
for this matter, therefore the matter was postponed         seriously to consider whether this evil could not be
until the Representatives of all the Provinces would        removed once and for all in one or another way, or
authorize it by a united vote  - something which,           whether at least it might be stemmed.
through the actions of those friendly to the


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                                                THE  STAN,DARD  BEARER                                            347

                                                                     '

TAKING HEED TO THEDOCTRINE


             A  - Reformed  Look at Pentecostalism

                                                  Rev. David Engelsma


   If it is true, as we said in the previous article, that    flooded the Church with the reality, whereas John
there is but one baptism for every elect child of God,        could only give the sign (Matt. 3: 11).
the baptism with the Holy Spirit of which the sign              That grand Sunday marked the passing of the old
and seal is the sprinkling with water, how is it to be        age and the coming of the new; it is the boundary
explained that in the book of Acts there obviously            between the Old Dispensation and the New. The dis-
were two distinct works of the Holy Spirit upon some          tinction between the Old Testament and the New
of God's people? Jesus' disciples, e.g., were reborn,         Testament is a matter of the fullness of the Holy
saved men prior to the day of Pentecost. This, of             Spirit, which is only a matter of the full riches of
course, was due to the gracious operation of the              Christ's accomplished salvation. Such is the teaching
Spirit upon their hearts. Still, on the day of Pentecost      of  John.7:37-39:   ". . .for the Holy Ghost was not
these men "were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts         yet; because that Jesus was not yet glorified." In the
2:4). The Spirit was poured out upon them (Acts               Old Dispensation, the Holy Spirit was not yet. He and
2: 16-18). They were then "baptized with the Holy             His saving work were not absolutely lacking, for He
Ghost" (Acts 1: 5).                                           saved God's people under the old covenant, even as
  Pent. appeals to this history in Acts as proof for its      He now saves us. But He was not present with the
contention that there must be two distinct works of           fullness and richness of salvation with which He now
grace in the life of every Christian: a first work of         dwells in the Church. This was due to the fact that
salvation (regeneration) and a second work of power           Christ had not yet died and risen, actually to acquire
for life and service (the baptism with the Spirit). The       that rich and full salvation. Just as Christmas was the
experience of the disciples, and others, in the book of       birthday of the Son of God in the flesh, Pentecost
Acts is regarded as normative for every child of God.         was the birthday of the Spirit, as the Spirit of Christ
Pent. insists that Pentecost be repeated, over and            in the Church.
over, for every member of the Church. One of the                Pentecost, like the incarnation, the crucifixion, the
leading Pent. writers, Donald Gee, speaks of "a per-
sonal Pentecost" for every Christian (cf. A New Dis-          resurrection, and the ascension, was a  once-for-all-
                                                              time event. Fifty days after He arose, Jesus sent His
covery).       `.                                             Spirit to His Church. This is never again repeated,
  This betrays a complete misunderstanding of the             anymore than Jesus' death is repeated. It is nonsense,
great event of Pentecost. It is as foolish to demand a        if not  ,heresy, to preach each Christian's "personal,
personal Pentecost as it would be to demand a                 Pentecost." This is why it is wrong to expect the
personal incarnation of Jesus, or one's own personal          reappearance of the signs of Pentecost down through
death of Christ, or a personal resurrection of our            church- history. The sound as of a mighty rushing
Lord.                                                         wind, the cloven tongues as of fire, and the disciples'
  Pentecost was the exalted Christ's gift of the Holy         speaking with other tongues were the signs, once-for-
Spirit to His Church. The Spirit was given in rich, full      all, of  :the historical event of the outpouring of the
measure - He was "poured out." He was given as the            Spirit, just as the great earthquake was the sign of the
One Who brings to the Church the firstfruits of the           resurrection of Jesus. To be  sure, these signs are
finished work of Jesus Christ, the benefits of Christ's       intended to be my signs in 1977 as much as they were
death and resurrection, i.e., Christ's salvation. In the      intended to be signs for Peter in A.D. 33. But they
gift of the Spirit, the gospel-promise of the Old Tes-        are mine, not by being repeated in my experience,
tament was fulfilled to the Church (Acts  2:38, 39;           but by being written down on the pages of Holy
Gal. 3:  14), because the Son of God gave to God's            Scripture and by being received through faith.
people full salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal          When  Pentecostals try to gainsay the once-for-all
life. He baptized the Church with the Holy Spirit             character of Pentecost (do they `really dare to deny
(Acts 1: 5). Being mightier than John the Baptist, He         this?), they point to the incidents in the book of Acts _


348                                             THE  STANDARD;BEARER



which seemingly are repetitions of Pentecost: the               or in Pentecost,`he simply is not saved. But I do not
Spirit's falling upon the Samaritan converts (Acts)             share in Christ's death by that death's being repeated
8:5-24); the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon                somehow in my personal history and experience. I
Cornelius and his.household  (Acts 10:4448. cf. also            share in Christ's death and resurrection by faith; by
Acts 11: 15-18); and the coming of the Spirit on the            faith I am crucified with Christ and rise with Him.
disciples of John (Acts 19: l-7). In fact, these in-            Just so, by this same faith I share in Pentecost. The
cidents are special events, intended by God to                  blessing of that great day, now almost 2000 years
demonstrate that the unrepeatable wonder of Pente-              past, becomes mine personally through the faith,
cost extends to all the Church, specifically the half-          worked in me by the Spirit, that unites me to Christ
heathens, the outright heathens, and the disciples of           and to His Body, the Church, to whom the Spirit was
John the Baptist. They are extensions of Pentecost to           then given and in whom the Spirit dwells forever.
the full Church, the furthest outworking of that                This is the teaching of Galatians 3: "that we might
event.                                                          receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (vs.
  In light of the significance of Pentecost, we can             14).
readily understand the fact that, on the day of                   The other of the two outstanding features of Pent.
Pentecost, men and women who had already `been                  is .their doctrine and alleged practice of extraordinary
saved received the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that they        gifts of the Spirit, especially tongues. For this, too,
then enjoyed new riches of salvation and hitherto               they claim to find support in Scripture. What is the
unknown power. This is not indicative of two works              Reformed answer to this teaching and its appeal to
of grace in every Christian; this is not normative for          the Bible?
all believers, as if we, too, must expect and long to pass        jThere was, in the time of the apostles, a gift of
-from "mere salvation through faith" to the higher              tongues, whether that gift be explained as the ability
level of feeling and power of a "Spirit baptism." The           toi speak foreign languages without having learned
explanation is found in the unique historical position          them or as the ability to speak totally new, unknown
of the saints who lived through Pentecost. They lived           languages. I Corinthians 14 indicates that at least one
through the transition from the Old Dispensation to             aspect of the gift of tongues in those days was the
the New Dispensation, from the Spirit's not being yet           ab$ty to speak in an altogether new, unknown lan-
to His being, from Christ's not yet being glorified to          guage. No one, including the speaker, understood
His being glorified. Before that moment, those saints,          what was said (vss. 2, 14). Interpretation of the
e.g., Peter, were saved; now, as the New Dispensation           tongue was, like the tongue itself, a gift of the Spirit
dawns, they receive the gift of the Spirit in His full-         (vs. 13. cf. I Cor. 10: 10). The speaker in tongues did
ness, i.e., the completed salvation of the, glorified           not speak to men, but to God (vs. 2). The benefit of
Christ. At Pentecost, they advanced, not from a first           it `was not the edification of others, but his own
level of grace to a second, higher level of grace, but          edification (vs. 4). "In the spirit," the  tongues-
from the infancy of the Church of the Old Covenant              speaker "speaketh mysteries" (vs. 2).
to the maturity of the Church of the New Covenant
(Gal. 4: l-7)                                                     There were also other extraordinary gifts of the
                                                                Spirit in those days. There was the gift of receiving
  We recoil in horror from the suggestion that each             special revelations from God; the gift of casting out
of us must repeat the experience of Pentecost. Then,            devils; the gift of taking up serpents; the gift of drink-
we have to go back for a little while into the Old              ing deadly things without hurt; the gift of healing the
Dispensation, to live under the law and in the types            sick by laying on of hands; and the gift of raising the
and shadows, so that, at some point, we can pass into
the New Covenant. We would not do this;even if this             dead(cf.Mark  16:17, 18;ICor.  12:1-11).
were possible.                                                    Among these gifts, the gift of tongues was one of
                                                                only minor importance (cf. I Cor. 12: 28-3 1 - where
  We New Testament saints receive the Spirit'of the             tongues and interpretation of tongues come at the
glorified Christ, with the full Christ and all His bene-        end of the list and are not among the best gifts which
fits, at once, as soon as He regenerates us, takes up         the Corinthians should covet; cp. I Cor.  14:39  -
His abode in us, baptizes us into Christ's Body, the            where the Corinthians are to covet prophecy, but
Church, and unites us to Christ by a true and living           merely not to forbid tongues. cf. also all of chapter 14
faith. Certainly, the blessing of Pentecost is ours,           where tongues are shown to be of only minimal
every bit as much as it was the blessing of the 120 in         im,portance, especially in comparison with
the upper room in Jerusalem; certainly, we share in            prophecy.). If was a gift that was not possessed by all
Pentecost, as really and fully as if we had been among         the Corinthians or expected to be possessed by all (I
those 120 believers. This is as necessary as it is that         Cor.  12:30). It is passing strange, to say the very
we share in the death and resurrection of Christ. If           least, that Pent., with all its bluster of restoring New
one does not share in Christ's death and resurrection,         Testament Christianity, makes tongues the gift of the


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  349
                                                    ,`.  "               _-


Spirit par excellence, ascribing to it, both in theory        that  every  Christian should possess this gift  - as if
and in practice, a preeminence that it did not have           Paul had never written, "do all speak with tongues?"
even in the days of the apostles, and that Pent. holds,                            (to be cont.)


FROM HOLY WRIT



            Exposition of the Book of Galatians

                                                 Rev. G. Lubbers



THE GOSPEL OF FREE GRACE JEOPARDIZED                          Cornelius and preach fhe Gospel, and eat and drink
IN ANTIOCH (Gal. 2: 11)                                       with him and his fellow-believers without asking any
  Paul and Peter must have been in Antioch of Syria           questions concerning what might be eaten and might
at the same time, shortly after the gathering of the          not be eaten. That Peter had done also here in
apostles and elders mentioned in Acts 15, where the           Antioch. He did eat together with the Gentile chris-
matter of circumcision was settled for the New Tes-           tians. (Acts 10: 14-16; Gal.  2:12a) But things had
tament believers from the Gentiles. The Gentiles were         changed. Certain believers from James, the church in
charged to "abstain from meats offered to idols, and          Jerusalem, came who still had Levitical scruples con-
from blood, and from things strangled, and from               cerning what they ate and with whom they ate. These
fornication." (Acts  15:29) If they kept themselves           frowned not a little upon eating with the Gentile
                                                              Christians, and they must have censured Peter's eating
from these they would do well. And this decision had
been received with great joy and comfort as the de-           with these Gentile Christians. It was then that Peter,
                                                              who had been such a pillar of strength at the meeting
cision by the Church and the Holy Ghost. (Acts
15:28) The church at Antioch "rejoiced for, the con-          in Jerusalem (see above), weakened. According to the
                                                              Greek text, he gradually withdrew from the Gentile
solation." (Acts 15:3 1)                                      brethren and no longer ate with them; he separated
  But things had taken a bad turn here in Antioch             himself from them and did not eat with them. This
shortly after this. Peter, the apostle of Christ, had         was hypocritical action on the part of Peter. He dis-
come down to Antioch from Jerusalem to labor here             sembled! He did it out of spiritual cowardice. He
in this church, composed of Gentile and Jewish chris-         feared these people from Jerusalem.
tians. And the conduct of Peter had been such that all
that was gained in the meeting at Jerusalem under the           Thus it had gone when Peter came to Antioch.
guidance of the Holy Spirit and careful interpretation          Instead of being a pillar of strength to Paul and to
bf the Scriptures, would be lost. The church would            the truth of the Gospel he had become an offense, in
once more have lost her liberty in Christ Jesus. This         the church, of great magnitude!
was due to the conduct of Peter in this church. At              For this action of Peter had serious and profoundly
first, all went well. He ate with the Gentile Christians      evil implications, which Paul points out. The implica-
even as he had been instructed by the Lord Himself in         tions were such that it meant that, if for conscience
the vision at Joppa. Here at Joppa, Peter had to learn        sake Peter could not eat what the Old Testament
that the Old Testament Levitical difference between           Levitical ordinances forbade, and if he would not eat
clean and unclean animals which might be eaten was            with the Gentiles, it meant that the middle wall of
no longer in force. Christ had nailed these ordinances        the partition was rebuilt, which Christ had broken
of the middle wall of the partition to the Cross. (Eph.       down and nailed to the Cross. Christ's work was of
2: 13, 14) Those who were far off (Gentiles) had been         none effect! The Gentiles were not fellow-heirs and
brought nigh by the blood of Christ! And, therefore,          fellow-citizens with the Jewish believers but were
Peter's Old Testament scruples concerning "clean"             still outside of the commonwealth of Israel. They
and "unclean" no longer obtained for him. He                  were barred from the temple of God in the Spirit;
could safely go into the house of the Gentile                 they were not a part of the habitation of God in the


350                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


Spirit. (Eph.  2:22) Christ is then  ,not our "peace"       "walk" and "conduct" of Peter as not being com-
which have made both one by His death on the Cross.         patible and conformable to the `teaching of the Gos-
(Eph. 2: 14; Col. 2 : 14) Then the grace of God is frus-    pel, which both Paul and Peter believed and preached.
trated! We are still under law and are yet in our sins      Peter's conduct and walk were deeply offensive to the
and condemnation!                                           Gentile saints, and were by implication a denial of the
  Now we must bear in mind that Peter had been              truth of the Gospel. It had been so serious that even
eating in Christian fellowship with Gentiles for a few      Barnabas, Paul's trusted companion on so many occa-
years already. He had recognized that it would be           sions, was swept along by Peter's conduct so as to
tempting God not to eat with Gentiles and place him-        also separate from the Gentiles. Imagine, in a church
self under the heavy yoke of the law, which "neither        in which Barnabas had labored, (Acts 11:22,23) and
we nor our fathers were able to bear." (Acts 15: 10)        where Barnabas had brought Paul to labor, going to
And, again, Peter knew right well that God put no           Tarsus for that very purpose, (Acts 11:25) this same
difference "between them and us, purifying their            Barnabas is swept off his feet by Peter's conduct,
hearts by faith." (Acts  15:9) Hence, the action was        taking with him the Jewish sector of the congregation
indeed one which jeopardized the truth of the Gospel        there in Antioch! Paul had risen to the occasion. He
and the liberty which both Jews and Gentiles, who           had fearlessly and courageously stepped forward to
believe, have in Christ Jesus.                              defend the truth of the Gospel. Paul is, therefore,
                                                            very true to form here when he once more writes this
  Paul cites this experience and sad relapse of Peter,      polemic and apology for the faith in this letter to the
not to throw contempt on the name of Peter before           Galatians.
the eyes of the Galatian churches, but to show that
this matter which the Jewish heresy-mongers were              Since this matter of Peter's conduct had been done
trying to instill in the churches as "another gospel"       publicly, and it was a very clear and public offense,
was really an error which had been decided in Jeru-         Paul also makes the rebuke publicly before all. It was
salem by the elders and apostles as being repugnant         not a matter which Paul discussed with others behind
to faith and later condemned even in a "pillar" in the      the back of Peter, but to his face. He was to be
church! Let the Galatians then beware of such lying         blamed; he had walked in a very reprehensible
preachers who would rob them of-their liberty in            manner. And this kind of conduct was the more repre-
Christ Jesus, yea, even of having a part in Christ.         hensible in an office-bearer in the church of Christ.
                                                            Here the rule holds as Peter himself writes, "Yea, all
  Peter had by his conduct indeed jeopardized the           of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with
truth of the Gospel!                                        humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth
                                                            grace to the humble." (I Peter 5:5) Peter did not feel
PETER PUBLICLY WITHSTOOD TO HIS FACE                        any resentment against Paul for this strong and severe
BY PAUL IN ANTIOCH (Gal. 2: 14)                             correction. For Paul spoke very strongly to him in the
  Paul had been the equal of any of the pillars in the      love of Christ, and not in bitterness, but in the zeal of
church when he met with them in Jerusalem. Peter,           the Lord. And Peter accepted it! Later he writes con-
John, and James had added nothing to him. They had          cerning Paul and says, "even as our beloved brother
acknowledged that God had wrought mightily                  Paul also according to the wisdom given  .him." (II
through Paul amongst the uncircumcision, even as He         Peter 3: 15) How we ought to emulate this example
had worked through Peter among the circumcision.            of Peter in the meekness of Christ! This is also true of
(Gal. 2:8) Let it be remembered! They had given Paul        ministers of the Gospel. All should live according to
the right hand of fellowship and recognized him as          the Word of God, "and the spirits of the prophets are
their equal in the apostleship of Christ.                   subject to the prophets." (I Cor. 14:32) For we must
                                                            always try the spirits whether they be of God, and we
  However, now Paul will shew that there had been a         must be willing to be tried by the touchstone of the
crisis in the church in the city.of  Antioch in which he    Word!
had risen all alone to the defense of the Gospel to
which he. was called. He had withstood Peter to his
face before all the people. Was it a matter of personal     PAUL'S VINDICATION OF THE TRUTH
vendetta? Not at all! Nor was it a matter of Peter's        OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH
preaching  a different Gospel than the Gospel of            (Gal. 2:15-18)
Christ. Higher critics and unbelievers will try to play       : We suggest very strongly that the reader of these
out a Pauline gospel over against the Gospel of Peter.      lines read this Scripture passage from his own Bible,
Paul then preached a Gospel for the Gentiles, but           and that he keep his Bible at hand.
Peter preached a different Gospel for the Jews.               Here is grand argument on the part of Paul to
Nothing of this sort is taught or suggested here by the     Peter. The point of departure in this argument is that
text. This was purely and simply a matter of the            both Peter and Paul believe the same thing concerning


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 351


the Gospel, and that they have both been saved in the           Stars! If the best needed Jesus as Savior, how much
same way as those who were born "Jews." Both Peter              more the worst - the Gentiles.
and Paul are Jewish in their natural parentage. As                Yes, Paul and Peter had a very basic knowledge.
such they had an advantage over the Gentiles. They              They had lived under the law of commandments and
were not considered the uncircumcised, who were                 ordinances. They had, learned by sad experience
outside of the Jewish commonwealth. Paul was of the             under "law" that y10 man is justified by works of law.
tribe of Benjamin. We do not know Peter's tribe. It             They had sung Psalm 143  :2 in their synagogue as
may have been of the tribe of Zebulon or  Naph-                 little boys in both Galilee and in the city of Tarsus,
thaliq (Matt. 4: 15) He belonged to the people which            respectively. And they had sung in minor key, "And
sat in darkness and which saw a great light. (Isaiah            enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy
9: 1, 2) At least both can say: "For unto us a child is         sight shall no man living be justified." They had
born, unto us a son is given . . ." (Isaiah 9:6)                longed for righteousness, for the answer of God in His
   Such was their background. They were not like the            faithfulness, covenant faithfulness. And Paul says that
Gentile nations whom God suffered to walk in their              they knew this. When Jesus multiplies the fish in the
own ways for many centuries. That is a very strong              sea of Galilee, Peter cries out, "Depart from me for I
point here in the argument of Paul to Peter. It is by           am a sinful man." (Luke 5:8) Yes, Peter was a "sin-
implication also a strong argument to the Galatians             ner" too, but not like the "sinners" out of the Gen-
and to us these many centuries later. If Paul and               tiles. But he could not find peace under law. It was
Peter, who were not sinners like we, need the Christ,           really tempting God to try to do the law, which
how much more do we need to be saved by faith in                neither he nor the fathers were able to keep! Then,
Christ, we who worshipped dumb idols in our genera-             Peter, why this conduct of separating from these
tions: Thor and Woden, and the Sun, Moon and                    saved sinners out of heathendom?


THE DAY OF SHAD0 WS


                                 Out of the Shadows
                                                    Rev. John A. Heys


   Having returned home from the mission' field of              Rev. Nish and Elder Foster he was hospitalized in
our churches in Jamaica, we decided to write a few              Black River. We found this out before we had a meet-
more lines about the work there and what we found.              ing with the Reading congregation. This congregation
What we wrote last time was written after we had                is located a short distance north of Lacovia in what,
been there barely a week. And little did we know                as far `as the postal divisions are concerned, is the
what we would experience there during the weeks we              Reading District of Lacovia; and we noted later on
were to labour among the brethren and sisters on that           that these brethren and sisters call themselves the
island.                                                         Reading Protestant Reformed Church of Jamaica.
                                                                Late as it was after our meeting, we drove to the
   It was not a pleasant final week which we spent              Black River Hospital; but Rev.  Beckford was under
there. And we came home deeply saddened and with                sedation, and we were not able to speak with him.
heavy hearts. One of the young men whom we were                 Graciously, though it was near 10 o'clock P.M., they
privileged to help train for the ministry of God's              did allow us three minutes of "visit" with him. The
Word among the churches with which we were deal-                next Sunday we looked him up again, though we had
ing, Rev. Alvin Beckford, we found seriously ill the            to come from Belmont and had to return to that area
first week we were there. A week later we found him             for the evening service. He was still in a coma. And on
to be desperately ill and greatly in need of medical            Tuesday he left this vale of tears and sorrow for the
care. He was, in fact, in a condition that called for           reward of God's grace which He gives to His faithful
hospitalization instead of being nursed by his mother           servants. On the afternoon of our last Sunday on the
up -in the hills north and east of Lacovia. On our next         island, February 20, we attended the funeral service
visit we found that through the instrumentality of              in the Reading church, and undersigned preached the


352                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


sermon, to an audience that filled the church and           then in the rain?" It is not quite that simple. We lived
spilled out around the doors and open windows out-          on the northern coast, and Belmont is on the south-
side. Members of his congregations at Cave Mt. and          ern coast. In between are all these mountains, ridge
Waterworks were there. His fellow ministers with            after ridge; and although the island is roughly one
whom he went to our school were there, and their            hundred fifty miles long and fifty miles wide, it can
congregations to a great extent also came.                  have extremely contrasting weather across it. We can
   It was a short illness, beginning, we were given to      leave in bright sunshine and find Belmont having a
understand; last November or December. It was a             torrential rain, or the other way around.
short ministry, beginning in 1974 when Rev. C.                This reminds us of the first cancellation. It poured
Hanko preached the ordination sermon, Rev. Heys             and poured all day in Montego Bay, about the time
read the form, and Rev. Elliott ordained him into the       the States had all that snow. We debated all day
ministry of God's Word in these Jamaican churches.          about going that Tuesday night, it looked so hopeless.
According to the report of Rev. G. Lubbers and elder        About four in the afternoon we went down the hill to
J.M: Faber, who laboured on the island last year, he        the Police Station in Coral Gardens (the suburb where
was just beginning to get the feel of the work and,         we were living) and asked them if they could find out
according to the report, "has blossomed out in his          whether it was raining in Belmont. Graciously, the
preaching quite remarkably . . . and preached a very        officer got on his short wave radio and called the
good sermon." Added is also the remark, "His charac-        Bluefields police station. Now Bluefields is one mile
ter is most loving, and he is a humble servant. He has      from the city of Belmont and about two from where
a very large store of Psalter numbers in his memory         the Belmont bamboo-palm-leaf church stands. That
and loves to sing them." When we broke the news to          was awfully close. The police at Bluefields responded
his congregation at Cave Mt. that he was hospitalized       in a strong clear voice that it was raining heavily. We
and in very serious condition, Elder Ried made those        stayed home, only to learn the next Sunday that they
same remarks that he was a humble and faithful ser-         patiently waited for us in a completely dry church
vant.                                                       and had not had any rain all day! This led up to the
  But it pleased God to end his ministry and to take        next incident. On the last Tuesday that we worked on
him away from the two congregations which he was            the island (the very last Tuesday on the island saw us
serving. And now each Sunday there are three of the         at' the airport checking in to go home) we left under
seven churches that will be without the services of an      sunny skies for Waterworks and Belmont. We
ordained minister of the Word.of God. The veteran,          dropped Elder and Mrs. Faber off at Waterworks for a
Rev. Elliott, is there and, although he is 73 years old,    session of instruction on Infant Baptism. But, part
he faithfully trudges up and down those steep moun-         way over, it began to rain in the mountains, and it
tain roads, rides for hours on hard seats of busses and     was -raining heavily when they left us to go into the
over bumpy roads; and no doubt will be serving Cave         Waterworks church which is a solid building. We told
Mt. quite frequently now. It was formerly his con-          them that most likely we would be back shortly, after
gregation, and he still is active in the work. For the      finding it impossible to have a session on Holy
rest, there are the three younger ministers who have        Matrimony in Belmont. And then it began to pour as
their own congregations: Rev. Brown, who serves             we have never seen it in the States as we were on the
Dias and Fort William; Rev. Williams, who serves Bel-       way to Belmont. As the crow flies over the mountains
mont; and Rev. Nish, who is minister of the Reading         Belmont is about five miles away. Over the highway,
church in Lacovia. In the churches of the younger           as: the road meanders along the coast line, the map
ministers we noticed growth  .and fruit upon their          says it is closer to ten miles. But it is a half hour
labours; and we -were privileged also to see the            drive. At Bluefields yet it was pouring, but in
Behnont congregation begin to get a suitable place of       Belmont it was bone dry and we had an enjoyable
worship. Synod last June authorized using some of.          meeting. We returned to Waterworks to find that the
the restricted funds, that had been collected in our        Fabers wondered why it took us so long to come
churches for the buildings of the Jamaican churches,        back and tell them .that we also could not meet. In
for Belmont. All they had was a little hut that con-        Waterworks, even if the people could have come out
sisted of a few bamboo poles stuck in the ground and        through that heavy rain, you could not speak above
a roof of dried palm leaves. This did help a bit to         the noise of the rain on the roof - a corrugated metal
keep out the burning sunshine, but it was of no value       roof. So you learn to go, regardless of what the
to shed the heavy rains known to the island. On             weather is where you are.
three occasions our meetings in Belmont were  can-            But to return to growth in the congregations. One
celled because of rain, even after hard, rough travel-      of the evidences is that under the preaching of these
ling over two mountain ranges and with gasoline at          ministers there are now two more young men with
$1.98 a gallon. Perhaps you say, "Well, why start out       abilities who desire to learn for the ministry and are


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                353



eager to have a missionary come and instruct them.          not know that these truths were in the Bible, but in
Then, too, that funeral service under the leadership of     due time God sent these men so that we might al&
Rev. Nish was the solemn, spiritual meeting that it         know them."
ought to be. He handled it very ably, and it was so           Incidentally, and we have not room for more al-
different and such an improvement upon others               though there is much more to say and write, our
which we attended on the island. The prayers of the         labours over the years are bearing fruit, and there is
elders and deacons manifest a clearer insight into and     ` fruit upon the  labours of Rev. Lubbers and Elder
grasp of the truths of the Word of God. No, they are        Faber when they visited last year. Dias is now renting
not pure in their doctrine and thinking; they are not       a home for Rev. Brown - the home of the late Rev.
what one may call strongly Reformed. But there is a         Joshua Frame  - and paying $40 of the $60 per
desire to learn, a willingness to come and learn, and       month rent. They have also a policy to pay their
evidences that they have been taught the truth. They        minister 50~ per member (not family) per month. To
have a long way to go yet; and we must remember             us this' may seem a little sum, but many of them
that they were so far removed from the truth. You           cannot' even bring up that much in cash. But it is all a
just cannot compare the field with those which we had       step in the right direction, and they ought to be en-
where the people had a Reformed background, knew            couraged  in it. Cave Mt. expressed it audibly, as did
the Heidelberg Catechism by heart, had been taught          Dias, that the Word of God does show them this call-
the Reformed Faith from infancy, were drilled in the        ing. And they promised to do more. This was after we
Westminster Confession, or had through the years            had our meeting when with them we searched the
pastors who on the whole preached sound doctrine in         Scriptures to see what they teach about this matter of
other churches. Always- we must remember where              supporting their ministers.
they were when we first began to  labour there.  Al-
ways we have to remember what that greatest of all           What we did  not  find was that they follow us for
missionaries, the Apostle Paul, did in the churches         bread. Yes, they did ask at times for money for so
where he found evils creep in after his departure. He       and so. Rarely, very rarely do we receive a request for
found gross adultery in Corinth and terrible desecra-       self, it is for this poor widow, glasses for this one or
tion of the sacrament of Holy Communion. Did he             that one, etc. And would Belmont (and later Reading
say, Brethren, let us pull out and have nothing to do       when unavoidably by heavy rains we arrived an hour
with these people? He did not. He still called them         late) sit for an hour waiting for us when we had no
saints and wrote two lengthy epistles to them. Why?         bread in our car for them? When we gave no money,
Why did he not shake the dust off his feet and              and they asked us to come back the next night or for
abandon them? Because they were willing to listen           sure next week; when Rev. Williams with a twinkle in
even to his rebukes.                                        his eye ,said at Belmont, "We pray that God will move
                                                            Holland's congregation to let Rev. Heys stay and
  We, on several occasions, rebuked the Jamaican            teach and preach for us another six weeks; when this
churches in regard to the songs which they sing, and,       year. we did not give any money; and when over the
in our discussion sessions with them, in regard to          years they have been refused sums for buildings, etc.,
visiting other churches with strange doctrines, and in      and yet they come back, is that for bread? They pray
regard to infant baptism, holy marriage, and the sup-       and thank God that we came to bring them the truth,
porting of those who preach the Word to them. Did           not bread. Indeed, it is slow, but these brethren and
they show up in fewer numbers the next time? They           sisters in Jamaica are coming out of the shadows of
did not. They asked whether we could come back the          false doctrines and religions and into the light of the
next night or for sure next week! After a session on        glorious truth that our God has given us.
infant baptism, Elder Foster in Reading said, ."We did



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354                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE


                     Letter  tb the Members of the
                                 Church at  PhiladelDhia

                                         May 1,1977          The apostle mentions a number of specific things
                                                           in which Timothy must be such an example: word,
Dear Timothy,                                              conversation (or, as we would call it, behavior or
                                                           manner of life), love, spirit, faith, purity. While it is
  In our last letter we began a discussion of some of      not necessary for us to describe each one of these
the practical aspects of a minister's life in the par-     elements, it is interesting to note that this Scripture
sonage - especially from the viewpoint of Paul's dis-      does not make a distinction between that part of a
cussion of these things in I Timothy 4. And we began       minister's life which belongs to his official work as a
our discussion with some comments on the need of           minister of the gospel and that part which is his own
the minister to "give attendance to reading." This         personal life - at least, as far as this matter of exam-
time I want to talk about the matter of being an           ple is concerned. I recall distinctly a minister telling
example in the congregation. Paul talks about this         me, in support of conduct less than exemplary, that
also to Timothy: "Let no man despise thy youth; but        what he did in his own personal life was nobody's
be thou an example of the believers, in word, in con-      business. This is not so. A minister is an example in
versation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."    the whole of his life. And all of his life must be so
(Vs. 12.)                                                  lived that he may confidently hold up his life as a
  It might be well to talk about this verse in general     pattern for the saints to follow.
for a few moments before we get down to some                 There is a question which arises in this connection.
specific ideas on the matter.                              I recall that you once brought up the question in
  It is very striking that Paul should speak of            connection with a discussion we had on this very sub-
Timothy as being an example in connection  -with           ject over a cup of coffee. The question involved the
Timothy's youth. It is thought (though this is ad-         exercise of Christian liberty in the life of the minister.
mittedly a guess) that Timothy was about thirty years      As I recall it, our.conversation at that time had partic-.
old when Paul wrote this. Upon him had been thrust         ularly to do with this responsibility as exercised by a
the responsibility of the care of the church at            parent in the home who must be an example to his
Ephesus in which the apostle himself had labored           children. But the principle remains the same. The
diligently for a number of years. Especially in those      question comes down to this: For the sake of being
days, thirty years old was comparatively young  -          an example in the congregation, should a pastor re-
especially if we think of the fact that this was about     frain from doing certain things which, all other things
the normal time for a man to begin his active work.        being equal, he could in good conscience before God
John the Baptist was about thirty when he began his        do? Should he, in other words, curb his Christian
ministry. So was our Lord.                                 liberty-for the sake of being an example in the midst
  But the interesting point here is that Paul writes       of the flock?
this admonition to Timothy, not to the congregation          There is a certain aspect to this problem which
when he writes: "Let no man despise thy youth."            Paul himself brings up in the early verses of this
The responsibility for this falls primarily upon           chapter. Paul speaks a vehement word of condemna-
Timothy. And the idea is that Timothy must be a            tion in these verses against evil men who arise in the
good example in the congregation  in  `order that no       latter days and who, with consciences seared with a
one will despise him for being so young. And indeed,       hot iron, forbid to marry,' forbid the eating of meats,
if he walks in the congregation as a good example, the     and apparently, in general, advocate the life of an
people of God will not despise his youth but will give     ascetic. Paul says that this is all wrong. These are evil
him the respect that is due  him for the sake of his       men and they must be condemned. Every creature of
office. But if he does not walk as a good example,         God is good. And because every creature of God is
then they will#despise his youth.                          good, it must be received with thanksgiving. And


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                355


indeed, if it is received with thanksgiving, it is sancti-    the first to admit that he himself is a sinful man and
fied by the Word of God and prayer.                           that the Word of God comes to him as well as to all
                                                              the sheep. But the fact remains that he lives in the
   It is clear, therefore, that also in this respect, you     midst of the congregation as an example for all to
must be an example to the flock. You must live your           follow. God wills that this be so. His Word comes to
life in such a way that you clearly show by your              you: "Be thou an example of the believers."
conduct that you despise no good creature of God.               And in being such an example, your life must be a
And indeed, because all these creatures of God are            life which every one of the sheep may imitate - from
good, they must be used with joy, receiving them at           the weakest to the strongest of God's sheep. A shep-
the hand of the Giver of every good and perfect gift.         herd is one who calls his sheep to follow him. This is
   But there are, nevertheless, certain circumstances         the kind of shepherd you must be. Paul was not at all
in which the minister of the gospel .finds himself in         hesitant to hold up his own life by way of example to
his work in a congregation when he must curb his              the churches. For example, he writes to the Philip-
Christian liberty as he uses God's good gifts in order        pians: "Brethren, be followers (and the word here
that he may be a good example. To put it a little             means, .more literally, "imitators") together of me,
differently, a minister must be prepared to sacrifice         and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an
his own personal enjoyment for the sake of the gospel         ensample." (Phil. 3 : 17)
which he preaches. He must be willing to do without             But because you must be an example to all the
many things because of his calling to preach the              sheep - to strong. and weak, to aged and young, to
gospel. He must be willing to forego certain pleasures,       parents and children, to saints in all the varied cir-
for he must never be a stumbling block to his breth-          cumstances of their life - you must, for the sake of
ren.                                                          being an example, give up many things which you in
   And this is, after all, the point. Scripture speaks of     good conscience before God could ordinarily do.
the fact that our Christian liberty is always to be             The word which Paul uses when writing to
circumscribed by this one principle. Paul writes to the       Timothy is a Greek word from which comes our
Corinthians: "Wherefore, if meat make my brother to           English word, "type." Y,ou must be a "type" to all
offend (and the meaning here is, stumble), I will eat         those in the congregation over which God has placed
no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my             you. That is, your whole life must be a pattern ac-
brother to offend." (I Cor. 8: 13)                            cording to which all the saints may fashion their own
   That is the principle, of course, for the whole of         lives. In everything you do, you must be able to say:
Christian life. But it is a principle which applies with      "God's people over whom God has placed me may
double force to a minister of the gospel. And it is           emulate me in what I am now doing and not be guilty
clear why this is true. Every saint is, after all, more or    of any sin."
less an example to his fellow saints.-This is deter-            And at the same time you must be sure that your
mined, quite naturally, by many different circum-             people understand that every creature of God is good
stances; and some saints are more of an exam-                 and never to be refused if it be received with thanks-
ple, under given circumstances, than others. But this         giving. In this, too, you must be sure that they are
is the point behind this limitation of Christian liberty.     instructed. You are not called to live the life of an
We will not cause our brother to stumble unless we            ascetic. ,You are not to engage in some kind of world
are an example to him. But because we are an exam-            flight. You are not to leave the impression with God's
ple, it is very well possible that we, by our conduct,        people that, although you too possess certain gifts of
in the exercise of our own Christian liberty, cause our       God, you really would rather do without them, and
brother to do something in imitation of us which is           you have them only because they are necessary evils.
an offense to his own conscience. And this' we must           This is false sanctity and a hypocritical holiness which
never do.                                                     makes .of God's gifts something abhorrent. By de-
   It is this principle which applies to ministers with       spising God's gifts, you despise the Giver Who gave
so much force. They are examples to the,whole  con-           them. Be thankful for them and enjoy them-as you
gregation because of the unique position which they           sanctify them by the word of God and prayer.
occupy in relation to the flock over which God has              Well, we are nearly at the end of another letter. We
placed them. Because they must come to the sheep of           can talk about some of the particulars of this calling
God with God's Word, they are looked to as examples           to be an example in future letters. Let me hear from
of the life which the Word of God enjoins. It may             you if you have any questions.
very well be that the congregation expects from her
pastor as leader and shepherd a life which is near to           May God bless you.
perfection. And this is expecting too much. A shep-                                                      Fraternally,
herd who is conscientious about his work is always                                                          H. Hanko


 356                                               THE STANDARD BEARER


ALL AROUND US



                               "What must I do to be saved?"
 Southern Presbyterians Reject Proposed Constitution . .  ."

                                                        Rev. G. Van Baren


         "WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?"                              This view is hardly consistent with Reformed
                                                                  thought (though Stob claims support from several
   One comes to expect anything nowadays from                     staunch Calvinists). AU irrfants, dying in infancy, shall
theologians and professors in Reformed seminaries                 be saved? One wonders what happens with the view
and pulpits. The sad fact is that strange teachings               of total depravity in this case, and the truth of original
hardly create a ripple anymore. An example o$ such                guilt of which all born in this earth possess. This view
appeared recently in an article in the Christian Re-              must presuppose a certain pelagianism (that all those
formed Banner of February 11, 1977. It was written                born on the earth are without sin - but only become
by professor, emeritus, Henry Stob who has assisted               sinners through their own actions), or it must suggest
in the teaching of a generation of preachers. And of              that the death of Christ removed all of original guilt
all places, it appeared in a rubric entitled: "Test the           from all men, or a combination of such views. The
Spirits." His article was called: "Christianity and               view of predestination is also ignored, as is the
Other Religions." Dr. Stob <writes ably and presents              scriptural view of the covenant. God calls His people
some very good points. He arrives, however, at some               of believers and their spiritual seed. Surely these
very strange; un-Reformed, antiscriptural conclusions.            views are ignored in the proposition set forth by
At the end of the article, he confronts the question of           Stob.
the "fate of those who die without knowing Jesus                     But other questions arise. What of the infants who
Christ and without making any profession of His                   died in the flood, or in the destruction of Sodom and
name." His question is: "Are all those who have not               Gomorrah? Did all such infants go to heaven, too?
known the name of Jesus, and all those who have not               According to the viewpoint,of Stob, the answer must
acknowledged the Galilean as the world's Redeemer,                be that. they did. One might almost then say, "What a
consigned to hell?"                                               wonderful thing that God sent this flood!. Thus hun-
  The article points out that saints of the Old Testa-            dreds of thousands of infants were also brought to
ment were saved in Christ - even though they "had                 heaven  - who otherwise might have been lost eter-
no conception or image of the historical Savior."                 nally in hell!" The flood, then, would have been the
That statement itself is hardly accurate. It is true that         means not only to save righteous Noah and his fam-
they had no conception of the historical Savior as we             ily, but perhaps millions of infants as well! Yet Scrip-
presently do in light of the New Testament scrip &es;             ture hardly speaks that way. We read, in Gen. 7: 1,
yet they surely had a proper conception of the Savior             "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all
in light of the Word of God spoken to them through                thy house into the ark; for thee have.1 seen righteous
prophets (cf. Is. 53 for instance), and given by means            before me in this generation." There God identifies
of the types and shadows (the temple, altar, etc.).               Noah as righteous - but also distinguishes him from
The other parts of his answer, however, are far more              all his generation in that respect. That can only be
disturbing. He speaks of children who die in infancy:             regarded as God's judgment also of those infants who
                                                                  drowned in the flood.          _
        It is likewise universally acknowledged that the
    children of believing parents who die in infancy are
   without their knowledge, and without confession,                 And what does Scripture teach of Sodom and
   and even without baptism, received into heaven. It is          Gomorrah? When Abraham pleaded with God to
   also held by such Calvinists as B.B. Warfield, Charles         preserve the city for the sake of the righteous, and
   Hodge, Robert Breckenridge, Robert Candlish,  and              God agreed even if as few as ten righteous were found
   others, (whose opinion I share) that all who die in            there  (Gen.  18:32), the cities were nevertheless
   infancy, whether born of believing parents or not, are         destroyed. Counting the infants, as Stob would have
   children of God and enter at once into Hi! glory.              to' do, the number would surely have exceeded ten


                                                    THE STANDARD  BEARER                                            357


many times over. Did the infants who died in the                also saved; But is not this ever the approach of the
                                                                    _.  -.
destruction of those cities go to heaven? They did not         heretic? Does he not cleverly instill doubt in the
- if God's judgment of those cities was correct. And           minds of the child of God by way of question? Didn't
for myself I would far rather take God's judgment              Arminius and his followers do this when they wrote
than that of Stob - though admittedly, Stob's judg-             the five articles of the Remonstrants - especially in
ment is more appealing to the flesh!                            connection with the truth of preservation of the
  Besides, if Stob's position were correct, one could           saints? These did not deny the truth of preservation
wish and pray for many disasters, catastrophes, wars            - but Ieft it an open question. Did not even Satan
on this earth  - so that many more infants of un-               himself `do this in Paradise when he asked, "Yea did
believers might enter heaven. Though it might sound             God say that ye might not eat of every tree of the
absurd, one could even rejoice in the actions of Hitler         garden?" By asking the question, one can not pin a
in killing many Jewish infants (with their  .parents)           heresy on another. Yet the heretic has the oppor-
who now will be in heaven! The suggestion, of Stob              tunity to instill his evil suggestion in the minds of
certainly does not harmonize with Scripture.                    others. Let Stob either affirm outrightly or deny the
                                                                proposition. To come in the form of a question is
  But Stob points out something which, to me, is.far            devious,and deceitful. Nor let him claim the omnipo-
more disturbing. Stob does say, "Missionary work is             tence of God as the basis of the possibility he sug-
necessary  because the natural man is lost without              gests. That is as preposterous as claiming that God,
Christ, no man being able to be saved by even the               Who is omnipotent, can will to sin if He would. God
most diligent observance of the prescriptions of the            can not, do what is contrary to His nature and Word.
ethnic faiths." However, he, does not consistently
maintain this. He includes a disturbing suggestion:               But can not Stob know for sure? If he believes the
                                                                infallible Scriptures, he can. Remember the cry of the
      The fate of others who, not knowing the Christ in
   His historical concreteness, remained external adher-        Philippian jailor, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
   ents of pagan or heathen cults (as, e.g., Socrates): and     And what did Paul answer? "Don't worry! The Holy
   the fate of those who, having heard of the Christ,           Spirit bloweth where He listeth! A good man as
   made no public profession of His name and continued          yourself can easily, perhaps, be saved just the way
   to bear some non Christian label (as, e.g., Ghandi) -        you are!" But what saith the Scripture? `Believe on
   the fate of these must be left in the hands of God; we       the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy
   are not here entitled to enter into judgment. We are         house." There is no other way. Or, in Romans 10:9,
   only to remember that God is sovereignly free in His         13-15, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
   election and that the Spirit of God bloweth where He         the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
   listeth.                                                     God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
      The one thing we are authorized to declare with           saved . . . . For whosoever shall call upon the name of
    certainty is this: If anyone is saved, it is because of     the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on
   what God did in Jesus Christ, who by His birth,              him in whom they have not believed? And how shall
   death, resurrection, ascension, and kingly session be-       they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
   came the only Savior that lost sinners will ever have;       And how shall they hear without a preacher? And
   who, in short, is and will ever remain the one and
   only mediator between God and man.                           how shall they preach, except they be sent?" Or did
                                                                not Jesus say to Nicodemus, "He that believeth on
  This is nothing short of astounding! Stob at least            Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
suggests the possibility of salvation of those who have         condemned already, because he hath not believed in
never believed! And he comes with this suggestion on            the name of the only begotten Son of God"? (John  1
the basis that God can do anything ("sovereignly free           3: 18). And are there not many other similar passages?
in His election") and that the Spirit works in ways
other than we might expect ("Spirit bloweth where                 `No, Stob; Socrates and Ghandi are not irrheaven.
He listeth"). Though I hesitate to state it, one can              How long can this sort of thing be taught  or.im-
only conclude that this is nothing short of blas-               plied unopposed - and still a church retain its name
phemy. It attributes to God the works which are of              "Reformed"?
the devil Stob refers here not merely to "common
grace" but to a "saving grace" which will lead these            'SOUTH~RNP~~BYTERIAN~REJE~
unbelievers nevertheless to heaven! That is a terrible          PROPOSliDCONSTITUTION
doctrine!' And a generation of preachers, presumably,             From Christianity Today, Mar. 4, 1977, (and many
was taught this under Stob!                                     other magazines) comes the report that the
  It is true that Stob does not affirm the above to be          Presbyterian Church U.S. (Southern Presbyterian) has
undoubtedly the case. He presents a theory which he             officially rejected its proposed new confession. This is
is ready neither to affirm nor deny. It remains merely          particularly surprising since many of the "conserva-
a possibility in Stob's mind that some unbelievers are          tives" of that denomination left to form the  Presby-


358                                            THE  STANDARD,BEARER


terian Church in America. To approve such a docu-            two-thirds approval). And there will be a  resub-
ment, three-fourths of the districts (similar to our         mission of this constitution or confession; perhaps
classis) must approve. To date, more than a fourth           with certain changes to gain additional votes, in the
have rejected it. Many of the votes were extremely           future.
close. Those seeking a new confession, however, will            The rejection of this new confession throws doubt
not cease their efforts. The attempt to gain approval        upon the success of the proposed union between the
in the future will have a two-pronged approach. There
will be a continuing attempt to change the constitu-         southern and northern Presbyterian churches. The
tional demand that three fourths approval of change          United Presbyterian Church (in the north) had
is required (perhaps lowering the requirement to             adopted a new confession about ten years ago.


                                          Book Reviews

I BELIEVE IN THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS.                      in this way. They accept the truth of the infallible
by George Eldon Ladd; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing             inspiration of Scripture on the basis of Scripture's
Company; 156 pp., $2.95 (paper) (Reviewed by Prof.           own testimony. They do this by faith. They believe
H. Hanko)                                                    without question, on the basis of Scripture's testimony
  This book is one of a series of books which Eerd-          of itself, that Scripture is God's Word. This does not
mans is in the process of publishing, edited by              mean that they show no interest in literary and his-
Michael Green, and intended "to take a fresh look at         torical questions; they do. But their examination of
controversial areas of the Christian faith." The author      these literary and historical questions is not to prove
of this book is professor of New Testament in Fuller         Scripture's trustworthiness; it is an examination with-
Theological Seminary.                                        in the confines of Scripture's trustworthiness. Their
                                                             fundamental presupposition of faith is that Scripture
  George Ladd has given us an interesting and worth-         cannot err. And all the historical and literary data of
while book in many respects. His purpose is primarily        Scripture must be explained and interpreted within
to substantiate historically the fact of the bodily          the context of infallible inspiration.
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To
accomplish this, he examines in some detail all the           I belong to the latter group. Ladd belongs to the
various theories which have been proposed over the           former group. We part ways at this critical juncture,
centuries to explain the empty tomb and the faith of         and the result is that, while. our conclusions may in
the New Testament Church. He gives special attention         some instances be the same, they are in other im-
to those who, on the basis of literary and historical        portant instances quite different.
criticism, deny the resurrection of Christ as a bodily         Ladd indeed believes in the bodily resurrection of
resurrection from the dead. But he discusses all these       Christ. He even says in more than `one .place in the
views in a way in which anyone can understand them.          book that faith is necessary to believe this truth. But
He is also intent on showing the total importance of         at the same time, on the basis of his approach, he
this truth for the Christian faith.                          denies infallible inspiration. In fact, in all the book
  Nevertheless, I was not happy with this book. I am         there is not so much as one word breathed concerning
aware of the fact that there is serious disagreement         the inerrancy of the Scriptures. The veracity of the
among  evangelicals on the whole question of  Her-           Scriptures is weighed much as one would weigh the
meneutics. There is a large number of evangelical            truthfulness of any book in a court of law. So he
scholars (perhaps the majority) whose approach to            comes to several conclusions with which I can never
Scripture is basically the approach of those critics who     agree. He freely admits that there are errors in the
examine the Scriptures from the viewpoint of literary        record of Scripture, even in the records of the resur-
and historical criticism. They examine even the truth        rection. The gospel narrators do not always agree on
concerning inspiration from this viewpoint. That is,         details, and one or more may have erred. He speaks of
only if there is, after a careful literary and historical    the whole of the New Testament as based solely on
examination of the Scriptures, sufficient reason to          traditions in the early Church which were orally
accept the Scriptures as true will they do so. If they       passed on from eyewitnesses to others, and from
are evangelical, they do, more or less, arrive at the        them to yet others or to the writers of Scripture. He
conclusion that Scripture is indeed true, but their          accepts the theory that both Matthew and Luke are
reasons are less than satisfactory. Others, and they are     dependent upon Mark's gospel in their writings.Etc.
probably in the minority, do not come to Scripture             Why is it that evangelical scholars are so frightened


                                                   THE STANDARD BEARER                                             359


by the truth that God could have revealed to the              by higher critics and would be somewhat more fright-
apostles and writers of Scripture what they could not         ened ,by:.an angry God Who will not leave unpunished
have known apart from direct revelation? I do not             those who will not believe His Word.
understand this fear. I have no doubt that it is true
that some of what the writers wrote they received
from others. But even then, they were infallibly
guided in their writings so that they were preserved          COMM,ENTARY   ON  ROMANS  Martin Luther
from error. But Scripture is clear that this was not          (translated and condensed by J. Theodore Mueller),
always the case. Ladd insists that when Paul says in          Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 223
Gal. 1 that he received his gospel not from men but           pp., $4.95. [Reviewed by Prof. H.C. Hoeksema]
from God, this nevertheless means that he received it            This is a reprint of a work originally published in
from the apostles with whom he had contact in                 1954 by Zondervan Publishing House.
Jerusalem. But Galatians 1 is exactly a refutation of
this. "But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel              To this reviewer the value of this book does not lie
which was preached of me is not after man. For I              so much in its exposition of the Epistle to the  Ro-
neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but      mans. It is not without value in this respect, to be
by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Gal. 1: 11, `12. Paul     sure. Nevertheless, as a commentary  - as its very
recounts his brief stay in Jerusalem just exactly to          brevity of 223 pages will tell you - it is rather scant.
show that his contacts with the apostles were too             Besides,. it is not the work of the mature Luther:
short and too limited for him to have received his            Luther began his lectures on Romans in 15 15. And
gospel from them. The same thing is true of I Cor.            besides that, this is a condensed and abridged edition.
11:23: "For I have received of the Lord that which            Anyone who is interested `in the complete comments
also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the            of Luther will have to turn to the rather recently
same night in which he was betrayed took                      completed English edition of the complete works of
bread . . . ." To anyone who can read the English             Martin Luther. However, to purchase the latter is
language this means that Paul did not receive this            beyond  `the means of most people; and to borrow
information concerning the institution of the Lord's          these volumes from a library is not always possible or
Supper from anyone else but the Lord Himself. It did          practical.
not come to Paul by oral tradition from the apostles.           The value of this book is historical, in the first
  The seriousness of this position is clear from              place.  It furnishes an insight into the way in which
Ladd's own words. He writes on p. 140:                        the Reformation took place, first of all, in Luther's
                                                              own mind and heart. For do not forget that it w.as
       But  ~"historical  reasoning" has not provided an      through  /his study of Romans that Luther arrived at
    adequate explanation for the rise of the resurrection     an understanding- of "the righteousness which is of
    faith. Therefore, historical reasoning reinforces my      God" and of theblessed truth of justification by faith.
    Christian convictions, if it does not prove them.         And, as is plain from the date of these comments on
    There must be critical interaction between my Chris-
    tian faith and my historical critical faculties.  Tke     Romans, 15 15, this pre-dated the Reformation. In
   present author is ready to admit that if historians        the second place, the value of this condensed com-
   came up with a completely convincing "historical"          mentary is somewhat devotional; and as such it will
    explanation of the resurrection faith, his evangelical    furnish.  the reader a taste of Luther, a taste which
   faith would be shaken. "                                   might inspire him to read more of Luther's writings.
  I want Ladd to know that though all the critics in            The book is enhanced by a preface by Dr. Mueller
the world agree on a theory which can explain the             and by the inclusion of Luther's own Introduction,
data of the resurrection in a way other than that             written in 1552.
Christ bodily arose, and can make the theory so                 Recommended.
plausible that all the world should believe it, I still
believe with all my heart that Christ arose bodily
from the dead by the power of God. I believe this
because God says, in His Word, that it is true!
  Ladd shows after all that any other grounds for
believing the truth of Scripture than faith in God's
infallible Word are treacherous grounds which, sooner
or later, will lead to a denial of that fundamental
truth of the Christian faith.
  Would that evangelical scholars would be much less
frightened by the charges of lack of scholarship raised

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



                                                                                                                            I      :,
                                                                                                                                    .:
                                                                    ~__~
                                 ______~_         __      ~~~-_-





360                                          THE STANDARD'BEARER


                                News  Frorrm Our Churches
  Rev. David Engelsma, pastor of our church in                              The young people's societies in our Hudsonville
South Holland, Illinois, has received a call from our                Church decided to make it their project to pay for
new congregation in Houston, Texas, to be their first                     the sign in front of their new church. To accomplish
pastor.                                                                   this goal, a committee was busy contacting all the
  The Reformed Witness Committee in Northwest                       young people in the congregation in an attempt to
Iowa and Minnesota has sponsored a series of three                        raise the $700 cost of the new sign.
lectures this spring in Runals Memorial Hall in Edger-                      A Quiet Thought from the Southeast bulletin: "He
ton, Minnesota, on the general theme of Re.cognizing                  who has no desire- to be in the company of God's
the Signs of the Times. The topics and speakers were                  people on the Sabbath, will not be among them when
as follows, "Old Creeds  - Right for these Last                       the Lord comes to claim His own  - unless by the
Days?" (March 17,  Rev.+ Marvin Kamps). "Faithful                     grace of God they repent." .
Preaching - Do We Still Need It?`: (March 3 1, Rev.                                                                    K. G. V.
James Slopsema). "Biblical Discipline - Too Con-
servative for Today?" (April 14, Rev. Mark                                                Report of Classis  East
Hoeksema).                                                                                Held April 6, 19 77 at
  Edgerton also scheduled a "Men's-Ladies' Social"                                     Southeast Prot. Refi Church
on Monday, April 4. There was to be a discussion on                        ,Classis East met in regular session on April 6th at
"Baptism on the Mission Field" and also special                      Southeast Church. The business was routine. There
numbers from the Men's and Ladies' Societies. All the                were no pressing problems for the churches. Each
adults of the congregation were invited to attend this               church was represented by two delegates. Rev. G.
meeting. The bulletin announcement did not say, but                  Van Baren presided at this session. Noteworthy was
I have a suspicion that coffee and other suitable                    the fact that four elders were in attendance at classis
refreshments were served at this meeting.                           for the first time and signed the Formula of Subscrip-
                                                                     tion.
  The Western Ladies' League meeting, was scheduled
for April 2 1 at  1:OO PM in Hull, Iowa. Rev. Mark                         In its business for the day, the Finance Committee,
Hoeksema's topic was "Molding Christian Character                    composed of Elders J. Kalsbeek and C. Kregel, re-
In the Home." In the east, it would be very unusual                  ported and  classis approved expenses of $363.40.
to hold a public meeting such as this at a time other                Revs. Heys and C. Hanko were elected as church vis-
than a weekday evening, but in the west an afternoon                 itors, the reports of the Stated Clerk and the Classical
meeting is not too unusual.                                          Committee were heard. Covenant Church of Wyckoff,
                                                                     New Jersey requested permission to ask the churches
  The  Classis East Office Bearer's Conference was                   in  Classis East for collections to help them in their
held on April  .5 at Southeast Church. Rev. Ronald                   building project.  Classis also extended to these
Van Overloop's topic was "Our Responsibility to the                  brethren the privilege of approaching synod for the
Church and School vs. Our Responsibility to the                      purpose of .making a' similar request to the churches
Family." This is a topic of no little interest to many               0fsClassis West.
men in our churches who often find themselves
spending many evenings away from their families                            After the asking and answering of the questions of
while busy with the work of the church and Christian                 Article 41 of the Church Order and the closing re-
school.                                                              marks of the chairman, classis stood adjourned. Rev.
                                                                     J.A. Heys closed the meeting with prayer. Classis will
  The Eastern Ladies' League and the, Men's League                   meet next in July at Southwest Church.
have scheduled a combined meeting in Hudsonville
Church on April 26. Rev. B. Woudenberg was.asked                     Respectfully submitted,
                                                                     1
to  speak,on "The Victory of the Church in the Life                  Jon Huisken
of Its Members."                                                     Stated Clerk


