        BEARER :
          A   REFORMED  S E M I-MONTHLY  MAGAZINE





                                                                                     .
I                                                         .d    -l           .  ,    ,d-Lh


`.Jh
        e   k
          oia im. cut it up and threw of: L~LU
     the fire. During  the  Dark  Ages it  cd-
     lected. dust in libraries.  During the In-
     quisition, men were burned at the stake
     for  reading it. And today.  it is mutilated
     by perverse paraphrases, and dissected
     by higher critics. Yet, through it a& we
      have the  Bible,. and  trtie believers are
      strengthened  in their  faith by it. God
      preserved His Word for us.
                         See "Our Appeal to Scripture?'
                                                                       -Page 424

                                                     Volume LIII, No. 18, July 1, 1977
                                                                                          J I


410                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                               .Ssmi-monthly.   exceot  monthly  durino  June.  July.  and  Auoust.
                                                                               Published  bythe  Reformed  Free  Publishing.Asro;istion.   I&.
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                                                                            Editor-in-Chief: Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema  ~_             .
                                                                            Department Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker. Rev.  0avid.J.   Engelsma,
                                                                            Rev. Cornelius Hanko. Prof. Herman Hanko. Rev. Robert C.  liarbach.
Meditation  -                                                               .iey.  John A.  Heys,  Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. M. Hoeksema. Rev.
                                                                            George C. Lubbers, Rev.  Meindert  Joostenr, Rev.  Marmus   Schipper.
                                                                            Rev.  Gise.  J. Van  Baren.  Rev. Herman  Veldman.  Mr. Kenneth  G. Vink.
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MEDITATION


                                            The Girdle  or  ~rutn
                                                                Rev. H. Veldman

                                     "`Stand therefore, having your loins  girt about with truth. "
                                                                                         Eph. 6:14a


   Beginning in verse 14, the apostle calls our atten-                       Indeed, the Christian's warfare is primarily defensive,
tion to the Christian's panoply, or armour. Paul also                        not to gain the whole world, but to hold fast what we
calls attention to this  armour in I Thess. 5. Here,                         have.
however, we have a complete description of it.                                                                    **is***
   The apostle writes this epistle while in prison at                          I The girdle, although properly speaking not a
Rome. Is it possible that the Roman legionary, while                         weapon at all, is mentioned first because of its
guarding him, is sitting here, although unaware of it,                       primary significance. It was a military belt, fastened
for his own portrait?                                                         around the soldier's loins or waist, with which he
   This Christian armour is almost entirely defensive.                       bound in his undergarments that there be nothing
The only offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit.                        loose or trailing behind him; and it braced up his


                                               THE STANDARD  BEARE'R                                               411



limbs for action. The soldier did not wear a long            without ,God, in the midst of the world. The Church
garment but a short tunic. The belt held this tunic in       is pro-God, loves and seeks the Lord, would live unto
place. Also, to the belt were attached the sword and         His glory, and knows that this kingdom of God,
the thorax or breastplate. The girdle, therefore, was        established in and through Christ Jesus, will not be
designed to keep the whole armour in place.                  realized ultimately until we have new heavens and a
   It is obvious from the text that this girdle repre-       new earth. Hence, the world lives the lie. They seek a
sents the truth. Some would interpret this truth sub-        righteousness of their own, and this righteousness
jectively, our knowledge and belief of the truth of the      does not exist. They seek life apart from God, but
scriptures. This interpretation is based upon verse 17.      apart from God is death. They seek happiness and
It is claimed that the Word of God in verse 17 is the        peace in the way of sin, but the wages of sin is death.
Bible, and that therefore this girdle cannot refer to        They live in a dream world; their wisdom is folly,
the Bible because then we would have two weapons             their glory is shame, their life is death. They live the
meaning the same thing. We must surely distinguish           lie, are enemies of God and of His kingdom.
between this girdle and the sword of the Spirit.               The Bible is the truth. The Bible is the Word of
   We cannot accept this interpretation. First, it rests     God. And God is the God of truth. All these weapons
solely upon the assumption that the Word of God in           of the Christian's armour are real, will never put us to
verse 17 is the Bible. Should this interpretation of         shame. In our struggle we live, not in a dream world,
verse 17 fall away, this entire argument would fall          but in a world of reality, characterized by the living
away. It is surely better to explain verse 17 in the         God. The breastplate of righteousness,  the'shoes  of
light of verse 14 than to explain verse 14 in the light      the preparation of the gospel of peace, etc., are the
of verse 17. Secondly, we must not interpret the             salvation of God, wrought for us in Christ Jesus and
truth here merely in the objective sense. After all, we      by His Spirit in our hearts. To Him we cling; in His
must gird our loins about with the truth. And this           kingdom we have a name and place and in His battle
surely implies that this truth must also live within us.     we are engaged; the Lord will never put us to shame.
Otherwise we have nothing else than cold dogmatism             How important it is that we gird our loins about
and intellectualism. And, thirdly, we cannot accept          with this girdle of the truth! Negatively, this text
this interpretation in the light of Scripture. Acc.ording    warns us against two dangerous errors. First, it denies
to Ps. 119: 105 God's Word is a lamp before our feet         all Rationalism. Now the scriptures are surely ration-
and a light upon our path. Also pertinent is surely the      al. The Word of God is not in conflict with our rea-
word of  God  of 2 Tim. 3: 16-17. In this text the           son. Just because something is above my reason, can-
underlying thought is that of the Christian soldier          not be comprehended by me, does not mean that it is-
who must be thoroughly furnished. How is this man of         in conflict with it. It is surely not irrational, contrary
God thoroughly furnished or equipped? And then we            to my thinking, that God can do and does things I
read that all of Scripture is inspired unto this end, _,,    cannot understand. Rationalism is that sin of the
  Indeed, we must believe the truth-of  the-Word of          natural man which exalts the natural mind above the
God. However, there is no spiritual knowledge, belief        scriptures. It does not subject the mind to the Bible
of the truth in the consciousness of the Christian           but it exalts the mind above the Bible. Rationalism
warrior, except as in constant contact with the Bible,       believes things, not because the Bible sets them forth,
the written Word of God. Indeed, the Bible is the            but because it can understand them. It is sin's most
truth.                                                       abominable conceit, also because, in reality, the
  The world lives the lie. We are engaged with the           natural man never accepts things because he can
world in mortal combat. Of this struggle we read in          understand them, as in the world of harvesting.
our context, as in the verses 10 through 12. What is           This Rationalism is surely denied by this word of
the issue here, the real cause, the underlying principle     God. We must gird our loins about with the truth, the
and motive of this hatred of the world against the           truth of the Word of God. If we fail to do this, we
church of God? Christ suffered the same opposition           will never be able to cope with the wiles of the devil.
- why? Surely, the world does not hate us simply             Fact is, as far as my natural mind is concerned, all
because it would take from us the things of the              things appear to be against us.
world. Fact is, the world offers us all the riches and         Secondly, this scripture is also the denial of all
kingdoms of the world. The issue here is: GOD! This          false Mysticism. Indeed, there is a certain sound
was the issue in Paradise. Man would be as God. It           mysticism. God surely speaks in our hearts and soul;
was also the issue as it involved the Christ. The world      He convicts us of sin and grants us the assurance and
is anti-God, hates God and all that is connected with        joy of salvation. False Mysticism, however, em-
Him. The world loves sin, lives in rebellion against the     phasizes this inner speaking of the Lord at the cost of
Lord, seeks to establish its own kingdom, without            His Word and testimony. It drives a wedge between
God, in which it can live unmolested its own life,           this inner speaking or voice of God and the holy


412                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


scriptures. It and Rationalism have this in common:          near them. This we will do if we love the Word of
both deny the scriptures. False Mysticism views the          God.
Bible to be a dead letter; everything depends upon             Are we girding ourselves with the truth? This
the inner voice. Now this, too, is surely denied in this     applies to all of us. What an abundance of spiritual
word of God. We must gird our loins about with the           literature we have! What a rich access to the scrip-
truth. The Bible alone is and must be our constant           tures! 0, we have money and time for so many things
strength in the battle.                                      that are of the world, its amusements and pleasures,
  Positively, we must gird our loins about with the          etc. We have so little time for the Word of God.
truth. According to the translation, we must have our        Do we read? We surely read. But what do we read?
loins girt about with the truth. The idea, then, is          How much do we read? Do our young people and
passive. Literally, however, we must gird our loins          children read? And what do they read? Where are
about with it. We must put on this belt.                     they when they are not at home? Think of all the
                                                             spiritual literature that is available, such as our
  This does not mean that we must simply do this             Standard Bearer, Beacon Lights and so many books
theoretically, dogmatically. We must not simply know         and pamphlets! How often do we discuss with our
all about the. scriptures, however important this            children the Battle of the Ages, this struggle against
theoretic knowledge may be. But, mere intellectual           the wiles of the devil and the spiritual powers in high
knowledge will never enable us to fight and suffer and       places? How often do we discuss our weaknesses and
persevere; then we will surely flee from the struggle as     the need of the truth, the Word of God, to lead and
soon as we are personally in danger. Indeed, we must         guide us?
gird ourselves spiritually, experientially, by faith.         : Let us, therefore, put on this belt, this girdle. Let
That Word must be our strength in the battle; upon it        us know the scriptures. That is the calling of everyone
we must rely and trust; to it we must cling in the
midst of the fight; it we must know and appropriate          of us. Indeed, there is none exempt; we all, young
                                                             and old, are so desperately in need of. the Word of
unto ourselves; it must carry us, by faith and through       God. May we study them, with the prayer that they
prayer.                                                      may more and more be a lamp before our feet and a
  This girdle is one of the utmost importance. It is         light upon our path, that we may know them, in-
the first "weapon" mentioned by the apostle Paul. In         tellectually and spiritually. Study them, personally
this girdle are included all the other weapons that          and also collectively, in all our society meetings,.in all
follow. If this girdle falls away, everything falls away.    our social visits, ever comforting, edifying, and
Indeed, the natural man trusts in an arm of flesh, in        strengthening one another, in order that we may put
horses and chariots. But the Christian warrior puts all      on the whole  armour of God, may live out of His
his trust and confidence in the Word of God.                 entire arsenal.
                           *****                               Gird yourselves with the truth.
                                                               Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
  Let us gird ourselves with this girdle of truth. Let       might.
us equip ourselves thoroughly with the scriptures.             And the victory is sure, only because of God's
This implies that we read them, study them, always be        sovereign grace.

                                             Editor's Notes
  Blunder. We hope that all our readers realize that         of the Reformed Church in America will be con-
there was a serious blunder in the editorial columns         tinued in the August 1 issue.
of the June 1 issue. Part of my second editorial,                                    *****
which was an introduction to our critique of "Our
Song of Hope," was foolishly and inexcusably printed           Reduced schedule. As is customary, the Standard
as though it were a continuation of the first editorial.     sharer appears only once per month during the sum-
The title appearing on page 391 should appear at the         mer.
beginning of the first paragraph of column 2 on page                                 *es*:*
390. Responsibility for this blunder belongs not to            Reminder. Have you mailed your pre-publication
us, but to our typesetter, Photo Composition Co.             order for When ISuwey . . . ? In case you mislaid the
                           *****                             envelope which we furnished, any envelope will do.
  Postponement.  Due to lack of space, the critique          Mail your order (check for $8.40 enclosed) to Re-
of "Our Song of Hope" will not be continued in this          formed Free Publishing Association, P.O. Box 2006,
issue. The discussion of this proposed new confession        Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                               413


EDITORIAL



                                Seminary Graduation

                                               Prof: H. C. Hoeksema





  Not since 1974 has there been a graduate from the        Three years ago, at the request of the Free Reformed
seminary department of our Theological School. That        Church of North America, we agreed to train two
in `itself was sufficient reason why the commence-          students from that denomination. Messrs. Carl
ment program of our seminary constituted a highlight        Schouls and Peter Vander Meyden, both from
of our recent synodical meetings. Personally, I always      Canada, also had successfully completed our regular
find such a graduation program to be a rather pleas-       theological course, had also passed several compre-
ant interlude during synod  - especially when I can         hensive written examinations, and therefore were
relax and listen to a colleague deliver the address, as     entitled to diplomas as non-licentiate students. Later
was the case this year. And this year was no  ex-          this year they will undergo further examination in
cep tion.                                                  their own denomination with a view to candidacy.
   In fact, there was something special about this            To a large audience in the beautiful auditorium of
year's graduation: it was a first in the history of our     our Hudsonville Church  - an audience which also
Theological School. First of all, Mr. Kenneth Koole (a     included a goodly number of visitors from the Free
son of our former  Creston Church, and now a                Reformed Church - Prof. Hanko delivered a very fit-
member of Hope Church in the Grand Rapids area)             ting address, a transcript of which you will find else-
successfully completed his course at school, very          where in this issue.
acceptably passed his examinations at synod, and was          All in all, it was a memorable evening.
declared a candidate for the ministry in our Protes-
tant Reformed Churches. Soon, the Lord willing,               The photo of the graduates (1, to r., Carl Schouls,
another minister of the gospel will be added to the        Peter Vander Meyden, and Kenneth Koole) is cour-
ranks of our Protestant Reformed ministry. That is         tesy of Rev. Van Baren.
reason for rejoicing and thanksgiving. In addition to         Congratulations and the Lord's blessing to our
Mr. Koole, however, there were two more graduates.         graduates!


414                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY


                                               Contribution


Dear Editor in Chief,                                         Synod could have included to also take into
  In your editorial in the Standard Bearer, Feb. 15,        account our confessions, although our confessions are
1977, page 222, you wrote that it was your con-             never of equal value with the Divine Scriptures, Art. 7
viction that the synod of 1975 misled our study             Belgic Confession.
committee when it referred them first to take into            This statement in your editorial ought to be
account the Biblical doctrine, particularly the New         rejected.
Testament passages. You mention that this has never                                        Yours in Christ,
been the Reformed method, that it must be kept in                                          Thys Feenstra
mind that we already have an interpretation of Scrip-
ture in our confessions, both those of a major order        Reply
and those of a minor order. To these we should turn         1. I'll go you one better, and include the Old Testa-
first in the consideration of any question of this kind.      ment in that commentary, too.
  This may all be true, but we do not believe that          2: Nevertheless, good Reformed methodology turns
our synod of 1975 misled our study committee when            first to the confessions. There you find the Biblical
it referred them first to take into account the Biblical      doctrine.  In our churches, if it is not Reformed
doctrine, particularly the New Testament passages. We        j according to the confessions, neither is it Scrip-
believe that the Word of God is always first, and we         tural. Proof? Consult the Formula of Subscription.
believe that the whole of the New Testament and
especially the Acts of the Apostles is a commentary         3. For me, the only exception to this rule is matters
in regard to mission work. It is indeed a lamp unto           which are "extra confessional," that is, not spoken
our feet. Synod of 1975 did not mislead our study             of in the confessions.
committee when it referred them first to take into           The statement, therefore,.ought to stand.
account the Biblical doctrine particularly the New
Testament passages.                                                                                            HCH





                                        Synod of' 911

                                                 Rev. G. Van Baren



  The Synod of 1977 now exists only in history. It          adequately met when the wonderful ladies of the
met this year in the new and beautiful edifice of           Hudsonville congregation prepared outstanding meals
Hudsonville,  Mich. Protestant Reformed Church. It          for the delegates and visitors. They surely deserve a
had as its inspirational speaker the Rev. C. Hanko,         word of thanks and appreciation from all those who
pastor of Hudsonville church - and president of the         enjoyed these meals.
last (1976) Synod. He spoke from God's Word found
in Rev. 3: 11  - and admonished also our Synod to            The first day of Synod involves the appointment of
"Hold Fast That Thou Hast." It was surely a fitting         four committees which then meet the rest of that day
Word for Synod which had to treat many important            and evening to study the material assigned to them
matters. And the physical needs of the Synod were           and prepare advice for the Synod. On Thursday and


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                              415



  Friday, the larger portion of the days were devoted to      decide to send two more emissaries to Jamaica for
  the examination of Mr. K. Koole. Those who witness          further evaluation of the field. It also decided to
  such an examination for the first time might regard it      continue to give financial assistance as in the past.
  somewhat as a "third degree" treatment. Perhaps the         The reports suggested that the fund for the living and
  student thinks so, too. At least, one of the students       travel expenses of the ministers on the island has a
  who expect, D.V., to graduate two years hence, was          sizable deficit. (A total annual contribution `of only
  heard to remark, "I'm glad we'll have five examined         some $5.00 per family will meet the need. Perhaps all
  together so that each will have many less questions to      the churches can see to this.)
  answer." At any rate, student Koole gave an excellent         The Synod treated a protest of Mr. T. Feenstra
  account of himself, passed the examination, and was         who objected to the fact that last year the Synod
  approved as candidate in the churches. He is eligible       gave tacit approval to our emissaries to New Zealand
  for call after July 3, 1977.                                and Australia preaching in the various churches they
    Graduation exercises were held in our Hudsonville         visited. The Synod rejected this protest, pointing out
  church the following Tuesday. Prof. H. Hanko                to Mr. Feenstra that the ministers in our churches
' addressed- the three graduates (two from the Free           have done this frequently throughout our history  -
  Reformed Church), reminding them of the im-                 preaching in other churches while clearly not placing
  portance of the truth of predestination in the preach-      themselves under the jurisdiction of the consistories
  ing of the gospel.                                          of these churches. In this, the emissaries did nothing
    A few items were treated by Synod the first week          more than the Synod of 1974 mandated them to do.
  of its meeting, but most of the business of Synod was         That which received the greatest share of Synod's
  conducted the second week, from Monday until                attention was the report presented first to the Synod
  Friday, 10:00 a.m.                                          of 1976, and referred back to the churches for a
    The work of missions occupied much of the time            year's study, treating baptism on the mission field.
  of Synod. There were reports of the foreign mission         This interesting report can be found in the Acts of
  committee which is attempting to make contacts in           1976. Various churches submitted their own
  several areas overseas. The mission labors of our home      responses to this report to the Synod. Briefly, the
  missionary were also treated. Rev. R. Harbach has           report advocated the position that preaching and
  completed his work at Houston, Texas, where a con-          baptism go together on the mission field, and that
  gregation was organized. The Synod extended its             when one is converted, the missionary must also
  thanks to the Rev. Harbach for his labors, and wel-         baptize him - with a view to the organization'of the
  comed this new congregation into our fellowship of          church (however, perhaps at some very distant time).
  churches. It was also reported that Rev. Harbach is         A most interesting discussion took place. It is a pity
  presently investigating a possible new field of labor in    that all of our people could not have been present to
  western Canada.                                             hear. Finally, on the last session of Synod, the
                                                              decision, was taken which voted down the advice of
    The Synod noted with gratitude the decision of            the study committee. In effect, this decision means
  our Hope, Grand Rapids congregation to contribute           that we continue the practice we have in the past -
  $750 per month towards the support of our home              no baptism on the mission field until a congregation
  missionary (from which congregation he has also been        is organized or in order to make possible such
  called). This contribution is in addition to the pay-       organization.
  ment of their regular assessment. Hope is surely to be
  commended for their willingness and desire to assume          The Synod considered at length also our Theologi-
  such a share of the cost of the work of our mission-        cal School - always an important part of the agenda
  ary.                                                        of Synod. The T.S.C. report recorded the withdrawal
                                                              of two pre-seminary students and the addition of
    The mission labors of our churches in Jamaica were        another, Mr. Barry Gritters. It was also informally
  also reported before Synod. Two emissaries, Rev. J.         reported on the floor of Synod that a third student
  Heys and elder J.M. Faber, reported on their work           also intended to withdraw and there is the probability
  this past year. They had discovered that it was  not        of two additional students enrolling.
  impossible to send missionaries yet to Jamaica (as had
  been reported to our Synod of the year before). They          Synod considered also the need of providing some
  and the mission committee recommended the calling           relief to the professors with their heavy work sched-
  of another missionary to labor in Jamaica  - with           ule. The Rev. C. Hanko was appointed by Synod to
  Holland congregation the calling church. The Synod          teach the two Dutch courses - which will surely give
  was not ready to have a missionary called at this time,     a measure of relief.
  particularly because it was uncertain as to the type of       The question of the housing of the professors was
  labor he would have to perform there. Synod did             considered. At present, Synod gives a "rental allow-


 416                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


ante" to the professors - while they use this in the          Another study committee presented its report in
purchasing of their own homes. There was raised the          which were collated all of the changes which recent.
question of the wisdom of Synod's owning these               Synods had made in the constitutions of various
homes. A study committee made a cost comparison              sinodical committees. This report was made with a
of the alternatives. The Synod decided to follow the         view to the reprinting of our Church Order book in
recommendation of the theological school committee           the near future.
to continue as we have in the past: providing a rental         An. overture from our Lynden consistory was
allowance.                                                   abproved  - to write a form for confession of faith.
   The rector's report stated that  five.additional  stu-    We have at present only three questions which are
dents were licensed to preach in our churches: stu-          asked publicly of those confessing their faith. The
dents Ron Cammenga, Carl Haak, Ron Hanko, Steve              professors of our seminary were appointed to do this
Houck, and Dave Zandstra.                                    and report to next year's synod.
   The committee of contact with other churches                Synod was presented a report of the disbanding of
presented its report. The Synod decided to instruct          our Forbes, N.D. congregation. That congregation,
the committee to continue to seek contact with the           before disbanding, had decided that the funds wotild
Christian Reformation Church, on a "one-to-one"              be equally divided between the student aid fund and
basis, as that church originally suggested. There were       tie Seminary library fund. Each received $5,912.99.
reports of contact with the Evangelical Presbyterian           The Stated Clerk presented his report. Synod tdok
Church of Australia and the Orthodox Presbyterian            this occasion to express our deep appreciation for .the
Church of New Zealand. A cablegram of greetings was          "labors performed so efficiently" by the clerk. The
received from the latter church and read on the floor        Synod was impressed by the speed and quality of his
of Synod. The Synod adopted a budget which re-               work.
quires the assessment of $10.00 per family per year in
the support of a minister who would be called to               Subsidies to the needy churches were approved: a
serve in the Christchurch, N.Z. Orthodox Presbyteri-         total of $66,420. The proposed budget was adopted
an Church.                                                   which requires the assessment of $230 per family for
                                                             1978 (compared to $243 for the current year).
   The Synod approved the recommended changes to               It was decided to meet next year at the Hope
the constitution of the mission committee - changes          Grand Rapids church.
made necessary by the decision of the Synod of 1976
approving the principal elements of an overture from           The sessions of Synod were closed in thanksgiving
Mr. T. Feenstra. This overture suggested that greater        to God by Prof. H. Hanko.
emphasis must be placed upon the calling church in             More complete information on the above, and
the sending forth of missionaries. The mission com-          details on other unreported actions, will be found in
mittee too will be altered in structure this coming          the Acts of Synod which our efficient clerk will
year: with five members from the western section of          doubtlessly have ready for distribution shortly. Be
 our country and seven from the eastern section.             sure to read your copy!


SEMINARY GRADUATION ADDRESS



          Predestination: The Heart of the Gospel


   The truth of predestination, as taught in the Scrip-      insisted that sovereign, double predestination cannot
tures, is rarely heard from the majority of pulpits -        be preached. He writes in his book, "The Freedom of
even in churches which claim to be Reformed. Dr.             God":
James Daane has made a point of this in some of his                   The combination  of election and reprobation
latest writings. He has said that predestination is no           created considerable intellectual difficulties for
longer preached. But he has gone one step further and            theologians, as the long history of Christian thought


                                                             THE S T AN DA RD  BEAR E R                                            1 417


         reveals. But for those called to preach the gospel, it             "before the foundation of the world." (Eph. 1:4)
         created an even greater practical problem. How could                  In the third place, God's decree of predestination is
         one preach election?                                               sovereign. It is sovereign in that, first of all, it is in no
            The difficulty here stems not from election, but                sense dependent upon man. It is not of him that
         from reprobation. (p. 19.)                                         willeth,  .nor of him that runneth, but of God that
     Referring especially to the doctrine of sovereign,                     showeth mercy. And, secondly, it is sovereign because
     double predestination as taught by Rev. H.  Hoek-                      it is God's decree which He executes by His own
     sema, Daane writes:                                                    power and according to His own will. He is the Lord;
            Can the gospel of Hoeksema's theology be                        He does all His good pleasure. Predestination is
         preached? Hardly . . . . Such a gospel can be an-                  eternal because God ordained the destiny of all men
         nounced  . . . but it cannot be preached . . . .                   before the foundation of the world, before men were
.           Hoeksema brought election and reprobation into                  born, and, therefore, before they had done good or
         the pulpit and in the process, theologically speaking,             evil.
      .' lost the gospel and came up with a form of the gospel                 Finally, predestination is double because it in-
      ;' that the pulpit could not preach. (pp.  27,28.)                    cludes both election and reprobation. It includes the
      It is my thesis tonight that predestination not only                  loving of Jacob and the hating of Esau.
     can  be preached, but that it  must  be preached. The                     It is this predestination which is the heart of the
     argument is very simple. The doctrine of sovereign                     gospel. i
predestination is taught in Scripture, and a faithful
     minister of the Word must preach the whole counsel                        Our Reformed fathers have spoken of predestina-
     of God. Furthermore, the truth of predestination is                    tion as  YZOY  ecclesiae,   the heart of the church. But
     the heart of the gospel. If predestination is not                      repeatedly the expression was also used: predestina-
     preached, or is preached in a corrupted form, the                      tion is the heart of the gospel. Hoeksema used this as
     gospel is not preached. When one cuts the heart out,                   a title of a series of radio sermons, e.g., on Romans 9.
     the whole organism dies.                                                  By the gospel we mean particularly, the preaching
       What do we mean when we speak of sovereign and                       of the Word. It is the authoritative proclamation of
     double predestination?                                                 the Scriptures by the called and ordained clergy in
                                                                            the Church of Christ and on the mission field. It is
       While it is not our purpose to enter into detail on                  emphatically the ministry of the Word. This ought to
     the question of predestination, we notice the follow-                  be emphasized in our day when within the Church
ing points.                                                                 there are all kinds of ministries: ministry of educa-
       In the first place, it is the decree of God according                tion, ministry of youth, ministry of music, etc. The
     to which God determines the final destiny of all his                   ministry is in the service of the Word of God. It is the
     rational creatures. Thus Calvin writes in his Institutes:              gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. It is
            Predestination is the eternal decree of God by                  the ministry in which you, graduates, will be engaged;
         which he has determined in himself, what he would                  the Lord willing, the rest of your life.
         have to become of every individual of mankind. For                    Of the gospel predestination is the heart.
         they are not all created with a similar destiny; but
         eternal life is foreordained for some, and eternal                    This is, of course, a figure of speech. The reference
         damnation for others. Every man, therefore, being                  is to the human heart. From both a physical and a
         created for one or the other of these ends, we say, he             spiritual point of view, the heart is the source of all
         is predestinated either to life or to death. (III, xxi, 5).        life. From the heart are the issues of life. The heart is
       In the second place, because predestination belongs                  the deepest center of the life of the organism. From it
     to the counsel of God, all that Scripture says concern-                life flows into the whole of man. A man is dead when
     ing that counsel applies also to the decree of pre-                    his heart ceases to beat. And indeed, a man is dead
     destination. Scripture tells us that God's counsel is                  spiritually when his heart is dead and when from it
     eternal. Predestination as a part of that counsel is also              are only issues of death. Thus if the heart is gone or
     eternal. But because God's counsel and the decree of                   does not function, the whole organism dies.
     predestination are eternal, they are also un-                             So it ,is with predestination. This precious doctrine
     changeable. What God has determined to do from all                     is the heart of the gospel. If the truth of predestina-
     eternity remains unchangeably His purpose and will.                    tion weakens, i.e., if this truth is not maintained in all
     Nothing can alter this; no human choice, no human                      its purity and power, the gospel which is preached
     decision, no contingency unanticipated can change in                   weakens correspondingly. If the truth of predestina-
     the minutest degree God's own counsel and His                          tion is lost, the gospel no longer is the gospel which is
     decree of predestination. It is in this sense of the                   the power of God unto salvation. It is a lifeless,
     word that Scripture speaks of our election in Christ                   powerless word of man which accomplishes nothing


418                                           `THE STANDARD  $EARER


- except the death of a church which has become              gospel preaches Christ and Him crucified. It preaches
apostate.                                                    Christ, not abstractly, but Christ as the Head of His
  But how is predestination the heart of the gospel?         people who were given to Him eternally. It preaches
                                                             Christ in Whom the elect are saved and apart from
  It is important to notice first of all that predestina-    Whom the reprobate perish. The preaching always
tion is the heart of the Scriptures. The Scriptures are      includes this truth. That is to say, the truth of
the written record, infallibly inspired, of God's revela-    predestination must also include specifically both
tion of Himself in Christ. Christ stands at the very         election and reprobation; and preaching must be
center of Scripture. All Scripture speaks only of            instruction - explicit instruction - in this truth.
Christ Who reveals God in all His works and ways.
But predestination is in Christ. This is true in more          But the preaching, though not always explicitly
than one sense of the word. First of all, election is in     directing itself to this doctrine, nevertheless always
Christ. We are chosen in Christ from before the              implies and presupposes it. It has been said, in malice,
foundation of the world. But, more than this, Christ,        that within the Protestant Reformed Churches all
as it were, is precisely the great dividing line in human    that is ever preached is the doctrine of election. I
history. His cross stands on Calvary as the separation       plead guilty to this charge. A sermon which does not
between the elect and the reprobate thief who were           have this truth at its center is not a sermon at all. A
crucified with Him. And so it is in all time. The cross      sermon which does not have the life of predestination
is the rock of offense and the stone of stumbling. But       in Christ flowing through it, has no life at all.
to this stumbling, the wicked are, according to Peter,         .There is good reason for this. The contents of the
appointed. Yet, on the other hand, that same cross of        gospel include all the promises of God. But these
Christ is the Rock of Ages to all who believe.               promises are always very  .particular. They are
Through the cross, Christ is exalted to the position of      promises made to those who are weary and heavy
King of kings and Lord of lords. From that position          laden; to those who hunger and thirst; to those who
in glory He rules over all things in such a way that all     are bowed down beneath the burden of their sin; to
the purpose of God is accomplished through Him. He           those who come to Christ. Along with these promises
executes the sovereign will of God. He does so               is always the command to repent of sin and believe in
efficaciously and universally. Election is in Christ.        Christ. And the warning is very serious: God will
Reprobation is also accomplished through Christ.             punish in His wrath all those who will not obey.
  This is the teaching of Scripture. Predestination is         It is because of this very particular character of the
at the heart of Scripture. It is explicitly taught in        gospel that predestination stands at its very heart.
many places throughout Holy Writ; but is impossible          And it is only because this gospel is so particular that
to understand any part of Scripture apart from this          it is the power of God unto salvation and a savor of
doctrine. All the history of the ante-flood world; all       life unto life. But it is also this particular character of
the development of man from the flood to Abraham;            the gospel which makes it the power of hardening and
all the efforts exerted at Babel; the sovereign choice       a savor of death unto death.
of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel; the constant dis-            But the question must be answered: how is
tinction between the faithful and the carnal seed in         reprobation to be preached? Can it be said that
the nation; the very small remnant according to the          reprobation, standing by itself, is the heart of the
election of grace which God left Israel - all these and      gospel? This is obviously not true.
all Scripture remain a puzzle without solution apart
from the truth of sovereign predestination. It is im-          It must be understood in the first place, that
possible to understand any part of God's Word except         reprobation stands in closest possible connection with
against the background of God's sovereign decrees.           the doctrine of election. Even as it is true that
                                                             election implies the truth of reprobation, so it is also
  And the content of the gospel which is preached is         true that reprobation is, so to speak, the opposite side
this Scripture.                                              of the coin of election. It cannot and may not be
  Daane argues in his book (The Freedom of God)              preached apart from election. And this, in turn, is
that the problem with preaching predestination does          true because according to God's sovereign decree
not lie with the doctrine of election, but lies with the     reprobation does not stand alone, but rather serves
doctrine of reprobation. "The difficulty here stems          the purpose of election. "For I am the Lord thy God,
not from election, but from reprobation." (p. 19) But        the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for
Daane not only repudiates the Scriptural doctrine of         thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou
reprobation; but in his repudiation of this doctrine,        wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable,
he corrupts the truth of sovereign election. How             and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for
could it be any different?                                   thee, and people for thy life." (Isaiah 43:3,4)
  But predestination is the heart of the gospel. The            Election shines forth from the dark background of


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               419

                                                          c

reprobation. It is the light which shines all the              And if it be argued that reprobation cannot be
brighter against the darkness of reprobation and               preached, our fathers in the Canons assert that it
God's sovereign decree with respect to the lost.               can. In article 16 they presuppose that it is preached
                                                               when they say:
  This is specifically and emphatically true in the                       Those who do not yet experience a lively faith in
preaching. The decree of predestination is always                      Chri@, an assured confidence of soul, . . . ought not
comfort to God's people. It teaches them that God is                   to be alarmed at the mention of reprobation . . .
the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. It teaches                 Much less cause have they to be terrified by the
them that though the kings of earth rise up and the                    doctrine of reprobation . . . . But this doctrine is justly
rulers take counsel together against the Lord and                      terrible to those, who,. . . have wholly given them-
                                                                       selves up to the cares of the world. . . so long as they
against His anointed, yet Christ sits on the holy hill of              are not seriously converted to God.
Zion. The wicked do not run rampant and uncon-
trolled in opposition to God. God carries out His
decree. He has the right to vindicate His Name - also             It must be explicitly taught so that God's people
in the destruction of the wicked.                              may be instructed in it and know it, for on its basis
                                                               they find a sure refuge and hiding place in the God of
                                                               their salvation. It must be, in a real sense, the heart-
  This, I say, is comfort for the people of God; for it        beat of every sermon. It must be the heartbeat so that
is the assurance that all that God sovereignly does in         the gospel is always sharply particular, sharply anti-
time is for their sakes that they may be brought to            thetical, emphasizing God and the glory of His Name.
everlasting glory.                                             It must be a God-centered gospel, for of Him and
   And it teaches, at the same time, that the decree of        through Him and to Him are all things. To Him is the
election is of pure grace and sovereign mercy. They            glory forever and ever.
have no reason to boast. All their glorying must be in
the Lord.                                                        It must be preached in humble dependence upon
                                                               God Who works all things according to the good
  The truth of predestination is also the heart of the         pleasure of His will. It must be preached so that it is a
gospel because in this way alone God is maintained as          source of comfort to God's elect. It must be preached
God.                                                           so that it stirs up in them humility and reverence and
                                                               awe, and so that it works in them the assurance of
  As soon as predestination is abandoned or toned              their faith. Or, to express what the Canons themselves
down, the gospel becomes humanistic and  man-                  say:
centered. And thus God no longer receives all the                         It must be done with reverence, in the spirit of
glory. Paul emphasizes this sharply when he contrasts              discretion and piety, for the glory of God's most holy
salvation by grace alone with salvation by works. It is            name, and for enlivening and comforting his people,
not of works lest any man should boast. If salvation is            without vainly attempting to investigate the secret
of works, then it is no more grace. But if it be of               ways-of the Most High. (I, 14.)
grace, then it is no more of works. Predestination
alone assures that salvation is of grace alone. For in           We can do no better than to conclude with a state-
this way God's absolute sovereignty is maintained in           ment from the Conclusion of the Canons:
all  His  work. Predestination then holds fast to the
truth that the salvation of the elect and the ever-                       Finally, this Synod exhorts all their brethren in
lasting damnation of the reprobate is determined                       the gospel of Christ, to conduct themselves piously
solely by God. It is not of him that willeth, nor of                   and religiously in handling this doctrine, both in the
                                                                   universities and churches; to direct it, as well i.n dis-
him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.                       course, as in writing, to the glory of the Divine Name,
And thus, let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord.                to holiness of life, and to the consolation of afflicted
                                                                       souls; to regulate, by Scripture, according to the
  Predestination must be preached. Our Canons have                     analogy of faith, not only their sentiments, but also
no problem here. After defining the truth of election,             their language; and, to abstain from all those phrases
our fathers write:                                                 which exceed the limits necessary to be observed in
        As the doctrine of divine election by the most wise            ascertaining the genuine sense of the holy Scriptures;
    courisel of God, was declared by the prophets, by                  and may furnish insolent sophists with a just pretext
    Christ himself, and by the apostles, and is clearly            for violently assailing, or even vilifying, the doctrine
    revealed in the Scriptures, both of the Old and New                of the Reformed Churches.
    Testament, so it is still to be published in due time
    and place in the Church of God, for which it was              May God keep you faithful in your ministry of the
    peculiarly designed. (I, 14.)                              Word!


420                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


THE DAY OF SHADOWS


                                     A Painful Parting

                                                 Rev. John A. &leys



  For a richer and more definite understanding of            of, ridiculing and teasing. It was not a thoughtless
the mockery which Ishmael inflicted upon Isaac, we           deed that could have spiritual implications read into
are indebted to the Apostle Paul and to what he              it.  God's Word forbids such interpretations. It was
wrote to the Galatians. He explains this mockery to          deliberate, conscious persecution. The exact nature of
have been persecution when he writes in Galatians            it ,we do not know, and yet that word chosen by Paul
4:29, "But as then he that was born of the flesh             does indicate that he was following Isaac, was
persecuted him that was born of the Spirit, even so is       pursuing him, putting pressure upon him. What is
it now."                                                     more, God's own answer to Abraham indicates that it
  Now the word Moses uses in Genesis 21:9 means to           had to do with the covenant promise. Notice in
make sport of, to laugh at, as well as to mock. But          Genesis 21: 12 that God said unto Abraham, "Let it
lest we call this simply some childish teasing we            not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and
should take into consideration the word Paul uses.           because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath
For he was guided infallibly by the same Spirit Who          said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac
moved Moses to use the word mocking. What is more,           shall thy seed be called." There can be no doubt
we ought to take into consideration the whole verse          about it that Ishmael himself mocked Isaac in regard
and the whole passage wherein these words of Paul            to that covenant. He was pursuing Isaac, following
appear. We will then find that this act of Ishmael had       h$m, putting pressure on him in regard to the
a spiritual significance and was a manifestation of          covenant promise. Was he not, after all, Abraham's
what those who are born after the flesh always do to         first born? Could Isaac or anyone ever change that?
those born after the Spirit.                                 Isaac was born some thirteen years too late for that.
                                                             And the mockery of Ishmael must have been con-
  Ishmael was a young lad of more than fourteen              ducted along such lines.
years of age. Isaac was a little boy, of whom we read
that he was weaned. Ishmael was thirteen years old            We ought not to be harsh, then, with Sarah.
when he was circumcised, and that year God ap-               Circumstantial evidence would build a strong case for
peared to Abraham and Sarah and promised according           carnal, motherly love to be the cause for all this
to the time of life to give them .a son, Isaac. That year    commotion which she stirred up before Abraham. Of
had gone by, and to this must be added the years             course, this was her son, her only son, her son born in
before the child was weaned; and so we understand            such a miraculous and wonderful way, her son born
that Ishmael was now a teenager in his mid if not            to her in very, very old age and without any hope of
later teenage years. He was fully capable of perform-        receiving another son after this date. And it was her
ing deeds with spiritual implications and of persecut-       God-given duty to love that child as her own flesh
ing the church of God. And the word Paul uses when           and blood. Of course she must defend her child, even
he speaks of Ishmael's persecuting Isaac is not a mild       in childish mockery, to say nothing of persecution.
word at all. It is the word Jesus uses in His Sermon on      But it was far more than that. Sarah the believer is
the Kingdom in Matthew 5: 11 when He says,                   speaking here. Sarah the  helpmeet  for Abraham is
"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and               helping him in a very difficult situation.
persecute you." It is the same word that is used of           ' How marvellous the ways of God, so that from
the devil in Revelation 12: 13 where we read, "And           eternity He has chosen the man and his wife, and the
when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth,         wife to be an  helpmeet  (that is, fit, suitable) for the
he persecuted the woman which brought forth the              man. Under great stress and trial was Abraham now
man child." And the word means to pursue, to follow          that he had sons of two different women, one his
after, to press towards.                                     lawful wife, and the other a bondwoman his wife had
  It was not, then, some childish prank of poking fun        given him for the purpose of raising up seed for her.


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                              421



 He needed expert advice. He needed good counsel in            There, exactly there, is the painful element in the
. . this sticky situation. He needed help; and God           incident! Abraham loved Isaac and he loved Ishmael.
 provided it in the woman He had given him for an            A father can love both or all of his children equally
 helpmeet for him; She is a spiritual help. She saw          and not want to part with any one of them. And
 things clearly and correctly: Ishmael must go! This is      Abraham had no more desire to send Isaac away than
 not to say that her flesh did not creep in; but it must     he had `to send Ishmael away. It was not a case of not
 be maintained that she acted here out of faith. God         loving Isaac or of not wanting him to have a place in
 said so when He told Abraham to hearken to her              that covenant of God. Nothing is farther from the
 because in Isaac would his seed be called.                  truth. He wanted both, he wanted all his sons in that
   Try to appreciate the position of Abraham. And            covenant with its blessings. And after all, would not
 then bear in mind that Ishmael is as much his son as        God's covenant promise be fulfilled more easily if
 Isaac is. In fact we may even say that Ishmael was his      both his sons remained there in the promised land
 son more than Isaac was. He had enjoyed this son for        and begat children for him? Would he not more easily
 thirteen years before Isaac even appeared on the            be a -father of nations through two sons, and surely
 scene. Abraham had learned to love this stalwart,           with one so promising and so many years ahead as
 promising young man. He was, as a father of flesh,          Ishmael? Parents with one or more wayward children
 mighty proud of this young lad. He had visions of           can understand Abraham's position. These are thank-
 him that were bright. He expected much from him.            ful before God for the children who walk in the way
 And when he thought of God's covenant he could see          of God, but 0 how they long to see these others also
 Ishamel fitting beautifully in the picture and being the    in the sphere of that covenant and heirs of God and
 one through whom Abraham would become a father              joint heirs with Christ alongside of the believing
of nations. We may also take the words of God as a           children. Neither Sarah nor Hagar can understand
reminder which Abraham needed. "In Isaac shall thy           that, except that both want the best for their own
 seed be called" is not a truth that Abraham hears for       child. Abraham has to decide between two children
 the first time. Before Isaac was born, and after            that have different mothers.
.Abraham had pleaded with God in the words, "0 that            It might be added at this point that there is no
 Ishmael might live before thee!" God had said,              trace of any evidence of love on Abraham's part for
 "Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and           Hagar or of Hagar for Abraham. It is not love for
thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my      Hagar that makes it so painful for Abraham to send
 covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and          her away. It is true that God does say to him, "Let it
with his seed after him." Genesis 17: 19. Of that truth      not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and
he must be reminded. Sarah remembered it and                 because of thy bondwoman." There was indeed
 therefore said to Abraham, "Cast out this  bond-            something grievous to Abraham in sending Hagar
woman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman             away. But we may note that God still calls her his
 shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac."            bondwoman and not his wife. And God's reason for it
   We do well to note that Sarah is not simply               all is not that she is not his wife, but that in Isaac
speaking of the mockery and persecution but of being         shall his seed be called. The whole issue revolves
heir with Isaac in the covenant of God. She does not         around two sons, not two wives. And God commands
say, "Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the            Abraham to cast out Hagar and Ishmael, not because
son of this bondwoman is sinning against my son and          Sarah is his wife, but because Isaac is the seed
making life miserable for us." She has her eye on the        wherein God will continue His covenant line.
covenant promises of God and by faith holds fast to            This was, quite naturally, also painful for Hagar
that promise that "Sarah thy wife shall have a son . . .     and Ishmael. Isbmael was at the point of death for
thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish My      lack ofswater in a hot and dry desert. Hagar had the
covenant with him." Ishmael must not pursue Isaac            grief of expecting him to die before her very eyes. 0,
to strive to take from him that place in God's               that work of unbelief whereby Sarah gave Hagar to
covenant that God has promised. Instead of following         Abraham to bring forth the promised seed without
after, pursuing, and exerting pressure on Isaac in           consulting God and in an attempt to help  (?) the
regard to the covenant, Ishmael must be sent away!           Almighty still has some painful repercussions. A sin
"Cast out the bondwoman and her son," she demands            may be forgiven and yet in years to come still bring
of Abraham, who had no intention whatsoever of               its pain and sufferings. Even Ishmael, whom in this
doing so. And had God not come and underscored               instance we may call the innocent party, for he had
Sarah's words and given Abraham unequivocal in-              nothing to do with this illegitimate conception and
structions to send Hagar and Ishmael away, Abraham           birth, suffers not only this physical discomfort and
would not have done so, no matter how much he                desperate need of water, but also the knowledge of
loved Sarah and Isaac.                                       the truth that in Isaac shall God call Abraham's seed,


422                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



and that he shall not be heir with Isaac.                  Lamb's book of life to be heir with those He gave to
  There is, however, a beautiful truth that is woven       His Son from all eternity.
into the fabric of this incident, one unspoken yet           Did He not use the jealousy of the chief priests and
shining with gracious brilliancy. It is this: Our God      elders, the flesh of the carnal Jews, and the mockery
keeps His Word! Men have petty quarrels and bitter         and persecution of His own Son to bring us all the
wars that continue for years. Men are moved by their       blessings of the cross of that Son? Did He ever fail to
flesh, and jealousy is a wide stream that floods the       keep one word of what He promised us in His Son?
land and rushes down the corridors of history. Men         Neither will He in days to come alter one letter of
strong in their faith weaken and succumb to the            one word of the promises He has given us in that Son.
dictates of their flesh. Mockeries and persecutions
have been known in the world since the days of Abel.         And, lo, the promise in regard to Ishmael - though
All these make life painful to man and bring him           he ,is driven away - is repeated, "I will make him a
much sorrow. And yet through it all and using it God       great nation." Be it prediction or promise, God's
maintains His cause, works out His counsel, protects       word is always kept. Trust in Him at all times. Upon
His Church and allows no one not written in the            Him you can depend.

STUDIES IN ISAIAH



       The Call of Isaiah                                  Hiis Prophetic Office
                                                    to



                                              Rev. Robert C Harbach


Isaiah 6

  I. The  Awe-Inspiring Vision  (l-4). "In the year of     candescent lamp, God appears to Isaiah. Through the
the death of the king, Uzziah, then I saw Adonai           dimness (9:  l), he saw the King of Glory in the
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His         splendor of His sovereignty. In connection with the
train filled the .temple." A. The Year. "In the year of    vision the Lord reveals to His prophet his mission,
the death of the king, Uzziah," so while that king was     commission, and the painful revelation of the reproof
still living, but with death near  - in that year! The     to be denounced against the people of Judah issuing
call of Isaiah then occurred at the close of Uzziah's      in the unavoidable ruin of the theocracy.
life. The historical reference is not made to indicate
chronological connection. There is a deeper reason.          B.  The Lord.  "Then I saw the Lord," not God`s
The Lord, rather, reveals from the gloom of Judah's        essence - "whom no man hath seen, nor can see" (I
departing glory the True Light - the lasting glory. It     Tim. 6:  16), for in that manner "no man hath seen
was when the sun of the theocracy was setting and          God at any time" (Jn. 1: 18). But he saw God in His
the sun of the Roman world-power was on the rise.          manifested glory, in a theophany, a Christophany, as
King Uzziah died under a cloud, but Isaiah then saw        John tells us in John 12:41, "Isaiah . . . saw His glory,
the King, Jehovah Tsebhaoth, to whom both dark-            and spoke of Him." It was a vision seen when awake,
ness and light are alike. It was a time of prosperity,     in the sense of, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for
peace, and reform in which the king strengthened the       they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8); or, more especially
kingdom, but not to the extent of recovering its lost      and more uniquely, by the divine direct and real his-
Solomonic splendor. For even with any reformation          torical revelation of God himself to the prophet. (Cp.
under any of the  Judean kings, there was, never-          Jer. 1 and Ezek. l-3). Real, but certainly not a
theless, the inevitable declining of Judah's glory. Now    physical reality, since with physical eyes these things
with the end of a reign that was like the final bright     are not seen. Spiritual insight must be given to see
flash and the sudden extinction of an expiring  in-        them 2 K. 6: 17).


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 423



  Isaiah had lost his king, his liege lord, but now he       "They'? (v. 9) and the "He" (v. 10) both refer to
sees another  adonai,  indeed, One the Master and            God. "He said, . . .' " Sarah thy wife shall have a son.
Ruler of the universe, who is supreme above all, hav-        Only God can make such a promise. "And Sarah
ing all subjected to Him, One who sovereignly has            heard it in the tent door, which was behind  Him."
mercy on whom He will, and who just as sovereignly           That is; one of the three men, the speaker, was facing
hardens whom He will. So verses 9 and 10 teach, as           Abraham outside, but had his back to the tent door,
the New Testament interpretation of them bears out.          so that Sarah was actually behind  Him.  It is  He (v.
Isaiah, with spiritual `eye, saw more than just one          13) who checked Abraham about Sarah's laughter:
divine person (vv. 3, 8), for Adonai, in some places,        "And the Lord (Jehovah) said, . . . `Wherefore did
includes the three persons of the Godhead. Take, for         Sarah laugh?' " This means that the speakers in verses
example, Genesis 18, where we have the theophany at          5 and  ,9, and the speaker in verses 10 and 15 of
Mamre, where God appeared to (let himself be seen            Genesis 18 are Jehovah! So Isaiah 6 reveals the three
by) Abraham, and where we find Abraham greeting              persons of the trinity, as will be further shown.
the true and triune God.                                       C. The Throne and Temple. "Adonai sitting upon
  In Gen. 18 :3, Abraham used this name of God. He           a throne." His vision of the triune Adonai was a
"said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in Thy             vision of Him as Ring. Isaiah himself is here greatly
sight . . . ." In this way he greeted all three men who      disturbed, but the high and mighty Ruler of the
stood by him, applying to them a name he had used            universe sits calm and serene, imperturbable on His
in faith, before, of God, the name Adonai, a plural          throne,' not agitated, nor frustrated by the confusion
divine name, literally, "My Lords," (as in 19: 18, "Oh,      on earth. As world sovereign, He rules all men and all
not so, my Lord!"). This shows that he recognized            their actions. His throne is envisioned not in the
Them as They were revealed, i.e., as Jehovah.                temple, but outside the temple, high and lifted up, far
Abraham was then conscious of the Divine Being               higher and greater. It is His pendulous train which
appearing to him. Notice the context more closely.           fills the temple. He on His throne is the Most High
He saw the three men, ran to meet Them, then                 God above all. The heaven of heavens, including the
addressed  Them,  saying, "My Lords," and proceeds           temple in heaven, cannot contain him. Heaven is His
to refer to them with singular pronouns. "If (even as)       throne, the earth His footstool. God is ascended, or
now I have found favor in Thy sight, pass not away, I        transcendent, far above all heavens, while His temple
pray  Thee,  from  Thy  servant." Therefore, Abraham         or church (His royal train, i.e., His royal attendants)
understood this appearance of Jehovah to be an               fills the earth.
appearance of Adonai (My Lords). Yet in the follow-            D. The Seraphim. "Standing (not above, but) from
ing verses, Moses, in recording the account under the        above with (an eye, or) respect to it (i.e., the throne).
infallible inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses  plural      Six wings: six wings to each. With two he covers his
pronouns in referring to Them: "Let a little water, I        face, with two he covers his feet, and with two he was
pray You, be fetched, and wash Your feet, and rest           flying." (v. 2). Each covers his face, as they cannot
Yourselves,   " and, "comfort Ye Your hearts," and,          look at the blazing sun of divine glory. (We would not
further, "Ye are come to Your servant." In verse 3,          conclude from this, and from Matt. 18: 10, that they
Abraham addressed all three as Adonai (My Lords),            are not angels.) Luther said, "The Jews on the con-
yet referred to himself with the singular as "Thy ser-       trary stood with head held high and neck stiff, that it
vant," the servant of one (the one addressed); where-        would almost be up to God to fear them." They
as, in verse 5, he addresses Them as three persons,          cover their feet in deep consciousness of their posi-
referring to himself with the plural as "Your servant,"      tion of servitude to the Holiest of all. For they know
the servant of all three. He recognizes all three to be'     that "He puts no trust in His saints" (cp. Dt.  33:2
Adonai. Notice, in verse 3, singular pronouns refer to       with Gal. 3:  19), that as compared to His infinite
the plural noun, Adonai (My Lord), and in verses 4           wisdom, He. charges His angels with folly (Job 4: 18).
and 5, plural pronouns, are made to refer back to that       For in their unspotted sanctity they still have an un-
plural proper noun, My Lord. Here is a reference to          worthiness in their own nature to appear before the
the unity and trinity of God.                                throne of God. Their holiness compared to His is as
  These three persons appearing to Abraham are               dim as a glowworm before the sun. They know that
proved to be God, Adonai. They recognize Abraham             "the heavens are not clean in His sight" (Job 15 : 15).
as Their servant: "And They said, `So do . . .' " (v. 5).    They also thus cover themselves (we see no other part
In verse 9,  They  ask for Sarah. When Abraham               of their appearance) to screen out from human view
answers, we read that "He said, `I will certainly return     the full splendor of their own blazing brightness.
unto thee according to the time of life.' " This pro-        They fly in instant, constant obedience to the will of
noun  "He" refers back to its antecedent, "Lord," in         God. Interesting to note it is that "this is the only
v. 3, or even as far back as "Jehovah" in v. 1. The          passage in the Scriptures in which the seraphim are


424                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



mentioned" (Delitzsch). Seraphim and cherubim are                 pure beings reveal that our God is a consuming fire
heavenly, personal, moral spirit beings, probably of              (Heb. 12:29).
different kinds, rather than of the same kind. They                 E.  The Trihagia.  "And the one to the other (lit.,
both are described as having hands, feet, beautiful,              this to this) was calling, and he (it) said, holy! holy!
striking faces, Acts 6 : 15, speech and understanding,            holy! Jehovah Tsebhaoth! the filling of all the earth:
which are all used in the praise and adoration of God.            His glory!" (v. 3). The triune God is referred to here
Seraphim are also described as standing, covering, and            not because of the thrice repeated holy, but because
hovering.                                                         one part of the chapter, v. 9, 10, is quoted in Jn.
  From "this to this" or "the one to the other," it is            12:40-41  as referring to Christ, while in AC.  28:25,
not certain whether there were only two seraphim, or              26 it is referred to the Holy Spirit, and in Rom. 11:8
two banks of choirs of them chanting antiphonally.                it is referred to God. So they sing praise to the holy
(Cp. Heb.  12:22, "an innumerable company of                      Father, to the holy Son, and to the Holy Spirit. God
angels," with Isa. 6 : 3, 5, Jehovah of hosts. But see            in himself is the Holy One, the spotlessly perfect pure
Rev.  4:6, 8). The seraphim and the prophet Isaiah                One. His holiness (the attribute revealing His dis-
together have a sense of the majesty and holiness of              tinctive, all embracive and infinite perfection) is, by
Jehovah with trembling, the former alone with no sin.             the seraphim, praised in God's very essence. His glory,
For the prophet, a sinful being, senses the majestic              His presence, as in the cloud, is filling not just the
holiness of God with a keenness not experienced by a              temple, but the whole earth. The finite cannot in-
sinless one. Isaiah's reaction to God's holiness is one           finitely love God, but the seraphim love and glorify
of a deep consciousness of the misery of sin. The                 Him to the intensest degree of their power. They
seraphim appear here as champions and guardians of                cannot love Him with the measure of His own
Jehovah's holiness, making the profane and unclean                covenant love for Himself and for His people. But
keep their distance while they purge from defilement              they love and -praise Him as much as they can, to a
that which is to be consecrated to God's service. These           finite perfection, and so never as much as He deserves!
                                                                                   (To be continued, D.V.)



STRENGTHOFYOUTH




                           Our Appeal to' Scripture
                                                           (1)
                                                Rev. J. Kortering





  From time to time our faith is put to the test.                 about truth, faith, God, the Bible. You probably
  It comes in many different ways.                                leave a little confused and carrying a handful of read-
                                                                  ing material.
  You may encounter the Moonies, Krishnas,  E.S.P.s
in an airport terminal, shopping mall, or just walking              Other times it may come your way from friends
down the street. In their smooth warm-hearted                     who are brought up in the Christian church, but are
approach they may ask you whether you have any                    questioning the fundamentals of the Christian faith.
problems, are afraid or mixed up with life. What                  This is especially true on the college level. There you
young person doesn't have these things to some                    are encouraged to do your own thinking, to examine
degree? They offer to rap a bit and before you know               every aspect of what you believe, often in a question-
it you are involved in a rather heavy conversation                ing way. Included in this examination is your attitude


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                               425


toward Scripture itself. What is the Bible? Is it a col-        Let me try to help you think this question through
lection of writings given us by the Holy Spirit,              to your own satisfaction.
thereby consisting of divine truth? Or does the con-            In general, we can point out some wonderful things
tent of the Bible become the Word of God in us when           about the Bible that cannot be said of any other
we believe it and receive it by faith?                        book. The author of the Bible is God; this can be said
  Then again, you may get into a discussion with              of no other book. God did not write any other book,
other young people concerning what you believe and            and the proof of this is that no other book is like the
what you consider to be right and wrong in your               Bible. You can compare all of them that claim to be
Christian conduct. All such discussions ultimately            Bibles, or divinely written, but your conclusion will
lead, or at least ought to lead, to the Word of God.          be that they are different from the Bible. A careful
  You have learned from your own experience as a              examination will make this plain to you. Besides this,
Christian young person how important the Bible is to          just think about the Bible  -for a moment. How else
you. Two important things stand out concerning the            can we explain the fact that the Bible was written
Scripture. The first thing is that it is the source of all    over a period of some two thousand years, through
truth. We believe in the inspiration of the Bible, that       the agency of some twenty authors, who do not con-
God so revealed to the authors and guided them by             tradict each other but rather compliment each other
the Holy Spirit that what they wrote is in truth the very     in contributing to the one glorious theme of salvation
Word of God. Hence, we conclude that there are no             in Jesus Christ to the glory of God! Only divine
errors in the Bible, that it is truth. The second thing       authorship can explain this wonder.
that is derived from this is that we can therefore trust
the Bible in the sense that we can trust God the                God through revelation communicated to the
Author. This is important to us. Often we are sur-            authors what He wanted them to write. These men
rounded by a sea of relativism; questions are raised          were moved to write it down and in the process of
from those who hate the Christian religion; questions         such writing were guided by the same Holy Spirit to
are raised from those that seem to hold to the Chris-         do so accurately. The benefit of such activity is that
tian religion. Questions, questions, questions! ! What        the church may have perfect faith. Luke explains all
is truth? Who can we- trust? What is right? Where do          this in the prologue to His gospel: `"Forasmuch as
we go?.                                                       many have taken in hand to set forth in order a
                                                              declaration of those things which are most surely
  Out of our Christian faith, we appeal to Scripture.         believed among us, even as they delivered them unto
If we lose this, we are lost forever; if we maintain          us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and
this, we have an anchor for our faith.                        ministers of the word; it seemed good to me also
                                                              having had perfect understanding of all things from
THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD                                  the very first, to write unto thee in order most excel-
  I'm sure that certain disturbing thoughts pass              lent Theophilus that thou mightest know the
through your mind from time to time. Eventually,              certainty of those things wherein thou hast been in-
you may begin to think like this: why do I really             structed," Luke 1: l-4. See also I Thess. 2: 13.
believe what the Bible teaches? We have the Bible;              In addition to this, careful Bible study will also
there are so many other religions that claim to have          show that there are no errors in the Bible. Oh, I know
books that are inspired and form the basis for their          some critics jump up and down and say that this is an
faith: the Koran, the writings of Ellen G. White, the         empty boast and immediately produce a few passages
New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witness, the           to show that scientifically or historically it cannot be
Book of Mormon, etc. Is it so that we believe the             true. Be careful of those who boast that they have
Bible simply because we were taught to do so and              found errors in God's Word. We. had better tremble
that is the only reason? The graduation from child-           lest we'be wiser than God and be so presumptuous to
hood to youth involves just such a change. You                lay such a charge at the feet of the Almighty. Yes,
struggle to come to a point in your life when you             I'm aware of certain passages (amazingly enough, so
conclude that what you have been taught is true and           very few, compared to all the passages of the Bible)
you believe it is true not simply because you were            that seem to be incorrect. Don't forget, we do not
taught it, but you believe it because it is true.             have the original writings. We have copies, and by
  This includes the Bible.                                    careful `comparison of these copies, we can come to a
  Why do you appeal to the Bible as the standard of           correct understanding of these seeming errors. These
truth? Why do you conform the whole of your faith             "errors" were not there in the original; they crept in
and life to its teachings?                                    by the process of transmission. As the Spirit guides us
                                                              in our Bible study, we may be sure that the message
  How would you answer this?                                  of God comes to us clearly.


426                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  Add to this evidence the fact that  God  providen-           Thirdly, the believers appealed to the Bible in
tially preserved this book throughout the ages of            support of what they believed. They set the example
history. All the inspired writings were selected by the      for us. In fact, we can turn to our Lord Jesus in this
church and kept for reading and study. This is a             regard. When He was criticized for His teaching con-
th@ling narrative in itself. Jehoiakim cut it up and         cerning marriage and the wrongness of divorce, he
threw it into the fire, Jeremiah  36:23ff. During the        appealed to the creation account, "Have ye not read,
Dark Ages it collected dust in libraries. During the         that he which made them at the beginning made them
Inquisition, men were burned at the stake for reading        male and female," Matt. 19:4. The Apostle Paul did
it. And today it is mutilated by perverse paraphrases,       the same thing. In his discussion concerning marriage,
and dissected by higher critics. Yet, through it all, we     he refers to command, "And unto the married, I
have the Bible, and true believers are strengthened in       command, yet not I but the Lord, let not the wife
their faith by it. God preserved His Word for us.            depart from her husband," I Cor.  7:lO. This is a
                                                             reference to Christ's teaching recorded in Matt. 19. In
                                                             the other part where he states that he writes, not the
THE BIBLE CLAIMS FOR ITSELF DIVINE                           Lord, he is conscious that the Holy Spirit is guiding
AUTHORSHIP                                                   him in an area that is without precedent. He can't
   This is a different approach to our question, how         quote a Bible passage to support his teaching. The
can we be sure that the Bible is the Word of God. We         Holy Spirit is guiding him that very moment; hence
can begin to examine it and see whether its contents         the teaching is not less authoritative, though it is
tell us that it is so. Now, I know many other books          original. If Christ and the apostles referred to the
written by men claim this to be true for their writing,      Scriptures, which were more than likely the Greek
too; but can it actually stand the test of faith? I know     translation of the Old Testament, we may certainly
that a skeptic will not be persuaded, for he will base       rely upon our Bibles.
all his belief on the criteria of human reason; but I'm        Finally, the Bible contains prophecy that deals
concerned with you covenant young people. Does the           with future events that can be explained only on the
Bible speak to your faith, and does it put your mind         basis of divine authorship. For one example, Isaiah
at ease concerning the fact that it is the Word of           predicted that Cyrus would allow the captives to
God?                                                         return, Isa. 45: 1. Only God could have so directed
   First, the theme of Scripture is different from that      him to record future events.
 of any other book. From the mighty display of divine
glory in Genesis 1, "In the beginning, God!" to the          A MATTER OF FAITH
 exalted crescendo in Revelation 22, "Surely I come            Alas, you may say, that all may be debated. The
 quickly, even so come Lord Jesus," the one message          pages of history are filled with infidels who have done
 elevates the weary saint by focusing His eyes upon          their best to discredit all that has been said and
 Jehovah, the God of our salvation. Every page tes-          written in defense of the faith concerning the Bible.
 tifies to this glorious theme. Old Testament and New        Some of it comes from the "experts" who have
 Testament blend in perfect harmony in extolling God         become erudite in the linguistics of the Bible, others
 as saving us in Jesus Christ. No man could ever dream       come from the professionals who know history and
 up such a message. It is a revelation from God.             are quick to discredit Scripture's accuracy. Others are
   Secondly, on the pages of the Bible God explains          philosophical and they like to become immersed in
 to us how He gave the Bible to us. Let me refer             the vagaries of epistemology. To add more confusion,
 briefly to the two passages most often quoted. "All         hermeneutics seems to be the "in" thing today: how
 Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profit-     must we interpret the Bible? Maybe we can leave
 able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in-     languages alone, history alone, and get our way by
 struction in righteousness, that the man of God may         emphasizing a new method of interpreting. The
 be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good              simple fact is that all such emphasis leads to the same
 works," II Tim. 3 : 16. "We have also a more sure           end - a denial of God's Word.
 word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take           We close for this time by emphasizing that no
 heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until    matter how we may look at the Bible, no matter what
 the day dawn, and the day star arise in our hearts;         we may emphasize, basically it is a matter of faith.
 knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is
 of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came          To this we hope to address ourselves in our next
 not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of         article.
 God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,"               May God give us the faith to see the evidence that
 II Peter 1: 19-2 1. God assures us that He `gave the        the Bible is indeed the Word of God and we do well
 Bible to us by the wonder of inspiration.                   to appeal to it for all our faith and life.


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  427


GUEST ARTICLE

                                       The Rich Fool
                                            Rev. Rodney G. Miersma

               "And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought
            forth plentifully: And he thought within himself saying, What shall I do, because I have no
            room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and
            build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
            Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be
            merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: Then
            whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for
            himselfl  arid is not rich toward God. " Luke 12:16-21

   The words of Christ as they were recorded by Luke         forth the Lord's grain and fruit. But this rich fool did
were spoken at a time when a large multitude and his         not see the relationship between himself and those
disciples were gathered about our Lord. Christ warns         goods correctly. It was God's farm. It was God's fruit
his disciples with respect to the leaven of the              and grain. But what does he say but I, I, I. . No, he did
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. While Christ was dis-         not give God a thought, for he did not care for life
coursing on this subject one of the crowd came to            itself, of whom it came, and how it must be dedicated
him saying, "Master, speak to my brother, that he            to the Lord. A materialist he was, not seeing that he
divide the inheritance with me." This, of course, had        was God's steward.
nothing to do with what Christ was saying. The man             That he did not mention God is the element of his
was tired of the spiritual and wanted attention turned       folly. We must remember that the Lord is giving in-
to himself. Christ replied by asking the man a ques-
tion:                                                        struction with respect to covetousness, the breaking
         "Man, who made me a judge or divider over           of the tenth commandment. By coveting the wrong
you?" This then was the immediate occasion for an
exhortation against covetousness. "Take heed, and            things, by seeking and striving for things out of a
beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth          motive `of self-love rather than of a love for God, he
not in the abundance of the things which he  pos-            in reality says that there is no God. "The fool hath
sesseth." To explain what he means, Christ gives his         said in his heart, there is no God," Ps. 53: 1. Because
-disciples instruction in the form of a parable which is     life is of God, he who singles God out of his life is a
known to most of us as "The Parable of the Rich              fool, even a rich fool in the possession of the many
Fool."                                                       gifts of the earth.
                                                               However, if this man had been wise he would have
   This rich man was a fool. In other words he was           spoken much differently. He would have said, "I am
deprived of practical wisdom. He evaluated things in a       but a steward of the Lord." He would have recog-
wrong way since he .did not know reality practically.        nized that as a man he was created as such, that is, a
To make matters worse he acts according to his               friend-servant of God. As a servant of the Lord he is
wrong judgment. As a result he comes out wrong in            bound to give an account. Thus, the practical ques-
the end. Here the rich fool has a wrong estimate of          tion of life is not, "What shall I do?" but rather,
things natural and spiritual, not being able to see the      "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"
correct relation between the two. The end result is            Moreover, not only is he a fool because he con-
that he has neither riches nor life, for earthly goods       siders these treasures his own, but also because he
cannot satisfy one's soul.                                   considers them lasting. For many years he has laid up
  With respect to his treasures the man is a fool be-        much goods, so that in order to hold them all he had
cause he considers them his own. Notice how many             to pull down his barns and build greater. Something is
times he uses the words "I" and "my." Eleven times!          wrong here; but what? Is it wrong to build bigger
The significance of these words is that they denote          barns when the harvest is large? Certainly not. The
him as the sovereign owner and dispenser of those            fault of the man is rather his spiritual outlook with
possessions. However, this is a fundamental mistake          respect to those barns and all that they contain.
on his part. He is a farmer. There is no vocation            Earthly, things meant life to him. He has piled them
where it is so plain that one's goods are not his own,       up to suit himself, for him to enjoy. They have be-
as that of a farmer. The ground brings forth. The rain       come the object of his trust as if his house were to
and the sunshine are  Gods. And the earth brings             stand for aye.


428                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


  But the revelation of his folly comes in verse 20          being. In this relationship we have the love of God,
when God comes to him and says, "Thou fool." You             and, thus, peace with God.
see, this man's folly is revealed in that he has come          The rich man's folly was that he did not see this;
out wrong in the end. That very night his soul is            he had a wrong estimate of reality. What he believed
taken, and then to whom shall they be? From the              was the lie. What lie did this manhold with respect to
earthly point of view these goods did not serve for          his, soul in relation to his goods? He believed that his
many years; no, somebody else got them. God came             goods could feed his soul. Imagine that: corn for his
for the soul of this rich man, thus placing him face to      soul! Reality is that there is no food in goods for
face with his Creator. And he certainly had to give an       one's soul. What he believed was also a lie in that he
account of all the goods that the Lord had given him.        thought that his goods would serve his soul for many
When placed face to face with God, one sees that             years. But that very night his soul was required of
nothing really belongs to him. In this light we can see      him. One never knows when his time will be up. He
that one who is truly wise takes the attitude that he        left God entirely out of his thinking. But even if he
does not know when his stewardship shall end. The            could say that, it would still be a lie, for the soul
child of God, he who has been given this wisdom,             needs eternal life, not many years. Nevertheless, he
takes the attitude, "I shall be faithful as though I give    took his soul to these things for satisfaction and acted
account this very night." Take, for example, what the        accordingly. But the soul does not find rest in goods;
Word of God has to say in James 4: 13-l 7:                   this is covetousness. The soul does not eat and drink
  "Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow               food and wine. What the soul needs is righteousness,
  we will go into such a city, and continue there a          for the soul cannot rid itself of misery by swallowing
  year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye           earthly joy.
  know not what shall be on the morrow. For                    One who sees this has true wisdom in contrast to
  what is your life? It is even a vapour, that               this fool's folly. The soul adapted to God sees as its
  appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth            fundamental need God's righteousness, favor, and
  away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will,          fellowship. Thus, it is only by grace that the soul
  we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye            hungers after God. The implied admonition, then, is,
  rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is           take your soul to God for satisfaction; be not
  evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good,            covetous after earthly treasures. We must turn to
  and doeth it not, to him it is sin."                       God and Christ as empty in ourselves, to be filled
                                                             with the riches of grace. By faith we receive all the
  In the second place, this man is not only a fool           spiritual blessings of God through Christ.
with regard to his treasures, but also with regard to          Does this description fit us? If we seek self, if we
his soul. The man in his folly says within himself,          lay up treasure for it, then both it and the treasure
"And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou has much              will be destroyed. If we seek God, we will have
goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat,          treasures in heaven, and the greatest treasure of them
drink and be merry." What awful folly, revealed al-          all, is eternal life, to know the only true God, and
ready in the fact that he dare not say this aloud. He is     Jesus Christ, Whom He has sent. Having this treasure
still reasoning within himself. By his actions the man       we are rich toward God, knowing him, walking with
who came to Jesus showed the same reasoning, as if           him, and growing like unto him. Our calling is to lay
these things are the source of life.                         UP: treasures in heaven. Then we can leave the earthly
  We can see why this man was a fool with respect to         things when our soul is required of us, for the heaven-
his soul if we bear in mind just what that soul is. Man      ly and spiritual treasures go with the soul to everlast-
was created a living soul with a heart, mind, and will,      ing joy.
capable of desiring, thinking, and willing. The soul of        :How shall we live so wisely and well? We must
man is spiritual, not earthly like an animal whose soul      fight the good fight of faith. We must do so with
is in his blood. In this respect man is a rational, moral    respect to ourselves. Righteousness and holiness, that
creature in which he stands related to God. An animal        is, Jesus Christ our Lord, must be the food for our
is not a person and can will neither good nor evil.          souls. With respect to our neighbors we must use
Now we must look at the characteristics of man's soul        them as we use our barns, to the honor and glory of
in relation to God as they have bearing in the parable.      God, for any action against them is action against
Man was made in the image of God, in true knowl-             Christ. With respect to God we must draw closer to
edge, righteousness, and holiness. As such he is             Him in sweet communion, become rich in Him. Then
adapted to God, for life with God is more than meat          when He calls us away, His coming and our going will
and drink, but is fellowship with God. This fellowship       not be terrible. We will rejoice in that we can become
is a covenant fellowship in which man is  friend-            partakers with all the saints in Christ Jesus, of that
servant of God. This fellowship we seek with all our         heavenly joy, together being rich toward God.


                                                  THE STANDARD  BEARE:R                                             429


 NEWS FEATURE
   Building Project--Covenant Prot. Ref. Church, Wyckoff, N.J.





TO OUR SISTER CHURCHES OF THE PROTES-                          time not very conducive to worship and obviously
TANT REFORMED CHURCHES                                         cannot be our permanent place of worship. Some of
   Classis gave to us the permission to ask for collec-        you who have visited us on occasion can testify to
tions for our Building Fund in your churches. In light         this. Without going into detail, it is a rather dingy and
of this forthcoming request we decided it proper and           depressing place. In addition to this, because of the
of interest to you that we inform you of our situation         congested area in which it is located, there are prob-
and need.                                                      lems with parking. As our congregation is getting
   Our earnest desire for some time already has been           more young children we are also in need of a place
to build a house of worship of our own. We have this           for nursery during the worship services. Presently this
desire as we give thanks unto our God for planting a           is also being held in a home. Although we surely
Protestant Reformed church in our midst and giving            recognize that it is not a church building that gathers
us and our children in rich abundance the spiritual           the Church of Jesus Christ, it is nevertheless true that
blessings of His covenant of grace through a distinc-          our present place of worship does not help in attract-
tively Reformed preaching of the Word. Because we are         ing visitors to our worship services.
such a small congregation we well realize the large un-          With a view to realizing our desires and plans, in
dertaking this involves. We are convinced, however,           April of last year we bought a five acre tract of land
that this matter is of great importance as we look to         with a house on it that is presently being used for our
the Lord our God to continue and preserve His church          parsonage (pictured above). We purchased this
with us and our children and with all those whom the          property by selling debentures in our congregation.
Lord will gather into His church through the preach-          Enough debentures were sold to purchase the prop-
ing of the glorious gospel of sovereign grace.                erty and pay the legal and engineering fees. Our plans
  It is our desire to praise the name of our God in a         are to sell debentures in various series as we progress
house of worship that is suitable for this purpose. We        with each phase of our project. Possibly later we will
surely know that worshiping and glorifying God is             also make these debentures available in the denomina-
not dependent on a building made with hands. How-             tion. These debentures are supported exclusively by
ever, we must enhance the worship of our God, as far          our building fund. We hold collections for this build-
as He gives the means, with a suitable house of wor-          ing fund on a regular basis in our own midst. All of
                                                              this, especially in the light of our small size, has been
ship.                                                         a work of faith. We continue to trust our God that He
  Since the time of our beginning we have held our            will continue His church with us and our children and
worship services in an American Legion Hall. Our two          continue to use our church as a witness to the
weekly Bible study classes and our catechism classes          Reformed faith in this community.
are presently held in various homes. Many of our
churches had such humble beginnings as far as place              Above, you will also see an artist's rendering of our
of worship is concerned, and we surely may not                proposed church building. All the plans for our
murmur about this. The places of worship were                 church building are completed. We are waiting to
humble, but the wonderful heritage of the Reformed            proceed: with our plans for final city and county
faith which God has delivered unto us is rich and             approval and until we can raise sufficient funds.
glorious beyond compare. The Legion Hall, although                                                Rev. A. den Hartog.
having served our needs temporarily, is at the same


 430                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


                                            Book Review
THE ANATOMY OF A HYBRID,  A Study in                         although he comes back to it again. and again. The
Church-State Relationships, by Leonard Verduin;              point he makes is this. Common grace is preserving
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976; 274 pp.,               grace. This kind of grace belongs to the sphere of the
$4.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko)                  state. Special grace is saving grace and belongs to the
                                                             sphere of the Church. Preserving (or common) grace
  The question of the relation between the Church            is but to aid special grace, as the state is but to create
and the secular state is a favorite one with Verduin.        a climate in which the Church can function. When
His earlier book, "The Reformers and Their Step-             common grace is denied, then grace is made one, and
children," dealt with the same question. Verduin is a        a "sacral" society in which church and state are
champion of the complete separation between church           united is the result. It would have been far more
and state and a strong promoter of the free exercise         Scriptural to answer honestly the question of whether
of religion.                                                 common grace is also merited through the cross of
  This book is divided into four parts. The first part,      Christ  - a question which Verduin avoids; and to
entitled "The daughters of men," deals with early            show that, not common grace, but the universal rule
"sacral" societies where church and state were one.          of Christ over His people in grace and over the wicked
The second part, "The sons of God," deals with the           in wrath is the key point.
influences of early Judaeo-Christian thought which            In the interest of his thesis Verduin faults the re-
influenced the separation of church and state. The           turned captives for rebuilding the temple and Jeru-
third part, "The birth of the hybrid," deals with the        salem because they were recreating a sacral society.
new union of church and state under Constantine the          (p. 47.) The ministry of John the Baptist was the
Great and its resulting sacral society. The fourth part,     preparation of a composite society in which each man
"And also afterwards," deals primarily with the              was free to exercise the religion of his choice. (p. 54)
Reformation and Post-reformation times when all the          Augustine hit upon the idea of predestination in de-
Protestant Churches favored a union of church and            fense of an ecclesiola in ecclesia, an idea inherent in
state with the exception of a few, notably William           the Roman Catholic conception of the relation be-
Rogers in this country, who sought a separation. The         tween church and state. (p. 106) Calvin adopted this
literary framework of the book is, therefore, depen-         view of predestination from Augustine in support of
dent upon the passage found in Genesis 6: l-4.               the same notion. (p. 185) Calvin's views show that he
  The book is a very convincing argument for the             never escaped the influence of the pagan philosopher
need to keep church and state separate. Especially the       Seneca. (p. 199) The whole conception of infant
author's emphasis on the horrible persecutions which         baptism is closely related to the defense of a union
resulted from an effort to promote religion `by the          between church and state. So strongly is this point
sword of the magistrate are convincing proof that            made repeatedly in the book that one begins to
when the church and state forge a bond to promote a          wonder whether Verduin actually accepts the doc-
certain religion, the end is disastrous. Not only the        trine of infant baptism. Verduin also rejects the dis-
Roman Catholic Church must share the blame for               tinction between a visible and an invisible church on
such persecutions, but also the Churches of the              the same grounds; i.e., as an invention intended to
Reformation have the blood of men on their hands,            support a union of the church and state.
especially in their persecution of the Anabaptists. All        Throughout the book there is a glorification of
this makes the book interesting reading.                     dissenting groups in the history of the Church, while
  The main weakness in the book is a serious over-           the faithful defenders of the truth are scorned and
stating of the whole case. Verduin sees almost all of        mocked. The Donatists, Cathari, Waldensians,  Ana-
history and all the development of doctrine in the           baptists, etc. are extolled for their efforts to fight
history of the Church as explainable from the view-          against a sacral society, while Augustine, Luther,
point of the struggle to resolve this issue. One gets the    Calvin, the Reformers, and many others are derided
impression from the book that there really is no other       because they sought a union of church and state.
significant controversy in all history than the con-         While it may be true that dissenting sects did stand
troversy over this question.                                 for such a separation between church and state, and
                                                             while it may also be true that many defenders of the
  A few instances to support this thesis will demon-         truth did not, nevertheless the fact remains that some
strate the truth of it.                                      of the dissenting groups were heretical, and one ought
  Verduin begins incorrectly when he speaks of               not to ignore the fact that the truth was preserved
the fact that the issue is basically one of                  through the labors of faithful men of God who may
grace. He discusses this especially on pp.  33ff.,           have erred on this point.


                                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                                           431
                                                                                            - -

                                                                             *"  .%S       "'            ,/:
    Verduin's style is always somewhat distasteful to                       not believe that the magistracy has any responsibility
me. He writes in such a way that solemn and sacred                          to enforce the first table of the law. But this is the
matters are treated offhandedly and in a light and                          central question; and Verduin should support his
facetious manner.                                                           position .with proof which shows why this is not true.
    And, finally, Verduin never faces foursquare the                        It is possible, I think, to take the position that the
vexing question of whether or not the magistracy,                           magistracy must enforce the first table of the law and
ordained by God, has the responsibility to enforce                          still avoid entanglements with the Church. But this is
both tables of the law. It is obvious that Verduin does                     another question involving another discussion.

                NOTICE TO THE CHURCHES                                                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   The 1977 Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches, having                   O n   J u n e   2 0 ,   1 9 7 7 ,   o u r   p a r e n t s ,   M R .   A N D   M R S .   S T U A R T
approved the examination of seminarian Kenneth Koole, declares him a        LOOYENGA celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. We, their grate-
candidate for the Ministry of the Gospel in our churches. Candidate         ful children, thank God for the many years of love and Christian in-
Koole will be eligible for a call after July 3, 1977.                       struction they have given us. Our sincere prayer is that God may continue
                                                                            to bless them in the future as He has done in the past.
                                    Mr. Kenneth Koole
                                    4938 Ivanrest,  SW., Apt. C                                                         Mr.  & Mrs. Russell Dykstra
                                    Grandville.  Mich. 49418                                                                 Heather, Heidi
                                     Rev. M. Joostens, Stated Clerk                                                     Mr.  & Mrs. David Looyenga
                                                                                                                             Lisabeth
                                 NOTICE                                                                                 Jane
                                                                                                                        Kathy
    Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will meet in Pella,                            ,
Iowa on September 7, 1977 at  8:30 AM, the Lord willing. Material for
the agenda should be in the hands of the stated clerk thirty days prior                                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
to  Classis. Delegates in need of lodging should inform the clerk of the         On May 25th our dear parents, MR. AND MRS. JOHN FLIKKEMA,
Pella consistory.                                                           of South Holland celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. We, their
                                     Rev. David Engelsma, Stated Clerk      children, are thankful to our covenant God that He has held them in
                                    Classis West                            His keeping fdr each of those years. It is our prayer that God will bless
                                                                            them in their  kuture years together. We also thank them for being the
                                                                            wonderful parents they are.
                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                            I                   their children,
                                                                                                                             Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bult
   On July 28, the Lord willing, our parents, MR. AND MRS. DICK                                                               Lois Flikkema
                                                                                                    I
KOOIENGA, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. We, their chil-                                                     Mary Flikkema
dren, are thankful to God for them and are grateful for the Christian                               !                             and their grandchildren:
home and the Christian education they have provided for  US.  Our                                                                 Julia and Jonathan.
prayer is that the Lord may continue to bless them in their remaining
years.                                                                                        / WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Miedema
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Earl Dykstra                       On June 26, 1977, our parents, MR. AND MRS. JOEL TALSMA
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Roger Kooienga                celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. We, their children, are
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Dykstra                thankful to  Gt$d for their many years together and our Christian home
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Donald  Sall                  and training through them. It is our prayer that God will continue to
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Donald Kooienga               bless them as t ey go through life's pathway together.
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Dykstra                                                    their children,
                                    33 grandchildren                                          :     1                   Mr. and Mrs. Ray Talsma
                                    6 great-grandchildren                                                                    and Jeffrey
                                Grand Rapids, Michigan                                                                  Bonnie Talsma
                                                                                                                        Kenneth Talsma

                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
   On July 10, 1977, D.V., our beloved parents MR. AND MRS.                                                          APOLOGY
GEORGE JOOSTENS will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary.
We, their grateful children, thank the Lord for having kept them for                       We regret the blunder for which we were responsible in
each other and us and pray that the Lord may continue to bless them.                    Rev. Hodksema's editorial last month and wish to apologize
                                 Rev. and Mrs. Meindert Joostens                        for it.  I
                                 William Joostens                                                   I                                Photo Composition Service
                                 and three grandchildren


                                                                                                    !
                                     News  From  Our  Churches
    Of a trio consisting of Revs. Wayne Bekkering,                             The first/ full week in June was graduation week in
George Lubbers, and James Slopsema, our Houston,                            the Grand `Rapids area. On Tuesday, June 7,  Semi-
                                                                            nary Graduation was held in our Hudsonville Church.
Texas, congregation has called Rev. Bekkering of                            Professor Hanko nave an address on "Predestination.
Randolph, Wisconsin.                                                        the Heart of the-Gospel." Three graduates received


_.
                                                                                                                          .





THE STANDARD BEARER
          P.O. Box 6064                                                          ..,     i  ,_  /  Gl~L.~;igLs~
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
                                                                               ,:  :.
                                                           I_<.
                                                                   ;                      .._~

432                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                :


their diplomas: Mr. Kenneth Koole of our churches                       The church ushers in our South Holland Church
and two students from the Free Reformed Churches.           have; scheduled a class in emergency medical training.
Mr. Koole will be eligible for a call in early July. On     That sounds like a good idea.                  _
Wednesday evening Hope Protestant Reformed Chris-                  ,Tlie Sunday School Teachers' Mass Meeting was
tian School held their graduation in Hudsonville            held lin Southwest Church on May 2. Mr. D. Boone
Church also. Rev. B. Woudenberg was the speaker. On         was scheduled to speak on the topic, "Sunday School
Thursday evening in First Church, Adams St. Chris-          -`Is It a Valuable Tool In Covenant Instruction?"
tian School held their graduation exercises. Prof. R.
Decker gave the address. And, on Friday evening, also              `The Sunday School teachers in our Redlands,
in First Church, Covenant Christian High School              California church scheduled their `annual wienie
scheduled their graduation. Rev. M. Schipper was the         bake' for their Sunday School students on May 27.
speaker.                                                     This i event seems to be a little unique in our churches.
      This note concerning Rev. Harbach's work as mis-             Also in Redlands, Rev. Kortering has moved his
sionary was in Hope's bulletin: "Rev. and Mrs.               study into the parsonage at 902 E. Brockton. The
Harbach are planning to leave Thursday, May 26, on           trailer which had been used as a study was vacated and
an investigative trip in the area north of Lynden,           will be returned.
Washington. The Mission Committee has received in-                      The Young People's Societies of our churches
formation of some interest in Victoria, Vancouver,           across the land scheduled their Spring Banquets dur-
and Abbotsford, British Columbia. The Harbachs plan          ing May. The Michigan area banquet was held in
to stay in Lynden during this month of work. We              Hudsonville Church on May 20. Rev. David Engelsma
wish them God's blessing and pray that the Lord may          of South Holland, Illinois, was the speaker. In the
yield fruit to their labors."                                Edgerton - Northwest Iowa area, the Young People's
      The following news from our Faith Church in            Banquet was held on May 4. Rev. M. Kamps spoke on
Jenison, Michigan, concerning their building program         "Se4k Ye the Lord While He May Be Found."
was in their bulletin: "A good spirit prevailed at the                  Rev. Kamps also was the speaker at a public lecture
congregational meeting held last week Monday                 in our church in Isabel, South Dakota, on April 22.
evening. (May 9) By an almost unanimous vote the             His topic was, " THE OLD CREEDS: Are They Still
congregation decided to proceed with the drawing up          Right For The Last Days?" Lunch was served in the
of final plans for phase one, which will consist of a        churkh  basement after the lecture so those attending
$200,000 sanctuary. May the Lord prosper us in this          could visit with Rev. and Mrs. Kamps.
work toward the building of His house."                                 Rev. Miersma of Isabel spent the Sundays of May
      Our Southwest Church in Wyoming, Michigan is           15 and 22 on classical appointment in Forbes, North
also looking forward to the time when they too can           Dakota. These were the last services in the Forbes
occupy a new church `home.' Their "Permanent                 church as the congregation was dissolved after the
Building Committee" has been busy with the ques-             service on May 22. The members of the small con-
tions of `how and when.' The results of a question-          gregation in Forbes are moving to other cities where
naire distributed to the congregation by the com-            theyi can continue their membership in our churches.
mittee indicate that 80% of the congregation is in                 The following reminder from the Isabel bulletin is
favor of a church building program in light of the           something we can all take to heart: "Now that the
continued growth of the congregation. However, 50%           society season is over there is a danger that we forget
of the congregation indicated they were "able or             about studying the Bible or related writings. Try
willing" to meet the financial obligations outlined by       through the summer months to continue reading or
the committee necessary to build a new church.               stud&g the Bible itself, commentaries, or Church
Based on their survey information, the committee             History  - something to keep our minds active in
decided to continue to investigate ways and means to         order that we continue to grow in the knowledge of
proceed with the directive of the council to "study          the truth and of God's way for us."
the problems and costs involved in construction of a                      I
new church building on our Ivanrest Ave. property."                                                                  K.G.V.


