      .STAlVDARD
          BEARER
             A REFORMED  SEMI-MOYTHLY  MAGAZINE                                    .





         Would that there. would be more of the attitude
       .today which is expressed in Luther's hymn:
         That word above all earthly powers -
          No thanks to them - abideth;
         The Spirit and the gifts are ours
          Through Him who with us sideth.
         Let goods and kindred go,
         This mortal life also ;
         The body they may kill,
         God's truth abideth still,
          His kingdom is forever.                  .
                   See "Thoughts For Reformation Day" - page 55





                                           Volume LIV, No. 3, November I,1977 d
                                                        ISSN 0362-4692
~.


50                                                              THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                           THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                                      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                           Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association,  Inc.
                                                                                                Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids, Mich.
                              CONTENTS:                                           Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
                                                                                  Department Editors:  Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rev. David J.  Engelsma,
                                                                                  Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. Robert C. Harbach,
Meditation -                                                                      Rev. John A.  Heys, Rev. Mark H. Hoeksema, Rev. Meindert Joostens,
                                                                                  Rev. Jay Kortering, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Rodney  Miersma,
      The Christian's Shoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50           Rev. Marinus  Schipper. Rev. James  Slopsema,  Rev.  Gise J. Van  Baren,
                                                                                  Rev. Ronald Van Overloop, Rev. Herman Veldman, Mr. Kenneth G.
Editorials -                                                                      Vink.
                                                                                  Editorial Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
      "Our Song of Hope" - A Critique (6) . . . . . . . .52                                            4975  lvanrest  Ave. S.W.
                                                                                                       Grandville,  Michigan 49418
      Thoughts For Reformation Day . . . . . . . . . . . . .55                    Church News Editor:  Mr. Kenneth G. Vink
Correspondence and Reply  -                                                                                 1422 Linwood. S.E.
                                                                                                            Grand Rapids, Michigan 49507
      Concerning "Life After Life"                                                Editorial Policy:  Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of
                                                                                  his own articles. Contributions of general interest from our readers and
         - Some Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56           questions for the Question-Box Department are welcome. Contri-
                                                                                  butions will be limited to approximately 300 words and must be neatly
      About the Legitimacy of Drama . . . . . . . . . . . . .57                   written or typewritten and must be signed. Copy deadlines are the first
                                                                                  and the fifteenth of  ihe month. All communications relative to the
Translated Treasures -                                                            contents should be sent to the editorial office.
                                                                                  Reprint Policy:  Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of
      A Pamphlet Concerning the Reformation                                       articles in our magazine by other Publications, provided: a) that such
                                                                                  reprinted articles are reproduced in full;  b) that proper acknowledge-
         of the Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60        ment is made; c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
                                                                                  appears is sent to our editorial office.
Triumph Through Trials -                                                          Business Office:  The Standard Bearer
      Our Hairs Numbered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62                                   Mr. H. Vander Wal, Bus. Mgr.
                                                                                                       P.O. Box 6064
Studies In Isaiah -                                                                                    Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506
                                                                                  Australian Business Office:        Reformed Literature Centre.
      Isaiah's Cleansing and Commission . . . . . . . . . . .64                                                      P.O. Box 649,
                                                                                                                     Rockhampton 4700,
Guest Article -                                                                                                      Queensland,  Australia
                                                                                  New Zealand Business Office:           The Standard Bearer,
      The Interpreting of the Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66                                                      c/o OPC Bookshop,
                                                                                                                         P.O. BOX 2269
All Around Us -                                                                                                          Christchurch, New Zealand`
      "Huisgemeenten" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69           Subscription Policy:  Subscription price, 57.00 per year (55.00 for
                                                                                  Australasia). Unless a definite request for discontinuance is received, it
      Reactions to "social dancing"                                               is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription to cqntinue  wrth-
                                                                                  out the formality of a renewal order, and he will be billed for renewal.
         at Calvin . . . . . . . . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69    If you have a change of address, please notify the Business Office as
                                                                                  early as possible in order to  avord the inconvenience of delayed deliv-
      Response to a "United Reformed Church" . . . .70                            ery. Include your Zip Code.
                                                                                  Advertising Policy:  The  Standard Bearer  does not accept commercial
Report of Classis West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71              advertising of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
                                                                                  anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be placed for a
News From Our Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72                    53.00 fee. These should be sent to the Business Office and should be
                                                                                  accompanied by the 53.00 fee. Deadline  fOt'  announcements is the 1st
                                                                                  or the 15th of the month, previous to publication on the 15th or the
                                                                                  1st respectively.
                                                                                  Bound  VohJmes:   The Business Office will accept standing orders for
                                                                                  bound copies of the current volume; such orders are filled as soon as
                                                                                  possible after completion of a volume. A limited number of past vol-
                                                                                  umes may be obtained through the Business Office.

MEDITA  TIO N




                                           The Christian's Shoes .
                                                                      Rev. H. Veldman


                        "And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. "                                 Eph. 6: 15

      How beautifully this third part of the Christian's                                   As the truth is the girdle and righteousness the
armour follows upon the girdle of truth and the                                     breastplate, so this preparation of the gospel of peace
breastplate of righteousness! They belong together;                                is our heavily spiked military shoes. We do not read
the one follows upon the other. Having experienced                                  of a preparedness unto the gospel of peace, but of a
the wonder of being righteous in Christ before God,                                 preparedness of the gospel of peace. Of course, the
the Word of God becomes for us the gospel of peace,                                 church must always be ready to proclaim the gospel
and nothing is more wonderful in the consciousness                                  of peace. And every child of God must be ready to
of the Christian warrior than peace.                                                give an account of the hope that is in him. But the


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    51



text speaks of a preparedness of the gospel of peace.        incorruptible and undefilable inheritance that fadeth
This is a preparedness which comes to us from the            not away. Indeed, the gospel has for its content
gospel of peace. It is this gospel of peace which con-       Christ and all His spiritual blessings of salvation as
stitutes the Christian soldier's preparedness in the         ultimately realized in heavenly life and glory.
world, enables him to stand in the midst of his fearful       : In this text -we read of the gospel of peace. Peace
battle and struggle.                                         means harmony, unity, concord. God is the God of
                                                             peace. The truine God is in perfect harmony with
                        THEIR IDEA                           Himself. Peace for us is harmony and fellowship with
   How wonderful is the gospel! The gospel in this           God. Spiritual peace means that, spiritually, we, who
text surely refers to the entire Scriptures. The whole       by nature are enemies of God, are now at peace with
Word of God is the gospel because every part of it is        Him, love Him, and live in blessed harmony with
related to the gospel. Besides, the word "gospel"            Him. But we can also speak of peace in the judicial
means: good news, glad tidings.                              sense. This means that the middle wall of partition
                                                             between God and us has been removed,! that the guilt
   In Galatians 3:8 the gospel is obviously identified       of sin has been paid, that His covenant fellowship
with the promise. God, preaching the gospel to               with us has been established as according to His law,
Abraham, preached the promise to him. Hence, the             that God has reconciled us to Himself and we are
gospel is no offer. How could a mere offer, God's            heirs of His fellowship and communion. It is this
offer of, salvation to all men, dependent, therefore,        judicial peace which is meant in this text. To have
upon the will of a `sinner, ever be good news? How           this peace means that we have the unspeakably
could such a preaching serve this Christian warrior,         blessed assurance of heart and soul that God is not
equip him with these military shoes for the battle?          against us but for us, that He has made peace with us,
Need we say more?                                            has laid the basis and foundation for His eternal
   The gospel is good news because it concerns the           covenant of friendship with us.
promise. And God's promise is a divine solemn                  The gospel of peace! The gospel of peace is, the
announcement of what He will do, never dependent
upon anything outside of Himself. The promise of             gospel that proclaims peace. As the gospel of peace, it
God is unconditional  - He alone fulfills it. This is        is also the power of God which also works peace in
clearly stated in Heb. 6: 13-14. The promise of God is       our souls and consciousness, grants us the assurance
as sure and as faithful as God is faithful. Fact is, He      that all is well between the living God and us. Indeed,
confirms it with an oath - see Heb. 6: 13-18. And this       of all the blessings of salvation, of all the riches of the
promise is also strictly particular. Heb. 6: 17-18           promise of the gospel, the apostle singles out this one,
                                                             lays his finger upon this one gift of grace as so
speaks of God's immutable counsel and the heirs of           necessary and vital for the Christian soldier in the
the promise, namely the elect.                               midst of the world.
   Indeed, the promise is good news, glad tidings. This        And now we read of the preparedness of the gospel
is true, first of all, because of Him Who promises: the      of peace. We interpret this expression, "preparedness
unchangeably faithful covenant God.  : This is true,         of the gospel of peace,`, in the same sense as the other
secondly, because of him to whom the promise is              similar expressions in this Christian armour. Even as
made. Mind you, we are conceived and born dead in            the girdle of trust, etc., means that the truth is the
sins and in trespasses. We are hopelessly lost in our sin    girdle, so the gospel of peace is this preparedness, and
and guilt, worthy of eternal condemnation, do not            this preparedness constitutes our shoes in this battle.
desire salvation and can do nothing in our own               This preparedness of the gospel of peace means that
behalf. And, thirdly, please notice what is promised         this peace, as wrought in Christ and experienced in
by God! The Lord promises, not only salvation, but           the soul and consciousness of the Christian warrior, is
salvation in everlasting glory and heavenly immortal-        our preparedness. It constitutes our heavily spiked
ity.                                                         shoes, enabling us to stand in the battle, to hold our
   We read now of the gospel of peace. Hence, peace          ground and sustain every onslaught of the enemy.
is the content of this gospel, these glad tidings.
Indeed, how rich, according to Scripture, is the                            THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
gospel! It is. as rich in its content as the promise of        Surely, the apostle here is not speaking of a
God is rich. Of course, the content of the promise is        preparedness, a readiness, for the gospel of peace. The
Christ. This promise implies the forgiveness of sins,        idea, then, would be that we must be ready to preach
our righteousness before God in Christ, and our              the gospel; preaching it, we will turn the hearts and
adoption unto children of God. It implies that we            minds of many of our enemies to become friends and
receive, in Christ, all the spiritual blessings of salva-    join our ranks in this struggle of the ages. How
tion, that we are heirs of eternal life and glory, of the    impossible is this view! The apostle here is emphasiz-


52                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


ing the gigantic struggle of all the ages between the                   But, there is still more. On the other hand, this
Church and the World, between the seed of the                        peace with God surely means more than that God is
serpent and that of the woman. That world surely                     for me and that my eternal victory is, therefore, sure
never becomes the church, that Seed of the woman                     and certain. It also means that I am now more than
never becomes that of the serpent, even as wolves                    conqueror, that God is for me, also now. It also means
never become sheep and the tares never become                        that He causes all things, now, to work together for
wheat. The question here is not how many of the foe                  my good, yea, that every attack of the enemy
we can induce to join our ranks, but that we are                     somehow is necessary unto my eternal life and glory.
engaged with him in a relentless, uncompromising                     I have peace with God! Then I also have peace with
struggle even until the end.                                         all things.
      These shoes are the spiked shoes, the hobnailed
sandals of the Roman soldier. With these shoes he
stands, holds his own, maintains his position, cannot                               THEIR APPROPRIATION
be forced into surrender or retreat.                                   The Holland translation is better here. It is better
      How wonderful are these shoes of this pre-                     because it reads that we must shoe our feet.
paredness of the gospel of peace! Why can I sustain                    Indeed, this preparedness is not our work. We
my position in the midst of this struggle of the ages?               read literally: "Having shod our feet with the pre-
Why is it that this gospel of peace grants me this                   paredness of the gospel of peace." This preparedness
preparedness, this state of heart and mind and soul to               is surely not our work. 0, we do not make these
be able to endure? Are not the odds stacked up                       thickly spiked shoes. They were surely prepared for
hopelessly against me . . .?                                         us, eternally and upon the cross. . . . And it is only by
      On the one hand, we now have peace with God.                   His irresistible grace and Holy Spirit that we become
God is now for me; who can, therefore, be against                    partakers of this preparedness. God it is Who unites
me? God is on my side; what, then, can man or all the                us with Christ by His gift, a true and living faith.
forces of hell and darkness do. unto me? What else                     .Yet, we must put these shoes upon our feet. That
matters now? I am righteous in Christ before God;                    is, we must enter consciously, through faith, into this
my sins and iniquities are all forgiven; I am an heir of             work of God in Christ. We must appropriate it unto
everlasting glory. Indeed, with. all due consideration               ourselves. We must study the gospel, familiarize our-
to whatever may be my distress in the world, what                    selves with all that it declares to us concerning this
does it really matter? Can this present light affliction             mighty peace-making work of God in Christ Jesus. We
(2 Cor. 4: 17) be compared with the glory that shall                 must surely know the Scriptures, all the Scriptures,
follow? Can this life ever be compared with that                     how God made peace with us in Christ, and how true
which is to come? Shall one drop of affliction and                   it is that He is for us, always for us, and never against
sorrow (in comparison with the eternal bliss) be                     us. We must live near these Scriptures, appropriate
likened to that endless ocean. of immortal life and                  them unto ourselves by a true and living faith:, and
bliss? I am at peace with God: He is for me and on                   when we are in the thick of the battle and inclined to
my side; this I know through the wonder of the                       become discouraged and despondent, we must stand
gospel of peace. However, this is not all. Fact is, I am             in that gospel of peace, look at our present light
as yet in the battle, in the struggle of the ages. 0, this           affliction in the light of the unfailing promises of our
affliction may be light when compared with the                       God, and believe that also now everything is working
endless glory and immortality, but the fact remains                  that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory
that I am as yet in this affliction, and this suffering              (2 Cor. 4: 18). Indeed, also in the battle we are more
can be very hard and grievous.                                       than conquerors.

E D I T O R I A L S
Pro.f H.C. Hoeksema


                        "Our Song of Hope" - A Critique  '
                                                              (6)

  The next item which we wish to examine with                        formed Church in America is its teachings, if any,
respect to this proposed new confession of the  Re-                  concerning the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  53


Naturally, in connection with the atonement there           because in Appendix B the point is specifically made
are also other aspects of the doctrine concerning           that "Our  Song" parts ways with- the Heidelberg
Christ which are involved.                                  Catechism when it comes to the term "righteous-
  First of all, we may note that ."Our Song of Hope"        ness." Now anyone who has even passing acquain-
seems to emphasize strongly the church's hope - this        tance with the Catechism will know that it speaks
is the term used, not "faith" - in Jesus Christ. In         often of righteousness and that it lays great stress on
Stanza 2 we read: "We know Christ to be our only            the necessity of being righteous before God. He will
hope." Stanza 3 opens with the words, "Our only             also know that our Catechism speaks of being
hope is Jesus Christ." Again, Stanza 4 begins, "Jesus       righteous in the judicial, the legal sense' of the word,
Christ is the hope of God's world." And even Stanza         righteous before the bar of divine justice. With regard
5 sounds a similar note: "Our ascended Lord gives           to our sin and misery the Catechism is concerned,
hope for two ages."                                         first of all, with our justificaffon,  whether that.be our
                                                            objective justification in the atoning blood of the
  Superficially considered, this sounds rather good,        Mediator or whether it be our justification by faith
doesn't it?                                                 and before our own consciousness. In other words,
  However, in the second place, we must not be              what is really at stake here. is that great heritage of
fooled by the mere use of high-sounding words. We           the Reformation, 
must inquire carefully: precisely who is this Jesus                              justij?cation  by faith  through the
Christ of whom "Our Song" speaks? We may pass by            meritorious death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
the strange fact that this confession never speaks at         But of this kind of righteousness and of the
all of faith and of believing. This is in itself, to say    atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ which is the
the least, very odd in a confession; and it renders         basis of such righteousness "Our Song of Hope"
suspect even the use of the term "hope," of which           wants nothing.
this would-be creed seems to be so fond. For, after           One can sense the direction of "Our Song" already
all, what is hope without faith? But let that be. Who       in Stanza 3, when it speaks the following language:
is the Jesus Christ spoken of in this confession? Is He
the Christ of the Scriptures? Is He Jesus the complete        He was born of the virgin Mary,
Savior, in whom we find all things necessary to our             sharing our genes and our instincts,
salvation? Is He the Savior Who saveth us and  de-              entering our culture, speaking our language,
livereth us from our sins? (Heid. Catechism, 29 & 30)           fulfilling the law of our God.
Is He our "only High Priest, who by the one sacrifice         Being united to His humanity,
of his body, has redeemed us"? (Heid. Cat. 31) Is He            we know ourselves when we rest in Him.
the One Who has redeemed us, both soul and body,              Don't be deceived by the reference to His birth of
from all our sins with His precious blood? (Heid. Cat.      the virgin Mary. Note, rather, that already here "Our
34) Is He the Mediator Who "with His innocence and          Song" misses the point completely and deliberately.
perfect holiness, covers in the sight of God, my sins,      That point is that Christ "assumed the flesh and
wherein I was conceived and brought forth"? (Heid.          blood of the children" - our human nature; that He
Cat. 36) Is He the Savior Who so suffered that He           be,came like unto us in all things, sin excepted; that
"sustained in body and soul, the wrath of God against       He did so in order that "through death he might
the sins of all mankind: that so, by his passion, as the    destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the
only propitiatory sacrifice, he might redeem our body       devil; And deliver them who through fear of death
and soul from everlasting damnation, and obtain for         were all their lifetime subject to bondage. . . . Where-
us the favor of God, righteousness and' eternal life"?      fore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto
(Heid. Cat. 37) Is He the Savior Who humbled himself        his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful
unto death "Because with respect to the justice and         high priest in things pertaining to God, to make
truth of God, satisfaction for our sins could be made       reconciliation for the sins of the people." (Hebrews
no otherwise, than by the death of the `Son of God"?        2: 14-17) That point is that "when the fulness of the
(Heid. Cat. 40)                                             time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a
  You see, I am asking whether "Our Song" Qelieves          woman, made under the law, To redeem them that
in blood atonement, whether it believes in vicarious,       were under the law, that we might receive the
that is, substitutionary atonement, whether it believes     adoption of sons." (Gal. 4:4, 5) The point is not at all
in atonement through satisfaction of the justice of         that we are or can be "united to His humanity," and
God, whether it believes in atonement through pay-          thus "know ourselves when we rest in Him." What
ment of the debt of our guilt, whether it believes in       kind of jargon is that? No, no, He united to Himself
an atoning death of Christ through which all His own        our human nature, in order that by His death and
are perfectly righteous before the bar of divine            resurrection He might raise it out of sin and guilt and
justice. And I am asking these questions purposely,         death unto righteousness and holiness and life.


54                                                THE STANDARD BEARER


      But the entire trend of "Our Song" to present a        the real and bodily resurrection of Christ, you had a
doctrine of reconciliation much like that being              healthy suspicion. Read the following commentary
promoted in the Netherlands by Wiersinga, a doctrine         (p. 28):
of reconciliation which does not acknowledge a                 "The words about the empty tomb are important
Christ Who bore the judgment of God against our              to us. We know that our modern learning has a good
sins, Who did not die an atoning death for the               deal of skepticism about these words. The accounts in
satisfaction of God's justice  - that trend becomes          the Gospels do not fit together as well as we might
very evident in the first part of Stanza 4:                  wish; therefore, modern historians as well as scientists
      Jesus Christ is the hope of God's world.               would like to have a little more evidence. When we
      In His death,                                          bear witness to the resurrection, we do not know
       the justice of God is established;                    exactly what we mean in terms of biological or
       forgiveness of sin is proclaimed.                     chemical processes. Nevertheless, the words about the
                                                             empty tornb ring true to us because they are con-
Note very carefully that it does not say, "In His            sistent with God's love for this world in which we
death, the justice of God is satisfied." This difference     live. We are always tempted to try to escape from this
of language is deliberate, not accidental. Proof? I          material existence into a more spiritual area; we
refer you to the commentary on this stanza by Dr.            would like to give up life in this world in order to be
Heideman,:                                                   in heaven. But these. words about the empty tomb
      "One can say many things about the significance of     keep us firmly within our own space and time. If God
His death. For our times, we begin by singing about          is concerned about the dead body of Jesus, then we
just two points. One is that in ,His death, the justice      know that He is also concerned about the bodies of
of God rather than any other legal, political, or social     men and women living in the world today. His
system is established as the way the world is to live."      salvation covers our whole existence  - body, mind
(page 27)                                                    and spirit. Whatever stands in need of saving can
      Notice that the reference is to divine justice as a    receive His salvation."
way of life, something altogether different from the           How poverty-stricken is "Our Song's" confession!
way in which our creeds speak of the justice of God,         It does not dare confess forthrightly Christ's bodily
as well as altogether different from the way in which        resurrection. How, then, could it find any real signif-
Scripture speaks of the righteousness of God revealed        icance in that resurrection? It only means that God is
in Christ.                                                   concerned about the bodies of men and women living
      But if there is any doubt as to whether this           in the world today!
language of "Our Song" is deliberate, let me call
attention to the fact that in the study questions on           It is, of course, wholly unnecessary after all this to
page 29 this very difference is broached: "Some              ask whether "Our Song" believes  in limited  atone-
persons have suggested that lines 3-4 should read:           ment. The truth so succinctly set forth in Canons II,
`The justice of God is satisfied, the offer of forgive-      8 is farthest from the minds of the- composers of
ness is proclaimed.' What would be implied in the            "Our Song." Worse than that, however, universalism
change of wording? Would you prefer such a                   is not even explicitly rejected. Read the following -
change?"                                                     and weep:
      It stands to reason, of course, that once having         "The stanza ends by singing about God's purpose
deliberately by-passed the truth of atonement                for the world. We cannot comprehend all that is
through satisfaction, "Our Song" has to follow by            included in this phrase. We know that somehow the
corrupting the doctrine of Christ's resurrection. It         death and resurrection of Jesus Christ extends to the
could hardly view the resurrection of Christ as the          whole creation, for His work is greater than the sin of
seal of our justification, as the' power of a new life,      man which touches all that we know. When the
and the pledge of our bodily resurrection, as do             church has considered the impact of salvation in
Scripture and the Reformed confessions. This is what         Christ, it has always been tempted by what is known
it states:                                                   as `universalism,' the teaching that in the end all men
      On the day of His resurrection;                        and all things will be saved. The church has always
       the tomb was empty; His disciples saw Him;            rejected that teaching because it implies that we
       death was defeated; new life'had come.                need not take the sin of man seriously; Christians
       God's purpose for His world was sealed.               then can easily become a complacent people, ignoring
                                                             God and human need alike. On the other hand, we
      More garbage!                                          have been tempted to restrict the impact of that
      And if you wondered as you read the above              salvation to a few faithful or elect souls who have
language whether "Our Song" is fully committed to            been plucked from the fire, while the great mass of


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                55



mankind together with this world is eternally lost. As       only know that He is filled with righteousness and
Our Song goes on, we will become more conscious of           mercy as that has been revealed and accomplished in
how we stand apart from these two extremes. At the           the death and resurrection of Jesus."
same time, we will wait upon the Lord for His
judgment; His boundaries are not known to us. We               And this is a confession for a Reformed church?


                            Thoughts For Reformation  D<ay

  As I write this, Reformation Day is approaching.           principally the very same Semi-Pelagianism which
The four hundred sixtieth anniversary of the great           saturated the Roman Catholic Church at the time of
Reformation of the sixteenth century will soon be            Luther and Calvin. Then we have not even mentioned
upon us. As you read this, that occasion will be just        yet the rampant horizontalism and social gospelism or
past.                                                        the tremendous tendency toward world conformity,
   It is not amiss, therefore, that our thoughts should      and that, too, with the blessing of the church.
turn to the subject of the reformation of the church.          And what is done?
  Those thoughts, however, should not only be                  Some, indeed, have raised ecclesiastical protests.
thoughts of thankful commemoration of a past event.          Others cry about the futility of protest. Still others
Nor should they only be thoughts of admiration of            wring their hands in the public ecclesiastical press,
such ecclesiastical giants and warriors as a Martin          filling page after page with negativistic chronicles of
Luther and a John Calvin. They should be thoughts            the sore ills plaguing their denomination. Others
pertinent to the present, pertinent to the present           complain more mildly, even threatening to withdraw
condition of the church, pertinent to our calling to be      financial support for the church's institutions. Others
"Reformed, and ever reforming," pertinent to the             seek refuge in gimmicks such as "emergency con-
question whether we are faithful to our Reformation          gregations" or propose the establishment of "house-
heritage.                                                    hold congregations" within their denomination  -
  Let me raise some questions in this connection.            because the truth is that they either cannot or will
                                                             not accomplish reformation through separation. And
  In the first place, could and would the Reforma-           meanwhile ecclesiastical assemblies hold a protective
tion take place today? Or is it true, perhaps, that if a     hand over those guilty of error either through endless
Luther or a Calvin had assumed the attitude of many          discussion (dialogue) or through shunting matters to
in the church today, we would all still be in the            study committees; or else the assemblies themselves
Roman Catholic Church?                                       uphold and promulgate the errors.
  You are inclined to think that is a bit of a                  But is there reformation?
melodramatic question?                                         Is there even a genuine willingness to accomplish
  I think not. On the contrary, it is realistic.             reformation  - either reformation from within the
  Viewing only what is referred to as the Reformed           church or reformation through separation?
community, what do we see? Everywhere, but                     Is there not only a holy indignation at the  God-
especially both in this country and in the Nether-           dishonoring errors, but also a positive seeking and
lands, there is sad deformation. To catalogue the            maintaining and proclaiming of the unadulterated
errors, cardinal errors, which have made their ugly          truth of God's Word?
appearance in Reformed churches only within the last
ten or fifteen years, let alone the past fifty, would           Is there the firm and resolute "Here I stand"
require more than the space of a brief article. To           attitude of a Martin Luther?
mention only a few of the outstanding ones, there is           And among the ministers of the gospel is there a
the denial of the inspiration and authority and in-          aresolute concern to militate against all errors
fallibility of Holy Scripture, the denial of the truth of    repugnant to the confessions, to warn against error,
creation, the denial of the historicity of the first         but also positively to proclaim the full-orbed "faith
eleven chapters of Genesis, the denial of sovereign          once delivered to the saints" and to instruct God's
reprobation, the denial of sovereign election from           people and cause them to grow in the riches of the
eternity, the denial of the vicarious bearing of the         truth and to develop in the line of our confessions?
wrath of God in the death of Christ, the denial of           Or is there concern for an easy position, for a high
definite (limited atonement), `and there is the              salary and fringe benefits, for a comfortable par-
Arminian error of free-offerism and  free-will&m  -          sonage? Is there a reluctance to "rock the boat?? Is


56                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


there fear that one might lose his pension? Is there            your prayer? Or is that prayer a piece of hypocritical
fear of standing alone? Is there a tendency to "count           mockery?
noses" to see how many might perhaps go along if                  Would that there would be more of the attitude
there were a split, lest one might find himself isolated        today which is expressed in Luther's hymn:
in a small and insignificant "splinter group"?                    That word above all earthly powers -
      And how about you yourself? Where do you                     No thanks to them - abideth;
stand? What would you do? No, what are you doing?                 The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Are you at ease in Zion?                                           Through Him who with us sideth.
      A final question: do you beseech God earnestly              Let goods and kindred go,
that He will bring about reformation? For after all,              This mortal life also;
genuine reformation is  .His work, the work of His                The body they may kill,
sovereign grace alone. And if you do beseech Him, is              God's truth abideth still,
your own attitude and are your actions in accord with              His kingdom is forever.

CORRESPONDENCE AND REPLY


              Concerning "Life After L,ife" - Some Questions
                                                    Pastor E.  C. Case
                                                  Woodville, Mississippi

  In two recent articles the Rev. Mark Hoeksema has            in his second article (9/1/`77), "Is it not possible that
discussed the "findings" of Dr. Raymond Moody                  the descriptions given . . . approach the truth of the
concerning what is popularly called "Life After Life,"         glory of which the Bible speaks?" (p. 472) and then,
which relates to the experiences of individuals who,           a bit further on (p.  473),  ". . . is it not the will of
though declared clinically dead, have lived to tell            God to encourage His saints by this revelation (italics
some strange things which happened to them while               added) be it by means even of wicked men giving
"dead." The reader may refresh his memory by                   them a partial and imperfect glimpse into the future
referring to Rev. Hoeksema's articles. Briefly, he             glory of the faithful?" What meaneth this "revela-
approached the issue from the point of view of II              tion?" Surely Rev. Hoeksema does not believe in
Timothy 3:5, suggesting that the experiences reported          "revelation" in the sense in which pentecostalism
and their interpretation represent something of that           speaks of it.
phenomenon of the last days  T a form of godliness                What then? Should we not be warning our people
without the power thereof.                                     against the deception involved in this "Life After
  Concerning this I have some questions:                       Life" madness, rather than finding good things to say
      1. Do these experiences really manifest a "form of       about it?
godliness," or is it more likely that here is an example          Please Rev. Hoeksema - some clarification.
of devilish deception by the one who sometimes casts
himself as an angel of light (II Cor. 11: 14)? After all,      REPLY
it cannot possibly be maintained that these people                I would like to thank Pastor Case for his questions
were actually dead. "It is appointed unto men once             regarding my articles on "Life After Life." It is
to die, and after this `cometh judgment." (Heb. 9:27)          evident to me that he writes in the spirit of a friendly
Thus, their experiences are not those of people who            and Chrsitian attempt to further our knowledge of
have returned from the "other side." Add the fact              God's revelation especially as it applies to our lives in
that not all those who had these experiences are               the end times. I reply in the same spirit, attempting
Christian, and you have a problem explaining why the           to answer some of the questions he has raised.
experiences were almost always pleasant. Does Rev.                The first question implies the necessity of choosing
Hoeksema suggest that God would so mislead the                 between two mutually exclusive viewpoints: Do these
ungodly? Is it not more likely that Satan is deceiving         experiences manifest a form of godliness, or are they
people into a view of death that does not square with          an example of devilish deception? While I have said
Scripture's facts?                                             the former, Pastor Case seems to take the latter
  2. What does Rev. Hoeksema mean when he asks                 position, and implies also that such a choice must be


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 57



made.`That alternative I do not accept, because I do         if we should be busy in warning our people against
not believe that these are mutually exclusive altema-        such evils. Regarding this matter of warning, I agree,
tives, I think that rather the point is that both must       and the whole tone of my articles, as well as specific
be taken together, in the sense that this devilish           statements, reflect that spirit. I admit that I did not
deception is part of the form of godliness. It must be       state this warning directly, but rather implied it, even
remembered that the godliness concerns form only,            in the titles of these articles, which spoke of form
and not contents; this in itself implies that there is       without power. Is that assuming too much on the
deception involved, and we know that the father of           part of our people? And most emphatically, Pastor
deception and the lie is the devil. Surely, then, this       Case, I do not believe in any Pentecostal conception
matter of Life After Life is an example of devilish          of revelation. Perhaps that word was ill-chosen be-
deception that God allows the devil to practice on the       cause of its wrong use by many today, so I am open
wicked; but it cannot be denied that even this               to the suggestion of a better one. I do, however, stand
deception comes in the garb of a form of godliness.          by my interpretation of-the significance of this whole
And is not this the way in which the devil always            matter for the people of God. I do not mean at all to
works?                                                       deny that there is a large negative element of the lie,
                                                             deception, and wickedness involved, against which
   Regarding the other statements and questions              God's people must be warned. But is the meaning of
appended to this first major question, I would ob-           this limited to a negative application?, If we believe
serve the following. Pastor Case asserts that the            that God does all things for the sake of His elect
people under discussion did not have the experiences         church, and that  all  things must, in one way or
of people who returned from the other side, implying         another, serve the redemption of the saints, then does
on the basis of Heb.  9:27 that this would be im-            not the matter of life after death do this also? I do
possible. But is it? What about  Laiarus and the             not mean to suggest that all that has been reported is
daughter of Jairus, as well as other Scriptural ex-          fact, but implied the opposite in asking in my second
amples? Why could not the same phenomenon occur              article, "Assuming that even a small part of what Dr.
today, given the abilities of modem medicine? If             Moody reports is true, why does God in His sovereign
these people did not return from the "other side,"           control choose to reveal these things??' Surely God
then from where, being dead in the fullest sense of          does not use unbelievers to instruct the church in the
the word as we understand death, did they return?            truths of the kingdom of heaven, for unbelievers
Pastor Case also refers to a problem of explaining that      cannot even perceive the spiritual realities of the
all the experiences were pleasant, whereas Scripture         kingdom. Nor, as I stated in my second article, must
presents a picture of judgment and damnation.                we view this matter as proof to faith, since faith rests
Exactly this problem I raised in my first article, but       upon the Word of God in Christ alone. Faith, then,.
the problem was solved in Dr. Moody's second book,           does not view this matter as an extra-Scriptural form
in which he speaks of negative experiences. Pastor           of God's revelation. But do all these negative truths
Case wonders whether I mean to suggest that God is           preclude the possibility that God's people see some
misleading the ungodly. My intention in my articles          positive purpose in all of this? Perhaps there is no
was not to express an opinion on that particular             positive significance, or perhaps the positive sig-
point, but if asked directly, then I reply that that is      nificance is not what I implied in my articles. That,
certainly within the realm of possibility. II Thess.         too, is exactly the reason why I put the matter of any
2: 1 l-l 2 says (in the context of reprobation) that "God    positive application in question form; I did not take
will send them strong delusion, that they should             any hard and fast position, exactly because matters of
believe a lie; that they all might be damned who             life after death are deep waters in which to swim. But
believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous-      if the positive significance is not what I implied it
ness." To answer the last question, surely Satan is          could be, then what is it?
deceiving people into accepting an erroneous view of
death, but always under the sovereign control of               I hope that these answers satisfy the questions,
Almighty God and for His purposes.                           Pastor Case,. and that I have corrected any mistaken
                                                             impressions you might have. Again, thanks for your
   Regarding the second main question and its con-           interest!
nected items, Pastor Case questions my application of
this whole matter to the people of God, and wonders                                        Rev. Mark Hoeksema

                           About  the.Legitimacy of Drama

   From the Rev.  Alastair  McEwen, pastor of the            toria, Australia, your editor received a letter several
Reformed Presbyterian Church of Frankston,  Vic-             weeks ago concerning Rev. Bekkering's May 15 guest


 58                                               THE STANDARD BEARER



 article about the legitimacy of drama. This letter I          McEwen as follows: i;irst I would like to thank the
 forwarded to Rev. Bekkering shortly before he moved           brother for his interest in and concern for the
 to Houston, Texas; and I suggested that he reply to           Standard Bearer.
 Rev. McEwen (whom we met during our Australasian                His letter arises in connection with an article
 tour), and also that perhaps he could write further on        written by the undersigned which appeared in the
 this subject when next he was scheduled for a guest           May 15, 1977 issue of the Standard Bearer entitled
 article.                                                      "Is Drama a Legitimate Means to Convey the Truth?"
       Rev.  McEwen's concern in his letter was that           (I ask the readers to dig out that issue of the Standard
 Rev. Bekkering's article was unbiblical because the           Bearer and reread the article in question.)
 Scripture references were selective and because im-             As I gather from the brother's letter his primary
 portant Biblical data were not considered. He suggests        concern is for the proper method of reaching a
 that the topic of drama be dealt with again, this time        Biblical conclusion on any matter and secondarily is
 with a more thorough examination of Scripture.                he concerned with the subject of drama.
       Because his letter is too long and because it is not      Now, I too am concerned with proper method, and
 even clear whether it was intended for publication, I         I agree that all the important and relevant Biblical
 will not quote the entire letter, but only the sections       data should be examined before one comes to a
 pertinent to Rev. Bekkering's reply:                          conclusion on any given matter. The problem arises
       "And what Scriptures have not been considered?          because brother McEwen supposes that he finds in
 Remembering that Rev. Bekkering states that `the              the Bible instances where impersonation is used and
 fundamental error in drama is impersonation,' what            directed by the Lord to convey the truth., Upon the
 are we to do with the example of David - David who            basis of his unproven suppositions brother McEwen
`did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord and          makes some very strong statements and draws some
 turned not aside from anything that he commanded              unwarranted conclusions. I must caution the brother
 him all the days of his life' (I Kgs. 15: 5) - when he        that such a method is not proper. If the brother is
 `feigned himself mad amongst the Philistines' (I Sam.         going to label one's treatment of a matter as unbiblical
 2 1: 13)? Perhaps this is not an example to follow. But       and presenting half the truth it seems to me that it is
 what about Ezekiel who, under the Lord's instruc-             uncumbent  upon him to do more than refer to a
 tion, acted out the part of an exile (Ezek. 4  &  12)?        number of passages from Scripture. He should show
 Was not this impersonation? Certainly it was acting           clearly upon the basis of the passages referred to that
 designed to convey truth (see Ezek. 12:3). Isaiah was         the Bible indeed teaches what he supposed it does.
 also under the Lord's instructions to perform similar            Brother McEwen has not at all convinced me that
 actions (Isa. 20).                                            he has struck upon passages that are relevant to the
       "But is not the classic example, which, if I under-     subject of drama and impersonation. I believe that
 stand Rev. Bekkering correctly, ought to be con-              the brother commits the logical error of "circular
 demned out of hand, that of the man from the sons             reasoning" or assuming what needs to be proved. He
 of the prophets who, `in the word of the Lord,'               makes the assumption that the acts carried out in the
 gained an unnecessary wound and acted out the part            passages cited are in the same class as the drama of
 of an unfaithful guard? Was not this to convey truth?         today. I believe that they are not at all in the same
 Certainly we cannot condemn all impersonation when            class, but are as different the one from the other as
 here we see that it was directed by the Lord.                 apples are from ostriches.
       "Let me make it clear that I am not maintaining            The point of distinction between the two can be
 that all drama is right nor even that any drama of            seen in. light of the premise that "the fundamental
 today is right. What I am saying is that we cannot            error in drama is impersonation." In the passages
 conclude anything until all the relevant Biblical data        referred to by brother McEwen I do not believe that
 are taken into consideration. We who are responsible          we find impersonation at all and therefore no drama
 to shepherd the flock of Jesus Christ run the risk of         in the ordinary sense of the word as we use it today.
 leading them astray when we neglect to examine all
 the relevant Scriptures when dealing with any topic.             I believe what we find in the passages referred to
 This is all the more important when dealing with one          (with the exception of I Samuel 21: 13) is what may
 with such wide implications as drama."                        be called symbolic or prophetic acts. M.S. Terry in his
                                                               Biblical Hermeneutics calls the account of the wound-
       Next follows Rev. Bekkering's response.                 ing of the- man of the sons of the prophets an Old
                                                               Testament parable, but I believe that it is at the same
 REPLY                                                         time a symbolic or prophetic act.
 Dear Mr. Editor,                                                 Now turn with me to the passages referred to and
       I would like to respond to the letter of brother        let us consider them in order. I ask the reader to look


                                            THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   59


up the passages and read them as we consider them.        commanded by God to perform a number of sym-
They are in themselves interesting as well as im-         bolic or prophetic acts. What is stated  matter-of-
portant for a proper understanding of the matter          factly in chapter 4 concerning God's command is
under discussion.                                         emphatically set forth in chapter 12. In verse 1 of
  The first passage referred to is found in I Samuel      chapter 12 we read "The word of the Lord also came
21: 10 ff., and has to do with David's feigning mad-      unto me, saying, . .  ." and in verse 7 Ezekiel says
ness before the gates of the city of Gath. When           "And I did so as I was commanded." God further
brother McEwen quotes part of I Kings 15:5 to show        tells Ezekiel, in verse 11, to tell the people the exact
that David was a godly man he certainly does not          reason why he acts as he does. "Say I am your sign:
mean to imply that David was without any personal         like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them. . . ."
sin and weakness. In fact the account of David before     On the basis of the express testimony of both
the gates of Gath does not show him in the strength       chapters 4 and 12 we do not come to the conclusion
of his faith, but at a time of sin and weakness. I do     that Ezekiel is dramatically acting out the part of an
not believe that we have an example of impersonation      exile or impersonating anyone, but that he is func-
here, but an example of a saint acting foolishly and      tioning as a faithful prophet of God and carrying out
sinfully. There can certainly be actions that are not     prophetic acts exactly as God commands him.
good examples to follow, apart from impersonation.          Turning now to Isaiah 20, especially verses 2-4, we
  Secondly there are the passages from Ezekiel 4 and      find the same principle of the prophetic office and
12 referred to by the brother. He states clearly that     acts being obediently carried out by the prophet.
he believes that here we have drama as impersonation        Brother McEwen cites finally the "classic example"
commanded by God and designed to convey truth.            of drama and impersonating, found in I Kings 20:35
Here he believes is an example from the Bible that        ff. What we find there, however, is another instance
disproves the thesis of my former article in which I      of a man's functioning in the office of prophet,
took the position that drama is not a legitimate          carrying out prophetic acts just as God commanded,
means to convey the truth.                                with the purpose of making known the word of the
  Now I grant that in Ezekiel 4 and 12 we have some       Lord. Verse 35 tells us that the man was "of the sons
strange and unusual actions commanded by God to           of the prophets" and that he spake to his neighbor "`in
convey the truth; but it is not drama. What we have       the word of the Lord." By these statements I under-
can be called more properly symbolic or prophetic         stand that the man was officially functioning in the
acts to distinguish them from -what we call drama         office of prophet, being "of the sons of the
today. When I say that, I am not just calling the same    prophets," and that he was obediently walking "in
thing by another name, but I mean to show a               the word of the Lord."
fundamental difference between the two.                      Brother McEwen speaks of an "unnecessary
  When God commanded His prophets to speak in             wound" that the man gained as he acted out the part
His name and when they did so then we do not say          of an unfaithful guard. I find nothing in the text  to
that. the prophets impersonated God, but that they        indicate that the wound was unnecessary but rather
properly carried out the office and function of the       come to the conclusion that the wound was exactly
prophet. They were God's spokesmen and not His            necessary for the man to carry out his prophetic
impersonators. The same is true today from a little       purpose and to be in a position to bring the word of
different point of view. When God commands fathers        God to Ahab the wicked and disobedient king of
today to bring up their children in the-nurture and       Israel. Here again I do not find impersonation but
admonition of the Lord, as He does in Ephesians 6:4,      faithful obedience to the word of the Lord on the
then the fathers who obey that command of God are         part of the prophet.
not impersonating Abraham or any faithful father in         I hope that this answer helps brother McEwen and
Israel of old, but they are doing what God says and       is also interesting and helpful to other of God's
acting in a way pleasing to Him.                          people ,as well.                 Rev. W. Bekkering
  As we read Ezekiel 4 and 12 we find the prophet


                         Know the  s!andard and follow it.
                                       R e a d   t h e
         THE -STANDARD BEARER


60                                            THE STANDARD BEARER



TRANSLATED-TREASURES



                                   A Pamphlet Concerning
                              the Reformation of the Church

Introductory Remarks                                        pamphlet. Dr. Kuyper, in his own way, included in
      Before we actually begin the translation of this      his work a great deal of information, especially
work of Dr. Abraham Kuyper, a few brief remarks are         concerning church political matters, which are of
in order.                                                   interest and importance to all who love the Reformed
      It was not a very long time after the Synod of        faith and who are interested in sound Scriptural
Dordrecht that the State Church in the Netherlands          Reformed church polity. The pamphlet is therefore
entered a period of doctrinal and spiritual decline. As     worth the effort of translating and it is our hope that
the years passed, this decline increased in seriousness     it will be of interest and benefit to our readers.
until, in 1834, Henry De Cock was instrumental in             The fact that we make this pamphlet available in
leading a number of churches out of the State Church        the English does not and is not intended to imply
in what became known as the Afscheiding. This               that we agree with everything which Dr. Kuyper has
Afscheiding movement was a genuine reformation of           written. The presentatiop of this material in our
an apostate State Church. However, not all those who        Standard Bearer must not be construed as complete
were faithful to the truth departed from the State          approval of every idea which Dr. Kuyper presents.
Church in the years following the Afscheiding. The          The material must therefore be read with discretion
result was another movement of secession from the           comparing the ideas presented with the teachings of
ex-State Church which took place in 1886. This              Scripture. In some instances where there is dis-
movement, known as the Doleantie, was led by Dr.            agreement we have made some brief comments by
Abraham Kuyper. A few years after this latter seces-        way of a footnote. Dr. Kuyper himself had an
sion Dr. Kuyper was instrumental in bringing together       occasional footnote in this pamphlet and the two will
the churches of the Doleantie and of the Afscheiding        be distinguished from each other. Our footnotes will
into one denomination known then and now as the             be indicated by means of arabic numerals while Dr.
Gereformeerde Kerken. This pamphlet, written in             Kuyper's footnotes will be indicated by means of an
1883, was prepared just three years before the              asterisk.
Doleantie with a view to explaining the need for this         With these remarks we present to our readers a
reformatory movement. It was written, therefore, to         translation of this pamphlet.
explain the need for reformation and to explain how,
in Dr. Kuyper's mind, this reformation was to take                                PREFACE
place.
                                                               Commemorative days are always by all people, in
      It is the historical background of this pamphlet      every age, and in all areas of human life reverently
which makes the work important enough to be                 respected.
translated and presented to our readers. Many people
today find themselves in a position similar to that in         They also often bring with them a blessing.
which Dr. Kuyper found himself in the latter part of           Above all, mighty acts of faith, results of which
the 19th Century. Today, too, many historically             have ceased, are brought to our consciousness in an
Calvinistic and Reformed churches have gone the             edifying manner by such commemorative days. As
road of doctrinal and spiritual apostasy, and faithful      men and people re-live such an event of faith by way
people of God who are troubled by-this apostasy find        of recollection they often experience a sense of
themselves confronted with the question of church           shame as they are reproached by their own spiritual,
reformation. What Dr. Kuyper had to say to the              degeneration. They seize new courage in the con-
people of his day is therefore of relevancy in many         templation of what the resiliency of faith is able to
respects to the times in which we live.                     do. And, with warmer enthusiasm than they have
  This is not to say that-this is the only value of this    been able to give for a long time, they give praise and


                                                                                                      1

                                            THE STANDARD  BEARER                                                 61


commendation and honor to Him Who willed to work             As strongly therefore as the Reformed maintained
this power of faith in men, and still remains the same    the purity of their doctrine and the uniqueness of
faithful God to work also in us.                          their ecclesiastical regulations, they have not for-
   Rightly, therefore, the German-Protestant people       gotten the bonds which bound them to Luther and
prepared themselves this Autumn to celebrate on the       his successors. Luther is still read by the Reformed
10th of November in all the lands of Christendom          even though Calvin is forgotten in Lutheran lands.
Luther's fourth centenary.                                People have reviled Calvin in Lutheran lands, but
                                                          Luther is never mentioned in Calvinistic lands in any
   On October 3 1, 1917 will be a yet more solemn         other way than with praise. On the German-Lutheran
day of commemoration for the one who lives to see         side men have often refused us the hand of brother-
it. But also Luther's birth is more than worthy of        hood, but from the Reformed side the hand of
such a day of commemoration.                              brotherhood is still warmly desired with the Lutheran
   Indeed the act of reformation entered the outside      churches in Germany. And even though those on the
world first at Wittenberg's castle chapel. But he who     Lutheran side glory in their liberality and  broad-
confesses with us that the Lord our God prepares          mindedness of ideas and claim to take offense at our
already in His mother's womb the instruments for His      Calvinistic narrow-mindedness, , it still remains an
church knows that already with Luther's birth in the      incontrovertible testimony of history that in their
quiet town of Eisleben the man was given through          mutual relation the entertaining of a sense of brother-
whose courage of faith the light would again be put       hood proceeds always more from the Calvinists, and
on the candlestick, and who would again open the          exclusion for the most part comes from the theo-
way to peace with God for all those who are without       logical Lutheran school.
comfort and driven about by storms.                          Indeed our Reformed people never go so far from
  Also we, Reformed, Reformed also in this land,          home as nowadays many "ecumenical theologians"
join with our German brothers in their shouts of          go to greet Luther with enthusiasm as a friend of
jubilation.                                               their heart, while these ecumenical theologians, with
   Luther is not only the hero of faith in the            dignified greetings, pass by the cold marble image of
Lutheran churches, but is equally the man of our          Calvin as they call it. Calvinists cannot do this because
sympathies, the confidant also of our hearts, for         he who drinks better cannot return to a lesser
whose word and work all the churches of the Re-           draught, and each good Reformed man does not
formation, and thus also the Reformed Churches of         hesitate to testify that Calvin brought the reforma-
Western Europe, have to give a great deal of thanks.      tion of the church further than Luther.
But especially they have to thank him for the in-            But even though Calvin has and holds our most
spiring principle of their reformation.                   grateful homage, yet we continue to honor Martin
  Although in Lutheran lands men might be able to         Luther as the man of God's appointment to break the
think of the complete Reformation without Calvin,         bands under which His church lay bound; to celebrate
the thought has never risen among Reformed to think       as the theologian who in the first freshness of his
of Calvin without the broad shoulders of Luther upon      youth was as resolute a Calvinist as ever Calvin was;
which Calvin's slender figure rested.                     and to remember him thankfully as the one who
  Calvin worked out the idea of the Church of Christ      established a number of Protestant sister churches
for us in a more detailed way, more exquisitely, more     who, although less purely Reformed, yet as genuine
purely than the hero of Wittenberg; but Luther was        churches of Christ, carry out the Word of God, and
the one who took the- granite out of the rock and         with a sincere sense of brotherhood, are recognized
with broad strokes brought the figure forward into an     by each in our circles as "members of the mystical
image.                                                    body of our Lord."
  Also in this land the first impulse towards reforma-      Therefore let one Reformed man of our day be
tion proceeded not from Calvin  - that first              permitted to give a public token of this thankful
                                                          inclination towards Luther's person and work on the
blossomed only later, but proceeded instead from          commemoration of his four-hundredth anniversary.
Luther. And it also quickly became evident that the
German-Lutheran Reformation could not grow here             If to me be granted the privilege to revive some-
without a firm root. On the other hand, though the        what by a limited effort the historic Calvinistic
Genevan-Calvinistic Reformation immediately created       tradition in this land in our people, our theologians,
order out of chaos, it must never be forgotten by our     and our citizens, it is also true that frequently this
true-born Reformed people that Luther's appearance        sharply defined influence arouses in others the notion
put the match to the tinderbox and that Calvin, only      that narrow-minded jealousy of non-Calvinistic broth-
secondarily and coming after Luther, perfected what       ers keeps step with this love for the Reformed
Luther began.                                             principle.


62                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


      Not seldom it has been whispered to me that no           for which Luther strove and wrestled. And also a
one other than Calvin appears worthy of homage to              legitimate opponent of every schism in the church
me and to my colleagues.                                       institute can rejoice in Luther as theologian. But the
      Well then, because it must be evident how unjust          true Luther, Luther from the soles of his feet to the
this idea is and how men now again unjustly ascribe            top of his head, i.e., the Luther who appeared as
to the Reformed of these days a narrow-minded                  reformer - these men do not honor him.
smallness of spirit, it seemed desirable to me that                On the other hand I wish to maintain that he who
Luther's 400th anniversary must not go by without a            presently pleads Germany's rebirth without Christ or
public acknowledgment of unfeigned homage being                also freedom of conscience without being bound to
presented from the side of the Reformed to the                 the word, pleads for the recovery of the church
memory of a great reformer!                                    without breaking away from  human- ordinances, is
      And when the commemoration of great men seems            unfaithful to Luther's spirit, and denies his coura-
among every people in all circles to be most worth-             geous appearance rather than honoring him for
while, when men revive the memory of that which                his holy principle.
has been most important in their life, so that men                 Luther's name must go forth on his 400th anniver-
honored artists for the skill of their paint brush, poets      sary as a testimony of God in our midst.
for their songs, ruling princes for the skill of governing,
why would it be taken amiss of me if I attempt to                  It is a testimony of God for all those who are
honor the memory of a great reformer by writing a              anxious of soul to seek their perfect peace in no other
pamphlet of the reformation of that same church                way than in the Christ of God as their Security and
which finds the origin of its reformational life in            Mediator.
Luther's brave stand.                                              It is a testimony for the doubtful mind to oppose
      Luther has always been the national hero of our           as error all ideas which in any way rob God's Holy
German neighbors. He is also the fighter for freedom           Word of its complete infallibility in a moral or in a
of thought and conscience. He is also the theologian           historical sense. It is a testimony to oppose this error
with a subjective tendency in his theology. But above          with the words: "that word you shall allow to
all Luther is reputed in history to be the Reformer of          stand."
the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.                               It is a witness for him who loves his fatherland
      Although I do not deny to the German nation the          never to separate his politics from his faith but always
right to honor Luther as one of her greater sons, and           to seek the revival of the fatherland and people out of
although I do not dispute the right of free thinkers to         Christ.1.
thank Luther for keeping them from chains, yes                     But then also it is a witness for those who cherish
although I grant to our "ecumenical theologians"                the Church of God with the love of their hearts, not
without any evil intent the pleasure of leaning on              to shrink back from any break with the church
Luther's subjective side for their theological prefer-          federation as the cancer eats more deeply, and not to
ence, yet I assert that Luther's full memory is                rest until Zion revives.
repudiated by the one who only retains his reforma-
tional influences as part of his image and who forgets          l. Although a sentiment such as this arises out of the peculiar situation
his breaking with the existing church institute.                   in the Netherlands where the State Church was an accepted
      A German can rejoice in Luther's memory even if              ecclesiastical principle, we have an indication here of Kuyper's deep
                                                                   commitment to the calling of believers to enter politics. It is this
he is a Jew or Roman Catholic. A free thinker can                  aspect of Kuyper which has appealed particularly to such organiza-
honor Luther even though he denies all the holy truth              tions as the A.A.C.S.

TRIUMPH THROUGH TRIALS


                                  Our Hairs Numbered
                                                     Rev. J. Kortering

      Jesus was comforting His disciples.                       attack them: "And ye shall be hated of all men for
      He had told them to expect trials.                       my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall
                                                                be saved."' Matt.  10:22. This attack would involve
      These trials would come from men who would               persecution, verse 23, and name calling, verse 25. The


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 63


Lord Jesus tells His disciples that, rather than being      upon us poor mortals. Strangely, even some within
discouraged by all this, they must be bold and preach       the sphere of Christianity explain the trials as coming
the gospel from the housetop, verse 27.                     from. Satan, the prince of this world. They view the
  How could they triumph through such a trial?              scene of history as the stage on which the two great
                                                            powers fight, Christ and the devil. The devil uses
   By being fearless: "Fear not!"                           disease, war, sickness, accidents, to assault the chil-
  Why no fear? "And fear not them which kill the            dren of God. Jesus wants us to overcome these, to be
body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear    financially rich, to be healthy, to live a long life in
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in          prosperity. So if you are a Christian and have faith,
hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and         you may claim the power. of Christ and overcome
one of them shall not fall to the ground without your       such an assault, be healed through the power of faith
Father. But the very hairs of your head are num-            as you touch the Holy Spirit. If you want to be rich,
bered," Matt. 10:28-30.                                     give liberally. If you want to be safe from accidents,
  Our hairs are numbered!                                   lean upon Jesus.
  And that by Almighty God. How precious is the               If you suffer trials, these people would have you
truth of divine sovereignty! God is the Creator and         believe that it is of the devil, not of God.
thereby the Owner and Sustainer of all things. The            Foolishness!
cattle on a thousand hills are His. He formed the dry         God is even sovereign over the devil, see Job 1: 12,
land. He causeth the sun to rise on the just and            216.
unjust. His mighty hands span the oceans and reach
up to the highest star. How great is God!                     Unless we see God in our trials, we will never
                                                            triumph.
   So great is He, in fact, that He knows the number
of the hairs on your head. That is more than you              Your hairs are numbered!
know  - in all likelihood, it is even more than you           So sovereign is our God.
care. The point that Jesus is making here is that our         If this is true of our hairs, surely He determines the
Father is so great that even the littlest details of our    condition of our lungs, the number of our heartbeats,
life (the number of our hairs) are of His concern. The      our whole body. He is Lord over our life, including all
sparrow cannot fall, but by His will. Not a hair can        the events that take place. Nothing is by chance.
come out of our head, but He knoweth it altogether.           Rather, we confess in faith, "He will make what-
  What amazing control! He cares for every detail of        ever evils he sends upon me, in this valley of tears,
our lives.                                                  turn out to my advantage for he is able to do it, being
  What peace this affords at the time of trials!            Almighty God, and willing, being a faithful Father,"
                                                            Heidelberg Catechism Answer 26.
  If this were not true, we would be torn within
trying to understand the cause of our trials. We would        Are you experiencing the trials of life, persecution,
as Christians be no different from the world of             suffering, dying? Don't look to yourself. Don't look
unbelievers who can find no peace in the time of            to your fellow men. Don't look to the demon world.
                                                            Don't study the stars to learn your fate. Rather look
trouble. They attribute trouble to natural causes. If       to Jehovah, Almighty God.
one gets into a terrible accident they see no more
than human error or just plain bad luck. If they are in       He rules all things by His power.
the hospital or at home with a serious disease, it is         If you are.to be fearless, you must be reconciled to
blamed to virus, bacteria, or cancer cells that invaded     Him.
the body. Some time or other it happens to everyone.          While you look to Him by faith, remember, "The
Chance,  that's the only explanation. Blind force is        very hairs of your head are all numbered," Matt.
moving upon the face of the earth afflicting people         10:30.
and nations.                                                  "Lord, thou preservest man and beast;
  Still others don't like the idea of chance. They
think, more deviously, that there must be some                Since Thou art ever kind,
sinister force operating behind the scenes. There must        Beneath the shadow of Thy wings
be a vengeful deity who would send  such,troubles             We may a refuge find." Psalm 36


              The STANDARD BEARER makes a thoughtful gift for a  shut-i&


64                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


STUDIES  IN. ISAIAH





                 Isaiah's, Cleansing and Commission
                                                Rev. Robt. C. Harbach

      What is the end and aim that God has for this          omnipotence of God. In our confession, prayers, and
earth? That it "be full of His glory." The earth is the      service to the Lord we believe in nothing short of,
Lord's and the fulness thereof. The Lord God                 "Christ shall have dominion over land and sea!
omnipotent reigns< and must reign till He hath put all       Earth's remotest regions shall `His empire be!" Idols
enemies under His feet. The victory is His all along         shall utterly be abolished; heresy, error, apostasy, and
the line. We do not say that the gospel will effect a        sin shall be destroyed; the salvation of our God shall
gradual conversion of the world to God. We do not            exclusively prevail. The whole earth must be filled
believe that the Spirit of God, largely, fails until         with His glory. The whole creation, including all elect
feeble men set up an earthly kingdom for the Lord            mankind, shall be delivered from the bondage of
Jesus. We do not hold that Christ is to come on a            corruption unto the liberty of the glory of the sons of
world with Gog and Magog conquered, the false                God. This shall become a reality in the New Heaven
prophet(s) done in for good, and the Beast beaten to         and the New Earth.
defeat. No, but we do believe that in every battle in          This is the outlook of the prophet Isaiah as he
history, God and His church triumph over the devil           contemplates his call to the ministry. At this con-
and his hosts. We do believe with all our hearts that        templation, including his own deep sense of un-
the church militant is always the church triumphant          worthiness for the task, Isaiah fell apart. He was
from the beginning to the end of the world. So in all        undone. God is not yet done with us and will never
past battles in the present conflict, and all down the       do anything with us until first of all He has undone
line! By His Spirit, His Word, and His Church, God           us. So Isaiah went to pieces. Then Jehovah built him
always gains the victory. Covenant theology is a             up into a new, mighty man of God. Isaiah felt as
history and chain ofvictories!                               though he could not go on with the work of the
                                                             Lord, mourning his incapacity, his failure, his un-
      1.  The Cleansing Fire.  As for the preacher of the    worthiness. This mourning in itself is not to be
gospel, there must first be victory over sin in his own      mourned. It's a repentance not to be repented of.
life. "Then flew unto me one from the seraphim, and            But "what minister is there that God has ever sent
in his hand a hot stone; with tongs he took (it) from,
upon the altar. And he touched upon my mouth and             who does not when he sur&ys his ministry feel that
said, `Lo! this touched upon thy lips and gone (is) thy      he is a man of unclean lips? Often and often does our
iniquity and thy sin (is) covered" (6-7).                    soul say, `Oh that these lips had language! Or that
                                                             instead of flesh, they were flame, that we might let
      It is not our (Reformed) view that the whole world     fall a burning torrent . . . which would run amid
is a sort of lump of dough, and the Gospel or Church         multitudes of men like fire in dry stubble!" (C.H.
a little leaven which gradually leavens the whole lump       Spurgeon).
until the Church converts the world. Nevertheless, we          With tongs one of the seraphim took up a red hot
believe the church always has, the victory over the          coal from the altar, yet in his hand brought it to
world, and will have the final victory. We do not sing,      Isaiah. Certainly a seraph's hand can hold a live
"We shall overcome  - some day." For we  have                burning coal. -For the very word  seraphim  means
overcome and are more than conquerors through Him            burning ones. They are burning spirits (Ezek. 1: 13),
that loved us! That it does not look that way, we are        before the burning throne of God (Rev.  4:5; Ezek.
well aware. To all appearances, the church is not            1:26-28). They burn with energetic zeal, ready to fly
converting the world, but the world is converting the        in the Lord's business with lightning swiftness (Ezek.
church to its corrupt way of life. Still we believe in       1: 14). With lightning speed the seraph flew and#with
the vanquishing of the world as conquered by the             that live coal touched the prophet's lips, burning
church. We believe that because we believe in the            away his iniquity and purging his sin, i.e., covering his


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   65


sin, smothering it, to extinguish it, destroy it, blotting    of the Cross? They secure to themselves the natural
it out of existence as far as the righteous judgment of       resources of the earth and the treasures of the world
God is concerned. The seraph, then, lived up to his           so that they will not fall into other hands. But what
name. However, he did this cleansing not by means of          one of them is ready to "endure all things for the
his own fiery nature, but by means of the fire divine         elects' sakes"? (2 Tim. 2: 10).
taken from God's altar. That is the fire, not of                The question does not go forth to mighty,  six-
Purgatory, no such strange fire (Lev. 10: l), like the        winged, willing seraphim, but to weak, unwilling men.
heathenish superstitions of Persian and Egyptian              Whom shall I send? Who will go? God has ordained
mythology, but a fire of "Love divine, all love               strength out of the mouths of babes. Weakest means
excelling." So that connection with God's altar, as           fulfill His will, mighty enemies to still. It pleased God
here, means fellowship in the great sacrifice on the          by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
altar, that is, fellowship in the blood and satisfaction      believe. But how shall they believe without a
of the Lamb of God. Apply one hot coal from that              preacher? and how shall they preach except they be
fire of "a merciful wrath". which consumed our                sent? Whom shall I send? Men! not angels, but sinful,
Savior on the cross, and lips and mouth are cleansed,         unworthy, weak men like the rest of mankind. Who
sanctified and readied for preaching the gospel of the        will go? Who wills to go? Yet the man who does go
King eternal. This means that the preacher's lips will        must go "not by constraint, but willingly; not for
be blistered with the griefs of the man of sorrows, of        filthy lucre, but of a ready mind" (I Pet. 5:2). Whom
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and burning with love         shall I send? . . . Send  me! It must be a man called
for the gospel of Christ and the Christ of the gospel.        and sent, a man who has behind him the authority of
  2. The Challenging Commission. "And I heard the             God, the authority of His Word and the authority of
voice of the Lord (Adonai) saying, `Whom will I               ordained office-bearers. It must be a man who knows
send? and who will go for Us?' and I said, `Behold            he cannot go on his own, but must be sent of God. So
me! send me!' " (v. 8). Notice how the Lord;                  his emphasis is not "send  me,"  but  "send  me." For
speaking for the first time here in the vision, speaks        there are many false prophets, but the Lord says, "I
of Himself both in the singular, "I" and in the plural,       sent  them not, neither have I commanded them,
"us." Why is this? On this plural we do not agree with        neither spake unto them. They prophesy unto you a
Delitzsch, but do agree with E.J. Young, who refers           false vision . . . and the deceit of their heart" (Jer.
to the "time-honored interpretation  .of the church           14: 14). That man must know Christ's word to him,
and to regard the Lord as using the plural . . . to           "even so send I you."
indicate that in the Speaker himself there is a plural-         Here is the heavenly vision. There is the Lord
ity of persons." Prof. -Young calls this passage "an          above all. His train fills the temple. Lightning like
adumbration of the doctrine of the trinity, which in          beings are around His throne. There is no other
the New Testament receives its fuller revelation"             human being beside Isaiah. No other saw or heard
and which we should not fear to acknowledge. Here             what here occurred. When the Lord spoke, it was not
we have a foreshadowing of the trinity in unity fully         a call to all men indiscriminately, but to Isaiah
revealed in the New Testament. Isaiah is here taught a        directly and personally, as though there were no
great lesson in the profoundest depths of theology, in        other man in all the world. The prophet was not
the very nature of God's Being! So ministers are              disobedient to the heavenly vision. He immediately
ordained in the same name in which they, and all the          jumped up, responding, "Look at me! send me! I am
church, have been baptized.                                   debtor to the Christ of God, I am ready to preach the
  "Who will go?" Who wants to go? Not any one!                gospel! Here I am, Lord! a man of unclean lips, but
There are multitudes of men in the church of God,             Thou hast cleansed me! The blood of Jesus Christ,
but are they all unfit to be sent under the Lord's            God's Son, cleanses me. I have not made my own
great commission? They are; and they never offer to           mouth, nor did I create myself with my infirmities;
go. No man, of himself, as to the flesh, will volunteer       here I am. Lord, before I know Thy bidding, I am
to go over lands, across waters, through the air, to          ready to do it."
sacrifice all for the sake of the gospel and for the sake       Why are so few, or none, willing to serve God? A
of God's elect. Thousands within the professing               man must be regenerated, made a new creature in
Christian church are working at high paying jobs,             Christ, raised from his spiritual death, and then come
owning their own homes, making money, doubling,               to a knowledge of the misery of sin. Renewed, he
even tripling their incomes with burgeoning in-               must know that he is not his own, nor is he, like men
vestments, getting richer, increasing with goods; but is      of the world, a slave of the devil. But'he is bought
one of them qualified to go at the behest of Christ's         with a price; he belongs to Jesus, his faithful Savior.
commandment? Some of them travel. all over the                He knows and must know that Jesus has taken his sin
world. Do any of them go for God? They risk their             and guilt away and made him an heir of glory. Then
lives in the vastnesses of Alaska, but are they heroes        he will be ready joyfully to serve God at His call!


66                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



GUEST ARTICLE





                         The Interpreting of the Bible
                                                   Rev. R.G. Moore




      Dearly Beloved, the reformed Christian is in danger    history - our day and age. Therefore when the Word
of losing all that he has held dear in faith. There is an    of God says, that the women in the church shall learn
attempt to take from God's children the Scriptures as        in silence, it does not play well in today's society that
the Word of God  - normative for faith and walk.             is glutted with "women's lib." Thus by turning to a
This is being done today by those professing a need          new hermeneutic many have chosen a way to make
for and a desire for a "new hermeneutic." These are          Scripture fit our day, but this at the expense of the
,strong charges, you might say. Is this really true? Is      truth.
there really such a danger with the desiring of a new          The proponents of the "new hermeneutic" teach
way of interpreting the Bible? (Hermeneutics is the          generally that the Scriptures are not in their entirety
study of the principles of interpreting the Bible.)          the Word of God. The general tenets of faith are ex-
Recently in Edmonton, Dr. Gordon Spykman, re-                pressed by secondary authors. Thus the Bible is
spected chairman of the Department of Religion and           authoritative only insofar as the main message goes -
Theology at Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michi-          the salvation of the Church in Christ, but according
gan, stated in a speech that often those who make the        to this position there are many details of Scripture
biggest ado about inspiration, infallibility, and the        that cannot be assumed to be inspired - an example
authority of the Scriptures live the worst with respect      being the narrative of Genesis one through three. Ac-
to that which the Bible teaches. Perhaps this is a time      cording to this view Scripture contains the Word of
to change our way of viewing the Scriptures? And             God, as opposed to faith's view that Scripture  is
maybe when interpreting the Scriptures we make to            God's Word. They maintain that, because of the
much ado out of inspiration, infallibility, and their        secondary authors, errors of science and theology are
authority? God forbid that we should ever say this!          present in Scripture; and this ought not to be sur-
To do so would be to walk down the road of apos-             prising, according to them, because the writers reflect
tasy!                                                        the learning of the age as well as the cultural con-
      It' is said by those enbracing the "New Hermeneu-      ditions of their age. Therefore it is maintained that
tic" that the creeds say nothing of the interpreting of      the Bible must be approached like any other book,
the Bible. They do not speak to the question, "What          and must be interpreted and evaluated solely on
kind of book is the Bible?" It is further said that the      historical-literary grounds. The truth in the Bible can
Reformers (Calvin, Luther, etc.) did not take into           be considered truth only when the historical evidence
account the historical movement of the church and            verifies it to be the truth. But then, don't you under-
the age when interpreting Scripture. Therefore they          stand, reason, science, the cultural conditions become
did not speak out concerning, "What kind of Book is          the instructors to lead us into the interpretation of
the Bible." It is also said that one can overload the        Scripture. Faith is relegated to the background and in
Bible, one. can place too much .emphasis upon it .as a       effect discounted all together.
guide in our lives as Christians. This language ought to        Such a view of interpreting Scripture is really not
sound very strange to you as  :a child of faith! The         so new. It can be quite easily traced back in time to
faith view of Scripture is far too restrictive for our       about two hundred years ago. The "New Hermeneu-


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  67


tic" really comes out of the age of higher criticism,        us that parts of the Scripture are in error; examples
which in turn finds its roots in the rationalism of the      are the creation narrative, and the teaching of Scrip-
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, It was in this         ture that the world is flat, etc. Further, we read that
age that reason came to rule the day. However, higher        the Bible can only be said to witness to revelation,
criticism found no room in the mainline conservative         but it may never be equated with God's revelation. Of
Bible-believing churches until the last thirty or forty      course, from such a perspective in viewing the inter-
years. James D. Smart (professor of Biblical Interpre-       preting of the Bible, the modernist can but make fun
tation at Union Theological Seminary, New York)`in           of anyone holding to a creation of six twenty-four
his  book,  The Strange Silence of the Bible in the          hour days. And further they find it impossible to
Church, states that today higher critics. are no longer      expect anyone to believe unquestioningly as history
maligned except in the most backward  .of churches           the report of every miracle of Scripture, for example
which have allowed themselves to be the victims of           Elisha's floating axe head, or the sun standing still in
cultural paralysis. It is this fear of being called back-    the day of Joshua. Hence too, the modernist will not
ward that has caused many a mainline church to em-           speak of the Bible being the Word of God as is the
brace the "New Hermeneutic." This, however, is utter         traditional practice, but rather more properly ac-
foolishness! It leads to having the candlestick re-          cording to the modernist, one says the Bible contains
moved from the Church.                                       the Word of God. As we hear it today; the word of
                                                             God is in the Bible, rather than saying the Bible is the-
  Let us take some time to consider what is being            Word of God. This is the voice of modernism!
said in the church world about the interpreting of
Scripture. We do this that we might be,made alert to           The Roman Catholic Hem-i Daniel-Rops writes in
the inroads that this method of unbelief in inter-           his  book,  What Is The Bible,  that one is left some-
preting Scripture has made in the church. At the same        what baffled when reading the prophets or the
time we do so that we may be warned against another          Apocalypse, but that, "We must remember then that
attack of Satan upon our faith! Dr. Lindsell in his          in Israel there was a sort of moral fable, which was
book,  Battle For The Bible,  gives an outline, in his       expected not so much to report accurately concrete
opinion, for the fall of Union Seminary from a. con-         facts, but to exemplify some inner transcendent
servative Bible-confessing Seminary to that of mod-          truth. Thus strictly we cannot consider the events
ernism. He traces the rise of higher criticism under         historical." Thus stated in this book is the following:
the labors of a Prof. Briggs to the modernism that is        "The stopping of the Sun by Jousee is told in a min-
inevitable with the denial of inerrancy of the Scrip-        ature epic poem, and looks very much as though it is
tures. The "New Hermeneutic" by its very nature              only eastern hyperbole." This is a voice of Roman
denies the inerrancy of Scripture and shall just as          Catholicism !
surely lead to the road of modernism. Dr. Lindsell             The sad thing today is that the voice of modernism
states, in the section in his book concerning lessons        and the voice of Roman Catholicism does not sound
we can learn from the case of Briggs and Union Sem-          different from the sounds coming from the reformed
inary, the following: "the first and most obvious is         church world! The Netherlands Reformed Church in
that the institution went on from the days of Briggs         Holland has published a work of a committee of its
to become and remain one of the most liberal sem-            General Synod under the Title,  The Bible Speaks
inaries in the United States. At no time since Briggs'       Again - Kare Wijn, in the Dutch. Quoting the book,
day has the institution reversed its position. Instead,      "One gets lost, however, with the following line of
it has moved farther and farther away from historic          argument: God is truth and therefore we will find in
orthodoxy." This, of course, is not surprising, for          the Bible, which is the Word of God, only true and
once there is room left in the Bible for error, there is     trustworthy sayings, no contradictions or mistakes,
no way in which one can truly fight heresy. One doc-         nor any sagas, legends or myths, because it would.
trine can stand no better than another.                      mean that not everything has taken place." Mind you
                                                             one gets lost if he maintains the Scripture has no
  It is plain from the above that if one reads from an       contradictions or errors. What does this say of the
author such as J.D. Smart (mentioned before), he             church of the ages gone by? They were lost? The
hears what the modernist has to say about inter-             book further points out that Dr. H. Bavinck spoke of
preting the Scripture. Smart agrees with Bultman and         inspiration in such a way to allow for the human
Barth, who, while they disagreed on theology, agreed         factor in the Bible. But according to the Committee
that a venturesome approach was needed in inter-             he did not do so in a "forceful enough or convincing
preting the Bible  - one that would let the word of          enough" way. Thus they complain it was possible
God hidden in the human words of Scripture have its          that the- sad event of the deposition of Dr.  Geel-
freedom and power in the modern world. This mod-             kerken took place in 1926 for doubting that the ser-
ernist points out that science and our own eyes teach        pent spake to Eve.


68                                             THE STANDARD BEARER



      The church with the new hermeneutic as its guide       bring to naught things that are: that no flesh should
would have no difficulty today with such a view of           glory in His presence." I Cor. 1:27-29.
Genesis. This has even become `evident in the case of           We do not have to find scientific fact to prove the
Dr. Verhey in the Christian Reformed Church.                 Scriptures we believe. We do not have to explain with
Because of the strong influence of the "New  Her-            reason's power the tenets of our faith. Then our flesh
meneutic" within the church (as evidenced in Report          would have whereof to glory.
44), Dr. Verhey could be ordained to the ministry               Faith does not stand on wisdom of men, but in the
and continue undisciplined therein, while denying the        power of God, cf. I Cor 2:5. It is written, "Eye hath
serpent wake to Eve, as well as denying the miracle of       not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
the earthquake in Matt.  28:2. If this continues, and        heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for
historically it does, is there any heresy that can be        them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
kept from the church?                                        us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things,
      The new hermeneutic is the product of man's rea-       yea the deep things of God." I Cor.  2:9-l 0. It is a
son and is utter foolishness. It stands opposed to faith     matter of faith when one comes to the Bible. Faith
and must not be embraced! The foolishness of such a          hears the Scriptures own testimony and believes it.
view of interpreting Scripture is obvious by the very        "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
words of those who embrace it. The modernist,                profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
Smart, states that preachers who were untroubled by          -for instruction in righteousness." II Tim. 3 : 16. Scrip-
historical and literary analysis were much freer in          ture is God-breathed; faith believes this! Faith trusts
their use of Scripture. Of course, when in faith the         the Bible's testimony of its own inspiration and in-
minister goes to the Scripture and in'faith receives its     fallibility. We hear the Scripture say, "that no proph-
testimony as the Word of God he is sure of that              ecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.
which he preaches. But when one must face the Scrip-         For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of
tures with critical eyes, searching what is God's word       man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved
in the Bible - when one must rely upon reason, then          by the Holy Ghost." II Pet. 1:20-21. So absolute was
of course there is reluctance to say anything too            this inspiration that the holy writers of the Old Tes-
specific. For one might appear to lack scholarly abil-       tament searched their own writings to discern the
ity or he might be too narrow, or this or that. The          truth that the Spirit of Christ revealed to His people
foolishness is that as there has been a so-called in-        there. Cf. I Peter 1: 10-12.
crease in scholarly study of the Bible in the last years,       Thus, on the basis of Scriptures own testimony,
there has become a growing lack of understanding of          the believers have maintained the Bible to be the in-
God's Word, less true exposition of the Scriptures,          spired Word of God. We believe it to be the infallible
and a growing darkness in the members of the church.         written record of God's own self-revelation. When we
This same thing became evident in a speech by Dr.            go to the Scriptures, we go to God's Word, and we
Gordon Spykman in Edmonton, Alberta. He told his             hear our God speak to us! Further, we believe that
audience in his speech setting forth a "new hermeneu-        Word to be infallibly given - that is, that the Bible is
tic," that no longer in the Seminary is it possible to       without error. The Spirit so guiding the holy writers
use the same books as it was ten years ago  - the            that they set forth exactly the Word as God in truth
reason being that there is not the same level of Bibli-      would reveal it to His children. And this in  every
cal knowledge today. The students do not have as             word! But then also understand that the Scripture is
great a background in the Word of God. This is where         clear - so clear that your children can understand its
the modem day hermeneutic leads us!                          basic instruction, its testimony, its commands, and its
      But it is said we must be scholarly, intellectual;     promises when they come with the eyes of God-given
there must be historical or scientific or cultural rea-      faith. And thus, too, as the Bible is God's Word it is
son  ,given for our interpreting of Scripture. This,         rauthoritative for our faith and life.
beloved, is the sinful nonsense of Satan. Reason must           This is the confession of reformed Christians who
be our lord. Believe it not! I thank God that I belong       hold precious the historic creeds of the reformed
to one of those backward churches that was men-              faith. Our creeds are relevent and teach us that it is in
tioned earlier. For this means that by God's grace I         faith that we approach the Word of God, and that
trust in that which is foolishness to the world. But         indeed it is authoritative for our doctrine and life, cf.
understand, it is the foolish things of the world that       Belgic Confession Articles three and seven. In faith
God has chosen to confound the wise. "And God                we come before God's Word and He fills us! And as
hath chosen the weak things of the world, to con-            we are led by the Spirit of Christ out of our sin and
found the things which are mighty; and the base              darkness into God's marvellous light, our God re-
things of the world, and things which are despised,          ceives our praise and humble thanksgiving. Unto Him
hath God chosen, yea and the things which are not to         is all praise alone and forever!


                                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                 69


ALL AROUND US
Rev. G. Van Baren




                                                                    "Huisgemeenten"

    W i t h i n   R e f o r m e d   c h u r c h e s   t h e r e   a r e   g r o u p s   o f        talents in its midst. Such a structure, according to
concerned Christians who are very disturbed at the                                                 Hegger, would allow for greater participation and
inroads of heresy in their midst. There is commonly                                                involvement, on the principle that every member of
evident a division between so-called "conservatives"                                               the church has been anointed by Christ and is
and "liberals." The Netherlands has seen much of this,                                             therefore equally responsible. Unity, communion of
                                                                                                   the saints, church attendance would all be served by
too. Recently in the  R.E.S. News Exchange,  Sept. 6,
1977, a                                                                                            such a restructuring.
                report was given of one proposed solution to
t h i s   d i f f i c u l t y .   T h e   R e v .   H . J .   H e g g e r   p r o p o s e s              Hegger admits that there is a danger that the
"Huisgemeenten":                                                                                   "household" groups would serve to promote the
                                                                                                   formation of cliques. "Household" congregations, he
          An interesting proposal has been aired in various                                        says, may never be formed to set themselves up against
      issues of Waarheid en Eenheid (Truth and Unity), the                                         the church as a whole or against other groups within
      periodical of the Verontrusten (Concerned) in the                                            the church. But they may be founded on different
      Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (RCN). The                                              attitudes or spiritual emphases that are found in the
      proposal, which has attracted considerable attention                                         church. But elsewhere he says: "It is too bad that
      and discussion, is the brainchild of Rev. H.J. Hegger,                                       now Christians with different perspectives, ex-
      who, however, claims to find biblical support for it.                                        periences and accents live apart in different churches
      Rev. H.J. Hegger became a Reformed minister after                                            which often stand over against each other. What an
      having studied for the priesthood; in recent years he                                        enrichment it would be if all these Christians were
      has become a leader among those radically dis-                                               united and that through the "household" con-
      illusioned by developments in the RCN. He has been                                           gregations they could all make their biblical contribu-
      one of the proponents of the so-called "congrega-                                            tion to the one local church." Hegger's proposal has
      tions-in-distress."                                                                          generally (and obviously) been seen as a way to create
          Hegger's proposal, submitted to the RCN Synod, is                                        breathing room for those "Concerned" who feel
      that the church order be amended to allow for                                                smothered by pastors and  consistories  which, in their
      "huisgemeenten" (literally: home or household con-                                           eyes, are exchanging the biblical gospel for a
      gregations). Many of the RCN churches, he argues,                                            politicized version. But it also seems to go hand in
      are too massive, too impersonal, too juridical; he                                           hand with a certain ecumenical vision.
      would like to see the formation within these churches
      of small groups of Christians with ten to seventy                                          The above represents `a strange  m&hod indeed of
      members who would meet together for worship,                                             remedying a sorry situation within the churches. This
      fellowship, Bible study, prayer and the  breaking  of                                    suggests, in effect, a "church within the church."
      bread. He suggests that the formation of these groups                                    There would be "communion," "Spirit-appointed
      be allowed to occur spontaneously, not imposed from
      above along territorial lines. The larger unit would                                     elders" who are apparently not elected nor serve
      continue to function, but perhaps Sunday afternoon                                       officially in office, one home "worship service" to
      worship could be done in these smaller "households."                                     replace that normally held in church. The whole
      There is also no good reason, continues Hegger, why                                      proposal has a very strange sound - hardly Reformed
      those who experience Christian communion together                                        nor Scriptural it seems to me. Though one hesitates
      in this smaller circle would not be able to partake of                                   to label such a suggestion, it smacks of "playing
      the Lord's Supper together.                                                              church." Hegger's "cure" to the ills of the Reformed
          Leadership in the "household" units, Hegger                                          churches appears to be worse than the "sickness."
      argues, need not be created through a formal voting                                      These "Concerned" ones ought to take great care not
      process; elders are supplied by the Holy Spirit and the                                  to lead the disillusioned children of God in wrong
      community itself will intuitively recognize leadership                                   paths.

                                 Reactions to  "socia.I dancing" at Calvin
   There was a strong response to the proposal at the                                          manner" at Calvin College. One response was found
C.R.C. to allow for "social dancing in a Christian                                             in the Outlook of Sept. 1977 in an editorial by Rev.


                                                                                                        1
70                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER



J. Vander Ploeg. He  wrote:                                               6. Signal six is a message to godly parents to the
          When signals are flashing and bells are ringing at a         effect that they should be aware of the wrong
      railroad crossing to the danger of an oncoming,                 influence to which their sons and daughters will be
      speeding train, a motorist or pedestrian must be                 exposed even when they entrust them to Calvin for
      blind, deaf, drunk, or bent upon suicide if he fails to         their college education. . . .
      take warning. CRC constituents are no less to be                    7. Signal seven  - and that should suffice  - we
      pitied if they now refuse to pay attention. Consider            profess in our Heidelberg Catechism re the seventh
      then a few of these signals:                                     commandment in Lord's Day 41 that "God con-
          1. Signal number  one. that should come through              demns all unchastity. . . ."
      loud and clear to those who have long supported Calvin              We will let the sophisticated wiseacre say what he
       is that "onze school" and the C.R.C. have changed               will. However, the born-again, Spirit-filled person
      radically. The social dance, by a synodical decision of          cannot feel at home or be assured that he is in the
       1928, was branded as being disreputable and a                   company of the redeemed unless he still follows
      worldly amusement to  `be shunned. But now it is                 old-fashioned guidelines like that as it comes straight
      being advocated as something to be made "Christian"              from the Word of God  - the Book by which we still
      and as having a potential for the fulfillment of "the            profess both to live and also to die.
      cultural mandate". . . .
          2. Signal number two in all this is to the effect          Editor  Vander Ploeg does state that he will still
      that as members of the CRC we may be  conscience-            pay his "Calvin quota," though under protest. He
      bound to make an agonizing reappraisal of our prac-          insists that "at least I will then be able to live with
      tice of automatically paying the Calvin quota year           myself and with my conscience." One might wonder,
      after year. . . .                                            however, with all of these "signals" whether this
          3. Signal number three is the.message  conveyed by       action of "support under protest" is sufficient to
      the foregoing to Dordt and Trinity Colleges, to our          sooth a conscience which seems to be so very
       Christian high schools in the U.S. and Canada, to           troubled - and troubled with good reason.
       Calvinist Youth United, and to all young people (and
      also  to.those who are older) throughout the CRC. If           Another reaction to the Synodical action appears
      social dancing is to be acceptable and even en-              in the Calvin College  Chimes,  Oct. 7, 1977. There
       couraged at Calvin by decisions of the Calvin Board         .appeared  a report, rather factual, of the CRC Synod
       and the 1977 CRC Synod, why should it not be                of 1977. The article suggested that the most interest-
       allowed now elsewhere and to others? . . .                  ing subject of Synod was this which dealt with
          4. Signal number four, as `I see it, is one that         dancing at Calvin. It continues to describe the action
       comes to the conscientious student who wants no             taken at Synod. But with the article appears also a
       part of what the Board and the Synod now en-                picture of couples dancing in the basement of one of
       courage. . . .                                              the college dorms. Underneath the picture is the
          5. Another signal - number  five - says something        "tongue-in-cheek" caption: "Social dancing still in
       to the discerning student who is not misled by the          basement." One could almost laugh  - if the whole
       Board's attempt to justify the social dance as they         matter were not so deadly serious.
       intend to have it at Calvin. . . .

                           Response to a "United Reformed Church"
      Clarion,  the magazine of the Canadian Reformed                 -His Word to `reformation, even if this means in-
Church, contains a response to an editorial of Rev. J.                evitable, sad secession. Search the Scriptures and the
Vander Ploeg in the  Outlook  of July 1977. In the                    Creeds!
Outlook Vander Ploeg suggested a "United Reformed                        2. Edifying contact should be relentlessly sought
Church" but conceded that he did not know how                         with those churches which by God's grace are faithful
that would come to be. The editor of the  Clarion                      to the Reformed faith, so that when secession be-
responds:                                                             comes real, unity in faith can be pursued without
                                                                      delay. One cannot be content "to remain by himself'
          I am . . . a reader of The Outlook, and am usually          (Article 28, Belgic Confession) but must seek and
       grateful for what I read. I do not pretend to give the         maintain the  unity  of the true Church of Christ. The
       ultimate advice to those "concerned" members of the            inspiring example still is the Union of 1892.
       CRC. But an outside contribution might help, if only               3. Emphasis should be placed on understanding
       as an expression of a sincere viewpoint. I stand to be         deformation not as an isolated incident, but as a
       corrected if I am grossly beside the point.                    historical process, resulting from dated derailment.
          These matters cannot be left unconsidered:                  The "concerned" in the CRC should re-examine their
           1. Those involved should not only voice their              stand on  the happenings of 1939-1944 and sub-
       concern and criticism about the apparent deforma-              sequent years and give due recognition to those who
       tion in their Church, but should faithfully examine            in the past  - again by God's grace!  - stood firmly
       and clearly promote the way which God has given in             onI' for the Reformed faith.


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                          71





         O! The mercy I've received,                            Early conquered - melted - pardoned,
         From the covenant of grace;                            By my Saviour's powerful voice;
         Called in youth - I have believed,                     Not in love with sin and hardened!
         In the morning of my days,                             But, as His eternal choice
         Jesus owns me,                                         Jesus owns me,
         With His ransomed chosen race.                         And in Him I .must rejoice.
         Early rescued from temptation;                         Far away, begone for ever,
         Taught to shun the fowler's snare;                     Vain, beguiling, sinful, mirth:
         Blest with knowledge of salvation,                     Lord, uphold me - let me never
         And employed in praise and prayer:                     Once degrade my heavenly birth.
         Jesus owns me,                                         Jesus owns me,
         And His glory I'll declare.                            Let me honour Him on earth.





         Deep calls to deep within my soul,                   He stemmed the billows, stilled the waves,
         Thy waterspouts I dread;`                           He dried up all the deep;
         Yea, all thy waves and billows roll,                 He now in lovingkindness saves
         To overwhelm my head.                                His own redeemed sheep.
         Did Jesus thus pour out His grief,                   His lovingkindness He commands,
         Enduring wrath Divine?                               In visits day and night,
         Was He of sufferers the chief?                      To warm our hearts, uphold our hands,
         Then why should I repine?                           And fill us with delight.
         The depths of wrath and sorrow move,                 Then why art thou cast down, my soul?
         And to each other call,                              Christ is thy Rock, He says;
         The Saviour's faithfulness to prove,                 And He will ev'ry wave control;
         He triumphs over all.                                Begin thy songs of praise.




                                           REPORT OF CLASSIS WEST

                                    September 27, 1977         Rev. J. Kortering led the  Classis in the opening
  The meeting of Classis West on September 7, 1977          devotions. He read I Peter 5 and addressed Classis on
in  Pella, Iowa was brief.  Classis finished its agenda     verse 14a: "Greet ye one another with a kiss of
shortly after noon on the day it convened.                  charity. "


 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                        SECOND CLASS
           P.O. Box 6064                                                                   POSTAGE PAID AT
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                            GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.



                                                   -~  --
 72                                           THE STANDARD BEARER


 Report of Classis West (cont.)

       Eleven ministers and thirteen elders represented         Accepting Randolph's invitation, Classis decided to
 the twelve churches of the  Classis. Rev. D. Kuiper,        meet next in Randolph, Wisconsin on March 1, 1978,
 pastor of the Lynden, Washington congregation,              the Lord willing.
 presided over the Classis.                                     As is always the case, the delegates enjoyed each
       Classis heard and acted on the reports of its         other's fellowship, as well as that of the host con-
 standing committees, stated clerk, and board of             gregation. Opportunity for this was enhanced by
 trustees.                                                   Pella's scheduling of a lecture the  .evening `before
       Two consistories asked  Classis' advice regarding     Classis. Rev. R.G. Moore, pastor of the Edmonton
 erasure of baptized members. After hearing the              congregation, spoke on the "New Hermeneutic."
 details of the cases, Classis advised both consistories                                Rev. David Engelsma
 to proceed with erasure.                                                               Stated Clerk

                                News From Our  Churches
       Our missionary. pastor, Rev. Robert Harbach, now      churches, including Holland, Michigan, held an in-
has a more `permanent' address. The Harbachs have            spirational meeting to mark the beginning of the
rented an apartment at 55 Bay Street, Victoria,              society season. This year, Seminarian De Vries was
British Columbia V9A 6X9 Canada. Rev. Harbach is             the speaker. One of the reasons for society attend-
holding regular church services, a mid-week Bible            ance listed on the Holland Bulletin was: "We are
 study class in Reformed'Doctrine  and two catechism         called, young and old, to redeem the time for the
classes on Friday evenings, with a third class planned       days are evil. And before our covenant God we have
. to begin soon. The missionary also visits with those       an obligation to be busy with the things of His
who have expressed an interest in our churches.              kingdom, building one another up in the faith."
       First Church in Grand Rapids held a special con-        Holland scheduled a special congregational meeting
gregational meeting on October 10 to call a minister         on October 6. Decisions were to be made concerning
from a trio consisting of Rev. ,David Engelsma, Pro-         the financing of the new church addition and in,
fessor Herman Hanko, and Rev. Ronald Van  Over-              regard to covering the floor in the auditorium.              --
loop. Professor Hanko received the call. The  con-             The first Sunday in September our church in Hull,
sistory informed the congregation prior to the               Iowa, switched from an evening service they had
meeting that Prof. Hanko, were he called and were he         scheduled during the summer to an afternoon service
to accept the call, would be obliged to complete the         at  1:30.
year of instruction at our seminary. A farewell pro-
gram is scheduled for Rev. Van Baren and family on             The Hull Protestant Reformed School began with a
Friday, October 28. The plan at this writing is to hold      half-day of classes on August 29 and a Convocation
the installation for Rev. Van Baren in Hudsonville on        Service in the Hull Church the same evening. Rev.
November 6. Hudsonville is rushing their new par-            Hoeksema spoke on "The Beginning of Wisdom."
sonage to completion in order that their new pastor            Another special congregational meeting was called
may have a place to live.                                    - this time in South Holland on October 3. The
   According to a note in the Isabel, South Dakota,          Council brought a proposal that the church parking
bulletin, the Mission Committee of our churches has          lot be repaved.
decided to ask the consistories of  Redlands and               Our annual Reformation Day lecture.in the Mich-
Kalamazoo to release their pastors for 4 to 6 weeks in       igan area is scheduled for October 27 in Hudsonville
order that they may labor in Jamaica.                        Church. Prof. Hoeksema plans to speak on, "Ref-
       Soon after Labor Day in September most of our         ormation - Option or Mandate?"
churches resumed society meetings which had been
recessed for the summer months. Some of the                                                                     K.G.V.


