    B E A R E R
      A REFORMED SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE





  Indeed, also our hearts are closed to  Him.
Bu the Lord speaks in our hearts by His grace
and Spirit, and we know our sin by the power
of His grace. We see our sin and also His re-
demption and salvation through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. And now we sing: Glory to God,
because of Him and unto Him are all things,
also our salvation, now and forever.

  Glory to God in the highest!

  May we never sing another song.

                 See  "Christmas Praise"  - Page  122




                                   Volume LIV, No. 6, December 15, 1977 -,
                                              ISSN 0362-4692


122                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER



                                                                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, inc.
                          CONTENTS:                                                   Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids, Mitch.
                                                                          Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema

Meditation  -
   Christmas Praise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122
Editorials  -
   Dancing - Full Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124       Editorial Office:  Prof. H.C. Hoeksema
   To My Friend in New Zealand . . . . . . . . . . . .  .126                                    4975  lvanrest  Ave. S.W.
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Translated Treasures  -                                                   Church News Editor:  Mr. Kenneth G. Vink
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MEDITA  TIO N




                                               Christmas. Praise

              "Glory to God" - Luke 2: 14a                                 it is in this song of the angels that we read-: Glory to.
  Glory to God  in the highest.  Joseph and Mary had                       God  in the highest.  The meaning of this expression is
journeyed to Bethlehem because of the decree of                            not "Glory to God Who is in the highest," but "Glory
Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.                        in the highest to God."
There had been no room for them in the inn. They                               By whom was this song sung? Of course, first of
had been led to a cave outside of the city of David,                       all, this angelic chorus sang this song. Momentarily
and there Jesus was born. It was at this moment that                       these angels, who are continuously gathered about
Heaven's announcement of Christ's birth had come to                        God's throne, had appeared here upon earth. How-
the shepherds, first by Gabriel and then by a heavenly                     ever, this song is also sung, in the highest, by all the
host who had gathered around these shepherds. And                          saints that have gone before. Indeed, how tense had


                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER                                           123


been the struggle between the church and the world,          Jerusalem have hurried to the manger to see the
between the Seed of the woman and that of the                Child? Shall we say, what a shameful waste of time
serpent. . . ! How these saints had welcomed this            and effort, a shameful lack of publicity?
heavenly announcement! Yes, these saints had been              Indeed, we must be careful here. "Glory to God in
saved, but why and how? The devil had accused                the highest." We must always remember this. This
Michael about the body of Moses, and Michael had             birth of Jesus Christ is no accident, no shameful
not been able to answer him  - see Jude 9. However,          failure on the part of the Lord to exploit His
the angels, too, were vitally interested. Had they not       opportunities to the full. God sent Gabriel and these
lost their head when Satan fell? Indeed, how true it         angels at this very moment, `to these shepherds, to
is: Glory in the highest to God!                             this place. This, we must understand, belongs to the
  Remember, however: Glory  to God.  0, we then              essence of this tremendous event of the ages.
may speak of the "little baby Jesus," and "His sweet           0, these angels surely had an audience! To be sure,
head," etc. But let us remember that all this has            they were gathered around these shepherds. However,
meaning only as willed and realized intentionally by         they had an audience, a tremendous audience. First,
God. Glory to God!                                           they sang to God! And, secondly, these angels surely
                                                             had a vast audience in heaven: the rest of the angels
              BEAUTIFULLY FITTING                            and all the saints that have gone before are "tuned
  What a setting for  the  event of the ages, the            in," listening with rapt attention.
amazing coming into our flesh and blood of our Lord            Besides, this contrast here is so fitting! On the one
Jesus Christ, the birth of the eternal Son of God in         hand, what was there really to see? All one would see
the likeness of sinful flesh! What a contrast!               is a man and his wife who came to Bethlehem to be
  On the one hand, attend, please, to the announce-          taxed, and she was expecting her firstborn child.
ment of Gabriel and the song of the angels. What an          What was unusual about that? They are poor and
amazing announcement by Gabriel: this day in the             therefore the babe is wrapped in swaddling clothes
city of David is born a Saviour, Christ, the Lord! Can       and lying in a manger. This is hardly attractive. And
we conceive of a more startling, terrific announce-          was there anything unusual about the Child that one
ment? Imagine: today is born Christ, the Lord! Christ        could see? He is like unto us in all things. He surely
is the Messiah. He is the Hope of Israel, to Whom the        does not look like a Saviour, like Israel's King and
people of God had looked forward throughout the              Lord. All earthly power and glory are absent.
ages, throughout the darkness and the shadows of               So, on the other hand, why should these angels
death all these hundreds and hundreds of years.              strive for effect? Presuppose that they had sung at
Besides, these tidings will be of great joy to all           noonday, before Jerusalem's mighty and common
people! He is Israel's Saviour and Lord. He is not           people. Presuppose, then, that they all had gone to
merely the Saviour. He is not merely the Saviour of          Bethlehem. How utterly vain their coming would
these shepherds. He is the Saviour of all people!            have been! Could the sign of God's coming into our
  Then, there is the song of the angels. "Peace on           flesh and blood (the manger and the swaddling
earth," we hear them sing, and "good will toward             clothes) have possibly satisfied wicked and carnal
men." Peace on earth! What an amazing thing! What a          Jerusalem, and would they not all have returned to
magic word this is! Peace? On earth? Where is it?            Jerusalem bitterly disappointed?
And, "good will to men." And the reference here is                           WELL - GROUNDED
the same as in the expression, "which shall be to all
people."                                                       Glory to God! There is, first of all, the fact of
                                                             Jesus' birth as such. He is Jesus. And Jesus means
  On the other hand, however, notice how this                "Jehovah saves." This Babe is not God Who became a
announcement is made. Indeed, what a setting! Here           man, and now is no longer God. God did not change.
the Messiah is sung, in the hollow of the night, to a        He is God Who is and remains God, the Infinite, the
few shepherds upon the outskirts of  Jerusalem.  Was         Eternal, the Omniscient, the Omnipresent, the Child
there no better place or time to make this announce-         Who is and remains God's Eternal Son. Hence: glory
ment? Is He not  Isreal's King and Lord, this  Wonder-       to God. Ascribe this miracle of Bethlehem to Him
Child? Why, then, was His birth not announced in             alone. He alone performed this wondrous thing. This
Jerusalem? Why this announcement when all people             we read in Luke  1:35.
are asleep? Is He not Israel's Hope and Joy Whose
birth would be joy to  all people? Why this announce-          Glory to God! Fact is, salvation is of God alone!
ment to a few shepherds? Indeed, could not a more              Thus it was at Bethlehem. Was He not wrapped in
appreciative audience have been found? Had the               swaddling clothes and lying in a manger? The Lord
announcement been made in Jerusalem, would not all           not only descends into our flesh and blood, but He


 124                                          THE STANDARD BEARER



 also comes into our flesh and blood as He pleases.          "blasting," is it not? Powerfully, efficaciously, irre-
 These signs, too, are of Him. Do these signs not            sistibly He makes room for  .Himself, enthrones Him-
 proclaim the truth, not only that we cannot produce         self in our hearts, to live there forever and guide us in
 the Christ, but also that we are completely unable to       the way of peace.
 receive Him? 0, do not misunderstand these signs.
 The world, too, is fond of them. They love to speak
 of them, provided that these signs speak of what                           DIVINELY REVEALED
 man is able to do, that, be our birth'ever so humble,          Did the shepherds know because of what they saw?
 we can really ascend to the heights if only we apply        They saw the Babe, the manger and the swaddling
 ourselves to the task. Or, that, inasmuch as there is a     clothes, the abject poverty. Yet, they returned,
 place for Him in a manger, although there is no room        glorifying God. Did they conclude from the things
 for Him in the inn, there is nevertheless a place for       they saw that the Babe was Jesus; Israel's Lord, King,
 Him after all, be it ever so humble.                        and Hope? Why and- how did they know? They knew
   Indeed, glory to God! That there is no room for           because of divine revelation. They knew because an
 Him in the inn is surely symbolic of the truth that         angel of the Lord had come upon them and through
there is never  rooq for Him in our hearts, that, were it    him they received the word of God. They knew
 left to us, we would also deprive Him of the manger         because the glory of the Lord had shined round about
 and the swaddling clothes. God saves, and He alone!         them, and they had been sore afraid. And the reason
There is no room for Him in our hearts. We are full of       why they were sore afraid was because, through the
' sin and darkness. God alone makes room.                    grace of God, they saw the glory of the Lord in
                                                             contrast to their sin. They knew because they had
   Is it not ever thus? Thus it was at the cross of          believed  the word of the angel, and to believe is a gift
 Calvary. Was there room for Jesus, I ask you. Yes,          of God. They knew because God had revealed it to
 there is room for Him as long as the people do not          them and within their hearts.
 understand Him. The Galileans would crown Him
 their king. But when Jesus reveals Himself to them,            Does not the same truth apply to us? To us the
 stands before them in all His spiritual and heavenly        word of God has come, through the apostles, in the
                                                             Lord's, own infallible Word. We could never conclude,
 significance, as the Saviour from sin, then they lay
`hands upon Him, take from Him the manger and the            either from Bethlehem or from the cross, that God
 swaddling clothes, scourge and crucify Him. And             had come into our flesh and blood and had reconciled
 remember: we did this. . . . But God made room. Yes,        the world, His world, unto Himself. But God revealed
 we killed Him. But, through our enmity God pre-             this mystery of salvation to us, through inspiration, in
 pared room for Himself in our hearts and in His             His own infallible, unerring Word. But this is not all.
 heavenly and everlasting tabernacle, blazing the trail      In'us the Lord also speaks His word of grace. Indeed,
 through our darkness and death, reconciling us unto         also our hearts are closed to Him. But the Lord
 Himself.                                                    speaks in our hearts by His grace and Spirit, and we
                                                             know our sin by the power of His grace. We see our
   And thus it is throughout the ages. Does God offer        sin and also His redemption and salvation through
 salvation to us? Does He simply ask us or plead with        Jesus Christ, our Lord. And now we sing: Glory to
 us to come unto Him, allow Him to come into our             God, because of Him and through Him and unto Him
 hearts? God forbid! How ridiculous and absurd is            are all things, also our salvation, now and forever.
 such an offer! But, glory to God! He, may we say,
 "blasts" His way into our hearts. Indeed, our hearts          Glory to God in the highest!
 are hard as flint. They are solid rock. Well, this is         May we never sing another song.

 ;EDITORIALS
   Rev. H. Veldman
 ProJ: H.C. Hoeksema

                                         Dancing--Full Circle

   Both the Christian Reformed  De Wachter  and The          rather vehement disapproval of the fact that Calvin's
 Outlook,  organ of the Reformed Fellowship, have            Board of Trustees gave approval to such "social
 given attention recently to the fact that the so-called     dancing" at the college, as well as of the fact that the
 "social dance" has been given approval at Calvin            1977 Synod refused by. an overwhelming vote to
 College. Especially the latter magazine has expressed       disapprove the decision of the Board of Trustees. It


                                               THE  STANbARD  BEARER                                            125


appears, therefore, that in 1978 the new policy which         1928. But in 1966, when the so-called "film arts"
permits dancing will be implemented by the college            decision was taken (overthrowing the 1928  anti-
administration, although admittedly there has been            movie decision), the ominous signals became still
such dancing for some time already.                           more urgent. One might say that you could hear the
  Editor Vander Ploeg, of The  Outlook,  counts this          loud horn of the approaching and speeding freight
decision of the 1977 Synod as one of several ominous          train. That freight train was also the Christian
signals emanating from that synod, signals "so loud           Reformed Church, but from a different aspect:- the
and clear that he who runs may read." And he writes           Christian Reformed Church with its `common grace
further: "When signals are flashing and bells are             decisions of 1924. The train had three powerful diesel
ringing at a railroad crossing to the danger of an            engines at its head  - the Three Points of common
oncoming, speeding train, a motorist or pedestrian            grace. But the Christian Reformed Church of the
must be blind, deaf, drunk, or bent upon suicide if he        1928 anti-dancing decisions was drunk with the in-
fails to take warning. CRC constituents are no less to        toxicant of world-conformity, and therefore deaf to
be pitied if they now refuse to pay attention."  (The         the bells and horn-blasts and blind for the flashing
Outlook,  Sept., 1977, pp. 2, 4) He then goes on to           lights, apparently bent on suicide. For that CRC of
mention several "signals" in connection with the              the 1928 anti-dancing decision did not get off the
decision to implement social dancing.                         track; nor did it make any effort to stop the
                                                              fast-approaching train, at least until it was far too
  Meanwhile, the editor fails to tell his readers what        late. The result was that the heavy Common Grace
Christian Reformed constituents must do about the             Diesels struck the CRC-1928 full force, killed it
situation. That is, he  ~has no advice for-his readers -as    instantly, and mauled and mutilated it until it was
to what to do with respect to their  church  and its          scarcely recognizable. An autopsy was not necessary.
official stand. He admits that their church has
changed (or has it?) and that, too, in the wrong                 To speak literally rather than figuratively, the
direction. He talks about making an agonizing re-             Christian Reformed Church has come full circle on
appraisal with respect to paying quotas for Calvin            the matter of the dance. In 1928 the Christian
College, without overtly advising to withhold such            Reformed Church said: no dancing! In 1977 the
quotas  - a form of ecclesiastical rebellion. He warns        Christian Reformed Church says: dancing is not only
about other schools and colleges. And he has words            permissible, but it is welcome on the campus of our
about the dangers of this decision for  &the con-             Christian college!
scientious student. But what does all this mean? What            Not only so, but emphatically the  same  Christian
does it do to solve the problem? What must be done            Reformed Church has made these opposite decisions.
about the fact that as a denomination the Christian           My application of the figure was not wholly con-
Reformed Church has officially decided upon this              sistent. Close examination of the speeding freight
policy, and that every Christian Reformed con-                train and the figure standing on the tracks would
stituent is co-responsible for -this policy unless he         reveal that principally they represented one and the
sunders himself from it in no uncertain terms? And            same Christian Reformed Church, as I intend to show
what is to be done about the fact that the Christian          conclusively a bit later. I emphasize this because
Reformed constituency can no longer trust and de-             Editor Vander Ploeg denies it in writing about "signal
pend upon the official decisions and counsel of their         number one." He states: "Signal number one that
own broadest gathering, but must be warned about              should come through loud and clear to those  who-
ominous signals by a Christian Reformed minister in a         have long supported Calvin is that `onze school' and
(mainly) Christian Reformed magazine? To these                the CRC have changed radically." And again: "To be
questions Editor Vander Ploeg furnishes no answer.            sure, the signal says that times have changed and the
                                                              CRC along with it  - but definitely in the wrong
  I venture to say: he  can  give no answer, not unless       direction!" I reply: not really! And: not principally!
he wants to go back beyond 1977, 1971, 1966, 1951,            And I will demonstrate it conclusively.
and even beyond 1928, to that fatal year of 1924 and             Again, speaking literally rather than figuratively,
its common grace decisions.                                   Editor Vander Ploeg ought not to have been so
  If I may extend and apply the figure of                     dismayed and even shocked at this decision. The
those ominous signals employed by The  Out-                   warnings were all there, and they were clear. Having
look's  editor for a moment, let me point out the             served on the 195 1 committee to study this matter,
following. First of all, standing on the railroad track       he of all people should have taken note of the clear
- not merely at the crossing gates  - was the Christian       warnings.
Reformed Church with its 1928-l 95 1 anti-dancing                Certainly, this decision did not come like a
decision. The lights were flashing and the bells were         thunderbolt out of a blue sky! On the contrary, it
ringing already for a long time, really ever since            w a s   p r e d i c t a b l e .


126                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


  For one thing, there were practical indications of            How anyone could be shocked at the decision of
its coming. As I mentioned earlier, there was ad-             1977 is beyond my comprehension. It was bound to
mittedly dancing at Calvin already, though without            follow the decision of 1966 as surely as night follows
the  imprimatur  of the church. Besides, already some         day. The surprising element to this writer is only the
years ago, I recall, there were reports about observing       fact that it took as long as eleven years!
or participating in  - I do not recall which, at the            But talk about warnings!
moment  - a thing called liturgical dancing. Further,
from time to time one would hear reports about                  The late Herman Hoeksema sounded a clear warn-
dancing on the part of CRC constituents off-campus            ing in  The Standard Bearer  of June 1, 1928, before
and apart from any relationship to Calvin College.            the Report on Worldly Amusements even became a
Now, given the whole background of this problem,              synodical decision. At that time he wrote (I translate
even these practical indications might have served as         from the Dutch): "The report of the Committee is
warnings of the fact that sooner or later there would         ambivalent, irresolute, and therefore very dangerous.
be pressures in the church to justify officially what         And we predict that, if the Synod adopts this report
was already being practiced in fact. Not only do              in this form, it absolutely will not help the churches
things usually go that way, but they had gone that            in the battle against world-conformity. It is an
way with that other "worldly amusement" involved              attempt to point the drowning Church to a few
in the decisions of 1928-1951. As movie attendance            blades of grass on the bank of the stream, advising her
became more common and more open, a clamor also               to cling fast to them, rather than pulling her out of
arose to justify it by official ecclesiastical decision;      the stream and saving her."
and eventually precisely this was done in what is               If only the Christian Reformed Church had lis-
rather euphemistically called the "film arts" decision.       tened in  1928!
  But there is more.                                            No, if only the Christian Reformed Church had
  Given the "film arts" decision, it followed with            listened in  1924!
unassailable logic that dancing would also have to be           For, as I said, common grace and its denial of the
approved. Anyone at all acquainted with the so-called         antithesis is the root of the problem. This I shall show
worldly amusements problem and its history in the             by quotation in the next issue.
Christian Reformed Church could see that. For not               In conclusion, let me call attention to the signifi-
only was it true that the two problems of movie               cant fact that Herman Hoeksema's prophecy of 1928
attendance and dancing were closely connected his-            is being fulfilled some fifty years later. From time to
torically and in previous synodical decisions. It was         time we have been criticized for attributing the
also true that, given the principal basis of the film arts    present ills of the Christian Reformed Church to the
decision, that basis would and could also serve as the        common grace decisions of 1924. Well, brethren, the
principal basis of the social dancing decision. And           evidence is there! In 1928 the late Herman Hoeksema
what was that basis? Common grace and the restraint           criticized the Worldly Amusements Report precisely
of sin. It is in the Acts of 1966 for all to read. The        because it proceeded from the principle of common
Standard Bearer  called attention to it at the time of        grace and denied the antithesis. On this basis, he
its adoption.                                                 predicted that the churches could not win the battle
  Still more: as the decision of the Calvin Board             against world conformity, but would drown in the
quoted by  The Outlook  plainly declares, the Synod           stream.
of 1971 specifically declared "the conclusions of the          -Today that prophecy has been fulfilled.
Church and Film Arts study of 1966, particularly
`with respect to the relationship of the Christian to           Is this mere coincidence? That explanation is not
the world' and `with respect to the exercise of               credible: there have been too many such coin-
Christian liberty', to be a guide for the churches in         cidences.
dealing with the matter of dancing." Hence, the                 No, it is a case of principles working through and
Synod itself gave the cue as to how dancing might be          bearing fruit. The (evil) leaven of common grace is
justified, namely, on the same basis as that on which         leavening the whole lump!
the theater and movie were justified.                           Face the facts!


                              To My Friend in New Zealand

Dear Friend and Brother:                                      and ask the  Standard Bearer  to bear my letter to you.
  This time I thought I would write you in public             After all, he travels  - in part, at least  - by air; and


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                 127



 therefore my letter should reach you rather prompt-          and we longed to help you and also in this way to
 ly. This public letter has the advantage that since you      strengthen the ties of fellowship between you and us.
 and I are both rather busy at present, we can, so to            Imagine our joy, then, when we received word
 speak, kill two birds with one stone. Our American           from the Hope Consistory and from Rev. Van  Over-
 friends can read this letter over my shoulder as I write     loop that he was willing to labor among you for an
 you, and your and my New Zealand friends can read            extended period of eight months! I know something
 over your shoulder when you receive my missive.              of your joy, too. For I had the privilege of speaking
 There is no harm in this, for we have no secrets to          to your Clerk of Session, brother Andrew Young, via
 hide from the rest of our friends; in fact, we have          telephone; and when I conveyed the good news to
 some news which we are happy to share.                       him, his reaction was, "That's the answer to many
   It is certainly good that we may share some                prayers!" And did you know that brother Bill van
 positive news after a rather lengthy period of dis-          Rij, that world-traveler, rang me from Tahiti when he
 appointment and discouragement. I refer, of course,          found out I had some news? His reaction was, "That
 to the fact that, the Lord willing, Rev. Ronald Van          is good news indeed !" So now you will have help. I
 Overloop  and his wife and four children will soon be        know this is not the same as receiving a pastor.
 coming to Christchurch, and that he plans to labor in        Nevertheless, it is a big step in the right direction. I
 your midst for some eight months, You will recall            am convinced that in Rev. Van  Overloop  you will
 that our Synod of  1976 heeded the request of your           enjoy soundly Reformed teaching and preaching, as
 Consistory (you call it "Session," of course) and            well as warm fellowship and kindly pastoral care in
 arranged for you to call one of our Protestant               the bonds of the love of Christ. Knowing you some-
 Reformed ministers as your pastor for a period of up         what, I feel confident, too, that you will give him a
to five years. At the same time that Synod decided            warm reception and take him to your hearts, and that
 that should your efforts to obtain a pastor be un-           soon he will feel quite at home among you. Mean-
 successful, our Committee for Contact With Other             while, remember the Hope Congregation in your
 Churches was empowered to ask one of our  Con-               prayers; they are generously loaning you their hard-
 sistories to release their pastor and to send him to         working pastor, whom they love. We of the Contact
 Christchurch for up to a year. In the good provi-            Committee deeply appreciate their forward-looking
 dence of our God, your calls met with declines. This         attitude and their willingness to sacrifice for the cause
 was disappointing, of course. Then, last spring (your        of Christ's church in New Zealand. We know you feel
 autumn in the Southern Hemisphere) our Contact               the same way.
 Committee began working to obtain a minister for you           As of this writing, I am informed that Rev. Van
 on an interim basis. However, these efforts, too, did        Overloop  and family are planning to leave Grand
 not meet with immediate success. For one reason or           Rapids on the seventeenth of December, provided
 another, neither Rev. C. Hanko, nor I, nor Rev. M.           their visas arrive on time. At that rate, they may even
 Joostens could come to you. It was quite under-              arrive before you receive my letter.
 standable, therefore, that you began to be a bit
 discouraged in Christchurch. After all, you are quite          Please give my greetings to all the brethren and
                                                              sisters in Christchurch, and, if you get the oppor-
 isolated over there, you are a little flock, young in'the
 faith, and you have never yet had a pastor or even a         tunity, greet for me the saints in the rest of the
 minister on any kind of regular or semi-permanent            churches. I sincerely hope that your moderator, Rev.
 basis. Besides, when we left you, now more than two          Ivo Bishop, is feeling better after his many physical
 years ago, you and we had rather high hopes that this        troubles.
 was the Lord's direction for you and that soon you             Perhaps, instead of responding privately, you could
 would have help. Well, frankly we of the Contact             answer me in your  Gospel Witness.  If you do, I'm
 Committee were also tending to be a bit discouraged.         quite sure that the  Standard Bearer  would reprint
We realized, of course, that this was the Lord's will,        your letter.
 as you also did. And we trusted, too, even as we               May the Lord richly bless you in Christchurch and
 prayed, that the Lord would lead in the right way and        strengthen and sustain the cause of the Orthodox
 that He would provide in His wisdom and His love.            Presbyterian Churches in New Zealand.
 He always does, you know; and He never puts His                                        Your brother in the Lord,
 people to shame. But your need was on our hearts,                                      H.C. Hoeksema

                               Know the standard and follow it.
                            Read  The Standard Bearer


128                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


TRANSLATED TREASURES



                  A Pamphlet on the Reformation
                                         of the Church

                       Chapter I                            end of the glory of the Triune God in spite of sin,
                  General Principles                        death, and the devil.1 Its end is the establishment of a
                                                            kingdom of glory of which the throne shall eternally
1. What the Reformation of the Churches implies.            stand firm and unshakable. It is the anointing of the
  Reformation of churches implies first of all that         Mediator as King in that kingdom, as Prince to sit on
the churches of Christ have a certain form or shape or      that throne, as the ordaining of that King for a people
figure which are uniquely hers as church. It implies,       who as a body live under Him and are bound to Him
secondly, that this form or shape or figure can             as their Head. And it is finally the election of those
become impure by deformation or deformity. And it           certain persons who as subjects of that King are
implies, thirdly, the obligation to restore this de-        rightly members of that body.
formed or misfashioned or misformed church by                  By the working out and fulfillment of that counsel
reformation or renewal to the original form and good        the church now exists in this world in a way which is
shape and normal figure which flows forth from her          for us incomprehensible. There proceeds from God to
essence and is determined by her character.                 this world words, powers, works, influences,' mes-
2. From what the correct form of the churches is            sages. And the fruit of this many-sided work of God
known.                                                      is that the church comes into being. As much as the
  The correct form or figure or shape of churches is        world opposes the church it stays. And in spite of the
known from Holy Scripture. This is not in the often         sin which steals into her own bosom, even sometimes
supposed sense as if Holy Scripture presents us with        eats into the root of her life, it always grows accord-
regulations for the establishment of a church, or a         ing to the growth ordained by God for her.
church order for the management of churches, or               These words, powers, works, influences, and mes-
even an explanation of principles brought into a            sages which proceed from God to the world continue
system which leads us to this. Holy Scripture does          unbroken from the beginning to the present and shall
not present us with anything like this. Therefore           endure as long as the bride awaits the Bridegroom. If
anyone is in error who either makes a rule of an            this would cease even for a moment, the church
example in Scripture or who strings together ex-            would wither, die, and be no more. No one must limit
pressions standing by themselves to acquire by his          these words, or works, or messages of God to the
own ingenuity what he fruitlessly sought in Scripture.      time between Adam in Paradise and John on Patmos.
No, authority and complete authority Holy Scripture         Rather they continue unlimited from John to our day
exercises in the matter of the church only because it       and shall continue till Jesus comes.
shows us in unmistakable ways how the Triune God              Only a distinction must be made between those
brought and brings into this world that which fell          operations of God at that time and now according to
into and still lies in evil, operations and powers which    their divergent nature and their different dispensa-
(according to immoveable law and in definite ways           tion.
bring His church into existence and preserve it.)             It is necessary to pay attention here especially to
  The world brings forth no church from the womb            two differences.
of her own life which is sunk under the curse. Rather
her life is at odds with the essence of the church. It        First of all life itself forces us to face two ques-
does not tolerate the church and reacts against her as      tions. One is: how does life come into existence? And
against a power which is set up for the restriction and     the other is: how is it that life, brought into exis-
curbing of the world's sinful nature. The root of the       tence, is now fed, maintained, and continued?
church is not hidden in the world but outside of it in        God first creates and forms a child in the womb of
the counsel of God. In the counsel of God is the            its mother, and then it is born to be nourished
eternal good pleasure to bring all things finally to the    henceforth first by its mother and then by its own


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                     129


hand. The blood which enters the embryo before                  Now it lies in the nature of the case, and let us pay
birth is not a nourishing but a forming power,              close attention to this, that those operations of God
completely distinct in nature and manner of opera-          in the period of the genesis of the church are
tion from all later, proper nourishment. It is the same     normative and binding also for the second period of
distinction which is expressed so strongly in `the two      her existence. Indeed, the potter can make out of the
sacraments: Holy baptism as the sacrament of life           lump of clay a bowl or a jug or a vase according to
coming into existence, and therefore taking place           the free choice of his will just as it pleases him; but
only once; and the Holy Supper as the sacrament of          when the form of the bowl, e.g., is once chosen and
life which is nourished, and therefore, continually         when the form of the bowl is once impressed on the
repeated. And so two kinds of operations proceed             clay, then all further preparation of the bowl is bound
from God for and to His church: first, an operation         to a fixed basic form. And in this way God the Lord
whereby He begets His church, bares her secretly, and       could impress on His church at the time of her genesis
brings her forth in her true form. And after this,          the form which seemed good to Him; or rather, was
secondly, an entirely different work by which He            good to Him in His eternal counsel. But when that
nourishes the church thus brought to birth first with       form was once  impressed.on  it and thus the formed
milk and afterwards with solid food.                        church was once born, then God was Himself bound
  And with this, this first distinction flows over of       to that first operation, and thus also the entire
itself into the second which we alluded to above.           further development of His church is henceforth
  The church is not the church of one people, but of        subject to the law of that original formation. This law
the whole world. God has called not one nation, but         is not arbitrary, but is the impulse of the increated
humanity. The triumph of the Lord must be seen not          law of life.
over one nation, but over humanity. The counsel of             It is a fact therefore that the operations which now
the Lord of lords shall appear to be powerful not'as a      proceed from God to His church take their cue from
certain circle of pious people call upon Him in the         the operations with which He formerly brought this
bosom of a certain nation, but above all when He has        church to her birth in the world; and from that
gathered together His church from the whole world           principle each person who enters that church, born in
so that the "hallelujah" ascends from all nations and in    this way, confessing, preaching, or acting, is bound to
all languages. This the holy apostle calls again and        obedience of the law of life which God Almighty
again the great mystery, the great hidden thing             Himself gave her in the generation and forming of the
"which was hidden in all ages, but is now revealed."*       church.
  Although the Lord always had His true,.essential             And because Holy Scripture is nothing else than
church on earth from the beginning of the world till        the pure and organic display of all the works, in-
now, nevertheless on that account there is an obvious       fluences,  \jvords, powers, and messages which proceed
distinction between the church during and after the         from God to the world to bring the church to her
end of particular revelation.                               birth for the world, therefore the church of Christ is
                                                            thus durable among the nations, continually and
  As long as that particular revelation continued, the      irrevocably bound to that which Holy Scripture tells
church was still brought forth, born in secret, and it      us in the generation, forming, and bearing of the
remained interwoven with the swaddling clothes of           church of God is her unchangeable form and law of
Israel's existence as a nation. It was first with the       life.
apostles, and more exactly when the apostolate died
away, the hour of her birth striking, that the church       1 Kuyper reveals in this last phrase his views that salvation comes in
stepped out into the light of life and appeared among       spire  of  the work of sin and of the devil. In this respect Kuyper was
the nations, manifested in the whole of humanity and        somewhat dualistic also in his theology. He proposed the idea that God
of the world. Thus the former is  her, period of            and the devil are at war with each other, and that although God
                                                            ultimately gains the victory, nevertheless it is in spite of the work of
becoming, the history of her coming into existence.         Satan. The Scriptures teach  -however  that under God's sovereign rule
And afterwards there comes finally an entirely dif-         which is universal even sin, death and the devil must serve God's
ferent period embracing the whole of life by that           purpose in Christ.
church in the middle of the nations, loosed from            *Remans  16:25,  Ephesians  3:9, Colossians  1:26,  II Timothy-  1:19,
                                                            Ephesians  1:9, Titus  1:2, I Peter  1:20.  It  does not militate against this
Israel, living throughout humanity as the church. This      when our catechism confesses that God  has  gathered His church from
period continues yet today. If we take both these           the beginning of the world and when Jesus in Matthew  16:18  explains
distinctions together then we find therefore: there is      that He now  shall  build His church on this rock. By this only
                                                            conception and birth are distinguished.
first a series of operations of God whereby the church      `This is a rather peculiar distinction which Kuyper here introduces. It
in Israel was brought to her birth for the world; and       would be perhaps better to maintain the distinction of Scripture found
there is on the other hand a series of operations of        in Galatians  3:22-26  and Galatians 4:1-3. In this passage Paul makes the
God entirely distinct from this whereby the church          distinction between the Old Testament church as a child still under a
thus born for the world is maintained in that world.1       schoolmaster and the New Testament church as a child who has come
                                                            to maturity.


130                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER


SIGNS OF THE TIMES


                                   Without Natural Affection
                                                             Rev. J. Slopsema

  A very startling and heart-rending article entitled                   Says director of the National Center on Child Abuse
"The Battered Children" appears in  the October 10                      and Neglect, Douglas  Besharov,  "If you had a disease
issue of  Newsweek.                                                     that affected so many children annually, you would
  The article begins by citing three specific cases of                  call it an epidemic." In a soon to be published study
child abuse.                                                            of "Violence in the American Family" by Richard
          "The Baltimore police found Patty Saunders, 9, in             Gelles and two colleagues, it is concluded that one
       the 23-by 52-inch closet where she had been locked               out of every 33 children runs the risk of abuse or
       for half her life. She weighed only 20 pounds and               neglect. Researchers also agree that there is no such
       stood less than 3 feet tall.. Smeared with filth, scarred        thing as a "typical" child abuser. They come from
       from parental beatings, Patty had become irreparably            both sexes, all economic strata, every race and
       mentally retarded.                                              religion, and fewer than 10 percent are diagnosed as
          "Gary Ellenburg, 11, was brought to San Fran-                psychotic.
       cisco General Hospital suffering from severe malnutri-             And what accounts for this gruesome spectacle?
       tion. He weighed 44 pounds, had a temperature of                Newsweek  speaks of child abuse as a "syndrome."
       just 84 degrees and was deep in coma. Doctors                   "Syndrome" is a medical term denoting a group of
       noticed suspicious marks on his wrists and ankles, and
       police quickly found the cause: the apartment where             symptoms occurring together that characterize a
       Gary lived with his mother and her boyfriend was                disease. To speak of child abuse as a syndrome,
       littered with handcuffs, chains and locks that had              therefore, is to classify it as a sickness or disease
       apparently been used to immobilize him for hours on             which parents have.  Newsweek goes  on further to
       end.                                                            attribute child abuse to ignorance on the part of
          "Alyssa Dawn Wilson died at the age of six weeks             parents and a lack of education in the proper han-
       in a Beauford, S.C., clinic. An autopsy disclosed that          dling  of- children. In support of this conclusion it is
       the infant had a ruptured liver and spleen, eye                 pointed out that, in general, parents who abuse their
       injuries, a fractured knee, fourteen broken ribs, bite          children were themselves abused or neglected in their
       marks on her cheeks, bruises on her stomach and                 childhood. The cause of child abuse then is simply
       back and alcohol in her bloodstream. Her father was             that parents do not know any better.
       arrested for murder."                                              This, of course, is utter folly. It is a deliberate
  Newsweek goes  on to say that reports of this kind                   refusal to recognize sin as sin and to recognize
are rapidly increasing. Five years ago only 60,000                     another sign of the times.
cases of child abuse were brought to official attention                  We read in II Timothy 3 : 1  ff.: "This know also,
in the U.S. In 1976, however, the number  of reported                  that in the last days perilous times shall come. For
cases passed the half-million mark. According to                       men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
estimates of the National Child Abuse and Neglect                      boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
Center, this represents only half of the child abuse                   unthankful, unholy, WITHOUT NATURAL AF-
that goes on in our country. Many cases are never                      FECTION. . .  ." That explains such a grotesque thing
reported or discovered. According to the center's                      as child abuse  - a loss even of natural affection.
calculations, between 100,000 and 200,000 children                       The word that is translated "without natural affec-
are regularly assaulted by their parents with cords,                   tion" literally means "without love of kindred or
sticks, fists, hot irons, cigarettes,  and booted feet;                family." It refers not to a spiritual love which is
while nearly as many as that are sexually molested. It                 rooted in the love of God and which is the sole
is further estimated that 700,000 children are denied                  possession of. the regenerated child of God. The word
necessary food, clothing, or shelter. Still according to               rather designates a natural love which even the na-
the estimates of the National Center on Child Abuse                    tural man is able to possess. This "love of kindred" is
and Neglect, at least 2,000 children a year die because                one of the natural gifts that God has bestowed upon
of abuse or neglect. That figure ranks abuse as the                    all men in general and which man retains to a degree
number five child-killer in the U.S. behind accidents,                 even after the fall. It can be classified as part of "the
cancer, congenital abnormalities, and pneumonia.                       glimmerings of natural light' of which our Canons


                                              THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  131



speak. It is a gift that God has bestowed even upon         idolatrous heathen who refuses to worship God upon
the animal world. Even the animals love and care for        apprehending Him in the creation. This applies also to
their young. It is, therefore, this gift of natural         those who fall under the pale of the gospel and
affection that explains how even godless, reprobate,        Christendom. It principally makes no difference
unbelieving parents can and will provide and care for       whether one comes to know of God through the
their children. It is natural even for the natural man      creation or the gospel. Neither does it make any
to love and care for his own.                               difference whether his idol is an idol of stone and
  But even this is being lost today in our society.         wood, or the idol of earthly treasures and pleasures,
How else can you realistically explain the widespread       or the idol of false doctrine. Whenever man refuses to
spectacle of child abuse in our land  - even to the         worship God as He has revealed Himself, God visits
point of parents' maiming and murdering their chil-         that man in His wrath, giving him over to further sin
dren. The world may call it a disease. They may             that will manifest itself in the most grotesque way.
attribute it to ignorance. But on the basis of the Bible    God always punishes sin with sin.
there is only one explanation  - a loss even of natural       Is it any wonder then that in our society there is
affection. And this only serves to remind us once           such wide-spread child abuse? Is it any wonder that
again that we live in the "last days" and in the            many parents have lost any and all natural affection
"perilous times" that should come.                          for their children? We live in a godless, idolatrous
  But how do we explain'this, that parents are losing       society. All that Paul states in Romans 1 concerning
natural affection even for their children?                  the idolatry of Roman society holds equally true for
  We find the answer in the first chapter of Romans.        our society today. We live in a society in which men,
There we are told that the loss of natural affection is     when they know God glorify Him not as God. We live
the result of God's judgment and wrath upon sin. We         in a society that changes the truth of God into a lie,
read in verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed         that worships the creature (earthly treasures and
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous-        pleasures) rather than the Creator. The gruesome
ness of men, who hold the truth in  unrigheousness."        statistics quoted in  Newsweek  only confirm this fact.
The Apostle Paul then goes on to explain. God has           They also speak of the terrible wrath of God which
made Himself known through the works of His hands,          gives an idolatrous generation over to sin which
even to the heathen who have not the gospel. "For           staggers the imagination. God in His wrath has taken
the invisible things of him (i.e., God) from the            away from parents even the natural affection for their
creation of the world are clearly seen, being under-        children so that children by the thousands are being
stood by the things that are made, even his eternal         abused, maimed, and slaughtered.
power and Godhead (vs. 20). In other words, through           This whole matter of child abuse may seem in-
the creation God makes known to man that He is,             credible to us. It may even be sickening. I hope it is!
that He is God, and that He must be served and              But if we understand the underlying cause of it all,
glorified as God. But the natural man, perceiving all       then we will also be awe-struck. For this is the hand
this, refuses to worship Him. Instead, he makes and         of God as He hardens the  hearts of men, causing them
serves an idol, thereby changing "the glory of the          to grow in sin that they might fill the cup of iniquity
uncorruptible  God into an image made like to cor-          and'make themselves ripe for final judgment.
ruptible man, and to birds and four footed beasts,            Finally, there is in all this also a warning for us. Do
and creeping things" (vs. 23). Through his idolatries,      not think that we are immune from this. Do not
the natural man holds the truth in unrighteousness.         think that the saints of God can never fall into such
And therefore God reveals His wrath from heaven,            grotesque sins as child abuse and loss of natural
giving man "up to uncleanness through the lusts of          affection. If that is your conclusion, then you do well
their own sin" (vs. 24). God gives them up to "vile         to be reminded of the words of I Cor. 10: 12:
affections" (vs.  26), to a "reprobate mind, to do          "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take
those things which are not convenient" (vs. 28). In         heed lest he fall." Remember, God always punishes
other words, God punishes sin with sin. He causes           sin with sin. That is true also in the life of the child of
man to grow and develop in sin. He causes man to            God. The Scriptures are full of examples. You live in
commit unbelievable sins which are degrading and.           and follow the way of sin, then God will lead you
unnatural even for the fallen sinner. God makes man         into greater sin, even into the sins of which we have
worse even than the animal. Paul lists the sin of           spoken. Let us, therefore, flee from the godlessness
homosexuality in verses 26 and 27 as a case in point.       and idolatry of our present age. Let us turn away
In verse 31 he makes mention of a loss of natural           from every idol, whether it be the idol of riches, or
affection. This is God's wrath and judgment upon            pleasure, or entertainment, or whatever. And let us
those who refuse to serve and glorify Him.                  with purity and singleness of heart serve the Lord our
  And understand that this applies not only to the          God.


132                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


STUDIES IN ISAIAH





                           Treachery ,Aggression and
                                  Immanuel's Comfort
                                                 Rev. Rob-t. C Harbach

   I. THE CONFOUNDING OF AHAZ (vv. l-2). 1.                  port when Rezin had taken Elath on the Red Sea.
In a `dangerous plot against Jerusalem  (1). A con-          Then the vassal nation of Edom regained its in-
spiracy arose against the kingdom of Judah. Two              dependence and took many Jews captive. The  Philis-
monarchs were in league plotting Judah's destruction.        tines also had recaptured the towns Uzziah and
Ahaz the king was in trouble. But in a strategic place       Jotham  had held. So that "Jehovah brought Judah
he is met by Isaiah the prophet with a message of            low, because of Ahaz; for he had made Judah naked,
assurance that the threatened invasion would not             and trespassed sore against Jehovah" (2 Chron.
succeed, for God would destroy both enemy nations            28: 19).
(l-9).                                                          2. In a resulting distress leaving Ahaz shaken.
  Yet the king was incredulous. With pretended               "And it was told to the house of David, saying,  Aram
piety, humility, and confidence in God, he refused to        (Syria) (is) resting upon Ephraim (Israel); and his
do as commanded  - ask a sign of the promised event.         heart shook, also the heart of his people, as the trees
In rebuke and exposure of his unbelief, the sign is          of the Thicket from the faces of the wind" (v. 2). The
nevertheless given to the house of David, namely, the        house of David is the monarchy at the very top  - the
wonder of the world in the miraculous conception             king. He was told, Syria rests on Ephraim. (Syria is
and virgin birth of God incarnate (1 O-l 6).                 confederate with Ephraim.  - KJV). Syria rests with
  Ahaz is further rebuked for his ingrained trust in         Israel's treaty made with it. This news not only shook
Assyria, rather than in God. His confidence in man           up Ahaz and his military men, but all the people were
shall be disappointed by the Assyrian invasion of his        filled with dread. Now it would take only a zephyr to
land. Then follow subjection to foreigners, removal          make the whole aspen of Judah to quake. Such events
into captivity, and occupation of the land by the            will cause all men to freeze with fear. Only, there is a
heathen, until the country of Judah falls into decay         difference between the fear of the ungodly, which is
(17-25).                                                     confusion, like a chicken as it runs with its head cut
   "And it came to be in the days of Ahaz, the son of        off, and the fear of the godly, which is conversion
Jotham,  the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, (that)            and turning to God for refuge. The forces of the
Rezin, the king of  Aram (Syria), and Pekah, the son         wicked boast themselves as being as numerous and
                                                             imposing as the trees of the Big Thicket, yet when the
of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up (to) Jerusalem to
war against it, but were not able to war  againstit" (v.     Almighty puffs at them, they shake like reeds in the
1). Judah had been strong under Uzziah and  Jotham,          wind.
but under that horrible wretch Ahaz (2 Chron.  28:3),          II. THE CERTIFICATION OF JEHOVAH (3-9).
it became most evident that he had a passion for             1. In His sending the prophet to meet Ahaz. "Then
everything Assyrian in which the religion of Jehovah         said Jehovah unto Isaiah, Go out now to proclaim to
was banished from the realm. This in itself em-              Ahaz, thou and Shearjashub, thy son, to the end of
boldened Pekah and Rezin to invade Judah and                 the aqueduct of (from) the upper pool at the highway
attack Jerusalem. Pekah, a nobody and a low-born             of the field of the fuller" (the cleaners). (v. 2). Isaiah
man, was a conspirator and a murderer, who, though           probably goes to the same spot where in Hezekiah's
he did manage to reign as long as 20 years, providen-        day his ministers painfully conferred with Rabshakeh
tially, and by divine retribution, was himself assas-        (36:2, 12). Ahaz then, likely, was out to reconnoitre,
sinated by a conspiratorial murderer.                        and, so it happened, did preparatory work for
  Evil increased against Ahaz. Judah had lost its only       Hezekiah and the strategy taken in his day. Isaiah is


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  133


commanded to take with him his son Shearjashub,                  merely referring to him as the son of an obscure
which is significant (8:  18), because, himself bearing a        Remaliah. God scorns the scorners. These two plotted
significant name, meaning "salvation of Jehovah,"                against Judah, to terrorize, cause splits in the nation,
Isaiah and his sons walking about before the people              the divide-and-conquer tactic. That was the counsel
are living prophecies. Bringing this son with -him,              of the wicked. The Lord knows and so informs Ahaz
Isaiah is as much as saying to the nation, "I am                 through Isaiah exactly what they had in mind. But
writing a book entitled, A  Remnant  Shall Return,  the          the counsel of the sovereign God is antithetical to
preface to which you have already read" (6: 13). This            this: It shall never stand; it shall never be! For  His
son is nowhere else explicitly mentioned in Scripture.           counsel shall stand, and He will do all His good
But the name has in it the idea of all prophecy, and             pleasure (46: 10). Revolutionists all over the world,
implicitly runs through this prophecy  (1:8-9;  4:3;             and state powers within this country plot against the
6:13;  10:20-23,  especially v. 21, where the words "a           church, the family, the Christian school. They keep
remnant shall return" appear). Observe, too, how the             singing, "We shall overcome" them. But there is
Lord takes the initiative here (as He always does): it           another song, already written in the secret counsel of
is not Ahaz, running about in all directions (Calvin),           God.
who first cries out in fear to Him, or desires the                                  They who stand
prophet to enquire of the Lord for him, but He first                              against Jehovah God
sends to Ahaz with His own Word.                                                    OY without Him,
  2. In the words He put in the prophet's mouth.                                   Cannot stand long!
"And say thou to him, Be on guard and be calm; fear                Therefore we must be on guard, hold to the word
not, and let not thy heart be weakened from the two              of God, expect its full accomplishment in all its
(butt) ends of these smoking firebrands (wooden                  prophetic scope, commit all our cause and our way to
pokers) at the mountain of anger of Rezin  (Retsin)              the Lord, nor ever be fainthearted because of any
and (KJV has "with")  Aram and the son of Remaliah"              enemies. For without faith it is impossible to please
(v. 4). A clam prophet approaches the shaken Ahaz.               Him, but with faith is the victory which overcomes
These enemies, who lately seemed like meteors,                   the world!
rockets, or boasted fireballs, are now mere fizzles,
butt ends of the wooden pokers of a campfire. So the               4. In the prospect of the destruction of all His and
king is counseled to "be cool" and trust to God's                oui- enemies. "For the head of  Aram (Syria) is
protection. They have done their destructive work.               Damascus, and the head of Damascus (is) Rezin, and
They will never do it again. Their evil designs are at           in sixty and five years Ephraim shall be broken from
an end, their energies depleted, their wrath and                 (being) a people. And the head of Ephraim (is)
anger all burned out. They can do no more, except to             Samaria, and the head of  Samaria  (is) the son of
continue smoking for awhile. They are now no more                Remaliah. If ye will not believe, (it is) because ye  are'
than smoke in the nose  - or in the eyes.                        not established!" (w. 8-9). This was all fulfilled.
                                                                 Neither of these enemies would increase their ter-
  But how is it that a "fear not" of the Bible is                ritories, enjoy further victories, nor be any threat to
directed to a man like Ahaz? Not in the sense of a               Judah. Israel, in 65 years, in the reign of Manasseh,
spiritual "fear not," nor that of the mere external              was despoiled, first by the invasion of Tiglath-pileser
call, without the effectual, saving inner call of God.           (2  K.  16:9), and then by the defeat of  Samaria  and
For Ahaz is no more than commanded not to fear an                the deportation of the ten tribes (2 K.  17:6) and
enemy which has now become about as threatening as               finally by Esarhaddon's replacing the decimated pop-
a smoking piece of firewood. Still, he should learn              ulation of the land with people of another race (2 K.
from this that it is his responsibility, as it is that of all    17:24; Ezra  4:2). Judah did not remain, either, but
men everywhere, including the reprobate, to trust in             sank into the oblivion of the Babylonian captivity.
God alone (AC. 17:3 1).                                          Yet there remained that motto of hope,  Shear-jashub!
   3. In the assurance that the enemy would be                   A remnant shall return! Syria and Rezin represent the
defeated. "Because  Aram (Syria), Ephraim (Israel)               ungodly world.  Samaria  and Pekah represent the
and(or, in) the son of Remaliah, took (gave) evil                apostate church in league with the world, with the
counsel against thee, saying, Let us rise up against             church not only in the world, but the world in the
Judah and terrify her, and let us cause a schism (split)         church. Judah, Jerusalem, and the house of David
in her for us, and cause to king a king in the midst of          represent the true church which shall be gathered,
her, even (or, to wit) the son of  Tabeel.  Thus saith,          defended, preserved, established, and made to stand
Adonai Jehovah, It shall not stand, and it shall not             to the end of the world. Fearful and powerful
be!" (w. 5-7). The Syrian king is not referred to by             enemies rise up today in our own land against the
name, God disdaining to so honor him. Further scorn              kingdom of God. As never before we are being
is shown in omitting the name of the king of Israel,             insidiously threatened. For example, there are laws


134                                           THE STANDARD BEARER
                                                                 -

enabling state prosecutors to take our children from        the antichristian world kingdom of the Beast shall
the custody of our homes and from our parents,              prevail only for a time. Then it shall be destroyed,
charging them with child-abuse or child-neglect for         surprisingly enough, by the heathen forces of the Gog
sending our children to unlicensed (Christian)              and Magog nations.
schools. We are not so aware of this spreading evil as         Finally, the Lord God, through the prophet Isaiah,
we ought to be. We believe the day may soon come            in the words, "If ye will not believe, it is because ye
when our awareness of it will be sharp enough. The          are not, will not and cannot be established," con-
tentacles are tightening. The net is being drawn            demns all false religion and every religion which does
closer. But the plots of the enemy shall not be             not utterly trust in Jehovah and in His virgin born
entirely accomplished because God has decreed that          Son, the incarnate Prince Immanuel.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE



                                    December 15,  19177
Dear Timothy,                                               presbyterian in their church polity. E.g., a con-
  An important part of the work of a minister of the        troversy is at present going on in some presbyterian
gospel is his work in and with the Consistory. In           circles over whether there are three offices in the
order to do this work effectively it is necessary to        church (minister, elder, and deacon), or whether
have an understanding of the special offices which          there are but two (elder and deacon). But there are
Christ has ordained within the Church. I know, of           also churches who have not traditionally been pres-
course, that you studied this whole matter during           byterian in their church polity who are taking a new
your years in the Seminary, especially in your Church       look at this form of church government because they
Polity classes. But there are reasons, I think, why         are dissatisfied with the traditional emphasis on  con-
some discussion of these offices would be worth our         gregationalism with which they have long lived and
while. One reason is that there is a growing  de-           which has proved ineffectual in dealing with problems
emphasis on the office throughout the church world          which arise in the church.
today. This, no doubt, is the result of a lack of             We have a presbyterian form of church govern-
understanding of the true idea of the offices. You          ment. This has a long tradition within our Churches,
have noticed, I am sure, that this is even true within      dating all the way back to the Reformation under
the circle of Reformed Churches.                            Calvin. It is a Scripturally sound form of church
There are many contributing factors to this  de-            government. It has proved its worth over the cen-
emphasis. I suppose we could mention a few. The             turies. It is, really, in the final analysis, the strength
office of deacon is increasingly de-emphasized be-          of our churches. It is extremely important that we
cause of the encroachment of government help in all         understand it so that we may maintain it  - not only
kinds of forms to those who are in need. Another            in form, but also in substance  .and in the actual work
factor, with respect to the office of elder, is the         of the officebearers.
growing hierarchy in the Church. It often happens             I have often thought that Consistories would spend
that the minister in a local congregation is a kind of a    their time to good advantage if they would set aside
pope who pretty much does what he pleases, and the          some time for a discussion at their meetings of the
elders have little courage to stand up against him.         importance of the offices in the church. I know how
When it comes to the office of ministers, the decline       difficult it is for Consistories, especially in busy
in the importance of this office goes along with the        congregations, to find such time. But officebearers
deterioration of preaching, the lack of true pastoral       must be thoroughly acquainted with the nature of
work in the congregation, the emphasis on liturgy,          their offices if they are going to carry on the duties of
and such like things. All these things, and many more,      their offices faithfully and maintain the strength of
have led to a serious decline in the importance of the      their offices in the church.
offices in the Church.                                        It is not my purpose in these letters to go over
  Another reason why this question of the offices is        again what you yourself learned while in Seminary. I
important is that there are serious questions being         do not think this is necessary. But I am hoping that
asked in some circles concerning the nature and'work        what we will be discussing will be of advantage to
of the offices. Sometimes these questions are being         you; and if you think these letters to be of any value
asked within churches who have traditionally been           for your fellow consistory members, you may give


                                               THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  135
                                                -       -                          - _

them to your elders and deacons to read. I do want to         posterity) spoke the word of Satan (which is the lie),
discuss some theoretical aspects of the offices in the        dedicated himself and all he did to the service of sin,
church which we had no time to explore while we               and ruled on Satan's behalf. This was the terrible
were in Seminary together. I think that an explora-           implication of the fall as far as Adam's office was
tion of some of these matters could lead to a better          concerned. And so it remains in the world throughout
understanding of the office and the work God re-              all time.
quires of us in it. And, after examining some of these          If we are to put the offices which are present today
more theoretical questions, I want to discuss some            in the church. in their proper perspective, we must
more practical matters which pertain to the exercise          remember, however, that God's purpose with respect
of the office. Again, please respond to these letters,        to this world was not attained in the first Adam. God
and give me the benefit of your thoughts on these             never intended that it should be. God's purpose was
important subjects.                                           to be fully realized only in Christ, the second Adam.
  I am of the opinion that, if we are to understand           This too we will come to presently.
the nature of our offices, it is important that we go           For the moment, however, the point that needs to
back first of all to the Old Testament and take a             be emphasized is this: when, with the fall, God began
quick look at the offices as they were exercised in the       the work of salvation, he also restored the office to
times of types and shadows.                                   its proper place.  But because Christ was not to come
  You recall from your Dogmatics that Adam was                for some four thousand years, and because the church
already created an officebearer in the garden. He was,        was not to be established in its present form until
in God's house, a prophet, a priest, and a king. When         Christ came, God gave to the re-establishment of the
Adam fell, he did not lose this office as such. Because       office a typical and figurative form. This is the
he remained a rational and moral creature, he  re-            situation which we find in the Old Dispensation.
tained the ability to be prophet, priest, and king. But          But it must not escape our attention that the care
the fall, which brought about his total spiritual ruin,       with which God re-established the offices in the Old
made him a prophet, priest, and king in the service of        Dispensation speaks of the importance God Himself
Satan.                                                        gives to these offices. We can, in other words, learn a
  Now, it is important to remember that, underlying           lot about our offices from what took place in the Old
this three-fold office, was the deeper relationship in        Dispensation. I want, therefore, to discuss this with
which Adam stood to God. Adam did not really hold             you first of all.
three offices; he held only one. That one office was             There are three major ways in the Old Dispensation
this: friend-servant of God. He was God's friend              in which God re-established the office in the Old
because he lived in covenant fellowship with God. He          Dispensation. The first way was through the patri-
was servant because he represented God's cause in the         archs. From the time of the fall to the establishment
world and functioned in his office in the service of          of the nation of Israel as the congregation of Jehovah,
God. The prophetic, priestly, and kingly functions of         the offices were concentrated in one person. Adam
Adam were only three aspects of the one deeper                (after the fall),  Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
relation in which he stood to God. In a way we can            and all the others who stood in the line of the
say, I think, that this three-fold aspect of the one          covenant were themselves friend-servants of God and
office of friend-servant was  .exhaustive  of Adam's          held all three of the offices of prophet, priest, and
responsibilities in the garden where God put him. As          king. This was unique. It did not happen again in the
prophet he was called to speak the Word of God; as            Old Testament.
priest he was called to dedicate himself and all he
possessed to God; as king he was called to rule over             The second way in which God re-established the
all God's house in God's name. This exhausts his              office in the dispensation of shadows was through
responsibilities. All his work can be subsumed under          that strange and lonely figure of Melchisedec who
these three aspects of his one office of friend-servant.      was priest of the Most High God and King of Salem.
                                                              He held an office superior to that of Abraham even,
  I want to emphasize, therefore, that at the bottom          and superior to any officebearer in the whole nation
of Adam's official calling was a  covenaut   relationship.    of Israel. Christ is a priest forever after the order of
While I cannot go into detail on this whole matter            Melchisedec, not after the order of Aaron. (See Gen.
now, this idea of the covenant is carried through in          14: 18-20, Psalm  11@4, Hebrews 5  & 7.)
every aspect of the functioning of the offices. We
shall have to return to this later.                              Now I do not, at this point, want to say too much
                                                              about all this. I am interested now in the third way in
  When Adam fell, in fact he became a friend-servant          which God re-established the office  - in the nation of
of the devil. The three different aspects of this one         Israel. During the years of Israel's life as a nation, the
office were still exercised. But now Adam (and his            offices were to a certain extent, separated. There


136                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



were prophets; there were priests; and there were            the end of our space and time, and it is better- to
kings. A brief examination of this truth will give us        discuss the whole matter  in'one letter, rather than to
some idea of what the offices were all about, and will       make only a beginning now.
show us some significant features of these offices as          So I bid you farewell for the present.
they relate to the New Dispensation.                                                       Fraternally,
  I think it best, however, if we wait with beginning                                      H. Hanko
this discussion until our next letter. We are almost at

TAKING HEED TO DOCTRINE




            A Reformed Look at Pentecostalism
                                                Rev. David Engelsma

  In view of Pentecostalism's criticism of the life, not     2:9, 10). To be sure,, the Christian life is a life of
only of the lax, unfaithful, and disobedient  church-        growth, but that growth is a growing up  into Christ,
member, but also of the faithful Reformed believer           not a going beyond Christ: "That we . . . may grow
(who has not received  Pent.`s  baptism with the Spirit)     up into him in all things, which is the head, even
and in view of its promise to transport people into          Christ" (Ephesians 4: 14, 15). Just as is the case with
a higher level of Christian life and experience, we ask:     the physical growth to maturity, this spiritual growth
What is the Christian life and experience? What is the       is a gradual, often imperceptible development, not an
"normal Christian life"?                                     instantaneous, overnight transformation. It is life-
  In answering this question, we pay no attention to         long. And it takes place by the Word and prayer.
the claims and testimonies of men and women;                   The Christian life is: Christ alone and Scripture
indeed, we shut our ears to all that clamor. The norm        alone. One who objects that this leaves the Spirit out
for Christian life and experience is not the neighbor's      is mistaken, for this is how the Spirit works  - He
testimony of her wonderful power and ecstatic feel-          gives us Christ in the truth of the Word.
ing, but Holy Scripture. Thus, we let God be true,             The Christian life is a life of walking in the Spirit
and every man  - and  w.oman  - a liar. The failure to       Whom we all received when we were born again, of
let Scripture, the reliable Word of God, be the norm         which rebirth and reception of the Spirit our baptism
for the Christian life, and the dependency upon the          is a sign and seal. The believer does not look for, or
thoroughly unreliable words of men and women is              seek, or tarry for a second baptism, whether this is
the cause of no end of doubt and fear, whether one is        viewed as a second work of grace  - the typical Pent.
spiritually what he, or she, ought to be and even            view  - or as a flowing out of one's spirit into all of
whether one is a regenerated child of God at all. This       one's life  - the view of such  Pentecostals as Dennis
gives Pent. the opening it wants. For knowledge of           Bennett. Rather, the child of God strives all of his life
the Christian life also, "To the law and to the              to walk in the Spirit Who was given him when he was
testimony," shunning the "wizards that peep, and             saved. This is the apostle's instruction concerning the
that mutter" (Isaiah 8 : 19, 20).                            Christian life in Galatians 5. There were problems in
  According to Scripture, the Christian life is a life       Galatia, serious problems regarding the Christian life.
that finds its fulness in Jesus Christ, as this Christ is    There was the threat of the saints' biting and devouring
revealed in the Word. It will not go beyond Christ; it       each other  - a pathetic lack of love (vss. 13-15).
will have nothing apart from Christ or in addition to        There were the real temptations of the flesh and its
Christ  - not circumcision, not new revelations, not a       lusts: adultery; idolatry; strife; drunkenness; and the
higher knowledge, not some spirit. The reason is that        like (vss. 19-21). There were evidences of vain glory,
the Christian knows, and has found by experience,            of provocation of one another, and of envying one
that Christ is a complete Savior. In Christ dwelleth all     another (vs. 26). But the solution was not that they
the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and the Christian         seek a new baptism. On the contrary, they must  walk
is complete in Him, i.e., filled up in Him (Colossians       in that Holy Spirit in Whom they lived: "This I say


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   137


then,  .Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the        Christian life as regards one's personal life, but it is
lust of the flesh" (vs. 16); "If we live in the Spirit, let    also the activity of the Christian life in the family and
us also walk in the Spirit" (vs. 25).                          in the congregation.
  The Christian life is active. The activity of the              This is a painful, bitter struggle.
Christian life is, first, a battle, a fierce, unrelenting,       For this reason, the Christian can be enticed by the
life-long battle. The battle-ground is oneself. The foe        sweet promise that suddenly the battle is over. A
is sin. Pent. knows nothing of this battle; the Pent.          pastor can be tempted similarly by such a promise for
has already won the victory in his baptism with the            the congregation. But with the shield of Scripture, he
Spirit. Not only do you hear little or nothing of the          can  - and must  - resist the temptation.
forgiveness of sins in Pent., but you also hear little or
nothing of the daily struggle of the saint against               Do you find this bitter struggle against sin in
indwelling sin. In fact, it is not unheard of that the         yourself?
Pent. preacher will ridicule those who are always                Do not despair!
groaning over their sins, those, that is to say, whose           Do not think that you are not saved, or that you
testimony all their lives is, "0 wretched man that I           are insufficiently saved!
am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" (Romans  7:24). Nothing more clearly than                This is it: the "normal Christian life"!
this exposes Pent. as a religion totally alien to the            The result is that we long ardently and wait, not
Reformed faith. A Reformed Pent. is an im-                     for a second work of grace, but for the second
possibility, a contradiction in terms. A Pent. cannot          coming of Jesus Christ: "Come, Lord Jesus; come
confess the first part of the Heidelberg Catechism. At         quickly."
best, he can only say that he  used  to know the misery
of sin, both guilt and depravity. Ignorant of his                The activity of the Christian life, secondly, is the
misery, neither can he know redemption or the living           doing of good works. But it is not the production of
gratitude that wells up daily from a forgiven heart.           spectacular deeds and glamorous accomplishments, as
                                                               Pent. would have us believe. Rather, it is the doing of
  Scripture, however, presents the Christian life as a         unnoticed, insignificant works. It is the activity of
striving against indwelling sin. This is the teaching of       sanctification of life, walking not after the flesh, but
Galatians 5 : 17 : "For the flesh lusteth against the          after the Spirit: not  practising adultery, fornication,
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are        uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,
contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do            hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
the things that ye would."                                     heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,
  This is the powerful doctrine of Romans 7. The               and such like (Galatians 5: 19-21); but living in love,
Christian man or woman, is carnal, sold under sin; the         joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
apostle Paul at the very end of his life was carnal, sold      meekness, temperance, and the like (Galatians  5:22,
under sin (vs. 14). He was this, not because he was            23).
unregenerated, not because Christ had not baptized               It is the activity of the unnoticed works of keeping
him with the Holy Spirit and fire, not because sin             the law of God: right worship of God; confessing the
reigned in his life, not because Paul was a careless           truth; keeping the Sabbath; obedience of parents and
Christian, but because, even though he was born                all in authority; faithfulness to wife or husband;
again, evil was present with him  - he retained his            Godly rearing of children; diligent labor at one's
sinful, totally depraved flesh. As a new man in Christ         earthly vocation; payment to Caesar of his taxes;
- and we may safely suppose, as one of the holiest of          speaking well of one's neighbor, especially the
saints, he delighted in the law of God after the inward        brother in the church; and contentment with one's
man (vs. 22); had a hatred of sin (vs. 15); and                lot, without coveting.
possessed a will to do the good (vs. 18). But such was
the power of sin in him, as long as he lived, that               In short, the activity of the Christian life is: Love!
"the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I          Love the Lord your God! And love your neighbor as
would not, that I do" (vs. 19). Therefore, the apostle         yourself!
- and every Christian  - knows his misery; he ex-                As you do this, do not blow a trumpet before your
presses it in the anguished cry, "0 wretched man that          piety; do it secretly, so that God will reward you.
I am"  - the New Testament equivalent of the "Out                This is possible by the grace of God, but, even
of the depths" of Psalm 130. Yet, he neither gives up          then, sin will defile our best works, so that there is
in the spiritual battle, nor is he ever without the solace     only a small beginning of the new obedience and so
of the Savior, Jesus Christ his Lord. Verse 23 insists         that there is constant need of pardon.
on the warfare; verse 25, on the comfort of Christ.              But does not the Christian life have its experience?
   Not only is this warfare with sin the activity of the         As an alternative or addition to faith, experience


138                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


must be renounced, root and branch. Christ does not           tified by faith, we have peace with God through
call us to experience, or feel, but to believe. The way       our Lord Jesus Christ . . . and rejoice in hope of the
of salvation is faith, not feeling; by faith we are saved,    glory of God" (Romans 5 :  1, 2).
not by experience.                                              The confession of the Reformed Church and the
  Nevertheless, faith has its experience; there is a          Reformed believer is radically different from that of
genuine experience in the Christian life. It is three-        Pent. Our confession is not that we are powerful,
fold: I know the greatness of my sins and misery; I           capable of doing great things, far advanced in might
know my gracious redemption in Jesus the Christ;              and glory. This is the boast of Pent., always advertis-
and I know thankfulness for this redemption.                  ing itself in lofty terms, always exalting its life, its
  Do you have this experience? Then, you have the             power, its revelations, and its accomplishments. The
normal Christian experience. This is all there is.            Reformed Church and the Reformed believer are
Whoever lusts for more is an ingrate and aggravates           humble, confessing their sins, their weaknesses, and
God; he says to God Who gives him Christ and His              their unworthiness. Rather than proclaiming herself,
fulness, "But isn't there something more, something           the Reformed Church glories in and confesses Jesus
better?"                                                      Christ. Hers is the confession of the Church in all
  To put it differently, faith has the peace and joy          ages: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the
that come from justification. "Therefore being jus-           cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

THE DAY OF SHADOWS



                                                I Will Go
                                                  Rev. John A. Heys

  When one of our young people begins to speak                above, marry "in the Lord." And that means that the
about marrying one whom he or she has known for               parents give no approval of marriage for any other
only a few months, we frown and speak our dis-                kind of marriage and warn their sons and daughters
approval. We counsel them to wait and not to rush             against even thinking of marrying any but those who
into that which is for life.                                  are in the Lord and who manifest this by works of
                                                              faith. It means that the one uniting in the bonds of
  We do not brush aside the words of Paul in                  matrimony must be convinced that he is serving to
Romans 7: 1, 2: "Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak
to them that know the law,) how that the law hath             join together two who marry in the Lord. And
dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the             therefore our young people ought not bypass him and
woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to             go to the Justice of the Peace who has no such
her husband as long as he liveth; but if the husband          scruples and will marry for the fee he might get or
be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband."          demands for it. They should want the counsel of one
Nor do we tear out of our Bible or obliterate the             who cares for their souls.
words of the same apostle in I Corinthians  7:39:
"The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband            All this causes us to stand amazed when we read of
liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to      the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac took
be married to whom she will; only in the Lord."               Rebekah the day he first saw her! Rebekah, when
                                                              asked if she would marry Isaac, said, "I will go." And,
  The "I do" spoken then in the marriage ceremony             mind you, she said this `less than twenty four hours
we understand to mean, "I promise to do this until I          after being presented with the thought of marrying
die, or the God, before Whose face I make this vow,           Isaac, and after hearing for the first time that there
takes my husband (wife) away from me by death."               was an Isaac in the world whom she could marry. She
And for that reason we warn against getting into              was not even courted by him. His father's servant, an
situations and against establishing relationships out of      aged man whom she never saw before, did the
which our young people cannot extricate themselves.           courting, if you can call it that. And, if you please,
  Our chief concern as covenant parents and faithful          not much more than twelve hours had passed  - if
officebearers in the church of God is that our                that much  - from the moment that the idea of
covenant seed, as Paul states in the verse quoted             marrying Isaac had been made known to her to the


                                             THE STANDARD BEARER                                                139


moment that she gave her unequivocal answer, "I will       already loves him. She goes because she loves God
go."                                                       and has learned to love Him more richly and deeply
  We read in Genesis 24: 11 that at eventide, when         because. of the "sermon" she heard this servant of
the day was well spent, this servant of Abraham sat        Abraham "preach" in her father's house.
down by a well and waited for a damsel to come and           But before we get into this, let us also consider the
give him drink and his camels. A beautiful young           fact that even if she loved Isaac with all her heart,
virgin by the name of Rebekah came first and did           even if this was the only opportunity for marriage she
exactly what he had prayed to God the woman of His         could expect, even if it did present a solution to the
choice would do. They went home. The servant made          social-security-question of that day (when an un-
known his presence in that land as being for the           married woman had it hard financially) it was a costly
purpose of getting a wife for his master Abraham's         proposition. It might seem too costly for one as kind
son. Then we read in verse 54 that this servant and his    and considerate as Rebekah, who did not hesitate to
men tarried there all night and rose up in the morning'    draw all that water even for his camels with their vast
- around twelve hours after meeting Rebekah at the         capacity to take in water. "I will go" means that she
well  - and spoke those startling words, "Send me          will leave father, mother, brother, and all her kin for
away that I may go to my master." All understood           good, as far as this life is concerned. There will be no
that this meant, "Send me  with Rebekah  to my             going home for Thanksgiving Day or for the Christ-
master." We likewise can understand the words of           mas-New Years Day week of celebration between
Rebekah's brother and mother, "Let the damsel abide        families. There will be no loading the kids into the
with us a few days, at the least ten; after that she       camper or trailer and going back for a week or two in
shall go." Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters,      the summer. There will be no swift jet flight to be
put yourselves in their places. And, if you can, put       with a dying loved one back in  Haran when the phone
yourself in Rebekah's place; and examine your soul as      call or telegram reports a critical condition as far as
to whether you would say (and indeed still today do        the health of a loved one is concerned. There will be
say), "I will go."                                         no phone call, no telegram, not even mail service. I
  Before we give answer let us consider once what it       will go, she said, and leave all this behind  without any
means and costs. This was not the only offer of            assurance of ever seeing any  of  you again on this
marriage that Rebekah could expect. She had not            earth!
been passed by in her -own land by its young men.            She was aware of the difficult, wearisome journey.
She was not a  choosey, fickle woman whose tastes          It is not a first' class ticket on a modern jet with
were so finely drawn and exacting that she rejected        luxurious dining in the sky, attended by smiling
this one and that one and played the field so that         stewardesses, who, whether they mean it or not, are
now, because all those of her own age in her own land      paid to make you feel comfortable and happy. She
were already married, she was left behind. She             goes with  men,  men she had seen and known less than
showed at the well that she was not a woman with a         twenty four hours! She rides on a camel through hot,
hard, troublesome nature with whom it was hard to          dusty country over hill and mountain. And there will
get along, so that, in spite of her beauty  - which we     be no Holiday Inn to stay in at night and get a bit
may believe from the account was in its degree so          refreshed in a heated pool, on posturepedic mat-
great that she stood out among all the young women         tresses in an air-conditioned room. It will be a hard,
in the area  - she was passed by for the hope of a         wearisome trip.
more peaceful and comfortable life. It was not a case        Should not her parents warn her against going with
with her that she should grab this "chance" to have a      strangers? Is it really safe to travel that way, even
meal ticket for life, a home and social security. The.     though she has a few maids with her? Was not that
Word of God gives not the slightest suggestion even of     exactly the way a 
anything like that, but by mentioning her beauty                                 man  does things? Abraham, you
                                                           meant well, but you were so crude, so unfeeling, so
indicates that she had more opportunities for mar-         lacking in the finer touches of life. Why did you not
riage than the rest of the young women in the land.        send a woman servant along with this eldest servant?
She was attractive. And that means that she attracted      You do not go for a wife for your son like you go for
young men to her.                                          an ox or another camel or two. Would you blame
  Then, too, she says, "I will go and be the wife of a     Rebekah if she had said, "I will not go under these
husband who has shown an interest in me." It could         conditions, and I am surprised that you, my brother,
not be the personality of Isaac that attracted her. She    and you, my mother, dare even to suggest such a
could not and did not say, "I will go because there        thing"? On second thought she could have said,
are such romantic overtones in this thing you suggest,     "Since you have so little feeling for me, and ap-
Abraham's servant." It is a simple, "I will go." She       parently want to get rid of me, I might just as well
goes to  learn to  love this man and not because she       go!"


140                                           THE STANDARD BEARER



  No, none of this is true. It would have been and we         "`I will go" is then the response that God wrought
would have a right to raise all these arguments and         in her soul to His call to go. "I will go" is the life of
objections if it were not for that one important fact       Christ that God had given her, speaking what He
that the Word of God had been preached. And were it         always spoke. It is the speech of obedience before
not for the fact that Rebekah is responding to that         God. It is the speech of a firm conviction but also of
Word preached. There are covenant considerations            resolute purpose. "I will go" is equal to, "Let's go in
here that must not be overlooked. It makes a nice           obedience to God."
story. It makes for interesting reading. But we must          Yes, Rebekah, you are safe to go with these men.
also hear the Word of God that Rebekah heard.               And you need have no fear of this man whom you
  There was carnality here as well.  Laban, Rebekah's       never saw but whose faith you know and whose God
brother, saw the gold, the wealth, and wanted the           you also serve. If you love God  - and you do  - and
servant to stay so he could get more of it. But this did    he loves God as you have heard, and His God and
not move Rebekah. She was a believing child of God,         yours has arranged all these things so wonderfully,
as is evident somewhat later when she expressed to          you can, but also must, say, "I will go." And your
Isaac her grief over her son Esau's marrying women of       sacrifices and hardships, your seeking first the king-
the Hittites. And her "I will go" is an answer to a call    dom of God and its righteousness will not be forgot-
she heard from God Who called and said, "Go to              ten. You will serve in the coming of the Messiah, but
Isaac and become a mother in Israel." And although          you will also receive the blessings of His coming. His
Rebekah could not understand this as we do today it         life is in you; and it is because He said to the Father,
meant, "Go and serve to bring forth the promised            "I will go," and went even to the cross and the bottom
Seed which is Christ."                                      of hell for you that you could receive the grace to
  Laban and Rebekah's mother blessed her with               speak your unequivocal and blessed, "I will go."
the prayer that  she  would be the mother "of thou-           And  you,`my reader, will you go? You who have so
sands of millions." They understood, and Rebekah            much more revelation and hear God's Word preached
understood, that to go to be the wife of Isaac she was      so much more clearly in the details of the coming of
going to be the mother of his children, that marriage       His Son in our flesh, will you go and be His bride?
has to do with bringing forth children. And when the        Will you forsake the world and every former friend to
servant of Abraham told how God had prospered his           be dedicated and consecrated unto Him? He calls to
way she heard the Word of God in regard to His              His own. His own say, "I will go." And they do so
covenant, and proof of the fact that Isaac's God was        because He draws them with irresistible power and
her God and that He is a covenant God Who fulfills          with cords of tender love. In His great love for us He
all His promises and Works in wondrous ways to bless        makes us love Him. John says it so beautifully in I
His Church.                                                 John 4: 19: "We love Him because He first loved us."

ALL AROUND US



                                           "Happy Halloween"
                                                Rev. G. Van Baren


  The time for Halloween celebration is long gone  by       appearing  in Christianity Today,  Oct. 21, 1977, by
now. Yet something came to my attention which may           John W. Howe. Among other things, he writes about
be instructive and also serve as warning with respect       the origin of Halloween:
to our own observance of this day. We have come to                   . . . It's such an extraordinary time. We do some
accept "halloween" as a legitimate fun day for our              bizarre things on Halloween, don't we? Dressing up as
children. "Trick or treat" is represented as  an in-            spooks, goblins, and witches. Calling on people and
nocent method of obtaining many goodies on this                 demanding goodies. I wonder if we know why we do
day. Some concern has been expressed within cities              these things. Why do we go along with it? Because it's
because of harmful items inserted into the food or              tradition? That isn't enough of a reason.
candy. But little concern is heard about the very                    Let me put it this way. The Passover celebration in
pagan origin of this celebration. Perhaps, then, we as          a Jewish home begins when the youngest son asks his
parents ought to give careful thought to an article             father, "Daddy, why is this night different from all


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                                       141


   other nights?" Then the father tells him of the                goes back to Rome. The Roman Pantheon was built
   mighty works of God surrounding the Exodus of                  by the Emperor Hadrian in about A.D. 100 as a
   Israel from Egypt. But what would you say if your              temple to the goddess Cybele' and various other
   son or daughter were to ask about Halloween, `Why              Roman deities. It became a principal place of worship
   is this night different from all other nights?" How            where Roman pagans prayed for their dead. Then,
   would you explain the shenanigans of Halloween?                Rome was sacked, the barbarians came in, and they
                                                                  took over the Pantheon, along with everything else.
       Most people know that the word itself comes from           After several centuries rt fell into disrepair. In A.D.
    All Hallows Eve, the evening before All Hallows.              607, it was recaptured by the Emperor Phocas and he
    Therefore it has something to do with All Saints and          turned it over as a gift to Pope Boniface IV.
   the Christian Church. But what?                                   Boniface reconsecrated it to the Virgin Mary.
       It comes as quite a surprise to discover that this         This was part of a general policy that wherever pagan
    celebration predates the Christian Church by several          celebrations were well established, they would be
    centuries. In fact, it goes back to a practice of the         continued and incorporated into Christian worship.
   .ancient Druids in Britain, France, Germany, and the           (Only the names were changed to protect the in-
    Celtic countries, who lived hundreds of years before          nocent.) . . . Now the Roman Catholics were gather-
    Christ was born. This celebration honored one of              ing to pray to the goddess Mary for their dead. And
    their deities, Samhain, Lord of the dead. Samhain             they did so in the same temples.
    called together all the wicked souls who had died
   within the past twelve months and had been con-                   For two centuries the major. celebration in the
    demned to inhabit the bodies of animals. The date for         Pantheon took place in May and was called "All
    this celebration was the last day of October, the eve         Saints Day." Then in A.D. 834 it was deliberately-
    of the Celtic new year. It was a time of falling leaves       moved to the first of November. Why? To coincide
    and general seasonal decay, and it seemed appropriate         with those ancient Druidic and pagan practices that
   to celebrate death. That's what it was - a celebration         had been going on for centuries. The Church wanted
    of death. It honored the god of the dead and the              to accommodate the recently conquered German
   wicked spirits of the dead. The Druids believed that           Saxons and the Norsemen of Scandinavia; it baptized
    on this particular night the souls of the dead returned       yet another celebration.
   to their former homes to be entertained by the living.            That's the wedding `of All Saints `Day to Hallow-
    If acceptable food and shelter were not  .provided            een. `Thoroughly, utterly, totally pagan: the worship
   these evil spirits would cast spells, cause havoc and          of the dead, the placating of evil spirits, the honoring
    terror, and haunt and torment the living: They de-            of the Lord of the Dead, the transferring to Mary of
   manded to be placated. Look closely. Here is the               pagan esteem that was previously given to Cybele'.
   beginning of "trick-or-treat." Evil spirits demanding a        Where does this leave us?
   "treat." If they didn't get it, you got a "trick."
       James Napier writing in Folklore says that these          So, when your children ask, "Dad, why do we
    beliefs and practices were not confined to northern        celebrate Halloween?", you'll know.  You. can tell
    Britain, but were widespread and - with some varia-        them that we are simply joining with all of the
    tions  - practiced the world over by pagan                 idolaters of old to commemorate heathen fantasies in
   peoples. . . .                                              order to have some "innocent" fun. Or perhaps we
       But how did all this become associated with             ought just to keep silent  - and allow our children to
    Christianity? There's another part of the story that       have their fun while they are still young?

                                        "Liturgical Prizes or Surprises"

  The  &look  of Nov. 1977, contains  an article with            The writer continues by criticizing the new mar-
the above title by Rev. Jelle Tuininga. Once more, the
                        __ - _-~ ---.                          riage form recently presented to the churches. The
author decries  thk proliferation of new forms within          point made is very valid and suggests the un-reformed
the Christian Reformed Church. At one point the                and unscriptural approach taken.
author states:                                                       Look only at the fact that there is no reference at
       I wish I could trust the Liturgical Committee itself        all to the husband being the head-of the wife, and
   on this score (presenting Reformed theology in the             thus the vows spoken by both bride and groom are'
   new liturgies - G.V.B.). Rather, I see evidence that            completely identical. In the Preface to the proposed
   the Committee itself at times tends (intentionally or          form the Committee says that "there should be a
   unintentionally) to undermine our Reformed theol-              clear and concise statement on what the Bible teaches
    ogy in some of the newer proposed forms. Indeed, in            about the meaning and purpose of marriage. But here
   my worst moments I ask, after the fashion of                    a very important part of that teaching is simply
    Nathanael, Can anything Reformed come from the                ignored. And in the face of a lot of unbiblical ideas
    Liturgical Committee?"                                        nowadays as propagated by the Women's Liberation


142                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER


       movement, such an omission is so much the more                    "mutuality" in subjection to each other. That con-
       inexcusable. It does not show a great deal of biblical            cept itself is biblical enough, and Paul mentions it in
       sensitivity to the spirit of the age. And surely that is          Ephesians 5:21. But right after that he admonishes
       what we may expect of the church.                                 wives to be subject to their husbands, and not the
          Without a doubt this omission is itself influenced             other way around. Mutual subjection holds for par-
       by the Women's Lib movement. But instead of                       ents and children too, and for servants and masters
       capitulating to the secular spirit of the age, we ought           also. But that does not do away with the unique role
       to throw up a bulwark against it.                                 or function that each party has to the other. One
          It won't do to say that in the past the headship               cannot say that because we all must be subject to one
       role was often misinterpreted or misused. That may                another, children need not obey their parents. Nor
       be true, but to fall into the opposite error is equally           does it follow that therefore wives need not be
       bad. It won't do either to stress the concept of                  subject to their husbands. . . .

                                                         "Homiletic decay"
  One hears often today that the preaching as done                       thorough, theologically guided exegesis. Rather, such
in the past by notable ministers is not acceptable                       a sermon often displays shallowness, weakness, and
today. It does not hold the young. One must present                      little power to edify.
something striking and different if we are to hold the                      Secondly, the sermons that we hear are often
church together. It is said that the young demand this                   moralistic. Many of us are familiar with this
and will not even listen to "old fashioned" preaching.                   phenomenon, but lately a new version is being ex-
A striking comment is made by an associate editor of                     pounded from some of our pulpits. It can be appro-
Chimes,  the student newspaper of Calvin College. In                     priately christened "Enlightened Moralism." People
the issue of Oct. 21, 1977 we read this:.                                of tbis persuasion correctly stress all of the concerns
          During the last few decades, there has been a                  our churches have just recently become aware of -
       declining emphasis on theology among the members                  industrialism, technocracy, world hunger, ecology
       of the Christian Reformed Church. Whereas many of                 and the problems of the Third World. However, all too
       our grandfathers could defend the articles of the faith           often action in these areas is demanded without
       with skill and conviction, many of us do not even                 making any mention of the grace of God and the
       `seem to care whether or not the Canons of Dordt or               redemptive power of Christ, through which such
       the Belgic Confession actually represent our faith.               action `is made possible. Such sermons lose their
       Some might argue that such a decreasing emphasis `on              Christ-centeredness; without Christ, our efforts, no
       theological matters minimizes conflict and eliminates             matter how enlightened, are fruitless.
       meaningless abstraction. Nevertheless, it is evident
       that this state of affairs has its harmful effects as well.          It seems likely that instances of the above two
       The quality of the sermons that we often hear in the              cases are not the result of faithlessness, but rather of
       Christian Reformed churches bears witness to this                 unclear theological thinking. Moreover, many more
       fact. For example, many sermons display the follow-               instances can be found in which our collective lack of
       ing characteristics,                                              interest in theological matters is evident. We should
                                                                         attempt to change this state of affairs. For surely, if
          First, sermons often seem to have been produced                we do not continuously strive to deepen our insight
       in an unorthodox fashion. A minister is inspired by               into the Word of God, both our proclamation and our
       an interesting idea. After developing this idea some-             action will suffer.
       what, he searches the scriptures for an appropriate
       text. This text is then bent and twisted until it more           The brother is not far from the old and tried
       or less fits the already formulated message. No careful        position of the Reformers. His comments in  Chimes
       exegesis is undertaken.                                        stand out as an oasis in the midst of a desert. May
          A sermon of this sort simply does not have the              God use such remarks to remind many others of our
       power and authority of a sermon founded on a                   old Reformed heritage!


              Wishing You and Yours
                                     a Blessed Christmas.


                                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                               143



                              NOTICE!!!!                                                      EXPRESSION OF SYMPATHY
     Classis East will meet in regular session on Wednesday, January 11,        The entire congregation of the Pella Protestant Reformed Church
  1978, at Southeast Church. Material to be treated in this session must     was deeply saddened on November 17, 1977, by the sudden death of
  be in the hands of the Stated Clerk no later than ten days prior to the    their beloved brother and deacon, FRANK VANDER WIEL. They here-
 convening of the session.                                                   by express their sympathy with their dear sister, Catherine Vander Wiel,
                                   Jon J. Huisken                            wife of the deceased brother. We rejoice with our sister in the hope of
                                    Stated Clerk                             the blessed resurrection of her husband and of all the saints. May the
                                                                              Lord Himself pour the balm of His love in her heart, causing her to
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       look for the removal of all tears from the eyes of all the saints. (Rev.
                                                                             7:17).
     The Ladies Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church
hereby expresses its sincere sympathy to our dear member, Mrs. Irene                                            Rev. George Lubbers, Pastor
  Holstege, in the death of her husband, MR. BEN HOLSTEGE, whom                                                 Elder B. Menninga, Clerk
 the Lord called home November 20, 1977, at the age of 54 years. We
 also extend our sympathy to his sister, Mrs. Arnold  Haveman.

     May our God supply them with abundant peace, knowing that He                             EXPRESSION OF SYMPATHY
 doeth all things well.
                                                                                 The Pella Bible Class expresses sincere and heartfelt sympathy with
                                    Rev. G. Van  Baren, Pres.                 their fellowmember, Catherine Vander Wiel in the recent sudden death
                                    Mrs.. Hib Kuiper, Sec'y.                  of her dear husband
                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                               FRANK'VANDER  WIEL
     The Men's Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church             Our prayer to the God of all comfort is that He sustain her by his
 extends its sincerest sympathy to two of its members, Mr. Gerrit             grace which is ever sufficient, in the knowledge that God shall also
  Holstege and Mr. Arnold  Haveman' in the loss of their brother and          bring her husband from the grave with Jesus in His coming. I Thes.
 brother-in-law, MR. BEN HOLSTEGE.                                            4:13-l%

     May the God of all grace be their only comfort in this bereavement.         May the resurrection of Christ be for her the sure pledge of the
                                                                              resurrection of all His redeemed ones.
                                    Rev. C. Hanko, President
                                    G. Bouwkamp, Secretary                                                      Bernie Menninga, Vice-President





                                               FAITH PROTESTANT
                                             REFORMEDCHURC
                                                                                         c           H
                                                                  Jenison, Michigan
                                  Offering $50,000.00 in notes to finance the construction
                                                                   of our sanctuary.
                                                                  loyears-8%
                                    (Issued in multiples of $500.00; interest semi-annually)


        For further information call (616) 669-5247 or (616) 457-3258, or write Andrew Brummel,
        2381 Oak Hollow Drive, Jenison, Michigan 49428. We ask that you give this your prayerful
        consideration.





                                     News From Our Churches
     This is the time of year when churches schedule                          the normal business before' the meeting, a pastor elect
  their annual congregational meetings to elect office                        was chosen. From a trio of Rev. David Engelsma,
  bearers, approve a budget for the coming year, and                          Rev. Meindert Joostens, and Rev. James Slopsema,
  address various other issues put before the meeting by                      Rev. Engelsma was extended a call to "come over and
  the consistory. First Church in Grand Rapids met in                         help us."
  their annual meeting on November 28. In addition to                            Rev. and Mrs. Harbach report that all legal matters


THE STANDARD BEARER                                                                          S E C O N D   C L A S S
            P.O. Box 6064                  --___-
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49506                                                                POSTAGE PAID AT
                                                                                         GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.





144                                           THE STANDARD BEARER




pertaining' to their relation to the Canadian govern-        stakes denoting the size of the building. You will also
ment have been resolved. A work permit was not               notice the parking lot layout. We will try to keep you
required. Rev. Harbach has the freedom to labor in           informed of the progress on the building." Two weeks
religious duties for up to a year with the possibility of    later, on November 27, the following appeared under
extension. The Harbachs do like to hear from our             the same caption, "Have you stopped out to the site?
people. Their address is: 55 Bay St.  # 325, Victoria,       Are the walls up yet? Are they ready to lay blocks?
B.C., Canada  V9A  6X9. Rev. Harbach is laboring as          The answers to these and many other questions will
home missionary from our churches in Victoria. Rev.          be answered when you drive out to  Ivanrest Ave. and
Harbach sent in a copy of a little paper he is presently     have a look around." Since the undersigned was not
publishing as' part of his work called the  Calvinist        able to drive out and `take -a look around,' these
Contender.  Rev. Harbach addresses a number of               questions will have to remain unanswered until he
.issues in the Reformed church world in a rather clear,      does or the answers appear in the next bulletin.
direct way. Such. things are covered as the covenant,           Recently, a rather large packet of bulletins arrived
creed revision, women voters, man's responsibility,          from Rev. Moore in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
true conversion, and a couple of biographical sketches       Rev. Moore reports that his small congregation has
of Guido de Bres and Ursinus, authors of the Belgic          rejoiced in some growth during the past few months,
Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism respec-              both from within (three baptisms) and from without.
tively .                                                     He also reports that a goodly number of visitors
                                                             regularly attend services. Edmonton also scheduled a
  The Ladies Guild in Hull, Iowa sponsored a hostess         Reformation Day Lecture with their pastor speaking.
supper for the benefit of their Christian School there.      Thanksgiving was celebrated on October 10 in Edmon-
Rev. Mark Hoeksema spoke on "Our Unchanging                  ton, as the National Day of Thanksgiving in Canada is
Purpose in a Changing World."                                celebrated in October, and not in November as we
  The Ladies' Circle in our church in Loveland,              in the states are accustomed to. After their evening
Colorado, is a very active group. They scheduled their       Thanksgiving service, Miss Marjorie Martin from
Annual Bazaar for December 9 and a bake sale on              Australia showed some slides of her homeland and
November  19.. Both of these were open to the public.        gave a short talk about church life in Australia. Miss
The Ladies' Circle recently purchased a mimeograph           Martin's name has popped up in church bulletins
machine for the church with the proceeds from their          from California to the East as she completed her tour
activities. The bulletin reports that "The printing of       of our churches on the North American continent.
the bulletin has been much enhanced through this             On Sunday, September 24, the entire Edmonton con-
gift."                                                       gregation was invited to the home of one of the
   Faith Church in Jenison, Michigan, has adopted a          member families to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of
new schedule for the celebration of the Lord's               the congregation in psaltry and fellowship. In  mid-
Supper. The Lord's Supper will now be celebrated on          September, Rev. Engelsma lectured in Edmonton on
the 3rd Sundays of the months of February, May,              the topic "Reprobation  - Is It Reformed?" This was
August and November.                                         done in conjunction with classical church visitation
                                                             conducted by Rev. Engelsma and Rev. Kortering.
   Under the caption PROGRESS REPORT ON THE
NEW BUILDING, The Southwest Church bulletin                    A Thought For Contemplation from the South
reported as follows: "The land has been cleared for          Holland bulletin: "God  hasnot called His people to
the new church building on  Ivanrest  Ave., and the          `win the world to Christ': rather does He require
footings have been laid. We urge you to stop out and         them, by their lives, to witness against it." - Pink
walk around the site. You will notice the corner                                                              K.G.V.


